The style of architecture has been a matter of dispute, as to whether it is Saxon, Danish, or Norman. Mr. Boid, in his history and analysis of the principal styles of architecture, ventures to challenge any one to prove the existence of any monument in this country of real Saxon skill; nor has any specimen been discovered. Mr. Wilkins, of Norwich, who has described both the ancient and modern states of the fortress in Vol. xii. of the Archæologia, believed, however, that the part which yet remains might have been constructed chiefly in the reign of Canute, but that it is notwithstanding in the style of architecture practised by the Saxons, long before England became subject to the Danes, and is the best exterior specimen of the kind. Other and later writers, with much better evidence, believe the whole keep to be Norman, of the time of William Rufus; for it is similar in style to Castle Rising, built in the reign of that king, by Albini. The earth works and stone works are very similar. The whole of the exterior of the keep has been refaced, the original style being preserved. It is to be regretted that the work was not wholly refaced with small square stones, in the Norman manner, instead of commencing with the large massive freestone, which is coloured to represent smaller stones. This defect, however, on being discovered was remedied, for a great part of the exterior was finished after the Norman fashion. The county jail stands on the east side of the keep, and was built on the site of a previous prison in 1824–28 at a cost of £15,000. It comprises a governor’s house and three radiating wings, and has room for 224 male prisoners. Three bridges are, as we have said, thought by some authorities to have crossed three ditches, but for more than a century the present bridge has been the only one. This bridge consists of one large semicircular arch. Mr. Wilkins supposed that it was the original bridge built by the Saxons, but this is only conjectural like the rest of his theory about the earth works. At the termination of this bridge, upon the upper ballium, are the remains of two circular towers, 14 feet in diameter, which are supposed to have flanked the portal of the ballium wall. The history of the castle will be given at some length in subsequent pages. We shall now proceed to THE CATHEDRAL. THIS grand Norman pile is the great ornament to the city, but its situation is so low that its goodly proportions can be seen only from one point of view, namely from Mousehold Heath. From that elevation it presents the dignity of a great work of architecture, and the spire may be seen on a clear day, on the north, at a distance of twenty miles. The noble tower, with its gracefully tapering spire, second in height only to that of Salisbury, the flying buttresses, and the circular chapels at the east end, are objects of interest to the attentive antiquarian observer.