PREFACE TO THE HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE. "In thee supreme A beauty and a gentleness abound; Here all that can soft worship claim, or tone Is thine:-the sky of blue intensity, Or charm'd by sunshine into picture-clouds, That make bright landscapes when they blush abroad,— And hamlet, nestling in the bosky vale, And spires brown peeping o'er the ancient elms, With all that bird and meadow, brook and gale That love to banquet on thy blissful scene." IN a new attempt to describe WARWICKSHIRE, the early history of which has been more ably written than that of any other county, the author of the present Work has had the task to avoid repeating what is already before the public,-of completing the information which in all preceding histories must, at the present day, necessarily be defective,-and of giving a character to his work which shall entitle it to the claim of originality. To render it as far as possible perfect, the author has thought it right to avail himself of that peculiar species of information, supplied by the elder historians of the county; and for this reason he has introduced into the present volume, those distinct portions of their labours, which relate to periods and events, over which Time, in his silent and ever-onward path, has cast his dark shadow, and rendered, to a certain degree, obsolete. The present volume, therefore, contains all that CAMDEN, the father of English history, as he has been styled, has written on this county, in his Britannia; and all that SPEED, who followed him, exhibited in his Theatre of Great Britain, upon the same subject. From the laborious undertaking of SIR WILLIAM DUGDALE, an explanatory extract from his preface, and his general outline of the ancient divisions of the hundreds, are given, with the lives of those eminent writers.. Birmingham, which in early times, comparatively formed but an inferior, now presents the most important, feature in the county. This town, from its central situation, its commercial consequence, and its unrivalled progress in the mechanic arts, has deservedly occupied much of the following pages. In arranging and describing the twenty divisions of the county, according to the last report presented to the Board of Agriculture, by Mr. Murray, it will be observed that all the parishes, hamlets, and townships, as well as the rectories, vicarages, and chapelries, and their patrons, have been noticed and explained. The names of towns, &c. with their respective situations and distances from each other, and from London, with the number of inhabitants, parochial rates, annual valuations, and the proportions paid to the county rate by each parish, at a particular period, is presented wherever it could be ascertained, throughout each division. The historical descriptions which follow the foregoing numerous objects, are necessarily compressed; but it is presumed that few peculiar or interesting subjects have been omitted. In the itinerary of the principal direct, and cross roads, the distances are marked, and objects worthy of observation are pointed out, with a further reference to various pages in the body of the work, which is accompanied with a modern map of the county. The general index has been made a copious reference to the towns, hamlets, villages, &c. and thus presents the advantages of a county gazetteer. The records of the smaller, as well as the larger, divisions of the earth,—of counties, as well as of countries, present the affecting and interesting picture of advance and resiliency, of progress and decay. In this county, many buildings of strength and importance, which the industry and ingenuity of former ages had erected, have changed their destination or fallen into ruin; and even villages, once populated by active and busy inhabitants, have passed away into silence, and are only rescued from entire oblivion by the pen of the local historian. In illustration of the latter remark, are the castles of Kenilworth, Maxtoke, the Halls of the Templars at Balsall, and the villages of Hurst, Offchurch, Cesterover, and upwards of fifty others. An evidence of the former truth, too, is remarkably exemplified in the case of Leamington; a hamlet which, at no very distant day from the period in which the author now writes, was composed of only two or three very humble rural dwellings, and occupied by a few poor and unlettered inhabitants; but which has now arisen, like the palace of Aladdin, into all the proportion, beauty, and magnificence of a fashionable watering-place; adorned with buildings, for ornament and use, which display the most luxurious specimens of modern taste; thronged by thousands of inhabitants, busy in commercial enterprise, and wealthy in intellectual endowments-and surrounded by a country fertile, diversified, and rich in historical and poetical associations. In the progress of his work, the author has had to encounter many difficulties, to endure much personal fatigue,-and to search for truth amidst many fabulous details and contradictory falsehoods: but his labour has been cheered by many circumstances of gratification, and sustained by the hope of a successful result. In his walks through Warwickshire, all the picturesque beauties of this fine county has been brought under his immediate observation. Many a quiet spot of sequestered rural life has detained the foot of the weary traveller, amidst its tranquillizing beauties, and while he has been recording "the simple annals of the poor," his own heart has yielded to the serious and softening influence of such a scene, associated, as it has been, with the mental memorials of a chequered and changeful life. The facts of history-the legends of tradition-and the imaginings of poetry, have all combined to fix his attention,-to inspire his fanry, and to awaken his sympathies, as he has paused to contemplate the ruined towers,-to listen to the wild and visionary tales, or to catch "the song of other days," that have arisen upon his solitary path, or struck upon his listening ear. Warwick Castle, in the pride of baronial splendour,-Kenilworth, in its solemn and mysterious ruins,and that sweet River of Romance,"* have wooed and won his lingering footstep to their sacred haunts through many a day,-" a summer's day," and on many a calm and delicious night, when the moon, "So wan and meek, Appears a maiden of Romance, and walks In musing sorrow, beautifully pale." In bringing his labours to a close, the author has not been able to resist the melancholy reflection which seems naturally to associate itself with such a work. His task has led him to describe the natural objects and mural edifices of this county, and to record the names of its living inhabitants. The beauties of nature, which now bloom in bright and picturesque variety, will continue to do so as long as the sun and moon endures; its mural edifices, which attest its present state and its wealth, will gradually crumble into dust, but only in the passage of ages,-but in how short a period will the record of those who tread upon its teeming surface, become imperfect; and in how few years will they all, with the writer himself, "pass away, and |