LUDLOW CASTLE, SHROPSHIRE.

LUDLOW CASTLE is the glory of the middle marches of Wales, and first in place among the many military structures by which the great county of Salop has been adorned and defended. It is a noble specimen of military, palatial, and even ecclesiastical architecture, of high antiquity and of historic fame. It is probably without rival in Britain for the sylvan beauty of its position, in which wood and water, and meadows of wide expanse and rare fertility, are combined with rugged and lofty crags, of which the walls and towers seem to form a component part, so natural are the tints of their lichens, so thick the foliage, and so close the embrace of their ivy. Nor are its associations with the past unworthy of so bright a scene. Here, in the age of chivalry, the Lacys and the Mortimers achieved many of those feats of arms which filled the border counties with their renown. Here Stephen exercised his great personal strength on behalf of the heir of the Scottish throne, who was about to be hauled up into the beleaguered castle by a somewhat uncouth and unusual engine of war; and against these formidable walls the wild tribes of Wales flung themselves for two centuries, only to fall back, like the surge of the sea, broken and scattered. The Castle of Ludlow was the early residence of Edward IV., and the cradle of his infant sons; and here died Prince Arthur, the elder brother of Henry VIII. In rather later times within these walls sat that celebrated Council of Wales of which Henry Sydney was long the President, and which the chambers of the building, ruined and roofless as they are, show to have been lodged so splendidly. Here, too, towards the close of that brilliant but vicious provincial court, the attractions of which were felt even by the austere Baxter, Butler wrote a part of his immortal satire, and the masque of Comus was first given to the world. The history of Ludlow, however, both castle and borough, has already been written,—for its early period, with scrupulous accuracy by Mr. Eyton, and at greater length, and down to a later period by Mr. Wright; and the object of the present paper is only to describe the particulars of the castle, or at least of the military part of it, and thus to supply an admitted deficiency.

The Castle of Ludlow crowns a rocky promontory which projects at a height of above a hundred feet over the union of the Corve with the Teme. Eastwards, and in its immediate rear, and rather lower than the castle, but much above the adjacent plain, stands the grand cruciform church with its lofty central tower, and about and below it the quaint old town. To the north, far below the walls, the Corve and the Teme are seen to wind across the meads which they fertilise, while to the west opens the deep and narrow ravine down which their combined waters flow to the distant Severn. Formerly, when the mead was a morass, and the ravine choked with fallen timber and the irregularities of an obstructed drainage, the defence on these two most exposed quarters must have been peculiarly strong, and an addition, by no means unnecessary, to the security of the march.

The promontory is in plan rather more than a right angle, and its two sides are protected by nature. At a radius of about two hundred feet from the angle a broad and deep ditch has been excavated from cliff to cliff, and thus, as at Norham, encloses an area in plan a quadrant, though not of extreme regularity. This forms the middle ward of the castle, and the inner ward is carved out of it in its south-western corner. The outer ward lies to the east and south, covering the middle ward on its townward side. To form it, the northern and western sides were projected along the cliffs about another two hundred feet, and were connected by a second ditch, now filled up, and which formed the outer defence of the place upon its weakest but least exposed sides. This ditch, the line of which may be inferred from its curtain-wall, was not exactly concentric with the inner ditch, but lay in two irregular lines nearly at right angles to each other, so that the whole area of the castle is in form roughly rectangular, and about 130 yards east and west by 150 yards north and south; including, therefore, about four acres.

The town also was walled, and its walls abutted upon the castle, which thus, as usual under such circumstances, though provided with its own defences, formed a part of the general enceinte. The town-wall may still be traced from the south-western angle of the castle, above the river, to the south gatehouse, which, though encrusted with late building, and disfigured in the manner characteristic of the last and preceding centuries, stills shows a portcullis-groove, and an archway which seems to be in the early English style, and probably of the time of Henry III.

The castle is composed of an inner, middle, and outer ward. The inner ward occupies the south-west angle of the middle ward, and is roughly rectangular, 32 yards east and west by 16 yards north and south. The south wall divides it from the outer ward, and its western is part of the general enceinte. Its two other walls divide it from the middle ward. This ward has three towers, the keep, the bakehouse, and the postern, at its south-east, south-west, and north-west angles. In it is the well.

The middle ward contains a pile of Tudor buildings over and about the gateway, built against the south curtain, which is of Norman date. They abut also upon the keep. Along the north curtain is the grand mass of the state and domestic buildings, composed of the buttery tower, the hall, the state and private rooms, and the square tower, which occupies the north-east angle of the ward. This group forms the grand feature of the castle, being of mixed Norman and Decorated date, of great height, and of lordly dimensions. On one side of the ward is the kitchen, built against the inner ward wall; and opposite to it the well-known Norman chapel, the circular nave of which stands detached, but which formerly had a chancel which abutted upon the curtain.

