The approach led up a gentle eminence; but a screen of high elms and thick underwood, issuing from the moat, intervened between us and the castle, which remained concealed, until, penetrating the thicket, a display of the ruin burst upon us, elegantly beautiful! Sweetly picturesque! No theatrical scene was ever designed in a happier taste, or unfolded itself to admiring beholders with a more sudden and impressive effect. In this _coup d’œil_, the Gothic portal and two elegant embattled towers immediately arrested the eye. Of the polygonal towers that formerly defended the entrance, one is completely hidden in a majestic mantle of ivy, which descends in a profuse festoon over the gateway. The other, admirably contrasting, and in a most perfect state of preservation, rears its beautiful machicolated summit with scarcely any leafy incumbrance: yet a few tasteful tufts of ivy sparingly issue from the windows and oillets of the tower, and wave their elegant tendrils over the glistening polish of the walls. {214} Another tower of similar beauty, but superior dimensions, appears a little further, at the eastern angle of the structure. On the other side of the porch, the ruins are concealed by a profuse pile of ivy; but some lofty portions of the ruin start from the verdure with considerable elegance; and two windows, standing one over the other, exhibit an effect of ornamental relief in their freizes and mouldings that would not discredit any age. From this assemblage of beautiful objects we fixed our attention on the massive citadel, placed rather obliquely in front of the ornamented ruins. One half of this structure was blown up by order of Cromwell, upon the taking of the castle by Fairfax: from the remaining section it appears to have been a hexagonal building of five stories, whose sides were flanked by semicircular bastions covering each angle. The citadel is surrounded by a moat and terrace, with a wall, in which appear niches, once adorned with statues of the Roman emperors. The rough and threatening aspect of these broken walls, and the ponderous bulk of disjointed fragments, falling in the same point of view with the gentle and decorative parts just described, strongly contrast each other, and heighten the varied character of the picture.