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 ' 
 
 ^w/
 
 RAMBLES ROUND 
 
 RUGBY 
 
 BY ALFRED RIMMER 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER BY 
 
 THE REV. W. H. PAYNE SMITH, M.A. 
 
 ASSISTANT MASTER AT RUGBY SCHOOL 
 
 WITH SEVENTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 Hontion 
 
 PERCIVAL & CO. 
 1892

 
 PREFACE 
 
 IT is not proposed in this work to give an exhaustive 
 account of any particular places or scenes, but rather 
 to intimate and point out the interesting parts which 
 may be most easily reached. The country round 
 Rugby is rich in historical associations which have 
 greatly influenced English history, for within reach the 
 first and the last of Cromwell's battles were fought. 
 The Wars of the Roses were ended here, and, so far 
 as we know, this was one of the most important 
 Roman centres of England. 
 
 But these are matters, perhaps, that ramblers in 
 country lanes would not care so much to attend to 
 when there are other things of more present interest, 
 such wild-flowers and bushes and reeds. 
 
 As spring advances towards April the well-known 
 Wake Robin, or Lords and Ladies (Arum maculatum], 
 is common in the hedges, and its straight stems, with 
 the single leaf at the top, are very graceful. It grows 
 from a sort of cup under the ground that contains a 
 
 2000232
 
 viii Preface. 
 
 quantity of starch. The 'self-heal,' which is said to 
 be a very excellent cure for quinsy and cuts, the thyme- 
 leaved veronica, and many others, now appear. The 
 red and white campions send out a pleasant scent, 
 and the foxglove, that has a pleasing record with 
 boys, and countless others, bloom. The 'blue-bell of 
 Scotland,' as it is called, doubtless from the colour 
 of the Stuart's ribbon, is often in such immense 
 quantities that a considerable patch of ground is quite 
 coloured by it. But a very few weeks will commence 
 a liking for botany, and when a little knowledge is 
 accumulated, it soon becomes permanent and increases. 
 There are those who would feel more interest in 
 insects and butterflies than plants, and for such the 
 country round Rugby is a happy hunting-ground, and 
 collections may be easily made. A microscope is a 
 useful accompaniment, and shows us the wonders of 
 these creatures. The eggs of butterflies are very 
 singular; they differ as much, and even more than 
 the creatures themselves, and that is saying a great 
 deal. Then the stages of caterpillar, chrysalis, and 
 imago are wonderful. The miniature organs of the 
 wings may be traced in the caterpillar when only a 
 few days old, and in the antennae are organs of sense
 
 Preface. ix 
 
 of which we are entirely ignorant. If, for example, a 
 virgin butterfly, and this applies to many species, is 
 enclosed in a perforated box and placed where it can 
 be seen, it draws admirers from great distances ; but 
 the strangest thing is, that when a companion is 
 chosen the others retire, and if exposed again not a 
 single one appears. This points to some sense of 
 which we are quite ignorant, and with which none of 
 our own correspond. The more we look into animated 
 nature the more we shall see how little we know of any 
 but a limited number of the senses on earth. 
 
 A collection of moths and butterflies may easily be 
 made with a gauze net, and a small drop of ether 
 secures the prize. The commonest of all butterflies 
 is the ' white cabbage butterfly,' which does great havoc 
 among green plants. It is, perhaps, the most difficult 
 and wary of all to catch, yet in summer we hardly can 
 travel many yards without its flitting across us. This 
 species has very migratory habits, and will sometimes 
 muster in large flocks and cross the sea. We find, also, 
 in the lanes round Rugby, the ' blues ' and the ' copper ' 
 and the 'brimstone' butterflies. We may also see in 
 May the tortoise-shell butterflies, which fly in pairs, and 
 are charming objects.
 
 x Preface. 
 
 The ' Camberwell beauty ' has once been found in 
 the neighbourhood of Rugby ; it selects the white 
 willow to lay its eggs in. But those splendid butter- 
 flies, the 'red admiral' and the 'peacock,' are quite 
 common. The latter may often be noticed resting 
 with its wings open, and Taylor, in his World of 
 Mind, suggests that this is done on purpose, that its 
 beautiful adornments in which it delights may be in 
 sight Unlike other butterflies, the 'peacock' hybernates 
 during the winter, and I have seen them in all their 
 splendid plumage in early spring. The 'orange tip' 
 and ' meadow brown ' follow later, and are abundant 
 in June and July. 
 
 There is what is sometimes called a nocturnal re- 
 presentative of the butterfly also in the same district, 
 and some of the moths are nearly as beautiful as our 
 butterflies. The Meadow Tiger, for example (Chelonia 
 cajci), has rich velvety fore wings, and the markings are 
 cream coloured, the hind wings being beautifully red with 
 fine black spots. Then we have the Hawk-moths with 
 their long-sustained flights and mischievous lives. If, on 
 a hot summer's day, you see a hedge stripped of its leaves 
 for a considerable distance, and in it a sort of structure of 
 cobweb appearance, the probability is that this contains
 
 Preface. xi 
 
 the caterpillars of the small Eggar moth (Eriogaster 
 lanestris}. These caterpillars are black, unsightly things, 
 and very much larger than the moth itself. Push the 
 structure with your stick, and scores of similar cater- 
 pillars will come out and join their relatives who are 
 engaged in desolating the hedge. Their way of life is 
 rather amusing : they issue forth in single file at great 
 length, and literally devour every green thing that 
 comes in their way, and, singularly enough, they leave off 
 feeding suddenly and return to their quarters. Still 
 more mischievous is the Goat moth (Cossus ligniperda}, 
 the larva of which is a terrible destroyer of trees, boring 
 holes in them, and making promenades that do not at 
 all times show from the outside. I have seen a log of 
 foreign timber sold that had no appearance externally of 
 demolition, but, when it came under the sawyer's hands, 
 it was found to be a perfect wreck. The larvae of the 
 Goat moth are very large, and Pliny mentions them as 
 a much-prized dish among the affluent Romans. It was 
 looked upon as a great delicacy from its high flavour, 
 and it was fattened on flour for some time before 
 cooking. It would be impossible to give even a partial 
 list of the many moths of the Rugby lanes. The 
 butterflies, it may be said, rest with their wings closed
 
 xii Preface. 
 
 and the moths with theirs open, though, of course, the 
 ' peacock ' and ' red admiral ' will open and show their 
 superb colours. The beetles are also full of interest, 
 and the stag-beetle is not uncommon. 
 
 But the most charming of all live creatures in our 
 rambles are the migratory and non-migratory birds. 
 There are two kinds of migratory birds, those which 
 come in spring and stay until the end of summer, and 
 those which leave their northern abodes and stay with us 
 over the winter. To the former belong the well-known 
 martin and swift, and all the swallow kind, which are 
 looked forward to with great interest and welcome; and 
 the cuckoo, which is more heard than seen, and tells us 
 that spring has set in. Whether the nightingale reaches 
 the neighbourhood I was never able to ascertain person- 
 ally, but they say it does. Its habits are most unintel- 
 ligible, and nothing we know of can account for them. 
 The eggs have been frequently taken away from some 
 place and put in another bird's nest in some district 
 which they do not frequent. The food they are partial 
 to has been sown, and, under skilled gardeners' hands, 
 carefully brought to perfection ; but instead of the young 
 ones that had grown and prospered returning to the 
 same district, they go to the place where their eggs were
 
 Preface. xiii 
 
 laid on their return to England the following year. Why 
 should Devonshire, of all counties, be without nightin- 
 gales ? It is not generally known, but it is said, on the 
 highest authority, that the blackbirds which abound in 
 the lanes in winter are not English birds but foreign, from 
 Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and our own emigrate 
 to milder lands in the South. The birds that spend 
 their winter with us from other countries principally 
 belong to the duck tribe. The absence of marsh lands 
 round Rugby does not attract them, still they are met 
 with on the Avon, and in the winter I have seen flights 
 at some height up, and in considerable numbers, going 
 probably to distant marsh lands. 
 
 The English wild duck is the most timid of all our 
 birds, and the most difficult to approach ; but I could 
 mention a very singular circumstance I saw on the 
 road on a spring day when going from Liverpool to 
 Rugby. There is a duck decoy at a place called Hale, 
 near Liverpool, that stands away from the road at 
 the junction of two very large marshy fields. The 
 Warrington railway runs very near it, and within two 
 miles is the noisy Runcorn viaduct across the Mersey. 
 The decoy pond covers five acres, and is surrounded 
 with a high wooden boarding and trees ; and outside the
 
 xiv Preface. 
 
 boarding is a wide, deep moat, which is crossed by a 
 single locked drawbridge. In looking through a small 
 nick in the boarding I saw some six hundred wild 
 ducks, all at their ease. The keepers at Hale Hall say 
 that the fields are quiet, and the loud railway whistles 
 give no alarm at all ; they are accustomed to them in the 
 same way as we may see from an express train water-hens 
 on a pool that take no notice of the furious passer-by. 
 
 But the summer birds of the green lanes and fields 
 are the most interesting. The song of the lark, when 
 the bird is invisible up in the air, is very delightful, and 
 in early summer the lanes ring all over with the 
 melodies of thrushes and blackbirds. The titmice are 
 numerous in the lanes round Rugby, and I could count 
 five different species ; the bearded tit, the crested tit, 
 the long-tailed tit, the great and the blue tits. Warblers 
 and fly-catchers also abound in these lanes, and so do 
 yellow-hammers and goldfinches, though these are 
 less common everywhere than formerly, owing not to 
 their being destroyed, but to the doing away with 
 hedges where they got their food, and the substitution 
 of wooden fences. 
 
 The green plover or lapwing forms a very amusing 
 companion at laying-time, when it comes in front of
 
 Preface. xv 
 
 any one that is near its nest, and with screams of 
 distress allures the intruders away from its eggs. The 
 lark, which also lays on the ground, has a very different 
 way of dealing with them. Its back claw is especially 
 long, and it can clip its eggs when in danger and fly 
 away with them. This has often been seen. But the 
 most beautiful of all English birds is not uncommon on 
 the Avon, though very rare in some parts of England. 
 The kingfishers, in their brilliant plumage, are little 
 inferior to any foreign bird. They have a wide distri- 
 bution over the earth, and this indicates a high geological 
 antiquity. Those on the American rivers are consider- 
 ably larger than ours, and not nearly so brilliant in 
 colour. Kingfishers build their nests in holes on the 
 bank of the river, and commonly choose the hole of the 
 water-rat. They widen in, and build their nests of fish- 
 bones some distance from the surface of the bank. 
 Kites and hawks of various kinds are not so common 
 as they were, owing to the deadly enmity of the keepers. 
 But the little that has been said is enough to point out 
 what objects of interest present themselves to the 
 rambler. 
 
 Lastly, let me refer to the architectural beauties 
 of the parish churches. These abound in Northampton,
 
 xvi Preface. 
 
 which, if we except Lincoln, has no rival in any English 
 county. The dates of the windows may easily be learned, 
 and the interest aroused is so great that the student 
 soon begins to notice the various styles of mouldings, 
 and the characteristics of styles. These never err or 
 vary ; a single moulding will tell the date of the struc- 
 ture. Bloxam is one of our great authorities on archi- 
 tecture, and was a constant resident in Rugby during 
 his long life. 
 
 ALFRED RIMMER. 
 
 January 1892.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 RUGBY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Town of Rugby The Church The Old Church Tower- 
 Lawrence Sheriff Rugby School Dr. Arnold Archbishop 
 Tail Dean Goulburn Bishop Temple Dr. Hayman Dr. Jex 
 Blake The School Chapel, 1-37 
 
 ASHBY ST. LEGERS : GUNPOWDER PLOT. 
 
 Approaches to Ashby St. Legers Church at Ashby and preservation 
 by the Lord of the Manor Catesbys, Ratcliffes, and Lovells 
 Thomas Cromwell and his treatment of sequestered Abbots 
 Lady Catesby and her Son Percy, his Co-conspirator John 
 Wright, his Ally, and the others Tresham, and his Letter to 
 Monteagle James I. and his pretended connection with the 
 Discovery of Guy Fawkes, ....... 38-52 
 
 ASHBY ST. LEGERS AND SENHOUSE FAMILY. 
 
 Gathering Arms at Ashby Princess Elizabeth to be placed on the 
 Throne Flight of Conspirators Dunchurch Arrival of Con- 
 spirators at Ashby Holbeach, the Seat of Stephen Littleton, 
 besieged Execution of Conspirators Ashby St. Legers Hall 
 Tulip Tree Irving Family, and Pocklington Senhouse and 
 Family Sir Everard Digby, ....... 53-60 
 
 CRICK CHURCH AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
 
 Crick Church Watford Court Lord Northington Battle of Bos- 
 worth Extinction of the House of Plantagenet, . . . 61-71 
 b
 
 xviii Contents 
 
 EDGEHILL AND NASEBY. 
 
 PAG 
 
 Battle of Edgehill Charles at Nottingham Prince Rupert Lord 
 Brooke Shuckburgh K ineton Radway Lord Lindsay 
 Green's History of the Battle Lord Fairfax Issues between 
 the King and the People Destruction of Antiquities through 
 Charles Naseby King Charles's Tower, Chester Uxbridge 
 Council Montrose Naseby Battlefield Marston Trussel 
 Church Old Account of Battle, 72-8 
 
 COVENTRY. 
 
 Ryton-on-Dunsmore Coventry Spires Coventry Damage by 
 Charles II. after Restoration, and Destruction of Walls Gos- 
 ford Green, and the Scene of Meeting for Combat between 
 Bolingbroke and Norfolk River Avon Baginton Continua- 
 tion of Meeting between Bolingbroke and Norfolk Coventry 
 Cross, and English Crosses St. Mary's Hall St. Michael's 
 Church Holy Trinity Church Greyfriars' Hospital Coventry 
 Parliaments, . . . . . . . . . 89-105 
 
 WARWICK. 
 
 Remarks on English Architecture Italian Substitution Chester 
 Walls Leicester's Hospital Nilometer St. Mary's Church 
 and Beauchamp Chapel Leicester and Amy Robsart Cumnor 
 Hall Inquest Anthony Foster Stoneleigh Abbey Leigh 
 Family Lord Ellesmere Cistercian Monks Radmore 
 Guy's Cliff Guy, Earl of Warwick Guy's Cliff Mill, . . 106-122 
 
 STONELEIGH ABBEY. 
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey Abbots Fire at Abbey English Architecture 
 Churches round Rugby and Northampton Greek Architecture 
 Theory of painted Temples Valuation of Abbey Revenues 
 at Dissolution Royal Commission on Dissolution The ' Black 
 Book ' Ashow Baginton Whitley Abbey Stivichall Road 
 from Rugby to Coombe Murder of Sir Theodosius Boughton 
 Newbold-on-Avon Church Lawford (King's Newnham) 
 Dr. Bucklandand Remains of extinct Animals Binley- -Brink-
 
 Contents. xix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 low Oxford Canal- -Roman Fosse Coombe Abbey Abbey 
 Lands and Lake Deer Park Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia 
 Dissolution of Abbey Alms and Hospitality Road to Market 
 Harboro' Rutland County Leicestershire roads Watling 
 Street Leicester part of see of Lincoln, and afterwards Peter- 
 boro' Leicester cattle and Stilton cheese Stanford Stan- 
 ford Church The Cave Family Baron Braye Stanford Hall 
 Cave killed by Biron River Avon South Kilworth North 
 Kilworth Husbands Bosworth Turville family Sir Wm. 
 Turville, an Ecclesiastical Commissioner Theddingworth 
 Lubbenham Holdenby Welford East Haddon Removal 
 of Charles from Holdenby Sale of Holdenby House John 
 of Padua Theobalds, 123-173 
 
 MARKET HARBORO'. 
 
 Market Harboro' Little Bowden Great Bowden Sutton Bassett 
 Weston by Welland Ashley Leicester Archaeological Society 
 Roman Remains Market Harboro' Church Rockingham 
 Pipewell Abbey Rockingham Castle Caldicott approach to 
 district from Uppingham Great Easton Bradley Priory 
 Rockingham Hostel Lyddington Lyddington Church and 
 Palace Cardinal Wolsey Grossteste and the Pope Snelston 
 Lord Burleigh Palace converted to a Hospital for the Aged 
 Wing Manton Thorney Abbey Oakham Thomas Crom- 
 well Baron of Oakham Ferrars Family Poll Tax and Orms- 
 kirk Flore's House Reversions of Oakham Piers Gaveston 
 Hudson the Dwarf Burleigh Hall Stamford and its Archi- 
 tecture Edmund Ironside Bridge over Welland Dickens 
 on Stamford Eleanor Cross Henry Cecil, Earl of Exeter, 
 divorced and married Miss Hoggins Beautiful Ballad by 
 Tennyson Burleigh House and Pictures Verrio and Lagerre 
 Paintings at Burleigh Thackeray on great mansions Lake 
 Attacks on Burleigh House in Civil War William Cecil- 
 Queen Elizabeth's Ely letter John Thorpe, Elizabethan 
 Architect Dr. Stukeley, Vicar of All Saints 174-220 
 
 BILTON. 
 
 Bilton Bilton Hall Dutch Gardens Addison, his early life and 
 career Addison's father Amesbury and Salisbury Plain 
 Bustards Addison's father, Dean of Lichfield Addison's 
 knowledge of Latin Fellow of Magdalen His upward careet
 
 xx Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 His Poem on Marlboro' Gale of 1703 Purchased Bilton Hall 
 Sir Roger de Coverley Ayston Church Preston Church 
 Bilton Church Bilton Grange Dunchurch Pipewell Abbey 
 Dunchurch Stocks Chancellor Eldon and the Stocks, . 221-239 
 
 KENILWORTH. 
 
 From Stoneleigh to Kenilworth English Castles Leamington 
 Amy Robsart Earl of Leicester Early Architecture of Kenil- 
 worth Kenilworth Lake Gatehouse Havoc by Parliamen- 
 tarians Geoffrey de Clinton Pope Innocent Simon de Mont- 
 fort Occupation of Kenilworth by John of Gaunt General 
 Destruction of Building Lutterworth Wycliffe Papacy at 
 Avignon -Lollards Denial of Transubstantiation Persecu- 
 tion of Wycliffe, and the unearthing of his remains to cast in 
 the river Swift Roman remains in England Villas and roads, 240-265 

 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 RUGBY SCHOOL, Frontispiece. 
 
 OLD QUADRANGLE, RUGBY, .... Vignette on Title. 
 
 RIVER AVON, RUGBY, 2 
 
 RUGBY MILL, ........... 3 
 
 MILL AT RUGBY, 12 
 
 BROWNSOVER COTTAGE, 13 
 
 OLD QUADRANGLE, RUGBY, 28 
 
 RUGBY SCHOOL CHAPEL, ....... 36 
 
 ASHBY ST. LEGERS CHURCH, FROM THE PARK, ... 39 
 
 ASHBY ST. LEGERS (CHURCH WINDOWS), ... 41 
 
 GUNPOWDER PLOT HOUSE, 43 
 
 DIGBY MONUMENT, STOKE DRY, 48 
 
 ASHBY ST. LEGERS (RESIDENCE), 56 
 
 THE TULIP TREE, 57 
 
 CRICK CHURCH (SOUTH-EAST), 61 
 
 CRICK CHURCH {SPIRE, ETC.), 62 
 
 BLUE BOAR TAVERN, 66 
 
 EDGE HILL, 72 
 
 WARWICK CASTLE, 78 
 
 MARKET HARBORO', FROM BREWERY FIELDS, ... 84 
 
 NASEBY CHURCH, 86 
 
 COVENTRY, ENTRANCE GATE, ....... 91
 
 xxii List of Illustrations. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHURCH, ETC., AT COVENTRY, .... .- . 93 
 
 HOLY TRINITY SPIRE, COVENTRY, . . . . . 101 
 
 GREY FRIARS' HOSPITAL, COVENTRY, 103 
 
 LEICESTER'S HOSPITAL, WARWICK, 108 
 
 LEICESTER'S HOSPITAL (ANOTHER VIEW), . . . . no 
 
 GUY'S CLIFF MILL, . 121 
 
 STONELEIGH ABBEY, 125 
 
 NEWNHAM REGIS, 139 
 
 BRINKLOW TOWER, 141 
 
 BRINKLOW TO RUGBY, ........ 142 
 
 IN COOMBE ABBEY PARK, . . . . . . . 143 
 
 COOMBE ABBEY, WARWICK, . 144 
 
 IN COOMBE ABBEY PARK, . . . . 146 
 
 LEICESTER ST. MARY'S CHURCH, 149 
 
 LEICESTER ST. MARGARET'S, . 151 
 
 LEICESTER HOLY TRINITY HOSPITAL, . ... . , 151 
 
 WATLING STREET, . . . . . . . 152 
 
 STANFORD CHURCH, . . . . ... 155 
 
 STANFORD HALL, 158 
 
 SOUTH KILWORTH CHURCH, 159 
 
 SOUTH KILWORTH, . . . . . . . .-,',, 160 
 
 ON ROAD TO SOUTH KILWORTH, .. . 160 
 
 NORTH KILWORTH CHURCH, 161 
 
 THEDDINGWORTH CHURCH, 163 
 
 REMAINS OF HOLMBY HOUSE, . . . . . . 168 
 
 HOLMBY, . . . 170 
 
 ENTERING MARKET HARBORO' FROM LEICESTER ROAD, . 174 
 
 IN MARKET HARBORO', 177
 
 List of Illustrations. xxiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ROCKINGHAM, 183 
 
 ROCKINGHAM CHURCH, 187 
 
 MANTON, 196 
 
 WING MILL, RUTLAND, 198 
 
 OAKHAM, RUTLAND, 199 
 
 ALL SAINTS, STAMFORD, 208 
 
 BILTON HALL, RUGBY 222 
 
 PRESTON CHURCH CHANCEL, 230 
 
 BILTON CHURCH, RUGBY, 231 
 
 ENTERING DUNCHURCH, . . 233 
 
 DUNCHURCH PARISH CHURCH, 235 
 
 THE STOCKS, DUNCHURCH, 236 
 
 IN DUNCHURCH, 238 
 
 KENILWORTH CASTLE, PORTER'S LODGE, .... 242 
 
 KENILWORTH CASTLE, . . . : . . . . 243 
 
 LUTTERWORTH CHURCH, ....... 253 
 
 BRANDON, 258 
 
 WOLSTON, . . . 259 
 
 WOLSTON CHURCH, RUGBY, . . . . . - . . 260 
 
 CLAYBROOKE CHURCH, . . . 261 
 
 AT ULLESTHORPE, 262 
 
 AT ULLESTHORPE (ANOTHER VIEW), ..... 263
 
 RAMBLES ROUND RUGBY 
 
 RUGBY 
 
 HE who casts his eye on a map of Britain in the olden 
 days, when it was a portion of the Roman Empire, will 
 readily note the lines of the two chief Roman roads and 
 the point, almost in the centre of the island, where they 
 cross one another. The Stratum, or Watling Street, ran 
 from London through the Midlands to Uriconium or 
 Wroxeter ; the Fossa, or Fosse Way, took its undeviating 
 course from Aquae Solis, or Bath, to Lincoln. The 
 ancient Roman station at the point of intersection now 
 goes by the name of High Cross, and is marked by a 
 pillar erected in the reign of Queen Anne, with an 
 inscription denoting the historical interest of the position 
 and also the restoration of peace to the kingdom. 
 Some eight or ten miles south of this point, the War- 
 wickshire Avon, flowing in this part of its course almost 
 due west, cuts across both roads, and forms the base of 
 a triangle having the two roads as its sides and High 
 Cross at its apex. On the Avon, about mid-way between 
 the two roads, lies the town of Rugby, in the midst of 
 pleasant, gentle, meadow scenery, with splendid trees 
 scattered plentifully on all sides in field and hedge-row. 
 
 A
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 Amidst minor effects which Arnold's influence at 
 Rugby, or that of Stanley's famous biography of him, 
 produced, there may be counted a depreciation of 
 
 . . 
 
 Warwickshire scenery. The passage is well known, in 
 which his feelings are described : (Life of Arnold, i. p. 
 210): 'The monotonous character of the midland scenery 
 of Warwickshire was to him, with his strong love of 
 natural beauty and variety, absolutely repulsive ; there 
 was something almost touching in the eagerness with 
 which, amidst that " endless succession of fields and 
 hedge-rows," he would make the most of any features of 
 a higher order ; in the pleasure with which he would 
 cherish the few places where the current of the Avon 
 was perceptible, or where a glimpse of the horizon could 
 be discerned ; in the humorous despair with which he 
 would gaze on the dull expanse of fields eastward from 
 Rugby. It is no wonder that we do not like looking 
 that way, when one considers that there is nothing fine 
 between us and the Ural Mountains. Conceive what
 
 Rugby. 3 
 
 you look over, for you must miss Sweden, and look over 
 Holland, the north of Germany, and the centre of 
 Russia." ' To persons who can see beauties in scenery, 
 even if it possesses no mountains, or who have not such 
 a vivid imagination as to grieve because an eastward 
 gaze, if it could see far enough, would miss the Valdai 
 
 Hills and descry only the flatter centre of Russia, such 
 lamentations seem exaggerated. Warwickshire has its 
 own beauty, and a very peaceful and restful, if not 
 exciting, kind of beauty it is ; it is found in the bright 
 greenness of meadows, the graceful masses of foliage of
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 the splendid timber, the glimpses of the sluggish Avon 
 among the trees, and the succession of many a rounded 
 knoll crowned with grand elms and beeches, with the 
 old-world cottage roofs nestling along the sloping road, 
 and the tower or spire of the village church peeping out 
 among the trees. The traveller need not go far from 
 Rugby to find many a spot on which the eye lingers with 
 delight ; the woods of Coombe, the meanderings of the 
 Avon in the deep meadows near Bretford and Wolston, 
 the stately beeches at Stanford, or the grand avenue, some 
 three miles of Scotch firs and three more of elms, along 
 the road across Dunsmore Heath. But there are many 
 signs that the midland scenery of England is beginning 
 to be more rightly appreciated in the present day ; we 
 can turn back to Rugby without further defence of it. 
 
 Situated as it is so close to the two great roads, 
 within easy reach of many an old British or Roman 
 station or earthwork, Rugby itself retains scarcely any 
 link with the distant past A few pieces of Roman 
 and Saxon pottery, an old dagger or two, and one or 
 two other relics, are all that the past has given up. 1 
 But there are also visible two old tumuli, one in the 
 School Close (the well-known ' Island ' famous in the 
 story of Tom Brown, of which more anon), the other in 
 a field on the western side of Rugby, adjoining the 
 Lawford Road. These two mounds take us back to 
 times anterior to the Roman conquest of Britain ; they 
 mark the time when the Avon was the boundary line 
 
 1 The articles referred to came for the most part into the possession of 
 the great Rugby antiquary, the late M. H. Bloxam, Esq., F.S.A., etc., 
 and were left by him to the Rugby School Art Museum, where they may 
 now be seen.
 
