Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/359

Caerphilly Castle, Glamorgan. 333 plain stringcourse along the east end of the hall, returned from the corbel of the chapel window, is perfect. A base tablet is seen at the west end of the north side, but it is destroyed along its length. A long window in one of the staterooms resembles, though on a much larger scale, the windows of the oratory already described. It appears, however, to have been trefoiled, with a quatrefoil above the head. There are two small polygonal apartments on either side of the inner western gate, in the vaulted roofs of which a plain diagonal rib rises from a corbel at each angle, and meets its fellow in the centre. The corbels have three flat faces, and terminate in a point, which rests upon some animal, in every case wantonly defaced. They appear to have been lodges, Caerphilly presents as little architectural decoration, in proportion to its extent, as any castellated building in Britain. Generally, its series of concentric defences, and the general dis- position of its constituent parts, resemble those of Harlech and Beaumaris. The plan of these concentric castles is very peculiar. It is unlike the earlier Norman castles, in which the keep was the principal feature, and in which comfort was sacrificed to safety ; and it is also unlike the later castles, which possess not only large interior, but large exterior, windows, as at Sheriff-Hutton, and in which there is no building to which the name of keep could be attached. Nor is the style of architecture employed at Caerphilly less characteristic of its age the drop arch, the perfectly plain rib, the general absence of decorations and armorial bearings, the plain battlements, and the absence of machicolations, indicate generally the same period. The columns of the hall doorway, the concave moulding of their pedestals, the triple cluster of columns forming the corbels of the roof, their bell capitals, and light cap moulding, are due to the Early English style, which prevailed from 1189 to 1307. On the other hand, the pomegranate moulding, the rich, though chaste and somewhat stiff, canopies of the door and windows, the little pilasters in the windows v/ith the pentagonal capitals, the ogee arches, and the plain fillet running up the columnar corbels of the roof, are marks all belonging to the Decorated style, which prevailed from 1307 to 1377. The mixture of these two styles, very common in English build- ings, denotes a period varying according to the preponderance of either, and in the present instance may legitimately be referred to the latter quarter of the thirteenth century, when the Decorated style was beginning to supersede the Early English. Instances of this transition, and of the ball-flower, or pomegranate, moulding, may be seen round the inside of the choir of Bristol Cathedral, and on the outside of the south aisle of Keynsham Church. The earlier alterations at Chepstow^ and more particularly the