and of his bravery in cuisinerie in marvellous porridge pots and gigantic knives and forks.

The other legend-that of the Lady Godiva-is even more celebrated than the exploits of Guy. How the lady pleaded for tenderness to the people, and performed her famous ride through Coventry; how Peeping Tom lost his eye-sight, and the immunities of the citizens were secured-are perpetuated to this day in annual pageantries, immortalised by song, and celebrated in story.

From this period history becomes more reliable, if less interesting and romantic. There were ravaging excursions made by the Danes through the county; a battle for Coventry Castle, in which King Steven was wounded; a siege of Kenilworth; the murder of Piers Gaveston, the haughty favourite of Edward II. who was beheaded by Guy Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, on Blacklow Hill, where an ancient inscription upon a rock commemorates the deed, and fixes the date as that of 1311; then followed the Wars of the Roses, in which the county was divided, and Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, became a second "king maker;" subsequently Elizabeth made a royal progress to Coventry and Kenilworth; afterwards came the Civil War in the time of Charles, when the county took up arms in behalf of the Parliament, when Warwick Castle was unsuccessfully attacked by the Royalists, Birmingham was burnt and pillaged, and the battle of Edge Hill decided the fate of the unhappy king.

In later times there have been few incidents in the history of the county of national importance, if we except the riots in Birmingham. The first of these popular outbreaks took place in 1715, when several places of worship were destroyed; the next in 1791, when two dissenting chapels and many private residences were either burnt or pillaged; and the third in 1839, when several houses were destroyed. The last historical event was the visit of Her Majesty and the Prince Consort to Birmingham in 1858. Grand as was the progress of Elizabeth, gorgeous as were the Coventry and Kenilworth pageantry and shows, they were poor and tawdry in comparison with the magnificentlyhearty reception given to Victoria by hundreds of thousands of her loyal

subjects in the "midland metropolis," and from one end of the county to the other. The royal party honoured Stoneleigh Abbey by taking up their residence there, visited the ancient city of Coventry, and for a limited period Warwick Castle once again received an English monarch within its old walls.

The whole county is wealthy in the picturesque, in antiquities, and objects of general interest. Its hills are chiefly in the south, and although of slight elevation, open up scenes of much beauty. On the extreme border is Long Compton Hill, affording an extensive prospect; and in a field not far off, adjoining the road to Oxford, which passes over this hill, are the celebrated Rollich, or Rollright, Stones. These stones are disposed in a circular form, and appear to have been originally sixty in number. Many have evidently been carried away, and those that now remain are much mutilated and defaced. Antiquaries have had stout contentions over these stones, which, of course, have their legends. The popular story tells of a Danish Prince consulting an oracle before invading this country, and receiving the assurance—

"When Long Compton you shall see

You shall king of England be."

The landing was effected, and the invading force had almost reached the goal of their desires when the Prince, stepping forward to catch a glimpse of Compton, was, by a patriotic British fairy, turned to stone. The block is still called "the King's Stane;" while at some short distance off stand "the Whispering Knights,” the fabled retinue of the fabulous prince. Some hold that these stones are a monument of the Danish chief, Rollo; as others say, they are the work of Saxon hands; but there can, we think, be little doubt that in reality they are the remains of å Druid temple. The fact of a sacrificial instrument of polished flint having been found near the place confirms this conviction.

A few miles northward from this spot stands Weston, imparked in the time of Henry VIII., and graced by a spacious mansion. It was long the seat of the Sheldon family; and it was here that tapestry weaving was first practised in England. The art was introduced from Flanders by William Sheldon, and amongst the earliest essays was the construction of three maps,

representing Warwickshire and several of the adjoining counties. These singular productions, wrought in 1588, are still in existence, and are deposited in the theatre of the York Philosophical Society. Still further north is Barcheston, a pretty village, with an interesting church of the time of Edward I., in the early English style. There are here a fine old font and alabaster monuments of the Willington family.

To the east, in a deep valley, is Compton Winyate, so called to distinguish it from the other Comptons in the county, and having the affix on account of a vineyard that had been there in former days. This estate has been in possession of the Compton family from the time of King John. Sir William Compton, who was page to Henry VIII., built the mansion which now exists, taking the chief part of the materials from an old castle at Fulbrooke, of which, by the king's grant, he was custodian. Compton Winyate is beautifully situated, and is a fine example of a manor house of the early part of the sixteenth century. It is a large but irregular building, surrounding a small courtyard, and presenting some curious architectural points. The ornamental brick chimneys are especially fine. In 1646 the house was taken and garrisoned by the parliamentary army, who demolished the ancient church and the beautiful and stately monuments of the Comptons there. After the Restoration, however, the church was rebuilt by James, the third Earl of Northampton, who was interred within its walls. Several members of the family were highly distinguished: Spenser, the second Earl, was one of the most devoted adherents of Charles I. He fell at the battle of Hopton Heath, in Staffordshire, in 1643, where, as Clarendon tells, "his horse having been shot under him in a charge, and he scorning, as he said, 'to take quarter from such base rogues and rebels as they were,' was slain by a blow with a halbert on the hinder part of the head, receiving at the same time another deep wound in his face." Henry Compton, the youngest son of this brave old cavalier, was afterwards Bishop of Oxford, and subsequently Bishop of London. He was entrusted with the education of the Princesses Mary and Ann, and officiated at the marriage of the former to William Prince of Orange, and of the latter to Prince George of Denmark. He officiated at the ceremony of the Coronation of William and Mary, and laid the

