Warwick is the county-town, situated on the north-side of the river Avon. All the ways leading to it, from the four cardinal points, are cut through a rock of freestone, on which it stands. The Romans had a fort here, which the Picts and Scots demolished; and when repaired by Caractacus, at the head of the Silures, it was taken and garrisoned by Ostorius, after which it was again ruined; but Constantius, father of Uter Pendragon, rebuilt it. After this it suffered very much from the Saxons and Danes; but, in the year 911, Ethelfieda, the lady of the Mercians, restored it to the flourishing state in which it was found by the Normans. It is said to have taken its name from Warremund, one of the ancestors of the Mercian kings, by whom it was rebuilt, between the times of its destruction by the Saxons and Danes. That it was fortified with walls and a ditch is manifest.

It sent members to parliament, who are chosen by the inhabitants, paying scot and lot (who are above five hundred,) and returned by the mayor. In the reign of Philip and Mary it was incorporated by the name of bailiff and burgesses, with a perpetual succession, and twelve assistants to the bailiffs, called principal burgesses, who should have power to choose the bailiff, recorder, serjeant-at-mace, and clerk of the markets, of whom the bailiff and recorder should be sole justices of the peace within the borough. To this charter King James the First added, by his letters-patent, that the two ancient burgesses for the time being should afterwards be justices of the peace within the precincts thereof, together with the bailiff and recorder; and that the said bailiff and one of the senior burgesses should always be of the quorum. It was reincorporated by Charles the Second, and is now governed by a mayor, recorder, twelve brethren, or aldermen, and 24 burgesses or common councilmen.

On the 5th of September, 1694, this town was almost burnt down by an accidental fire, to the damage of near 100,000l. but, by the assistance of an act of parliament, and a national contribution of 11,000l. and 1,000l. more afterwards by Queen Anne, was rebuilt with much more magnificence, and the freestone for the superstructure was dug from the quarries of the rock on which it was founded. In its rock are also made its wells and cellars, and the descent from it every way always keeps it clean. Its streets, which are spacious and regular, ail meet in the centre of the town, which is served with water by pipes from springs half-a-mile off.

Warwick has two churches, St. Nicholas's and St. Mary's. The tower is at the west-end of the former church, is erected on groin arches, supported by four piers, between which is a free passage for coaches, &c. Its height, to the top of the battlements, is 130 feet. The following inscription (in Latin,) is on the northwest and south sides:— "The collegiate church of St. Mary, first repaired by Roger Newburgh, Earl of Warwick, in the time of King Stephen; afterwards wholly rebuilt by Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in the year 1394. Being destroyed, 1694, by a dreadful fire, sparing neither temples nor houses, this new church, begun and carried on by the public, was finished by royal piety, under the joyful auspices of Anne, in the memorable year 1703." At the west-end of the church are three entrances, the principal of which is under the tower; over which is a stately loft, and an excellent organ. Against the same wall in the church are two boxes to receive alms.

Entering the choir by three stone-steps, on either side there are two ranges of stalls, &c. in four directions. Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, founded the choir in the forty-third year of King Edward the Third, A. D. 1370; but dying in the same year, his son, Thomas Earl of Warwick, finished that building as it now stands, in the 15th year of Richard the Second, A. D. 1392. He also, from the death of his father, re-built the church as it stood before the fire of Warwick, and finished it in the seventh of Richard the Second, A. D. 1394. In the same year was finished Guy's Tower, (as it is vulgarly called,) belonging to the castle. Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, son of the next above Thomas, was founder by will of the noble chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which was begun the 21st of Henry the Sixth, A.D. 1443, and finished the third of Edward the Forth, 1464; the cost of which, including the magnificent tomb, &c. amounted to the sum of 2,481l. 4s. 7d. (as per Dugdale) when wheat was 3s. 4d. per quarter: the proportionate value of money, when corn is at the modern medium of 5s. per bushel, which is twelve times the sum, amounts to 29,774l. 15s.

Underneath the whole floor of the choir is a vault, commonly called the Bone-house, chiefly used as a burial-place for the mayors and body-corporate of this borough. North of the choir are three distinct rooms or buildings; the first, from the body of the church, is the lobby, now the fire engine room; the farthermost is a spacious library or vestry-room, under which was the friars' kitchen, now a mausoleum for the noble family of the Earl of Warwick; the middle is an octagon room, called the Chapter-house, which was converted to another use by the Right Hon. Fulke Lord Brook, who, in his life-lime, erected here a very stately monument, for himself and family, of black and white marble. There are many fine brass monuments of the Earls of Warwick and others; also one of the Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth's unhappy favourite; and many chapels and confessonaries.

On entering the Lady's Chapel, you descend by a flight of twelve stone-steps; on each side are stalls, &c. as in the choir of the church. The floors, being three in number, of black and white marble, are at unequal distances, ascending by one step each towards the altar, which is a fine basso-relievo of the Salutation, under a Gothic canopy, the whole exceedingly well executed. Raised against the wall, on each side the altar, is a shrine of very delicate workmanship, particularly as they consist of only the sandstone of the town, thus uncommonly modified; in which shrines (according to Dugdale,) were formerly reposited two images of pure gold, weighing twenty pounds each; there are several more shrines, and other cabinet curiosities, interspersed in the building.

In the verge, and in the two mantles or divisions of the east window, are 46 images and saints, very curiously wrought in Warwick sandstone; also in the same, and middle south-window, are sacred, historical, and family portraits, in glass. Behind the altar is the Library, built by the famous John Rous. To the north stand the confessional and gallery, of exquisite design; beyond which, rising by five steps, very much worn, is the confessional-scat, very obscure, yet very curious: where, through the partition-wall is an oblique square hole to the choir, through which confession was made.

In the middle of the chapel lieth, upon a tomb of marble, in full stature, the effigy of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in armour, all made of fine latten brass, doubly gilt. At his head there is a swan, at his right foot a bear muzzled, at his left foot a griffin; over the said monument is a hearse of brass, gilt, made designedly to support a covering over the curious repository of the remains of this onee great earl: round about his tomb stand fourteen images of brass, all gilt; and under the feet of each of them is a coat of arms. This chapel is fully described, and illustrated by engravings, in Britton's "Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain." Though populous, the town of Warwick has but two parish-churches; it had formerly six, and as many monasteries. The hospital of St. Michael's, founded by Roger, Earl of Warwick, the latter end of the reign of Henry the First, or beginning of that of Stephen, for lepers, still exists. In the northeast suburb was the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, founded by William, Earl of Warwick, in the reign of Henry the Second, chiefly for the entertainment of strangers and travellers.

Here is a handsome Town-hall, of freestone, supported by pillars, in which are held the assizes and quarter-sessions; also three Charity-schools, an Hospital for twelve decayed gentlemen; another for eight poor women, and two others for unfortunate tradesmen.

A few years since, the late Earl of Warwick built, at his own expense, a stone-bridge over the Avon, with one arch, the span being 100 feet. He also built one in his park, nearly similar. The castle stands on the northern bank of the river Avon; the aera of its first erection is doubtful; neither are the founders better ascertained; some attributing it to the Romans, others to Kimbeline, the British king; and Dugdale, though he speaks but doubtfully, from the authority of Rous, ascribes it to Ethelstede or Ethelfleda, daughter of King Alfred, who, according to that monk, in the year 915 caused the dungeon to be made, which was a strong tower, raised on a high artificial mount of earth near the river. "It appears," (says the author of the Memoirs of the House of Greville,) "by Domesday-book, that the castle belonged to the crown in the time of King Edward the Confessor, as a special strong hold for the defence of the midland parts of the kingdom; and that Turkill was governor thereof for the king." Some remains of this ancient work were visible in Dugdale's time; the mount is still to be seen on the west-side of the present castle. At the conquest, William employed Turkill de Warwick, before named, to enlarge and fortify it; for which purpose, four (Rous says 26) houses, belonging to the monks of Coventry, were destroyed; but, on its completion, he entrusted it to the custody of Henry de Newburgh, his countryman, whom he created Earl of Warwick.

Towards the latter end of the reign of King Stephen, on the arrival of Henry the Second, when Duke of Normandy, Gundred, Countess of Warwick, delivered it up to that prince, turning out the soldiers of Stephen. In the 15th year of Henry the Second, that king, on account of the rebellion of Prince Henry, his son, caused it to be garrisoned; at which time Bertram de Verdon, sheriff of the shire, charged 61. 13s. 4d. for twenty quarters of bread-corn: 20s. for the same quantity of malt; 100s. for 50 oxen, salted down; 30s. for 90 cheeses, and 20s. for salt; all expended for the victualling of this castle; and the ensuing year, the same sheriff accounted for 30l. 10s. 8d. for the soldiers pay, and 5l. 7s. 11d. for repairs. In the 20th of the same king, William de Newburgh, third Earl of Warwick, procured an addition of two knights to the usual guard, which before consisted of five knights and ten Serjeants; the next year the sheriff charged 14l. 15s. 5d. for soldiers' wages. It does not appear it was any longer garrisoned in that king's reign.

