DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61904#0138
126
GOODRICH CASTLE AND COURT.
within the fpace enclofed by the fofle, was a very deep pit,
hewn out of the folid rock, formerly eroded by a drawbridge,
which is now gone. About eleven feet within this paflage
was a mafly gate. This gate and the drawbridge were de-
fended on each fide by loopholes, and overhead by rows of
machicolations for pouring down melted lead, etc., on the
heads of aflailants. Six feet and a half beyond this was a
portcullis, and about feven further a fecond portcullis ; and the
fpace between thefe was again protected by loopholes and
machicolations. About two feet more inward was another
ftrong gate, and five feet and a half beyond this on the right
a fmall door leading to a long, narrow gallery, only three feet
high, formed in the thicknefs of the wall, and which was the
means of accefs to the loopholes in the eaftern tower, as well
as to fome others that commanded the brow of the fteep pre-
cipice towards the North-eaft. Thefe works appear to have
been thought fufficient for general defence ; but a refource was
ingenioufly contrived for greater fecurity in cafe they had been
forced, for a little further on are mafly ftone projections in the
wall on each fide, like pilafters, manifeftly defigned for inferting
great beams of timber within them, like bars from one fide of
the paflage to the other, fo as to form a ftrong barricade, with
earth or ftones between the rows of timber, which would in a
Ihort time form a ftrong, mafly wall.”
In the days of mere bows and battle-axes this would have
been found an unaflailable ftronghold, and even Colonel Birch,
with fuch cannon and mortars as they had in thofe days, feems
to have been rather ftaggered by the fturdy ftrength of the
place ; for when he had lain before it till the beginning of June,
he wrote to the Committee of Parliament begging for battering
cannon ; “ or elfe,” he faid, “ I may fit long enough before it.”
He had, up to that time, it appears, only two mortar-pieces,
GOODRICH CASTLE AND COURT.
within the fpace enclofed by the fofle, was a very deep pit,
hewn out of the folid rock, formerly eroded by a drawbridge,
which is now gone. About eleven feet within this paflage
was a mafly gate. This gate and the drawbridge were de-
fended on each fide by loopholes, and overhead by rows of
machicolations for pouring down melted lead, etc., on the
heads of aflailants. Six feet and a half beyond this was a
portcullis, and about feven further a fecond portcullis ; and the
fpace between thefe was again protected by loopholes and
machicolations. About two feet more inward was another
ftrong gate, and five feet and a half beyond this on the right
a fmall door leading to a long, narrow gallery, only three feet
high, formed in the thicknefs of the wall, and which was the
means of accefs to the loopholes in the eaftern tower, as well
as to fome others that commanded the brow of the fteep pre-
cipice towards the North-eaft. Thefe works appear to have
been thought fufficient for general defence ; but a refource was
ingenioufly contrived for greater fecurity in cafe they had been
forced, for a little further on are mafly ftone projections in the
wall on each fide, like pilafters, manifeftly defigned for inferting
great beams of timber within them, like bars from one fide of
the paflage to the other, fo as to form a ftrong barricade, with
earth or ftones between the rows of timber, which would in a
Ihort time form a ftrong, mafly wall.”
In the days of mere bows and battle-axes this would have
been found an unaflailable ftronghold, and even Colonel Birch,
with fuch cannon and mortars as they had in thofe days, feems
to have been rather ftaggered by the fturdy ftrength of the
place ; for when he had lain before it till the beginning of June,
he wrote to the Committee of Parliament begging for battering
cannon ; “ or elfe,” he faid, “ I may fit long enough before it.”
He had, up to that time, it appears, only two mortar-pieces,