The principal approach and entrance to the castle are from the west. Here, to the westward of the original outer face of the fosse, stands the Barbican; an embattled outwork of equal strength and dignity, the work of the first of the Percies, about A.D. 1310. The rounded arch of the entrance gateway here is an example of a usage not very uncommon at the period which has just been specified, and always present in the works of Lord Henry de Perci. The Barbican, which covers an area of 55 feet in length by 32 feet in width, is a perfect example of the style of fortification that was held to be essential for defence against assault in mediæval warfare. One remarkable feature, which is repeated again and again in various parts of the castle, cannot fail at once to attract attention when approaching the Barbican; this is the array of tall figures representing armed warders of the fourteenth century, sculptured in stone, which surmount the parapet, and stand upon the merlons of the embattling, casting their long shadows upon the grey masonry. [Illustration: _The Armourer’s Tower._] Having entered the Barbican, passed under the sculptured Percy lion which keeps guard over the archway, and traversed the entrance tower, we find ourselves within the enclosure of the first or outer baly; here, turning to the left, we commence our survey of the castle within the lines of circumvallation. The curtain-wall, extending from the entrance northwards at a right angle to the Abbot’s Tower, and having midway a garret or wall-tower (No. 22 in plan) built upon it, is part of the old Norman work of the De Vescis, with evident tokens of important reparation a little before the middle of the fifteenth century, by the father of Hotspur, the sixth lord of Alnwick. The Armourer’s Tower (No. 23 in plan), which occupies the N.W. angle of the _enceinte_, is a noble piece of Edwardian architecture; it consists of a vaulted basement, with two stories above it, connected by a turret-stair: and its external massive effectiveness is greatly enhanced by the square turret at the N.W. angle of the tower, which rises boldly above the embattled parapet, having its own merlons crowned with weather-beaten sculptured warders. Now facing eastwards, and soon making a slight inclination towards the east, again we follow the line of the Norman curtain-walls, until we reach the new Falconer’s Tower (No. 24 in plan), which has been built on the site of the razed early Armourer’s and Falconer’s Towers; the original curtain apparently extended in a direct line from No. 24 to the Keep. Passing onwards along the new curtain-wall due east from No. 24, we follow the line of this wall as it turns towards the south, and at No. 25 in the plan brings us to the Postern Tower, another massive relic of the first Lord Percy, placed at the base of the eminence upon which the Keep stands; this tower protects a postern or sally-port, and it has a curious