Cardiff Castle, Glamorgan. 349 In this outer ward Leland saw the lodgings of the twelve knights of Glamorgan who held their lands by the tenure of castle-guard and the payment of ward silver. In Meyric's time there remained but one, held by Sir Edward Mansell, and which had belonged to the Bassetts. Here also, near the north-eastern corner, as drawn by Speed and seen by Meyrick, stood the lord's courthouse, used as the Shire Hall, and in which the lord's court for the borough was held until late in the last century. This was protected by a special wall, upon which the knights' lodgings stood and formed a part. A small chapel completed the group. This chapel was granted, with the parish church of St. Mary in Cardiff, by one of the early Norman earls to the monastery at Tewkesbury, and is mentioned in a general charter of confirmation by Nicholas, Bishop of Llandaff ("Dug. Mon.," ii. 67). The space between the Shire Hall court and the adjacent bank was occupied by gardens and orchards. The middle ward was entered a little north of the centre of the curtain wall, by a gateway between two drum towers, with a postern in that on the left. Entering the middle ward, in front was the lord's lodging, and on the left a stair led to the battlement, and a roadway to the Black Tower, which road was divided by a wall from the woodyard, which, as now, occupied the south-east corner of the court. On the right, a way, rising rapidly, led to the keep across the ditch of the mound and up its side. This way passed through, and was defended by, two gatehouses duly portcullised, and was further pro- tected by the great curtain, under and along the rear of which it ran. The correctness of this description has been proved by recent excavations. The middle ward occupied all the space south of the mound, a cross wall dividing it from the inner ward. Its west side was chiefly occupied by the lodgings. The original plaisance, or lord's garden, was in the south-west corner of this ward, and was by the Herberts converted into a kitchen garden. The inner ward lay next, north of the middle ward, communicating with it by a door in the cross wall. This ward was also bounded by a part of the ditch of the keep ; but it seems to have been of small area, and not to have extended to the north outer wall, but to have been limited by a wall which extended from the north-west angle of the keep, down the slope, towards the north-western angle buttress of the general enclosure. This ward contained the Herbert flower- garden, no doubt placed there for privacy, and to be under the win- dows of the private, apartments, with which it seems to have been connected by an ornamental stone staircase shown in one of the drawings of the last century. A postern opened from this garden, through the great west wall, just outside of the west gate of the town, and not far from the postern of the octagon tower. The narrow space north of the mound must have been shut off in some way of which there are now no traces. The main building in Meyric's time looked, as regards its central
