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in the floor to which the rope of the boats bringing provisions to 

 the inmates was attaclied from below. Proceeding to the left side 

 of the first court, the tower where Henry Marten, one of the judges 

 of King Charles I., was interned and died, was next inspected. The 

 moulding of the upper part, supposed to be the chapel, shows the 

 ball flower and is of early English date, the windows facing the 

 court are much later. Ascending the spiral staircase, the battle- 

 ments were followed to the fine hall at the upper end of the 

 first court, supposed once to have been a chapel. The windows 

 are fine specimens of Decorated work. On the inside face of the 

 south and west walls, above the holes where the flooring joists were 

 inserted, there are several apparently Norman arches possibly 

 some of the original work of Fitz Osborn, the Norman, who is said 

 to have been the original founder of the Castle in the 11th 

 century. At the upper end of the hall are remains of some 

 Early English work, probably of a screen which separated a portion 

 from the rest and made it into a chapel. Passing outside this 

 hall, on the river side, a steep ascent led into another court- 

 j'ard approached by an outer gate. Having returned to the 

 first courtyard and enjoyed the shade of a magnificent walnut 

 tree for a space, the members passed out through the east entrance 

 and followed the deep ditch on the S., noting by the way at 

 the bottom of " Marten's" tower the peculiar strengthening of the 

 base which seemed to rest on an inverted arch of hewn stono, 

 the sides forming the angles of the tower and gradually dying away 

 in the masonry above. A coach and break met the members at 

 the top of the moat on the Tintern road, and after a pleasant and 

 breezy drive through Piercefield Park they commenced the 

 ascent of the "Windcliff by an easy path through the woods at the 

 back of Moss Cottage. The far-famed view was seen to 

 advantage. The windings of the Wye through its tree-clad 

 inland clifi's, the distant islands of the Steep and Flat Holmes, 

 the Cotteswold hills across the expanse of the Severn on the 

 horizon, and Chepstow and its Castle almost hidden in the midst 

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