Cardiff Castle

It is strange how much is forgotten.

For all the Marquess of Bute's family knew, they had inherited a Norman Castle - a mansion house with Keep sitting atop a motte surrounded by moat,


and a Norman Wall separating outer ward and inner ward.


They added a few small frills like a clock tower


and allowed Capability Brown to do a little landscaping to make everything look a trifle romantic, a touch picturesque,


while inside, in accordance with Victorian tastes, embellished every surface


with gold and romantic symbols of a more chivalric past.


But then they found this:


remnant of a more ancient times,


and built again, mimicking what they thought they'd found: Roman-style gates and walls with tunnels within for children to hide,


- and adults too when the bombs later fell.

Nowadays, the wars are in more distant lands, and the soldiers,


after fighting the modern crusades against the same old infidels


return to march here with drums and pipes


...and regimental goat.


For St David's Day.