In the seventh year of the reign of King John, Hugh de Chaucumbe, then sheriff, reckoned 25l. 6s. for the ward thereof; he was, in the same reign, ordered to deliver the custody of it to Thomas Basset of Heddington, in com. Oxford; after which it was successively in the possession of Hugh de Nevil. Henry Earl of Warwick, and the above-mentioned Basset.

This castle, in the time of Henry the Third, was deemed of such importance, that the king's precept was sent to the Archbishop of York, and William de Cantalupe, for requiring good security of Margery, sister and heir of Thomas, Earl of Warwick, that she should not take to husband any person whatsoever in whom the king could not repose trust as in his own self; the chief reason alleged was, the strength of this castle and its vicinity to the marshes.

In the 40th year of his reign, William Manduit, the then earl, siding with the king against the barons, this place was surprised by John Giffard, Governor of Kenilworth Castle, who demolished the walls from tower to tower, and carried him and his countess prisoners to Kenilworth, where they were kept till ransomed, by the payment of 1900 marks.

In the 9th of Edward the Second, upon an extent of the lands of Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, taken after his death, the ditches and courts of this castle were valued at 6s. 8d. per annum; and the garden adjoining, with another called the vineyard, at the same sum. In the 14th of the same king, on account of the minority of Thomas, son and heir to the deceased earl, the command of it was given to Thomas Sutton; to whom Waiter de Beauchamp, then constable, was ordered to deliver it up. Sutton did not long hold this trust; the next year it was put into the custody of the sheriff; who being forcibly driven out by Thomas Blaunefort, the king directed his precept to him, ordering him to take with him John Peche, a leading man in the county, or any of his loyal subjects, to require the redelivery thereof, and to commit these offenders to prison; which was accordingly performed, and Peche constituted governor. He was succeeded in the 20th of the same reign by Thomas le Blount.

In the time of Edward the Third, it was granted, during the minority of the earl, to Roger Mortimer of Wigmore; and in the 45th of that king, Thomas Earl of Warwick rebuilt the walls of the castle demolished in the time of Earl Mauduit, adding strong gates, and fortifying the gateways with embattled towers. This earl was famous for his gallant behaviour at the battles of Cressy and Poictiers.

Richard the Second, on taking the reins of government into his own hands, dismissed his privy-councillors, among whom was Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who, retiring to his estate, amused himself with building; he erected the remarkable tower at the northeast corner of this castle, called Guy's Tower; the cost of which was 395l. 5s. 2d., its walls are ten feet thick. He also completed the body of the collegiate church of our Lady of Warwick; both which were finished in the year 1394. This earl was afterwards seized by order of Richard, at a feast, to which he was invited by that king; in the 21st year of whose reign he was condemned by the parliament to lose his head, for having appeared in arms with the Duke of Gloucester; the sentence was remitted at the solicitation of the Earl of Salisbury; his estates were, however, forfeited, and the custody of the castle given to John de Clinton; but that and the manor of Warwick, with many fair lordships of his inheritance, were soon after granted to Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, and his heirs male. Beauchamp was sent to the Isle of Man, there to remain prisoner for life; but the same year brought back to the Tower, where he continued till the revolution in favour of Henry the Fourth, which restored to him both his liberty and estate. This earl was a knight of the garter; he left to his son Richard, by will, the sword and coat of mail said to belong to the celebrated Guy, Earl of Warwick; he having received them as an heirloom from his father.

George Plantagenet, created Earl of Warwick by his brother Edward the Fourth, resided here, and began to strengthen and beautify this castle, and proposed many magnificent improvements; but being prevented by his imprisonment and death, it came to his son Edward, during whose minority John Hugford was appointed constable; and in the second of Richard the Third, Humphrey Beaufo, his son-in-law, was joined with him in that charge.

From this time it continued long in the possession of the crown; but Edward the Sixth, in the first year of his reign, advancing John Dudley to the earldom of Warwick, granted him this castle, with divers lands which had belonged to the former earls. AH these on his attainder escheated to the crown were, by the favour of Queen Elizabeth, in the fourth year of her reign, granted, with the title, to Ambrose, his son; he dying without issue, it reverted to the crown, and there rested till the second year of James the First, when that king granted it in fee to Sir Fulk Greville, Knt. whom he afterwards created a baron. The castle then in a very ruinous condition, the strongest part serving for the county-gaol, Sir Fulk expended 20,000l. in its reparation and embellishment; from him it descended to Francis, created Earl Brooke, of Warwick Castle, in the 20th George the Second, and Earl of Warwick on the 27th of November, 1759.

In the civil war it was made a garrison for the parliament by the Lord Brooke, and besieged by Lord Northampton, in 1642, who surprised the artillery and ammunition bringing down from London for its defence. It was then commanded by Sir Edward Peito; who, though he had only one small piece of ordnance, and a few muskets, defended it sixteen days, until it was relieved by Lord Brooke. The prisoners taken at Edge-hill were confined here. Robert, Lord Brooke, in the time of Charles the Second, much embellished the whole building, and particularly fitted up the state-apartments.

The rock on which this castle stands is 40 feet higher than the Avon; but on the north side it is even with the town. From the terrace there is a beautiful prospect. The rooms are adorned with many original paintings by Vandyke; and there is one apartment not inferior to any in the royal palaces. Across the river, near the Castle-bridge, is a stonework dam, where the water falls over it as a cascade, under the castle walls. (An account of Warwick Castle, with two views, and a history and description of Beauchamp Castle, at Warwick; with plan and other engravings; also a plan and views of Kenilworth Castle, are published in Brilton's "Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain.") Speaking of this castle, Sir William Dugdale says, "Here is to be seen a large two-handed sword, with a helmet, and certain plate-armour for horse-service; which, as the tradition is, were part of the accoutrements some time belonging to the famous Guy, but I rather think they are of much later date; yet I find that, in the first of Henry the Eighth, the sword having that repute, the king granted the custody thereof to William Hoggeson, one of the yeomen of the buttery, or his sufficient deputy, with' the fee of twopence per diem for that service." This office was continued by Queen Elizabeth; the fee is set down in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, at 5l. per annum. The horse-armour is no longer shewn; but, in recompense, the remaining curiosities have been reinforced by the accession of Guy's spear, buckler, bow, spurs, and porridge-pot; as likewise the slipper of the beautiful Phillis, the dulcinea for whose sake he performed all his wonderful achievements." Warwick Castle, (Mr. Charles Pye observes,) contains a most magnificent marble bacchanalian vase, of astonishing dimensions, it being seven feet in diameter and 21 in circumference, which is encircled on the outside with fruit-leaves and branches of the vine, the latter being entwined so as to form two massive handles, with grotesque masks at the end of each; the whole being in exact proportion to the magnitude of the vase. This unique specimen of ancient sculpture was discovered in the baths of the Emperor Adrian, and presented by the Queen of Naples to Sir Wm. Hamilton, the British ambassador at that court, by whom it was forwarded as a present to the late Earl of Warwick, who erected a splendid greenhouse for its reception. Mr. Thomason, of Birmingham, has formed another vase of the same magnitude in metal, upon the model of this, the ground of which is bronzed; and, by the means of two novel and distinct processes of oxidation, will endure for ages The history of Guy, though so much obscured by fable that it is difficult to ascertain its details, is nevertheless, in its outlines, so faithful a picture of an age of superstition and chivalry, that we present our readers with an abridgment of it in the words of an ingenious writer.

This distinguished warrior, (says he,) lived in the reign of King Athelstan, and being at first only a private knight, he fell in love with the daughter of the Earl of Warwick; he had an opportunity of beholding her beauty, and admiring her accomplishments, at Warwick Castle, where he was entertained with the greatest cordiality and magnificence by her father.

But a man being in love in those days, even if his passion were approved, was nothing towards his obtaining the desired object.—No! he must serve an apprenticeship to danger, and, by signalizing himself in feats of arms, make it appear that he was worthy of her.

No inquiry was then made concerning fortune;— interest was out of the question. It was sufficient if the woman had beauty and virtue, and the man honour and courage.

To approve himself worthy of his mistress, Sir, Guy was obliged to signalize his prowess; he therefore crossed into Germany, to be present at a tournament, that was to be held in the presence of the emperor's court. This he thought would be the fairest opportunity of evincing his skill and intrepidity. Upon this occasion he bore away the prize from every one, and performed such feats that the emperor was so much surprised and captivated by his valour, that he offered him his daughter in marriage; for in those days a champion, who was sole conqueror upon these occasions, was deemed worthy of the greatest monarch's daughter.

Sir Guy modestly rejected the imperial overture, on account of his passion for the Earl of Warwick's daughter. The emperor then presented him with a falcon and an hound, valuable presents at that period. These, with the trophies which he won at the tournament, he brought with him to England, and presented them, according to the customs of chivalry, to his mistress.

