Outside the south gatehouse a sort of barbican, a hollow square of masonry, has been erected, having an entrance on its west side. It is an addition intended to prevent the portal being raked or carried with a rush.
The ward above described stands detached within the outer ward. This is in figure eight-sided, symmetrical, or nearly so. At its four principal angles, opposite the angles of the inner ward, are four drum-towers, three-quarters engaged. From these towers the walls slope outwards, so as to form salient angles, of which there are thus four, one opposite to the centre of each face of the inner ward, and thus space is given for the gatehouses, the chapel, and its opposite tower. Each salient is capped by a drum-tower, and on each of the sides forming the salient is a smaller tower. There are altogether twelve towers, three of the spaces and one angle being otherwise occupied. These outer towers and curtains are much lower and slighter than those of the inner ward.
There are two gates. The north gate seems never to have been completed, but its remains are very peculiar. There is a main portal in the curtain, and on each side of it a small portal or postern. Outside are four bold but narrow buttresses, one on each side of the main gate, and one outside each of the side gates. The western buttress is of bolder projection than the rest, and is evidently intended to cover and conceal a sally from the quarter whence the Welsh were most likely to approach. Each buttress is looped, the two inner ones so as to command the main from the side entrances. The southern entrance is also peculiar, and has a gatehouse and outwork of its own. The gatehouse, shown in the drawing here given, has two towers on quadrangular bases, corbelled out so as to rise to drum summits, producing a fine effect. This outer gate opens upon the sea-shore. Behind, or to its west, was the walled tower. Towards the east it was protected by a spur-work; a long curtain wall, running on from the exterior wall of the castle to the sea-shore, of great thickness, and pierced by a long gallery below, and having above a rampart walk, parapeted on each face. The passage is looped each way and strengthened by a half-round tower on its west face. It seems to have ended in a round tower, now removed. The object of this work was to cover the landing of supplies from the sea, and to prevent an enemy from the east side from creeping round by the sea-shore and so surprising either the castle or the town. The spur has been pierced by a modern archway.
The birdseye view given shows the castle from its south-eastern angle. The root of the spur-work is shown, the outside of the chapel tower with its lancet windows, and the windows of the great hall. There was but one ditch, which embraced the whole structure, and is now filled up.
Beaumaris was probably commenced about 1295, twelve years after the execution of Prince David, and later than Conway, Caernarvon, and Harlech. On the subjugation of Wales it ceased to be of importance, and even in the reign of Edward II. it was out of repair.
BEDFORD CASTLE.
ON the left bank of the Ouse, about 50 yards from the stream, within, but upon the eastern edge of, the town, is to be found all that remains of the once-celebrated and very strong castle of Bedford. These remains, though scanty and confined, or nearly so, to earthworks, are very marked and of a durable character, and, although the fame of the castle rests upon its adventures as a Norman fortress, there is reason to suppose that it had an earlier history, and that most of its present relics belong to that earlier and Saxon period.
The principal work is a motte or mound of earth, wholly artificial, placed upon the gravelly plain across which the Ouse winds its way down the broad band of the middle oolite. This mound is circular, now about 15 feet high and 150 feet in diameter at its summit, which is perfectly level, and has for above half a century been employed as a bowling-green. The slopes are uniform and moderately steep, and planted with trees and shrubs. On the north side, or that farthest from the river, an excavation has been made for an ice-house; but this is of modern date, and does not appear to have laid open any traces of masonry below the surface of the ground.
Towards the river, and westwards towards the town bridge about a furlong above the castle, the ground is perfectly flat, and under cultivation as a garden; but, on the north and north-east it is rather higher, and here are traces of a ditch at the foot of, and concentric with, the mound, and no doubt a part of its defence upon this its weaker side.