The fine gateway of the castle is flanked by two squat towers. They are
circular and battlemented, and between them upon a parapet, which is
higher than the towers themselves, appears the motto of the Cliffords,
'Desormais' (hereafter), in open stone letters. Beyond the gateway
stands a great mass of buildings with two large round towers just in
front; to the right, across a sloping lawn, appears the more modern and
inhabited portion of the castle. The squat round towers gain all our
attention, but as we pass through the doorways into the courtyard
beyond, we are scarcely prepared for the astonishingly beautiful
quadrangle that awaits us. It is small, and the centre is occupied by a
great yew-tree, whose tall, purply-red trunk goes up to the level of
the roofs without any branches or even twigs, but at that height it
spreads out freely into a feathery canopy of dark green, covering
almost the whole of the square of sky visible from the courtyard. The
base of the trunk is surrounded by a massive stone seat, with plain
shields on each side. The aspect of the courtyard suggests more that of
a manor-house than a castle, the windows and doorways being purely
Tudor.
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