Observations on English Castles. 225 



of the exit of cavalry. Sometimes they opened upon the moat, and com- 

 municated with the exterior of the place by a boat. 



The fosse or ditch was extremely variable in breadth and depth. Those 

 of castles placed upon eminences, as at Chepstow and Morlais, were entirely 

 dry; but when practicable, a wet ditch was preferred; and this end was 

 sometimes gained by damming up a brook, causing its waters to surround 

 the castle in the form of a lake. In such cases, when time or violence has 

 destroyed the dam, the waters of the lake are evacuated, and the brook re- 

 turns to its pristine channel, leaving the bed of the inundation, either a 

 plain of green sward, as at Caerphilly, or a dismal swamp, as at Kenil- 

 worth. 



Of the barbican less is known than of any other part of the castle ; and 

 yet it must evidently have been considered as a very important outwork, since 

 it covered the drawbridge, being placed on the glacis of the fosse, exactly 

 opposite the principal entrance. This obscurity may have arisen from the 

 barbican having been usually of wood ; so that although strong enough to 

 admit of the annoyance of the enemy while making his approaches, it 

 might be fired and deserted when no longer tenable. Barbicans, however, 

 as appears from a writ of Edward the second, were occasionally of stone ; 

 and indeed it is said that that of Framlingham castle still remains. A tax 

 called ' barbicanage' was sometimes levied upon particular lands, for the 

 repair or re-erection of this structure. 



The well, though now often clioaked up, must always have existed in 

 every castle, not at least partially surrounded by running water. The po- 

 sition of the well is variable. In Coningsborough it is in the centre of the 

 keep. In Rochester, Kenilworth, and Portchester, in the walls. In other 

 castles it is in the inner ballium. At Morlais there appears to have been 

 no well, but instead of it a prodigious excavation in the limestone rock, 

 twenty-five feet square, and though more or less filled up, still seventy- 

 five feet deep. This seems to have been a tank for the preservation of 

 rain water ; at least, had it been a regular well, it must have been ninety 

 or one hundred feet deep at the least; and why should it have been so 

 large ? Indications of a similar, though smaller excavation occur at Dinas, 

 near Tretowcr, Brecon. 



Besides these are certain subordinate parts which we shall next describe. 

 Of these the principal are the battlements. The wall, usually about six 

 feet thick at its summit, is there divided into three parts ; the first, or that 

 fronting the enemy, consists of a prolongation of the outer face of the wall, 

 by wliicli those wlio stood behind it were protected from missiles : this is 

 called the parapet. Behind this is the flat top of the wall, forming the 

 rampart tvalk ; and behind this is an elevation similar to the first, formed 

 by the posterior face of tiiC wail to prevent the soldiers from falling back- 

 wards, the rere wall. In some cases, as at Warwick, the rere wall is 

 wanting. The parapet, in the case supposed, would be about six feet high 

 No. 5.— Vol. I. 2 a* 



