arch resting upon short pillars with sculptured capitals, divides the choir from the nave.  In other respects the building has been much altered.—­Henry Vth repaired it in 1418, and it has been since dilapidated and restored.—­A pile of buildings beyond, wholly modern in the exterior, is now inhabited as a seminary or college.  There are some circular arches within, which shew that these buildings belonged to the original structure.

Altogether the castle is a noble ruin.  Though the keep is destitute of the enrichments of Norwich or Castle Rising, it possesses an impressive character of strength, which is much increased by the extraordinary freshness of the masonry.  The fosses of the castle; are planted with lofty trees, which shade and intermingle with the towers and ramparts, and on every side they groupe themselves with picturesque beauty.  It is said that the municipality intend to restore Talbot’s tower and the keep, by replacing the demolished battlements; but I should hope that no other repairs may take place, except such as may be necessary for the preservation of the edifice; and I do not think it needs any, except the insertion of clamps in the central columns of two of the windows which are much shattered[94].

From the summit we enjoyed a delightful prospect:  at our feet lay the town of Falaise, so full of trees, that it seemed almost to deserve the character, given by old Fuller to Norwich, of rus in urbe:  the distant country presented an undulating outline, agreeably diversified with woods and corn-fields, and spotted with gentlemen’s seats; while within a very short distance to the west, rose another ridgy mass of bare brown rock, known by the name of Mont Mirat, and still retaining a portion of the intrenchments, raised by our countrymen when they besieged Falaise, in 1417.—­By this eminence the castle is completely commanded, and it is not easy to understand how the fortress could be a tenable position; as the garrison who manned the battlements of the dungeon and Talbot’s tower, must have been exposed to the missiles discharged from the catapults and balistas planted on Mont Mirat.

The history of the castle is inseparably connected with that of the town:  its origin may safely be referred to remote antiquity, the time, most probably, of the earliest Norman Dukes.  If, however, we could agree with the fanciful author just quoted, it would claim a much earlier date.  The very fact of its having a dungeon-tower, he maintains to be a proof of its having been erected by Julius Caesar inasmuch as the word, dungeon, or, as it is written in French, donjon, is nothing but a corruption of Domus Julii!  More than once in the course of this correspondence, I have called your attention to the fancies, or, to speak in plain terms, the absurdities, of theoretical antiquaries.  The worthy priest, to whom we are indebted for the Recherches Historiques sur Falaise, “out-herods