Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/396

378 which the taste of each has amid all the successive changes and restorations engrafted, we still discover other evidences, externally, to prove the same antiquity for the whole of this portion of the castle.

We have now again reached the spacious enceinte (cincta), but are tempted to loiter on the level grass, and among the ever verdant topiaries, resigning ourselves to the enchantments of the glorious prospect that lies in unending variety and richness below us. At the extremity of this enclosure we reach the mound on which formerly rose the massive keep, but beyond the mound there are no traces of it discernible. The whole of this enclosure, comprehending about three acres and a half, is bounded by the old wall (promurale).

We now pause to draw a momentary contrast between the early state of Rockingham Castle and that exhibited at the present day. We deplore the loss of much of the ancient fortress, but we recognise in its place a variety of Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture that is marked by the peculiar features of those styles: the imagination strives to recal the glittering array of visor'd bowmen and feudal state, but these are supplanted by the smiling aspect of happy cottagers with their neatly cultivated gardens: a spacious school, (itself no unworthy structure,) and the glittering spires thickly rising out of the vale of the Welland, shew that an attention to the highest interests of the population has kept pace with their knowledge of an improved system of agriculture, and thus far tended to verify the truth of that apothegm appropriately written by Sir Lewis Watson in letters of gold on the beams of the castle hall, that ""