It is said of Sir Guy, that travelling through Germany, he heard a most hideous yelling and noise, when riding to the place he saw a lion and a dragon, engaged in a most furious combat; the lion, however, beginning to faint, our knight slew the dragon. The lion, to shew his gratitude, run by the side of our knight's horse like a dog, till hunger obliged him again to retire to the woods. He likewise slew an amazing large boar, for which reason he is usually represented with a boar's head upon the point of his spear.

On his return to England he paid his respects to King Athelstan, who then held his court in the city of York. The king informed him of a prodigious large and furious dragon, who did great mischief in some parts of Northumberland; not only destroying men, women, and children, but doing great damage to the fruits of the earth. Guy undertook to rid the country of this monster, and procuring a guide, they repaired immediately to the dragon's cave. The monster issued out of his care with eyes sparkling like fire, and upon Guy's attacking him bit bis lance in two. Guy then drew his sword, and laid about him so manfully that the dragon fell; then cutting off his head, Guy returned to York, and presented it to the king.

This story probably took its rise from Guy's having killed some furious wild boar in the northern part of England, where those dreadful animals, as well as wolves, swarmed in those days. Perhaps the former story of the boar and this are but one and the same fact differently dressed. For every tale in that age was embellished with a variety of fictitious circumstances, and every wild animal who had done much mischief, or proved remarkable, was sure to be magnified into a dragon with flaming eyes and poisonous breath.

The Earl of Warwick's daughter being satisfied with the feats by which Sir Guy had signalized himself, and sufficiently convinced of his honour and courage, gave him her hand, and they were married with great splendour and ceremony, before King Athelstan and his whole court.

Soon after the lady's father dying, left Sir Guy his whole estate, and the king directly after created him Earl of Warwick.

While Guy resided in Warwick, his inactivity plunged him into a variety of contemplations, when thinking he had spent too much time in the pursuit of glory, and too little in the pursuit of grace, he determined to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

It is said, that in his way he killed a giant, who had fifteen young men in confinement, whom he released; they were all brothers, and he sent them all home to their disconsolate parents.

During his absence his wife clothed herself in mourning, made a vow of chastity till his return, and passed her time in meditation and prayer. Nay, she parted with her jewels to raise money, with which she relieved the distresses of the poor, and was very bountiful and courteous to all travellers, not knowing what need of benevolence her absent husband might stand in.

Guy, Earl of Warwick, returned to England at the time the nation was greatly distressed by the ravages of the Danes. King Athelstan himself was compelled to take refuge in the city of Winchester, at that time one of the strongest places in the kingdom, whither Guy, Earl of Warwick, repaired. The Danes drew all their forces that way, and laid siege to Winchester. At length it was agreed by the Danish commander and King Athelstan, that their dispute should be decided by single combat.

A prodigious giant then came from the Danish camp, and went to Mem-Hill, near the walls of Winchester, where he made use of many menacing expressions, and brandished his sword in defiance of the English. This so much exasperated the Earl of Warwick, that he entreated the king to let him go and encounter this Danish champion. The king giving his approbation, said, "noble pilgrim, go and prosper." Guy leaving the city by the north gate, advanced towards Colbrand, or Colborn, the Danish giant, who no sooner saw him than he said, in a jeering manner, "What, art thou the best champion England can afford!" The Earl of "Warwick answered him with his sword, and a most desperate combat ensued; but at length fortune declared in favour of the Earl of Warwick. The giant was slain, and the Danes, according to the previous agreement, raised the siege, retired to their ships, and set sail for their own country.

For having thus relieved his country, the king would have conferred honours upon him; but Guy refused to be any way distinguished upon the occasion, saying, he had bid adieu to the vanities of the world.

The Earl of Warwick then retired to a cave near Warwick, to spend the remainder of his days in religious tranquillity, and leading the life of an hermit, he died in that obscure recess. This cave is situated about a mile to the northeast of Warwick, in a great cliff, called Guy's Cliff, on the west-side of the Avon. In the time of the Britons there was an oratory here, and in that of the Saxons an hermitage. This hermitage was kept up to the reign of Henry the Sixth, when Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, established a chantry here; and, in memory of the famous Guy, erected a large statue of him in the chapel here, eight feet in height, and raised a roof over the adjacent springs; the chapel is in the parish of St. Nicholas. At this place is Guy Cliff House, the seat of Bertie Greathead, Esq.; and at a little distance is the Priory, probably built on the site of a priory of regular canons, founded by Henry de New burgh, Earl of Warwick, and his son Sir Roger, in the reign of Henry the First. The Priory at present is the seat of H. Christopher Wise, Esq.

---

WARWICK is the county and assize town of Warwickshire, a municipal and parliamentary borough, union and market town, head of a petty sessional division and county court district, with a station on the Birmingham and Oxford division of the Great Western railway and 1 mile from the Milverton station of the London and North Western railway, 99 miles from London by the London and North Western railway and 98 ½ by the Great Western, 21 south-east from Birmingham, 10 south from Coventry, 20 ½ south from Nuneaton, 16 ½ south-west from Rugby, 31 ½ from Walsall, 34 from Wolverhampton, 30 ½ from Dudley, 55 ½ from Stafford, 94 from Bristol, 110 from Liverpool and 108 from Manchester, in the South-Western division of the county, Warwick division of the hundred of Kineton, rural deanery of Warwick and archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester, and closely adjoins Leamington, so that the two may almost be considered as constituting one town: the parliamentary borough formerly returned two members, but under the provisions of the “Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885,” it now returns one member only, under the name of “Warwick and Leamington,” and the boundary is extended to include Leamington and the districts of Milverton and Lillington, Warwick is seated on a hill on the banks of the river Avon, over which and near the castle there is a handsome bridge, erected in 1790 by Lord Brooke and the Corporation, at a cost of £4,000, and having a span of 100 feet; the town is also at the junction of the Warwick and Birmingham and Warwick and Napton canals; the latter giving access to the Oxford canal. The Leamington and Warwick tramway cars run from the Avenue station, Leamington, to High street, Warwick. The roads from Banbury to Birmingham and from Stratford to Coventry pass through. The first charter of incorporation was granted in the first year of Philip and Mary; a second was obtained from James I. and a third granted by William and Mary, 5th March, 1694, and in September, 1883, the borough was, under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, divided into three wards: the Corporation consists of a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen town councillors, who also act as the Urban Sanitary Authority. The borough has a commission of the peace and a separate court of quarter sessions, generally held about January, April, July and October. Water is supplied to the town from works at Haseley, 4 miles distant, and gas by the Warwick Gas Light Company from their works in Saltisford, erected in 1822.

That this place, called in Domesday “Warewic,” and by Hovenden “Wyrengwyke,” is one of high antiquity, all authorities agree, but as to its foundation and the origin of the name, opinions differ. Rous, an early and distinguished antiquary, who died at Guy’s Cliife in 1491, and is quoted by Dugdale, attributes its foundation to the British King Gutheline or Cymbelin, and affirms that it was then called “Caer-Leon.” Matthew Paris refers the name to Waremund, father of the first Offa, King of Mercia, and Camden further conjectures that from its eminent and central position, it was the Praesidium of the Romans. Dr. Thomas, however, in his edition of Dugdale, is inclined to discredit all these authorities, and to prefer a simple Saxon derivation from “waru,” inhabitants, and “wic,” town or dwelling.

The actual history of Warwick may be said to begin with the erection of the Castle or dungeon of Ethelflede, afterwards strengthened and enlarged by Turchil, vice comes of Warwick, who retained his title and had large possessions, although he resigned the control of the fortress to Henry de Newburgh, younger son of Roger de Bellomont, Earl of Mellent, in Normandy, and first Norman Earl of Warwick. At the time of the Survey it was recorded as a burgh or borough, in which the king had 113 houses, and his barons 112, and besides upwards of 100 messuages belonging to lands which the barons held without the burgh, there were nineteen burgesses, holding as many messuages absolutely.

In the reign of Ethelred, Wolgeat being its titular earl, Warwick and a great part of the county was devastated by Canute, being the last of six occasions on which the town had been injured or destroyed. The fortifications raised by Turchil were repaired, and the paving of the town begun in Edward I.'s reign, by Guy de Beauchamp, some remains of which existed when Leland visited the place in the reign of Henry VIII. He then describes the town as “right strongly ditched and walled, having the compass of a good mile within the wall,” the east and west gates being then intact.

In the same reign of Edward I. 1281, according to Rous, a chivalrous assembly known as the “Round Table” was held and largely attended by foreigners. In 1312 Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, the favourite of Edward II. captured in the Castle of Scarborough, was brought hither and lawlessly executed by the barons on Blacklow Hill, about a mile from the town. The Black Book of Warwick, a manuscript of the Tudor and Jacobean periods, contains accounts of the visit of Queen Elizabeth on Monday, August 12, 1572, her grace proceeding on the Wednesday to Kenilworth, and returning again to Warwick on the Saturday, only to repair to Kenilworth for the ensuing week.

On the 4th September, 1617, the town was honoured with the presence of James I. who was magnificently entertained in the hall of Lord Leycester’s Hospital, and in November, 1695, William III. came to Warwick, being there entertained by Fulke, Lord Brooke.

