d enjoyed my surprise;
adding, in a very droll phraseology, that she had "not forgotten good
English customs." Our beds and bed rooms were perfectly comfortable, and
even elegant.

The moat which encircles, not only the castle, but the town--and which must
have been once formidable from its depth and breadth, when filled with
water--is now most pleasingly metamorphosed. Pasture lands, kitchen
gardens, and orchards, occupy it entirely. Here the cattle quietly stray,
and luxuriously feed. But the metamorphosis of the _castle_ has been, in an
equal degree, unfortunate. The cannon balls, during the wars of the
League--and the fury of the populace, with the cupidity or caprice of
some individuals, during the late revolution--helped to produce this
change. After breakfast, I felt a strong desire to survey carefully the
scite and structure of the castle. It was a lovely day; and in five
minutes I obtained admission at a temporary outer gate. The first near
view within the ramparts perfectly enchanted me. The situation is at
once bold, commanding, and picturesque. But as the opposite, and
immediately contiguous ground, is perhaps yet a little higher, it should
follow that a force, placed upon such eminence--as indeed was that of
Henry the Fourth, during the wars of the League--would in the end subdue
the garrison, or demolish the castle. I walked here and there amidst
briars and brushwood, diversified with lilacs and laburnums; and by the
aid of the guide soon got within an old room--of which the outer walls
only remained--and which is distinguished by being called the
_birth-place_ of WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

Between ourselves, the castle appears to be at least a century later than
the time of William the Conqueror; and certainly the fine round tower, of
which such frequent mention has been made, is rather of the fourteenth, if
not of the beginning of the fifteenth century;[167] but it is a noble piece
of masonry. The stone is of a close grain and beautiful colour, and the
component parts are put together with a hard cement, and with the smallest
possible interstices. At the top of it, on the left side, facing the high
road from Vire,--and constructed within the very walls themselves, is a
_well_--which goes from the top apparently to the very bottom of the
foundation, quite to the bed of the moat. It is about three feet in
diameter, measuring with the eye; perhaps four: but it is doubtless a very
curious piece of workmanship.