The early history of the town of Warwick is involved in the mists of past ages, and carries us back to the period prior to the invasion of Britain by the Romans; if Rous and other old historians of the county be correct, who declare it to have been a British town of considerable importance before that great event. Dugdale says, “as it hath been the chieftest town of these parts, and whereof the whole county, upon its division into shires, took its name, so may it justly glory in its situation beyond any other, standing upon a rocky ascent, from every side, and in a dry and fertile soil, having the benefit of rich and pleasant meadows on the south part, with the lofty groves and spacious thickets of the woodland on the north: wherefore, were there nothing else to argue its great antiquity, these commodities, which so surround it, might easily satisfy us, that the Britons made an early plantation here to participate of them.” The reader will not be expected to place implicit reliance on the statements of Dugdale concerning its foundation by Cymbeline, by whom it was termed Caerleon, and its destruction by the Picts and Scots, “till Caractacus, the famous British Prince, rebuilt it, making a mansion-house therein for himself.” After the defeat of Caractacus in A.D. 50, the Romans, in order to secure their conquests in Britain, erected several fortresses on the banks of the Severn and Avon, and Warwick is said to have been one of these, but this is not very clearly proved. During the Saxon period the town was included in the kingdom of Mercia, and fell under the dominion of Warremund, who rebuilt it and called it Warrewyke, after his own name. Warwick was subsequently destroyed by the Danes, and, according to Dugdale, “so rested until the renowned Lady Ethelfled, daughter to King Alfred, who had the whole Earldom of Mercia given her by her father to the noble Etheldred in marriage, repaired its ruins, and in the year of Christ DCCCCXV, made a strong fortification here, called the doungeon, for resistance of the enemy, upon a hill of earth artificially raised near the river side;” and this forms the most ancient part of the present building. But the most important reparations of the castle were the work of the famous Guy, Earl of Warwick, although Dugdale tells us that the great tower at the north-east corner, called Guy’s Tower, the walls whereof are ten feet thick, was built by Thomas, Earl of Warwick, about the 17th of Richard the Second, on whose banishment the custody of it was granted to John de Clinton, and in a short time after to Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent. In the reign of Henry the Third, the extraordinary strength of this building was alleged as a reason for particularly prohibiting the widowed Countess of Warwick from re-marrying with any other than a person approved by the King; but in the furious contests which occurred in the latter years of this reign, William Mauduit, the then Earl, neglecting to keep proper guard, the fortress was surprised, and all the building, except the towers, levelled with the ground, while himself and his Countess were carried prisoners to Kenilworth. The family of Beauchamp shortly succeeded to the Earldom, and by Thomas Beauchamp, in the reign of Edward the Third, the castle was repaired, strong gates were added, and the gateways fortified with embattled towers. Thomas de Beauchamp, his son and successor, passed a great portion of his time here, during his exile from Court; he had, thus, leisure to repair and strengthen the castle; and he it was who built the tower as stated above, on which he bestowed the name of Guy’s Tower; it is a fine relic of early castellated building, and is represented in our initial letter.[66]

The daughter of this Richard Beauchamp married Richard Nevil, son and heir of the Earl of Salisbury, and in consequence of this marriage the Earldom of Warwick came into the possession of the Nevils. This powerful Earl played a conspicuous part in the wars of the Roses, and has been immortalised by Shakspeare, in his drama of King Henry VI.; and, after a life of strange vicissitude and high excitement, he was killed in the battle of Barnet, A.D. 1471. His estates were forfeited, his widow was deprived of all power, “as if she had been naturally dead,” and her vast inheritances were settled upon her daughters, Isabel and Anne, the latter of whom was married to George Duke of Clarence, created Earl of Warwick by his brother, King Edward the Fourth. He chiefly resided at Warwick Castle, and added much to the strength and beauty of its works. On the accession of Henry the Seventh, the jealousy of that monarch to his son Edward, the last of the male Plantagenets, induced him to compass his death, by holding out to him fair promises and a hope of liberty (for he had been imprisoned in the Tower on a groundless charge, to keep him secure), to confess a connection with Perkin Warbeck, after which confession he was beheaded on Tower-hill. From this time until the 1st of Edward the Sixth there was no Earl of Warwick; until John Dudley having been advanced to the dignity of Viscount L’Isle, was so created through the favour of the Duke of Somerset, the powerful Protector; and on the failure of that line, the title was revived by James the First, in the person of Robert Lord Rich, in whose posterity it continued till the year 1759, when it passed into the family of the Grevilles, who now hold the title of Earl Brooke and Earl of Warwick, their seats being Warwick Castle and Brooke House, Dorset.

The Castle occupies the summit of a steep hill, which greatly aided its artificial defences in “the olden time.” The present approach is

by a narrow passage, cut through the solid rock, and extending to the main entrance from the Porter’s Lodge,—the Lodge itself, however, being a place of attraction which few will leave unvisited, for here are collected the marvellous relics of the great Earl—a rib of the dun cow, a tusk of the wild boar, with horse armour, a helmet, breast-plate, tilting-pole, and walking-staff, of such prodigious size and weight that they could have suited only a giant and his steed. Of the two famous Towers, that of Guy is to the right, while that of “CÆsar” (here represented) is to the left: they are connected by a strong embattled wall, in the centre of which is the ponderous arched Gateway, flanked by Towers, and succeeded by a second arched Gateway, with Towers and Battlements, “formerly defended by two portholes, one of which still remains; before the whole is now a disused Moat, with an arch thrown over it at the Gateway, where was once the drawbridge.”[67]

Passing the double Gateway, the court-yard is entered. Thus seen, “the castellated mansion” of the most famous of the feudal Barons has a tranquil and peaceful aspect; fronting it is a green sward, and the “frowning keep” which conceals all its gloomier features behind a screen of ivy and evergreen shrubs. It is only when viewed from the river, when the battlements of the old Castle seem literally towering in air, that a notion is obtained of its prodigious strength. The slopes, however, are now clothed with gently-growing trees; several unscathed cedars speak of long years of rest from strife; the gardens are among the fairest and most fertile of the kingdom; and in one of the conservatories of the rich Park, is deposited “the Vase,” which may be said to have given a second immortality to the name of Warwick.

The interior of Warwick Castle demands but a brief notice. “The Hall” is a restoration; and the apartments, generally, have been subjected to the deleterious influence of the fashionable upholsterer. The rooms contain, however, many rich treasures of art; the collection of pictures, although of limited extent, is of rare value, comprising, perhaps, some of the best examples to be found in England of Vandyck and Rubens; and there is a fine assemblage of costly garderobes, cabinets, encoigneurs, tables

of Buhl and Marquetrie, vases, and bronzes, with many veritable antiques. An object of much interest is pictured in the appended wood-cut. It is “the Warder’s Horn.” Its history is told by the following inscription:—

It measures two feet two inches across, and three inches and three-quarters diameter at the mouth.

In all respects Warwick Castle holds rank among the most remarkable of our existing remains of the dwellings of the Feudal Barons. Its history is deeply interesting; and from the few changes it has undergone, we require little aid from fancy to read there a full and perfect record of the leading incidents of by-gone ages.