Excerpt from Godway Castle, or the Fortunes of a King's Daughter: An Historical Romance; Edited From the Papers of the Duchess of Nottingham The keep, for thus the most ancient part was called, stood on the side of a hill which had formerly been fortified, and which gave to the later possessors plenty of room for their pleasure-grounds. The gateway remained as the entrance to the castle; and it was suited to that purpose by its majesty and grandeur, and still more by its martial appearance. The wide, even roads, which ran through the wood and the valley in difi'erent directions, met in a large green space, spreading itself before the walls, and was bounded towards the north by a beautiful semicircle of wood. The vallerins, with their green banks and fortified bridges, appeared still able to offer resistance in case of attack; but a careful observer might discover that these banks and ditches lost themselves in the beautiful meadow ground on the south side, which had been cultivated on account of its greater safety. In that direction lay the farms and the cottage abodes of the foresters, unconnected with each other; and on the west was a lake, which, extending itself towards the north, reached the wood which clothed the declivity of the hill. From the terraces of the castle, steps, roughly hewn in the stone, descended to this wood, which was also used as a. Pleasure-ground. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.