Professor Babington in the Archæologia Cambrensis, 1858, p. 96; where also is given a cut showing how the fort of Dun Eangus was protected by rows of tall, sharppointed slabs of granite placed so close that men could hardly pass between them. The fort itself is like one of our Pembrokeshire and Cornish cliff-castles, protected on the sea side by precipitous cliffs, and on the others by artificial defences. These, in the case of Dun Eangus, were still further strengthened by the granite slabs which to some extent resemble the smaller pointed stones of Pen Caer Helen.

Who were the builders of the Welsh and Irish forts is a question which has not been satisfactorily answered, nor has the occurrence of the name of Helen, so often given to our earliest roads both in North and South Wales, been yet explained, or even attempted to be explained. Nor is the name confined to roads, as we have it in Coed Helen near Carnarvon, and here in Pen Caer Helen. In France, and especially in Brittany, a Princess Ahés is credited with the making of ancient roads; but her character seems to have been less satisfactory than that of Helen, whatever that may have been.

1883.

E. L. BARNWELL.

PEMBROKE CASTLE.

It is much to be regretted that Mr. G. T. Clark never so far completed his chapters in the Journal, on the Earls, Earldom, and Castle of Pembroke, as to give a description of the Castle itself. Not only does one miss the delineation by a master, but it increases the venture of any one rash enough to tread near his path. The Castle, however, seems to me so remarkable a work, in some respects so different from others, and apparently so little understood (judging from the few words said as to it at the recent meeting of the Association there), that I venture to call further attention to it; and it is astonishing to me that Mr. King should have been apparently ignorant of it; and that Mr. Carter, Mr. Britton, and Mr. Clark, should have alike left it untouched. Excepting the Bucks and Mr. Fenton, neither of whom was architectural, and perhaps I should add Sir R. C. Hoare, its description seems to have been left to the picturesque people, who see so much that does not exist; and to photographers, who always get wrongly interpreted.

The Castle now consists of a building rising from the beach of the Pembroke river, where it is about 25 feet from high water-mark, enclosing a cavern in a limestone cliff, and various chambers above it, from which a wall of enceinte, having angle-towers (for the most part shattered) and entrance-towers on the south, extends along the cliff-top on each side, enclosing nearly four acres, having a circumference of about 1,450 feet, with a domed round tower on the west side of the centre; the whole occupying a promontory at the west end of the main street of the town, bounded by the Pembroke river and Monkton Pill on three sides, and divided into two unequal wards by a ruined wall. It will, however, at once be seen that the whole is merely

the western end of the almond-shaped area enclosed by the town walls, although shut off from it. The Castle area is naturally divided into two parts; the enceinte of that nearest the town being formed and regular, the other irregular, and following the contour of the cliff. Looking at the whole (town and Castle) in section, it resembles a full bean-pod, the larger centre bean being Elm Tree House, and the end one the Castle. In plan it is ridiculously like the skeleton of an ill-conditioned flounder, the Castle precinct being the head, the donjon the eye, the great south curtain the gills, the only street representing the vertebral bone, and the various gardens its rays.

As respects the cavern as part of a fortress, Pembroke stands quite alone with the exception of its north front it seems wholly natural. Chepstow has a faint artificial resemblance to it, probably fulfilling the same end; but there is no other instance: and though there are many other round donjons, there is no one like this, as will be afterwards shown.

There were many great Earls, the Strongbows and the De Valences eminent amongst them; but none like the great Earl Mareschal, "Rector Regis et Regni."

It is probable that the cavern would, on careful investigation, yield the same proofs of prehistoric occupation as the other water-side limestone caverns of the district. The water flowing off the old red on the south side of the town, availed itself of the crannies so common in limestone, and in passing through scooped out this and other cavernous channels under the Castle, until some accident opening the present vent, the original entrance got filled. It is not with these matters, however, that we are now concerned.

That the site was occupied by the Romans may be assumed from the numerous coins of Constantine and Carausius found here. Mr. Wyndham speaks of several which were in the possession of Mr. Holcombe. I, a later gleaner, have obtained nine. No Roman bricks or tiles have been discovered. The lower part of the face

wall of the cavern, and of the ruined wall dividing the two wards, being a very peculiar, open-jointed, herringbone work, may be Roman, and must, I think, be taken as pre-Norman. This ancient wall certainly extended across the present Castle area, from the most westerly point of the promontory to just east of the cavern ; and I have no doubt that on the south-east, or outer side of this wall, the rock falls away very considerably, except at the point selected for the Norman entrance, forming a good natural ditch, now filled with rubbish. At the two ends the depth is apparent. This wall, which is throughout 6 feet 3 inches in width, may now be easily traced from the east end of the western hall (where, it is evident, the original wall was plumb, but afterwards strengthened by an outer case, with considerable batter), passing just south-east of the donjon to the prison tower (on the west side of which, where recently uncovered, the peculiar masonry is most apparent), and right through the north hall to the cliff. Mr. Clark's plate, facing p. 81, vol. vi, 3rd Series, well shows the two ends of this wall,-in the western tower in the left corner of the plate, and the prison tower on the right. This, with remains of similar masonry near St. Ann's bastion, I consider to be the earliest work extant; the western hoist, an angle-headed opening of considerable size, just north of the extreme west, coming next. The object of this last is not clear. It could only be used to hoist into the enclosure matters which could not well be carried by another route,-unless the rock outside has been subsequently cut away, which seems unlikely; but it does not seem well adapted even for this purpose.

The great horse-shoe entrance at the south angle of the wall first named, the foundations of which have been recently uncovered; the great donjon; the buildings to the north-west of it; all the buildings which had bevelled freestone dressings, including the entrance to the cavern and the window over it (but not, perhaps, its inner lancet filling), must, I think, be put down to

a period before 1200, and considered as a continuous work of one design. At that time, I doubt not, the Castle consisted of buildings enclosed within the ancient wall before described, which had something represented by the present western hall at its western extremity, the gate-tower (the foundations of which alone remain), and the prison-tower at its angles, and a latrine tower. now forming the north-west angle of the north hall buildings, at its northern extremity, approached by a deep way cut in the rock from near the Monkton postern, the approach being commanded on the outer sideon the south by the Monkton bastion, and on the northeast by some works not well defined-and which may have been pre-Norman also, on a projecting part of the rock near the St. Ann's bastion before referred to. It may be noticed that the loops of the western hall and of the Monkton bastion, both very oblique, converge on this entrance; and it was this fact and the depression in the ground, coupled with the conviction that the reputed entrance to the inner ward was no entrance at all, that induced me to search for the remains. I imagine the western extremity was simply a latrine-tower, approached, like that on the north, by a passage in the wall. If this were so, the whole work had considerable uniformity, the great round tower in the centre, the gate-tower and prison-tower at the obtuse angles, and latrine-towers overhanging the cliff at each end.

In this area, if anywhere, is to be found the Chapel of St. Nicholas, within his Castle of Pembroke, which De Montgomery gave to the Norman Abbey of Sayes. In my opinion it is likely to be the once gabled building just north of the western hall. That building has all the essentials: its orientation is more correct than St. Mary's Church; it has no chamber over it; its entrance is near the west end (the worn step and doorsocket are noticeable), whereas the east would have been more direct and convenient; it is not built against the outer wall, but is screened from assault; it is the largest chamber in the Castle, being 60 feet by 20 feet;