 Rugby- 5 
 
 between the British tribes of the Dobuni and Coritani 
 (or Coritavi), and might enable a vivid imagination to 
 picture somewhat of the doings of these shadowy folk. 
 Here, in the Island, combining it may be sentiment 
 with practical use, the Dobuni raised a tumulus over the 
 bones of some old warrior, and raised it in such a spot 
 as to form one of the links in the chain of posts which 
 acted as a defence for their northern frontier, and as 
 signal stations along which the news might speed of any 
 hostile movements on the part of their foes. 
 
 A long step must next be taken. Domesday Book, 
 of course, records what Rugby was at the time of the 
 Norman Conquest. RocJuberie (so was the name then 
 spelt, which, after passing through the forms of Rochebe 
 and Rokeby, appears at last in Leland's writings as 
 Rugby) was then a manor or demesne of little import- 
 ance, the superior lord of which was Turchel de Warwick, 
 and which was held under him by a family who took 
 from the place the name of De Rokeby. It possessed 
 no church of its own, being, in fact, a ' member ' of the 
 neighbouring parish of Clifton, which it afterwards 
 outstripped in growth and progress. It is not till some 
 fifty years later than Domesday Book that we have 
 definite record of the existence of a chapel at Rugby. 
 Early in the thirteenth century, through the exertions of 
 Henry de Rokeby, Rugby was separated from Clifton, 
 and the chapel was converted into a parish church. 
 Those who are curious in such matters can see an 
 elaborate account of the matter in the late Mr. M. H. 
 Bloxam's Rugby, pp. 119 to 138. With his usual pains- 
 taking accuracy, he collected every notice in existence
 
 Rambles round Riigby. 
 
 of the history of the church and parish of Rugby ; his 
 writings, indeed, form the quarry from which every 
 subsequent writer on Rugby must hew such material as 
 he wants. The matter is too elaborate and technical 
 for our present purpose : it must suffice to say that no 
 part exists in the present church which takes us back to 
 these early dates. The earliest existing building in 
 Rugby is the old church-tower, which, together with 
 four arches inside the church, is all that remains of work 
 erected prior to the Reformation. This old tower stands 
 at the western end of the church, and is remarkable for 
 more than one reason. It is remarkable, first, for the 
 difficulty which has been experienced in dating it. An 
 observer so competent as Mr. Bloxam, than whom no 
 one ever possessed wider knowledge and experience of 
 the characteristics of mediaeval buildings, was puzzled 
 by it. It is known that the second Henry de Rokeby, 
 son of the one alluded to above, and inheritor of his 
 frequent disputes with the Abbey of Leicester as to rights 
 over the church and living of Rugby, built a chancel in 
 the Early English style (he lived in the reign of Henry 
 III.),, which existed till the year 1814. The nave 
 and aisles were erected later, probably by Ralph, Lord 
 Stafford, about A.D. 1350. To which of these periods 
 did the tower belong ? Mr. Bloxam appears at first to 
 have thought that it belonged to the earlier time, but in 
 later writings ascribed it more confidently to the later, 
 i.e. to the middle of the fourteenth century. Others, with 
 more dogmatism than discretion, have made up a theory 
 that this tower was erected a hundred years or so 
 earlier, and was intended by the Rokeby family to take
 
 Rugby. 7 
 
 the place of the castle, which had been originally 
 erected in the troublous days of Stephen, and subse- 
 quently with many others dismantled by order of Henry 
 II. This brings us to the second noteworthy point 
 about the tower. It has not the aspect of an ecclesi- 
 astical edifice, so much as of one intended for a warlike 
 stronghold : it is very solid, nearly square, possessing 
 originally no entrance except on the inside from the 
 church, and in the lower portions it has no windows, 
 but only sundry very narrow slits, like the loopholes 
 of a castle, at a considerable distance from the ground. 
 
 In recent years the church has been rebuilt on a much 
 larger scale, and this tower at the present day has a 
 somewhat forlorn and depressed look, dwarfed as it is 
 by the height and magnitude of the present edifice. 
 But the town has grown so rapidly in the present 
 century that even this enlarged church would have 
 been wholly insufficient for the needs of the place. A 
 second church, that of the Holy Trinity, has been 
 erected as belonging to the mother-parish, while two 
 separate districts, those of St. Matthew. Rugby, and 
 New Bilton, each with its own church, have been 
 formed on the west and south sides of the town. 
 
 The following particulars, gathered from Nicolas' 
 History of Rugby, pp. 75, fol., possess some interest. 
 About A.D. 1 562, ' the housholde ' of Rugby amounted 
 to sixty-nine. One hundred years later there were 160 
 houses in the parish. At the census of 1801 there were 
 1487 inhabitants ; twenty years later the number was 
 2300 ; at the present time there are between eleven and 
 twelve thousand. There still live persons who can
 
 8 Rambles round Ritgby, 
 
 remember the time when Rugby was but a little village, 
 with the postmark of ' Rugby, near Dunchurch,' when 
 the present Schoolhouse and Old Big School were just 
 completed, and when along the unlighted and unpaved 
 streets there were scarcely twenty houses in existence 
 of those which compose the present town. Various 
 causes have contributed to the change. In early times 
 Rugby owed what little business and trade it had to its 
 various fairs, for the sale of cattle and other purposes. 
 These still flourish, but the growth of the place has 
 been due to two causes, one, the great development of 
 the school at the end of the last century, and in the 
 first half of the present one ; the other, the advent in 
 1838 of the L. and N.-W. Railway, which has made the 
 despised ' Mugby Junction ' portrayed by Dickens into 
 one of the busiest spots in England, with a splendid 
 island-platform a quarter of a mile long, an unceasing 
 rush and roar of mighty trains, and a host of railway- 
 men who dwell in the neat streets which have sprung 
 up in the vicinity of the railway. In fact, it might be 
 said with rough accuracy that Rugby now consists of 
 three zones ; first, on the slope of ground towards the 
 Avon and the railway come the employes of the line, 
 in the middle a district of business-men and auctioneers, 
 and them that have to do with horses for Rugby is a 
 great hunting centre, and the branch establishment of 
 the great Tattersall firm finds here its home ; thirdly, 
 at the upper end of the town, toward the open country, 
 comes the school, with its boarding-houses and trades- 
 men, and various dependants. 
 
 Not to the Rugbeian alone is the name of Rugby
 
 Rugby. 9 
 
 dear for the sake of the school. Rugby School occupies 
 in some respects a position of its own amongst the great 
 schools of England. After some 200 years of compara- 
 tive insignificance, various causes contributed to foster 
 its growth. When it had grown to fair stature, the 
 man came to it whose work, and fame, and influence 
 were, and are unrivalled. The names of Rugby and of 
 Arnold are inseparable. Through him a new spirit was 
 breathed into English public schools ; the impress of 
 his character was such that pupils and colleagues were 
 proud to cherish it as their best possession ; through 
 many of them Rugby became the mother of many of 
 the noble schools which have sprung up in the last fifty 
 years to a vigour and success which equals her own. 
 Cotton and Bradley at Maryborough, Benson at Well- 
 ington, Butler at Haileybury, Percival at Clifton ; these 
 all, besides other less notable examples, served their 
 apprenticeship at, and drew their inspiration from, the 
 Rugby of Arnold and his successors. It may be inter- 
 esting to trace some of the steps by which the originally 
 modest foundation of Lawrence Sheriff grew great. 
 
 We must turn our thoughts back to the days when 
 Rugby was a tiny village, far from the bustle of the 
 world, with its scattered wooden houses frequently 
 subject to grievous fires, and its stocks and pillory 
 and ducking-stool, for the discouragement of the evil- 
 minded or scolding-tongued, and for the preservation 
 of order and morals within its borders. Here, at some 
 unknown date in the earlier years of the Tudors, 
 Lawrence Sheriff saw the light, in a house opposite 
 to the parish church, and with windows looking out
 
 i o Rambles round Riigby. 
 
 towards the tower which has been described above. Of 
 his early life little enough is known. How, or why, or 
 when he settled in London we do not know, but there we 
 find him, in the reign of Edward VI., a prosperous grocer 
 in Newgate Street, a royal tradesman, and devoted to the 
 Princess (afterwards Queen) Elizabeth. The household 
 accounts of the princess in the years 1551-52 are extant, 
 and under the head of ' The Spicerie and Chaundrye ' 
 occur constant entries of sums paid to Lawrence Shreffe, 
 Sherif, Shrefe, and so on (it would be difficult to devise 
 a way of spelling his name which does not there occur), 
 for spices and necessaries. A little later there is a 
 grant of a coat of arms, a record of the interchange of 
 new year's gifts between him and the queen, election 
 to the Vice-Wardenship of the Grocer's Company, and 
 the facts of his life are almost at an end without any- 
 thing which shows us what manner of man Lawrence 
 was. Besides his will, however, there remains one 
 incident recorded in Foxe's Book of Martyrs, which 
 throws a bright light on the fearless loyalty and 
 courage of the man. It was in the reign of Queen 
 Mary, soon after ' the stir of Wiat,' that Lawrence went 
 one morning into the Rose Tavern for a drink and a 
 gossip. It fortuned that at that moment one Robert 
 Farrer was in the tavern with three companions. The 
 account speaks in no kindly terms of this man ; it avers 
 that 'he was seldom absent from this tavern,' and plainly 
 hints that on this morning he had taken too ' full cups.' 
 So it came to pass that he had not consideration who 
 were present, and spoke roughly of the Princess Eliza- 
 beth, among other courtesies calling her a Jill, and
 
 Riigby. 1 1 
 
 expressing a hope that she and her adherents should 
 ' hop headless, or be fried with faggots,' before she 
 should come to the crown. This was more than Sheriff 
 could stand ; he maintained the princess' cause boldly, 
 called his whilom friend a knave, and declared that he 
 would complain of him to the commission, then sitting 
 at Bishop Bonner's house beside St. Paul's. ' Do thy 
 worst,' said Farrer, ' for that I said, I will say again.' 
 He had a truer appreciation of the likelihood of the 
 commission upholding the cause of the Princess Eliza- 
 beth than his adversary. When Sheriff came before 
 them, the commissioners made excuses for Farrer, and 
 when the accuser was importunate, sent him away with 
 a vague promise that they would rebuke the ribald 
 frequenter of the Rose. 
 
 There were easier and less anxious times for Sheriff 
 when his royal mistress came to the throne, but he only 
 lived to see the first nine or ten years of her reign. In 
 the year 1 567 sickness came upon him, and on July 22 
 he made his will, being then, as he describes himself, 
 'sick of body, but of good and perfect remembrance, 
 for which thanked be God.' In it he provided for 
 his burial in the parish church of St. Andrew, in Rugby, 
 and then proceeded to specify various charitable and 
 kindly bequests to the parish and town, to his relations, 
 and to sundry maids, apprentices, and friends. His 
 wish, however, as regards his burial was not carried 
 out ; his body was interred in Christ Church, Newgate 
 Street, which church perished in the great fire of Lon- 
 don, A.D. 1666. Now comes the portion of the will in 
 which he provided for the foundation of a school in his
 
 1 2 Rambles iwtnd Riigby. 
 
 native village. For that purpose, with which he com- 
 bined the endowment of some alms-houses, he left to 
 certain trustees his land, tenements, etc., in the county 
 of Warwick, together with the sum of 100 for the 
 purchase of more land. These lands consisted of two 
 parts : first, the rectory of Brownsover ; secondly, the 
 house in Rugby in which the founder was born, and 
 which he inherited from his father. This was an old 
 timber building, and stood on the site of the eastern- 
 
 most alms-houses ; the site and premises were small, 
 comprising less than half an acre in all. Here the 
 school was carried on for nearly two centuries, until 
 the time of the move to its present site in 1750. 
 
 Attached to the will was a document entitled ' the 
 Intent of Lawrence Sheriff/ which approaches more 
 nearly than anything else to the character of original 
 statutes for the school. In it the founder states his
 
 Rugby, 1 3 
 
 wishes with regard to the school ; ' a fayre and con- 
 venyent schoole howse ' is to be built on to the dwelling- 
 house, and four alms-houses to be erected near it ; the 
 trustees are to ' cause an honest, discreete, and learned 
 man, being a Master of Arts, to be reteyned to teach 
 a Free Grammar School in the said schoole house,' 
 chiefly for the children of Rugby and Brownsover, but 
 not to the exclusion of such as be of other places there- 
 unto adjoining ; the master is to have the dwelling- 
 
 house for his residence, and a salary of ,\2 a year. 
 A few weeks later, and only a fortnight or so before 
 his death, Sheriff journeyed to Rugby and there exe- 
 cuted a codicil to his will, which was afterwards of 
 the utmost importance to the school. Some years 
 previously he had purchased for ^320 twenty-four acres 
 of land in the outskirts of London, in Lamb's Conduit 
 Fields. Wherefore, or for what object he made the
 
 1 4 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 change is unknown, but he now revoked the legacy of 
 ;ioo to be laid out in land, and substituted for it one 
 third part of this property in Middlesex. We shall 
 trace shortly the importance of this codicil. 
 
 It may seem at first sight scarcely worth while to 
 enter into these details as to the foundation of the 
 school. But the whole matter \vas one very charac- 
 teristic of the times. England is dotted over with 
 schools, many of which, in their early history, bear close 
 resemblance to Rugby ; some have grown to be great, 
 others have remained as for many generations it seemed 
 likely that Rugby would humble places dealing out a 
 little learning to the few children of the village or town 
 in which they stand. The time of the Tudors was an 
 era of school-founding. Two causes led to this. One 
 lay in the general influence of the renascence of 
 learning ; the treasures of Greek and Latin literature 
 had been unearthed, the universities had once more 
 become the homes of ardent scholars, whose own pur- 
 suit of, and delight in, learning filled them with a desire 
 to promote the education of youth. Such was notably 
 Dean Colet, who founded St. Paul's School in 1 509, in 
 the face of loud outcries from opponents who hated the 
 reformed methods of education. Imitators followed 
 in crowds. ' More grammar schools, it has been said, 
 were founded in the latter years of Henry VIII. than in 
 the three centuries before.' (Green's History, p. 305.) 
 The second cause which contributed to this was the 
 dissolution of the monasteries. Many of them had 
 served as schools ; their disappearance made a need for
 
 Rugby. 1 5 
 
 new ones, and their property provided means to meet 
 the need. Edward VI. and Elizabeth followed in the 
 same path, founding many more grammar schools. 
 And in the reign of the latter private individuals took 
 their part in the good work. Such were notably John 
 Lyon, yeoman, the founder of Harrow, and Lawrence 
 Sheriff, grocer, of Rugby. 
 
 Behold, then, the free school of the worthy grocer 
 established in the founder's house. For several genera- 
 tions its history presents but little interest ; it is a 
 miserable record of quarrels about the property. Some 
 of Sheriff's relatives, notably a nephew born some few 
 years after the foundation, tried to appropriate the pro- 
 perty of the school ; litigation ensued, and it was not 
 till just one hundred years after Sheriff's death that final 
 judgment was given, securing its own to the school, and 
 driving off the harpies. The names of one or two 
 masters in this period are known, and little else ; the 
 position was not an enviable one, money was short, in 
 one year only two shillings and sevenpence were forth- 
 coming in lieu of the salary of 12. 
 
 The school might have continued for ever nothing 
 more than a little local free school, but for one or two 
 noteworthy incidents, which enlarged its fame and 
 brought it into a condition fitted to profit by the enor- 
 mous increase in the value of the London estates. 
 There does not seem much connection between Rugby 
 and the arbitrary attempt of King James II. to force 
 Anthony Farmer as President on Magdalen College, 
 Oxford. But there was at that time, among the chap-
 
 1 6 Rambles round Riigby. 
 
 lains of the college, one Henry Holyoak, a Warwick- 
 shire man by birth, and very likely a friend of one of 
 the Demies, Richard Adams, who had been educated 
 at Rugby School. In 1687 these two, along with 
 President, Fellows, and other Demies and Chaplains, 
 were ejected from the college, and their places were 
 supplied by Roman Catholics according to the king's 
 orders. The mastership of Rugby School was vacant 
 at the time, and to it Henry Holyoak was elected, and 
 though restored to his chaplaincy at Magdalen in the 
 next year, 1688, he stuck to the school and remained 
 headmaster till 1730, a period of nearly forty-four years. 
 The school must have been little more than a name 
 or a shadow when he came to it. Robert Ashbridge, 
 master twelve years before, had been a successful man, 
 and had started the Rugby School Register ; he had 
 admitted as many as twenty-six boys in one year, and 
 had attracted several pupils from a little distance. But 
 his successor, Leonard Jeacock, was not a success ; the 
 register reveals the fact that he admitted only two 
 boys in 1683, and in 1684 only one, while for 1685 
 there is no entry at all. However, with Holyoak came 
 a change ; he was an accomplished scholar, descended 
 from a family of scholars well known, no doubt, through 
 the part he took in the famous affair of Magdalen 
 College a man of a genial and popular disposition, as 
 is testified to by the fact that no less than three livings 
 in the neighbourhood were presented to him while at 
 Rugby. Boys soon began to come to the school. In 
 his forty-three years there are no less than 630 entries,
 
 Rugby. 1 7 
 
 of whom 500 came from a distance and only 1 30 were 
 foundationers. The school became popular with the 
 clergy and gentry of its own and the neighbouring 
 counties. The question could not but arise, Was the 
 school to be continually confined to the narrow boun- 
 daries of the founder's house, or must something be 
 done to enlarge its borders ? 
 
 It is a matter for regret that no trace remains of the 
 old mansion ; it has long since fallen, and no picture or 
 drawing of it remains. The only description of it, 
 indeed and that but a rough one is contained in an 
 often-quoted letter written in 1809 to the Gentleman's 
 Magazine by one who had been taught in it sixty years 
 before. ' The original school-room at Rugby (he says) 
 in which I received the first part of my education under 
 Dr. Knail, was a long, rather lofty room, built with 
 timber, opposite the church. The house was very in- 
 different. I have said many a lesson in a small room 
 into which the doctor occasionally called some boys, 
 and in which he smoked many a pipe, the fragrance of 
 which was abundantly retained in the blue cloth hang- 
 ings with which it was fitted up. On the anniversary, 
 which was in the summer, the school was strewed with 
 rushes, the trustees attended, and speeches were made 
 by several of the boys, some in Latin, some in English. 
 . . . The general number of scholars was, in my time, 
 I think, under seventy ; but which number has since 
 been very greatly increased. I do not recollect any 
 playground belonging to the old school, but there was 
 a piece of ground beyond the churchyard sometimes 
 
 B
 
 1 8 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 used by them. There were several almsmen who used 
 to attend prayers in blue gowns.' 
 
 A few years after Holyoak's death Thomas Cross- 
 field was elected to the mastership, being the thirteenth 
 holder of that office whose name is recorded. He was 
 a man of high reputation, as his epitaph in the parish 
 church records, l fama prceeunte et commendante splen- 
 didce dux colonies hue migravit! This ' splendid colony ' 
 consisted of the number for that period very remark- 
 able of fifty boarders, whom he brought with him, and 
 for whom accommodation had to be found in the town. 
 The career so auspiciously begun was cut short by 
 death only two years later, but the circumstances 
 pressed on the question which was calling for solution, 
 viz., how was the growing fame and magnitude of the 
 school to be provided for in the narrow premises which 
 had been its home since 1567. 
 
 The immense importance of the codicil to the foun- 
 der's will now began to be apparent. What had been 
 land of little value in the ' outskirts ' of London, was 
 now becoming, or had become, building-land of great 
 and ever-growing value. It is true that in the Act of 
 Parliament which was procured in 1748, it is stated 
 that the annual income of the charity was at that date 
 only 116 odd ; but it was a time of great expectations. 
 The long leases on which the London property was let 
 were not to fall in for another thirty years or so ; but 
 it was quite safe to borrow. It may be observed in 
 passing that when the leases did fall in, in 1777, a new 
 Act of Parliament was passed regulating the disposal
 
 Rugby. 1 9 
 
 of the now much increased income, providing for the 
 appointment of ushers, and among other points insti- 
 tuting for the first time exhibitions tenable for seven 
 years. In later years the income of the charity increased 
 still further, and rose at last to the value of some six 
 or seven thousand a year. So great were the results 
 of the mysterious codicil ! 
 
 But to return to the Act of 1748. In it the school 
 is stated to have been for many years past in great 
 repute, but the buildings had got into so ruinous a 
 condition as to be incapable of repair. Power was 
 given to the trustees to purchase a ' large and con- 
 venient new-built house,' and a parcel of ground, 
 contiguous to the school premises, or, failing this, to 
 purchase some other ground in the vicinity, and to 
 adapt it to the use of the school. It was a critical 
 moment. For some unknown reason the purchase of 
 the house referred to could not be completed. At the 
 same moment there was fortunately in the market the 
 so-called manor house on the south side of the town, 
 with eight acres of land attached to it. A Mr. Wm. 
 Hiorn, architect, of Warwick, was employed to survey 
 and report on the manor house. His report was 
 favourable, both as to the structure itself and as to 
 the possibility of converting it into premises suitable 
 for a school. ' I believe,' he added, ' a house equally 
 good, large, and comodious cou'd not be newly erected 
 under the sum of two thousand Pounds, wherefore, 
 in my apprehension, it is very well worth the Sum of 
 one thousand Pounds, the Price demanded.'
 
 2O Rambles roimd Rugby. 
 
 So the purchase was completed, a schoolroom was 
 built, and the school migrated in 1750 to its present 
 quarters. Its history was uneventful till, in 1778, an 
 Etonian, Thomas James, D.D., was elected to the head- 
 mastership. The school increased by leaps and bounds. 
 The number of scholars under him at one time is said 
 to have been 240. Rugby definitely took its place 
 among the great schools of England. In this regime 
 a new schoolroom was built, and a line of barn-like 
 buildings, stretching towards the Dunchurch Road, was 
 fitted up for teaching purposes. A very curious 
 and interesting print exists, the work of Mr. Edward 
 Pretty, drawing-master to the school, in 1809, which 
 gives a faithful picture of these buildings as they stood 
 just previous to their complete demolition. On the 
 right are seen the gables of the old manor house ; 
 adjoining it a stately schoolroom with a semi-circular 
 end towards the close, and a turret with bell and clock 
 at the other end, arising above 'a handsome porch 
 according to the rules of the Doric order.' Then came 
 other schoolrooms with dormitories above, followed by 
 the long row of barn-like buildings already mentioned. 
 One of these rooms, known as 'over school,' with a 
 bedroom, entitled ' Paradise,' opening into it, was often 
 the scene of plays acted by the boys. Here William 
 Charles Macready seems to have made some of his earliest 
 appearances as an actor. His powers were early noted. 
 When only fifteen years old the celebrated tragedian 
 performed the part of Hamlet in the ' Closet Scene ' at 
 the Rugby speeches. In fact, these buildings must have
 
 Rugby. 2 1 
 
 been better suited to a remarkable ceremony, which from 
 time to time took place in them, than to teaching. Merit 
 was rewarded by the boys in an original manner a 
 hundred years ago. A boy promoted into a new form 
 was honoured by his new mates with the process of 
 being ' chaired,' not unaccompanied with pinches in the 
 softer portions of his person : to another form entry 
 entailed ' buffeting,' i.e. running the gauntlet. For 
 promotion into the fifth form was reserved the reward 
 which Mr. Bloxam thus describes : ' The patient had 
 to undergo the operation of "clodding," as it was called. 
 Clods of plastic soil were prepared by fags from the 
 slimy banks of the square pool. These were kneaded 
 into balls, and dried ready for action. The noviciates 
 of the fifth form had then to run the gauntlet along 
 the sheds, and were pelted at by their elders in the 
 fifth form, according to custom.' One can sympathise 
 with the relief with which the venerable antiquary re- 
 marked that he was old enough to remember, though 
 not to have endured, these processes. In his time 
 promotion entailed no worse result than that the happy 
 boy should treat his friends in his own boarding-house 
 to a ' spread.' 
 
 The eight acres of land purchased with the manor 
 house the northern portion of the present glorious 
 close with its green turf and noble elms were not 
 without a past history and interest. At the time of 
 the purchase they were cut up into different fields by 
 hedges, the lines of which are for the most part marked 
 by the elms still standing. Next to the school building
 
 2 2 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 came Garden Close and Barn Close, then Fond Close 
 stretching right across from the Barby to the Dunchurch 
 Road. In the middle of this latter close stood the 
 Grange of the monks of Pipewell, an old house sur- 
 rounded by a moat, belonging in pre-reformation times 
 to the monks of the great Abbey of Pipewell in North- 
 amptonshire, to whom Henry de Rokeby had made a 
 grant of some land in Rugby. The last vestiges of this 
 moat were not filled up till 1816. In the corner towards 
 the Barby Road stood the island, then a genuine island, 
 with a moat some twenty feet or more broad round it, 
 which a wooden drawbridge with a spiked gate in the 
 centre crossed. Many a strange scene has the old 
 island beheld, since the Dobuni lit their beacon-fires 
 on it two thousand years ago. The moat may have 
 been dug round it to turn it into a place of refuge in 
 the wild reign of Stephen. Then the more peaceful 
 monks enlarged it as a stew for their fish. After a 
 blank of 500 years in its history we find it the central 
 point of the tragi-comedy of Rugby's great rebellion in 
 the reign of Dr. Ingles, who succeeded to Dr. James. 
 After a glorious bonfire of benches, desks, and books, 
 the rebels found the opposing army approaching to the 
 attack, in the shape of a body of dealers who happened 
 to be attending the great November horse-fair, reinforced 
 by a party of soldiers then recruiting in the town. The 
 incident recalls to mind the graphic account which the 
 father of history gives of the ending of the revolt of 
 their slaves against the Scythians. 'What are we 
 doing, Scythians ? ' said one of them ; ' take my advice,
 
 Rugby. 2 3 
 
 lay spear and bow aside, and let each man fetch his 
 horsewhip, and go boldly up to them : ' and the slaves 
 ran away. So the boys, though the headmaster had 
 shut himself up in his study, when they saw Mr. William 
 Butlin, banker, advancing at the head of his troop of 
 horse-dealers, armed with their formidable whips, be- 
 thought them of their inevitable fate, retreated hastily 
 to the island, and soon surrendered. The consequences 
 naturally were such that many of the rebels afterwards 
 felt it 'too sore and painful a subject ever to allude to it.' 
 ' Island fagging ! ' The very sound of the words 
 calls up to Rugbeian minds the thought of Tom Brown 
 and Scud East racing across the close, of Bishop Cotton 
 and Arthur lying on the sward and talking over Arnold's 
 wise and patient rule, and the explanation of the half- 
 decayed remnants of gymnastic poles which still survive 
 among the trees. The honoured author of Tom Brown 
 has recently written an account in a school magazine of 
 the custom and a marvellous institution it was. One 
 scarcely wonders that the American boy, when he has 
 read of the fagging of olden days, thanks Providence 
 that the Declaration of Independence made fagging 
 impossible in the schools of the great Republic. It 
 appears that before boarding-houses were built along 
 the Barby Road, many boys had gardens in that region, 
 and it was one of the fashions on speech-day for the 
 visitors to inspect these plots. This garden procession 
 must be preserved, so the gardens were transferred to 
 the uncongenial soil of the island. Behold, then, on 
 some chill afternoon in March, the sixth, after calling
 
 24 Rambles ro2ind R^lgby. 
 
 over, proclaiming ' Island fagging.' The row of fags is 
 drawn up under the elms at the other end of the close ; 
 the signal to start is given, and the first six to reach the 
 moat are let off. Six more, the first who volunteer to 
 jump across, or rather to jump into, the moat, are 
 excused ; the rest are set to work to scratch with knives 
 or sticks or broken fives-bats the plots assigned to 
 different members of the sixth. After a few afternoons 
 of this ' digging/ comes scene 2. ' Turf-cart ' comes 
 into use ; a number of fags are harnessed to the car, and 
 roll it along to some spot where turf to lay down between 
 the beds can be procured. Then comes the order to the 
 fags to ' plant flowers.' It is worse than the fate of the 
 Israelites and their brick-making. However, youthful 
 consciences are not always scrupulous in such little 
 matters. To grow flowers in the island would be an 
 insane idea ; the only plan is to appropriate them ready 
 grown from somebody's garden, will he nill he, and 
 stick them into their places so short a time before 
 speech-day, that they have not time to wither. Then 
 comes the great garden procession, and kindly visitors 
 have to tell their little fibs, and to hide their smiles as 
 they congratulate the lordly masters of the ragged turf 
 and drooping primroses on their horticultural success. 
 
