towers at all the gateways, enclosing a space of no less than eight
acres, and with the actual fortress, crisp, strong, hard, and
unmouldered in the midst, its tallest square tower serving as a look-
out place for those who watched to give the first intimation of the
arrival.

The castle had its population, but chiefly of grooms, warders, and
their families. The state-rooms high up in that square tower were so
exceedingly confined, so stern and grim, that the grandfather of the
present earl had built a manor-house for his family residence on the
sloping ground on the farther side of the Dun.

This house, built of stone, timber, and brick, with two large courts,
two gardens, and three yards, covered nearly as much space as the
castle itself. A pleasant, smooth, grass lawn lay in front, and on
it converged the avenues of oaks and walnuts, stretching towards the
gates of the park, narrowing to the eye into single lines, then going
absolutely out of sight, and the sea of foliage presenting the utmost
variety of beautiful tints of orange, yellow, brown, and red. There
was a great gateway between two new octagon towers of red brick, with
battlements and dressings of stone, and from this porch a staircase
led upwards to the great stone-paved hall, with a huge fire burning
on the open hearth. Around it had gathered the ladies of the Talbot
family waiting for the reception. The warder on the tower had blown
his horn as a signal that the master and his royal guest were within
the park, and the banner of the Talbots had been raised to announce
their coming, but nearly half an hour must pass while the party came
along the avenue from the drawbridge over the Sheaf ere they could
arrive at the lodge.