Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/349

Caerphilly Castle, Glamorgan, 323 20 feet span, from the opposite gatehouse of the middle ward. On the north-western face a similar semi-pier, between half-round bastions, seems to have supported the drawbridge, also of 20 feet span, giving access to the castle in this direction. Possibly each bridge was of two pieces, one dropping from each bank upon a central tressel or timber structure in the ditch. III. — The Redoubt has already been mentioned as being formed by scraping down a knoll of gravel on the north-west quarter of the castle. The body of this earthwork is quadrangular, capped at the three outer angles by three bastions, and excavated in the centre into a sort of casemate. The curtain, towards the castle, is intersected by two trenches, separated by a mound or cavalier, and leading into the centre of the work. Outside the redoubt, and following the curve of its bastions, is a ditch, upon the outer three sides broad and deep, on the fourth side but slightly marked. The ramparts of the redoubt are unprovided with either parapets for canon or banquettes for musquetry, and the scarp is continued unbroken to the rampart. Neither scarp nor counterscarp, though steep, has any retaining wall. Beyond its main ditch is a spacious glacis^ terminating in three low bastions and a shallow ditch. Both ditches were probably dry. The whole work resembles much those thrown up in haste during the wars between Charles 1. and the Parliament, and has either been partially destroyed, or, which seems more probable, has never been entirely completed. No doubt it was stockaded. The inner and middle wards of the castle occupy the island, which has already been described as formed out of the end of the peninsula. This island is scarped into a parallelogram, in yards east and west, by 96 north and south. The four angles are capped by large bastions, parts of circles. The intervening straight lines are termed, in fortification, curtains. The sides or scarps of these bastions and curtains are faced with a stone wall 30 feet high, and surmounted by a parapet of from 5 feet to 1 2 feet more ; and within this enclosure are contained the middle and inner ward. The inner ward is formed by placing a second parallelogram, smaller than the last, within it. This forms the inner, and the concentric space between the two, the middle, ward. IV. — The Middle Ward thus presents four divisions, towards the cardinal points, all forming terraces of from 16 to 20 yards broad, and the opposite sides being of nearly equal length. Upon the east and west are the gatehouses ; on the south, offices, and a water gate ; and, on the north, an open terrace, overlooking the outer defences of the castle on that side. The Eastern Gatehouse is formed of two low towers, with half-round projections towards the moat, and a portal between the two. The Y 2