Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1852-04-14
TRUE COURAGE
A TALE OF TATTERSHALL CASTLE

IS0I SS1lS1A oIS
. A TALE Of TATTERSHALL CASTLE
In the summer vacation Of ls3-, part,
of gay young collegians visited Ta,tershal
Castle in Lincolnshire. This remarkabl,
noble ruin consists Of a single lofty keep
rising to the height of two hundred feet
the interior being open from summit tt
basement. Mighty oaken beams once
however, spanned the massive walls, sup
porting floors which formed storeys of va.
rylng height. Nany of these beams have
fallen to the basement, completely rotten
through shameful exposure to the weather
ever since the roof crumbled away other,
still pertinaciously hang, more or less bro
ken and decayed, but, in q majority Of
Instances, seem as if a strong gust of ed
dying wind would send them down crash
ing to mingle their fragments with those
already mouldering below.
The party were in high spirits. They
had drunk old wines, and their young
blood flowed hotly in their veins they had
laughed, joked, and talked themselves into
wild excitement. About half way up to
the castle turrets there is sort of open
landing, which goes along one Of the wall
structures and on to this landing the party
stepped from the grand spiral staircase they
had hitherto been ascending, and there
paused moment to look about them.
The scene was striking. A few beams
sprung across just below their feet ) few
thick NOTED rays of sun pierced through
the adjoining locp-holes a few feecy cloud
lets fitted athwart the blue ether high
overhead. Startled by the noisy visitors,
number Of dusky jackdaws few out of
their holes up and down the walls, and,
after chattcring decided disapprobation
Of being disturbed, made halfa-dozen
whirling circuits of the interior, rising
rapidly upward, until they disappeared.
Immediately afterward, great white
owl projected it's visase from a hole close
above where one of the beams Joined the
opposite wall and ghtedly = peering with its
great dazzled eyes, the harmless creature
bewilderedly popped from its hole on to
the beam, and having made few feeble
tlutterings with its wings, remained quite
stationary, crouched in ball-like figure,
close to the wall
ooh Deschamp," exclaimed one Of the
party to a friend at his side, who was
plucking the gray moss of peculiar spe-
cies, which literally clothes the castle walls
inside and out, " LOOK yonder at Minerva's
bird"
ala ha." chorused the company-"a
veritable owl.'
Thereupon one and all began picking up
bits of brick and mortar from where
they stood, and threw them at the bird
with various degrees Of skill One or
two bits even struck it, but so far from
being reused thereby, the owl merely gave
one boding, long drawn, sepulchral screech,
and, contracting its ghastly outline into
still smaller compass, fairly buried its
broad visage between the meeting, bony
tips of its wings.
"What stupid creature hoo horoo ~
shouted they, thinking by that means to
induce it to fly. But the outcry only ter
rifed the bird to such degree, that it
stuck its claws convulsively into the de-
,ayed timber, and stirred not at all.
"It's the way o them creeturs," here
said the guide, who was showing the party
over the castle ;; q" they're about the stupid
est things in creation, I'm thinking"
Humph!" murtered Lord Swindon, q
handsome, athletic young man of twenty,
& with such an example before our eyes,
We can not but admit your opinion to be
highly philoso1hic and indisputable. But
say, old fellow" added be, tapping the
guide faniliarly on the shoulder with the
light riding switch he carried in his haud
s is that beam rotten one !"
81 shouldn't be overheard to trust
myself on it, sir replied the mau-a fat
lumpy parsonage.
You wouldnt! No. Ishould rather
.hink not" responded Lord Swindon, q
smile Of supreme disdain sweeping across