Eastward the curtain is broken down, but the Horseshoe Tower is not materially injured. The rest of the curtain to the Plukenet Tower is broken down in parts only. That tower and the curtain up to the keep have not been dismantled, and but partially pulled down.
In this outer ward the main force of the destroyers has been spent upon the lower half of the west front, of which the curtains are lifted forwards, and the mural towers rent and shaken, vast fragments of both encumbering the slope. The Redan Tower has escaped, as has the curtain which traverses King John’s fosse.
The gateway of the middle ward presents a singular appearance. A mine has been excavated beneath the outer tower, which has sunk about 10 feet, and moved a little forward, splitting the entrance vault. This can hardly be the effect of powder, but is more probably due to a mine of the old sort, in which the earth was removed, and wooden props introduced, which were afterwards pulled away or burnt.
Of the Buttavant Tower about two-thirds are gone, with part of the north curtain. The great curtain between the middle gatehouse and the keep is unshaken, only its steps and battlements are gone. It is one of the finest curtain walls in Britain, and almost equal to Cardiff.
In the inner ward the devastation has been severe. Of the keep, all the north and two-thirds of the adjacent west wall lie in enormous masses on the sward, and in their fall have utterly crushed the gateways of the ward and their adjacent curtain. The east wall is destroyed at its two ends, but a strip of the central part remains unhurt to its summit, a marvel of Norman masonry, and is completely shrouded in ivy. The south wall and garderobe tower are but little injured. The staircase tower is destroyed, all but a part of the north wall. The broken-down walls of the keep are a sight to see, so vast is the mass of the fragments and so firm the cohesion of the material. They lie in the wildest confusion, and some considerable lumps have rolled down the slope, and, bounding across road and brook, rest half buried in the turf beyond.
The Queen’s Tower and offices are destroyed, but, offering less resistance, have been broken up more in detail, and have no doubt been spoiled subsequently for the sake of the ashlar.
The destruction probably exceeds anything known elsewhere in England. The charges of powder, though skilfully disposed, seem to have been larger than was actually necessary; and, certainly, the place might have been rendered untenable with far less destruction of masonry. Even with such mortars as were used in the days of the Commonwealth, the castle could have been commanded from the loftier Challow Hill, close to the east of it.
A few remarks naturally arise out of the above description.
The Saxon residence, of the existence of which there appears to be evidence in the latter part of the tenth century, was no doubt also a place of strength. It is certain that it must have occupied the highest part of the hill, now the inner ward, and the wall remaining in the middle ward will probably be accepted as evidence that it extended over the area of this ward also.
The Normans probably made a clear sweep of any existing buildings in the inner ward, when they commenced the keep and its accessories, and, a little later, the garderobe tower. These are all built of large squared stones, with moderately open joints; thoroughly substantial, sound work, and all the more workmanlike and effective for a certain roughness and boldness in the finish. The ashlar, usually an indication of late work, was here close at hand in the Purbeck quarries, and the general absence of ornament in a royal residence, of vaulting, of triforial galleries or mural chambers, and, with one partial exception, of mural staircases, seem to indicate the work, if not of the Conqueror, of his more immediate successors. The garderobe tower, not particularly late Norman, but certainly subsequent to the keep, seems to strengthen this conclusion.