ward was added. This could be ascertained by probing the ground.

The circular or inner ward is much higher, either naturally or artificially, than the exterior ground. It is enclosed within a strong and lofty curtain-wall, 8 feet thick, upon which are two gatehouses and a drumtower, and against it the hall, chapel, and other domestic buildings. The interior is an open, irregular, but on the whole four-sided court, about 60 yards in the side.

The principal gatehouse is to the east, and opens upon the churchyard which forms the counterscarp of the ditch. It is quadrangular, 20 feet broad by 24 feet deep, of which 16 feet project beyond the curtain. A passage cut through a low bank of earth thrown up outside the ditch led from the churchyard towards the portal. A causeway now occupies the place of the drawbridge, the chains for lifting which passed through two holes seen in the spandrels of the gateway. The entrance is 6 feet broad, beneath a pointed arch set in a square-headed recess, intended to house the bridge when lifted. The first defence was a portcullis, the groove of which is large, and intended for a wooden grate, and behind it was a door. The passage was covered in by a plain vault. On the right is a wellstair ascending to the roof; on the left, a sort of lodge, the two windows of which look into the court. The inner archway has fallen, as has the vault.

The gatehouse had two upper floors, each 20 feet by 10 feet. The first, the portcullis chamber, has a window at each end, and two in each side. In the south wall is a fireplace. From this chamber a mural stair leads to the rampart of the south curtain. That of the north curtain is reached from the well-staircase. The second floor of the gatehouse has a window in each face. The floor of this room and the roof were of timber, and are gone. The gatehouse is probably of the reign of Richard II. The windows are Tudor insertions. The northern gatehouse, that between the outer and inner wards, is destroyed; but the foundations show a

passage 9 feet broad by 33 feet deep, which seems to have traversed a mass of buildings 84 feet broad by 30 to 40 feet deep. Of this, the part to the west of the portal was a nearly rectangular building, 30 feet by 22 feet, having an entrance from the passage, and in its south wall a mural staircase. East of the portal is a much larger building still in part standing, and which seems to have been the keep.

The keep is nearly rectangular, 37 ft. by 40 ft., having at its eastern end a projection into the ditch, 18 ft. by 24 ft. This projection contained in its basement a plain vault, 15 ft. by 9 ft., with two loops; and a culvert, probably a garderobe, has its vent below a recess in the north wall. This was probably a prison. The basement of the keep is occupied by a chamber, 28 ft. by 22 ft., at the ground level, and vaulted in eight cells, the ribs forming which spring to and from a central eight-sided pier. The arches are pointed. There are two loops in this chamber, and three doors,-one from the court, set in a square-headed recess; a second into the vaulted accessory chamber; and a third to a postern opening into the ditch, and by a mural stair to the chamber above.

The first floor also is composed of two chambers, both vaulted, and the ribs of the large chamber spring from an octagonal pier resting upon that below. There was a second, and a third story roofed with timber. The fireplaces were in the north wall, and the windows in the north and east walls, and of moderate size and Tudor pattern. This tower seems of early Decorated date. A part of it has recently fallen.

The round tower is altogether a very curious and a very unusual structure. It is placed on the south-west front of the inner ward. It is 18 ft. diameter, but projects into the ditch 22 ft., being connected with the curtain by a neck of wall 14 ft. broad. It is lofty, having a basement and three upper floors. The basement is a huge, vaulted receptacle for sewage, with an outlet to the south. The two upper floors are alike in dimen

sions and use, being 9 ft. by 7 ft., and lighted by narrow loops, three on each floor. They are vaulted, and contain garderobes, with shafts into the vault below. The third story had a flat wooden roof, now gone. A well-stair led to the battlements. Laterally, the upper part of this tower is widened by a pair of cheeks resting on a row of corbels, so as to give greater space within. On the east side of this tower, at its base and junction with the curtain, is a postern of 3 ft. opening, from which a vaulted staircase ascended to the domestic buildings. This door is protected by a mass of masonry filling up the hollow angles above it, and machicolated at its summit. This part of the Castle seems of the age of Henry III.