 The change of speech-day from Easter to the 
 summer put an end to this comedy in 1835. It was 
 not till after Arnold's time that the close grew to its 
 present fair proportions. At the time of the purchase 
 of the property the close was surrounded on three sides 
 by common land, called Rugby Field. This was
 
 Rugby. 2 5 
 
 enclosed in 1774, and portions of it were allotted to 
 those who had rights over it. Eight acres on the 
 southern side of the close were assigned to the trustees 
 of Rugby School. What was done with this land at 
 first is not clear. The authorities of the school having 
 exchanged ' the piece of land beyond the churchyard ' 
 (to which, if tradition be correct, the churchyard itself 
 was sometimes annexed for purposes of play) for so 
 large a play-ground, did not even feel it necessary, till 
 1816, to finish levelling the old Grange. In later times 
 we find the new land in the occupation of the head- 
 master as a dairy farm, and finally in Dr. Goulburn's 
 time (1850-57) it was incorporated in the close. The 
 present New or Cricket Bigside was made out of it, 
 while its outskirts afforded space in the course of years 
 for the erection of racquet courts, gymnasium, and 
 swimming bath. 
 
 Another Etonian, a Fellow of King's College, 
 succeeded to Dr. James. This was Dr. Ingles, head- 
 master from 1794 to 1807, whom Dr. Wooll followed. 
 It is curious to note that he and all the headmasters 
 appointed in the present century have been Oxford 
 men. Once more, in Dr. Wooll's time, the builders 
 were busy. The old manor house and all the schools 
 and barns attached to it came down piece by piece, 
 and in their place arose the present school-house 
 and old quadrangle. Six years were occupied in the 
 erection of these buildings, at an expense of ^3 2,000, 
 from the plans, first of Mr. Samuel Wyatt, and, 
 after his death, of Mr. Henry Hakewill, architect. A
 
 26 
 
 Rambles round Rugby, 
 
 contemporary account in Ackermann's History of Rugby 
 School describes these buildings with a touch of 
 enthusiasm which may excuse its reproduction, instead 
 of a more restrained description of them in comparison 
 with modern developments and modern ideas as to the 
 needs of schools. ' In about six years the present noble 
 
 and extensive edifice was nearly finished, and appro- 
 priated to its intended purposes. It contains, or will 
 contain (for the plan is not yet quite finished), every- 
 thing that can be necessary for the convenience of those
 
 Rugby. 2 7 
 
 for whose occupancy it was intended. The head- 
 master's lodgings form a very handsome house ; the 
 grand entrance to them is very generally admired. 
 With this house communicate several high and spacious 
 apartments, formed over some of the schools, to be used 
 as dormitories for those young gentlemen who form the 
 headmaster's family. These rooms contain more than 
 fifty beds, as every youth has his own bed, except in 
 the instance of brothers of a certain age. A room is 
 provided for the sick, fitted up with baths and everything 
 necessary for such occasions. A large kitchen has a 
 convenient connection with the dining-hall, but at a 
 sufficient distance not to incommode that or any other 
 part of the house. In the passage between the kitchen 
 and dining-hall a communication is formed, chiefly by 
 a staircase, with a pile of small apartments, forty in 
 number, used as studies by the inmates of the house. 
 In this part of the building a very proper attention 
 seems to have been paid to the possible danger of fire, 
 by a brick arch forming the roof of each story. A kind 
 of arched gallery occupies the centre in each row, into 
 which the doors of the studies open on each side ; in 
 each of these spaces there is a fireplace. No less than 
 six spacious and lofty rooms are fitted up as schools ; 
 the largest of these is sixty-three feet six inches long, 
 twenty-nine feet nine inches wide, and twenty-six feet 
 high ; all the others are of very handsome dimensions. 
 In addition to these, a smaller room up-stairs is used for 
 the same purpose, the approach to which is by a stair- 
 case in the north-west tower, and by a gallery formed
 
 28 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 over the east end of the most western school. In this 
 room and gallery are temporary book-cases, erected 
 for the books collecting for the future library. The 
 entrance to the schools from the town is by a gateway 
 with a pointed arch. Provision is made, by a tower 
 for a staircase, for building a library over this gateway. 1 
 It leads into the quadrangle, the west side of which is 
 
 formed by the /"great school, and by the side of this a 
 portico is intended to be built, 2 similar to those already 
 finished on the east and south sides of this court. The 
 
 1 This library, the old Sixth School, round which cluster vivid 
 memories of Arnold in the hearts of his pupils, was added shortly after 
 Arnold's appointment to the headmastership. 
 
 2 This intention was never carried out.
 
 Riigby. 29 
 
 door-way leading into the play-ground is at the west 
 end of the south portico.' 
 
 Such were the buildings to which Arnold came in 
 1828, and which have been made famous as the scene 
 of the youthful life and doings of Tom Brown, Pater 
 Brooke, Flashman, and the other types of school 
 character portrayed by the masterly hand of ' an old 
 Boy.' In 1816 there were three or four boarding-houses 
 kept by masters, others under the charge of various 
 persons more or less connected with the school. In 
 these buildings 381 boys (including town boys) were 
 accommodated ; in these seven rooms, including the old 
 big school, then known as the great school, this large 
 number was somehow or other taught. Dr. Wooll was 
 assisted by seven under-masters and two assistant-tutors. 
 The account above referred to claims it as a particular 
 excellence in this school, that each form had its own 
 master, who attended to it, and no other. A busy time 
 they must some of them have had ; in the school list of 
 1816 one form contains the names of fifty-nine boys, 
 others are nearly as large. 
 
 Whosoever takes any interest in schools and their 
 life has read and re-read the Life of Arnold. Amid all 
 the interest of his many-sided mind, and of the masterly 
 touch with which he treats of innumerable subjects of 
 the highest moment in his letters, it may safely be said 
 that the reader turns with deepest attention to the 
 chapter headed ' School Life at Rugby.' The peculiar 
 greatness of Arnold lay in the fact that he combined 
 the two chief excellences of a teacher. Some men have
 
 30 Rambles round R^lgby. 
 
 been peculiarly great as trainers of intellect, some for 
 their influence on character ; some have combined the 
 two powers. And pre-eminent among these was 
 Arnold. From his time, indeed, dates the prominence 
 of the idea, so familiar now, that, school has something 
 more important to do than to impart a certain amount 
 of knowledge ; it has to train character. Arnold never 
 tired of impressing this upon his pupils ; if the prophecy 
 of Provost Hawkins in his testimonial, that Arnold, if 
 elected, would change the face of education all through 
 the public schools of England has in any way been 
 verified, it is in this point. And more than any words 
 of his could do, was done by the contact with the man 
 himself, as boys began to know him. There was a 
 'sympathetic thrill, caught from a spirit that was 
 earnestly at work in the world/ from the conviction of 
 his intense abhorrence of moral evil, from the evidence 
 of his own life that he regarded life as a whole in which 
 all true manliness must be based on the practical exer- 
 cise of the highest principles, that fired the spirit of his 
 colleagues and pupils and friends. So it came to pass 
 that the ideal arose, not of a perfect society in which 
 there should be no black spots, but of one in which old 
 and young should be, in their sphere, working together 
 for good. ' What I have often said before ' (he said to 
 the sixth), ' I repeat now ; what we must look for here 
 is, first, religious and moral principle ; secondly, gentle- 
 manly conduct ; thirdly, intellectual ability.' Readers 
 of the lately published life of Archbishop Tait will 
 remember the graphic account of the speech which he
 
 Rugby. 3 1 
 
 made on his last day at Rugby, and the noble words in 
 which he reiterated this teaching. 
 
 Of course there was much else for Arnold to do. 
 The range of subjects of education was narrow. History, 
 Modern Languages, Mathematics had to be gradually 
 introduced into the regular curriculum ; the system of 
 boarding-houses had to be remodelled, a hundred points 
 to be in their turn attended to. The great fame of 
 Arnold was reared, not upon his mastery of these de- 
 tails, but upon the great principles to which he gave 
 life and reality, and which in later years have borne 
 fruit in the difference between the public schools of 
 our time and the places of which Cowper and others 
 wrote a century ago. 
 
 On the sudden death of Arnold, in June 1842, his 
 Rugby friends were sorely exercised as to the question 
 of his successor. Some of their expressions of feeling 
 may seem exaggerated ; indeed, in recent years, it has 
 been in some quarters not uncommon to represent the 
 work and influence of Arnold as having been over-rated 
 by his earliest admirers. It is more probable that this 
 feeling is due to the difficulty of realising the facts of 
 his work ; many of the ideas and principles into which 
 his vigorous spirit breathed life, seem now-a-days so 
 axiomatic, so obvious, so natural a part of our mental 
 and moral furniture, that it is hard to believe that they 
 would have seemed so alien to men of the first decades 
 of this century. Ten days after Arnold's death the 
 name of Archibald Campbell Tait was on the list of 
 candidates for the office. An interesting anecdote is
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 recorded in his recently published Life, which testifies 
 to the feeling aroused by Arnold's death. Tait was 
 paying a visit in Northamptonshire. ' The visit over 
 (writes Lady Wake) Archie returned to Oxford. I had 
 gone with him to Blisworth Station to see him off, when 
 our attention was attracted by the sight of a multitude 
 of boys filling the carriages of the train, all silent and 
 sad. " Who were they ? " " The young gentlemen from 
 Rugby," was the reply. Evidently it was no holiday. 
 " What brought them there ? " " Arnold is dead," 
 passed from mouth to mouth. Their hushed voices and 
 subdued looks told evidently how suddenly the blow 
 had fallen, and how it had affected each one of them.' 
 Amid a number of distinguished candidates, some of 
 Arnold's best-known pupils encouraged him to stand, 
 but it was with fear and trembling. Dean Lake wrote 
 to him, ' O, my dear Tait, I do not envy you if you do 
 get it. I quite quake for the awful responsibility, 
 putting on that giant's armour.' Stanley wrote in a 
 similar strain, speaking a few weeks later of ' the awful 
 intelligence ' of his election. 
 
 Tait was elected, and there followed some seven 
 years of quiet, unobtrusive work. It was a difficult 
 position ; it was necessary not only to keep up the 
 Arnold ideals ; ' there was truth as well as humour in 
 his remark,' writes Dean Bradley, ' that we had other 
 things to do at Rugby besides exalting the Arnold 
 tradition.' These other things consisted not only in 
 hard business work, in ordering and regulating much 
 that was difficult to arrange owing to the great influx
 
 Rugby. 33 
 
 of boys to the school. Every new movement, however 
 good it is, is attended by its own dangers and possibili- 
 ties of excess. Arnold's sixth-form system was liable 
 to produce at times an unnatural and excessive, because 
 premature, development of the character, and to render 
 the relations of the sixth with their authority almost 
 hostile to the school at large. Tait had to work the 
 system so as to check the evil without endangering the 
 good. ' To the Rugby of that day,' writes one of his 
 old pupils, ' a little cold water from time to time, kindly 
 administered, was not without its uses.' Tait was suc- 
 cessful in his task, not only by positive regulations and 
 exhortation, but still more perhaps by the use of the 
 quiet humour which was natural to him, and of which 
 very characteristic specimens dot the few pages allotted 
 in his life to the Rugby career of the future archbishop. 
 
 A severe illness in 1848 brought out striking expres- 
 sion of the warm feeling which his quiet, gentle rule 
 had generated, and of which many of his Rugby friends 
 and pupils were, up to that time, half unconscious them- 
 selves. It is indeed thought by some still living, who 
 remember him at Rugby, that the biography scarcely 
 does justice to the success of his headmastership, and 
 especially to the deep and genuine influence which he 
 exercised, not only in the school, but in the town, and 
 on all who had to do with him. 
 
 After the lapse of a few more quiet years under the 
 rule of Dr. Goulburn, afterwards Dean of Norwich till 
 1889, the chief came to the school, who has been the 
 most famous of its headmasters, after Arnold, in the 
 
 C
 
 34 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 present century. This was Dr. Temple, the present 
 Bishop of London, who governed Rugby from 1858 
 till his appointment to the Bishopric of Exeter in 1869. 
 It was fortunate that the tercentenary of the foundation 
 of the worthy grocer came at a time when the school 
 was at the height of prosperity and success. A very 
 large sum of money was raised, and in the course of 
 years expended on the extension of the buildings of 
 the school. So there rose up the enlarged chapel (of 
 which more below), the new quadrangle, gymnasium, 
 and racquet courts, the observatory, the Temple Library 
 and Art Museum. Naturally the erection of these 
 buildings took many years. The process was carried 
 on during Dr. Hayman's mastership, and was pushed 
 forward vigorously by Dr. Jex Blake, who succeeded 
 to him. The generous example which Dr. Jex Blake 
 himself set by the gift to the school of a swimming 
 bath (with the inscription over the door ' Rugbeiensi- 
 bus Rugbeiensis '), elicited new generosity on the part 
 of other old Rugbeians. The new big school, with 
 form rooms underneath, was built, and finally the school 
 premises were enlarged by the purchase of a second 
 playing field, Caldecott Piece. 
 
 Of the architectural style of the buildings erected 
 since the tercentenary, it may be as well to say little. 
 Their beauty is a somewhat disputed question ; the 
 outlines of some of them are somewhat original, and 
 the colouring afforded by the lavish use of bricks "of 
 various hues is vivid. A sketch of the history of the 
 school may be excused for avoiding controversy. It
 
 Rugby. 35 
 
 may suffice to say that, in her buildings as a whole, 
 Rugby possesses a very ample provision for the needs 
 of a large school. But, alas ! for the word ' finally ' 
 used a few lines back. In schools there is no finality ; 
 what one generation prides itself on as more than 
 usually complete, the next generation finds insufficient. 
 Already the cry is making itself heard for new homes 
 for the teaching of science ; and by the time they can 
 be provided, no doubt new buildings will be needed for 
 something else. 
 
 When Arnold came to Rugby, the chapel, with 
 which his memory is so closely connected, had been in 
 existence some eight years. It was in some ways a 
 remarkable building. No less an authority than Mr. 
 M. H. Bloxam was of opinion that, though not with- 
 out its faults, the old chapel was in advance of its age. 
 But it was not a very advanced age in the revival of 
 Gothic architecture. Internally the chapel presented 
 ' the beautiful proportions of three cubes,' being ninety 
 feet long by thirty feet high and thirty in breadth, and 
 having a flat ceiling. Solidly and firmly built, it was 
 decorated externally with twelve ponderous buttresses, 
 which must have been regarded as ornamental. Con- 
 secrated in 1820 in the name of St. Lawrence, this 
 chapel was the subject of constant alteration ; at the 
 present time, nothing remains of it except a portion of 
 the west end, to which the main body of the present 
 chapel has been built on, and windows and monuments 
 transferred from the one to the other. Dr. Arnold's 
 letters contain reference to 'his old enemy the flat roof,'
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 and to his plans for getting rid of it. This was not 
 effected till 1852. 
 
 In 1845 and subsequent years transepts were thrown 
 out, a new porch built at the west end, the old buttresses 
 robbed of their massive magnitude, and various other 
 smaller improvements made. In later years the whole 
 building, with the exception, as has been said, of the 
 western portion, was removed, and the present chapel 
 was erected from the design of Mr. Butterfield. 
 
 Owing to these constant changes, though at school 
 generation follows rapidly after generation, the bricks 
 and mortar of the chapel have not yet acquired for 
 Rugbeians the charm of age, and of the memories 
 which age brings. To the non-Rugbeian visitor the 
 chapel will present a study not devoid of interest in 
 the bold outlines of the building, and the ingenuity
 
 Rugby. 37 
 
 with which the architect has united new and old, and 
 has given to the east end an air of dignity, which it 
 was difficult to get in the narrow limits available, even 
 if the final opinion should be adverse to it on account 
 of the want of restfulness in the colouring, and the lack 
 of gracefulness in the lines of the exterior and in the 
 proportions of the interior. Yet is it the first place to 
 which the visitor turns, and the one which becomes the 
 most inspiring memory of most Rugby boys. In spite 
 of change and shifting, that pulpit is the pulpit of 
 Arnold and of Temple ; the plain grey stone just at 
 the foot of the chancel steps marks the spot where 
 Arnold's body was laid under the communion-table of 
 the old chapel ; the glorious east window is one of the 
 four windows of ancient stained glass, which, mainly 
 through Arnold's own exertions, were procured on the 
 Continent for the chapel ; the little chair and table in the 
 vestry are those which he used in the old sixth school ; 
 the monument on the wall in the north transept is both 
 the memorial of his great friendship with Bunsen, who 
 composed the inscription, and the record of his character 
 and work. Fitly, after enumerating some of his titles 
 to fame, does it imply that his greatest work was his 
 school work at Rugby, and his chief memorial in the 
 life of those whom he taught 
 
 IUVENUM ANIMOS MONUMENTUM SIBI DELIGENS.
 
 ASHBY ST. LEGERS 
 
 GUNPOWDER PLOT 
 
 ONE of the many rural and pleasant parts of England 
 is Ashby St. Legers. It may be reached easily through 
 Hillmorton and Kilsby ; very delightful indeed the 
 walk is, and some two hours would accomplish it, 
 but there are stations at Crick and Kilsby that 
 land us within easy distance. Kilsby church is of 
 no great interest, and it was modernised in 1869; 
 but the long tunnel between it and Crick is a sort of 
 national monument as far as railways are concerned. 
 This tunnel is one and three-quarter miles in length, and 
 is ventilated by two large shafts, twenty yards across, and 
 they average 100 feet in depth. There is an extensive 
 quicksand that almost runs with the tunnel, and caused 
 some danger in the construction of the underway. The 
 church of Ashby St. Legers is very interesting and 
 beautiful ; it is one of the very few churches in all 
 England that have not been wrecked inside and 
 modernised with light rush-bottom chairs or deal 
 beriches, to the great sorrow of those whose forefathers 
 sat in the old oak pews. Mr. Senhouse is the lord of 
 the manor, and he has, to the great satisfaction of the 
 preservers of the ancient buildings of England, refused 
 any demolition of the old oak- work, and the church is

 
 40 Rambles ro^^nd Rugby, 
 
 as it was, and indeed as so many churches in the kingdom 
 ought to be. There is no clerestory to the church, but 
 there is a fine arcade, and all the church may be said to 
 date back to the fifteenth century. The Rood screen 
 with canopied top is in good condition, and the stair- 
 case projects into the south aisle. The tower seems 
 earlier than the rest of the church, since the nave aisles 
 are built up against it. In the glass of one of the 
 windows was Sir John de Catesby and his wife. He 
 died in 1437, and he was the grandfather of Sir William 
 Catesby, whose name is, through Shakespeare, so im- 
 mortally connected with history. Many are the records 
 of him, and he was the one alluded to by a fancy poet 
 that lost his life through his erratic verse on Richard, 
 whose crest was a blue boar, and his followers 
 
 ' The cat, the rat, and Lovell the dog, 
 Do rule all England under a hog.' 
 
 Some relics of these followers still remain in England, 
 and indeed they are precious. Ashby, of course, is 
 connected with the Catesbys. The Ratcliffes lived at 
 Ordsall Hall, in Manchester, a noble building that still 
 stands in all its beauty, though surrounded by small 
 streets in every direction, and Lovell at Minster Lovell, 
 near Oxford, an unfrequented scene; but as many Rugby 
 scholars will go, in time, to Oxford, one cannot too 
 strongly recommend them to pay it a visit. It is 
 delightfully situated in the valley of the Windrush, and 
 though it gives the idea of a gloomy old mansion, the 
 details are delicate and very beautiful, so we may fairly 
 say that we are indebted to the then followers of
 
 42 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 Richard III. for relics of beauty. Minster Lovell is an 
 admirable example of the time when, like Kenilworth, 
 feudal castles were beginning to be converted into 
 manor houses. But to return to Ashby, the gate-house, 
 which is shown, and which is open to the public road, 
 is extremely picturesque, and forms a delightful group 
 with the ancient church. It is well worthy of a much 
 longer pilgrimage than that from Rugby, and is an 
 example of the black and white which does not, as a 
 rule, prevail in this part of England, where building- 
 stone was plentiful. We must go to Lancashire, and 
 Cheshire, and counties that were densely crowded with 
 heavy oak trees for wood and plaster work. Nothing, 
 of course, can be more shocking and wicked than the 
 gunpowder plot which was hatched, perhaps originally, 
 in the gate-house shown, but a short history of it that 
 does not appear always in school-books might go far 
 to explain it. 
 
 Shakespeare, as is commonly the case, has given a 
 true historical account of Wolsey and Cromwell, as 
 indeed he has done in events that were more remote 
 from his own days than they were. Luther and 
 Catherine of Arragon may perhaps be considered as 
 the causes of the destruction of monasteries in England, 
 and, to use the words of Green in speaking of Wolsey, 
 he says, ' Great as was Wolsey's pride, he regarded him- 
 self and proclaimed himself merely as the creature of 
 the king. Henry had rewarded him munificently for 
 his services to the crown. He had been raised to 
 the see of Lincoln, and the Archbishopric of York ;
 
 Ashby St. Legers. 
 
 43 
 
 the revenues of two other sees, whose tenants were 
 foreigners, were in his hands ; he was the Bishop of 
 Winchester and Abbot of St. Albans ; he was in 
 receipt of pensions from France and Spain, while his 
 official emoluments were enormous.' His state was 
 quite royal, and his retainers consisted of 500 persons 
 of noble birth. ' In raising his favourite to the head of 
 the church and state, Henry was simply gathering all 
 
 religious as well as civil authority into his personal 
 grasp.' Wolsey was not worthy of his high state, and 
 wished to govern without a Parliament, but the down- 
 fall is grandly told by Shakespeare, and his servant 
 Cromwell was really his friend. 
 
 It was on the high measures he took to separate 
 Henry from Catherine of Arragon that Wolsey broke 
 from the nobles of England, who were Catholics, and
 
 44 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 Buckingham went so far as to say that when Henry 
 was no more Wolsey should go to the block, but Act 3 
 of Henry viil. tells all in matchless language, and when 
 Wolsey fell he said to Cromwell : 
 
 ' Get thee from me, Cromwell. 
 I am a poor fallen man, unworthy now 
 To be thy lord and master. Seek the king. 
 That sun I pray may never set ! I have told him 
 What and how true thou art.' 
 
 Cromwell's rule, as we know, was terrible to the 
 Catholics, and it has been called the ' English reign of 
 terror,' for Catholicism was the religion of the country, 
 and, as has been said, words idly spoken, the murmurs 
 of an abbot, or even the terrors of a nun, were converted 
 into high treason, and the gibbet was brought into 
 requisition. It is supposed that in the time of Henry 
 VIII. nearly half of England belonged to the Catholic 
 Church, but it was entirely transferred by Cromwell. 
 The commission that was employed to look into the 
 state of the monastic houses did not, it is true, give a 
 very favourable account of all. Some were well con- 
 ducted, but many of them had records that showed 
 their way of life was not well, and I wish it lay out of 
 my power to add that too many of the carvings in 
 abbey or priory churches of the fifteenth century tend 
 to confirm the record. 
 
 All the religious houses were dissolved, and the 
 lands given to court favourites. Abbeys and priories 
 were converted into dwellings, of which many remain 
 to the present day in possession of the families to whom 
 they were granted ; and, what is the worst feature of all
 
 Ashby St. Legers. 45 
 
 abbots, and priors, and monks were hung, sometimes 
 even before their own abbey gates. Cromwell had 
 indeed, gone so far as to sentence men without trial. 
 We find in his papers such shocking items as these : 
 ' Item. The Abbot of Reading to be sent down and 
 executed at Reading.' ' Item. When Master Fisher 
 shall go to his execution, and the other.' He sent Sir 
 Thomas More to the block because he would not agree 
 to the king's supremacy over the church, though More 
 was looked upon then, and even yet, as the foremost 
 of Englishmen in intellect and character, and in every- 
 thing that constitutes greatness. 
 
 Catholics were deprived of civil rights, and compelled 
 to go to the reformed church, under heavy penalties. Men 
 were even put to death in Elizabeth's time for their 
 religious beliefs, though, happily, she stopped this. 
 Still, when the clergy sent a petition in which they 
 declared their loyalty to the crown, but begged that 
 if they from conscience abstained from joining the 
 Established Service they should be mercifully con- 
 sidered, they were rebuffed. Richard Shelly presented 
 the petition, and he was committed to prison at once, 
 where, after several years of solitude, he died. Now it 
 is hardly to be wondered at that zealots, such as the 
 Catholics, were beginning to hatch conspiracies. There 
 were several in Elizabeth's time, such as the Babington, 
 where Tichbourne was induced to come in, and a number 
 were executed ; but it was supposed by the Catholics 
 that James I., from his parentage, would restore them 
 to their old condition.
 
 46 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 Robert Catesby, who was taken at Bosworth Field 
 was, after the battle, executed. It was to him that 
 Richard called out at the end of the battle : 
 
 A horse ! a horse ! my kingdom for a horse ! 
 
 His estates were attainted ; but afterwards they were 
 restored into the possession of the family. 
 