first stone of St. Paul's Cathedral in 1675. Compton Winyate is still possessed by the Earl of Northampton, and has been recently restored; but its traditions of the visit of Henry VIII., its old ghost stories, its hidden recesses behind the wainscotting, its mysterious trap doors, and secret chapel in the roof, with hiding places for the priests, and strange stairs cut in the solid walls, are all still there and carefully preserved. The whole of the solitary mansion is full of interest.

A short distance off, and still further to the east, lies Tysoe, with a grand old church, in a rich and fertile country, and nearly at the base of the long range of the Edge Hills. From the highest points of these elevations is a glorious prospect of broad fields and pretty dells, of the hills in Gloucester, Worcester, Shropshire, Leicester, and the borders of Northamptonshire, the spires of Coventry, and the towers of Warwick. It was upon the side of the Edge Hills that Charles stood in the cold, grey, silent Sunday morning in October, 1642, and saw the parliamentary army drawn up in front of the village of Kineton, on the grassy plains at his feet. And it was here that, turning from the autumnal beauties of the landscape, he mournfully muttered that, for the first time, he saw rebels gathered openly together. The day went on; sabbath bells rang out their summons to worship from many hoary old towers, dotted down in the plains below; the Puritans sang their psalms, and said their prayers; and Charles, clad in steel, went amongst his men, encouraging them with kindly words. "Your king," he said, "is both your cause, your quarrel, and your captain." Prayers and praise were ended, and feasting done in the afternoon, and the hostile armies were face to face. These Englishmen marked each other in silence for a brief space; and then the solemn stillness was broken. With sudden vehemence the Puritan cannon thundered out, the Royalist artillery answered peal for peal, and the fight began. Prince Rupert charged home with his cavaliers, and before the impetuous onset the Puritans broke, turned, and fled in confusion. On the left Sir Arthur Aston, with his dragoons, dashed also into the opposing ranks and swept them before him. Onward they went; Rupert's regiment on the one side, and Aston's on the other, hot after plunder and burning for blood. They had gone too far. The Puritan reserves were

launched upon the Royal infantry; they were cut down in hundreds as they stood, disdaining to fly; and when Rupert with his cavaliers returned, they found that the tide of victory, if it had not turned, now stood still. Night was closing in; both sides had suffered grievously, both were exhausted, and the death struggle ceased. The Parliamentary army lay where they had stood on the plain. Charles left the field, and once more took up his position on the hill side. Night fell with its keen, cold winds, and there on the trampled meadows below nearly two thousand men lay stretched stark and lifeless. The issue of the fight was nationally important. Charles retired upon Banbury, which yielded to him; Essex fell back upon Warwick; and then, not long after, came the last scene of all in the disastrous, though glorious, civil war in England.

There are traditions in plenty still existing of this battle of Edgehill: stories of single combats, and death wounds given by father to son and by brother to brother; spots shown where the beacon fires were lit and danger signals flashed from hill to hill; and where the young Princes, Charles and James, sat under a hedge in a little plantation until the bloodshed was over. Another belt of firs marks the spot where five hundred of the slain found their last resting place, known as "the big grave." There are still "The King's Barn," "The Battle Farm," and "Rupert's Headland." Tradition tells, too, how Cromwell, looking upon the battle-field from the tower of Burton Dasset Church, saw the Puritans turn and fly, and in his fear escaped by the aid of the bell ropes; how when on that memorable day, as Baxter was preaching in Alcester Church, some twenty miles away, he paused in his sermon, and as the distant roar of cannon was heard, cried, "to the fight!" and preacher and congregation rushed away to Edgehill; and how sometimes, even of late years, rusty bits of broken armour, crumbling human bones, and iron balls are turned up, sad memorials of the days when Englishmen met each other in mortal strife.

On the southern side of the hill, in the parish of Ratley, are the remains of a great fortification, of a quadrilateral form, known as Nadbury Camp. It is probably a Roman work; at all events that is the generally received opinion,

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