Without
the wall was a moat eight yards wide and two yards deep; between the
wall and the moat was a strong row of palisadoes. A high tower, called
the Eagle Tower, stood in the midst, surmounting all the rest. The
gate-house had a strong tower on each side, forming the entrance to the
first court."
The site of the house seemed to have been formed for a stronghold, or
place of safety: thus described by Seacome:--
"Before the house, to the south and south-west, is a rising ground,
so near as to overlook the top of it, from which it falls so quick,
that nothing planted against it on those sides can touch it further
than the front wall; and on the north and east sides there is
another rising ground, even to the edge of the moat." "The
situation of it may be compared to the palm of a man's hand, flat
in the middle, and covered with a rising ground, about it, and so
near to it, that the enemy, in two years' siege, were never able to
raise a battery against it, so as to make a breach in the wall
practicable to enter the house by way of storm."[44]
It is said the camp of the besiegers was in a woody dell, near what is
now called "The Round O Quarry," about half-a-mile from Lathom.
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