Forty-Two castles (or their ruins) are described in detail and their storied histories outlined."e;The Western Borderland is perhaps as rich in monuments of the past as the Northern, and abounds in spots about which we may say with truth,We never tread upon them but we setOur feet upon some reverend history.But the memorials are hard to decipher, and certainly the traditions live no longer upon the lips of men. The peasant ploughs with stolid unconcern the site of some ancient camp or field of blood; the shepherd folds his flock within some ruined castle, and each is as ignorant of the past associations of the place as the modern Mexican, who shares in the astonishment of the traveller at the fragments of giant temples on which he stumbles in his native forests.The writer has no theory whereby to account for the unmerited neglect with which the relics of "e;Old Herefordshire"e; have hitherto been treated, but he indulges the hope that by means of the following pages he may be permitted to rescue one class of them from absolute oblivion and to help in preserving, if not their material fabrics, at least the historic memories of some of the Border Castles."e;-Introduction