One of the most famous and at the same time one of the oldest of Devonshire castles, is that of Exeter, called Rougemont from the colour of the rock on which it stands, built in 1067 by William the Conqueror on the site of an earlier fortress constructed by Athelstan, destroyed by Sweyn, and restored by Cnut and Edward the Confessor. Its first Norman governor was Baldwin de Brioniis, the Conqueror's nephew by marriage. It, or the city round it, has sustained many sieges; by the Saxons, by the sons of Harold, by King Stephen, by the Yorkists, by rebel armies, by Royalists and Parliamentarians, but it was ruinous even when Fairfax captured Exeter in 1646. A mere fragment, consisting chiefly of the gateway tower, is all that now remains of it. The picturesque ruins of Okehampton Castle, built, it is believed, in the thirteenth century, partly of water-worn stones from the river below, and dismantled by order of Henry VIII, stand in a strong position above the West Okement, and include the remains of many rooms and of a great banqueting hall. A French prisoner of war has left a Latin inscription cut in one of the stones. The remains of the ancient castle of Berry Pomeroy--founded, as some think, in the reign of William I--the most picturesque ruin in Devonshire, standing on a rocky eminence surrounded by dense woods three miles north-east of Totnes, consist principally of two towers, and of the gate-house and the chapel, whose fine masonry, much of which is thirteenth century work, is overgrown with moss and ivy. Inside the original building stands a very large but unfinished mansion, of great magnificence, begun by Lord Seymour, to whom, when Sir Thomas Pomeroy was deprived of his estates because of his share in the Commotion of 1549, the castle was given. The property still belongs to the Duke of Somerset, and has thus been in the hands of only two families since the Norman Conquest. Compton Castle, about two miles west of Torquay, a very strongly fortified manor-house of the early fifteenth century built on the site of a castle of William I's time, is specially interesting from its association with Sir Humphrey Gilbert. It is now occupied as a farm. Nearness to the sea, and the consequent danger from the raids of foreign invaders, led to the strength of its defences. The building, which is large and picturesque, includes a number of ancient features, especially the chapel and two gateways. [Illustration: Compton Castle] Lydford Castle, now little more than the shell of a square tower, stands on an artificial mound, and is said to have been founded soon after the Conquest. It was a place of great importance in the palmy days of Devonshire tin-mining, when Lydford was one of the chief towns in the county. Here, from a very early period until late in the eighteenth century, was held the Stannary Court, proverbial for its arbitrary methods of procedure; and within the walls was a notorious dungeon, used as the Stannary prison.