Caverswall Castle.—The pretty and secluded village of Caverswall is seated in the centre of a rich level vale, through which runs the river Blithe,—here, not far from its source, a narrow stream, which gradually swells into size and strength. The venerable Castle of Caverswall, one of the most striking, picturesque, and interesting remains of a distant age, towers above this pleasant and appropriately named streamlet, overlooking the broad valley, the whole of which it completely commands, and of which it was formerly the guardian and the glory.

In the twentieth year of William the Conqueror, Caverswall was held of Robert de Stadford by Ernulfus de Hesding; but in the time of Richard Coeur de Lion, one Thomas de Careswell was lord of this demesne, from whom it descended to Sir William de Caverswell, Knight, most likely the same who was sheriff of Staffordshire towards the close of the reign of Henry III., and whose descendant, probably grandson, of the same name and title, in the latter end of the reign of King Edward II., built

a large and strong stone castle here, surrounded by a deep moat. As additional security, when safety was worth a costly purchase, we are told he gave it the further defence of square turrets at the heads of extensive pieces of water. This is “the castel or prati-pile of Caverwell” of Leland’s time. Of its founder, we know nothing more than is revealed to us by his marble monumental slab, now reduced to the level of the church-floor at the entrance into the chancel—strange transition!—to be trodden on by every foot that passes. This “goodly castle,” as Erdeswick terms it, in his time, about two hundred and fifty years ago, he tells us, “was lately in reasonable good repair, but is now quite let to decay by one Browne, farmer of the demesnes, which he procured (if a man might guess at the cause) lest his lord should take a conceit to live there, and thereby take the demesnes from him.” Now, it is probable no remnant of this ancient Castle is extant, unless in the chiselled stones which give support to garden-hedges about the village. Still, the lower portions of the wall which surrounds the platform of the Castle, with its graduated buttresses, and perhaps also the foundations of some of the turrets, give indications of an architecture at least much anterior to the present building. We are inclined to refer this ancient wall to the period of the original Castle.

The lordship descended from the Caverswells, who enjoyed it until the nineteenth of Edward III., when by the heir-general it passed to the Montgomerys, and subsequently to the Giffards, the Ports, the family of Hastings, Earls of Huntingdon, who were owners of it in the seventeenth century; and, by purchase, to Matthew Cradock, Esq., whose father, we are told in a celebrated letter of Sir Simon Degge’s, was a wool-buyer at Stafford. In the reign of James I., this latter proprietor, it is said, employed the skill of the celebrated Inigo Jones to erect the present castellated mansion. The site of this solemn fortress-like structure, enriched by the dark-grey tints of age, is the rock which gave foundation to Sir William de Caverswell’s Castle. The grit-stone of which it is built has been excavated from the moat that surrounds the whole; the same being the case no doubt with the materials of the earlier building, for the circumstance, as we shall see, is alluded to in the Latin lines on the founder’s tomb. The Castle is placed upon an elevated quadrangular platform, which is defended by a curtain running along each side, having a number of graduated buttresses rising from the moat, and by an octagonal turret, with its base dipping in the fosse, at each angle. The pointed arched gateway, approached by a stone bridge, is flanked by an additional turret on each side, like the others, balustraded at the top. This balustrade formerly was carried round the top of the Castle also. Its removal in recent times has been injurious to picturesque effect; hence the artist has retained this proper mark of style in our lithotint. The quadrangle of the Castle is laid out in gravelled walks, shaded by fine hedges of hornbeam, and a beautiful flower-garden, exhibiting many of the gems of Flora’s chaplet, and some remarkably fine specimens of Cotoneaster trained along the walls. The building itself is chiefly interesting as presenting the ideal of the great architect of the transition from the ancient castle to the baronial mansion. The keep may be said to be still retained in the lofty square tower, which overtops the building at its western end. Two great bays ascend, one on each side, to the top of the building, which break the plainness of the front, and afford additional light to the apartments. The numerous windows are all large, divided by deep mullions; and in a winter’s evening, when most of the rooms are occupied, a distant spectator might conceive there was an illumination in the Castle. The rooms are plain, and afford nothing worthy of particular note. The square tower is chiefly occupied by staircases. The turrets have been converted into apartments of residence. Whilst around the whole, flow the dark yet clear waters of the moat, which expands on the western side into a small lake. This moat is supplied by a number of springs and a limpid rill that runs into it. Its outer margin receives the shade of some fine limes. As if in pointed contrast to all this panoply of defence, on the inner margin of the fosse there is seen a pretty little flower-border, occupying the recesses between the buttresses which support the platform.

We have here an indication of the peaceful, unwarlike purpose to which this sombre fortress is now devoted. On the decease of Matthew Cradock, Esq., who built the present Castle, it came into the hands of his son, George Cradock, Esq., who died in 1643,[28] with whose descendants it remained only till 1655. From them it passed to Sir William Jolliffe, Knight; and from him, by marriage with his daughter, to William Viscount Vane, of Ireland. It subsequently passed into the hands of the family of Parker, one worthy descendant of which house, Thomas Hawe Parker, Esq., resides at Park Hall, near the village, and still retains the manor. During the disastrous wars of the French Revolution, it was purchased for the retreat of a religious community from Ghent, in Belgium,—the Benedictine Dames,—who emigrated hither in 1811, having previously settled at Preston, in Lancashire. These ladies, in their antique black dresses and hoods, as they traverse the terraces on the platform of the Castle, or engage in the cultivation of their flower-gardens, give an air of surprising interest, of living reality, to this castellated mansion of other ages. They have erected a good-sized chapel on the eastern side of the house, in which is a large picture over the altar representing St. Benedict and St. Scholastica praying to the virgin; and they devote much of their time to the purposes of education. On the opposite side of the moat, amidst the shade of surrounding trees, we perceive the final resting-place of the sisterhood. In this neat little plot is a number of tombstones, two of which are distinguished from the rest by bearing the cross and pastoral staff—emblems of ghostly superintendence. They mark the graves of Lady Abbesses. One lay sister, now rapidly descending the vale of years, is the only religieuse who came over with the original refugees.

