Essay on Caerphilly Castle. 189 



ground ; and the thin mantle of vegetation which has enveloped them, 

 although it adds much to their picturesque beauty, increas3s in no slight 

 degree the difficulty of accurately comprehending tiieir original disposition. 



Throughout this immense building, the iron work, even to the staples of 

 the doors, has been greedily removed, nor is there any lead to be found in 

 the sockets of the window bars. 



The hewn stone, forming the door frames, window cases, newels of the 

 well staircases, and in some instances the stairs themselves, have been 

 rudely wrenched away, with damage to the walls, for the purpose, proba- 

 bly, of converting them into lime. 



Portculiisses, stockades, doors, with the roof of the hall, and every stick 

 of timber in the place, have been removed. Every staircase, gallery, and 

 chamber, is pervious to the autumnal rain, and exposed to the pernicious 

 force of the succeeding frost, yet such and so durable are the materials, and 

 so firm the mortar with wiiich the whole is cemented, that time and weather 

 alone have produced but trifling injuries upon the pile, compared with the 

 wilful destruction of the hand of man. 



Before arriving at any general conclusions respecting the age of Caer- 

 philly, it will be proper to make a few remarks upon certain details, on 

 which those conclusions in some measure rest. 



And first, of the door-ways. With certain exceptions, shortly to be enu- 

 merated, the door-ways throughout the building are of the same general 

 character. The arches are " drop ;" that is to say, they are obtusely 

 pointed arclies, whose centres lie below their spring. This is obviously 

 the best form of the pointed arch for a substantial edifice like a castle, and 

 it is that usually employed in the military structures of the first Edward. 

 With the same exceptions, the mouldings are of one plain pattern, com- 

 posed of a pentagonal rib, upon the front and widest face of which, a 

 smaller rib, of the same figure, is placed. This pattern of moulding is also 

 very commonly employed in castles. 



The principal portals, together with the doors leading from the first 

 story of the towers upon the ramparts, are defended by portcullises, work- 

 ing in H D-shaped groove. This groove passes up as a chink into the 

 chamber above ; but, excepting in one or two cases a scratch in the wall, 

 there is no evidence of the sort of contrivance employed in raising the 

 portcullis. \f, however, as was probably the case, the portcullis was sub- 

 stantially of wood, it might have been raised by mere manual exertion, and 

 a bar thrust across would be sufficient to retain it securely when raised. 

 The sills are destroyed, so that it does not appear whether the points of 

 the portcullis were received into or had worn small holes in them. Besides 

 the portcullis, the larger portals arc provided with four or five square holes 

 in the arch, through which beams, to form a stockade, might be dropped. 

 It may be observed, further, that although some of the portal passages are 

 of considerable length, yet that the ribs of their vaults are all transverse. 