The whole southern side of the court, from gatehouse to gatehouse, is occupied by the remains of the domestic buildings. The hall seems to have had a vaulted basement, 26 ft. by 19 ft. in plan, with plain ribs springing from two piers, and to have been on the first floor, with windows in the curtain. A long chamber east of the hall, with a long east window, seems to represent the chapel, also on the first floor. In this quarter some excavations made by the late Lord Dunraven have shown the stairs leading to the postern, and some vaulted cellars, and probably the kitchen. All these buildings are of an early Decorated character, and have been much altered in the Tudor period.

The curtain-wall, from the keep to the great gatehouse, is about 20 ft. high, and is of the age of the gatehouse, and later than the wall elsewhere. Near the gatehouse it is 20 ft. thick. Part of its parapet (6 ft.) and rear wall (5 ft. high) remain. The former is bracketed out on corbels, most of which are the newels of an older well-stair. This part of the curtain is reached from the gatehouse, and has no communication with the keep. Of the same date with this curtain is the wall on the other side of the gatehouse, southwards for about 16 yards, when there is a junction with the older wall. This part of the curtain is polygonal out

side, and curved within, and externally about 40 ft. high. Beyond, or northward of the round tower, the height of the curtain is 60 ft., and it is pierced with windows belonging to the hall and other apartments. There remains also, on the wall, a lofty chimney. Towards the junction of this curtain with the wall of the outer ward it is connected with a sort of gallery, looped towards the field, and intended for the defence of the hollow angle where the three walls meet. The dividing wall between the inner and outer ward is nearly destroyed, and does not seem to have been strong. The well is in the open court, 4 ft. diameter, circular, and rudely walled.

The outer ward does not present any very noteworthy features. Its south wall is low, and pierced with windows, as of lodgings. The north wall is strongly buttressed outside. There was an outer gateway in the western wall, now broken down. It seems to have been a mere opening in the wall, without a gatehouse, but flanked by a pair of buttresses. The walls of this ward are about 20 ft. high. The northern front of the outer ward being naturally weak has been protected by a double ditch, the contents of which are thrown outwards, and form banks. The ditches are dry. In a field to the north-east are some banks and ditches which may have been thrown up when the Castle was attacked.

The Castle has little to boast of either in material or workmanship. It is mainly built of lias-rubble, but the round tower is of sandstone. The mortar generally is of inferior quality, and there is but little ashlar. The roofs were covered with slabs of fissile sand or tilestone. The southern curtain is probably the oldest part of the Castle. It is composed of large boulder or popple-stones, of course with very open joints. In it are two small trefoil-headed windows of Early English or Early Decorated date, and which appear to be original. They open from the vaulted chamber beneath the hall. The angles of the curtain are quoined with Sutton stone. The Castle, built probably in the Early English

and Decorated periods, seems to have been thoroughly restored and repaired late in the Perpendicular period. It is fast going to decay, and large portions of it have fallen since 1832. It is the property of the Earl of Dunraven; but the ditch belongs to Mr. Nicholl of Merthyr Mawr, and was planted by his grandfather, the eminent judge.

DESCENT.

Sir Pagan de Turberville was probably the son of a knight of that name who won the manor of Crickhowel under Bernard Newmarch. He followed Fitzhamon into Glamorgan, and added Coyty to his paternal inheritance. He is reputed to have married Sybil, daughter and heiress of Morgan ap Jestyn, whose name is preserved in the meadow of Siblewick, given by her to Neath Abbey. In 1126 he witnessed a convention between Bishop Urban and Robert the Consul of Gloucester; and in 1130, the foundation-charter of Neath Abbey; and about the same time, a gift of lands to Margam by Hugh, son of Robert de Llancarvan. In 1199 Paganus de Trublevill paid ten marks and a horse that on the King's return to England might be heard his dispute with Walter de Sully concerning Coyty and Old Castle. Pagan probably died 1200-1, and was followed by his eldest son,

Sir Simon, who died s. p., either before or immediately after his father, and was followed by the next brother,

Sir Gilbert, who paid four marks for a hearing upor the Sully plea, the matter in dispute being here called a knight's fee in Coyty. He also paid fifty marks and a horse to have the lands of which his father Pagan died seized in demesne in fee. Falkes, the sheriff, was to take security and give seizin, A.D. 1207. (Rot. de Obl., p. 373.) He married Agnes, and had Sir Pagan, who was father of Gilbert and Emerod, who had Crickhowel, and is probably the Pagan de Turberville of the annexed charter by Walter Waleran.