WARWICK CASTLE : KENILWORTH I STRATFORD-ON-AVON. 477 



a wide bridge with a mossy stone balustrade, and here, looking 

 upward, 



" Bosomed high in tufted trees, 

 Towers and battlements he sees." 



The banks of the stream are finely fringed with foliage ; beyond 

 them are larger trees ; upon the rising ground in the rear grow lofty 

 and venerable chestnuts, oaks, and elms ; and over this superb fore- 

 ground, rises up, grand and colossal, the huge pile of gray stone, 

 softened by the effects of time, and the rich masses of climbers that 

 hang like floating drapery about it. For a few moments you lose 

 sight of it, and the carriage suddenly stops before a high embattled 

 wall, where the porter answers the knock by slowly unfolding the 

 massive iron gates of the portal. Driving through this gateway you 

 wind through a deep cut in the solid rock, almost hidden by the 

 masses of ivy that hang along its sides, and in a few moments find 

 yourself directly before the entrance front of the castle. Whoever 

 designed this front, made up as it is of lofty towers and irregular 

 wall, must have been a poet as well as architect, for its composition 

 and details struck me as having the proportions and congruity of a 

 fine scene in nature, which we feel is not to be measured and defined 

 by the ordinary rules of art. And as it rose up before me, hoary 

 and venerable, yet solid and complete, I could have believed that it 

 was rather a magnificent effort of nature than any work of mere 

 tools and masonry. 



In the central tower opened another iron gate, and driving 

 through a deep stone archway, I found myself in the midst of a 

 large open space of nearly a couple of acres, carpeted with the 

 finest turf, dotted with groups of aged trees and shrubs, and sur- 

 rounded on all sides by the castle walls. This is the inner court- 

 yard of the castle. Around it, forming four sides, are grouped in 

 the most picturesque and majestic manner, the varied forms and 

 outlines of the vast pile, partly hidden by the rich drapery of ivy 

 and old mossy trees. On the most sheltered side of the circular 

 walk which surrounds this court-yard, among many fine evergreens, 

 I noticed two giant Arbutuses (a shrub which I have vainly attempt- 

 ed to acclimatize in the northern States,) more than thirty feet high, 