 At the period of the Gunpowder Plot, Lady Catesby 
 lived at Ashby St. Legers. Her son, who afterwards 
 figured so remarkably in our records, is spoken of as a 
 fine, noble-looking man, more than six feet in height, 
 and having a fine open countenance. He married a 
 daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh, of Stoneleigh ; a beau- 
 tiful abbey it was, dedicated to the Cistercian order, and 
 delightfully situated. Catesby, so far as we can know 
 from State papers, first devised the plot, though doubt- 
 less there are others, whose names will never appear, 
 that were in concert with him. We hear of Winter, a 
 country gentleman from Huddington, in Worcester, 
 who was his early coadjutor, and he was a known 
 conspirator, having been connected with all the plots in 
 Elizabeth's time. Indeed, so far had he conspired that 
 he actually went over to Spain to induce the King to 
 send the Armada to attack England. Guy Fawkes 
 belonged to a respectable Yorkshire family, and of 
 course his name is, though not quite justly, the one most 
 connected with the plot. Percy, who was one of the 
 early additions to the conspiracy, was in some way 
 connected with the House of Northumberland. He was 
 a gentleman pensioner, and had certain duties that he
 
 Ashby St. Legers. 47 
 
 should perform in Parliament, and, taking advantage of 
 this, he rented the residence next to the Houses of 
 Parliament as his town abode. John Wright, who was 
 also a landed proprietor, joined the band, and they 
 occupied Percy's town residence with great secrecy. But 
 the State trials have given a very lucid and clear account 
 of the whole proceedings. They worked an under- 
 ground passage to the Parliament House, and came to 
 the walls of the building itself. These were, it is 
 needless to say, powerfully and well built with the best 
 of stones and mortar ; they were nine feet in thick- 
 ness, and this brought them, after some hard work, to 
 despair. Then they decided to enlist other workers, 
 and make them take the solemn oath, and they found 
 one, Mr. Keyes, of Lambeth, and John Wright's brother, 
 suitable and reliable comrades. It appeared in the 
 evidence that they were afraid of being seen as 
 occupying the same town house. They were Catholics 
 of standing, and, as Fawkes said at the trial, the walls 
 were attacked for days, not by workmen, but by 
 gentlemen of rank. There was a garden-house on one 
 side of the dwelling and a small garden, and here each 
 night they took the soil they had excavated from the 
 passage, scattering it early in the morning over the 
 grass, raking it flat and covering it with turf which was 
 kept for the purpose. They did not go out more than 
 one at a time, and Catesby laid in a stock of eggs, 
 baked meat, and biscuits. Catesby knew that if he did 
 succeed in his scheme there would still be some trouble 
 and risings among the Protestants to put down, and he,
 
 48 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 in consequence, collected a large quantity of arms, and 
 had them kept at Ashby St. Legers. This he did 
 openly, as he affirmed that he was going to send troops 
 to Flanders at his own charge. He now secured the 
 services of Sir Everard Digby, the head of the Digby 
 family, who were settled at Stoke Dry. Gough, in 
 speaking of him, says that he was one of the 'handsomest 
 men and the finest gentleman of his time.' There is a 
 
 monument in the chancel to his ancestor Kenelm Digby, 
 and his wife. It is finely carved in alabaster, which 
 bears the date of 1590, and round the sides are figures 
 in the high Elizabethan frills. Parliament was prorogued 
 from February /th to October 3rd, and then again to 
 November 5th ; and it was then, when King James
 
 Ashby St. Legers. 49 
 
 would be there, that the terrible crime was proposed to 
 be committed. There was one singular event that they 
 say occurred during the breaking down of the wall 
 when they were in the middle of their work. The State 
 trial records that they heard a bell tolling, and looked at 
 each other terror-stricken. At last they threw some holy 
 water on the ground, and the sound ceased. Another 
 sound, however, occurred, which gave them great fright, 
 and that was a heavy noise overhead. They supposed 
 they were discovered, but found out afterwards that it 
 was one, Bright, who had a stock of fuel, and was 
 removing it for sale. Guy Fawkes at once saw how 
 superior this place would be for their purpose, and the 
 cellar was hired. Many barrels of gunpowder were 
 conveyed from Lambeth at night, and crow-bars and 
 other tools were concealed among them, and these were 
 again covered up with fagots and other things to 
 prevent their being seen. Now, some of the conspirators 
 had relatives in the House of Lords, and they urged 
 Catesby to advise them to be absent, but he utterly 
 refused, and said that 'rather than that the project 
 should not take place, if they were as dear to me as my 
 own son they must be blown up,' though he said he 
 hoped that most of the Catholics would be absent, so as 
 not to have to deal with laws which made their religion 
 penal. Now Tresham, one of the conspirators, had two 
 Catholic brothers-in-law in the Upper House, Lord 
 Monteagle and Lord Stourton, and he wrote a letter to 
 Monteagle, which has been often reproduced, begging 
 him not to venture to come to the House on the 5th of 
 
 D 
 
 W V!M/O Lf^oc \JL Jf
 
 50 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 November, as a danger threatened Parliament, and they 
 should not even see who hurt them. Monteagle 
 happened to be away at his house at Hoxton, and he 
 was sitting down to supper when his page brought in 
 the letter. It is said that when he saw the letter 
 contained neither signature nor date he treated it very 
 cavalierly, and threw it to a gentleman who was sitting 
 down in the room, and after a short time he advised 
 Lord Monteagle that there was probably something of 
 more import than he was aware of in the matter, and it 
 is more than probable that he had some vague idea of 
 what was impending. It was suspected by Catesby and 
 Winter that Tresham had revealed the plot to Monteagle, 
 for Monteagle's valet told Thomas Winter about the 
 letter, and they summoned him to attend them a 
 summons that he promptly obeyed and the fact of his 
 having been absent for some few days quite confirmed 
 their suspicion. They accused him when he came of 
 writing the letter, and they had their rapiers ready to 
 run him through to the heart, but he so absolutely 
 denied every knowledge of it that they put up their 
 swords in their sheaths, though they gravely doubted 
 the truth of his denials. His courage was certainly 
 great to submit to the ordeal. How far Monteagle was 
 advised of the circumstances of the case we can never 
 know, but it does seem a little strange that he should 
 have gone with the Lord Chamberlain of London to 
 look round the building, and under the floors of the 
 house. They went down to the cellars, and actually 
 saw Guy Fawkes some time before the 5th of November,
 
 Ashby St. Legers. 5 1 
 
 and he told them he was merely a servant of Percy's ; 
 but they were struck with the great quantity of coal 
 and firewood that the cellar contained. It is out of 
 all reason to suppose that James I. had any hand in 
 discovering the object of the letter, and the terrible 
 warning it contained, though he certainly claimed as 
 much for himself, and some English histories have even 
 adopted his version of the case. The letter itself ran as 
 follows : 
 
 ' MY LORD, Out of the love that I bear to some of 
 your friends I have a care of your preservation ; there- 
 fore I advise you, as you tender your life, to devise 
 some excuse to shift off your attendance at this Parlia- 
 ment, for God and man have concurred to punish the 
 wickedness of this time ; and think not lightly of this 
 advertisement, but retire yourself into your country, 
 where you may expect the event in safety : for though 
 there is no appearance of any stir, yet I say they will 
 receive a terrible blow this Parliament, and yet they 
 shall not see who hurts them. This counsel is not to be 
 contemned, because it may do you good, and can do 
 you no harm, for the danger is passed as soon as you 
 have burned the letter. And I hope God will give you 
 grace to make good use of it, to Whose holy protection 
 I commend you.' 
 
 There is every appearance in the letter itself that it 
 came from a relation who was himself one of the 
 conspirators, and every circumstance would point out 
 Tresham as the author, notwithstanding his denial. 
 After the visit of Monteagle and the Chamberlain to
 
 5 2 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 the cellars, Sir Thomas Knevet went down, and there 
 he found Fawkes with the slow matches, and his 
 capture is too well known to repeat. There is a strong 
 probability that Monteagle himself knew more of the 
 circumstances of the plot than is commonly accredited 
 to him, and the fact of letting it remain so long 
 unfettered was to enable the conspirators to escape. 
 Fawkes was taken before the King and Council, and in 
 reply to the question of how he could possibly have the 
 cruelty to destroy so many persons of innocence, he 
 said, ' Dangerous diseases need desperate remedies.' 
 To one of James' Scottish courtiers, who asked him why 
 so many barrels of gunpowder were brought together, 
 he replied, ' to blow Scotchmen back to Scotland.' 
 His self-possession never gave way during the examina- 
 tion. And when he was asked to divulge the names of 
 the real conspirators, for he was hardly more than a 
 servant, he utterly refused, and when he was told that 
 was useless, as their flight made them known, he said in 
 reply that it would be superfluous for him to divulge 
 the names if they had divulged themselves, and he 
 added that he was willing to die himself, but he would 
 rather die ten thousand deaths than betray his friends. 
 Over what happened in the next two days in the 
 torture chambers we willingly draw a veil.
 
 ASHBY ST. LEGERS 
 AND THE SENHOUSE FAMILY 
 
 ASHBY ST. LEGERS is a charming residence. Much of 
 the ancient architecture remains. The end shown is 
 very admirable in design and proportion, and has not 
 been altered. Here it was that one of the most dramatic 
 events in the whole of the plot occurred. The hall itself 
 will be shortly noticed afterwards. Catesby and John 
 Wright, supposing that success was bound to attend 
 the efforts of Guy Fawkes, rode off to Dunchurch to 
 join the gathering band of Catholics for which arms 
 had been provided. It is not to be supposed that they 
 were joint conspirators, but it was thought that when 
 the king and the Protestant representatives of the people 
 (for a Catholic could not sit in the House) were blown 
 up by gunpowder, a sudden rising would take place, 
 which would be led by the conspirators, and the Princess 
 Elizabeth placed on the throne. Christopher and John 
 Wright followed. 
 
 Now Rookwood and Keyes were but little known 
 in London, though, of course, the features of the principal 
 conspirators were, and they stayed behind to report the 
 success of the plot and transfer its news to Catesby and 
 his associates. They noticed on the 6th November that 
 when they ventured out there were small groups talking 
 
 53
 
 54 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 in horror at the latest news, and saw at once that their 
 cause was over. Keyes, who was the better known of 
 the two, fled away at once, but Rookwood remained in 
 the city till noon, when he also went away to join 
 Catesby at Ashby St. Legers. He overtook Keyes 
 on the road, who parted from him, and then he went 
 at a rapid pace till he overtook Catesby and John 
 Wright. He told them of their utter reverse, and they 
 all pushed on till they overtook Percy and Christopher 
 Wright, riding on as fast as the fleetest horses could 
 carry them till they reached their destination at Ashby 
 St. Legers. Now Sir Everard Digby had gone to 
 Dunchurch on the 5th November to collect his forces 
 in order to back up the plot after the king and his 
 government were killed, and in order to obtain the latest 
 particulars he went to Ashby St. Legers to visit Lady 
 Catesby. There were a number of Catholics there who 
 were just on the point of sitting down to supper, quite 
 believing that the plot could not fail, when the five 
 fugitives rushed in, broken down with fatigue, and told 
 their news. Great as the dismay was, it did not stop 
 their projected revolt, and they still hoped. So infatu- 
 ated had they become, in hopes the Catholics would rise, 
 that when they heard of the capture of Fawkes they 
 still believed the sword would gain their ends, and they 
 quite refused to put it up in its sheath. 
 
 When Sir Everard's guests at Dunchurch had heard 
 of the complete failure of the plot, they quietly stole 
 away, leaving no trace they could avoid behind them. 
 But the infatuated conspirators had for long so worked
 
 Ashby St. Legers and the Senhouse Family. 55 
 
 themselves up to a hopeless cause that they still con- 
 tinued their revolt, and believed that at last England 
 would join them ; and they went away to Holbeach, a 
 place on the borders of Staffordshire, where one Stephen 
 Littleton lived. And now all hope was cut off. Not 
 one man, as Sir Everard Digby did, came to help them, 
 though they all expected a great multitude, and then 
 they began to lose all their courage. Many of them, as 
 the record says, perceiving God to be against them, 
 prayed before a picture of Our Lady, and confessed 
 that the act was so bloody that they desired God to 
 forgive them. But all was over, and they knew it ; Sir 
 Richard Walsh was high sheriff of the county at the 
 time, and he soon had collected a posse comitatus that 
 was sufficient to crush the conspirators. Holbeach was 
 surrounded and fired into, and while Thomas Winter 
 was crossing the yard his arm was broken by a shot. 
 ' Stand by me,' Catesby said, ' and we will die together.' 
 And so it indeed turned out, for soon after they were 
 both, happily for themselves, pierced by musket balls, 
 and John and Christopher Wright were fortunate enough 
 to meet the same end, as also was Percy ; but he was 
 the last of them, and all the rest of the conspirators 
 were taken prisoners. 
 
 They were executed at the west end of St. Paul's. 
 But there is one single exception to the list of the public 
 executions, and that is Tresham's. He died the day 
 before his trial in the Tower, and this brings a decided 
 suspicion that his former divulgences may most probably 
 have secured him some drug from the powers that were.
 
 Ashby St. Legers and the Senhouse Family. 57 
 
 And so his shocking doom (for shocking their ways of 
 leaving life then were) might be toned down. But it is 
 very probable that, though they did not know it, the 
 introduction of Jesuits into England that had just 
 occurred had some connection with the plot. Garnett 
 was their leader, and at his trial Chief Justice Coke 
 spoke of him as ' by birth a gentleman, by education a 
 scholar, by art learned, and a good linguist.' 
 
 Though the part shown of Ashby St. Legers is old, 
 and there are many remains of antiquity that are care- 
 fully preserved, the garden-front of the hall is modern, 
 but built in keeping with the rest, and the whole group 
 with its gables, and oriels, and ivy-clothing is very 
 charming. The billiard-room, with its wainscot, is an 
 ancient apartment, and is supposed to have been origin-
 
 58 Rambles rozmd Rugby. 
 
 ally the chamber where Lady Catesby and her friends 
 were sitting down to supper when the conspirators 
 rushed in with the news from London. The park at 
 Ashby St. Legers can be seen from the road very 
 well, and there is a pathway through a beautiful part 
 of it. It contains a picturesque lake, and is well wooded. 
 Amongst its trees is a tulip tree which is supposed to 
 be the largest in England. 
 
 These trees are uncommon, and are only seen in 
 extensive grounds, but they are very beautiful, and 
 the tulip flower looks strangely out of place on such a 
 tree. They do not flower every year, but their flowering 
 is early in the season, and they are also very shapely. 
 There is also here a cedar of Lebanon that is of noble 
 proportions, and any one who at all links its growth 
 with the yew-tree in age would be surprised to hear 
 that it is not seventy years old, though another cipher 
 would be required to be added to the seventy to make it 
 equal in age to yews that it certainly resembles in magni- 
 tude and appearance. The late proprietor of Ashby St. 
 Legers would, I am told, allow no trees to be cut down, 
 until at last they became almost too dense, and the 
 present owner very wisely decided to thin them a little, 
 and give the others, which still form a well-wooded, or 
 almost densely-wooded estate, a little more open space. 
 Catesby was, of course, attainted, and his lands, which 
 were escheated to the Crown, were granted to Sir 
 William Irwing. In the year 1612, Ashby St. Legers 
 was purchased from the Irwing family, and it remained 
 in their possession for ninety-one years, when it was
 
 Ashby St. Legers and the Senhouse Family. 59 
 
 sold to Joseph Ashley, whose present family repre- 
 sentative is the successor to the property. Mr. Pock- 
 lington Senhouse is the present owner. 
 
 The family of Senhouse dates to Richard i.'s time, 
 and many are the scenes in English records with which 
 their names are connected. But two may be mentioned. 
 John Senhouse, in 1599, entertained the celebrated 
 antiquary Camden, and is mentioned by Camden in 
 his Britannia as having collected with great industry 
 many Roman stones, altars, lavers, and statues with 
 inscriptions, which he had with much judgment placed 
 in his houses and buildings. Richard Senhouse was 
 fellow of St. John's, Cambridge. When a scholar at 
 Cambridge he went to Cumberland to see his friends, 
 and as his horse happened to cast a shoe he went to a 
 smith's to have it shod, but found he had left his purse 
 behind. The smith said, ' Well, well, never mind, you 
 will pay me when you come to be Bishop of Carlisle.' 
 He did become Bishop of Carlisle in 1624, and abun- 
 dantly he repaid the blacksmith when reminded of the 
 promise. He preached the coronation sermon before 
 Charles I. Mr. Humphrey Senhouse it was who founded 
 the harbour of Maryport, in Cumberland, which he called 
 after the Christian name of his wife, and which is now 
 becoming so valuable a property. 
 
 There is one word to add about Sir Everard Digby 
 before leaving the plot and its associations, and the 
 fine old church of Stoke Dry, where the family remains 
 lie, all quite within reach of Rugby, and seated in a 
 charming country. Sir Everard had conveyed this and
 
 60 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 many other manors to himself for life, and to his heir- 
 in-tail on his demise ; but on his execution for his part 
 in the shocking crime his manors and estates were 
 claimed for the Crown. Had this plea been made a 
 little later on, in the days when Jeffreys, and Wright, 
 and Scroggs have left so immortal a record in the 
 memorials of the Stuarts, of course it would not have 
 been even disputed ; but the judges who tried it were 
 incorrupt, and the two chief judges and the chief baron 
 decided that under the will of Sir Everard Digby he 
 was only a tenant for life, and his son Kenelm was in 
 the light of a purchaser. ' The Crown could not have 
 the special wardship, but only when there was an heir- 
 general or special ; whilst in this case there was not, 
 the blood being corrupted, and the said Kenelm, having 
 no heritable blood in him from his father, neither was 
 he special heir-in-tail by form of the statute of West- 
 minster, but came to the estate as a mere purchaser.'
 
 CRICK CHURCH AND NEIGHBOURHOOD 
 
 IF, on a visit to this charming county, it is decided 
 to return by rail, Crick Station is near. Crick contains 
 a church of great architectural interest. The spire, 
 which is shown, is what is called a chamfered spire, in 
 distinction from a broached one, the latter term being 
 
 : - . 
 
 w*fe* 
 
 applied to those spires that blend from the square 
 tower to the octagon upper structure through a 
 wedge-like triangle. In Crick the square tower dies 
 into the octagonal spire, which belongs to the com- 
 paratively early decorated period. Crick is a contraction 
 
 61
 
 Crick Church and Neighbourhood. 63 
 
 of Cerrig, which is a stone, or a rock, or crag, and 
 doubtless it derived its name from the hilly country 
 about it. Part of the church is early English, and was 
 built probably in the early part of Henry lll.'s reign ; 
 but the chancel, which is a deep one, is an excellent 
 example of late decorated work, probably dating to the 
 time of Edward III. The chancel arch is wide and 
 lofty, and it springs from brackets with the heads of a 
 king and a bishop. The sedilia and the piscina are 
 well worthy of examination ; the sedilia especially are 
 very rich. The font is a cylinder, and is supported by 
 three dwarfs. 
 
 Half a mile beyond Crick the high road crosses the 
 old line of Watling Street, which is here visible for a 
 considerable distance in each direction. Crick is the 
 turning-point of the famous ' Crick run ' of the boys at 
 Rugby School. Close to Crick Station is Watford. 
 The church is interesting, and well worthy of a visit. 
 The chancel is of unusual length in comparison to the 
 church. It is lit by three perpendicular windows on 
 the south side, and on the north there is an archway, 
 now blocked up, which led to a chantry that has been 
 converted into a vestry. There are some well-carved 
 tomb recesses in the chancel, of which it would seem 
 that no record remains. 
 
 Close to the church is Watford Court, a beautiful 
 manor house of the Elizabethan period, and the park 
 is surrounded by a neatly trimmed hedge. Watford 
 Manor is the seat of Lord Northington, who is a son-in- 
 law of Sir Robert Peel. The first Lord Henley was a
 
 64 Rambles round Ritgby. 
 
 distinguished diplomatist, and made an excellent record 
 all over Europe. He was raised to the Irish peerage 
 in 1799, and the family to the English in 1885. The 
 pleasant seat, Ashby Lodge, is near, and not far from 
 the Warwickshire border, and nothing can be more 
 delightful for a ramble than the lanes about here. 
 Wild-flowers, birds, and butterflies abound here in the 
 summer-time, and the road through Braunston Cleves, 
 which leads to the ridge, is worthy of a long pilgrimage. 
 Perhaps the most interesting feature in this district is 
 that it is the backbone of England. There are back- 
 bones, of course, in other parts of the kingdom, but this 
 is the great one, and it extends from the Dorsetshire 
 coast to the Humber. Of course a backbone is a 
 watershed, and rivers running in different directions on 
 each side. ' The rocks that compose Northamptonshire 
 are in age and character midway between those older 
 beds that lie to the west, forming the coal-fields of 
 Warwickshire, etc., and the newer chalk deposits which 
 occur to the east. The strata run in long bands of 
 varying width from north-east to south-west, coinciding 
 almost exactly with the longest axis of the county, 
 which is much elongated in this direction. The dip or 
 slant of the rock-masses is towards the south-east, so 
 that they overlie each other in this direction. Thus if 
 we were to make a very deep boring, say at Stony 
 Stratford or Peterborough, we should find at a con- 
 siderable depth the same blue clays (lias) which occupy 
 the surface on the west, near Market Harborough and 
 Rugby.'
 
 Crick Church and Neighbourhood. 65 
 
 While on the subject of the Catesbys we might 
 refer to the older branch of the family that figures in 
 Richard III. The battle of Bosworth Field was fought 
 on a great common that is not much altered, and it is 
 well worthy of a visit. Bosworth lies a little to the 
 west of the middle of Leicestershire, and is some miles 
 from any railway station. Atherstone is probably the 
 most convenient, and its name figures much in the 
 battle. There can be no doubt that Shakespeare's very 
 graphic account of Bosworth is the best. Some of his 
 ancestral relatives were there, and in his days legends 
 and verbal records were of value historically. In the 
 fifth act King Richard says, after his sudden and 
 seemingly nervous dialogue with Norfolk and Surrey 
 the night before Bosworth field 
 
 Up with my tent. Here will I lie to-night ; 
 But where to-morrow ? Well, all 's one for that. 
 Who hath descried the number of the traitors ? 
 
 Norfolk. Six or seven thousand is their utmost power. 
 
 King Rich. Why our battalia trebles that account. 
 
 Besides, the King's name is a tower of strength, 
 Which they upon the adverse faction want. 
 Let us survey the vantage of the ground 
 Call for some men of sound direction : 
 Let's want no discipline, make no delay ; 
 For, lords, to-morrow is a busy day. 
 
 And busy it was. There is a correct account, so far as 
 it can be traced, in Hutton, who says that his army, 
 which consisted almost entirely of foot, was in two 
 divisions, arranged in columns five abreast. The few 
 horse that he had, formed the wings and kept near the 
 
 E
 
 66 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 centre. Hutton says that such a cavalcade would strike 
 awe, because it would be fully an hour in leaving 
 Nottingham, and quite an hour in marching through 
 Leicester Gates. Richard rested that night at the Blue 
 Boar Inn, called, possibly, by that name in after times 
 from the animal on his armorial bearings. It is said 
 also that here his body was brought after the battle, and 
 buried in a stone coffin, which was afterwards used as a 
 drinking trough for the farmers' horses. Richard left 
 
 Leicester on the I7th, and on the i8thhe went to 
 Stapleton, and encamped at a place called the ' Brad- 
 shaws.' But, finally, Richmond and Richard met on a 
 marshy kind of plain, that has not really altered jsince 
 the battle. It covers about 1500 acres. According to 
 Shakespeare, Richard's army mustered some 20,000 
 men, and Richmond's was only about a third ; but the 
 sudden change of front by Stanley and his forces to
 
 Crick Church and Neighbourhood. 67 
 
 Richmond made the balance very different, though still 
 Richard was the stronger. He had, however, quite 
 made up his mind that the day would be his. Lovell 
 the Lord Chamberlain, Catesby the Attorney-General, 
 and Sir Richard Radcliffe, all attended on the king, 
 and to them he told the terrible dreams he had had 
 before Bosworth Field. When he went from his tent 
 early in the morning he saw a sentinel asleep and 
 stabbed him, saying, ' I found him asleep, and left him 
 as I found him.' He then commanded his troops to 
 muster on Sutton Field, about the midway to Amyon 
 Hill. Here he drew up his army in line of battle, and 
 made his oration 
 
 ' Fight, gentlemen of England ! fight, bold yeomen ! 
 Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head,' etc. 
 
 The place is still called ' Dickens' Nook.' I was, indeed, 
 not a little surprised at the relics of names which 
 Richard left behind him. Asking a countryman which 
 was the way to King Richard's well, he said, ' You mean 
 King Dick's,' and pointed out the well. The water 
 rises to the surface, and it is a convenient drinking- 
 place for cattle. There is a stone triangular cover over 
 three sides, and the fourth is open ; and over the well 
 on a stone slab is carved the following inscription : 
 ' Aqua ex hoc puteo hausta sitim sedavit. Richardus 
 tertius, RexAnglice, cum Henrico comite de Richmondia 
 accerrime atque infensissime prcelians, et vita pariter, ac 
 sceptro ante noctem cariturus. 1 1 Kal. Sep., A.D. 
 mcccclxxxv.' 
 
 Of the real history of Stanley at the battle, Hutton
 
 68 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 says that history and tradition are somewhat silent, 
 ' but he marched and halted with Richard as if solely 
 attached to the cause, still keeping a little to his left, 
 for it was evidently his design to amuse his master to 
 the last moment. Richmond sent an express to Lord 
 Stanley requesting his assistance in forming his men, 
 for he earnestly wished to have Stanley with him for 
 fear of disappointment ; but he returned for answer 
 that the earl must form them himself; he would come 
 at a convenient season. He afterwards, however, left 
 his son's corps to the care of an officer, and privately 
 assisted for a short time.' A slight glance at the battle 
 field will show how completely the severance of Stanley 
 and his forces from Richard's army decided the battle. 
 They were on the left flank, and George Stanley was 
 kept by Richard as a hostage ; and when a messenger 
 suddenly came to Richard's camp, he says : 
 
 ' What says Lord Stanley ? Will he bring his power ? 
 Messenger. My lord, he doth deny to come. 
 King Rich. Off, instantly, with his son George's head ! 
 Norfolk. My lord, the enemy is past the marsh. 
 After the battle let George Stanley die. 
 
 King Richard III., Act 5. 
 
 Richmond's front, for want of numbers, was spread out 
 very thinly, so as to appear to greater advantage. It 
 was commanded by John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, 
 whose father and brother, twenty years before, perished 
 on one scaffold, owing to their adherence to the House 
 of Lancaster ; the left wing was commanded by Sir 
 John Savage, and the right by Sir Gilbert Talbot
 
 Crick Church and Neighbourhood. 69 
 
 three very able officers, though Henry himself had no 
 knowledge of the arts of war, nor did he at all desire 
 to attain to them. 
 
 The two chiefs, Hutton says, rode through the ranks 
 and made oratorical speeches to them ; but, as he says, 
 ' These speeches, like those in the House of Commons, 
 perhaps meet the eye rather mended.' 'While Lord 
 Stanley was forming, the king sent Sir Robert Braken- 
 bury with this singular but dreadful message, "My lord, 
 the king salutes you, and commands your immediate 
 
 attendance with your bands, or, by , your son shall 
 
 instantly die." ' Lord Stanley seems to have given up 
 his son for lost, but urged Sir Reginald Bray aside, and 
 told him to post back to Richmond, and press him to 
 advance with all speed against Richard's army ; and, 
 as Hutton in his admirable \vork says, 'This active 
 measure was intended to employ Richard otherwise 
 than in executions.' But the reply that Brackenbury 
 brought caused Richard to order the immediate execu- 
 tion of Lord Stanley's son. ' But Lord Ferrers, of 
 Chartley, a man of great honour and humanity, touched 
 with compassion, ventured to remonstrate with the 
 king.' He told him, according to the records that are 
 left and there seems to be much truth in them that 
 the son, whatever the father was, was free from any 
 blame, and his execution would be sure to divert the 
 father, whose course was not clear ; but it would make 
 him an enemy to the king and his cause. 
 