LUDLOW CASTLE.
GROUND PLAN.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.

  1. Outer Ward.
  2. Middle Ward.
  3. Inner Ward.
  4. Keep.
  5. Gatehouse.
  6. Chapel.
  1. Kitchen.
  2. Hall.
  3. Oven Tower.
  4. Postern Tower and Well.
  5. Junction of Town Wall.

The outer ward contains at present but few buildings. Near the centre of its curtain is the outer gatehouse, and on its south side a range of Tudor buildings, probably stabling. One square tower, of early date, stands on the east wall, and indicates the boundary of the Norman castle; and another, later and semicircular, on the west wall above the river, bears the name of Mortimer. There were some later buildings, including probably a chapel, at the south-west corner of this ward; but these are in part pulled down, and this quarter of the ward has been walled off, and a public footway made across it. This footway passes through two modern doorways in the outer curtain, the thickness of which is thus seen. The ditch covering the middle is, of course, actually within the outer ward. It is cut in the rock, 13 yards broad, 4 yards deep. 150 yards long, and in part revetted; the revetment being, no doubt, a long subsequent addition. It is crossed and closed at each end by the curtain, and must always have been dry, or nearly so. The general position, and to some extant the plan, of Ludlow, suggests a comparison with Barnard Castle, the outline of which is also Norman.

Before considering the interior of the castle, it will be convenient to bestow a few words upon the walls as seen from the exterior, especially along the road and north fronts. Commencing with the south-west angle, where the front wall branches off towards the river bridge, first comes Mortimer’s Tower, half-round in plan, and in the early English style, in which Hugh Mortimer is said to have been imprisoned in about 1150, but which seems of later date. It has a close gorge-wall, a basement at the ground level, and three upper floors. The basement is vaulted, groined, and ribbed, but the ribs and a large window are insertions. There is a well-stair in the north-east angle, and the upper floor communicates laterally with the curtain, which is lofty. Just below the line of the parapet is a row of corbels intended to support a wooden gallery or brétasche. This tower is of early English or early Decorated date, with additions of the Perpendicular and Tudor periods. Next to this, upon the wall, is the bakehouse tower, placed at the junction of the exterior curtain and that of the middle ward, and to be described with the keep. Beyond this tower the original Norman wall has been raised to 40 feet. In it is what seems to have been a sewer-mouth. Next follows the postern tower, a small Norman tower, square, of bold external and no internal projection, having a Norman door in its gorge; and another, the postern, of 4 feet opening, in its northern face. This tower is closed up and inaccessible. The upper part seems an addition. It marks the junction of the inner and middle wards. From it the curtain is continued northward at the same height; the lower part, at the least, being original. Inside, various buildings, now removed, were placed against this wall, and the wall itself is pierced by chambers and galleries not now accessible. Upon it is corbelled out the vent of a mural garderobe, which has been supplemented by the addition of a hollow shaft placed as a buttress below the corbels.

At the north-west angle is a group of towers, forming the angle, and which contain the buttery. The first has a rectangular projection, in the base of which is a round-headed sewer of 2 feet opening. Connected with this is a second tower, a half-octagon in plan, much patched and added to, but the lower part of which is Norman, and the upper early Decorated. This group is very lofty, and has a battering base, so that the weight is thrown backwards well within the edge of the cliff. Across the hollow angle, between this last tower and the north curtain, is turned a Norman squinch arch, in the soffit of which is the vent, and above, the loop window of a garderobe. This curtain forms the wall of the great hall and adjacent building. A large stone spout marks the buttery, and beyond are the three exterior windows of the hall. This wall crowns a cliff of about 40 feet, below which a broad platform has been cut in modern times, and from which a second steep slope of 50 feet or 60 feet descends to the meadows. The hall wall ends in a half-octagon, within which is the staircase to the private apartments; and beyond this again is the garderobe tower—a large rectangular mass of great height and breadth, and very bold projection, and entirely of Decorated date. In each of the three faces, at the base, are two large shoulder-headed recesses, each containing a vent, the sloping shoot from which is 6 feet long. In the floors above are various windows, of one light with trefoiled heads, and above rises the lower part of a handsome octagonal chimney shaft.

