307

DIGBY CASTLE.

HARRY and Lucy s father and mother had now been at Rupert Cottage for several months; and on some happy Monday, late in spring, we find them actually on the road to Digby Castle.

"Which way would you please to go, Sir?" said the postilion, looking back; "would you please that I should drive round by the new approach, as they call it, or turn up here, by the avenue; this is the nearest way, only it is up hill, Sir ?"

"Go by the avenue, if you please."

Harry and Lucy were glad of that. They drove in through a massive gateway, under the spreading arms and meeting branches of fine ancient oaks.

"Now for the first sight of the castle," cried Lucy; " and there it is, look Harry, with its towers and turrets, and spires, and pointed pinnacles. It is a Gothic castle, I know; I have seen a print like it in Britton's Beauties of England. Look out at my window, Harry, and you will see much better."

While they slowly ascended the hill, they had leisure to examine the front of the castle, though it was now and then intercepted from their view by the long-extending arms of the

trees.

"I like that great deep dark archway entrance between those two projecting towers," said Lucy. "So do I," said Harry.

"I like it because of the light and shade," said Lucy," "and because it is like a picture; it is picturesque, is it not, mamma? It is very pretty."

"I like it, because it is very useful too," said Harry." It looks solid, and secure; no danger of that arch ever giving way, even with all the weight of that pile of building on the top of it. Before it could come down, the arch must thrust out those two solid round towers on each side against which it butts."

"True, Harry," said his father, "that is the use of those weighty towers, which you will often see in the arched entrances of Gothic buildings."

"I like those spiry pinnacles," said Lucy.

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Yes, the minarets, as they are called, are very pretty," said her mother.

"Mamma, I like those pointed arches better than round arches," said Lucy; " and I like those hanging-out windows too, those which look like three windows bound in one, with carved

stone-work frames, and with all those ornaments of scollops and roses over each window."

Her father told her that what she called the stone-work frames, which divide the light into compartments, are called mullions; adding, "It is as well to know the right names of these things, especially as they can be learned with so little trouble at the time we see the buildings before us. "I like the lattice windows," said Lucy.

"Outside they look pretty," said Harry; "but I should think the rooms must be very dark within."

He observed slits instead of windows in one old tower, and he supposed that these were used for shooting through, in the time of bows and arrows. "I like the little jutting-out windows, mamma,' said Lucy.

"They are called oriel windows," said her mother.

Oh yes, oriel windows.

in one of those rooms.

you know, Harry."

I hope we shall sleep We are to stay some time,

"I am glad of it," said Harry, "that we may have time to look at every thing. I hope we shall go all over this castle. It looks very large.”

Yes, and for only two old people to live in," said Lucy; "Sir Rupert and Lady Digby; I should think they would be quite melancholy in it, and almost lose their way."

Her mother told her that they had often friends in the house with them, and that part only of the castle was inhabited at present; the other part was unfurnished, and she believed was shut up.

Lucy particularly hoped that they should see this part; and she also hoped that there was a dungeon, and a keep, and a moat, and a drawbridge; of all which things she had read in descriptions of old castles.

Her father told her, that there had been a drawbridge over a moat which had surrounded this castle, but the moat had been filled up, and the draw-bridge destroyed.

Harry regretted the draw-bridge; he should have liked to have seen how it was pulled up and let down. Lucy moaned over the loss of the moat; but upon being cross-questioned, it appeared that she had no clear idea of what a moat was. Her father told her that it was only a deep wide trench, or ditch, over which the draw-bridge was let down, to admit those who were to be received at the castle, and drawn up again to prevent the entrance of enemies; and that during the old times of the civil wars almost every castle had its draw-bridge, and its moat, which was sometimes filled with water and sometimes dry.

The idea of the moat being only a deep ditch satisfied Lucy for its having been filled up; and her father told Harry, that he might see the traces

of where it had been when they walked out. As to the keep, for which Lucy inquired, her father told her, that the keep of a castle means the strongest part of the building, to which the inhabitants of the castle used to retire when the besiegers had taken the out-works. The dungeon was usually at the bottom of the keep; but there was no chance of her seeing one here, as it had been long since destroyed. Harry rejoiced that both the days of civil wars, and of barons' tyranny, were past; and Lucy said she would be content without going into a dungeon.

By this time they had driven over the filled-up moat, and reached the entrance to the castle. Harry's father showed him, at the top of the archway, the remains of the portcul is a sort of gate, which was formed of thick cross bars of wood, and made so as to let down in case of surprise, to defend the entrance. A good old peaceable porter now stood where the portcullis had formerly been let down.

They entered the castle by a spacious hall; at the farther part of which was a dark oak staircase, in two flights of low steps, leading to a gallery across the end.

fire-place, a huge oak chairs curiously carved.

In this hall there was a vast

table, and a set of black

A pair of jack boots and a cross-bow hung on one side of the fire-place; and on the other a stag's head, with branching