The Castle is cut off from the town of Alnwick by a deep combe, which has been much scarped; it is a matter for doubt whether the battlemented walls of the town were ever joined to those of the Castle, the same as at Conway and elsewhere. The Shell Keep was erected in 1140, but is so surrounded by subsidiary towers as to almost lose the characteristic. It lies in the centre of the great enclosure, and dual defences run east and west to the enceinte, thus making two wards, or baileys. The knoll upon which the Shell rests may either be a natural feature or the artificial motte of a previous castle. The great gateway and the barbican present excellent examples of military architecture of the fourteenth century. In the middle of the eighteenth century repairs and restorations took place in the execrable taste then prevalent, some of which remain to the present time to mar the aspect of an otherwise superb relic of the past. _Arundel._--The Manor of Arundel is one of the most ancient in the kingdom, being specifically mentioned in the time of Alfred the Great, while, respecting the Castle standing there, it is unique in being the only one mentioned in Domesday as being in existence before the accession of William I. That king granted it to the great Montgomery family, who were succeeded in its possession by King Henry I., through the rebellion of Robert de Belesme. It afterwards passed in succession through the families of D'Albini, Fitz-Alan, and Howard for seven centuries to its present owner, the Duke of Norfolk. Many important events have linked this great military structure indissolubly to the history of England. Here the Empress Maud was received with her brother, the Earl of Gloucester, in 1139, which precipitated an attack by King Stephen, but the most famous event connected with it was the siege of 1643, when Sir William Waller, first overcoming the defences of the Town, placed his guns on the top of the Church Tower and proceeded to batter the Castle. It capitulated after seventeen days' siege, and the domestic buildings were levelled to the ground.