Beyond the garderobe tower is the wall of a part of the private apartments, mainly of Decorated date, but much altered. In its base are three large early Perpendicular windows of two lights, trefoiled, with tracery in the heads; and above are various Tudor insertions of inferior taste and workmanship, and the timbers of two balconies. This face of the middle ward ends in a square tower of Norman date, which stands at the junction of the walls of the outer and middle ward. From hence the wall is of the outer ward, and seems to have been rebuilt partly in the reign of Elizabeth, to which belongs a small square-headed door, outside which are some ruins upon a platform of rock about 30 feet broad. From hence the wall is modern, nearly to the Norman tower, from which to the gatehouse it is probably Norman. Beyond the gatehouse, to the river cliff, the wall is 5 feet to 6 feet thick and 40 feet to 50 feet high. It is old, but probably not original. The ditch is filled up, and trees have grown along its line, two or three of which must be above a century old.

The Inner Ward.—The keep stands on the higher part of the enclosure, but at some distance from the river cliff, nor has it any natural advantages for defence. It was not intended to stand alone, but, as is often the case with keeps of that age, is placed upon the enceinte, and so forms part of the general line of defence. It is peculiar in that its original plan, though rectangular, had two slight ears or projections, and it was, in fact, slightly

-shaped, and had communications right and left through the arms of the

with the curtain wall on which it stood. This is very unusual, and quite an exception to the jealousy with which the entrances to Norman keeps are usually guarded. In this respect it is rather a large mural tower than a keep. It has been much altered at various periods, both within and without, and the history of these successive alterations is by no means easy to unravel. The keep is 40 feet long on its south face, which projects about 7 feet beyond the curtain into the outer ward. This is the cross limb of the

. The stem projects from the curtain into the inner ward about 30 feet, and is 31 feet broad.

LUDLOW KEEP.
GROUND FLOOR.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.

  1. Vaulted Chamber.
  2. Addition with Cross Arch.
  3. Mural Passage.
  4. Middle Ward Gate.
  5. Ditto Inner Gate.
  6. Curtains.
  7. Stair to Upper Floors.
  8. Stair to First Floor Close.

In the original building there was a basement nearly at the ground level and a lofty upper floor with an open roof. The exterior was plain. It had a low plinth, but no pilaster strips, save that at the end of the east wall there is a sort of pilaster 6 feet broad by 1 foot deep. On the south face a string of half-hexagonal section runs a little above the level of the first floor, and on the east and west faces, a little higher up, are sets-off of 5 inches. The upper story is marked by a similar set-off all round. The north, south, and west walls at the base are 7 feet 6 inches thick, and above it 5 feet. The east wall, containing the staircase, is 9 feet 6 inches thick. Two additions have been made, which much affect the ground plan. On the west, the hollow angle of the

has been filled up by a building 11 feet broad by 24 feet long, which is carried up to the top, and enters partly into the composition of a north-west turret. The wall of this building is only 3 feet thick. The corresponding hollow angle on the east face is also filled up by a mass of masonry 9 feet thick, but which goes no higher than the first floor. It contains a cell, the porter’s prison, and a passage leading from the main gate to the well-stair of the keep. The porter’s prison is barrel-vaulted, is not bonded into the keep, and is probably very late Norman. There is in the keep wall, partly seen in the vault, a loop or window, though there is no indication inside from whence it opened.

The existing keep is composed of a basement and three floors. At present the basement chamber is entered by a door in the north wall from the inner ward, the first and other floors by a well-stair in the east angle, entered from the main gate. The basement is three steps below the ground level. It is 31 feet north and south and 14 feet 5 inches wide. It has a high-pointed vault, a loop in the south or outer end, and in the north end a loop, and above it a window, and by their side the door from the inner ward. The window recess is slightly pointed, that of the door more decidedly so, but the exterior facing of both door and window is late Perpendicular, four-centred in a flat head. In the side walls, at their north end, on each side is a Norman arcade of two arches, plain and shallow, springing from plain detached columns with fluted and cushion capitals, the whole resting on a low bench. The arcades begin a foot from the north wall, and the arches are full centred, but of unequal span, 4 feet 3 inches and 5 feet 11 inches. The western arcade has been walled up and is only partially seen. On the east side, at the southern arch, the column is gone, and the lower half of its nook is occupied by a sort of altar of square stones, having a large flat stone on its top. The whole work is rude. There are no drips or hood mouldings, and a mere attempt at an incised ornament. The arcade is recessed about a foot. In the east wall, near its south end, are two square-headed doors of 2 feet opening and 7 feet 6 inches apart. Each opens into a passage 3 feet 7 inches long and 2 feet 7 inches broad, and these end in, and are connected by, a cross gallery 12 feet long and 2 feet 6 inches broad. These passages are lined with ashlar and are 6 feet 7 inches high, and flat-topped. The roof is formed of rubble, wedged tight and plastered. Also, each doorway has a rebate and bar-hole, showing that the door opened inwards, and was fastened on the inner side or from the passage, into which, however, there was no other way. It appears also that the great chamber was formerly divided by a cross wall, so placed that one of these doors opened into each chamber, and a step in the rubble vaulting shows where this wall crossed, and that there was a slight difference in the height of the vault on its two faces. The southern of the two doorways has been mutilated and a Norman pier has been inserted, but this seems modern, and a clumsy device to support the roof. It is difficult to understand for what purpose this very curious passage was constructed. It afforded a way from the outer to the inner room, but this does not account for the position of the bar-holes. Moreover, as regards the large room, the arcade seems strangely out of place. It was certainly confined to two arches on each side; and as the room lies north and south, it could scarcely have been a chapel, neither is it likely that it was a room of state. The wall seems at one time to have been lined with ashlar, and there are ashlar bands in the vault, a part of which is built of hammer-dressed stone, and part of very ordinary rubble. The arcade and probably the substance of the building are rather early Norman, and the vault and north wall seem additions in the early English period. This chamber has no communication with the additions either upon the east or the west front.