 The armies advanced towards each other, and it is 
 said that some balls found in the garden of a farmer
 
 70 Rambles round R^lgby. 
 
 named Hewitt, came from Richard's artillery, but 
 cannonading was then little understood, and not very 
 hurtful. Archers were far more formidable than artillery- 
 men. Arrows began the conflict, and soon the sword 
 took their place. Old records say, and that probably 
 with truth, that Richard's army was not enthusiastic in 
 his cause, and quite the reverse was the case with 
 Richmond's, who well knew that if Richard was suc- 
 cessful ' the axe and the halter ' would finish what the 
 sword had begun. The army of Richmond was spread out 
 to add importance to its size ; but during the battle the 
 Earl of Oxford ordered the men to close in round their 
 standards, which shortened their length of front, and 
 Richard at once prepared to outflank them, for he was 
 a ready general ; but just at that time Stanley's forces 
 that had been drawn on the left flank of Richard's 
 troops stopped the outflanking, and showed themselves 
 in favour of Richmond, and this went very far to settle 
 the strife. The battle had raged for an hour, but at 
 half-past eleven no real advantage had been gained on 
 either side. Only the front line of each army had been 
 engaged, and they had not varied much in their position 
 to each other ; but fate declared in favour of Richmond, 
 and Richard began his desperate charge, almost hoping 
 to turn the battle ; but his cause was lost, and he fell 
 fighting furiously. His body was taken to Leicester, 
 where it was interred in the Blue Boar, that has given 
 the name to Blubber Lane, and Henry vu. was crowned 
 on Bosworth Field. Short as the battle was, it was full 
 of import for English history, and to quote what I once
 
 Crick Church and Neighbourhood. 7 1 
 
 wrote before : ' From the time when Richard galloped 
 out of his ranks to the time when he fell can only have 
 been some fifteen minutes, but how full of import were 
 they to England ! The house of Plantagenet was ex- 
 tinguished, the baron's power reduced to a name, and 
 the church, then more wealthy and powerful than either, 
 might have heard its own knell in the Leicester chimes 
 that rang in the coronation of the Tudors.'
 
 EDGEHILL AND NASEBY. 
 
 AMONG the many historical records of Rugby we may 
 place the two great battles that began and ended the 
 civil war. They were fought within an easy reach of 
 Rugby school. Edgehill was, of course, the opening 
 one, and Naseby the one that, in some three years 
 
 afterwards, settled the issue, and well worth a longer 
 walk than would take us to them they are, with the 
 pleasant lanes and shady trees, and the many churches 
 of antiquity, and old houses that figure in all directions 
 round them. Before the battle of Edgehill Charles 
 
 72
 
 Edgehill and Naseby. 73 
 
 apparently resolved on war ; but he might, before raising 
 as he did the Royal Standard at Nottingham, have 
 thought of the result, even if successful, and ominous 
 indeed were the tokens. When Henry IV. was in camp 
 before Shrewsbury, he said to his son, 
 
 ' How bloodily the sun begins to peer 
 Upon yon bosky hill ! The day looks pale 
 At his distemperature.' 
 
 And the prince replied, 
 
 ' The southern wind 
 Doth play the trumpet to his purposes, 
 And by his hollow whistling in the leaves, 
 Foretells a tempest and a blustering day.' 
 
 But success was before him, and this widely differs 
 from the ominous weather of Nottingham when Charles 
 planted his standard. Clarendon, in his painstaking 
 history, says : ' The Standard was erected about six 
 of the clock in the evening of a very stormy and 
 tempestuous day. The king himself with a small train 
 rode to the top of castle hill ; Varney, the Knight 
 Marshal, who was standard-bearer, carrying the standard 
 which was then erected in that place with little other 
 ceremony than the sound of drums and trumpets. Mel- 
 ancholy men observed many ill presages about that 
 time. There was not one regiment of foot yet brought 
 thither, so that the trained bands which the sheriff had 
 drawn together were all the strength the king had for 
 his person and the guard of his standard. There ap- 
 peared no conflux of men in obedience to the proclama- 
 tion. The arms and ammunition were not vet come
 
 74 Rambles round Rugby, 
 
 from York, and a general sadness covered the whole 
 town. The standard was blown down the same night 
 it had been set up, by a very strong and unruly wind, 
 and could not be fixed up again in a day or two till the 
 tempest was allayed. This was the melancholy state 
 of the king's affairs when the standard was set up ; ' so 
 says Clarendon. 
 
 The chief officer of Charles was Prince Rupert, a 
 rash young soldier who did Charles some harm, and so 
 encouraged his men in spoliations that he was called 
 ' Prince Robber ' among the people. Charles marched 
 to Shrewsbury and collected a number of men, and 
 went from there to Kenilworth ; but he could not enter 
 Coventry, as both Coventry and Warwick were guarded 
 by Lord Brooke of Warwick Castle. He went on to 
 Edgehill, and it is narrated that he saw a country 
 squire, Mr. Shuckburgh, of Shuckburgh, hunting, and 
 the king asked him how he could so enjoy himself 
 when his king was about to fight for his crown and 
 his dignity, which induced him to go among his tenantry 
 and raise a company, with which he joined the king. 
 Rupert took up his quarters at Wormleighton, which 
 is about one and a half miles to the north-east of 
 Fenny Compton, and was the residence of the Spencers, 
 whose descendants now live at Althorpe. Spencer was 
 a man of immense wealth, and had herds of nearly 
 20,000 sheep, though tradition says that he never quite 
 reached the number, as disease always attacked his 
 flocks before they quite reached that record. The 
 troops of Essex had posted themselves on the plain,
 
 Edgehill and Naseby. 75 
 
 with the little town of Kineton in their rear. This place 
 is well worthy of a visit. Camden derives the name 
 from Kine town, supposing that it was a great head- 
 quarter for cattle ; but Dugdale gives a different origin, 
 and says that it 'was in possession of Edward the 
 Confessor, and very likely other kings before those 
 days,' and that its name merely means ' a town belong- 
 ing to the king.' At the north-east end of the town 
 was a castle where King John once resided, but I 
 cannot find any trace of it now. The church formerly 
 belonged to Kenihvorth priory, but it has lost much 
 of its original interest, as it was partly rebuilt in the 
 year 1775. 
 
 The kennels of the Warwickshire hounds are situated 
 at Lower Kineton, and cost over ^"4000 in their 
 erection. Edgecott House is in a very picturesque and 
 well-wooded park. The present residence was built in 
 1752, and in its site was a Tudor mansion of which 
 some interesting drawings remain. Here Charles slept 
 the night before the battle of Edgehill, as also did his 
 two sons, Charles and James. They arrived on October 
 22, 1642, and the following morning at three o'clock 
 they were roused up with the news that the Parlia- 
 mentary army was close, and Charles might at once fight 
 them if he felt so disposed. This message came from 
 the impetuous Rupert, and orders were at once given to 
 march on Edgehill, where Charles passed by cross-roads 
 that can easily be traced. Charles breakfasted at Rad- 
 way, and a hillock is pointed out as the place where he 
 advanced with a ' prospect glass ' to take a survey of
 
 76 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 the enemy. He soon joined his nephew, and they 
 formed a line of battle along the brow of the hill ; the 
 right rested upon Bullet Hill, and the centre where the 
 king was is now marked by a sham ruin, just above 
 Radway village. Charles was encased in complete 
 armour, and was his own commander-in-chief. The 
 Earl of Lindsey was the general under him, and a very 
 able veteran he was. His descendant, the eleventh earl, 
 now lives at Uffington, near Stamford. He took excep- 
 tion, however, to the childish insolence of Prince Rupert, 
 and placed himself at the head of his own regiment. 
 There was one singular feature early in the battle, the 
 sudden defection of Sir Faithful Fortescue from the 
 Parliamentary side ; he had been engaged to raise troops 
 in England and Ireland, which were to be employed in 
 the king's service in the north of Ireland, and to this 
 he had the consent of Parliament. The war broke out 
 just as he was about to embark at Bristol, and he was 
 ordered by Parliament to march across the country and 
 join the army of Essex, but he supposed that his troops 
 were king's troops, and on finding his mistake he crossed 
 to join Rupert. This completely confused the Parlia- 
 mentarians, and enabled Rupert to succeed in his charge 
 upon them ; he completely routed them, and pursued 
 them with great slaughter as far as Kineton. With the 
 approval, however, of Rupert, and with his assistance, 
 his detachment stopped for an hour to plunder the 
 baggage of Essex's troops, and this materially altered 
 the issue of the battle. 
 
 There is a place near Kineton called ' Rupert's
 
 Edgehill and Naseby. 77 
 
 Headland,' and he managed to draw up his cavalry 
 here when he heard that the Parliamentarians were 
 again forming ; but he was just too late, for Hampden, 
 who was only a few marches in the rear, came up at this 
 juncture, and opened fire. Rupert fell back quite routed, 
 and the battle was raging round King Charles. His 
 position was admirably chosen. ' Difficult ground in 
 the right and left protected his flanks. Immediately 
 in front the ridge of Edgehill, which stretches almost 
 north and south, sinks suddenly down on what is called 
 the ' central plain ' of England, whilst at the northern 
 end this ridge is crossed at a right angle by the Dassett 
 Hills, which throw out a spur of high ground into the 
 level. The king could thus overlook the entire position 
 of his adversaries, which lay below him as on a map. 
 So strong was his position that, if he had awaited the 
 attack of Essex, he might have been certain of success ; 
 but the impetuous Rupert and other officers pushed on 
 to meet the attack half way, and that was against the 
 urgent advice of Lord Lindsey, who was a veteran and 
 tried soldier. Charles was in full armour with the 
 Garter Cross on his breastplate ; but he had lost the 
 advantage of his position, and when Rupert was com- 
 pelled to recross the plain he found his uncle's army 
 in confusion. The Royal Standard had been captured, 
 and Lord Lindsey was severely wounded in the thigh, 
 and made a prisoner ; and the king was himself in 
 great danger of being taken, as he only had 100 horse- 
 men about him. He would even then have continued 
 fighting, so entirely was he a believer in the sacred
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 invincibility of kings. Darkness helped the royal 
 army, and, as Clarendon says, it was the darkness of 
 an October evening which enabled the royal troops to 
 hold their ground. Charles caused the cannon which 
 were nearest to the enemy to be drawn off, and with 
 his whole forces spent the night in the field, by such a 
 fire as could be made of the little wood and bushes 
 that grew thereabouts,' and in the morning both sides 
 
 claimed the victory ; but the battle was not renewed. 
 Lord Lindsey died in Essex's coach on his way to 
 Warwick Castle, from the effects of his wound, and 
 among others Sir Edward Verney, who carried the 
 Royal Standard, was killed, and the following singular 
 scene took place. Ensign Young took the standard 
 and delivered it to Lord Essex, who handed it to his 
 own secretary Chambers ; but in the meantime one of
 
 Edge hill and Naseby. 79 
 
 the king's officers, Captain Smith, took the orange scarf 
 from a fallen Parliamentarian, and passing himself off 
 for one, he said that such a great trophy should not be 
 in hands of a penman, and on securing it in the 
 general confusion, he galloped back to the king, and 
 was knighted on the spot. 
 
 Green, in his history, thus sums up the encounter : 
 ' The two armies fell in with one another on the field 
 of Edgehill, near Banbury. The encounter was a sur- 
 prise, and the battle which followed was little more 
 than a confused combat of horse. The moral advantage, 
 however, rested with the king. Essex had learned that 
 his troopers were no match for the cavaliers, and his 
 withdrawal to Warwick left open the road to the 
 capital.' The precise history of a battle, in which such 
 fearful events are going on by the hour and minute, 
 can never be written, as for example there might be 
 two or three records of Waterloo all different, but all 
 quite correct ; and perhaps indeed there are, but nobody 
 can ever reconcile them. All we know, and it is said 
 that all the duke professed to be certain about, was the 
 issue; but the localities of the civil wars, and the popular 
 recollections of those who saw them, preserve a fairly 
 correct narration. 
 
 Perhaps Edgehill is rather at a distance from Rugby, 
 but the heights are clearly visible, and as the winding 
 up of the war three years later was close to Rugby, the 
 narration, with sketches, is given here. The war went 
 on, and it greatly increased its area through the winter 
 months, while its issues went steadily on for the king.
 
 8o Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 The queen arrived with arms from Holland, and thus 
 greatly helped the royalists in their contests with the 
 eastern counties. Lord Fairfax met with some reverses 
 in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and Oxford was 
 strongly fortified in his favour. Many circumstances 
 that have come to light show how unfitted King Charles 
 was for a ruler of the people. 
 
 Before the wars commenced the demands of both 
 houses had, as it is said, ' risen ' to require that they 
 should have the power of appointing or dismissing the 
 ministers of the crown, and that with them should 
 rest the control of the military and civil affairs that 
 concerned the welfare of the state ; this, of course, is no 
 more than the people at present are privileged to enjoy, 
 but King Charles said that if he allowed such things he 
 would be 'no more than the mere phantom of a king.' 
 Into all his false promises and deceits during the 
 troublous times it would be quite unnecessary to go, as 
 also the battles that were won or lost ; but, unhappily, 
 the many shapely manor-houses that were wrecked, and 
 the decorations of churches, and market crosses, and 
 baronial residences like Warwick Castle, that were 
 destroyed, was the work of Charles. But the finale of 
 the wars brings us back closely to Rugby. Edgehill 
 was fought on October 23, 1642, and Naseby, the final 
 battle, occurred within three years, June 14, 1645, or just 
 two centuries, less thirty years and four days before the 
 battle of Waterloo. In its results, for all we can know, 
 it was as important even as Bosworth, which happened 
 within measurable distance.
 
 Edge hill and Naseby. 8 1 
 
 The high table-land on which Naseby stands is 
 really the central part of the watershed of England ; 
 some of the streams that rise here run east, such as the 
 Nen and Welland, and others west. Locally, it is called 
 the highest part of England, but this it is not by many 
 degrees, if compared with the heights of Yorkshire or 
 Cumberland. The successes had gradually been coming 
 to Cromwell's armies, but as yet nothing could be certain, 
 and even the battle of Naseby was an open event when 
 it began. There is on the walls of Chester a tower 
 called 'King Charles's Tower,' or sometimes 'Phoenix 
 Tower/ and here Charles stood when he saw his forces 
 utterly routed under Sir Marmaduke Langdale by 
 General Poyntz, when they were on their way to 
 reinforce the garrison of Chester. The town is not 
 much altered, and resembles what it was when he saw 
 his last battle. 
 
 Fortune had gone against Charles, and he had 
 promised reforms and conciliations of all kinds in a 
 conference that lasted for a long period in the picturesque 
 old town of Uxbridge. The council-room where these 
 meetings took place still stands, and is part of a 
 country inn. ' But the hopes of concession which 
 Charles had held out through the winter were suddenly 
 withdrawn in the spring. He saw, as he thought, the 
 Parliamentary army dissolved and ruined by the new 
 modelling, at the instant when news came from Scotland 
 of fresh successes on the part of Montrose, and of his 
 overthrow of the Marquis of Argyll's troops in the 
 victory of Inverlochy.' The 'new model, as it was called, 
 
 F
 
 8 2 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 had been adopted by Cromwell for a complete improve- 
 ment in his army. It resembled the Ironsides in most 
 respects, or the regiment of which Cromwell was the 
 commander. He decided in the new model to get 
 together an army of 20,000 men, who were all to be 
 godly, sober, and honest, and his restrictions were such 
 that Lords Manchester, Essex, and Waller resigned 
 their commissions. Charles at once supposed that the 
 day of Parliamentary power was over, and, of course, 
 attached no importance to his promises of reform. 
 Montrose said he would soon join him with a victorious 
 army, and all offers of compromise or better government 
 were at once abandoned. The tablet on the turret, 
 which is just opposite the chapter-house of Chester 
 Cathedral, says, ' King Charles stood on this tower, 
 September 24, 1645, an d saw his army defeated on 
 Rowton moor.' Rowton moor is nearly three miles 
 distant, and, though built over to some extent, it is in 
 perfect prospect of the tower, which forms so prominent 
 a feature on the Chester walls. But this occurred some 
 three months after the battle of Naseby. 
 
 It was on the 7th of May that the King and 
 Rupert left Oxford and went to raise the siege of 
 Chester. This was his first visit, and he was successful ; 
 and when this was announced to the Parliamentary 
 party, Fairfax, with his army, which really was the new 
 model, was ordered to invest Oxford, and this he at 
 once did. ' Charles advanced to Leicester and took it 
 by storm ; then, learning that Oxford was blockaded, he 
 turned southward for the relief of that place, and
 
 Edge kill and Naseby. 83 
 
 established his headquarters at the Wheatsheaf Inn, 
 Daventry,' and Fairfax marched from Oxford to meet 
 him. When the news were received that the new ' model 
 army was at hand/ a short council of war was held at 
 the Wheatsheaf, and it was resolved, if possible, to avoid 
 any encounter, but march into Yorkshire. This, 
 however, was frustrated by Fairfax, who went from 
 Oxford to meet him. Before the battle he had fallen 
 upon a detachment of the Royal troops at Lutterworth 
 and Naseby, and taken a number of prisoners.' The 
 Naseby plateau extends from the village, northwards to 
 beyond Sibbertoft where the hills slope down to the 
 valley of the Welland. The plateau consists of a 
 succession of low rolling hills with intervening valleys. 
 'A place of little hills and vales and some champein,' as 
 one of the combatants described it. North of the village 
 there is a slight depression, the ground rising again to 
 Mill Hill, which is a mile from the church. Thence the 
 ground slopes gently down in three successive waves, 
 and finally rises again to Dust Hill. The distance 
 between the tops of Dust Hill and Mill Hill is about a 
 mile, and the intervening space called Broadmoor was 
 the battlefield. 
 
 It would be soon after seven o'clock in the morning 
 that Charles left Market Harboro' and marched to what 
 finally was his doom. Rupert was in command, and 
 Sir Jacob Astley, who, as Clarendon says, 'was an 
 honest, brave, and plain man, and as fit for the office 
 he exercised of major-general of foot as any man in 
 Christendom yielded.' The cavalry on the left was
 
 84 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 commanded by Sir Marmaduke Langdale, whose com- 
 plete overthrow at Chester Charles afterwards witnessed, 
 and the right was commanded by Prince Rupert, and 
 cut into two divisions or brigades, one under the leading 
 of the Earl of Northampton and the other under 
 Prince Maurice. There was also a reserve of horse 
 under Colonel Howard, and still further in the rear was 
 another reserve under Lord Lindsey, the son of the able 
 
 general who received his death-wound at the battle of 
 Edgehill. Indeed, if we look at the locality, we must 
 admit that the Royal forces were well laid out. But 
 then they had to contend with such leaders as Ireton, 
 Fairfax, and Cromwell. Charles in armour and sword 
 in hand, rode along the ranks of his army, and was 
 received with great enthusiasm. ' Queen Mary ' was 
 the cry of the Royalists, and ' God is our strength,' that
 
 Edgehill and Naseby. 85 
 
 of the Parliamentarians. Ireton's division was com- 
 pletely routed by Rupert, and, as was their practice, the 
 Royalist troops dismounted to plunder the waggons. 
 Cromwell, on the other hand, attacked Sir Marmaduke 
 Langdale, who led the right division, and quite routed 
 him, and Fairfax, who had been with Cromwell, now 
 turned to where the main battle was going on, and 
 joined his forces with Skippon and Okey. Complete 
 confusion soon came over the army of Charles, and the 
 Royalists were utterly routed and fled. Rupert's men 
 having completed their plundering, reformed, and were 
 led back to the battle, and King Charles himself made 
 a vigorous effort to recover the day, but it was too late, 
 and the last hopes of the king were over, for after 
 Naseby he was, as Sir Philip Warwick said, ' like a 
 hunted partridge flitting from one castle to another.' 
 Cromwell chased the defeated army as far as to Wigston 
 Magna, but the king never drew in his reins until he had 
 reached Ashby de la Zouche, somewhat over twenty- 
 five miles from the scene of the battle. The result of 
 the battle of Naseby is very extraordinary. It was 
 estimated at the time that about 700 Royalists were 
 killed in the battle, and 300 during Cromwell's pursuit. 
 There were also 4500 prisoners taken, while the loss of 
 the victorious army was only 200. The pedestrian 
 may still see the Sulby hedges, by which Okey's dragoons 
 were drawn up in line. 
 
 Naseby Church contains the remains of some 
 Parliamentary officers. Some of their remains have 
 been found, and bullets are frequently turned up in the
 
 86 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 cultivation of the soil, and the place where Royalists 
 were carousing when Ireton fell in upon them is still 
 perceived at Naseby Woolleys, a residence on the river 
 Avon. The church itself had a long truncated spire, on 
 which was fixed a hollow ball of copper. This was 
 
 brought from the capture of Boulogne which Henry VIIL, 
 when he had become an unwieldy monarch, managed to 
 effect Sir Giles Allingham, it is said, brought it and 
 placed it on his house at Horseheath in Cambridgeshire, 
 and when that was dismantled, Mr. Ashby secured it.
 
 EdgeJnll and Naseby. 87 
 
 and fastened it to the spire. The Ashbys belong to a 
 very old Leicester family, and have had the Shrievalty 
 of their county and occupied public offices during some 
 centuries. A portion of this church was built in the 
 fourteenth century, and there are yet some curious 
 stilted pillars and some well-shaped caps. 
 
 Part of the Royalists found their way to Marston 
 Trussel Church, which is called 'pudding poke Marston,' 
 from the circumstance that the entrance to the church 
 was finished in a cul-de-sac. In the flight of the troops 
 after Naseby, a number of them sought refuge here, and 
 they were simply cut to pieces by Cromwell's soldiers. 
 
 There is an old print of large dimensions that was 
 published some short time after the battle, and under it 
 is the following quaint description : ' The battle which 
 gave the final turn to the King's affairs happened on 
 the I4th June 1645 ; the first charge was given by 
 Prince Rupert and his brothers, who bore down all 
 before them, the left wing and the Northern horse 
 engaging Cromwell and the Enemies' right wing, against 
 odds of numbers and the advantage ground, were put 
 to flight. The King, at the head of his reserve of Horse, 
 was even ready to charge those which pursued his left 
 wing, which might have recovered the misfortune when, 
 on a Sudden, such a panic fear seized on them that 
 they ran near a quarter of a mile without stopping, 
 which happened upon an uncommon accident. For the 
 Scotch Earl of Carnworth on a Sudden laid his hand 
 on y e King's bridle, crying out with 2 or 3 oaths will 
 you go to your Death in an Instant ! and before his
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 Majesty understood what he would have, turned his 
 Horse round, upon which a word run through the 
 Troops, March to the Right, which, unfortunately, led 
 them from charging the Enemy and assisting their own 
 Men, and caused them all to turn their Horses and ride 
 upon the spin as if every man was to shift for himself. 
 After this Disorder the King, not being able to prevail 
 with his troops to rally and charge the Enemy, he 
 retreated as well as he could, and left Fairfax entire 
 master of the field.' 
 
 There is a fine engraving of the battle of Naseby in 
 Lord Clarendon's History of the Grand Rebellion in the 
 print department of the British Museum.
 
 COVENTRY 
 
 THE road from Rugby to Coventry is like the others 
 in these parts, very delightful ; perhaps the nearest is 
 through Church Lawford and Binley, but possibly the 
 one past Coornbe Abbey is even more picturesque, 
 while that to the south of them through Dunchurch 
 and Ryton-on-Dunsmore is considered the old high- 
 road. 
 
 The other places will be duly recorded afterwards. 
 But of Ryton-on-Dunsmore we may say that it is a 
 pleasant village about four miles from Coventry, and 
 one of the twenty-four places given by Leofric to the 
 monks of Coventry. In Edward l.'s reign, Thomas de 
 Arden held the manor, and two mills, and certain lands 
 belonged to the Abbey of Thorney of which the remains 
 are so beautiful. A mill in those times was of feudal 
 value, as tenants were bound to bring their produce to 
 it. The church is dedicated to St. Leonard, and it 
 contains some ancient monuments ; it is partly built 
 in the style of architecture that prevailed during the 
 twelfth century. There is one great advantage in the 
 Coventry roads, they all run nearly parallel to the rail- 
 way, and about half-way between Rugby and Coventry 
 is the picturesque village of Wolston, where there is a 
 station, so that time may always be saved.
 
 90 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 From Ryton-on-Dunsmore there is a fine prospect 
 of Coventry with its three graceful spires. There are 
 many versions of the old expression, ' Send him to 
 Coventry,' but none of them are very explanatory or 
 clear, yet the sentence is common all over England, 
 quite as much so as ' Grinning like a Cheshire cat ' ; 
 and though it may be slightly beyond the boundaries 
 of the book, I may say what I think in spite of many 
 theories on the subject, some of which even attach it 
 to Cheshire cheeses sold in Bath with a cat embossed 
 on them. The record of this day (January 29, 1891) 
 reminds me of what I believe the real origin was : The 
 exceeding cold has unearthed two real wild cats in Scot- 
 land, which are now in a national exhibition ; and 
 Delamere forest in Cheshire was perhaps the last place 
 in England where these were found. It was almost 
 the happy hunting-ground for the English squires and 
 lords, and these wild cats especially were hunted down. 
 They somewhat resembled in feature the Canadian 
 laughing hyaena, and when parting with their nine lives, 
 the hunters might well say with Warwick when speak- 
 ing of Beaufort, ' See how the pangs of death do make 
 him grin.' Henry VI. 
 
 Until the year 1842, Coventry was a county in itself, 
 the same as Chester. This distinction was conferred 
 on it by Henry VI. in return for the loyalty of its 
 citizens to his ambitious and restless wife, Queen 
 Margaret of Anjou. The name of Coventry is spelled 
 Conventry in old records, from the foundation, it is said, 
 of a convent by Canute. St. Osburg was the Abbess
 
 Coventry. 9 1 
 
 in 1016, and then it was burned feloniously by Edric, 
 who invaded Warwickshire, and did much damage to 
 many of the towns. Unfortunately the amount of wood 
 that figured in their construction then made them an 
 easy prey to fire. On the site of the convent Leofric 
 and his Countess Godiva erected a monastery which 
 they endowed munificently. This was in the reign of 
 Edward the Confessor. In 1355 Coventry was sur- 
 rounded with walls which resembled in section those 
 of Chester, but they were larger in circumference. 
 Those of Chester are one and three-quarter miles, but 
 those of Coventry were three miles in extent. For 
 
 *.* 
 
 three centuries the walls were kept in excellent repair, 
 but evil days were before them. After Charles had 
 erected his standard at Nottingham, he required the 
 citizens to join his army, but when they refused he 
 bombarded the city, though without effect. 
 
