The
Lordly structure itself, which rose near the centre of this spacious
enclosure was composed of a huge pile of magnificent castellated
buildings, apparently of different ages, surrounding an inner court,
and bearing in the names of each portion attached to the magnificent
mass, and in the armorial bearings which were there blazoned, the
emblems of mighty chiefs who had long passed away, and whose history,
could Ambition have lent ear to it, might have read a lesson to the
haughty favourite who had now acquired and was augmenting the fair
domain. A large and massive Keep, which formed the Citadel of the
Castle, was of uncertain, though great antiquity. It bore the name of
Caesar, perhaps from its resemblance to that in the Tower of London so
called. The external wall of this Royal Castle was on the south and
west sides adorned and defended by a Lake, partly artificial, across
which Leicester had constructed a stately bridge, that Elizabeth
might enter the Castle by a path hitherto untrodden. Beyond the Lake
lay an extensive Chase, full of red deer, fallow deer, roes, and
every species of game, and abounding with lofty trees, from amongst
which the extended front and massive towers of the Castle were seen
to rise in majesty and beauty.
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