Warwick Castle, standing on the south-east side of the town upon a rock washed by the river Avon, is undoubtedly one of the most precious and interesting of English shrines, a veritable baronial residence of high antiquity, still maintained and inhabited by its noble owners, the hereditary descendants of the ancient line of Beauchamp: its foundation is attributed to Ethelfleda, daughter of King Alfred, who, in A.D. 915, caused a strong tower to be raised on an artificial mound westward of the present structure: at the time of the Conquest it was held by Turchil, the Saxon, as lieutenant of the King of Mercia, who is represented by Rous as having greatly enlarged its fortifications under the Conqueror's direction; but its keeping was then bestowed upon Henry de Newburgh, first Norman Earl of Warwick: towards the end of the reign of King Stephen, Gundreda, then Countess of Warwick, on the arrival of Henry Duke of Normandy (1152) delivered up the castle to him; and in John’s reign it was held for the king by Thomas Bassett, of Headington, in Oxon, and afterwards by Hugh de Nevil and others: in 1264 the rebellious barons, then holding Kenilworth, surprised it, and William Mauduit, Earl of Warwick, with his countess, were seized, and the castle partly dismantled: Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick in Edward III.’s reign, renewed the outer wall and built several towers, but the great tower at the north-east comer, called Guy’s tower, 128 feet in height, was erected by his son, Thomas Beauchamp, in 1394: on every storey of this tower are most interesting chambers; the finest, a twelve-sided room, with six large windows, being on the third floor: from 1478 till 1547 the castle was held, from various causes, by the Crown, but it was in the latter year granted to John Dudley Viscount L’Isle, on his advancement to the earldom of Warwick: additions had been made to the castle in Edward IV.’s reign, and the foundation of a new tower was laid by Richard III.; but it is to Sir Fulke Greville, afterwards Lord Brooke, that we are indebted for the restoration of this historic pile: he recived a grant of the castle from James I. at a time when much of the building had fallen into decay, only the strongest portions being made use of as a county gaol; and by expending on it the enormous sum, for that time, of £20,000, made it, as Dugdale fitly remarks, “the most princely seat within these midland parts of the realm”: during the Civil War in August, 1642, being then in charge of Sir Edward Peyto, it was unsuccessfully attacked by the Royalists under the Earl of Northampton, an event which closes its military history: but neither neglect nor the ruthlessness of war were so disastrous to this celebrated structure as the lamentable fire, which broke out early on the morning of Sunday, December 3rd, 1871, by which the whole of the eastern wing, extending from the Great Hall to Caesar’s tower, comprising the great hall and private rooms, was almost completely destroyed, only the walls being left intact, owing to their massive construction: the damage to the building has since been made good, and the rooms restored to their former condition, under the direction of Mr. Anthony Salvin, of London; but some of the valuable works of art contained in the burnt out apartments were irretrievably lost: in Caesar’s tower, 147 feet in height, are various apartments, the walls of which are ornamented with devices, fleurs-de-lys, initials, names, and sentences in English, French and German, scraped in relief by persons in confinement here, among whom was Montagu, 2nd Earl of Lindsey K.G. who fought on the king’s side at Edge Hill and Naseby, and was imprisoned here in the 1st guard-room: in the 2nd guardroom is an inscription, carved by a German prisoner; in the “Torture-room” is a Latin inscription, evidently the work of a captive priest, and in the dungeon others by—

“Master: Ion: Smyth: Gvner: to: His Majestye: Highnes:”

1642,

And byStolen from Fore bears

William Sidiate.

George (Greville), 2nd Earl of Warwick, who succeeded to the title in 1773, purchased and placed in the castle a magnificent collection, of pictures by Vandyke, Rubens and other masters; and made a noble approach to the fortress through a solid rock, built a porter’s lodge, stored the library with a well-chosen selection of books, formed an armoury, and enclosed the court and pleasure grounds with walls; he also built a fine conservatory, filled it with beautiful and rare plants, and placed in it the vase referred to below; and further constructed a lake, from 300 to 400 feet broad, and a mile long, besides planting trees valued at £100,000, and, in addition, 100 acres of ash: the stone bridge over the Avon, 105 feet in span, and 25 feet in height, every stone of which weighed from 2,000 to 3,000 pounds, was also the work of this nobleman, and the bridge was presented by him to the town free of toll: in the banqueting hall are preserved Oliver Cromwell’s helmet, armour once belonging to the hapless Marquess of Montrose, some Scottish weapons and a trousseau chest of beautiful Italian workmanship; in the Gilt room are some strongly painted pictures by Rubens, and a fine bust of Augustus Caesar, and, in an apartment beyond, a “Laughing Boy” by Murillo: some of the finest pictures hang in the quaint Red room, next which is the cedar drawing-room, rich in the works of Vandyke; the state bedroom contains a bed given by George III., and at the end of the south side is a boudoir in gold and white, hung about with miniature pictures: one of the oldest portions of the castle is the chapel, simple in style, but full of interest, and situated in the western wing, untouched by the fire, where also are the state rooms and the collections of sculpture, pictures, armour and other curiosities: the famous Warwick vase, discovered in 1774 at the bottom of a lake near the Emperor Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli, and presented to the late Earl by Sir William Hamilton, is in the conservatory, and in the porter’s lodge may be seen the imposing relics of the legendary Guy of Warwick. The earldom of Warwick, before it was possessed by a Norman Earl, had been held, traditionally in part, by nine Saxons, of whom the earliest was Rohand, a successful warrior in the days of Alfred; but by far the most distinguished was the renowned Guy, said to have been the son of Siward, baron of Wallingford, whose exploits, although credited by writers of high celebrity, including the learned Dusrdale, can only be regarded as “a fiction of romance”: with William de Newburgh began the Norman earls of this title, successively held by the families of De Plessetis, Mauduit, Beauchamp, Neville, Plantagenet, Dudley, Rich and now by the Grevilles, as the descendants of the Beauchamps of Powyk. The castle is open to visitors every week day; and tickets for admission can be obtained at the ticket office, in Mill street, from 10 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.

There were anciently 8 churches in the town, of which 3 only now remain.

