r projected. Higher up were
more modern-looking buildings.

Having replenished our stores, which was our chief object in coming in,
though the place itself was well worth seeing, we again sailed, and the
same evening came off Tintagel Head.

Here both yachts were hove-to. We all pulled on shore in the boats,
taking Nat with us. The place where we landed was near the village of
Trevena. Over an inn door was painted the name of "Charity Bray," which
we found to be the appellation of the landlady. As we promised to take
tea at her hostelry before returning on board, she undertook to procure
us a guide, who would lead us by the shortest cut to the far-famed
ancient castle of Tintagel. Hurrying on, for we had no time to spare,
we descended by a steep path along the side of the cliff until we
reached a lofty rock, on which one part of the castle stands, while on
the mainland another portion is built. We were now standing at the
bottom of a chasm looking up two hundred feet or more to the castle
walls, which were originally joined by a drawbridge. The castle was
anciently called Dunchine, or the Fort of the Chasm. A zigzag path
enabled us to gain the summit of the cliffs. The entrance to the castle
was through a gateway, a ruined archway which still stands. Passing
through it, we entered a court, called King Arthur's Garden, immediately
beyond which rose a precipitous rock, crowned by a tower and wall--
evidently the keep. At the further side the cliff descends
perpendicularly to the sea, while on the other is the chasm I have
mentioned as dividing the two portions of the castle. The walls
altogether encircled the larger part of the promontory, and in some
places can hardly be distinguished from the cliffs, out of which they
seem, as it were, to grow. The headland, I was told, contains about
forty acres. We remarked that the walls were pierced with a number of
small square orifices, probably intended for the use of bowmen. In the
rock overlooking the ocean is a recess, which our guide told us was
called "King Arthur's Chair;" and in another part is a subterranean
passage called "King Arthur's Hiding-place." It is undoubtedly one of
the most ancient castles in the kingdom, though it was greatly enlarged
in later years, and was kept up until the reign of Elizabeth, when it
was abandoned as a stronghold, and allowed to fall into decay. As it
was King Arthur's birthplace, so it was the spot where he lost his lif