modes and ornaments of the original. The battlements are crowded with effigies,* cut in stone, according to the taste of the Normans, in whose time it underwent a principal reparation. These effigies represent men in the act of defence, wielding such arms as were then used. Some of them are disposed with great propriety. The guards of two of the gateways are in the attitude of casting down a mighty stone on the heads of assailants. The building is of beautiful freestone in chiselled work. Its form is singular, being composed of a cluster of semicircular and angular bastions.

Alnwick Castle contains about five acres of ground within its outer walls, which are flanked with sixteen towers and turrets. These now afford a complete set of offices to the castle, and many of them retain their original names, as well as their ancient use and destination. These are, 1. The Great, or Outward Gate entrance, anciently called the Utter Ward. 2. The Garner or Avener Tower; behind which are stables, coach-houses, &c. in all respects suitable to the magnitude and dignity of this great castle. 3. The Water Tower, containing the cistern or reservoir that supplies the castle and offices with water. Adjoining to this is the laundry, &c. 4. The Caterer's Tower; adjoining to which are the kitchens, and all other conveniences of that sort. Behind the adjacent wall are concealed a complete set of offices and apartments for most of the principal officers and attendants in the castle; together with a large hall, or dining-room, to entertain the tenants at the audits; with an office for the auditors, house-keeper's room; and underneath these, a servants' hall, with all other suitable conveniences. 5. The Middle Ward. 6. The Auditors' Tower. - 7. The Guard House. 8. The East Garret. 9. The Record's Tower; of which the lower story contains the Evidence Rooms, or great Repository of the Archives of the Barony; over it is a circular apartament designed and executed with great taste and beauty for a banqueting-room, being 29 feet in diameter, and 24 feet 6 inches high. 10. Ravine-Tower, or Hotspur's Chair. Between this and the Round Tower was formerly a large breach in the walls, which, for time immemorial, had been called by the town's people the Bloody Gap. 11. The Constable's Tower; which remains chiefly in its ancient state, as a specimen how the castle itself was once fitted up. 12. The Postern Tower, or sally-port. The upper apartment now contains old armour, arms, &c. The lower story has a small furnace and elaboratory for chemical or other experiments. 13. The Armourer's Tower. 14. The Falconer's Tower. 15. The Abbot's Tower; so called either from its situation nearest to Alnwick Abbey, or from its containing an apartment for the abbot of that monastry, whenever he retired to the castle. 16. The West Garret.

The castle properly consists of three courts or divisions; the entrance into which was defended with three strong massy gates; called the Utter Ward, the Middle Ward, and the Inner Ward. Each of these gates was in a high embattled tower, furnished with a portcullis, and the outward gate with a draw-bridge also; they had each of them a porter's lodge, and a strong prison, besides other necessary apartments for the constable, bailiff, and subordinate officers. Under each of the prisons was a deep and dark dungeon, into which the more refractory prisoners were let down with

* These were executed by the late Mr. James Johnson of Stamfordham, and engaged him upwards of twenty years. History of Alnwick.

cords, and from which there was no exit but through the trap-door in the floor above. That of the Inner Ward is still remaining in all its original horrors.

The approach to the castle retains much of the solemn grandeur of former times. The moat is drained, and the ceremony of letting down the draw-bridge is forgot; but the walls which enclose the area still wear the ancient countenance of strength and defiance. It is entered by a machicolated gate, defended by an upper tower; and, after passing a covered way, the interior gate opens to the area. This entrance is defended by all the devices used in ancient times,-iron studded gates, portcullis, open galleries, and apertures in the arching for annoying assailants. Nothing can be more striking than the effect at first entrance within the walls from the town, when, through a dark gloomy gateway of considerable length and depth, the eye suddenly emerges into one of the most splendid scenes that can be imagined, and is presented at once with the great body of the inner castle, surrounded with fair semicircular towers, finely swelling to the eye, and gaily adorned with pinnacles, figures, battlements, &c.*

The impression is still further strengthened by the successive entrance into the second and third courts, through great massy towers, till the stranger is landed in the inner court, in the very centre of this great citadel. Here he enters a most beautiful stair-case, of a very singular yet pleasing form, expanding like a fan. The cornice of the ceiling is inarched with a series of 120 escutcheons, displaying the principal quarterings and intermarriages of the Percy family. The space occupied by this stair-case is 46 feet long, 35 feet 4 inches wide, and 43 feet 2 inches high.

