This neglected edifice is now partly occupied as a farm-house; but indications of its former importance appear in the grand dimensions of the apartments, and the great general extent of the building. Upon regaining the high road, we soon approached PENHOW CASTLE, seated on an eminence, and commanding the pass of a wild hollow beneath: a square embattled tower is the leading feature of this ruin, which is very inconsiderable, and chiefly converted into a small farming habitation: “There in the ruin, heedless of the dead, The shelter-seeking peasant builds his shed; And, wond’ring man could want the larger pile, Exults, and owns his cottage with a smile.” Thus having surveyed five out of the six castles that formerly surrounded the forest of Wentwood, and learning that no traces remained of the fortress at Lanvasches, we returned to Caerwent from a circuit of about twenty miles. At an early hour in the morning we set out from our lowly quarters at Caerwent, and traversed a fruitful country, pleasingly varied with wood and pastures, in our way to CALDECOT CASTLE. The situation of this ruin in an undiversified swampy plain, is not calculated to set off its importance: viewed from a superior elevation in the approach, the towers and citadel, in themselves sufficiently high, appear sunk, and undistinguished from the curtain wall of the fortification; but on a nearer inspection the ruin rises in consequence; and the aspect of its chief entrance, a large Gothic gateway guarded by two massive projecting towers, is truly noble. The light grey masonry of this entrance is agreeably relieved by a profusion of ivy, overspreading nearly the whole of one tower, and throwing the broad shadow of its pendent foliage upon part of the other. Within the portal the grooves of two portcullisses are apparent; and a further means of defence is visible in holes through the arch, down which boiling lead might be poured on the heads of the besiegers. On entering the court some remains of the baronial hall, and the foundations of other buildings, appear within the area of the walls. A small artificial mount at the north-east angle of the ruin sustains the citadel, a lofty round tower; to which _dernier resort_ of the garrison a ready communication seems to have been conducted on the walls, from the different towers and other parts of the fortress; the whole of which is surrounded by a broad and deep moat.