sition in his endeavours to establish his legitimacy as son and heir to Earl Robert, and finding the proceedings suddenly stopped, obtained the king's license to travel for three years. He went upon the continent, and as he did not appear upon a summons which his enemies procured for his return, this noble inheritance was seized for the king's use, by virtue of the statute of fugitives. Henry, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of James I., was very desirous of obtaining this castle, at that time one of the most noble and magnificent places in the kingdom, and made overtures for its purchase. The surveyors of the crown were directed to ascertain its worth; and although instructed "to find all things under their true worth," they returned the amount at upwards of £38,500. It was, however, sold to the Prince for the sum of £14,500; but in consequence of his premature death, only £3,000 was paid, and even that sum was lost by the failure of the merchant to whom it had been entrusted. Charles I. succeeded to the property; but the civil war followed, Charles fell, and the glories of Kenilworth also perished. The old vicar of the place, writing a few years after, tells how the destruction was caused. He says:

"In the year 1648, Jan. 30, That good King of ever glorious memory was Barbarously murdered. Soon after the Usurper Cromwell gave the mannr of Kenilworth to his officers belonging to his Army, viz. Coll Hawkesworth, Major Creed, Captn Phipps, Capt. Ayres, Captain Smith, Capt. Matthews, Hope, Palmer, Clerk, and Coles. These new lords of the mannr. tyrannize and govern the parish as they list. They pull down and demolish the Castle, cut down the King's Woods, destroy his Parks and Chace, and divide the land into Farms amongst themselves, and build Houses for themselves to dwell in. Hawkesworth seats himself in the gatehouse of the Castle, and draining the famous pool consisting of several hundred acres of ground. Hope and Palmer enclose a fourth part of the common called King's Woods from the Inhabitants Liberty and take it as their own free Estate."

When the Restoration came, these spoilers were compelled to make restitution, and the property passed into the possession of Lawrence, second son of Lord Chancellor Clarendon, who was created Baron of Kenilworth Castle and Earl of Rochester. It is now the property of the Earl of Clarendon.

A more magnificent pile of glorious ruins the country does not possess. They are noble and stately still, notwithstanding the ravages of time and the destructive efforts of man. The most ancient part of the structure now existing is that which is popularly called "Cæsar's Tower," situated at the northeast corner of the ruins, the walls of which are in some places sixteen feet thick,

In that portion which was added by the Earl of Lancaster, and which fronts the south-west, are the remains of the Strong Tower, from the top of which a fine prospect is obtained; and of the Great Hall, a magnificent apartment, nearly ninety feet by forty-five, which, although in a mournful state of dilapidation, still displays, in the tracery of the windows and ornamentation of the principal doorway, abundant evidence of its original elegance and splendour. Towards the south end of the hall, on the side next to the inner court, is a beautiful and well-proportioned oriel. Various apartments occupy the south side of the castle, terminated by Leicester's Buildings, which, though of later date, seem to be falling into utter decay more rapidly than the more ancient parts. The walls, which enclosed an area of seven acres, and which were, according to the survey in the time of James I., "so spacious and fair, that two or three persons together might walk upon most places thereof," have been thrown down; the broad lake has disappeared; the Swan Tower, the Water Tower, and the Tower of Mortimer exist only in scattered remains. The most entire portion of all the gigantic structure, and the only part that is habitable, is the great Gate-house, built by the Earl of Leicester, and fitted up for a dwelling-house by Cromwell's Colonel Hawkesworth. When the demolition of the castle began, this Puritan officer closed up the original carriage way, which was twelve feet wide, and converted the space into two rooms, one of which is lined with a panelled oak wainscot, bearing the crest of the ragged staff, probably brought from one of the apartments in Leicester's Buildings. In the same room is a splendid chimneypiece, which, it is conjectured, formerly stood in the presence chamber.

At a short distance off stands the church of St. Nicholas, showing marked traces of Norman architecture, especially in a fine arch and some of the windows. It is a very ancient structure, notices of it appearing in 1291. Beyond are the ruins of the Priory, founded in the reign of Henry I., by Geoffrey de Clinton, for Augustine monks, and richly endowed by him and by many subsequent benefactors. At the dissolution in the time of Henry VIII. it passed into the hands of the crown. Of the Priory buildings little has escaped demolition, except an ancient gate-way, and some small portions of the wall closely adjoining the church-yard.

HISTORICALLY renowned Warwick, the capital of the county, built upon a rock, in the centre of a spacious and beautiful amphitheatre of hills, is rich in objects of interest and importance. The ancients had a fine perception of natural advantages, and set down their castles and villages, keeps and towns in the most favoured spots. Hence Warwick was an early settlement. Tradition has assigned to it a very remote antiquity. According to some, it was a Roman station in the year 50; as Rous, a native, tells, a town was founded here in the time of the Romans; but its earliest authenticated history can be traced no higher than 914, when Ethelfleda, daughter of King Alfred, and Regent of Mercia, repaired and enlarged the town, and built a fort. From this time Warwick appears to have continued undisturbed till the year 1016, when it was attacked and plundered by the Danes under Canute. That event, however, did not stay