must have been in the north for a considerable time, since we find him residing at Penrith Castle, then barely finished; and Camden says "this castle" i. e. Carlisle, "King Richard III., as appears by his arms, repaired;" and these repairs were most probably either planned or begun while Richard was here. There is also a tower called the "Tile Tower," or "King Richard's Tower," which was built at the same time. This Tile Tower is a very short distance west of the castle, and was originally on the city walls, being built to defend the wall on that side of the city. It is not a place of very large dimensions or height. One apartment only is open now, but out of this a doorway which led to some other has been walled up. A subterranean passage from the castle to the cathedral ran through the tower, and is said to have been used by Queen Mary and her ladies, but it is now walled up within on each side of the base of the tower, and the entrance to it, which was somewhere by the inner gate, has been closed up also. This building, which is now in a very dilapidated condition, bears the arms of Richard on its western side. We confess to being not very greatly interested in this king, yet though "cheated of feature by dissembling nature," he seems not to have wanted many of the principal characteristics of the Plantagenets, viz.–strength, ambition, and resolution, and the genius of improvement; and his faults have in all probability been greatly exaggerated by our great poet, who doubtless remembered that the fair lady he wished to please was a Tudor. But if Richard himself is something lacking in interest, the time of his stay here was one of particular note in the