The first floor is exactly above the basement, and measures 30 feet by 17 feet 6 inches. In its south end is a Tudor window, no doubt replacing a Norman loop; and in its north end are two windows in Tudor recesses, and between them a Tudor fireplace. In the west wall, north end, a round-headed door opens into a side-chamber 8 feet by 13 feet, vaulted, but with a timber floor, having windows to the north and west, and in its east or keep side two round-headed recesses of 3 feet 8 inches opening, and 3 feet deep. In the south end of this room a narrow passage leads into a garderobe chamber, 7 feet 6 inches by 5 feet, with a loop to the west. Between the two rooms is a block of masonry which contains the shafts of the garderobes from the upper story. In the other or south end of the west side of the main room, a lofty full-centred arch of 5 feet 10 inches opening, is the mouth of a vaulted lobby, 13 feet 7 inches long; at first 5 feet 10 inches wide, and then reduced to 3 feet 2 inches. This opens upon the south curtain, west of the keep. In the south wall of the lobby is a small round-headed window in a plain recess, and outside, flanked with nook-shafts, the only ornamented Norman window in the keep. Opposite, in the east wall, is a door, of 4 feet 3 inches opening, which leads into a vaulted and groined chamber, 8 feet square, with a loop to the south, and to the east a short passage 4 feet wide, which opens upon the south curtain and leads to the upper floor of the gatehouse. In the north wall of the chamber is the head of a straight staircase, which threads the east wall of the keep, and was the original entrance from the ground level to the first floor. The staircase is of ashlar, barrel-vaulted, and fifteen steps are still to be seen. Returning to the main chamber, there remains to be noticed a door at the north end of the east wall, which opens into a well-stair, and from it by an outer door into what was the first floor of the gatehouse. This well-stair occupies the north-east angle of the keep. It is entered by a vaulted rising passage in the east wall from the main gate at the ground level, and the staircase rises to the ramparts, opening upon the first and two upper floors. At present its door and window openings are Tudor, but the staircase itself is probably much older. It is evident that here was the original entrance to the keep, as at Chepstow and Carlisle, whence a straight stair led up the centre of the wall to the first floor; but when the lower part of the well-stair was inserted, the straight stair was walled up, and so remains. At Chepstow and Carlisle, besides the staircase, there was a door which gave entrance to the basement floor. This could not have been the case here, for it would have cut the arcade. The cill of the south-east door shows the floor of the first floor chamber to have been slightly raised, which was, no doubt, done when the vaulting was inserted. There are two square holes in the floor, intended to give air to the main room below, and probably late insertions. This story was 12 feet 6 inches high. From it seventeen steps in the well-staircase lead to a Tudor door into the second floor.

LUDLOW KEEP.
FIRST FLOOR.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.

  1. State Room.
  2. Bedroom and Garderrobe.
  3. Vaulted Lobby.
  4. Vaulted and Groined Lobby.
  5. Old Staircase.

The second floor is of the same dimensions with the first. In its south wall is a Tudor window, no doubt replacing one of Norman date; and in the north wall two windows, square-headed, but in round-headed though not Norman recesses. In the east wall, besides the staircase door, is a Tudor fireplace, possibly only refaced in that style. This wall has been much altered and patched, and the fireplace is probably an insertion. In the west wall, at its north end, a door opens into a lateral chamber, above that appended to the first floor, and in it are two garderobes. It has a square-headed loop to the north and three to the west, the central one in a round-headed recess. On a level with this chamber, and probably opening from it, is a small chamber over the west lobby. This has a loop to the west, but is not accessible. There is a similar chamber over the east lobby, but how entered does not appear. This second floor is 11 feet 10 inches high, and from it nineteen steps ascend to the floor above.

