After a short rest, we went to inspect the tower, under the guidance of the owner, who had ordered the servants to light it up from top to bottom with torches. It is a massive square building, with walls so thick that benches were placed in the recesses of the windows. A very simple coat-of-arms, carved in stone upon the exterior, shows that it was erected in the thirteenth century. The whole is a fine specimen of the very few baronial castles that remain. This structure is in excellent preservation, and furnishes a good example of Anglo-Norman architecture. I do not think that in all Europe there is any building of the sort in such good condition, except perhaps the well-known castle at Hedingham.
There are two lofty stories above the ground, and a deep cellar-like excavation beneath the level of the soil. The latter is divided into three compartments, and each of the former into two roomy chambers. Over the fireplaces are carved lilies, without any ornamentation, exactly resembling those represented in the coat-of-arms upon the outer wall. The portal is narrow, and a flight of small stone steps leads from one story to another; at the top is a broad platform surrounded by battlements. In the cellar there is a deep cistern or well partially filled up. The owner talked of having it cleared out, and I wished that he might have the luck to find some treasure at the bottom, to repay him for the bad harvests of the last two years, which, owing to want of rain, had been very scanty.
Manifestly the whole building had been constructed, not so much for a residence as for defensive purposes. It is situated near the middle of the peninsula, just where on the one hand the ground slopes towards the sea, and on the other spreads a wide amphitheatre of hills; it thus at once commands the sea, the coast, and the surrounding mountain region. This colossal structure must evidently have been unassailable by fire, by ladders, or by breaching the walls, while its defenders if hard pressed could retreat from one story to another. Under the battlements were numerous loop-holes, through which arrows might be shot with deadly precision against an advancing enemy.
The prospect from the lofty platform was extensive and beautiful. Sunset was rapidly approaching, and the clouds, illuminated by the departing rays of the glorious orb, were arranged in blood red masses and streaks, whilst beneath, the deep blue of the tranquil sea was here and there lighted up by broad patches of golden splendour. The mountains, however, were shrouded in a veil of grey mist. Low beneath us was the old church, whose architecture seemed a mixture of the ancient Roman with the earliest Gothic.