Outside was a courtyard, extending round the house. It was some ten
yards across, and surrounded by a wall twelve feet high, with a square
turret at each corner.
Everything was roughly constructed, although massive and solid. With
the exception of the door, and the steps leading to it, no wood had
been used in the construction. The very beams were of rough stone, the
floors were of the same material. It was clearly the object of the
builders to erect a fortress that could defy fire, and could only be
destroyed at the cost of enormous labour.
This was indeed a prime necessity, for the hold stood in the wild
country between the upper waters of the Coquet and the Reed river.
Harbottle and Longpikes rose but a few miles away, and the whole
country was broken up by deep ravines and valleys, fells and crags.
From the edge of the moorland, a hundred yards from the outer wall, the
ground dropped sharply down into the valley, where the two villages of
Yardhope lay on a little burn running into the Coquet.
In other directions the moor extended for a distance of nearly a mile.
On this two or three score of cattle, and a dozen shaggy little horses,
were engaged in an effort to keep life together, upon the rough herbage
that grew among the heather and blocks of stones, scattered everywhere.
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