The third floor, also entered by a Tudor doorway from the staircase, is of the same dimensions with the floor below. In the east wall is a fireplace, also Tudor, and in the west wall, at the north end, a square-headed door, opening into the third floor of the appended chamber. This chamber has a Decorated window in its north wall, and had a timber floor and ceiling, and is crossed by a round-headed arch which supports the south wall of the north-west turret. A weather-moulding in the south wall shows that this appendage had at first a lean-to roof.

The south wall of the main chamber has also a weather-moulding, showing that this wall was once a gable, and that the keep had originally a high-pitched roof with a central ridge. A Tudor window has been inserted into the wall, and cuts through the moulding. The north wall is pierced by two round-headed recesses, in which are trefoil-headed windows of one light, and apparently of Decorated date. There is no weather-moulding at this end, one of the many indications that this wall has been rebuilt. This floor, like that below it, is 11 feet 10 inches high, and from it nineteen steps ascend to the battlements, opening by a Tudor door at the stair-head. The stair ends in a rectangular turret, 15 feet by 9 feet. The north-west turret, 8 feet by 10 feet, has no opening from the ramparts. The two southern turrets are larger, and both have exterior staircases of twelve stairs leading to their flat roofs. The south-west turret is 15 feet by 14 feet, and the south-eastern, not now accessible, is about 15 feet square. The north and south walls are here 5 feet thick, two being occupied by the embattled parapet. The east wall is 9 feet thick, and contained a double chimney-flue. The west wall is double, the inner 4 feet thick, being the wall of the keep, and the outer 3 feet to the wall of the appendage. The space between, 5 feet 8 inches broad, was covered by a flat roof, so that the rampart here was 12 feet 8 inches broad within the parapet. There were two embrasures on each face of the keep, and the roof last laid upon it was flat.

The keep seems originally to have been built by Roger de Lacy, 1086 to 1096, as a plain

-shaped tower, upon and a part of the curtain wall. It had a basement floor at the ground level, and one upper floor of considerable height, with an open, high-pitched roof, of which the north and south walls, nearly if not quite of their present height, formed the gables, just as in the Norman gatehouse of Sherborne Castle. Probably the side walls were nearly as high as the gables, so as to conceal the roof. The basement was entered at the ground level by a door in the north wall. It had at least two arches of an arcade in each of its side walls, and was probably divided by a cross wall into two chambers, the inner being entered by the passage in the east wall. The entrance to the upper floor was also on the ground level, but in the east wall, and therefore in the middle ward. It was by a small door and short passage, from which, on the south or left, a staircase threaded the east wall, and landed in a vaulted lobby at the level of the first floor. This lobby and one opposite to it led out upon the curtain. How the keep battlements were reached is uncertain, possibly by the present well-staircase, which, in that case, then commenced at the first-floor level.

The first alteration made in the Norman period was probably a century later than the original building. This consisted in the addition of a building on the west front, filling up the hollow angle of the

. It contained a basement, which seems to have been a cesspit, and is now entered by a breach, and is vaulted. The roof was a lean-to. To enter the first floor of this building a door was opened in the wall of the keep. Also on the opposite or east side a mass of masonry was built into the hollow angle of the

. This, however, stopped at the first-floor level, and was probably intended to give a second passage between the first floor and the gatehouse. In the block was a vaulted prison cell for the porter, and a passage which led into and covered the entrance of the keep.

At a later date, during the early English period, still greater changes were made. The north wall was either rebuilt or refaced, the basement was vaulted, and the north-east angle was taken down and rebuilt, a well-stair being probably inserted into it. At the same time the lateral walls and the west appendage were raised, the first floor fitted with a flat ceiling, and two floors inserted above it, with doors into the western appendage, and two turrets were carried up at the two northern angles of the building.

The next and final alteration occurred in the Tudor period, when the vault of the eastern entrance was rebuilt, and faced with an outer door-case, the well-staircase fitted with doors and loops, and the old straight staircase walled up, and fireplaces inserted in the walls. Also the north door and window of the basement were refaced. Of course all this is a matter of opinion only, the alterations having been so great, and of so complete a character, that it is difficult to form even a theory concerning them. This is one of the most curious and perplexing Norman keeps now standing. It is much to be desired that its owner would cause an accurate plan and section of it at each floor to be made and published.

