The soft and
gentle river Don sweeps through an amphitheatre, in which cultivation is
richly blended with woodland, and on a mount, ascending from the river,
well defended by walls and ditches, rises this ancient edifice, which,
as its Saxon name implies, was, previous to the Conquest, a royal
residence of the kings of England. The outer walls have probably been
added by the Normans, but the inner keep bears token of very great
antiquity. It is situated on a mount at one angle of the inner court,
and forms a complete circle of perhaps twenty-five feet in diameter.
The wall is of immense thickness, and is propped or defended by six huge
external buttresses which project from the circle, and rise up against
the sides of the tower as if to strengthen or to support it. These
massive buttresses are solid when they arise from the foundation, and a
good way higher up; but are hollowed out towards the top, and terminate
in a sort of turrets communicating with the interior of the keep itself.
The distant appearance of this huge building, with these singular
accompaniments, is as interesting to the lovers of the picturesque, as
the interior of the castle is to the eager antiquary, whose imagination
it carries back to the days of the Heptarchy. A barrow, in the vicinity
of the castle, is pointed out as the tomb of the memorable Hengist; and
various monuments, of great antiquity and curiosity, are shown in the
neighbouring churchyard. [57]

When Coeur-de-Lion and his retinue approached this rude yet
stately building, it was not, as at present, surrounded by external
fortifications. The Saxon architect had exhausted his art in rendering
the main keep defensible, and there was no other circumvallation than a
rude barrier of palisades.

A huge black banner, which floated from the top of the tower, announced
that the obsequies of the late owner were still in the act of being
solemnized. It bore no emblem of the deceased's birth or quality,
for armorial bearings were then a novelty among the Norman chivalry
themselves and, were totally unknown to the Saxons. But above the
gate was another banner, on which the figure of a white horse,
rudely painted, indicated the nation and rank of the deceased, by the
well-known symbol of Hengist and his Saxon warriors.

All around the castle was a scene of busy commotion; for such funeral
banquets were times of general and profuse hospitality, which not only
every one who could claim the most dist