 On the restoration of Charles II., the inhabitants
 
 92 Rambles round 'Rugby. 
 
 made many enthusiastic demonstrations in his favour. 
 The conduits, it is said, were made to flow with wine, 
 and a basin and ewer with fifty pieces of gold were 
 sent him as a memorial, and all the lands that were 
 the king's lands were given up to him. But, perhaps 
 because it was so near the scene of his father's final 
 discomfiture, Charles was not to be appeased, and he 
 ruthlessly sent the Earl of Northampton, with a large 
 following of gentry and a detachment of troops, to 
 break up the walls as a mark of his displeasure for the 
 inhabitants not having taken the side of the royalists. 
 This was done most ruthlessly. There was, except 
 Chester, no other so completely walled city in England, 
 and as the days ever since were days of peace, Coventry 
 would have had another relic like the Chester walls. 
 Three gates were spared, owing in all probability to 
 the exhausted satiety of the destroyers. The city is 
 charmingly situated on a gentle eminence, which is 
 bounded on the north-east by the river Sherbourne 
 and the Radford brook. The streets of Coventry are 
 remarkable for their picturesque beauty, and the city 
 is rich indeed that contains such noble buildings as 
 St. Michael's Church and St. Mary's Hall, but quaint 
 gables and artistic groups of old buildings meet the 
 eye everywhere. 
 
 Coventry figures in Richard II. very remarkably ; 
 and we are almost surprised at this monarch's prompti- 
 tude when his after career was so feeble, but then his 
 amazing presence of mind when Wat Tyler was 
 murdered by Walworth before them all, gave promise
 
 94 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 of a future king that never was realised. ' My friends, 
 be not concerned for the loss of your unworthy leader. 
 I will be your leader.' This is the speech which history 
 has put in his lips, but where we see any historical 
 record in Shakespeare, we may be pretty sure that it 
 rests on facts. 
 
 There is near Coventry a locality called Gosford 
 Green, and here an old quarrel was to be decided 
 between Henry Bolingbroke, the Duke of Hereford, 
 who was the son of John of Gaunt, and Mowbray, the 
 Duke of Norfolk ; a throne was erected on which 
 Richard sat when Norfolk entered, and he called out 
 to the Lord Marshall : 
 
 ' Marshall, demand of yonder champion 
 The cause of his arrival here in arms,' etc., etc. ; 
 
 and he says of Bolingbroke when he enters with a 
 herald : 
 
 ' Marshall, ask yonder knight in arms 
 Both who he is, and why he cometh hither, 
 Thus plated in habiliments of war, 
 And formally, according to our law, 
 Depose him in the justice of his cause.' 
 
 After all the preliminaries had been gone through and 
 the charge was sounded the marshall calls out : 
 
 ' Stay, the king hath thrown his warder down ;' 
 
 and then comes the memorable speech of Richard in 
 which he banishes both of the combatants, Norfolk for 
 life, and Bolingbroke, who afterwards deposed him, for 
 ten years.
 
 Coventry. 95 
 
 There is an account of this singular meeting in some 
 old Warwickshire records that would throw much light 
 upon the somewhat obscure opening of Richard II. in 
 Shakespeare. The Duke of Hereford, who was after- 
 wards Henry IV., is said to have had a private conversa- 
 tion with Mowbray, the Duke of Norfolk, which was of a 
 treasonable character. Bolingbroke afterwards revealed 
 this conversation, and all of his statements were quite 
 denied by the Duke of Norfolk, who, in order to show 
 his truthfulness, challenged him to a single combat, for 
 in those days, and indeed even to later times, there was 
 a belief that the battle was not to the strong, but to 
 those who were in the right ; and to illustrate how 
 fanciful some of their views were, it might be 
 added that there was a solemn engagement between 
 the two combatants not to lend themselves to any 
 chains of incantations, but to come fairly to the field 
 without any undue magical influence. They then, it 
 is stated, ignored any attempt to induce help from the 
 lower regions, but required all good Christians to help 
 them with their prayers : 
 
 ' Add proof unto my armour with thy prayers, 
 And with thy blessings steel my lance's point.' 
 
 About a mile after passing Ryton-on-Dunsmore we 
 come to the river Avon, which here is in a pleasant 
 valley, and soon after crossing the bridge that goes 
 over it we arrive at a lane called Rowley Lane, from 
 which we may have some fine views of the Coventry 
 spires. A little more than a mile along this road will 
 lead us to the very delightful village of Baginton, which
 
 96 Rambles round Rit-gby. 
 
 s a little more than three miles to the south-east of 
 Coventry. Turchil de Warwick possessed the manor 
 in the days of William the Conqueror, and in Richard 
 ll.'s time Sir Walter Bagot was lord of the manor, and 
 resided there ; he was buried in the church, and a fine 
 monumental brass was placed over him. The mansion 
 was burned down, but it was rebuilt in Queen Anne's 
 time by Bromley, the Speaker then of the House of 
 Commons. In the grounds there are some remains of 
 a castle where Henry Bolingbroke stayed when he left for 
 Coventry, in September 1397, to meet Norfolk in mortal 
 combat. He came on his white courser armed at all 
 points, and well attended by his followers. Norfolk 
 came from Caludon Castle on a horse trapped in crim- 
 son velvet, and embroidered with lions and mulberry 
 leaves, alluding to his name Mowbray, or Mulberry. 
 
 Richard now entered Coventry. It was in the 
 twentieth year of his reign, and he seems to have 
 almost lost his self-control not long after. Hollinshead 
 says that he came in great array accompanied with the 
 lords and gentlemen of their lineages. 
 
 'The Duke of Hereford armed himself in his tent 
 that was set up near to the lists. The Duke of Norfolk 
 put on his armour behind the gate and the barrier of 
 the town, in a beautiful house having a fair perclois of 
 wood towards the gate, that none might see what was 
 done within the house. 
 
 ' The Duke of Aumerle that day being Constable of 
 England, and the Duke of Surrey, Marshall, placed 
 themselves betwixt them well armed and appointed.
 
 Coventry. 97 
 
 'About the hour of prime the Duke of Hereford 
 came to the barriers of the lists on a white courser. 
 The Constable and Marshall came and demanded of 
 him what he was. He answered : " I am Henry of 
 Lancaster, Duke of Hereford, which am come thither 
 to do- my endeavour against Thomas Mowbray, Duke 
 of Norfolk, as a traitor." 
 
 'Then incontinently he swore upon the holy evan- 
 gelists that his quarrel was true and just. Then putting 
 down his visor he descended spear in hand, and set him 
 down upon a chair of green velvet at the end of the 
 lists, and there reposed himself, abiding the coming of 
 his adversary. 
 
 'Soon after him entered the field, and in great triumph, 
 King Richard, accompanied with all the peers of his 
 realm, and above ten thousand men in armour, lest 
 some fray or tumult might rise among his nobles. 
 
 ' The Duke of Norfolk hovered on horseback at 
 the entrance of the lists ; and when he had made his 
 oath before the Constable that his quarrel was just, he 
 entered the field manfully, calling aloud, " God aid him 
 that hath the right ! " and then he departed from his 
 horse, and sat him down on his chair, which was crimson 
 velvet. The Lord Marshall viewed the spears to see 
 that they were of equal length. Then the herald pro- 
 claimed that the haverses and chairs should be removed, 
 commanding them to mount on horseback and address 
 themselves to the battle and combat. 
 
 'The Duke of Hereford was quickly horsed, and cast 
 his spear into the rest, and when the trumpet sounded 
 
 G
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 set forward courageously towards his opponent six or 
 seven paces.' And now comes the singular scene which is 
 always so comparatively puzzling in Shakespeare : the 
 Duke of Norfolk was, as it seems, rather behindhand when 
 the king suddenly cast down his warder, 'and the heralds 
 cried Ho ! ho ! Then the king caused their spears to 
 be taken from them, and commanded them to repaire 
 again to their chairs, where they remained two long hours, 
 while the king and his council deliberately consulted 
 what order was best to be had in so weighty a cause.' 
 This is the account as given in Hollinshead's Chronicles, 
 and it differs very little from Shakespeare's. 
 In Act i., Scene iii., Richard says : 
 
 ' Let them lay by their helmets and their spears, 
 And both return back to their chairs again.' 
 
 After a second consultation with his nobles, the king 
 called the combatants, and said the quarrel must cease. 
 
 'And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect 
 Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbours' swords.' 
 
 The two dukes were then banished, Hereford for 
 ten years, and Norfolk for life. Gosford Green, where 
 the event took place, lies just outside Coventry, on the 
 road to Coombe Abbey. 
 
 There was a grand old cross at Coventry that stood 
 at one time among the treasures of English architecture. 
 It supplanted an old market-cross that rested on pillars 
 and formed what is called a ' butter-market.' Happily, 
 there are not a few of these crosses remaining, especially 
 in the eastern and southern parts of England, and still 
 they are used for market purposes ; but the celebrated
 
 Coventry. 99 
 
 Coventry cross was four stories in height. Its plan was 
 hexagonal and it was fifty-seven feet high. Its niches 
 were filled with statuary, and it was ' so highly illumi- 
 nated with gold and colours that it was almost impossible 
 to look upon it when the sun shone.' Every town in 
 England then had its cross. In some, where the 
 monastery had the privilege of the market dues, a monk 
 or friar was told off on market days to preach against 
 worldliness ; but these crosses were always the places 
 where public announcements were made events that 
 have nearly quite died out now, except in some very 
 remote old towns. I have several times heard them. 
 Bolingbroke, when Henry iv., said to Percy, the Earl of 
 Worcester, as the latter called him to account for 
 breaches of his promises of reform when they seated 
 him on Richard's throne 
 
 ' These things, indeed, you have articulate, 
 Proclaim'd at market-crosses, read in churches, 
 To face the garment of rebellion 
 With some fine colour.' 
 
 St. Mary's Hall, Coventry, is one of the most 
 picturesque buildings that we have in any of our country 
 towns. It was begun in 1394, and completed in 1414, 
 on the site of an older hall. The buildings surround a 
 courtyard and are approached by an archway from the 
 street that has a finely carved entrance. It was erected 
 for the united guilds of Trinity, St. Mary, John the 
 Baptist, and St. Katherine, which became generally 
 known as Trinity Guild, and is called by Dugdale, ' A 
 fair and stately structure for their feasts and meetings,
 
 I oo Rambles roitnd Riigby. 
 
 situated opposite to St. Michael's Church.' On the 
 dissolution of the Guild, the Corporation bought it, and 
 have since used it as their hall. There are figures of 
 the gentle Henry VI. and his warlike wife Margaret, and 
 many other carved statues. Here, for a short time, 
 Mary Queen of Scots was confined, and it is currently 
 reported that her description of the spires enabled 
 another generation to identify the place that she had 
 been silently removed to. This was some time before she 
 was taken to Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, 
 which was the place where she ended her erring career. 
 St. Michael's Church is close by St. Mary's Hall, 
 and is one of the finest parish churches in England. 
 Many are the parish churches like Ludlow, or Yarmouth, 
 or Nantwich, that would fill the status of a cathedral, 
 and would indeed be purchased, if possible, at priceless 
 sums by a new diocese such as Liverpool. But, of all 
 the churches in England, it is somewhat doubtful if we 
 have such a noble example of a parish church as 
 St. Michael's, Coventry. It was begun, it seems, in 1372, 
 a period with which the style quite corresponds, and 
 finished twenty-two years later on by two brothers, 
 William and Adam Botoner. They annually gave 
 ;ioo for the completion of the grand building, and 
 there is a brass plate that records their liberality : 
 
 ' William and Adam built the tower, 
 Anne and Mary built the spire. 
 William and Adam built the church, 
 Anne and Mary built the quire.' 
 
 The church, fortunately, is open from ten o'clock to
 
 Coventry. 
 
 101 
 
 four, and the view looking to the east is extremely 
 grand. So light is the stonework, though it is abun- 
 dantly strong, that it even looks from the chancel end 
 almost like a huge bird-cage. The windows are finely 
 decorated with stained glass and the view is well worth 
 a pilgrimage. One of the windows is ' In memory of 
 the great and good Albert Emanuel, Prince Consort 
 
 who entered immortality, December 1861.' The peal of 
 ten bells is considered one of the finest in England. 
 These were re-hung in 1794, but at present are on the 
 floor of the church, it not having been thought good 
 to re-hang them in the restored tower, upon a wooden
 
 io2 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 framework rising from the ground so as not to disturb 
 the delicate masonry of the tower. The spire is rather 
 more than 300 feet in height, and is just of the same 
 length as the church. The interior of the church derives 
 much beauty from the tall, delicate piers which support 
 the roof. The clerestory windows are double and very 
 large, and indeed I cannot remember any church 
 where the stone plays so small a part and the luminous 
 remainder is so great. The living was valued in the 
 king's books at 26, 153. 46. Now it is rated at 472, 
 and it is still in the gift of the Crown. 
 
 Holy Trinity Church is a fine cruciform structure, 
 which was valued in the king's books at 10, but now 
 is worth ^650, and it is in the patronage of the Lord 
 Chancellor. The proportions are more massive than 
 those of St. Michael's, but they are very fine. There is 
 a monument to Dr. Philemon Holland on the south wall 
 of the choir. He prided himself on having written a 
 large book with one pen only, and thus he commemorates 
 the event : 
 
 ' With one sole pen I wrote this book, 
 Made of a grey goose quill. 
 A pen it was when I it took, 
 A pen I leave it still.' 
 
 This church is very richly endowed with estates, and 
 there are numerous chanties at its disposal. 
 
 There is a building of exceeding beauty and archi- 
 tectural merit the Greyfriars' Hospital. This build- 
 ing has three gabled windows to the street, of very 
 fine architectural proportions, and they project out
 
 Coventry. 
 
 103 
 
 artistically. The doorway, between two long ranges of 
 windows, leads to the fine old court, which is shown, 
 and which is a model of beauty and quaintness. It is 
 quite free to enter, and well worth a long journey. The 
 
 woodwork is elaborately carved, and the heavy down- 
 spouts are quite made to compose with the rest of the 
 architecture. The delicate oak carving round the frieze, 
 and the charming light tracing in oak at the head of
 
 1 04 Rambles round Riigby. 
 
 the windows should not be overlooked. This building 
 was erected as a hospital, and is no part of a convent, 
 though, indeed, it occupies the site of the Greyfriars' 
 Monastery. The hospital was originally intended for 
 the accommodation of aged men and women. It was 
 built by William Ford in 1509 for five men and one 
 woman to dwell in, and they were to have 5d. a week 
 each for ever ; and he ordered that lands and tenements 
 should be purchased at the discretion of his executors 
 for the payments. William Pisford, in compliance with 
 this, by will, dated 1517, or eight years after the foun- 
 dation, in his will extended the provisions of the rules 
 for the admittance of inmates, and declared that these 
 should be admitted into this guild, and said there should 
 be six poor men and their wives, being nigh the age of 
 threescore years, or above, and should have sevenpence 
 halfpenny a week, and furthermore, if the wife of any 
 should die before her husband, he should have the seven- 
 pence halfpenny a week ; but if the men left widows, 
 these were to receive but threepence halfpenny per week, 
 and two that were similarly left should live together. 
 
 Coventry was the seat of Parliament on various 
 occasions. The Lancastrian kings summoned Parlia- 
 ment here, and well the citizens remembered their good 
 offices when their days were troubled. But Parliaments 
 were held here, one by Henry IV. and his descendants, 
 and they had singular names. One Parliament excluded 
 all lawyers from sitting among them, and it was called 
 in consequence the ' Parliamentum Indoctorum,' Of 
 course the ' Indoctorum ' did not so much refer to the
 
 Coventry. 105 
 
 want of learning in the members as to the absence of 
 legal knowledge. Another Parliament was called the 
 ' Parliamentum Diabolicum/ which name was given in 
 consequence of the severe measures that were passed by 
 it against the Duke of York and his adherents. The 
 king, Henry VI., had become very unwell, and the Duke 
 of York, as a descendant of Edmund Langley, quietly 
 put in his claim to the future monarchy, and his claim 
 was rather popular. The king was so unwell as to be 
 almost incapable for a year, and York was appointed 
 the protector of the realm. On the king's recovery, 
 Somerset, who had been committed to the Tower, was 
 restored to power, and York took up arms. Somerset 
 fell, and a renewal of the king's malady restored York 
 to power ; but the recovery of the king caused his 
 overthrow, and he fled to Ireland, when the queen 
 summoned a parliament to Coventry, and all sorts of 
 harsh attainders were passed against the Yorkists.
 
 WARWICK 
 
 HAPPILY the attention of England is being turned to 
 its own native architecture, and the picturesque old 
 towns that still bear traces of former days. At the 
 beginning of the Tudor period, the architecture, which 
 is called perpendicular, was in its best form, though, 
 as it now seems, there are excellent examples of it 
 which date before the fourteenth century was advanced 
 very far, as the Dean of Gloucester informs us from ex- 
 amples and records that he has in Gloucester Cathedral. 
 The perpendicular style is entirely English, and not 
 seen on the Continent ; for when it appeared the Flam- 
 boyant took its place there. It was in Elizabeth's time 
 that the 'grand tour' became so necessary as an accom- 
 plishment to young men of wealth, and the singular 
 part of the record is that, unlike the men of other 
 countries, they did not even attempt, as they might 
 have done, to master the languages of the Continent, 
 or even to read the Latin language with its accents 
 and pronunciation of vowels, as they should, and as 
 others did, and even yet do. There is a passage in the 
 Merchant of Venice that throws much light upon the 
 strange mixture of the English and foreign habits and 
 styles that were being merged into our own ways of 
 life. Nerissa says, ' What say you to Falconbridge, the 
 
 106
 
 Warwick. 107 
 
 young baron of England ? ' and Portia replies, ' You 
 know I say nothing to him, for he understands not 
 me, nor I him ; he hath neither Latin, French, nor 
 Italian, and you will come into the court and swear 
 that I have a poor pennyworth in the English. He is 
 a proper man's picture ; but, alas, who can converse 
 with a dumb-show ? How oddly he is suited ! I think 
 he bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, 
 his bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour everywhere.' 
 There is hardly anything that throws a more clear light 
 than this upon the change that was coming over Eng- 
 land. Every county then contained many examples of 
 picturesque baronial mansions, some of which happily 
 remain, and there were in Elizabeth's reign great num- 
 bers of monasteries that had been transformed into 
 residences, and were almost priceless examples of 
 English architecture. But the country was then very 
 wealthy, and the returning travellers brought with them 
 designs to destroy their ancestral homes. Hence the 
 Elizabethan style began, which was a blending of Gothic 
 and Italian ; and, indeed, if we take such a building as 
 Wollaton, near Nottingham, we shall see the work of 
 two architects apparently contemporaneous, one of whom 
 is desirous to adhere to Gothic forms, even modified, 
 while the other desires the Italian to prevail. But the 
 spirit of Italianising advanced with time, and the Hano- 
 verian architecture which prevailed in the days of the 
 the first Georges wrecked countless old country man- 
 sions that now would be the goal of a pilgrimage. In 
 Cheshire there are many such destructions, but we have
 
 ro8 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 such relics as Bramhall and Moreton still entire, and, 
 indeed, many others. There is some little difference of 
 opinion as to which is the most antique-looking town 
 or city in England, but I think the selection rests with 
 four Warwick, Coventry, Shrewsbury, and either Salis- 
 bury or Wells. Chester, where this is written, is sadly 
 over-rated as an example of antiquity ; the walls are 
 Roman, but much altered even to the present time, 
 
 and the rows, curious as they are, have been nearly 
 all rebuilt. Leicester's hospital in Warwick has few 
 parallels in quaint architecture, and the tunnel walk 
 under the chapel is of intense picturesque beauty. 
 
 This hospital was founded by the Lord Leicester, 
 whose name is so sadly connected with his Countess, 
 Amy Robsart, and the foundation-stone was laid in
 
 Warwick. 109 
 
 the twenty-eighth year of Elizabeth's reign. It was 
 endowed for twelve indigent men, and was endowed 
 well with property, including buildings belonging to 
 the Guild. The building encloses a quadrangle, and 
 on either side there is a covered passage of wood that 
 leads to the apartments of the brethren. These must 
 have been for at least five years resident in Warwick, 
 Kenilworth, Stratford-on-Avon, or else in the manors of 
 Arlingham or Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire. 
 All of the recipients are clothed in blue cloth gowns, 
 and they have the founder's arms in silver the bear 
 and ragged staff. As it is in other local hospitals and 
 alms-houses, the residents must declare themselves to 
 be in want, and under no circumstances to possess more 
 than five pounds a year. Those were to have the pre- 
 ference who had been wounded or disabled in the 
 service of their country. There was, at one time, in the 
 kitchen garden, a Nilometer, or a record tablet that 
 showed the rise of the Nile, a circumstance that was 
 always a puzzle to the ancients, who saw a river of 
 700 miles long without a feeder worth notice, and not 
 subject to showers or rains, but passing through the 
 dryest of parched lands, and yet overflowing its banks 
 annually for miles, and fertilising the country. They 
 knew nothing then of the great lakes from which the 
 Nile receives its supplies, and which are overwhelmed 
 with water in the rainy season. 
 
 ' Wise ancients knew when Crater rose to sight, 
 Nile's festive deluge had sustain'd its height.' 
 
 This relic was presented to the hospital by the Earl of
 
 I IO 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 Warwick, who supplanted it in his garden at Warwick 
 Castle by the celebrated Warwick vase. The residence 
 of the master occupies the great part of the court, and 
 it bears also the badge of the Leicesters, and the date 
 of the foundation. In St. Mary's Church there are seats 
 allotted to the brethren, which they use on stated occa- 
 sions. It is a well-known edifice, and well worthy of 
 a visit. It is also called the High Church, and has had 
 
 many phases of existence. It is mentioned in Domes- 
 day Book; but it was repaired, if not rebuilt, in Stephen's 
 time, and in 1394 the church was rebuilt by Thomas 
 Beauchamp, the founder of the magnificent Beauchamp 
 Chapel which still remains, and is one of the treasures 
 of England. The building was nearly destroyed by fire 
 in 1694, but it was rebuilt and opened up in 1/04, with 
 such Gothic as the period afforded. Fortunately, how-
 
 Warwick. 1 1 1 
 
 ever, the grand Beauchamp Chapel, and the chapter- 
 house and vestry, escaped. When the brethren do not 
 attend at the High Church they go to their own chapel, 
 which figures with such great beauty at the entrance to 
 Warwick. Services, when not held at the High Church, 
 are held here, and the brethren attend at morning and 
 evening. This chapel was modernised by Sir Gilbert 
 Scott, and stained glass put in the east window. James I. 
 visited Warwick, and was received with great ostenta- 
 tion at the hospital. The architecture of the hospital is 
 excellent, the gables are shapely and beautifully grouped. 
 The upper part of the court-yard front, which is shown, 
 is admirable, but the lower part has rather too much 
 variety in arrangement. It is a great mistake to suppose 
 that irregularity is a desirable feature in English archi- 
 tecture, and this is beginning now to be understood ; 
 the picturesque charms of the best examples result 
 from this : the plan of the building is made to suit the 
 requirements, and the exterior is made as congruous and 
 harmonious as the circumstances will permit. Where, 
 as in such a front as Versailles, the other course prevails, 
 the long rows of enormous windows have often to rule 
 the plan, and one of them is perhaps cut in two inter- 
 nally by a partition wall, and lights a footman's pantry 
 and a stairway. Some of the best and most artistic of 
 the oak and plaster work, which is also called magpie, 
 and post, and petrel work is to be seen in Cheshire, 
 when the vast oak-trees of Delamere were in vigorous 
 growth. The Earl of Leicester, who founded and 
 endowed the hospital, is almost immortalised by
 
 1 1 2 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 Scott in Kenilworth, and his treatment of Amy 
 Robsart, and his ambitious designs to let Queen 
 Elizabeth take her place, are too well known to need 
 repetition here. 
 
 The church at Cumnor, near Oxford, is well worthy 
 of a visit, and is delightfully situated, and here it was 
 that Amy Robsart lived ; the south transept that butts 
 into the park is the same as when she saw it, and indeed 
 it was then two centuries old. It does not appear in 
 Sir Walter Scott's novel, but at the request of her 
 father the body was disinterred from St. Mary's Church, 
 and an inquest was held. Of course it would not have 
 been possible to have brought in any word that would 
 have compromised the Earl of Leicester, whose chaplain, 
 Dr. Babington, had preached her funeral sermon, and 
 it was supposed to be all hushed up ; but the jury, 
 guided by the coroner, had the courage to say that she 
 was ' accidentally slain ' ; and that conveys enough to 
 us now. Anthony Foster, who was undoubtedly the 
 culprit, is buried in Cumnor Church ; and on the north 
 side of the chancel there is a monument of grey marble, 
 and on it there is a man in armour and his wife, dressed 
 in the habit of the times, and under them is the Latin 
 inscription : 
 
 ' Antonius Foster, generis generosa propago, 
 
 Cumnerae dominus, Bercheriensis erat. 
 Armiger, armigero prognatus patre Ricardo, 
 
 Qui quondam Iphlethae Salopiensis erat. 
 Quatuor ex isto fluxerunt stemmate nati, 
 
 Ex isto Antonius stemmate quartus erat. 
 Mente sagax, animo precellens, corpore promptus ; 
 
 Eloquii dulcis, ore disertus erat.
 
 Warwick. 1 1 3 
 
 In factis probitas ; fuit in sermone venustas, 
 
 In vultu gravitas, relligione fides, 
 In patriam pietas, in egenos grata voluntas, 
 
 Accedunt reliquis annumeranda bonis. 
 Si quod cuncta rapit, rapuit non omnia Lethum, 
 Si quod mors rapuit, vivida fama dedit.' 
 
 How far this is just, I think any reader of KenilwortJi 
 can say. But in an after-note to Kenilworth, it is said 
 that, ' Notwithstanding the chanty, benevolence, and 
 religious faith imputed by the monument to its tenant, 
 tradition, as well as secret history, name him as the 
 active agent in the death of the Countess.' 
 
 Some years ago, when I was at Oxford, it was my 
 lot to fall in at a farmhouse with a very old resident, 
 who had a curious history to tell. He had been at one 
 time the butler to Pembroke College, and when I saw 
 him he was in his ninety-eighth year, and within a few 
 days of the end even of that, but he was in sound 
 health. He remembered a considerable part of Cumnor 
 Hall standing, and quite well the private chapel where 
 the grain, in after years, was stowed. He also remarked 
 that the trees in the park were not oaks, as Scott and 
 Mickle had stated in their records, but elms, as indeed 
 we can see them now. But, as I once wrote before, 
 ' This aged chronicler mentioned a curious circum- 
 stance that illustrates the last verse of Mickle's beautiful 
 ballad of Cumnor Hall.' It was indeed a ballad that 
 suggested KenilwortJi to Scott : 
 
 'And in that Manor now no more 
 Is merry feast or sprightly ball, 
 For ever since that dreary hour 
 
 Have spirits haunted Cumnor Hall.' 
 
 H
 
 1 1 4 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 He said that in his young days, which would be 
 sometime in the latter part of the eighteenth century, 
 much of Cumnor Hall was left, and also there were 
 among other things some artificial ponds for fish such 
 as were common in old times in great houses when 
 there was no fish market or trains to bring sea-fish into 
 the country parts, and so the country houses had to 
 provide for themselves. He remembers that he and 
 his village compatriots used to go and fish in these 
 ponds, and it was a case for immediate running away 
 when one of the party used to call out, ' Madame 
 Dudley is coming.' 
 