St. Mary’s, an ancient foundation, the precise date of which cannot be ascertained, although a church certainly existed on this site anterior to the Conquest, is perhaps, in spite of its misfortunes, the most interesting ecclesiastical building in the county: its rise into importance took place in Henry I.'s reign, when Roger de Newburgh, second Earl of Warwick, made it a collegiate church and united with it the collegiate church of All Saints, at that time standing within the castle, endowing it also with several churches in the town, besides tithes and land in many parishes, and the church of Gretham, in Rutlandshire: Thomas Beauchamp, eleventh Earl of Warwick, in Edward III.'s reign, began the building of “that stately quire” (as Dugdale calls it), but dying before it was completed, his second son and successor Thomas Beauchamp, twelfth Earl of Warwick, finished the work begun by his father, and “built anew the whole body of the church from the ground,” purchasing the timber from his brother’s woods at Allesley: of the church as it appeared at this time, some drawings exist in the library of All Souls,’ College, Oxford, and it seems to have consisted, besides the quire, of a tower at the west end, nave with aisles, transepts and a south porch: in the year 1571 two imposing ceremonies took place in St. Mary’s the celebration of the order of St. Michael by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and the state funeral of William Parr, Marquess of Northampton and brother of Queen Catherine Parr: on the 5th September, 1694, the town was visited by a terrible conflagration, by which the tower, nave and transepts of the church were totally destroyed, and thus the work of Thomas Beauchamp, begun in 1394, lasted exactly 300 years: of the numerous monuments formerly existing in the body of the church, the brass plates of two only are left; but an account of the remainder has fortunately been preserved by Dugdale: subscriptions to the amount of £11,000, together with £1,000 from Queen Anne, were collected to build the church and relieve the suffering inhabitants, but the whole loss sustained, according to Dr. Thomas, amounted to £90,600: some idea seems to have been entertained of placing the work of rebuilding in the hands of Sir Christopher Wren, but this was not carried out, and the re-election was eventually completed by Messrs. Smith, builders, from the designs of Sir William Wilson, A.D. 1704, at a cost of £4,874 9s. 5d.: Rickman unsparingly denounces the restoration as “a composition of the greatest barbarity,” and although it cannot be denied that the details are to the last degree incongruous, the effect of the whole is grand and imposing; the church now consists of a western tower, nave, with aisles, north and south transepts and choir: north of the chancel is the vestry and a spacious porch, and adjoining these northwards the chapter house, while south of the chancel is the magnificent Chapel of Our Lady, or the Beauchamp chapel: above the vestry and lobby is a long room, occupying the entire space, and beneath the vestry and continued under the choir a vaulted chamber or crypt: the tower consists of three stages, in the lowermost of which four very massive piers support as many pointed arches, opening on three sides and forming an open porch: both the first and second stages consist of pointed arch panel work, flanked by semi-circular coved niches: the third and upper stage contains, on either side, four pointed single-light windows, two above two, and the whole is crowned by a parapet, with large square crocketed pinnacles at each angle, and smaller ones between: the proportions of this tower are good, and when seen from a distance the effect is noble, but it will not bear a closer inspection; from a base of 36 feet it rises to a height including the parapet, of 130 feet from which again the pinnacles reach a height of 44 feet; it contains 10 bells, all dating from periods subsequent to 1700, and a clock and chimes: the doorways to the church are painted, and so likewise are the large, but tasteless windows, disfigured with a miserably-designed attempt at tracery: there is 110 clerestory, but a horizontal cornice runs along the walls a little above the windows, upon which is an open balustrading, with stone urns at intervals, capping the buttresses: internally the nave is divided from the aisles and transepts by four pointed arches on each side, supported by piers: the roof is arched and ceiled: the transepts are shallow in projection and consist of only one bay of vaulting: more ancient work than can be found in any part of the superstructure is exhibited by the crypt, extending beneath the choir, and divided longitudinally into two parts by four piers, each part having five bays of vaulting: the westernmost portion is Norman work of the twelfth century, while the two bays eastward are part of the work of Beauchamp; in this crypt remains a portion of an ancient ducking stool, used for the punishment of female offenders: the choir built by Thomas Beauchamp, A.D. 1392, and possibly modified at a later period by Richard Beauchamp, is lighted on each side by four large obtusely-pointed Perpendicular windows, the lower portion of which consists of blank panel work: three of these have, within the last few years, been filled with stained glass; one on the north side to the memory of the Rev. George Innes, 50 years headmaster of the Grammar School, who died July 17th, 1842, and to Isabella, his wife, and one on the south side, erected by his brother officers, to Captain William Grant, late of the 6th (Royal Warwickshire) Regiment, who died April 20th, 1875: the great east window of six lights has been partially filled in memory of the late Rev. John Boudier, 57 years vicar of this parish; some very curious specimens of old glass, originally in this window, have been placed in the vestry, and form a handsome and unique piece of work: the whole cost of this window, including necessary stone work, paid for by the trustees of Henry VIII. charity, was £1,000, of which £600 was raised by public subscriptions: on the south side of the choir are four sedilia, and eastward of these a piscina, under recessed canopies: the vestry, on the north side, is a large vaulted apartment, and is separated from the lobby by a stone screen: the ancient chapterhouse, rectangular in plan, with a semi-hexagonal termination northwards, is lighted by five pointed Perpendicular windows, and around the north end are nine stone seats, with recessed canopies: of the monuments still existing in the church, the earliest and most important is that of the first Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and his countess (both of whom died in 1369) in the midst of the choir, consisting of a high tomb, surrounded with niches containing figures, 36 in number, and bearing the recumbent effigies of the Earl and his wife: the incised brass effigies of the second Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who died in 1401, and of Margaret his wife, who died in 1406, preserved from the Great fire, were formerly upon an altar tomb, surmounted by a canopy at the end of the south aisle, but are now on a marble slab near the entrance to St. Mary's chapel: in the centre of the chapter-house is the lofty but cumbrous monument of Fulk Greville, first Lord Brooke, who died 30 September, 1628, erected by himself during his lifetime, with this original epitaph: “Fulk Grevil, servant to Queene Elizabeth, councillor to King James and friend to Sir Philip Sydney; Trophaeum Paccati.”

The Chapel of Our Lady, or, as it is more usually called, the Beauchamp chapel, is beyond doubt the greatest feature of the church, and it has, if possible, an added interest in the fact that its date, cost, and operative builders are all well known: the foundations of this chapel, in compliance with the will of Henry Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, were laid in 1443 (21 Henry VI.) and the building of the chapel and monument, completed in 1464 (3 Edward IV.), occupied 21 years, and cost £2,481 4s. 7 ½d. a sum equivalent to £40,000 according to the present value of money: the body of the Earl, who had died at Rouen in 1439, was removed and placed in the tomb prepared for it: besides that of the Earl Richard, there are here the stately monuments of Ambrose Dudley, “the good Earl of Warwick,” died 1589, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester K.G. died 1588, whose own costly monument is placed against the north wall, and of his son, Sir Robert Dudley, nominally Baron Denbigh, and a duke of the Holy Roman Empire, who died near Florence, September, 1639: during the Great Rebellion the chapel suffered much injury at the hands of the Parliamentarians, but for its subsequent restoration and present condition the edifice is indebted to the munificence of Lady Katherine Leveson, who expended £50 on its repairs, and left £40 yearly for its perpetual preservation: internally it consists of one apartment 58 feet long, 25 feet wide and 32 feet high, with a second behind the altar and three similar chambers or distinct spaces on the north side: three large windows on either side almost entirely fill the side walls, the space from the window sills to the pavement being filled with panelled tracery: the east end has a canopied reredos with a well-executed representation, in low relief, of the Annunciation, by Collins, from a design by Lightoler, and erected in 1735: the east window, a peculiarly rich and unique composition, contains in the niches around it and upon the mullions upwards of thirty figures: the roof is groined in three bays or divisions, with gilt and painted bosses at the intersections: northward of the chapel, and entered by a small lobby, is a chantry, remarkable for the rich fan-tracery and pendants of the roof: and in the east wall, on the north side of the altar, is a door leading to a chamber extending across the east end of the chapel and anciently called “The Treasury,” was in 1891 converted into a library and containing the collection of theological books formerly in the vestry: some of the original painted glass still remains in the windows, but it is hardly more than fragmentary, and has been considerably mutilated even since Dugdale wrote: the length of St. Mary’s church, including the choir, is 180 feet 6 inches; breadth, 66 feet 4 inches; height, 42 feet 6 inches. The exterior restoration of the church, begun in July, 1884, has been carried out at a total cost of more than £11,000: there are sittings for 1,367 persons, about 300 being free. The existing registers begin in 1651: but there was an earlier volume, beginning December 12, 1538, and ending March 24, 1650, and now, apparently, lost: these registers, in 1832, were contained in seven volumes. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £310, with residence, in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and held since 1881 by the Rev. Alexander Campbell Irvine M.A. of Balliol College, Oxford, chaplain to the forces at Budbrooke barracks, rural dean of Warwick and surrogate; the Rev. Matthew Henry Middleton B.A. of St. Catherine's College, Cambridge, has been chaplain and assistant minister since 1891.

The church of St. Nicholas, in the street which takes its name from the church, belongs to a parish adjoining that of St. Mary to the south and east, and comprised so much of the town as stood formerly without the walls in that direction: the site of the present church is recorded as devoted to religious purposes for more than 800 years, and in Henry I.'s reign the church of St. Nicholas was granted by Roger de Newburgh to the deans and canons of St. Mary’s, but with the dissolution of this collegiate church the rectory and advowson falling to the Crown, were given by Henry VIII. to the burgesses, until, in 1839, the corporation sold the advowson to the Countess of Warwick: the existing building consists of chancel, nave, aisles and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles at the angles, surmounted by a spire, and containing a clock and 8 bells, of which two are dated 1695, and the others respectively 1849, 1877, 1773, 1798 and two 1887, one of which was presented by the present vicar, and the other by a friend, in commemoration of Her Majesty’s Jubilee: there is also an apparatus for chiming the eight bells, presented by a parishioner in 1887: the tenor is in the key of F major, and weighs 16 cwt.: the proportions and detail of this church have a certain interest from it being one of the earliest specimens of the revival of ecclesiastical architecture in the last century, the first stone having been laid on February 16th, 1779, and the church opened in September, 1780: the cost of the work, from designs by Johnson, of Warwick, was £1,500, exclusive of the tower, rebuilt some 30 years previously: of the former building little is known, except from stray engravings by Hollar and others; on the floor of the former church was a brass, missing in 1847, to Robert Willardsey, first vicar, 1424, but since discovered and placed in the vestry: there are various monuments of the Stoughtons of St. John’s, dated 1655, 1692 and 1724: the stained east window was erected by the parishioners to the memory of Mrs. Powys, wife of the Rev. the Hon. E. V. R. Powys, vicar of St. Nicholas from 1869 to 1871, and there are several other memorial windows: in the centre porch is a tablet of oak bearing the names of the rectors and vicars of St. Nicholas from 1274 to 1884: the organ, enlarged in 1885, was entirely rebuilt in 1892, when the present vicar gave the “choir organ” as a memorial to his father; the chancel was decorated in 1889 at a cost of £100: there are 869 sittings: the churchyard has been much improved by judicious planting, and the three weeping willows at the southwest are extremely fine and much admired. The registers begin in 1538, and contain an account of the perambulation of the parish in 1617. Some of the ancient deeds belonging to the church date from the reign of Henry V. and are unusually perfect and interesting: there is a paper register, with a parchment duplicate copy, also from 1538, which is very uncommon, if not unique, in this part of England: there are also churchwardens’ accounts from the time of Edward VI.: some of these documents have been repaired and rebound at the British Museum. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value from endowment by Henry VIII. £220 with residence, in the gift of the Earl of Warwick, and held since 1884 by the Rev. Thurston Rivington M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge, chaplain to Warwick Union and domestic chaplain to the Earl of Warwick.

