340 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



native workmanship; and the Commandant showed 

 me butterfly brooches, chains, bracelets, and studs, 

 that nearly came up to Maltese jewellery. 



After dinner we adjourned to the Fort, a relic of 

 the time of Charles the First, and here we found 

 our beds made up in a very large apartment called 

 Prince Rupert's Hall, from t?ie arms of that gallant 

 cavalier being carved over the door-way. The 

 castle is an irregularly shaped work flanked with 

 bastions, built on a ledge of rock close to the sea, 

 and inclosed on the land side by a court-yard sur- 

 rounded by loopholed walls. Having been ne- 

 glected for many years it was then in rather a 

 dilapidated state, but three months later it was 

 almost razed to the ground by earthquakes, which 

 destroyed almost every building in Accra and 

 Christiansburg. The shocks commenced in April 

 and continued at intervals for several weeks, totally 

 destroying the forts at Accra and Christiansburg, 

 together with all the splendid mansions, which 

 for size and magnificence surpassed everything on 

 the Coast. The principal in Accra were " the 

 Commodore," belonging to the Bannerman family ; 



