Edward the First caused three noble fortresses to be erected in North Wales, to curb the spirit of the stubborn Welsh; and chose Conway, Caernarvon, and Beaumaris for their sites. Of these, Caernarvon Castle is by far the most majestic and spacious pile: Conway enjoys the most picturesque position; while the interior of Beaumaris Castle strikingly suggests how perilous and uncertain must the tenure of human life have been in the feudal ages. The royal founder appointed Sir William Pickmore, a Gascon, to be constable of the castle and captain of the town, situations subsequently held, probably with emolument, but without conferring any military renown upon the possessors. In the reign of Henry the Seventh the garrison, which consisted of twenty-four men, was withdrawn, during the constableship of Sir Rowland Villeville. The Earl of Dorset being constable of the castle in 1642, his deputy, Thomas Chedle, furnished it with men and ammunition; but Thomas, the first Lord Bulkeley, succeeding in 1643, his son Colonel Thomas Bulkeley, with the gentlemen of Anglesea, held it for the king until the year 1648, when it surrendered upon honourable terms to General Mytton. The property of the castle is still in the crown, but the constableship was deservedly restored to the Bulkeley family, and is now vested in Sir Robert B. Williams Bulkeley, Bart., the representative of that ancient and noble house. Edward is supposed to have imbibed that Asiatic style, which pervades the architecture of his royal castles, during his expedition to the Holy Land. The site of this fortress was adopted for a twofold purpose, both as being well adapted for defensive operations, and convenient for the landing of supplies, by means of a canal which communicated with the sea, a portion of which called “Llyn-y-Green” was till lately perceptible. An outer ballium of low but massive and embattled curtains is flanked by ten circular bastion towers: those which occupy the angles exceeding considerably in diameter all the intermediate ones. The Postern gate opened to the west or land side, and was situated between two ponderous square towers, which were again flanked by turrets of dissimilar shape and of unequal dimensions. Several portcullises appear to have been lowered within the long arched-way of this entrance. Fronting the sea there was a second entrance, protected by two vast circular bastion towers, besides the additional security of successive portcullises. A massive square building overhangs this entrance on the left, and a long embattled curtain, extending to the right, formerly sheltered those employed on the canal or fosse, in supplying the garrison with stores. This last singular and irregular work is called “the Gunner’s Walk,” and several large rings, still firmly fixed in the masonry, very sufficiently show that here the supply barges of the garrison were anciently moored.