204 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



hides from view great blocks of fallen masonry. The 

 Norman keep appears in almost exactly the same 

 condition as we see it to-day, but the buildings around 

 are in a more perfect state of preservation. Turrets 

 are standing which have now entirely disappeared, 

 while the mullions of several of the decorated windows 

 remain. Later prints, engraved respectively in 1761 

 and 1782, show the castle in the same deserted con- 

 dition, but the buildings are in a state of greater 

 decay, and large trees, probably elders, are growing 

 from the summit of the broken battlements. Two 

 years later, however, a small engraving, dated June 

 30, 1784, showing a sentinel on guard outside the 

 Roman walls, records the fact that the castle had 

 again become a centre of military occupation. 



It was about this time that the Government deter- 

 mined to convert the ancient ruin into a military depot 

 for prisoners of war. The silence which had long 

 settled upon it was now rudely broken. Large quaint- 

 looking wooden barracks, as shown in another old 

 print, with staircases outside and covered balconies, 

 were quickly run up in the great square of the castle ; 

 and the Norman keep was converted into sleeping 

 quarters for the prisoners. This lofty tower was 

 divided into five stories, connected with a wooden 

 staircase which ran up one side of it. Until quite 

 lately part of the framework in some of these compart- 

 ments was remaining, to which the hammocks of 

 eighteen hundred prisoners were suspended. " It may 

 be understood," says an eye-witness, " that the men's 

 sleeping-quarters were not luxurious. Some of them 

 had hammocks, but when the press grew thicker straw 

 was thrown upon the floor for those to sleep upon for 

 whom hammock room could not be found. But hard 



