In the
front gateway we looked at the groove on each side, in which the
portcullis used to rise and fall; and in each of the contiguous round
towers there was a loop-hole, whence an enemy on the outer side of the
portcullis might be shot through with an arrow.
The inner court-yard is a parallelogram, nearly a square, and is about
forty-five of my paces across. It is entirely grass-grown, and vacant,
except for two or three trees that have been recently set out, and which
are surrounded with palings to keep away the cows that pasture in and
about the place. No window looks from the walls or towers into this
court-yard; nor are there any traces of buildings having stood within the
enclosure, unless it be what looks something like the flue of a chimney
within one of the walls. I should suppose, however, that there must have
been, when the castle was in its perfect state, a hall, a kitchen, and
other commodious apartments and offices for the King and his train, such
as there were at Conway and Beaumaris. But if so, all fragments have
been carried away, and all hollows of the old foundations scrupulously
filled up. The round towers could not have comprised all the
accommodation of the castle. There is nothing more striking in these
ruins than to look upward from the crumbling base, and see flights of
stairs, still comparatively perfect, by which you might securely ascend
to the upper heights of the tower, although all traces of a staircase
have disappeared below, and the upper portion cannot be attained.
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