Castle Frank itself was an edifice of considerable dimensions, of an oblong shape; its walls were composed of a number of rather small, carefully hewn logs, of short lengths. The whole wore the hue which unpainted timber, exposed to the weather, speedily assumes. At the gable end, in the direction of the roadway from the nascent capital, was the principal entrance, over which a rather imposing portico was formed by the projection of the whole roof, supported by four upright columns, reaching the whole height of the building, and consisting of the stems of four good-sized, well-matched pines, with their deeply-chapped, corrugated bark unremoved. The doors and shutters to the windows were all of double thickness, made of stout plank, running up and down on one side, and crosswise on the other, and thickly studded over with the heads of stout nails. From the middle of the building rose a solitary, massive chimney-stack. We can picture to ourselves the cavalcade that was wont, from time to time, to be seen in the summers and autumns of 1794-'5-'6, wending its way leisurely to the romantically situated château of Castle Frank, along the reaches and windings, the descents and ascents of the forest road, expressly cut out through the primitive woods as a means of access to it. First, mounted on a willing and well-favoured horse, as we will suppose, there would be General Simcoe himself--a soldierly personage, in the full vigour of life, advanced but little beyond his fortieth year, of thoughtful and stern, yet benevolent aspect--as shewn by the medallion in marble on his monument in the cathedral at Exeter--revolving ever in his mind schemes for the development and defence of the new Society which he was engaged in founding; a man "just, active, enlightened, brave, frank," as the French Duke de Liancourt described him in 1795; "possessing the confidence of the country, of the troops, and of all those who were joined with him in the administration of public affairs." "No hillock catches his eye," the same observant writer remarks, "without exciting in his mind the idea of a fort which might be constructed on the spot, associating with the construction of this fort the plan of operations for a campaign; especially of that which should lead him to Philadelphia, _i. e._, to recover, by force of arms, to the allegiance of England, the Colonies recently revolted."