n
which these supplement each other shows that the work in all
essentials was designed as a great whole; it did not grow up bit by
bit. There are of course many evidences of alterations and rebuilding
at later times; the buildings in the middle ward, on the south side,
seem to be later additions; the hall appears to have been enlarged,
and the tracery of the windows suggests the fourteenth century; the
state-rooms to the west of the hall have been much altered; but such
alterations as appear are confined to the habitable part of the
castle, and do not affect it as a military work. It has been suggested
that the castle may have been greatly enlarged in the latter years of
Edward II., when it played an important part in connection with the
division of the Gloucester inheritance and the younger Despenser's
ambitions. There are a number of notices of the castle in the
chronicles and public records of that time, but apparently no
references to any building operations. And the unity of plan is
evidence that the whole dated from the same time.

The castle is built on a tongue of gravel nearly surrounded by low,
marshy land, forming a sort of peninsula; a stream on the south
running eastwards to the Rhymny; and two springs on the north. By
damming these waters and cutting through the tongue of gravel an
artificial island was secured for the site of the castle. The inner
ward, or central part of the castle, consists of a quadrangle with a
large round tower at each corner: in the centre of the east and west
side are massive gate-houses defended by portcullises; from the
projecting corner towers all the intervening wall was commanded. The
gateways communicate with the second line of defence or middle ward.
This completely encircles the inner ward, on a much lower level; it is
a narrow space bounded by a wall, with low, semi-circular bastions at
the corners; it is commanded at every point from the inner ward; the
narrowness of the space would prevent the concentration of large
bodies of assailants or the use of battering-rams, and communication
is at several points stopped by walls or buildings jutting out from
the inner ward. The middle ward had strong gate-houses at the east and
west ends, and was completely surrounded by water--east and west by a
moat, north and south the moat widens into lakes: note how on the
north a narrow ridge of gravel has been used to ensure a water moat on
that side, in case there was not enough water t