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enjoyed a pleasant ride through hay-scented meadows, and were, 
after a short delay at Salisbury, duly landed at the Tisbury station, 
on the S.W.R. line, about mid-day. A short walk across the 
fields conducted them into the park, where the shade of the fine 
oaks and silver firs was most grateful. A grove of rhododendrons 
in full flower caused a short halt to admire their wild luxuriance, 
and to allow the stragglers to close up. Leaving the wood and 
entering the park proper they followed a track beneath the 
splendid straight-bolled oaks to a very modern-looking doorway. 
Passing through this they were hardly prepared for the romantic 
scene which burst upon them, the dense foliage had hidden the 
ruins from their view entirely, but suddenly as they mounted the 
steps on to the outer precincts of the Castle, there the old walls 
stood up, framed amidst veritable monarchs of the forest. Grand 
old weather-beaten Cedars of Lebanon seemed to throw their 
gigantic moss-covered arms around the walls as if jealous of any 
intrusion from outsiders ; and at the south-west corner the “ iron- 
wood tree,” an American introduction, sent up its smooth stems 
in large clusters from the ground—a remarkable object ! Entering 
the six-sided court forming the centre of the Castle, with its now 
disused well (a relic of the tenure of the Castle by the so-called 
rebels in the period of the civil war), the various portions of the 
interior were pointed out—the kitchen with its huge open chimney, 
the hall and vaulted chambers beneath, the Portcullis groove and 
other indications of its former military purpose. An exit was 
made through the north-east doorway—a Jacobean structure, 
bearing marks on the outside of the siege it had undergone in 
troublous times. As one stood on the outside the history of the- 
siege was recalled ; how the force of Sir Edward Hungerford, in. 
1643, with 1,300 soldiers “or thereabouts,” was strenuously 
withstood by Lady Blanche’s handful of brave warriors, her- 
husband, Sir Thomas Arundel second baron, being absent at. 
Oxford in attendance upon his king; and how after a courageous. 
defence of five days an honourable surrender was ungallantly 