The curtain connecting the keep with the Bakehouse Tower is 36 feet by 38 feet long, 7 feet thick, and about 20 feet high to the ramparts, but it had a covered passage, and rose towards the tower, probably having a narrow staircase communicating with the second floor, while the main gallery opened into the first floor. The tower is rectangular, about 23 feet by 27 feet. It projects 16 feet into the ditch, and its interior measures 15 feet by 11 feet. It was originally open at the gorge into the inner ward, the masonry being replaced, as at Cologne and Avignon, and as in the later gatehouse of the Tower of London, by a timber partition. A large oven has been built at the ground level, filling up the whole area, and an arch turned at the first-floor level, supporting a wall, which replaces the timber work in the upper floors. In this wall are a fireplace, small oven, and window. A door in the east wall opens from the curtain, and in the west wall another door opens into a mural passage in the west or outer curtain, in which it has a loop. On the left, or south, is a garderobe chamber, 6 feet by 5 feet, with a loop to the south, and in the opposite direction the passage runs 11 feet, descending four steps. It probably was continued in the substance of the curtain to the postern tower, but is now walled up. The upper or second wall of the tower is not accessible. It seems to be on the pattern of the first floor, and is entered by an exterior staircase from the south curtain, and on the other side has a garderobe and passage opening upon the rampart of the west curtain, towards the postern tower. The bakehouse tower is Norman, and of the age of the keep. Its floors were of timber.

The Postern Tower is spiked up and inaccessible. It is about the size and height of the bakehouse tower, and of the same date, but its gorge was always closed. At the ground level a small door opens from the inner ward, and there is a similar door on the north and outer face of the tower, which is the postern. Both are full centred and plain. This tower has no internal projection. In the ward, close to the tower door, in a most inconvenient position, is the well, with a shaft worked roughly in the rock, 8 feet in diameter. It is now partly choked up.

The cross curtain from the postern is carried straight to the north-east angle of the ward, and thence turns south, till it abuts upon the keep. This wall, though probably Norman, is not so old as the keep or main curtain, so that in the original castle the inner and middle ward seem to have been one. There is a round-headed door in the curtain near its north-east angle, which opens between the inner and middle ward.

The Middle Ward is the most important division of the castle. In it are the domestic and state buildings, the chapel, the kitchen, and the great gatehouse. The principal buildings occupy its north side, resting upon and partly forming the exterior curtain wall. Near the centre is the hall. This was a noble apartment, 60 feet long by 30 feet broad, and 35 feet high to the springing corbels of its open timber roof. The recesses for the hammerbeams remain, and the corbels on which the principals rested. Owing to the low springing of the main timbers, the roof had from within the appearance of a very high pitch, which the water table shows not really to have been the case. The hall is on the first floor, and approached from the court by a broad exterior staircase, opening in the south wall near its west or lower end. In the north wall are three long narrow windows of one light each, trefoiled, and crossed by a heavy transom, and in the east end of this side a small door leads, probably, into a garderobe. The view from these windows is up the Teme and Corvedale. In the south wall are three large windows looking upon the court; they are of two lights, trefoiled, and crossed by a transom. Their recesses have equilaterally arched heads, and the angles are replaced by filleted beads. One window only has a stone seat. The great door, towards the west end of this side, matches with the window recesses, though a little lower. In the west end are two buttery doors of unequal size, and at the north-west corner a door opens, as at Pembroke, into a well-stair to the roof. In the east end of the hall, near the north-east corner, and high up, is a combined door and window—a sort of hatch, by means of which those in the upper state room could either look into the hall or step down into the gallery that ran across above the dais. The central south window has been blocked up, and converted into a late Tudor fireplace. No doubt the original grate, as at Penshurst, stood in the middle of the hall.

West of the hall is the buttery tower, a very fine group, which occupied the north-west angle of the ward. Part of it projects boldly, and caps the north-western angle of the curtain. The part within the ward is also rectangular. The part connected with the curtain is Norman, and was a large rectangular tower with an open gorge. In its base are two round-headed doorways, now nearly buried, whence mural passages led to garderobes in the curtain. The older part has been raised, and a pointed arch turned, and upon it a wall built, closing the gorge at the second floor. This tower has had large additions on its inner face, and is now a part only of the building, of which the basement seems to have been a store, and the first floor, 33 feet by 27 feet, a serving-room and buttery attached to the hall. This room was entered by a side-door on the great hall staircase, so that the dishes were brought from the kitchen up the great stair, but not through the great door of the hall. In the buttery is a large fireplace.

At the other or east end of the hall are the state rooms, contained within a grand and lofty structure, rectangular in plan, and projecting beyond the hall. Whether the foundations are Norman, or whether, like the superstructure, the whole is of Decorated date, is doubtful. The material is excellent ashlar. There are a basement and two upper floors. In the first is a grand fireplace; but the principal apartments were on the second floor. The door and window openings are numerous and varied. Some are excellent Decorated, with lancet and segmental arches; others are insertions in florid Perpendicular; and others, in wretched taste and of base materials and workmanship, are of Tudor date. The upper room has also a large fireplace, and the abutments of the hood are two carved heads. The north window is of one light, and of great length, divided by transoms. The south window is of similar character, but has two lights. This upper room had an open roof of low pitch, supported by three pairs of principals.