The first room that presents to the left is the Saloon, which is a most beautiful apartment, designed in the gayest and most elegant style of Gothic architecture; being 42 feet 8 inches long, 37 feet 2 inches wide, and 19 feet 10 inches high. Here is a painting of Henry, the ninth Earl of Northumberland, a copy from Vandyke by Philips. This painting is in a circular frame, over the chimney-piece. On his right hand is a painting of his son Algernon, the tenth Earl of Northumberland, copied from Vandyke by the same hand. On Henry's left hand is a painting of Josceline, the eleventh Earl of Northumberland, a copy from Sir Peter Lely by the same hand. Here are also two other paintings; one of the Duke of Somerset, and one of the second Duchess of Northumberland, by Philips. The above paintings are all in full

* Mr. Pennant, in describing this ancient and magnificent castle, says, "You look in vain for any marks of the grandeur of the feodal age, for trophies won by a family eminent in our annals for military prowess and deeds of chivalry; for halls hung with helms and hauberks, or with the spoils of the chace; for extensive forests and venerable oaks. You look in vain for the helmet on the tower, the ancient signal of hospitality to the traveller; or for the grey-headed porter to conduct him to the hall of entertainment. The numerous train whose countenances gave welcome to him on his way are now no more; and, instead of the disinterested usher of the old times, he is attended by a valet, eager to receive the fees of admittance."

On this another traveller observes, "that though the savage ferocity of the feodal ages is taken away, yet not the marks of grandeur. There are no miserable dungeons filled with captives, no places of execution groaning under their execrable burden; the towers remain, but without the cry of captivity and torture. Hospitality, clothed in princely array, sits in the hall, dispensing, with a brow of benignity, mixed with features of the highest magnificence, gifts worthy her hand.”

length, except that of the ninth Earl, which is in a sitting posture. In the remaining compartments it is intended to have other portraits of the family.

To this succeeds the Drawing Room, consisting of one large oval, with a semicircular projection, or bow window. It is 46 feet 7 inches long, 35 feet 4 inches wide, and 21 feet high. Hence the transition is very properly to the great Dining Room; which was one of the first executed, and is of the purest Gothic, with niches and other ornaments, that render it a very noble model of a great baron's hall. In this room was an irregularity in the form, which has been managed with great skill and judgment, and made productive of beauty and convenience. This was a large bow window, not in the centre, but towards the upper end, which now affords a very agreeable recess when the family dine alone, or for a second table at the public dinners. This room is 53 feet 9 inches in length, 20 feet 10 inches wide (exclusive of the circular recess, which is 19 feet in diameter), and 26 feet 9 inches high. In this room, over the chimney-piece, is a painting of Elizabeth, Duchess of Northumberland, by Lindot, from an original of Sir Joshua Reynolds.

From the Dining Room the stranger may either descend into the court, by a circular stair-case, or he is ushered into a very beautiful Gothic apartment over the gateway, commonly used for a breakfast or supper room: this is furnished with closets in the octagon towers, and is connected with other private apartments. It is 38 feet 4 inches long, 19 feet 10 inches wide (exclusive of the recesses, which are 4 feet 7 inches), and 16 feet 1 inch high.

Hence the stranger is conducted into the Library, which is a very fine room, in the form of a parallelogram, properly fitted up for the books, and ornamented with stuccowork in a very rich Gothic style; being 64 feet long, 23 feet 1 inch wide, and 16 feet 1 inch high. This apartment leads to the Chapel, which fills all the upper space of the middle ward. Here the highest display of Gothic ornaments in the greatest beauty has been very properly exhibited; and the several parts of the chapel have been designed after the most perfect models of excellence. The great east window is in the style of one of the finest in York Minster. The ceiling is borrowed from that of King's College, in Cambridge; and the mouldings and stucco-work are gilt and painted after the great church in Milan: but the windows of painted glass are, for lightness and elegance, superior to any thing that has yet been attempted, and worthy of the present more improved state of the arts. Exclusive of a beautiful circular recess for the family, the chapel is 50 feet long, 21 feet 4 inches wide, and 22 feet high. Under the great window is an elegant sarcophagus of statuary marble, erected to the memory of Elizabeth, the first Duchess of Northumberland. In the centre of this is a bust of the Duchess in bass-relief, and on each side of the bust, also in bass-relief, a full length figure. At one end of the sarcophagus are the arms of the Duchess, and at the other the arms of the Duke her husband. On the top are a lion and unicorn couchant, and between them, on a small tablet, is an inscription, "Sacred to the memory of Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, daughter of Algernon, Duke of Somerset, and heiress of the ancient Earls,"

Returning from the Chapel through the Library, and passing by another great stair-case, that fills an oval space 22 feet 9 inches long, and 15 feet 3 inches wide, we enter a passage or gallery, which leads to two great State Bed-chambers, each 30 feet