A doorway, now closed, formerly led from the Castle to the Church, which is close by. It is a spacious village church, dedicated to St. Peter, embosomed in a grove of

sycamores, and presenting, like many others, indications of great antiquity—indications which are almost overgrown with the additions and reconstructions of nearly every period since its foundation. The piers of the nave, which give support to a series of semicircular arches, from their plainness most probably belong to the Norman style. The decorated finds its representatives in the belfry arch, and the two aisles of the nave; whilst the perpendicular is fairly displayed in the handsome eastern window of the tower. This tower and the aisles may be referred to the fourteenth century. The beauties and harmonies of the whole have been sadly marred, especially by the low flat ceilings, which extend from the tower to the chancel, in different stages of degradation. The nave contains some plain low oaken stalls, very ancient. Some pews also and the pulpit exhibit specimens of carving in oak in a pleasing style—an illustration of which forms our initial letter. The Church is rich in monuments. Beyond mentioning a fine evidence of Chantrey’s skill, in a monumental figure to the memory of the Countess of St. Vincent,—the lady kneels in an attitude of submissiveness to the inevitable stroke, her coronet being laid aside,—beyond this mere mention, and that the family vaults and monuments of the Parker family, of Park Hall, the patrons of the living, exist here, we shall confine ourselves to the memorials of the two founders of the ancient and more modern Castles of Caverswall. At the entrance to the chancel, near to the foot of the pulpit stairs, is a massy slab of grey marble, laid in the floor. This is all that now remains of the monument of Sir William de Caverswell, the builder of the Castle in the time of Edward II., about A.D. 1300. It has originally contained a large and elegant cross-fleurie, stretching over the entire length of the slab, a shield on each side, and an inscription running along the head and the two sides, all in inlaid brass. Erdeswick, the Staffordshire antiquary, who described it about two hundred and fifty years ago, tells us that then the metal had been taken out. He adds, in a parenthesis, “such is the iniquity of this day;” but yet he was able to perceive what the letters were. These letters are in a fine character of the period, before black-letter was employed. Having carefully examined them, we were still able to decipher the whole, and now present a more correct reading than has ever before appeared, which, together with the accurate drawing of this rich and finished tablet (printed on the front page of this article) by our artist, Mr. F. Hulme, will, we trust, preserve a faint memory of the original. The inscription commences at an ornamental cross near the top on the left side, and ends at one opposite.

Then follow these lines along the two sides:—

Which Dr. Plot informs us was Englished thus:—

In a spirit not altogether inaccordant with the original, another hand added this couplet, as Dr. Plot further says:—

In the south wall of the chancel is a mural tablet in memory of Matthew Cradock, Esq., the founder of the present Caverswall Castle. In its style, this monument bears

marks of the age in which it was constructed,—the reign of Charles I. It is worthy of note, however, that, whilst the hand of man, as well as his foot, has continually warred against the monumental memorial of his great predecessor for more than five hundred years, without being able to obliterate the recognition of his name and merits, the inscription on that of Matthew Cradock, although not of half the antiquity, protected and even partially renewed, is now, in the main, irrevocably effaced. It has commenced in these terms, “Hic sepelitvr Matie Cr rmig.” The rest is so greatly defaced, as only to allow us to make out that he married Elizabeth, the daughter of a Salopian esquire, and that his first-born child married the daughter of John Saunders, M.D., which agrees with the inscription on the mural tablet of George Cradock, Esq. Some lines in white paint below profess to have derived their origin from “ I. M. R. E. de Stoke.” Matthew Cradock, we believe, was a merchant, and was returned to Parliament, A.D. 1640, 15 Charles I., for the City of London. His arms appear upon the tablet.

At an early period of the contest between Charles and his Parliament, Caverswall Castle seems to have excited notice, and was garrisoned for the Parliament; the family, no doubt, took this side. From the following entry of the Committee at Stafford, the widow of George Cradock, Esq., appears to have received some marks of respect amidst this military intrusion. “Dec. 4, 1643.—It is ordered that Captain John Young shall forthwith repayre to Carswall House, and safely keepe the same for the use of the King and Parliament, until he shall have order to the contrarie. But he is to leave his horses behind him at Stafford; he is likewise to use Mrs. Cradock with all respect, and not suffer any spoyle or waste made of her goods.” “It is ordered that Mrs. Cradock shall have, towards the fortification of her house at Carswall, liberty to take, fell, cut downe, and carrie away any timber, or other materials, from any papist, delinquent, or malignant whatsoever.” “March 1, 1643-4.—It is ordered that Carswall be made unservisable.” This last order does not appear to have been fulfilled to the letter; for Caverswall Castle still remains unimpaired, sombre and venerable, to grace the verdant meads amid which it is situated—to shelter the religieuses who have succeeded the refugees from the Low Countries—and to show the pilgrim, who wanders through shady dells and by babbling brooks, catching the bland whisperings of the spirits of the past, that—