Next to these rooms, on the east side, is a smaller pile of buildings, also rectangular, which fills up the space between the state rooms and the north-eastern tower. This, probably, was appropriated below to servants’ apartments, and above to the principal bedrooms. There are, in the basement, three fine early Perpendicular windows of two lights, trefoiled, and with the centre mullion carried through the head. Windows of this size, so low down in an outer wall, are rare, and what is also curious, they open from two rooms by no means remarkable for size or ornamentation. This part of the suite, originally Decorated, on perhaps a Norman foundation, seems to have been remodelled or rebuilt in the Perpendicular period. Connected with these buildings and with the state apartments, and abutting upon both, is the garderobe tower—a grand rectangular structure projecting from the curtain, and wholly of ashlar, and of Decorated date. It is composed of a basement and four upper floors. The basement is occupied by several garderobes, the spacious outlets of which have already been described. The upper floors seem to be connected with the state rooms, and in the walls are many small chambers not accessible. The windows are of one light, trefoiled, usually with a transom. Between this building and the hall, projecting outside the curtain, is a multiangular turret containing a staircase.

The north-eastern tower caps the angle of the ward. It is rectangular in plan and of Norman date. It forms a part of the two curtains of the middle and outer ward, standing upon each. In its base a door leads into a mural passage in the east curtain, now blocked up with rubbish, and in its first floor is a garderobe in the north wall.

The kitchen, wholly of Decorated date, is a large rectangular building, placed against the wall of the inner ward, but free on the other three sides. It has two large windows to the east, and an excellent door in the north wall opposite to the hall staircase. The flagging of the floor remains, and parts of the large fireplace on the west side, with a couple of small side ovens. It has had divers Perpendicular additions. The back kitchen was to the west, and it is probable that a breach in the adjacent wall of the inner ward represents a late doorway, communicating with the well and the great oven.

The Gatehouse is approached from the middle ward by a bridge over the ditch, of which the inner end was broken by a drawbridge, flanked by walls with loops. The gateway has a low-pointed arch, on a tablet above which are the arms of Elizabeth and those of Sir Henry Sydney, with the date 1581. As the curtain is 7 feet thick, and bonded into the keep, it is evidently original, and the door fittings are an insertion. There is no portcullis. The entrance door opened into a passage, having the porter’s prison and the entrance to the keep on the left, and on the right the gatehouse chambers. The building is of the age of Elizabeth, and very inferior to the older work. Probably the original entrance was by a mere archway in the curtain, as at Kenilworth and Bridgenorth.

The Chapel, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, is the most remarkable part of the castle. It stands out in the centre of the middle ward, between the gatehouse and the hall. All of it that remains is the circular nave. This is 28 feet in interior diameter, with walls 4 feet thick. It has an entrance door to the west, and a large chancel arch to the east. The rest of the interior is occupied by a mural arcade of fourteen arches, seven on a side, resting on a low stone bench. The arches are alternately chevron moulded and beaded, the capitals cushion-shaped and roughly ornamented. Above the arcade was a timber gallery resting upon twelve corbels, of which one is decided Norman and one early English. Light was admitted by three windows, to the west, north, and south. That over the door was round-headed, with plain flanking detached shafts, and round the head a chevron and double billet moulding. Outside, these windows rest upon a billeted string, the flanking shafts are engaged, with small plain caps and bases, and the ring-stones, of considerable breadth, rest upon an abacus, and are worked in chevron and billet mouldings. The north and south windows are quite plain.

The west door is a fine example of enriched late Norman work. Outside, it stands in a double recess, having detached nooked flanking shafts, two on each side, with fluted capitals, and the semi-circular spaces above the flutes are covered with a small indented pattern, a sort of hollow nail-head. Of the four, all the caps and one shaft remain. The actual doorway has plain, square jambs. Above, a bold, simple abacus, the under chamfer of which is hollow, has the face carved with the rudimentary dog-tooth ornament. Over the door is a deep chevron moulding. The next ring, over the inner shafts, has a bold beading, and the outer, and much the broadest ring, has a chevron moulding reduplicated, and above it a double billeted drip.

