bedchamber, which used to contain some of the original furniture, has
always a pathetic interest. The story of the courtship of Henry VIII
with "the brown girl with a perthroat and an extra finger," as
Margaret More described her, is well known. Her old home, which was
much in decay, has passed into the possession of a wealthy American
gentleman, and has been recently greatly restored and transformed.

Sussex can boast of many a lordly castle, and in its day Bodiam must
have been very magnificent. Even in its decay and ruin it is one of
the most beautiful in England. It combined the palace of the feudal
lord and the fortress of a knight. The founder, Sir John Dalyngrudge,
was a gallant soldier in the wars of Edward III, and spent most of his
best years in France, where he had doubtless learned the art of making
his house comfortable as well as secure. He acquired licence to
fortify his castle in 1385 "for resistance against our enemies." There
was need of strong walls, as the French often at that period ravaged
the coast of Sussex, burning towns and manor-houses. Clark, the great
authority on castles, says that "Bodiam is a complete and typical
castle of the end of the fourteenth century, laid out entirely on 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 is nearly square, with circular tower sixty-five feet
high at the four corners, connected by embattled curtain-walls, in the
centre of each of which square towers rise to an equal height with the
circular. The gateway is a large structure composed of two flanking
towers defended by numerous oiletts for arrows, embattled parapets,
and deep machicolations. Over the gateway are three shields bearing
the arms of Bodiam, Dalyngrudge, and Wardieu. A huge portcullis still
frowns down upon us, and two others opposed the way, while above are