St. Paul’s is an ecclesiastical parish, formed Oct. 15, 1884, from the civil parish of St. Mary: the church, situated in Friars street, is a building of stone of the same date, consisting of nave with apse, south porch and a turret containing 1 bell: there are several memorial windows: the church was renovated in 1889 at a cost of £160, and a brass and chancel Tails have been erected as a memorial to the late Rev. G. A. Webb, a former vicar, d. 1891, and the church affords 400 sittings, 350 being free. The register dates from the year 1849. The living is a vicarage, gross yearly value £170, net £150, in the gift of the vicar of St. Mary’s, and held since 1887 by the Rev. Henry Gabriel Hensley M.A. of Corpus Christi college, Cambridge.

The Warwick Union chapel of St. Nicholas, erected in 1883-4, at a total cost of upwards of £750, exclusive of special gifts, is a building of local pressed bricks, with Bath stone dressings, in the Early English style, from plans prepared by Mr.F. H. Moore, architect, of Warwick, and consists of chancel, nave, south porch, vestry, and a turret at the west end containing 1 bell: the organ and pulpit were presented and the vestry built by Mrs. Lea: the east window is stained, and there is one, erected in 1886 by Mrs. Field, to her father, the late Dr. Bickmore, formerly chaplain of the union, and another erected by the guardians in 1887 to Col. Machin J.P. chairman of the Board of Guardians, 1884-87.

Emscote is an ecclesiastical parish, formed June 28, 1861, from the civil parish of St. Nicholas: the church of All Saints, consecrated 2nd May, 1861, is an edifice of costly and elaborate character in the Decorated style, from designs by James Murray esq. F.R.I.B.A. architect and Messrs. Bodley and Gardner, architects, of London, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, transepts, south porch and a tower with spire containing clock and 8 bells, of which the tenor weighs about 17 cwt. and the whole peal cost £1,000: the chancel contains a mosaic reredos, by E. Von Eyck, of Warwick, and Dr. Salviati, of Venice, enclosed in a very handsome oak frame, carved by Mr. T. Keyte, of Barford, containing figures, under canopies, of the four canonized Bishops of Worcester, viz.:-S. Egwin, S. Dunstan, S. Oswald and S. Wulstan, together with S. Alban, S. Edmund and other English saints: the pulpit is of carved stonework, with the figures of Christ and the four Evangelists: there are several memorial windows, one of which represents St. Dubritius, first and only Bishop of Warwick, A.D. 448, the site of whose cathedral church, dedicated to All Saints, is now occupied by Warwick Castle, or some portion of its grounds, from which circumstance this church has derived its name: the stained east window represents our Lord as the spiritual Aaron, surrounded by the principal British, Anglo-Saxon and other saints: in 1872, by the liberality of the late Miss M. Philips, of Selwood, Leamington, the roof was raised, a clerestory formed, the chancel lengthened, a north aisle added at a cost of £2,000: the seats and chancel screen are of oak, richly carved: a font of exquisite design, consisting of a block of Devonshire marble, supported on a pedestal of eight marble columns, with a base of Purbeck marble, and panels carved in alabaster, was erected in December, 1871, from designs by Mr. C. Buckeridge, architect, of Oxford: the bells were given by the late Miss Philips, and the clock erected by subscriptions collected by Mrs. Dickins, as a memorial of the munificent benefactions of the late Miss. Philips to the parish: a memorial window has also been placed to the same lady, who died 16 Feb. 1890: the frescoes of the Apostles on the walls and of the “Adoration of the Lamb” over the chancel arch were executed by Mr. Gow: there are 657 sittings, 500 being free. The register dates from the year 1861. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £110, with residence, in the gift of the vicar of St. Nicholas, Warwick, in right of his office, and held since 1861 by the Rev. Thomas Bourne Dickins LL.D, of Jesus College, Cambridge.

The Catholic church, in West street, dedicated to St. Mary the Immaculate, and erected in 1860, from designs by Pugin, is a building of red brick with stone dressings in the Pointed style, consisting of apsidal chancel, nave with clerestory and aisles, and has recently been restored and decorated: it has several stained windows and affords 250 sittings, and there is a Presbytery adjoining. The meeting house of the Society of Friends is in High street.

The Baptist chapel on Castle Hill, built in 1866, has 400 sittings: the Congregational chapel, in Brook street, seats 600; and that in Humphriss street, now used as the Great Western Railway Mission hall, erected in 1838, affords 100 sittings: there is a Primitive Methodist chapel in Stand street, seating 100 persons; a Unitarian in High street, with 200 sittings: and two Wesleyan chapels, one in Avon street, with 160 sittings, and another in Northgate street, with sittings for 500 persons, erected in 1894 at a cost of £3,000; the old chapel in Market street being now used as a Sunday school. The Plymouth Brethren have a chapel in Leycester place, erected in 1886, with 90 sittings, and one in Cherry street.

The General Cemetery, opened in 1855, at a cost of about £5,000, is on the Birmingham road, in the parish of Budbrooke; it is 10 ½ acres in extent, with two mortuary chapels: it is under the control of a burial board of 17 members.

The principal factories are the very extensive gelatine and isinglass works of Messrs. Geo. Nelson, Dale and Co. Limited; the iron works of Messrs. W. Glover and Sons Limited, and the brewery of Messrs. Dutton and Hudson; and there are some brick fields.

The market day is Saturday. Fairs are held on October 12th and the Monday before St. Thomas’ day. Stock sales are held every alternate Wednesday, from Jan. 2nd, 1895, at Coton End, by Messrs. John Margetts and Son. Races are held in February, April, September and November, and are much frequented.

The banks and solicitors’ offices are closed on Wednesdays at 1 o’clock, and the early closing day for shops is Thursday.

The Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser and Leamington Gazette, established in 1806, by the Sharpe family, and held by them until 1880, is published on Saturdays.

The Warwick and County Club, formed in 1895, has premises in Church street.

The Nelson Club House, in Wharf street, Emscote, completed and opened on Saturday, November 24th, 1883, is a building of local brick and Bath stone, from designs by Mr. F. H. Moore, of Warwick, and was erected at the sole cost of Messrs. George Nelson, Dale and Co. Limited, for purposes of refreshment and entertainment: it consists of bar, smoking and reading rooms, library, billiard rooms and a large hall, with a permanent stage and dressing rooms; adjacent is a spacious kitchen and a care taker’s house, and in the basement extensive cellarage: inside the entrance hall hang portraits of the late Mr. Nelson, the founder of the firm, and Mr. Dale, painted by Mr. F. H. Bibo, and framed in oak from the Old King’s School.

The Free Public Library, in Church street, and established in 1866, contains a library of upwards of 8,000 vols. and is supplied with all the daily and weekly newspapers: the reading room is open daily from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.; the lending library from 12 to 2 p.m. and from 6 to 9 p.m.; Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The museum of the Warwickshire Natural History and Archaeological Society, in the Market place, contains a fine natural history collection and numerous geological specimens chiefly illustrating the silurian and old red sandstone formations, is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. between the 1st of March and the 31st October, and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. between the 1st November and the last day of February (free every Monday and Tuesday, to the inhabitants of Warwick only). Subscribers of one guinea yearly have the privilege of introducing their friends free of charge.

The depot of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Regimental district No. 6, at Budbrook, covers a space of 13 acres, and is available for 10 officers and 298 men; this is also the headquarters of the 3rd and 4th Battalions (Militia), formerly 1st and 2nd Warwick Militia. The headquarters of the Warwickshire Yeomanry Cavalry are in New street; this regiment celebrated its centenary in 1895, and was inspected by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales K.G. on May 17th in that year.

The G Company 2nd Volunteer Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, meet at their Drill hall in Northgate street: there are now (1895) 81 efficients.

The Warwick School Cadet Corps is attached to the Leamington detachment.

Her Majesty’s Prison, at the Cape, erected in 1860, is a building of blue brick with stone facings, and will hold nearly 500 prisoners: the interior consists of three corridors or divisions, with two tiers of galleries; and there are residences for the governor and chaplain.

The Hospital of St. Michael, founded by Roger, Earl of Warwick, about the end of Henry I.’s reign, was situated at the lower end of Saltisford street, and in Dugdale’s time had 8 poor women maintained from the revenues of the Priory lands. The Hospital of St. John the Baptist, founded about 1175 by William de Newburgh, Earl of Warwick, as a monastery for the reception, relief and entertainment of pilgrims and strangers, was occupied by the Knights Templars, and afterwards by the Knights of St. John: at the Dissolution it was granted to Anthony Stoughton, and remained for a considerable time in that family: the site, a little distance outside the eastern gate of the town, is now occupied by a picturesque stone mansion of the Elizabethan period, erected, probably, as a manor house: the front presents a succession of gables, several of which have tall oriels, with open parapets; the interior is adorned with a fine oak Tudor staircase, and has a large room containing some very interesting tapestry &c. of ancient date: there is a subterranean passage leading to the priory: the hospital, which belongs to the Earl of Warwick, is open to visitors daily on payment of sixpence each. In the western suburb stood the monastic house of the Black, or Dominican Friars, founded in the time of Henry III. which after the surrender was granted to John, Duke of Northumberland, and on his attainder, in Queen Mary's reign, it escheated to the Crown. The ancient entrances to the town from the east and west, called the East and West Gates, at opposite extremities of the main street, still remain, and are in good repair. East Gate, formerly St. Peter’s Church, was built in Henry VI.'s reign, but is now a private residence.

