CASTLE.] THE CELLARS-SCENERY-DONJON TOWER. 157 contemplated the scene, is reduced to a lonely ruin-thus apostrophized by the muse of Bloomfield: 66 Majestic Raglan! harvests wave Where thundering hosts their watchword gave; Struck the last flag of loyalty!" The Cellars. These subterranean receptacles are of vast extent; and, in massive strength and proportions-like a crypt under a cathedral—are worthy of the noble edifice that covers them. In times of danger, and particularly during the siege, they appear to have served the manifold purposes of cellars, storehouses, larders, magazines, and muniments of war, with provisions for a numerous garrison and household. At the north-eastern part of the court, the buildings were nearly all mutilated, or thrown down by the enemy's batteries, which, from a rising ground in the line of his approach, played with destructive force upon this portion of the walls. Fragments, however, still remain to show the predominant features of the Castle-its strength and beauty. From this point, we are told, communication with the citadel was secured by means of a sumptuous arched bridge, with a gate to correspond. But of these no distinct vestiges are left. The sumptuous bridge" is replaced by a rustic structure of wood; the moat it spans is half filled with decayed vegetables and débris; and the water, that formerly enclosed the Keep like a wall of crystal, is now covered with a sluggish green surface, that exhibits a very different kind of life. In other parts of the moat, however, it is deep and transparent, mostly so at the south corner, where masses of verdure-with a particularly old and very picturesque tree, as shown in the illustration-are reflected as if in a mirror. This is probably the most interesting point of view in the whole Castle. Of a still summer evening, about sunset, the outline of the gray towers and battlements, with all their contrasted features of light and shade, beauty and decayhere fringed with wood, and there displaying honourable scars-sleeps on the face of the water like an inverted picture. The scene, with all its singular accompaniments, has then a dreaminess of romance about it, similar to that which the Fata Morgana conjures up on the Straits of Messina—but with this important difference, that the scenery here, however romantic, is real and substantial; that all we behold is the work of Art, over which Nature has only thrown her splendid illusion of cloud, sunshine, and exuberant vegetation. Tower of Gwent.-This tall and massive structure, built as if to defy the united force of time and violence, forms the Citadel or Donjon-Tower of the fortress; and points very expressively to those remote times, when the peace of a great man's household depended on the strength of his walls, and the number and courage of his retainers. In a direct line with this Castle were three gates; the first of brick, from which, at the distance of one hundred and eighty feet, and with an ascent of many steps, was the White Gate, built of square stone. At some distance on the left stands the Melin y Gwent, or Yellow Tower of Gwent, which for strength, height, and workmanship, surpassed most other towers, if not every other, in England or Wales. It had six sides, each thirty-two feet wide, and ten feet thick, built of square stone, and in height five stories. Its battlements, never meant to resist cannon shot, are only eight inches thick; but so symmetrical and compactly set, that they appear as if cut out of a solid block. During the siege-hereafter to be described this portion was soon demolished by the batteries directed against it by Fairfax; but his heaviest guns, eighteen and twenty pounders, took no more effect on the body of the tower, than if they had opened upon a solid rock.* Our ancestors appear to have been particularly well skilled in the composition of their cement, which in Raglan is now nearly as hard as the stones it holds together. When the Goths and Vandals of the country-the blind instruments of Fairfax-were summoned to demolish with their pickaxes what the besiegers' cannon had spared, their republican zeal was attended with little success; for "after battering of the top," they were obliged, as we shall see, to desist from that method as fruitless, and adopt other means for its destruction. † This Tower communicated with the Castle by means of an elegant arched bridge encircled by an outer wall, with six arched and embattled turrets, all of square stone. Adjoining this was a deep moat, thirty feet broad, and supplied by a clear running stream, from which the water-works, so much the fashion in those days, threw up columns of water as high as the Castle battlements. Along the edge of the moat, was a commodious sunken walk, embellished with grotto-work, statues of the Twelve Cæsars, and otherwise ornamented with the choicest productions of Nature and Art. This was the walk to which the family could resort at all seasons, whether for exercise or meditation. Within the walls and the green adjoining-then the bowling-green, and twelve feet higher than the walk-was a garden plat, the size of which was proportioned to the tower. Next to this plat-as shown in the accompanying ground-plan-stood the Barn. In casting the eye over the whole circuit of these buildings, the mind is astonished at the immense labour which must have been exerted to collect together such a quantity of materials of various descriptions. And here it may See paper in the "Archæological Journal.” See Description and Anecdote in a subsequent page of this Volume, |