At one end of the Banqueting-Hall, there are two large bay-windows, one
of which looks into the inner court, and the other affords a view of
the surrounding country. The former is called Queen Elizabeth's
Dressing-room. Beyond the Banqueting-Hall is what is called the Strong
Tower, up to the top of which we climbed principally by the aid of the
stones that have tumbled down from it. A lady sat half-way down the
crumbly descent, within the castle, on a camp-stool, and before an easel,
sketching this tower, on the summit of which we sat. She said it was Amy
Robsart's Tower; and within it, open to the day, and quite accessible, we
saw a room that we were free to imagine had been occupied by her. I do
not find that these associations of real scenes with fictitious events
greatly heighten the charm of them.
By this time the sun had come out brightly, and with such warmth that we
were glad to sit down in the shadow. Several sight-seers were now
rambling about, and among them some school-boys, who kept scrambling up
to points whither no other animal, except a goat, would have ventured.
Their shouts and the sunshine made the old castle cheerful; and what with
the ivy and the hawthorn, and the other old trees, it was very beautiful
and picturesque. But a castle does not make nearly so interesting and
impressive a ruin as an abbey, because the latter was built for beauty,
and on a plan in which deep thought and feeling were involved; and having
once been a grand and beautiful work, it continues grand and beautiful
through all the successive stages of its decay.
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