Bodiham is a building of very high interest. It is a complete and typical castle of the end of the fourteenth century, laid out entirely upon a new site, and constructed after one design, and at one period. It but seldom happens that a great fortress is wholly original, of one, and that a known, date, and so completely free from alterations or additions. It has, moreover, fallen into good hands. Enough, and not too much, has been done to arrest the effects of time and weather. The repairs have been well executed, and in Wadhurst stone, the proper material; and, though well watched, it is open to all who care to visit it. In plan and details Bodiham belongs to the early Perpendicular style, and occupies a mean position between Caerphilly, a work late in the thirteenth century, and Wressil, only a few years later than Bodiham in time, but much later in style and arrangements. Like these castles, it has no keep, and its domestic buildings are constructed within and against the walls of a court, but while Caerphilly, like Harlech and Ledes, is concentric, and has a narrow outer ward, Bodiham and Wressil, like Bolton, have but one ward, one line of defences, and are only rectangular enclosures, with strong and lofty curtains, flanked by still more lofty mural towers. Pennard in Gower, though of the reign of Henry III. or his son, is, on a small scale, of the same general type as Bodiham. Save the adjacent river and the marsh, the immediate site of Bodiham possesses no natural advantages. A sort of platform was selected upon the sloping ground, about 30 feet above the river’s level, and in it was excavated a rectangular basin, 180 yards north and south, by 117 yards east and west, and about 7 deep. To the east, the containing bank was wholly artificial, formed of the excavated material, as was also the case with the contiguous parts to the north and south. The remaining part of the south bank was also slightly raised. On the west side, near the north end, a small natural combe descended towards the excavation, of which, being wet, it was regarded as the future feeder. A strong dam was thrown across the lower part of this combe, between it and the excavation, of which it thus formed the bank. No doubt the pool so penned in was intended as a store pond when the moat was low.