270 NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 



so well defended with men, arms, ammunition, 

 and artillery, besides such deep graffs, bastions, 

 horns, half-moons, counter-scarps, redoubts, pit- 

 falls, and an impregnable line of sadd and turff, 

 palizadoed and stockaded, and every fort so fur- 

 nished with great guns and cannon, that this 

 bulky bulwark of Newark represented to the be- 

 siegers but one entire sconce ; and the two royal 

 forts, the formidable flankers : nor was there a 

 tree to hinder her prospect. 



At the north end of Newark, supervising the 

 Trent, (and her redolent meadows) stands to this 

 day the relicks and ruins of a fair Castle, whose 

 solid foundations were cemented with stone ; and 

 all the walls, buttresses and battlements with the 

 same material ; whose imbellished front over- 

 look'd the fragrant meadows of Trent, and was 

 the last reception for King John ; who, after his 

 return from Swinsted-Abby, (where the monk 

 poisoned him) lodg'd within the portals of this 

 fair palace. There it was that he seal'd the de- 

 crees of death that compell'd him to take leave 

 of the world. Another curiosity is their Colle- 

 giate Church, beautified and garnished with fair 

 free- stone. The quire or body, and the isles, 

 very large and spacious ; the roof covered all 

 over with lead, but the broach and tower excels 

 in height, because to vie with most parochial 

 churches in England. This maiden garison had 



