GRANITE AND SORREL 49 



lands and castle, or whether the subsequent owners 

 obtained Berry by grant or purchase from the Crown 

 after sequestration, matters not. Certain only it is 

 that to the House of Seymour the old fortalice now 

 passed, and the Elizabethan portion of the ruins 

 soon afterwards arose within the older building. 

 Sir Edward a descendant of the Protector when 

 King William III. remarked to him: "I believe 

 you are of the family of the Duke of Somerset ? " 

 replied instantly : " Pardon, sir ; the Duke of Somerset 

 is of my family." This haughty gentleman was the 

 last of the race who dwelt in Berry Pomeroy ; but the 

 Castle still belongs to his family, and Berry makes 

 this unique boast : that since the Conquest it has 

 changed hands but once. 



The fabric of Seymour's building was never com- 

 pleted, but enough of it remains to offer an object of 

 solemnity, a lesson in grey stones ; while the earlier 

 fragments of the first fortress, including the south 

 front, the main entrance, the pillared chamber above 

 it, and the north wing of the quadrangle are also 

 a spectacle sufficiently splendid, their withered age 

 all turned to harmony in the grey and green habili- 

 ments of Time. 



Ivy crowns every turret and shattered wall, twists 

 countless fingers into the rotting mortar, winds in 

 huge, hydra-like convolutions through the empty 

 sockets of the windows. Giant limbs of it are 

 slowly perishing everywhere, and younger ones 

 succeeding them. Along the tattered battlements 