 Warwick is only a short distance by rail, but there 
 is a very pleasant road to it by Dunchurch, Prince 
 Thorpe, Wapenbury, and Cubington. Here there is 
 a fine church with two stained-glass windows and 
 an excellent chancel. In the reign of Henry III. this 
 manor was divided between the Prior of Coventry and 
 Henry de St. Maure. He, it would seem, committed 
 a murder, and his lands were conveyed to the Crown, 
 and afterwards they were bestowed on the Knights 
 Templars. Near here is ' Lovers' Grove,' as it is called, 
 which has a number of delightful views of the sur- 
 rounding country. 
 
 If in place of going to Warwick it should be de- 
 cided to visit the grand old castle of Kenilworth, a 
 walk of exceeding beauty would take us through the 
 grounds of Stoneleigh Abbey to the historic abode of 
 Kenilworth. The park round Stoneleigh is very ex- 
 tensive and well stocked with deer and venerable oak
 
 Warwick 1 1 5 
 
 trees. There is, as there should be and perhaps now is 
 through most great parks, a road where the pedestrian 
 may go ; and this is not a great way from Rugby, and 
 stations are near. Ashow is a small rural village with 
 the interesting church of St. Mary, and it is situated in 
 a beautifully secluded spot on the banks of the Avon, 
 and so far back as the reign of Henry II. it was con- 
 veyed to the canons of Kenilworth, and here Henry II. 
 founded an abbey for Cistercian monks. This order 
 always chose the most beautiful of spots for their house, 
 and their architecture is exceedingly graceful and fine, 
 besides being of the highest class of masonry. 
 
 Their monastery has, however, disappeared, though 
 there are some remains of it left among the domestic 
 offices that afford good examples of Norman work, but 
 in its place we have the magnificent residence called 
 Stoneleigh Abbey, of which a sketch is given, and it is 
 certainly one of the finest country seats in England. 
 There are two rather severe-looking classic lodges on 
 the Warwick road, and between them is the principal 
 entrance to the so-called ' Abbey,' a name that does not 
 certainly agree with its Roman front. This building 
 was erected in the early part of last century, but it has 
 undergone many changes since. There are rooms in 
 it that are open to the public, and perhaps the most 
 interesting features in these are the pictures. In the 
 picture gallery there is a portrait of the second Lord 
 Rockingham and his wife, who was a daughter of the 
 notable Earl of Strafford who was beheaded in the time 
 of Charles I. The billiard-room has many ancestral
 
 1 1 6 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 portraits of the Leigh family and the Dukes of Bucking- 
 ham. There are also works of Cuyp, Teniers, Van- 
 dyck, Albert Durer, and other great artists, and there 
 is a picture of the Virgin and Child by Perugino. The 
 private apartments are of equal magnificence with 
 those to which the public are admitted, and the gar- 
 dens are laid out in admirable style. 
 
 The history of the Leigh family is very interesting. 
 They belong to the great Cheshire families of Leigh who 
 have so many seats in that county. Sir Thomas Leigh 
 was Lord Mayor of London in 1558, and was knighted 
 during his mayoralty. He died on the i/th November 
 1571, and was buried in the Mercer's Chapel in London, 
 with the following inscription on his tomb : 
 
 ' Sir Thomas Leigh bi civil life 
 
 All offices did beare, 
 Which in this city, worshipfull, 
 
 Or honorable were. 
 Whom as God blessed with great wealth, 
 
 So losses did he feele, 
 Yet never changed his constant minde 
 
 Though fortune turned her wheele. 
 Learning he loved, and helpte the poore, 
 
 To them that knew him deere, 
 For whom his lady and loving wife 
 
 This tomb hath builded here.' 
 
 The family were raised to the peerage in 1643 by 
 Charles I., as the patent dated at Oxford shows, and 
 he married one of the daughters and co-heirs of Sir 
 Thomas Egerton, a niece of the great chancellor. 
 Edward, the fifth Lord Leigh, died unmarried in 1786, 
 at the age of forty-four, and the barony became ex-
 
 Warwick. 1 1 7 
 
 tinct. But there is another link between these two 
 families. Sir William Leigh of Newnham Regis, one 
 of the Leighs of Stoneleigh, married a daughter of Lord 
 Ellesmere, a name that is yet illustrious even among 
 the chancellors of England. About seven miles from 
 Chester there is a secluded country church well shaded 
 with trees and far from a railway station ; here the 
 chancellor lies buried. There is a monument to him, 
 and the sexton showed me the register of his burial 
 in the church books. 
 
 The foundation of Stoneleigh as an abbey may be 
 told in Dugdale's words : ' The order of Cistercian 
 monks being propagated in England towards the 
 latter part of Henry I.'s reign found in a short time 
 many pious benefactors in several parts of the king- 
 dom, who bountifully bestowed on them very valu- 
 able possessions in such places as were most proper 
 for them to seat themselves with least disturbance in 
 their strict and holy rule of serving God, amongst 
 which were the empress and King Stephen, who, 
 though otherwise opposite to each other, yet in this 
 good work concurred, granting a certain desert called 
 Redmore, lying in the forest of Canok in Staffordshire, 
 a mile southwards from Beaudesart, unto Clement and 
 Herveie, two devout hermits, with others of their society, 
 as also a certain land called Mellescho for tillage and 
 pasturage of cattle ; which concessions Roger de Clin- 
 ton, then Bishop of Chester, not only confirmed, but 
 gave them liberty to betake themselves to what 
 regular life soever they thought God's direction should
 
 1 1 8 Rambles roimd Rzigby. 
 
 make choice of, and to receive and instruct any such 
 women, who, having devoted their lives to God's ser- 
 vice, should do the like. 
 
 ' But after they found what molestation they had by 
 the foresters, who, riding frequently that way, much dis- 
 turbed their devotions, they humbly sought the empress 
 that she would vouchsafe to change their seat. 
 
 'Whereupon, having a great affection for the Cis- 
 tercian Order, she told them if they would undergo 
 that Rule she would grant their request. To which 
 proposal of hers, they after some deliberation assenting, 
 the same place of Radmore was made an Abbey, one 
 William, the principal of those religious persons, being 
 elected the first Abbot there, unto whom Henry, Duke 
 of Normandy, son to the said empress, by his charter 
 granted and confirmed not only the same Radmore 
 with the appurtenances, viz., Melescho and Wirley for 
 tillage and pasture, and also Hedensford for pasturage 
 and pannage, with liberty to build a church, and such 
 houses as might be fit for their habitation, but gave 
 them the town of Canok with the appurtenances, and 
 the mill at Wirley with all things belonging thereto. 
 
 ' Which good work so begun wanted but the bounty 
 of divers other pious men to carry it on: Osbern de 
 Aidern giving them his lordship of Merston ; William 
 Croe all the right he had in Wirley, to the intent that 
 they should receive him into their fraternity and vouch- 
 safe his body burial there ; Geoffrey de Clinton, Bishop 
 of Chester, beforementioned, two hides more in the said 
 town of Radway.
 
 Warwick. 1 1 9 
 
 ' Shortly after this said new Abbot and his monks, 
 not yet well instructed in the Cistercian discipline, re- 
 quested Hamon, the second abbot of Bordesley in Wor- 
 cestershire, to send two of his convent to inform them 
 therein. Which being accordingly done there grew 
 great friendship between these two monasteries, the 
 monks of Bordesley giving courteous entertainment to 
 those of Radmore whensoever they had occasion to 
 visit their grange at Radway. Howbeit at Radmore 
 they continued no more than twelve years, for, rinding 
 the foresters not only troublesome, but by their fre- 
 quent visits somewhat burdensome also, they became 
 petitioners to King Henry II., on the I4th kal. of 
 January, in the very first year of his reign, making 
 use of his mother the empress, their patroness, to 
 mediate, that he would be pleased to translate to them 
 his manor of Stoneley in Warwickshire, and accept 
 what they had at Radmore in exchange for that place. 
 Whereunto, the king graciously yielding, they came 
 from Radmore and first seated themselves where the 
 Grange of Cryfield now stands, the inhabitants thereof 
 then removing to Hurst. But finding inconvenience 
 there in regard that it was so near the public roadway, 
 they made choice of another place a little below the 
 confluence of the Sow and Avon, almost environed 
 with the river, having that thick wood called Echells 
 on the north. And then began the foundation of their 
 church, whereof the first stone was laid id. Apr. Anno 
 1 154, scil. i Henry II. The churchyard was consecrated 
 by Walter Durdant, Bishop of Coventry, with the
 
 1 20 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 assent of the prior and canons of Kenilvvorth, to whom 
 the parish church of Stoneley appertained, upon con- 
 dition that the said monks should in no way diminish 
 the rights due to the said church of Stoneley, but make 
 just payment of all tithes to the same for such grounds 
 as they should till within the parish, all of which the 
 said King Henry by his charter confirmed.' 
 
 This is a very excellent account of the formation of 
 a Cistercian Abbey, one that is very characteristic of 
 the order, and we might almost tell a Cistercian Abbey 
 from its quiet and beautiful situation. 
 
 Guy's Cliff is half-an-hour's walk from Warwick on 
 the Kenilworth road, and it is among the most beauti- 
 ful of all the pleasant spots of England. The renowned 
 Guy, Earl of Warwick, lived here, and there is a cave 
 near the banks of the Avon where it is said he was 
 buried. Here he is said to have lived in retirement 
 and devotion, and to have adopted the garb of a her- 
 mit, but every day he visited the castle where his coun- 
 tess dwelt. ' Near the cave is a range of cells having 
 the appearance of a nunnery, and some cloisters hewn 
 in the rock and rudely arched, called Phillis cloisters, 
 after the countess, who survived him only a few days, 
 and was buried near him.' Guy's Well contains a fine 
 spring of the clearest water known. Camden speaks 
 of it as 'the very seat of pleasantness/ and Dugdale 
 says, ' A place this of so great delight, in respect of the 
 river gliding below the rock, the dry and wholesome 
 situation, and the fair grove of lofty elms overshadow- 
 ing it, that to one who desireth a retired life, either for
 
 Warwick. 
 
 121 
 
 his devotions or his study, the like is hardly to be 
 found.' The mansion itself is not quite an example 
 of an old residence, but it was erected during the last 
 century by Mr. Samuel Greathead, who purchased the 
 property, and is not a bad example of the architecture 
 that then prevailed. 
 
 Henry V., it is said, made a pilgrimage here, and he 
 was so delighted with the quiet sequestered spot that 
 he founded a chantry for three priests. He did not live 
 to complete his intentions, but Richard Beauchamp, 
 the Earl of Warwick, appointed two priests to celebrate 
 mass for himself and his countess, and after their death 
 this was to be continued for them and the souls of the 
 departed.
 
 i 2 2 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 The estate afterwards became the property of Lord 
 Charles Percy through marriage, and remains in that 
 family. There are pictures of considerable value in the 
 house, but the most remarkable is probably the portrait 
 of Mrs. Siddons, who, as Miss Kemble, lived in the 
 capacity of lady's-maid to Mrs. Greathead before her 
 marriage with Mr. Siddons. The avenue of elms 
 through which the mansion appears is very fine, but 
 the old mill which is here shown is even more pic- 
 turesque. This mill has a history that dates back to the 
 Conquest. Nearly opposite Guy's Cliff in a hollow 
 part of the rock is the place where the worthless Piers 
 Gaveston met his end, and a monument has been put 
 up by Bertie Greathead with a very suitable inscription.
 
 STONELEIGH ABBEY 
 
 AT the same time when this monastery was so 
 founded there were in the manor of Stoneleigh sixty- 
 eight villeins, four bordarii (that is, freeholders), and two 
 priests, all which held thirty-two carucates of land (as 
 expressed in Domesday Book). ' As also four bondsmen 
 or servants, whereof each held one mess, and one 
 quartrone of land, by the services of making the 
 gallows and hanging the thieves, every one of which 
 bondsmen was to wear a red clout betwixt his shoulders 
 on his upper garment ; to plow twice a year ; to reap 
 as often that is to say, at the two bederipes ; to give 
 aid to the lord at the feast of St. Michael ; to make the 
 lord's malt, and to do other servile work.' 
 
 There are a few records in Dugdale of the abbots. 
 One, who is described as of singular wisdom, Will de 
 Gyldforde, the ninth abbot, was sent with legatine 
 authority to Wales, ' which occasioned many superior 
 abbots to malign him, so that because he countenanced 
 a shepherd belonging to the monastery to fight a duel, 
 and hang a thief that had privately stolen some cattle 
 of theirs, much advantage was taken against him such 
 as that, being persecuted for it, he was deprived in anno 
 1235, igth Henry in. 'Within ten years of this the 
 monastery suffered from fire, and the king allowed them 
 
 123
 
 124 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 fifty oaks out of his woods at Kenilvvorth, which the 
 sheriff of this county had command to deliver.' The 
 building must have been extremely grand, for this is 
 the time when English architecture was in its glory. 
 Rickman, who was the first to discriminate the styles of 
 architecture methodically, and to give the names of 
 Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular, places this 
 date at the Early English period, or that which he 
 considers ranged from Richard L, 1189, to Edward I., 
 1307. Excellent indeed Rickman's analysis is, and 
 indeed the best, though perhaps later records might 
 show, as he himself would have at once admitted, that 
 there is not always a rigid barrier between the styles. 
 
 In this time we have the north transept of York 
 Minster, the north aisle of Croyland, and the ruins of 
 the grand abbey of St. Mary's, in York ruins that still 
 are sharp and clear in their carvings, and, indeed, 
 any one who will compare the remains of this date with 
 the later architecture that we find in abbey enlarge- 
 ments of the Tudor period, will be surprised at the wide 
 difference in the workmanship, though perhaps in the 
 parish churches it is more apparent. But I have seen in 
 the same town the remains of thirteenth century archi- 
 tecture and Tudor, the latter falling to decay while the 
 former, the work of the monks of that period, was 
 perfect, and the lines of the columns almost like brass 
 mouldings for correctness. 
 
 This may be said of St. Mary's ruins at York, the 
 ruins of one of the only two mitred abbeys north of the 
 Trent, and this abbey was approaching completion at
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 
 
 125 
 
 about the same time as the new additions were being 
 made to Stoneleigh. St. Alban's Abbey, at any rate as 
 far as the choir is concerned, was built at this time, and 
 many other ecclesiastical structures that adorn England. 
 Within a few miles round Rugby we could find 
 sufficient remains of English architecture to write and 
 fully illustrate a work upon the subject. 
 
 It will be noticed that in the hilly countries the 
 churches generally have a tower, and we may notice this 
 especially round Rugby where the land is hilly ; but as 
 
 we approach the flat country in Northamptonshire, 
 spires prevail. Round Oakham and Stamford spires 
 are entirely the rule, and some of the finest examples 
 of these that England can show are here. 
 
 Salisbury spire is a landmark of the almost roadless 
 plain, and has for centuries been the guide of farmers 
 and shepherds when away from home ; and admirably 
 it suits the solitary landscape. If we want an example 
 to the contrary we might look at the Acropolis. 
 Salisbury spire, and all the Northampton ones, would
 
 i 26 Rambles round Riigby. 
 
 appear insignificant there among the rough cliffs. It 
 requires a very different style to suit the scene and 
 make a proper contrast In Athens the long lines of 
 the Parthenon and the surroundings form the most im- 
 pressive picture, and a fine resting-place for the eye 
 to dwell on. And perhaps a slight digression on the 
 subject of Greek architecture might not be quite out of 
 place, as there are many Greek buildings in this part of 
 England. This class of architecture is quite unsuited 
 to our country. It does not blend with the landscape 
 and has an exotic appearance always. We often see in 
 towns a Greek pediment supported by Doric or Ionic 
 columns, and fronting a chapel or some other building. 
 It may be, as it probably generally is, that this is an 
 exact copy of some Greek building, such as the Agora, 
 or the Ionic temple on the Ilissus, or perhaps the 
 temple of Theseus, on a small scale, but it is sadly out 
 of place, and quite out of keeping with the climate and 
 the country, and even the materials of which such 
 buildings are constructed. 
 
 If we look at the streets of Coventry or Warwick 
 with all their picturesque surroundings, we shall feel 
 pleasure and delight, instead of the chill which a Grecian 
 front gives us on an English street. 
 
 Perhaps the most striking example of this is the 
 well-known St. George's Hall in Liverpool. As an 
 example of Greek architecture it is very high indeed. 
 The gables and excellent Corinthian columns, and all 
 its fine perspectives, are worthy of all praise ; but does 
 it suit its locality ? The architecture itself would have
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 127 
 
 deserved a place, and that a high one, on the Acropolis, 
 but it is already dimmed with town atmosphere, and 
 the slight appearance of Greek character, when the stone 
 (though not white marble) was fresh, has vanished. 
 
 ' Decay's effacing fingers 
 
 Have swept the lines where beauty lingers .... 
 Such is the aspect of this shore ; 
 'T is Greece, but living Greece no more.' 
 
 We should have to revert, in imagination, to the times 
 when Athens was in its grandeur, to at all understand 
 Greek architecture. As Stuart, who is the best 
 authority we have on the styles and their origins, points 
 out, the Greeks determined the site of their cities 
 rather from the position of some isolated rock than by 
 the wants of domestic or commercial accommodation. 
 ' Even when, as in Athens, the neighbourhood of a 
 commodious haven may have formed one strong induce- 
 ment to the choice of a particular locality, the settlers 
 rejected the obvious expediency of occupying the shore 
 for the greater security of some rugged elevation.' But 
 the temples were of fine white marble, and the sunshine 
 of Greece lit them up always with a brilliant front such 
 as we could never attempt to equal in England. 
 
 That the temples were painted in gay colours has 
 often been said, and there are doubtless the remains of 
 bright paint on the columns and cornices, but these 
 have certainly been added since. Would Praxiteles not 
 have known, for example, the value of the beautiful 
 shadows of fine Pentelican marble? The Turks in 
 their possession of Athens, doubtless had something to
 
 128 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 do with the colouring, and they broke to pieces very 
 many priceless relics. The magnificent entrance to the 
 Erechtheum was quite out of sight when Stuart visited 
 Athens, for the portico had been walled up and made 
 to serve the purposes of a powder magazine. One 
 good end seems to have been served, however, for it is 
 now in excellent preservation. The Elgin Marbles are 
 quite as much out of place in the British Museum as a 
 picture of Millais would be in a cellar. They were cut 
 for the bright suns of Greece. The figures are raised 
 by almost right angular elevations from the surface of 
 the frieze, so as to throw out their forms in shadows at 
 any distance to those with clear sight. And as for the 
 absolute technical accuracy of the Greek details, the 
 volute of an Ionic column is given in decimals in 
 Chambers, and so intense is the precision that, as the 
 writer knows, it takes several days to work out an 
 Ionic capital if such records are followed, though 
 now they perhaps never are. 
 
 Widely all this differs from the architecture of our 
 own country. Here the ancient buildings even gain in 
 merit by the time-stains, and the dwellers in many a 
 country village have been saddened by the scraping off 
 of all traces of antiquity in their parish church, and the 
 destruction of the black oak pews where their grand- 
 fathers worshipped. 
 
 The very atmosphere which gave Greece, and to 
 some extent Rome, its merit and beauty, is reversed in 
 England, for here the time-stains and lichens give our 
 old buildings even more than half their beauty. A very
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 129 
 
 slight introduction to the forms of our own architecture 
 would suffice to interest all travellers, and greatly 
 increase their interest in any English ramble. There 
 are the round Norman arches with their many devices, 
 the Early English or Lancet, as it is sometimes called, 
 and the ' Decorated,' which is perhaps the least appli- 
 cable term of Rickman's, though his knowledge has 
 made it a dictionary word. 
 
 At the dissolution the revenues of Stoneleigh Abbey 
 were valued at ,178, 2s. 5d., which of course is a 
 fraction of what such a sum would represent now. 
 Often we see in guide-books the value of the revenues 
 of an abbey at the dissolution, and are surprised that 
 the noble buildings could even have lasted for a year 
 with such a slight income, but there are many circum- 
 stances to be considered. 
 
 There is no doubt that the Crown commissioners' 
 valuation in the Tudor days went strongly in favour of 
 the abbeys, and then there is one heavy item omitted, 
 and that is the large income that was received from 
 guests or travellers who put up in the hospitium, or 
 guests' hall. Of course the value of a pound was very 
 much greater in those days than it is now. Some say 
 that it was twenty times as much, and some estimate it 
 at half that amount, but no just estimate can be made 
 of the difference. It varied much in different parts of 
 the kingdom, as indeed some similar examples may be 
 found in the present day, and that, too, where steam has 
 done so much to assimilate prices ; for even now there 
 are country districts in England where money will go 
 
 I
 
 1 30 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 half as far again as it would do in some of our great 
 towns. But in old times the difference was infinitely 
 greater, and that leads to confirm what was said, that 
 there is no possibility of gauging the difference between 
 the old and the present values of money by any 
 equational system. 
 
 But there is another circumstance that is omitted in 
 the valuations of the religious houses : all around the 
 monasteries there were great lands and farms attached, 
 and these were tilled by the monks, the fruit and 
 vegetables and poultry and cattle not only supplied all 
 the wants of the abbey or priory, but, in many cases, 
 there was a considerable surplus for the market. The 
 monks were trained also in trades and crafts, which, as 
 we may see even now, were carried to great perfection. 
 Those who were so employed were not obliged to attend 
 devotions, but when the convent bell rang they ceased 
 from their work for a little time and assumed a 
 devotional attitude till the bell ceased. 
 
 These circumstances would greatly explain the 
 apparently small rent-rolls of abbeys that possessed 
 buildings of palatial splendour, and the estates of which 
 in the Tudor times enriched the wealthier of all the 
 English nobles, and the revenues which they brought 
 show clearly enough how lenient the estimates of 
 Henry's commissioners were. The ways of the abbots 
 and priors were not so strict in the Tudor times as they 
 were in the days of the Edwards ; and in looking over 
 some records of the commissioners that we have in 
 Chester, I wish I could say that the lives of the
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 131 
 
 dignitaries, at the time of the dissolution, were all quite 
 free from blame. 
 
 In the earlier days of Erasmus, the ' New learning 
 was received well by princes and bishops, and even by 
 some popes who hoped to improve the reforms that 
 were going on. But the monastic orders were against 
 the new training, with some few exceptions.' Even Sir 
 Thomas More, whose name will always stand among 
 the foremost of Englishmen, and who was a consistent 
 Catholic, had much to say about the condition of 
 monasteries : ' The friar, now that his fervour for 
 devotion and his intellectual energy had passed away, 
 had sunk into the mere beggar. The monks had become 
 mere landowners. Most of the houses were anxious 
 only to enlarge their revenues, and to diminish the 
 number of those who shared them. In the general 
 carelessness which prevailed as to the religious objects 
 of their trust, in the wasteful management of their 
 estates, in the indolence and self-indulgence which 
 for the most part characterised them, the monastic 
 houses simply exhibited the faults of all corporate 
 bodies which have outlived the work they were created 
 to perform. But they were no more unpopular than 
 such corporate bodies generally are.' In many parts of 
 England, monasteries were supplied with schools to 
 educate the families of country gentlemen. 
 
 Now, it may be just appropriate to mention here, as 
 we are in the land of abbeys, that two royal com- 
 missioners, Legh and Leyton, had been despatched to 
 visit the religious houses generally. The report formed
 
 132 Rambles rotmd Rugby. 
 
 what is called the ' black book,' which was laid before 
 the house. The greater part of the larger abbeys were 
 well conducted, as well as some few of the smaller ones, 
 making in all, it is said, about one-third of the number ; 
 but it was alleged, and it is to be feared, that there was 
 but too much truth in some of the reports of the royal 
 commissioners. 
 
 Near the entrance of Stoneleigh is the village of 
 Ashow, a very pleasant spot. The church is dedicated 
 to St. Mary, and it has a square tower like others in 
 the district. This formerly was a chapel belonging to 
 Wooton, but Henry II. conferred it upon the canons of 
 Kenilworth. The situation is a quiet secluded one on 
 the banks of the Avon, and its picturesque beauty is 
 well worthy of a visit. On the other side of Stoneleigh, 
 and situated some little distance away, is the village 
 of Stoneleigh. 
 
 It stands at the confluence of the Sow and the 
 Avon, and just below an old water-mill. The church 
 also is dedicated to St. Mary, and its ivy-mantled tower 
 is very interesting. It has a nave and chancel and side 
 aisles, and its tower, supported by heavy buttresses, is 
 very curious. It is surmounted by another of smaller 
 dimensions crowned with pinnacles at the angles ; 
 between the nave and chancel is a large Norman arch, 
 richly ornamented, and supported by columns of which 
 the shafts and capitals are greatly embellished. Round 
 the east end is a series of small Norman arches, or 
 perhaps transitional would be the better term. On the 
 north side of the chancel is the mausoleum of the Leigh
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 
 
 family, the ceiling of which is beautifully worked in 
 groined and ribbed arches. The south aisle is separated 
 from the nave by three pointed arches, supported on 
 octagonal pillars. In the chancel is a splendid monu- 
 ment to the memory of Lady Alice, Duchess Dudley, 
 also a recumbent figure found in an upright position in 
 a wall while digging the foundation of the mausoleum. 
 It is supposed to be in memory of Geoffrey de Muschamp, 
 Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield in the reign of John. 
 The living is now a vicarage, valued at .303 per 
 annum. It is in the gift of Lord Leigh, and the rectory 
 is a pleasant house near the church. We are, when at 
 Stoneleigh, not more than a mile and a half from 
 Baginton, another village of picturesque beauty. The 
 road follows the course of the river Sow, and has many 
 charming scenes. At one place there is an oak tree 
 that formerly belonged to the old forest of Arden, and 
 is said to be the only relic of that ancient cover. 
 
 The church of Baginton is dedicated to John the 
 Baptist, and belongs to the thirteenth century. It is 
 about three and a half miles from Coventry, and at the 
 Conquest it belonged to Turchil de Warwick. In the 
 sixth year of Richard II., Sir William Bagot was Lord 
 of the Manor, and lived at the castle of which some 
 very slight traces remain. It was from here that the 
 Duke of Hereford proceeded to Gosford Green, near 
 Coventry, for his intended combat with the Duke of 
 Norfolk. In the reign of James I., William Bromley 
 purchased the manor, and his grandson was appointed 
 Speaker of the House in the ninth year of Queen
 
 134 Rambles round Ritgby. 
 
 Anne's reign. While he was Speaker of the House, 
 the old family mansion was destroyed by fire, and the 
 present mansion was erected on its site. It stands on 
 an eminence on the Coventry road, and commands a 
 fine view of the three spires, about which so much has 
 been written. The residence is approached by a noble 
 avenue of chestnut and other trees, and near it is a fine 
 cedar that is said to have been planted by Queen Anne 
 when on a visit to Speaker Bromley. Sir William 
 Bromley, Knight Commander of the Bath, by deed 
 dated 1675, granted some valuable tithes and rent- 
 charges to the incumbent and poor of Baginton. 
 
