Essay on Caerphilly Castle. 185 



O^sfgap on Ca^rjpfeiUi? Castle* 



No. IV.— PRESENT CONDITION. 



( Concluded frmn ■p. 143. J 



The castle in its present condition, assumes a very different appearance 

 from that which we have been describing as its original state, although 

 enough remains amply to bear out our description, in every particular of 

 consequence. 



Along the exterior line of defence to the north-west, the redoubt, covered 

 ways, fosses, and adjacent earth-works, are obscured by young trees and 

 brushwood ; by the effects of tillage, and by the buildings of the castle farm. 



The moat has in this direction been encroached upon by the Nant Garw 

 road, which tops its outer bank for about one hundred yards. 



The demi-lune, or horn-work, covering the western entrance, remains in 

 excellent preservation, and its revetement is nearly as sound as ever, al- 

 though its gate-house and western pier, if ever they existed, have been 

 destroyed. The fosse to the west of the liorn-work being still the channel 

 of a brook, is overgrown with reeds and aquatic plants : to the east or castle 

 side it is swampy in wet weather, and on the south is the bed of the an- 

 cient inundation, now a plain of velvet sward, across which a path leads to 

 the fountain, still in activity. 



Upon the southern side of the castle, west of the ruined tete du pont, 

 the land is partly in tillage, and partly occupied by cottages ; on the north, 

 the wall between the outer and second moat is reduced to a line of founda- 

 tion, not a vestige of any gate-house or similar superstructure remaining. 

 The traces of this wall terminate abruptly towards the west. 



The eastern or main front is in good preservation. The masonry of the 

 three northern buttresses is but little injured ; although between them and 

 the curtain there yawns a deep fissure, evidently the work of gunpowder, 

 though aided by the intervention of the vacuity formed by the long window 

 on either side. The position of the mine in these buttresses, as throughout 

 the whole fortress, has been very adroitly managed, although the quantity 

 of powder introduced in this case has not been sufficient to overthrow them. 



The smaller buttresses, towards the gate, on the southern flank, are un- 

 hurt, but the two at the southern extremity are laid prostrate, with their con- 

 necting curtain fifteen feet in thickness, forming a tremendous chasm, through 

 which the Nant-y-Gledyr takes its undisturbed course. The object of this 

 destruction, whicii was of course permanently to empty the lake, has been 

 completely fulfilled. The village bridge, a plank, here crosses the stream, 

 resting upon an enormous prostrate mass of masonry. 



The lower story of the gate-house, and the piers of its bridge, are in 



No. 5.— Vol. I.' 2 c* 



