thickness, and is propped or defended by six huge external buttresses
which project from the circle, and rise up against the sides of the tower as if
to strengthen or to support it. These massive buttresses are solid when they
arise from the foundation, and a good way higher up; but are hollowed out
towards the top, and terminate in a sort of turrets communicating with the
interior of the keep itself. The distant appearance of this huge building, with
these singular accompaniments, is as interesting to the lovers of the
picturesque, as the interior of the castle is to the eager antiquary, whose
imagination it carries back to the days of the Heptarchy. A barrow, in the
vicinity of the castle, is pointed out as the tomb of the memorable Hengist; and
various monuments, of great antiquity and curiosity, are shown in the
neighbouring churchyard.58
    When Coeur-de-Lion and his retinue approached this rude yet stately
building, it was not, as at present, surrounded by external fortifications. The
Saxon architect had exhausted his art in rendering the main keep defensible, and
there was no other circumvallation than a rude barrier of palisades.
    A huge black banner, which floated from the top of the tower, announced that
the obsequies of the late owner were still in the act of being solemnised. It
bore no emblem of the deceased's birth or quality, for armorial bearings were
then a novelty among the Norman chivalry themselves, and were totally unknown to
the Saxons. But above the gate was another banner, on which the figure of a
white horse, rudely painted, indicated the nation and rank of the deceased, by
the well-known symbol of Hengist and his Saxon warriors.
    All around the castle was a scene of busy commotion; for such funeral
banquets were times of general and profuse hospitality, which not only every one
who could claim the most distant connection with the deceased, but all
passengers whatsoever, were invited to partake. The wealth and consequence of
the deceased Athelstane, occasioned this custom to be observed in the fullest
extent.
    Numerous parties, therefore, were seen ascending and descending the hill on
which the castle was situated; and when the King and his attendants entered the
open and unguarded gates of the external barrier, the space within presented a
scene not easily reconciled with the cause of the assemblage. In one place cooks
were toiling to roast huge oxen and fat sheep; in another, hogsheads of ale were
set abroach, to be drained at the freedom of all comers. Groups of every
description were to be seen devouring the food and swallowing the liquor thus