Life nowadays is too short for so much elaboration. of deportment. But it is interesting to glance for a moment at the stately ways of days when men knew how to "make a reverence" and live with honour.

THE ROUND TOWER (pp. 115, 157).

The entrance is by a Gothic door in the Upper Ward side of the Norman Gate: a great grim grey stair, long as those that ascend to the halls of the vast pile of the Vatican. The covered passage climbs the mound, and is arched securely and narrowed here and there, then again widening until it lands you at the base of the Keep, where you find that you have in your ascent been under the murderous eye which is probably looking over the muzzle of a cannon. Its mouth projects from a narrow embrasure placed so that the stair may be swept with missiles (p. 159). There is nothing like a short smoothbore for work at under one hundred yards! But who would storm up such a passage? Is not the slope outside less dangerous? The experiment has not been made in historical times. It is very possible that the British rampart and ditch thrown up in the chalk hill may have had its white excavations stained with the blood of enemies; but in those wars the monticule was probably lower and its form less perfect. Much was done by the Normans to make it more symmetrical and to strengthen the

THE FLAG TOWER.

159

chalk by masonry before the great weight of the tower was placed upon it. That weight was increased

by Wyatt, who raised the walls and added the imposing machicolation and the Flag Tower. In the stairway, Prince Rupert placed many trophies of

arms; but the damp must have rusted them quickly unless they were constantly oiled. It was wiser to have them under better cover in heated spaces.

There have been Governors of the Castle ever since the days of the Conquerer; but Rupert's name is associated with the Round Tower as the Constable who made it most attractive as a residence, and adorned it most fittingly with ensigns of war. If Rupert never came in battle "but to conquer or to die," he never came in peace but to quit a place or to adorn it. The windows of the Keep were enlarged by him. There are two habitable floors, with an inner passage looking into the circular open space of the interior of the tower. This ought, as in other days, to be roofed over and made of use. The apartments are all used when the Castle is visited by any foreign Sovereign, or on any occasion that makes it necessary to entertain many. Even this accommodation does not suffice, and the large house at Frogmore has to be called on to billet a number.

A room with upright beams supporting part of the roof, to the left of the entrance, was that in which state prisoners of rank were confined. It was probably much altered when the practice of keeping captives here was discontinued. Another room on the other side of the entrance is remarkable as built over the well that ensured the garrison a plentiful supply of water. The existence of this well had been wholly forgotten, as we saw on an earlier