rn headland of the
bay, where the cliffs were tallest and steepest and where, to add to the
other attractions of the view, stood, perched like an eagle's nest on
the edge of the crag, the ruins of an old castle.

By old, I do not mean Roman or even Norman. Indeed in that sense it was
comparatively modern; for the building, what was left of it, looked more
like one of those Tudor manor-houses which dot the country still, than a
fortress. And yet, that it had been fortified was plain enough even
still. On the side towards the sea it needed no protection; indeed
looking up at it from below, it seemed almost to overhang its
precipitous foundation. But on the land side there remained traces of a
moat, and loop-holes in the walls, and a massive gate.

It was scarcely to be called a picturesque ruin, except inasmuch as
every ruin is picturesque. Its bare walls rose gaunt and black out of
the ground, not out of a heap of tumbled moss-grown masonry, or covered
over with ivy. There were very few signs of decay about the place,
ruinous as it was, and very little examination was enough to show that
it had suffered not from old age, or from the cannon of an enemy, but
from fire.

No one about could tell me its story, and the mystery of the place only
added to its charm. Indeed I was quite glad to discover that it had not
even a name, and that the country folk would as soon have thought of
crossing the old moat after nightfall as they would have done of
stepping over the edge of the cliff. The only thing I could learn about
it, in fact, was that it was haunted, and that the one little turret
which still retained a roof, and over which the only ivy visible tried
to creep, was railed the Lady Tower, and was the "most haunted" spot of
all.

I could not believe that the one corner of the old ruin where there
still remained a sign of life and verdure, could be infested by any very
terrible ghost. Still I am not quite sure whether I should have enjoyed
a solitary night's rest there, and to have suggested the thing to the
natives of W-- would have been enough to secure my incarceration as a
raving lunatic. So I did not. But by daytime I added myself one more
to the spirits that haunted the place, and yielded myself up completely
to its fascination.

One day towards the end of my visit I walked over to a coastguard
station some miles along the shore for the sake of taking a last survey
of the beautiful coast. When I reached