Leycester’s Hospital and chapel, a most interesting and venerable example of the half-timbered Domestic style, situated at the western extremity of the High street, was originally the hall or mansion belonging to the united Guilds of Holy Trinity and St. George, which, being acquired by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leycester, from the burgesses of Warwick, in Elizabeth’s reign, was by him, in 1571, converted into an hospital for a master and 12 impotent persons not having above £50 per annum of their own, with an additional limitation to his infirm tenants, or to soldiers maimed in the Queen’s service; or, if such could not be found, to the poor of Warwick, Kenilworth, Stratford-on-Avon and Wootton-under-Edge, or Erlingham, in Gloucestershire, from which places the brethren are now chosen in turn. The Hall has an inscription at its upper end recording the entertainment here of James I. in 1617, and in the adjoining chapel of St. James, above the west, or “Hongyng Crate,” the brethren meet for daily service; the chapel, dedicated to St. James, has a fine stained window, and a painting of the “Ascension,” by Millar; a fine Transition Norman arch, with “dog tooth” ornament, discovered under the pavement of the chapel in 1866, has been erected in the garden; in compliance with the direction of their founder, the members of this fraternity are habited, whenever they appear in public, in a gown of blue, with his cognizance of the bear and ragged staff upon the left arm. Each brother now receives £70. The mastership, yearly value £350, is in the gift of Lord De Lisle and Dudley, and has been held since 1893 by the Rev. George Morley M.A. of Wadham College, Oxford. Thomas Cartwright, the eminent Puritan divine, styled by Camden, “Inter Puritanos Antesignanus,” was moster from 1585 to 1603.

The charities in the borough are numerous and valuable; the most important are Henry VIII.'s, Sir Thomas White’s and Thomas Oken's. The income of Henry VIII.’s Chafity, derived from the tithes of the parishes of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, Warwick, the adjoining parish of Budbrooke, the parish of Chaddesley Corbet, in Worcestershire, and the rents of land and house property in the borough amounts to about £3,000 per annum; the application of this income has been the subject of much litigation, and has been regulated by various orders of the Court of Chancery (commencing with Lord Keeper Coventry’s decree in the eighth year of Charles I.): the revenues are now applied in payment of annual stipends to the vicar of St. Mary’s, the vicar of St. Nicholas’s, the vicar of Budbrooke, the assistant minister of St. Mary’s, the mayor, town clerk, yeoman, serjeant-at-mace and beadle, a fixed annual sum of £460 10s. being also paid to the Governors of the King’s Schools in aid of the endowment of those schools, and the surplus given to the Corporation for the payment of expenses incurred in lighting and watching the town: the accounts of this charity are passed triennially in the Court of Chancery.

Sir Thomas White’s Charity is applied in advancing sums of £100 to young tradesmen for a period of nine years without interest; the advance being made on the security of a bond with two sureties.

The Provident Dispensary and Cottage Hospital, situated in Castle street, was established in 1826, and has five beds and a crib; it is supported by voluntary contributions; the average number of in-patients is about 50, and of out-patients about 3,500.

St. Edith’s Hostel, a home of rest adjoining All Saints' church, for poor women over 60 years of age, founded in 1867 by Miss M. Philips, in memory of her parents, was so designated after St. Edith de Polesworth, daughter of the last Saxon King of Mercia.

Some interesting examples of urn burial and many valuable sepulchral remains have been met with in the neighbourhood.

The Priory of St. Sepulchre, on the north side of the town, and on the site of an ancient church, was founded by Henry de Newburgh, Earl of Warwick, in the reign of Henry I., A.D. 1124, and continued to flourish until 38 Henry VIII. when it was granted by letters patent to Thomas Hawkins, who, though of humble origin, being the son of a fishmonger, had attained a position of some importance; he dismantled and razed the building, with the exception of two galleries, and part, if not whole, of the chapel, erecting on the site a spacious mansion, completed in 1556, to which he gave the name of “Hawk’s Nest,” but which has since undergone considerable alterations. Queen Elizabeth visited Hawkins here in 1572; in 1576 he died, and his son, by extravagance and dissipation, lost the estate, and perished miserably in the Fleet Prison. The Priory was afterwards purchased by Sir John Puckering kt. lord keeper of the Great Seal (1592-6), and it was subsequently held by the family of Wise, by whom various additions were made, and was more recently extensively restored by the late Thomas Lloyd esq. J.P., D.L. (d. 1890): there is a finely carved oaken staircase, a great hall and a noble dining room, with richly stained windows, bearing the emblazoned coats of the families who have successively owned this property down to the present time. It is now the residence of Sampson Samuel Lloyd esq. J.P.

Guy’s Cliffe, formerly extra-parochial, is now a parish in the Warwick union, 1 ½ miles north-west from Leamington and 1 ¼ north-north-east from Warwick, on the banks of the Avon. It derives its name from the abruptly arising rocks which form so conspicuous a feature in the landscape, and from having been the retreat of the renowned Guy, when, tired of love and war, and wearied with pilgrimage, he scooped for himself here a cave, and lived and died a recluse. If we may believe Rous, St. Dubritius, an early Christian bishop, whose episcopal seat was at Warwick, erected here a small oratory, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, to which, in after Saxon days, there came a hermit, who, making the spot his abode, was subsequently joined by Sir Guy. Henry V. struck with the scenery of the place and its religious air, had determined to found a chantry here; but this design, frustrated by the King’s death, was accomplished in 1422 by Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who also, according to Leland, set up the statue of Guy, which, though much defaced, still remains in the chapel. Rous himself was a chantry priest in the chapel of Guy’s Cliffe, during the reign of Henry IV. and died 1491. The lands with the buildings and appurtenances were granted by Edward VI. after the suppression of the chantry, to Sir Andrew Flammock, and in Queen Elizabeth’s reign were purchased by William Hudson esq. of Warwick, whose daughter marrying Sir Thomas Beaufoy, they passed to that family: subsequently, the property being purchased by William Edwards esq. of Killingworth, was sold by him to Samuel Greatheed esq. ancestor of the present possessors. Leland, Camden, and Dugdale equally concur in praise of the charming situation and romantic beauty of this celebrated spot, from 110 point seen to greater advantage than through the long avenue of magnificent fir trees, though perhaps, when viewed from the old mill where the foot bridge crosses the Avon, it has a greater picturesque ness: this mill, it must be remembered, is the representative of one in being here at the time of the Conquest. The present mansion, built on the solid rock, out of which some apartments are partially formed, is comparatively modern, having been erected early in the 18th century by Samuel Greatheed esq. who also repaired the chapel; the entrance contains numerous pieces of sculpture, among which may be noticed busts of Samuel Greatheed esq. of his first wife, of John and Charles Kemble, and of Mrs. Siddons. The various rooms are hung with a collection of valuable paintings, including fine examples of the old masters, and of the Dutch and Italian school: the most interesting, perhaps, and certainly not the least precious, are the remarkable productions of the son of Bertie Bertie Greatheed esq. a young man of singular talent, who, though he died at the early age of 22, has exhibited in these works an imaginative force and felicity of treatment rarely associated in one so young: in the courtyard are twelve cells, hewn out of the solid rock, and on the left is a chapel, a Gothic building, of Henry VI.’s reign, connected with the mansion, and now used as a place of worship. This beautiful domain became the property of Lord Charles Bertie-Percy, on his marriage with the granddaughter and heiress of the late Bertie Bertie Greatheed esq.: Lord Charles died in 1870 and his widow in 1882, and Miss Percy, the late owner, in 1891. It is now the residence of Lord Algernon Percy.

At Blacklow Hill, 1 mile from Warwick, on the Coventry road, is a monument with the following inscription “In the hollow of this rock was beheaded, on the 1st day of July, 1312, by barons lawless as himself, Piers Gaveston. Earl of Cornwall, the minion of a hateful king, in life and death a memorable instance of misrule.”

The combined area of the parishes of St. Mary, St. Nicholas and Guy’s Cliffe is 5,512 acres.

The population of the municipal borough in 1891 was 11,905, and in 1881, 11,800, viz.:-St. Mary, 6,387, and St. Nicholas, 5,397; the population of Emscote ecclesiastical parish in 1881 was 2,279, and of St. Paul, 2,758.

Emscote and Myton are suburbs.

