ge. In what style of architecture the
castle was built, it would have been difficult to say: it was neither
exactly Gothic nor Italian of the middle ages: and upon the whole it
might safely be referred to some rude and remote age which had aimed at
nothing more than availing itself of the local advantages and the
materials furnished by nature on the spot for the purpose of
constructing a secure and imposing fortress; without any further regard
to the rules or pedantries of architecture. Attached to the main
building, which ascended to the height of five stories--and yet did not
seem disproportionately high from the extent of its range, were several
smaller dependencies--some of which appeared to be framed of wood. The
purists of our days, who are so anxious to brush away all the wooden
patchwork and little tributary cells that formerly clustered about the
pillars and nooks of cathedrals like so many swallows' nests, had here
apparently made no proselytes. And on the whole the final impression
was that of a very venerable and antique but at the same time rather
fantastic building.

From each side of the promontory on which the castle stood, ran off at
right angles a smaller promontory; that, which was on the left side as
viewed from the sea, though narrower and lower than the corresponding
one on the other side, terminated however in a much larger area: and on
that consideration apparently, in spite of its less commanding
elevation, had been selected as the station for a watch-tower. This
tower was circular; and in that respect accurately fitted to the area
or platform on which it stood; the platform itself being a table of
rock at the summit of a rude colossal cylinder which appeared to grow
out of the waves. The whole of this lateral process from the main
promontory presented a most impressive object to a spectator
approaching it from sea: for the connecting part, which ran at right
angles, from the great promontory to the platform, had been partly
undermined; originally perhaps by some convulsion of nature: but
latterly the breach had been greatly widened by storms; so that at
length a vast aerial arch of granite was suspended over the waves:
which arch once giving away and falling in, the rocky pillar and the
watch-tower which it carried would be left insulated in the waves.

Bertram was more and more fascinated by the aspect of the ancient
castle and the quiet hills behind it, with their silent fields and
woodland