CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORLAND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY......Part V KIRKOSWALD CASTLE continued.... They are nearly of the same size and pattern, and nearly square, 35 feet by 30. They are set on in a direct line with the plane of the curtain wall, which unites them. Each contains, on the basement, a vaulted chamber, entered from the court by a narrow door way, with a pointed arch, champhered, and each is lighted with a square loophole. The roofs are low, barrel-vaulted, of goodly worked chiselled stones, exhibiting a great variety of mason’s marks. The towers are probably part of the original castle of the date of Edward II. On the north side of the enciente, there is a tall slender tower, 65 feet high, tolerably entire. DR. TAYLOR called particular attention to the fact that it is set on the massive plinth with one of its angles, or diamond-wise, against the wall of the enciente, with rather more than half the tower projecting like the buttress beyond the wall. It had been constructed solely to carry a winding staircase, which afforded access to the upper apartments of three storeys. This side of the quadrangle must have contained the hall, the chapel, and principal apartments; and he quoted SANDFORD, who visited the place in 1610, to show that the hall could not have been exceeded in baronial magnificence and internal decoration by any existing in our counties in the sixteenth century. DR. TAYLOR described the arrangements by the help of a plan. He concluded that there was no part of the Castle earlier than the beginning of the 14th century. The inceptive work of RANDOLPH EGAIN has been of no account; the Norman has left no mark here; in its original design and proportions it was evidently a small Edwardian Castle; that is a quadrangular mural enclosure, with a projecting tower at each angle. Subsequently THOMAS de DACRE – who was a hero both in love and war, for it was he who carried off by stealth in the dead of night, young ELIZABETH, the heiress of Greystoke, from the guardianship of the CLIFFORDS, at Brougham Castle, and also distinguished himself on Flodden Field – surrounded the castle with a splendid moat, which is perfectly preserved, and which was supplied with water from the ponds in the park above. DR. TAYLOR called particular attention to a flanking outwork in the main ditch at its north-west angle, – a sort of ravelin surrounded by a ditch of its own, and its function seems to have been to cover the main entrance and gateway and drawbridge over the moat. In the course of the conversation, DR. SIMPSON mentioned that from a manuscript at Lowther Castle, which had not been printed, it was evident that the roof of Kirkoswald Castle was bought by SIR JOHN LOWTHER for £100, an was by him put on Lowther Hall, which was burned down. DR. TAYLOR said that was very likely, as the castle had been in process of dismantling some time before that. between 1600 and 1620 it was thoroughly gutted. .....Part VI will follow.......... _____________________________ Barb, Ontario, Canada.