English literature -- England -- Lancashire; Legends -- England -- Lancashire
"At the inside of the yard we came to the inner fosse, moat, or ditch,
and arriving at the place where the drawbridge had been fixed, we
entered the inner bayle or court by the ancient passage through the
interior wall, the entrance whereof had evidently been secured by a
portcullis, and defended by a room over the passage.
"We now proceeded to the entrance into the main tower or keep; but the
doorway into the porch, which precedes it, being walled up, we were
obliged to creep into the edifice by a narrow aperture. The entrance
has been secured by a portcullis. The main tower has consisted of
three storeys, each divided into three oblong apartments by two
interior side walls being carried from bottom to top.
"The rooms on the ground-floor have been very low, and lighted by long
apertures, extremely narrow, at the outside of the walls, but a
considerable width in the inside, perhaps so constructed for the use
of the bow. The apartments have communicated with each other; and
there has been a winding staircase leading from one of them to the
rooms above, and to the top of the castle. Under the ground-floor of
these ancient castles used commonly to be dark and dismal apartments,
or dungeons, for the reception of prisoners, but nothing of the kind
is known to be here. The porch is called the dungeon.
"The second floor has been on a level with the first landing at the
principal entrance. The rooms have been lofty, and lighted by small
pointed windows, and many of them have had fireplaces. The apartments
on the third floor have been apparently similar to those on the
second. The side apartments have been lighted by several small pointed
windows, but those in the middle have been very dark and gloomy.
"The great door of the castle opens into one of these intermediate
apartments. On the left-hand side of the entrance has been a spiral
staircase, leading to the rooms above and to the top of the castle,
which has had a flat roof, surrounded by a parapet and several
turrets. The walls of this tower are very strong and firm; a deep
buttress is placed at each corner, and one against the middle of each
side wall. A small square tower has stood at the southern corner, but
the greater part of it has been thrown down by the sea. The foundation
of one side wall is also undermined the whole of its length, and as it
in some places overhangs the precipice formed by the waste of the sea,
and as the castle is not situated upon a rock, but upon hard loamy
soil, this side must inevitably fall in a few years.
"Many huge fragments of the wasted walls are scattered upon the shore,
under the cliff from whence they have fallen; and notwithstanding the
concussion they have received in falling from a great height, and the
frequent surges of the sea, they are as firm as ever, and in many
places exhibit the shape of the edifice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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