The chancel arch is large, round-headed, and of three ribs, beneath a double billet moulding. The style of ornamentation resembles generally that of the west door. On the west face are two nook shafts on each side, and in addition two half shafts are placed as pilasters in the actual archway supporting the middle rib. This arch and that of the door have become slightly flattened by settlement, as is shown by the gaping of the soffit joints near the crown. The east face of this arch is quite plain, save that the abacus is returned. The original chancel, 42 feet long, had a high-pitched roof, and there is a mark of a second and later one less steep. The side walls are gone. The curtain formed the east wall, and has no window. Outside, the nave is divided into two stages by a billeted string, on which the windows rest, and which is considerably above the top of the door. Above is a plain battlement of no projection, with embrasures one-half the breadth of the merlons.

Two arches of the nave arcade have been pierced for Tudor windows, and a third, to the north, has been converted into a doorway. The north window has also been made a doorway, and it is evident that a light gallery of two stages was laid from the domestic apartments to the chapel, the upper one opening on the circular gallery. The original way to this circular gallery must have been by a wooden stair within the building. The chancel was standing in the reign of Charles II., and had two Tudor windows in its north wall and windows in the roof, also the nave had a saddleback roof, of which the gables were east and west. The material of the chapel is coursed rubble. South-west of the chapel was, in Elizabeth’s time, a fountain. This chapel is, with great probability, attributed to Jocelyn de Dinan in the reign of Henry I. (1100–1135), the Temple Church, which it resembles, dating from 1127.

The Outer Ward.—The gatehouse has been much altered and mutilated. In front it presents the appearance of a gateway, with a low-pointed arch, in a curtain about 6 feet thick and 35 feet high, of which the merlons are pierced by plain loops. On each side the gate is a flanking wall, 3 feet thick, and projecting 8 feet, which, no doubt, covered the drawbridge. The arch looks Decorated, as is probably the curtain, though the battlements are probably modern. The ditch has been filled up, and large trees grow along its course. The only buildings in this ward are placed against the curtain, and have already been noticed.

There is no evidence, material or by record, of any castle here before the Norman Conquest. The “low” or mound known to have been removed from the churchyard, and the memory of which is preserved in the name of the town, is the only ancient earthwork connected with the place, and was, no doubt, sepulchral. The original Norman castle seems to have stood on the present lines. It was composed of a keep, placed close to the entrance, and forming a part of the enceinte. Westward, the keep was connected by a short curtain with the south-west or bakehouse tower, rectangular, of moderate size, and having its inner face or gorge open. From thence the curtain passed at right angles northwards along the edge of the rock to a second tower, also rectangular, and containing a postern. From thence, still along the edge of the rock, the curtain, probably 25 feet high, reached the north-west angle, where it was capped by a tower nearly rectangular, but placed diagonally, so as to cap the angle, and which was open in the rear. Thence the curtain passed eastwards, along the north front, to the north-east angle, where was a tower, square, or nearly so. No doubt the Norman domestic buildings were placed upon this curtain, and probably there was a central tower on the wall near the present garderobe tower. From the north-east tower to the keep was the curved curtain, probably then, as now, free from buildings, and outside of this a ditch, still remaining, and extending from cliff to cliff. Of this original castle there at present remain the keep, the bakehouse and postern towers, the base of the buttery, and much of the north-eastern tower, and more or less of the curtain.

Later in the Norman period certain changes were made. The keep was raised and enlarged, the curtain forming the inner ward was built, and probably the well was sunk, and in the middle ward the chapel was built. The outer ward may have been part of the original design, or it may have been a late Norman addition; that it was not of later date than this is shown by the square mural tower. All the rest, curtain, gatehouse, and Mortimer Tower are later.

The next changes were in the Decorated period, when very important alterations were made in the older parts, amounting almost to a reconstruction of the fortress. Very early in the period, perhaps before it, the north door and window of the basement of the keep were inserted, the vault turned, and probably the gateway remodelled. At a later date, but still early in the Decorated period, the hall, buttery, and domestic apartments were built along the north front and the kitchen.

The works in the Perpendicular style are few, and are confined to alterations in the domestic apartments, and in the entrance passage to the keep and the kitchen.

Then came the Tudor period, in which the castle had to be converted into a palace for the Presidents of the Marches. The base of the keep became a prison, the well-stair was probably inserted, the rooms fitted with Tudor windows and fireplaces, and the gatehouse was built. Much was done in fitting up the hall and domestic apartments, though in a slight and flimsy manner, so that most of this work has disappeared, and stables were built in the outer ward. The extinction of the Council of Wales, and the civil wars, put a stop to any outlay upon the place, and for some time it seems to have been freely pillaged, until it became a complete ruin, without floors, or roofs, or any kind of fittings in lead, iron, or timber. Of late years it has been so far cared for as to be protected against all injuries save those of time and weather, while at the same time it is freely open to all visitors. What is wanted for antiquarian purposes is that the mural passages should be cleared out, and a plan made of each floor.