Petty Sessions held at the Shire hall at 12 noon on sat The following places are comprised in the petty sessional division:-Barford, Beasale, Bishop’s Tachbrook, Budbrook, Charlecote, Chesterton, Haseley, Hatton, Honiley, Moreton-Morrell, Newbold-Pacey, Norton Lindsey, Sherbourne, Shrewley, Wasperton, Wellesboume-Hastings, Wellesboume-Mountford, Wroxhald.

Warwick Union

Fortnightly meetings of the Board, Saturdays (from 20th April, 1895), at the Union Workhouse, 10.30 a.m. The following places comprise the Union:-Ashow, Bagington, Barford, Beausale, Blackdown, Bubbenhas, Budbrooke, Cubbington, Eathorpe, Guy’s Cliffe, Haseley, Hatton, Honiley, Hunningham, Kenilworth, Leamington Priors, Leek Wootton, Lillington, New Milverton, Old Milverton, Norton Lindsey, Offchurch, Radford Semele, Rowington, Sherborne, Shrewley, Stivichall, Stoneleigh, Tachbrook, Wappenbury, Wasperton, Weston-under-Weatherley, Warwick St. Mary’s, Warwick St. Nicholas Whitnash, Wroxall. The area 68,300 acres; rateable value in 1895, £340,714; the population of the union in 1891 was 54,369.

PLACES OF WORSHIP, with times of services

St. Mary’s Church, Old square, Rev. Alexander Campbell Irvine M.A. vicar; Rev. Matthew Henry Middleton B.A. chaplain & assistant minister; 11 a.m. 3 & 6.30 p.m.; Wed. & Fri. 9 a.m. St. Nicholas Church, St. Nicholas Church street, Rev. Thurston Rivington M.A. vicar; Rev. Hugh Price B.A. & Rev. W. R. C. Hamilton B.A. curates; 11 a.m. 3.30 p.m. & 7 p.m.; children’s service, 3.30 p.m. every 4th Sun.; holy communion, Sun. at 8 a.m.; 1st Sun. 7 a.m.; 2nd & 4th 11 a.m.; saints’ days, 7.45 a.m. & every Thur.; 1st Thur. in month, 11 a.m.; Easter, Whitsun & Christmas day, 7, 8 & 11 a.m.; matins, Mon. Tues. & sat. 7.45; Wed. Thur. & Fri. 10.30; other days; advent & lent, 5.30 p.m. daily; saints’ days, 7.30 p.m.; evensong, Mon. Tues. & sat. 5.30; Wed. Thur. & Fri. 7.30.

St. Pauls Church, Friar’s street, Rev. Henry Gabriel Hensley M.A. vicar; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Wed. 7.30 p.m.; holy communion, 1st & 3rd Sun. in each month at 11 a.m. all the other suns, at 8 a.m.; Easter day, Whit Sun. & Christmas day at 8 & 11 a.m.

All Saints’ Church, Emscote, Rev. Thomas B. Dickins LL.D. vicar; Rev. Richard William Rudgard M.A. curate; 8.15 & 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; children’s service at 3.15 p.m.; 4th Sunday in every month, 11 a.m.; Mon. & Wed. 5.30 p.m.; Tues. Thur. Fri. & Sat. 7.30 p.m.; holy communion, Sun. saints’ days & Fri. 8.15 a.m.; in lent, Thur. 11 a.m.

St. Mary the Immaculate (Catholic), West street, Rev. Alfred Hall, priest; mass, 8.30 & mass & sermon, 11 a.m.; devotion, instruction & benediction, 6.30 p.m.; holidays of obligation mass, 8.15 a.m. & rosary & benediction, 7.30 p.m.; rosary & benediction, thurs. 7.30 p.m.; devotions & benediction, first Fri. in the month, 7.30 p.m.; daily, 8.30 a.m.

All Saints’ Mission house, Emscote road, Sister Louisa, superior.

St. Mary's Mission Room, Saltisford, 6 p.m.

Union Workhouse Chapel; 2.45 p.m. 1st, 3rd, 4th & 5th Sun. in the month & 9.30 a.m. 2nd Sun. in the month.

Friends’ Meeting House, 39 High street, 11 a.m.

Congregational, Brook street, Rev. B. Bramham; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Wed. 7 p.m.

Baptist, Castle hill, Rev. Henry Wooster Meadow; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Tues. 8.15 p.m.; Wed. 7.30 p.m.

Great Western Railway Mission Hall, Humphriss street, Miss Gowan, supt.; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.

Plymouth Brethren, Cherry street, 11 a.m.; 6.30 p.m.; Mon. 7.30 p.m.

Plymouth Brethren, Leycester place, 11 a.m.; 6.30 p.m. Mon. & Wed. 7.30 p.m.

Primitive Methodist, Stand street, 2.30 & 6.30 p.m.; Thur. 8 p.m.

Unitarian, High street, Rev. B. Kirkman Gray; 11 a.m.; 6.30 p.m.

Wesleyan, Avon street, 2.30 & 6 p.m.; Wed. 7 p.m.

Wesleyan, Northgate street, Rev. Josiah Flew; 11 a.m.; 6.30 p.m.; Tues. 7.30 p.m.

SCHOOLS

Warwick School is first mentioned as existing in the reign of Edward the Confessor, & even then was of sufficient importance to be formally granted, by Royal charter, to the ancient collegiate church of St. Mary & All Saints. A charter of Henry I. confirms this grant & alludes to similar privileges in the reigns of William the Conqueror & William Rufus. Statutes (circ. 1200), expressly speak of it as a grammar school, having then been some time in existence, & these also state the subjects to be taught, mentioning even the grammars by Donatus then in use. In 1464 it was established in a disused church, in the Market place, & it is again mentioned in 1486, both in the “Rows Rol” and in “Hist. Reg. Anglise.” In 1545 it was reconstituted by Henry VIII. whose charter of so-called foundation gives hints of an already pre-existing school, while other sources mention that money was paid to ensure the preservation of the old school. After the Dissolution it was transferred to the beautiful building now known as the “Leycester Hospital,’' but then the Guild House of the Holy Trinity. In 1571 the school was moved into the quadrangular building in The Butts which had belonged to the canons of the collegiate church, & continued to occupy these premises until 1879. In 1875 it was reconstituted a second time by the Endowed School Commissioners, the original endowment was increased & a large & handsome block of buildings erected on the Myton road, at a cost of £20,000, & including a chapel & a house for the headmaster. It is now available for 250 scholars, & has £400 yearly out of the endowment, which sum is awarded in scholarships & exhibitions. There are four “Fulke Weale” exhibitions, tenable for 4 years at the Universities, or other places of higher education. There are now (1895) 110 boarders & 57 day boys. The governing body consists of 18 persons, of whom 4 are ex-officio, 11 chosen for five years & 3 co-optative for three years; one additional governor has been chosen to represent Johnson’s charity; the Rev. J. Pearce Way M.A. headmaster; Robert Davies M.A. headmaster’s assistant; Barry Meade B.A. mathematical & science master; Rev. Frederick G. J. Page M.A. lower school master; J. W. Forbes M.A., E. A. Gaussen B.A., J. H. Lawson M.A., J. W. Liddell M.A., P. F. Rowland B.A. Herr A. Ulrich & A. G. Warren, assistant masters.

The King's Middle School, the Butts, is a day school only, & is limited to boys up to 15 years of age. There are exhibitions tenable in the school & at places of higher education or of professional training. The buildings are well suited for educational purposes, & include laboratory for chemical & technical instruction, which is given in connection with the Science & Art Department at South Kensington; & there is a dining room for the convenience of boys living at a distance; attached is an excellent playground & a master’s house; the school is a centre for the Cambridge Local Examinations.

The High School, Landor house, is for girls under 19 years of age: the school is a centre for the Local & Higher Local Examinations of the University of Cambridge, the Examinations of the Science & Art Department & for those of the Associated Board of the Royal College & Royal Academy of Music: the scheme provides for the grant of exhibitions, tenable at the school, in the form of total or partial remission of tuition fees, & also for exhibitions tenable at places of higher education or of professional training: boarders are received in boarding houses connected with the school, which is available for 230 pupils.

A School Board of 7 members was formed for the municipal borough May 17, 1882; Francis Robertson Moore, 36 High street, clerk to board; Henry Colledge, attendance officer, 110 Emscote road; the board meet at 36 High st. every 2nd Wed. in the month at 5.30 p.m.

Board School, Bowling Green street, built in 1884, for 250 boys, 250 girls & 350 infants; average attendance, 250 boys, 250 girls & 332 infants.

Board School (mixed & infants), Coten end, built in 1884, for 400 children; average attendance (girls & boys), 200; (infants), 165.

All Saints’ National (mixed & infants), Emscote, erected in 1861, the foundation stone being laid by Lord Leigh, & the infants’ school erected in 1887; the school will hold 315 boys & girls & 121 infants; average attendance, 259 boys & girls & 108 infants.

Borough & National, 8 Chapel street, formerly a Wesleyan chapel, for 312 boys & as many girls & infants; average attendance, 114 boys & 200 girls & infants.