and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
THE MIRROR
OF
LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
| Vol. 19. No. 553.] | SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1832 | [PRICE 2d. |
DUNHEVED CASTLE, CORNWALL.
These mouldering ruins occupy the crest of the hill, upon whichstands the town of Launceston, near the centre of the eastern sideof the county of Cornwall. They are the works of a thousand yearssince, when might triumphed over right with an unsparing hand, andwhen men perpetrated by fire and sword millions of murders, which,through the ignorance and credulity of their fellow creatures, havebeen glossed over with the vain glory of heroism.
The ancient name of Launceston was Dunheved, or the SwellingHill; its present appellation, according to Borlase, theantiquarian illustrator of Cornwall, signifies, in mixed British,the Church of the Castle. The latter structure is the mostimportant object in the town, to which, in all probability, it gaveorigin. The remains surround a considerable extent of ground, andprove it to have been a very strong and important fortress.Borlase, who examined the building with great attention about themiddle of the last century, thus describes it:—
"The principal entrance is on the north-east, the gateway 120feet long; whence, turning to the right, you mount a terrace,running parallel to the rampart till you come to the angle, onwhich there is a round tower, now called the Witches' Tower, fromwhich the terrace runs away to the left at right angles, andcontinues on a level parallel to the rampart, which is nearly ofthe thickness of 12 feet, till you come to a semicircular tower,and, as I suppose, a guard-room and gate. From this the groundrises very quick, and, through a passage of seven feet wide, youascend the covered way betwixt two walls, which are pierced withnarrow windows for observation, [pg 402] and yet cover thecommunication between the base-court and the keep or dungeon. Thewhole keep is 93 feet diameter; it consisted of three wards: thewall of the first ward was not quite three feet thick; andtherefore, I think, could only be a parapet for soldiers to fightfrom, and defend the brow of the hill. Six feet within it standsthe second wall, which is twelve feet thick, and has a staircasethree feet wide, at the left hand of the entrance, running up tothe top of the rampart; the entrance of this staircase has a roundarch of stone over it. Passing on to the left, you find theentrance into the innermost ward, and on the left of that entrancea winding staircase conducts you to the top of the innermostrampart; the wall of which is 10 feet thick, and 32 feet high fromthe floor; the inner room is 18 feet 6 inches diameter; it wasdivided by a planking into two rooms. The upper room had to theeast and west two large openings, which were both windows and (as Iam inclined to think) doors, also in time of action to pass fromthis dungeon out upon the principal rampart, from wh