 A pleasant walk from Baginton along Rowley 
 Lane will bring us in a little over a mile to the Coventry 
 road, that which comes directly through Dunchurch 
 from Rugby. If we turn to the left, we cross the river 
 Sow, and pass by Whitley Abbey, which lies near 
 Coventry. This abbey belonged to Viscount Hood, 
 who was a son of the brave admiral that gained so 
 decisive a victory over Count de Grasse, and it was 
 sold in 1867. The abbey was a quaint old mansion 
 with Elizabethan gables and bow windows, but it was 
 destroyed by fire in 1874, and almost rebuilt. There 
 is a historic interest attaching to the house, for in 1642 
 it was the residence of Charles I., when he attacked 
 Coventry. Soon after he had erected his standard at 
 Nottingham, he sent word to the mayor and sheriffs to 
 attend him there, but Coventry was strongly inclined to 
 the Parliamentary party, and the citizens obtained 
 possession of the magazine at Spon Tower, and they
 
 Stone leigh Abbey. 135 
 
 kept it for Lord Brooke, who removed it to Warwick 
 Castle. From Birmingham four hundred men came to 
 reinforce the inhabitants ; and when Charles demanded 
 an entrance, and was refused, some cannon were planted 
 on Stivichall Hall to bombard the town, which, however, 
 was done without effect. When the king heard that 
 Lord Brooke was approaching from London with a 
 heavy force he gave up the siege of the city and drew 
 off his forces ; and then the city was fully garrisoned 
 by the Parliament army. When he left, the women 
 assembled in military form, and filled up the openings 
 and hollows in the park, that they might not any longer 
 afford shelter to the royal troops. 
 
 Stivichall has a singular record. Mr. W. G. Fretton, 
 F.S.A., of Coventry, writing of it, says : ' Mr. Francis 
 Gregory stocked the whole of his estate with young 
 oak trees, in anticipation of the future requirement of 
 the English navy. In recognition of his patriotic ex- 
 ample, the privilege of using supporters to his arms 
 was granted him, and I believe this was the first, if 
 not the only instance of a commoner being permitted 
 this distinction. Whatever may have been his motive, 
 the result is the beautifying of what would have been 
 otherwise an uninteresting and dreary road across a 
 wild common, and the formation of one of the most 
 popular and delightful of our suburban approaches.' 
 He is not, however, quite correct about supporters to 
 arms belonging to country gentlemen. Of course w r e 
 know that supporters are common in Scotland, even 
 where no title is attached to a name, and a critic in
 
 1 36 Rambles round Ritgby. 
 
 Blackwood, in reviewing Macaulay's History of England, 
 speaks of his want of accuracy in saying that country 
 gentlemen used to amuse themselves with discussing 
 the armorial bearings of their neighbours, and if they 
 contained supporters ; this the critic says never was 
 found on English armorial bearings ; this is by no 
 means so, for as a final authority has said in a heraldic 
 book : ' There have been many, who, although they 
 were neither ennobled nor ever enjoyed any public 
 office under the Crown, assumed and bore supporters, 
 which were continued to be used by their descendants, 
 until the extinction of the family ; as amongst others, 
 the Heveninghams of Sussex, the Stawells of Somerset- 
 shire, Wallops and Titchbournes of Hants, Lutterells of 
 Somersetshire, Pophams of Hants, Covert of Sussex, 
 Savage of Cheshire,' etc., etc. ; and he adds that these 
 families either used such emblems on their seals, or the 
 glass windows of their halls or churches, to show that 
 they had a prescriptive right to use them. 
 
 Stivichall belonged to Ranulph, Earl of Chester, in 
 the time of King Stephen, and his son Hugh conveyed 
 the manor to Walter Durdant, the then Bishop of 
 Coventry. It passed through various proprietorships 
 until it came to Thomas Gregory, who died in the 
 sixteenth of Queen Elizabeth. In 1552, Elizabeth 
 Swillington of Stivichall gave 140 to purchase certain 
 lands, and intended that these lands were to be expended 
 in repairing certain roads about Coventry. The present 
 church of Stivichall, or Styvechale as the church was 
 sometimes called, stands on the wreck of the old one
 
 Stoneleigk Abbey. 137 
 
 that was demolished in 1810. An old tradition says 
 that the present edifice was erected by one James 
 Green, a stone mason, who had no assistance at all 
 except one labourer. 
 
 The road from Rugby to Coombe Abbey is exceed- 
 ingly pleasant, and well worth a summer's walk. Within 
 about two miles we pass the beautiful village of New- 
 bold on Avon. It has an old church with a square 
 tower that forms a prominent feature in the landscape. 
 It is a pleasant village, and the church is a vicarage 
 that includes the townships and hamlets of the Lawfords 
 and Little Harborough and Cosford. Great Harborough, 
 when Henry IT. was king, was held by a family, Herde- 
 berg, and the one name is derived from the other, as 
 we so often find in old English centres ; sometimes the 
 family is named from the locality, and as often the 
 reverse. The church, which is dedicated to All Saints, 
 is a small edifice, and the living is put down at .298 
 a year. 
 
 Little Lawford is a short way to the west, and there 
 is a good road to Coombe through it. It also has some 
 historical records, for it was in possession of Turchil de 
 Warwick before the Conquest, and descending to the 
 Earls of Warwick, it was granted by Earl William to 
 Robert de Craft, and continued in his family until the 
 year 1441, and then it came by marriage to the posses- 
 sion of Thomas Boughton, a Bedfordshire squire; and his 
 descendants remained in the mansion until the murder 
 of Sir Theodosius Boughton, by poison, in 1788. The 
 manor afterwards belonged to the Caldecotts.
 
 138 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 The circumstances of the crime were these : Sir 
 Theodosius Boughton came into possession of the 
 estates in the later part of the eighteenth century, 
 and his way of life was not regular ; he was descended 
 from a Bedfordshire gentleman, who inherited the 
 estates from the family of Craft. This was in 1441, 
 and they remained in the family until the end of 
 Theodosius Boughton. He had an only sister who 
 married Captain Donellan, and who thus became heir- 
 presumptive to the property. He stayed with his 
 brother-in-law, and noticed his irregular habits with 
 great satisfaction ; but as he continued to live, and 
 might have had some years before him, he decided to 
 administer poison in the form of a sleeping draught, 
 and afterwards he accidentally let it all be known. He 
 was tried at the Warwickshire Assizes, and executed 
 the following spring. It is said that his courteous 
 demeanour did not desert him even at the last, and he 
 ascended the scaffold on polite terms with the execu- 
 tioner. 
 
 There are some charities connected with Newbold 
 on Avon. The Oneley Charity provides, among other 
 items, five shillings to be given in cakes to the children 
 of Newbold for saying their Catechism on Palm Sun- 
 days. 
 
 From Newbold on Avon there are two roads of 
 equal distance to Coombe Abbey ; one goes by the 
 picturesque mill of Little Lawford and King's Newn- 
 ham, or Newnham Regis, so called from its having in 
 early times been royal property. It was, however, held
 
 Stone leigh Abbey. 
 
 139 
 
 from the time of Henry I. to the dissolution by the 
 canons of Kenilvvorth, when it was granted to John 
 Dudley. Duke of Northumberland ; but upon his attainder 
 it reverted to the Crown. The church has for a long time 
 
 been desecrated, and the cemetery was converted into a 
 rick-yard. The ivy-clad tower is shown here, and it is 
 very picturesquely situated. The walls of the building 
 were internally covered with fresco paintings, which are 
 described by Dr. Thomas as representing the Offering
 
 1 40 Rambles round Rugby, 
 
 of the Magi, the Descent from the Cross, and the full- 
 length figures of the four Evangelists. 
 
 Dr. Buckland, in speaking of this place, says that in 
 1815 some remains of great interest were found here. 
 There were two splendid heads of the Siberian rhinoceros, 
 with other relics from the same class of animal ; and 
 many enormous tusks and teeth of elephants, with some 
 stags' horns. One of the heads was presented to the 
 Radcliffe Library at Oxford, and the other to the 
 Geological Society of London. This road passes 
 through Binley Common on to Binley, where there is 
 a Grecian church built by Earl Craven in 1772 ; and, 
 like all buildings in that style in England, it is sadly 
 out of keeping with the surroundings. Formerly Bin- 
 ley was divided between the monks of Coombe and 
 Coventry, but now it belongs to the Earls of Craven. 
 This road to Coombe entails a turn upon the right hand 
 to reach the front of the abbey, when we pass by the 
 lower end of the great lake. 
 
 Another, and perhaps more direct route, is along 
 Cathiron Lane, which is a charming road leading on 
 to Brinklow. Many are the rustic scenes here. It 
 passes by the Oxford Canal, and in one part by 
 Hungerfield it joins it for half-a-mile. It may be 
 remarked that this canal is a very important water 
 connection between London and the western counties. 
 Like the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal it starts from the 
 Coventry Canal, its point of junction being Longford. 
 
 Brinklow is situated on the Roman Fosse-way, and 
 a glance at the road from it to Bretford will illustrate
 
 Stoneleigk Abbey. 
 
 141 
 
 how straight the Romans made their streets, quite in- 
 dependently of all irregularities on the surface of the 
 earth. Not far from the churchyard there are the 
 remains of a British camp and tumulus. These, it is 
 
 supposed, when they came into possession of the Romans, 
 were utilised for purposes of defence. Cannon balls have 
 been found in the mound, and from the top there is a 
 fine view of the surrounding country. Brinklow Tower
 
 142 
 
 Rambles round Rvigby. 
 
 is a good example of Tudor work, but the upper win- 
 dows belong to an earlier period than the lower window 
 which is shown. The church is situated in the middle 
 of rustic fields, and is a very delightful summer's 
 excursion. 
 
 From Brinklow to Coombe Abbey the road is about 
 two miles, and many are the fine stately trees we see. 
 The abbey is imbedded in woods, which indeed seem 
 to flourish greatly in this part of England, and the 
 
 game covers are hardly second to any in the kingdom. 
 Part of the ancient abbey remains, and it would seem 
 to date back to the age of Stephen, but the greater 
 part of it has been rebuilt, and that not in a very happy 
 style. After the dissolution the abbey lands were 
 granted to John, Earl of Warwick. This was in the 
 reign of Edward VI., and on his attainder they passed 
 into the possession of Robert Kelway, whose daughter 
 conveyed them to Lord Harrington, and his daughter, 
 the Countess of Bedford, disposed of them to the Craven
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 
 
 '43 
 
 family, in whose possession they still remain. The old 
 cloisters form part of a quadrangle, and it is in these 
 that the old architecture remains. A range of buildings 
 that was erected in the early part of the eighteenth 
 century hardly suits the site, but it has some fine views 
 of the park and the great lake. This lake covers the 
 considerable area of ninety acres, and is supplied by a 
 brook that runs through a branch of the Trent valley. 
 The park itself is very fine, occupying an area of about 
 
 500 acres. The herds of deer, when kept up to the 
 mark, number 200, and the grounds and shelters in 
 every way serve their habits. There are covers that, 
 until recently, abounded with game, and not a few of 
 the almost extinct animals, such as badgers and fumarts 
 were found on the lands. The great lake swarms with 
 fishes, and it is said even that bitterns, now almost birds 
 of the past, have been seen occasionally in recent days 
 there.
 
 1 44 
 
 Rambles roimd Rugby. 
 
 Coombe Abbey is decorated throughout with costly 
 care, and the ancient furniture is of great value, as are 
 also the collections of arms and relics. There is a 
 room called the Bohemian room, that is shown to 
 visitors, and this contains the portrait, full length, of 
 the Princess Elizabeth with her numerous family of 
 sons and daughters. 
 
 B - -m a** f -~\ ">'; T--;T 
 fe^iswr^w o<r.-w. r , ~ ""^"^ JV|t? : *xygg ; ^s^-.-j t ^t)4jtf i 
 
 
 
 Her name is intimately connected with the history 
 of this part of England, as she was, though quite un- 
 blemished and innocent of the designs of Catesby and 
 his followers, the heroine of the Gunpowder Plot. The 
 princess was under the wardenship of Lord Harrington, 
 and, as has been already stated, the Gunpowder con- 
 spirators, after succeeding in demolishing the king and 
 his Houses of Parliament, intended to proclaim Eliza- 
 beth as queen, being quite certain that her youth and
 
 Stone leigh Abbey. 145 
 
 simplicity had prevented her from having become a too 
 strong supporter of the Reformation, and she might be 
 induced to be a Catholic Queen. Her beauty was 
 great, and it is said that she was called by the cavaliers 
 ' The Queen of Beauty ' at her father's court. She was 
 married at the early age of sixteen to the Elector 
 Frederick, and although she was afterwards elevated to 
 the throne of Bohemia, she lived in great want and 
 poverty for some time. The Earl of Craven, whose 
 ancestor purchased the estate of Coombe Abbey from the 
 Harringtons, was, it is said, so entirely overcome with 
 her misfortunes and her charming ways, that he joined 
 a band of Englishmen who endeavoured to restore her 
 husband to the throne of Bohemia. After the death of 
 the Elector, Elizabeth returned to England and married 
 Earl Craven, leaving him at her death a valuable collec- 
 tion of pictures, some of which are great ornaments to 
 Coombe Abbey. She was buried at Westminster. There 
 are in the Vandyck room, the drawing-room, the library, 
 and beauty-parlour some pictures of great value, and 
 among them portraits of Charles I. and his wife, by 
 Vandyck ; and he has the same cold, hard, and arrogant 
 features that we see in the National Gallery in his 
 mounted figure which came from Blenheim House, at 
 it is said the enormous figure of 1 5,000. There are 
 also many other portraits of value, but most of them 
 are representations of the hangers-on of the House of 
 Stuart. There are, however, excellent works of Rubens, 
 Rembrandt, Holbein, Kneller, and others, including, it is 
 said, Michael Angelo ; and many are the art treasures 
 
 K
 
 146 
 
 Rambles round Riigby. 
 
 and marble busts. There are very full records of 
 Coombe Abbey in Dugdale's Monasticon. According 
 to the Annals of Waverley, it was founded in 1150, but 
 the Annals of Parcolude place the date 1149. The 
 family of Camville granted large possessions to the 
 abbey, consisting of the lands and woods adjoining ; 
 and these gifts were followed by many more, including 
 some from the prior of Coventry. In this city also they 
 had many houses and gardens granted to them by 
 various private persons, and the grants were confirmed 
 
 by Ranulph, Earl of Chester. They also had the 
 power to judge any one guilty of felony, if taken 
 within their own fee, and to question any man guilty 
 of felony, if committed even in another place ; and also 
 try him in their own court, which of course would mean 
 the power of life and death. 
 
 Dugdale thus speaks of the final dissolution of 
 Coombe Abbey : ' Thus in great glory, plentifully en- 
 dowed, stood this monastery little less than four hundred 
 years, till that K. H. 8, a person whose sensual disposi-
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 147 
 
 tion suited so right with that corrupt age wherein he 
 lived, finding instruments fit for his sacrilegious purposes, 
 contrived the destruction of it, and all the rest of those 
 religious foundations that his ancestors and other devout 
 persons had made ; of whose subtle practices in that 
 work, I shall, in a short corollary, before I finish this 
 tract, make some discovery. Amongst which that 
 general survey and valuation by commissioners from 
 him, in 26 of his reign, at Robin Hood's penny- 
 worths, did not a little conduce thereto, at which time 
 this monastery, with all its revenues, over and above 
 reprises, was certified to be worth CCCII. L. XVS. Hid. per 
 annum. Of their hospitality to strangers, and great 
 charity in daily relief among poor people, I need not 
 descend to particulars. Our common historians and 
 the traditions of such, who were eye-witnesses thereof 
 before the fatal subversion of those houses, may suffi- 
 ciently inform the world. I shall only, therefore, add 
 what the certificate upon the before-mentioned survey 
 takes notice of touching this abbey viz., by their 
 foundation, and a decree by the general chapter of 
 their order, they bestowed in alms on Maunday 
 Thursday every year, 43. Sd. in money, ten quarters 
 of rye made into bread, at 55. the quarter, three 
 quarters of malt made into beer at 45. the quarter, 
 and 300 herrings at 2od. the hundred, distributed to 
 poor people at the gate of the monastery. Their 
 principal officer being at that time, Thomas Howard, 
 Duke of Norfolk, high steward, and whose fee, therefore, 
 was V marks a year (which shows what great respect
 
 148 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 the great nobility had for those religious persons). Wm. 
 Wilcock, Receiver General, whose fee was 6 per annum, 
 and Baldwin Pater, Auditor, his fee being X per 
 annum.' Coombe Abbey seems to have fared much 
 better than many others at the time of the dissolution, 
 as the Abbot had the handsome pension of 80 a year 
 granted to him ; and the monks fared very well. Dug- 
 dale seems to have gone very fully into the question of 
 the merits of the dissolution of Coombe Abbey, and the 
 effect of its dissolution on the authors of it : ' As for 
 the causes that were usually pronounced by the founders 
 of these religious houses, whether they have attended 
 those violaters of what they so zealously, and with 
 devout minds, had dedicated to God's service, I will not 
 take upon me to say ; but sure I am, that after King 
 Henry VIII. had accomplished this work, he thrived but 
 little (as I shall elsewhere in particular observe). And 
 how long shall such possessions have been enjoyed by 
 those who had them, they that have looked into the 
 course of this world may easily see.' 
 
 The road to Market- Harboro' lies through Leices- 
 tershire, a county that is not resorted to as it should be 
 by English tourists. It is remarkably healthy and it 
 occupies a high position in England, as may be gathered 
 from the circumstance that it is a watershed which has 
 three rivers that flow into different outlets in England. 
 The Welland empties itself into the Wash, the Trent 
 into the estuary of the Humber, and the beautiful Avon 
 runs into the lower waters of the Severn on the oppo- 
 site side of the county.
 
 150 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 The geology of the county which consists of Oolite, 
 the Cambrian system, and Trappean Rocks, together 
 with the carboniferous and new red-sandstone age, are 
 free from marsh or claylands, and hence its peculiar 
 healthiness. There are just twenty-seven larger coun- 
 ties than Leicester, which occupies a space of 800 miles, 
 and the county of Rutland, that covers only some hun- 
 dred and fifty miles, almost nestles in it. 
 
 Leicester contains gently rising hills, and is essen- 
 tially English in its character, with its quiet lanes, and 
 old villages, and halls, and churches, that quite separate 
 our country in its beautiful characters from all the rest 
 of Europe. The northern range of hills is known as 
 Kesteven Cliffe Row, and this begins near Loughborough 
 at a place called the Six Hills ; and perhaps Strathern 
 Point, which is rather short of 500 feet in height, is the 
 loftiest part of the range. These hills go to Belvoir 
 park and charmingly overlook the Belvoir valley on the 
 north-west side. The south-eastern part of the valley 
 has ranges of hills that form a watershed between the 
 basins of the Welland, the Wreak, and the Soar. 
 
 The roads in Leicestershire are excellent. There is 
 the Roman Watling Street that separates Leicester- 
 shire from Warwickshire, and the Fosse Way that joins 
 it at a place called the High Cross. To quote a brief 
 account of the modern roads in Leicestershire, it may 
 be said that 'the principal ones are the London and 
 Manchester road which runs across the country from 
 Market-Harboro' through Leicester to Castle Donning- 
 ton ; the Leeds or Whitehaven road from Oakham
 
 ^S^i^ 

 
 152 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 through Melton Mowbray to Nottingham ; the Chester 
 and Liverpool road from Northampton to North Kil- 
 worth, Lutterworth, Hinckley, and Atherstone. Other 
 good roads connect Leicester with Burton, Hinckley, 
 Lutterworth, Northampton, Coventry, and Uppingham, 
 and there is an adequate provision of secondary roads 
 connecting the towns and villages with each other. 
 The total length of these roads is 1895 miles.' This is 
 a true and fair description, and it certainly shows how 
 we may select Leicestershire for a pedestrian's quarters. 
 
 Before the Conquest Leicester was a Bishop's see. In 
 Henry i.'s time it was included in the diocese of Lincoln, 
 and, in 1834, was attached to the see of Peterboro'. 
 It is, of course, in the archbishopric of Canterbury. 
 
 In agriculture Leicestershire stands very high in- 
 deed. The greater part of the county, indeed almost 
 all that is not otherwise occupied, is in a high state of 
 farming. The soil is rich and the natural drainage is
 
 Stone leigh Abbey. 153 
 
 good. The crops which are most in vogue are those 
 that are called green crops, but wheat, barley, and oats 
 flourish, and when these are cultivated they yield 
 heavy returns. But pasturage lands are now more 
 encouraged, for the reason that expense is saved in 
 labour, and the result is far more satisfactory and much 
 more able to cope with foreign competition. 
 
 The breeds of Leicestershire cattle and sheep are 
 famous, and not surpassed anywhere. The new breed 
 of Leicester sheep is famous for the quality of the wool 
 and for the great excellence of their flavour, and as for 
 the cattle, we may know what they are from Stilton 
 cheese. This cheese is so called from a small country- 
 town in Huntingdon, where the cheese was first and is 
 yet sold. But it is made in Leicestershire. Stilton 
 cheeses are also made in Cheshire and in other parts of 
 England, but none of them are quite equal to the origi- 
 nal manufacture, though Cheshire perhaps runs it rather 
 closely. Imitation Gorgonzola and Gruyere cheeses, 
 we know, are made in England, and it is a sad record 
 to make that if only the farmers would keep up to the 
 times, no cheese would be imported, but much exported. 
 
 This slight digression may fully explain the herds 
 of cattle that make such picturesque additions to the 
 fields and parks of Leicestershire, and one thing will 
 strike us as we look at them if we compare them with 
 the cattle in old pictures : we all know Sidney 
 Cooper's excellent works, which are nearly unrivalled, 
 perhaps quite, among cattle painters ; but Cooper's 
 old-fashioned animals rather resemble Pharaoh's lean
 
 154 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 kine, which were so much less profitable than their better 
 bred relatives, who ate up the fat kine, and even then 
 they were ill-favoured and lean-fleshed, 'Such as I never 
 saw in all the land of Egypt for leanness.' The lazy, 
 quiet, short-horns such as we see in the Leicester fields 
 are the farmers' best friends. 
 
 The trip to Market-Harboro' from Rugby is very 
 delightful ; perhaps it might be as well to go as far as 
 Lilburne by train. This would seem to represent the 
 old Roman Tripontium. Watling Street passes close 
 by, and there is a bridge over the Avon that succeeded 
 the Roman pons, probably the Tripontium alluded to, 
 its being a three-arched bridge. 
 
 A short and pleasant walk takes us to Stanford. 
 The church has a long chancel of three bays, and dates 
 back principally to the early part of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury. The chancel windows approach to tracery by 
 the mullions intersecting at the spring of the arch. 
 This is not a very satisfactory feature in our architec- 
 ture, as the actual heads of the window-lights are out 
 of proportion to the quadrangles that are formed above. 
 This was soon noticed, and the tops of the lights, when 
 a little later on cuspings came in, were filled with a 
 separate trefoil. At Dorchester Church in Oxfordshire 
 the windows are precisely similar in form to Stanford, 
 but the tracery is cusped. 
 
 The church is dedicated to St. Nicholas, and it is 
 said to have been founded by the Benedictines of 
 Selby, a grand building on the Ouse in Yorkshire, 
 which was converted from a monastic church to a
 
 StoneleigJi Abbey. 
 
 155 
 
 parish church in James i.'s time, and the abbey that it 
 belonged to was a mitred one, one of the only two north 
 of the Trent. ' The parapet and pinnacles of the tower, 
 although debased additions, increase the general effect. 
 The windows are of two characters, with plain crossed 
 tracery and rich geometrical headings.' The columns 
 are very slender, and rise with continuous mouldings 
 into pointed arches, and these are surrounded by a hood 
 
 
 of the roll-molding. ' An organ gallery intercepts the 
 tower arch, and contains an organ once belonging to 
 the royal palace at Whitehall, but sold by Cromwell and 
 erected here. There is some good Perpendicular screen 
 work under the gallery. The rood-screen was brought 
 from Lutterworth. Furniture for the pulpit and altar, 
 besides the covering of a large Bible and Prayer-book,
 
 1 56 Rambles round R^t,gby. 
 
 were worked and given by Lady Rowe, wife of Sir 
 Thomas Rowe, who was sent as ambassador to Con- 
 stantinople in 1621. These gifts were designed as 
 thank-offerings for the preservation of Sir Thomas and 
 his wife in a great storm at sea, on their return from 
 Turkey,' which it is said they left rather hurriedly in 
 consequence of the great impression that the beauty 
 and elegant manners of Lady Rowe made upon the 
 Sultan. ' The history of the gift is recorded on a leaf 
 of the Bible in contemporary writing. The church is rich 
 in ancient stained glass and in monuments. The glass 
 fills the east and four other windows in the chancel and 
 some windows in the aisles, and although it has been 
 rearranged and altered by incompetent persons, it is 
 still of very great interest, and will amply repay study. 
 It is chiefly decorated with smaller sections belonging 
 to the Perpendicular and Cinquecento styles. The 
 earliest is the east window and may date back from 
 Edward II.'s reign. In the upper part of the window 
 the glass remains in its original position. The lower 
 portion is of later date, partly decorated and partly in 
 the fine group of kneeling figures Cinquecento. These 
 figures, as appears from arms on the tabard, represent 
 members of the Cave family. In the other windows the 
 glass may vary in date from about 1340 to 1360. There 
 are various figures of holy personages and of saints. A 
 local tradition says that all this glass was saved at the 
 Rebellion by the parishioners who turned out in de- 
 fence of their windows and prevented the destruction 
 of them by the Roundheads. There is a sepulchral
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 157 
 
 recess in the south aisle, with a mutilated recumbent 
 figure. Nearly all the memorials of the church are for 
 the Cave family.' This family took its name from 
 North and South Cave in the East Riding of York- 
 shire, two villages that lie just half-way between the 
 glorious buildings of Beverley and Howden. Stanford 
 Manor belonged to the Abbey of Selby from the Con- 
 quest to the dissolution, and in 1540 it was purchased 
 from the Crown by Thomas Cave, the representative of 
 the old Yorkshire family. Stanford descended to Sir 
 Thomas Cave, Bart., and in 1839 the Barony of Braye 
 was revived by his daughter as the representative of 
 the first Lord Braye through her great-grandmother. 
 It had been in abeyance from 1557 to 1839. The 
 present Baron is the only surviving son of the late Rev. 
 E. Wyatt-Edzell. He succeeded to the title through 
 his mother, who was Baroness Braye in her own right. 
 Stanford Hall is situated in a fine well-wooded deer 
 park, and the church is in a corner of it. The hall 
 was built about the year 1670 ; there was, however, an 
 old manor-house that stood in the village of Stanford 
 near to the church, but it has disappeared. The river 
 Avon passes through the park, and is crossed by a pic- 
 turesque bridge just at the outside. The country is 
 well wooded, and the very land for game. 
 
 Sir Thomas Cave was the son of Sir Thomas Cave, 
 Knt, and in 1641 he was created a baronet by Charles 
 for services rendered to the Crown. He married a 
 daughter of Viscount Wenman, and there is a very tragic 
 story told of his third son, Brigadier Ambrose Cave.
 
 158 
 
 Rambles round Riigby, 
 
 He was in the Life Guards, and one of the officers of his 
 regiment was named Biron. He had had many words 
 with him, and Cave had always treated him with 
 much forbearance ; but one day while he was sitting in 
 a chair Biron suddenly approached and ran his sword 
 through the back of his body. Cave expired very 
 shortly afterwards, and a search was at once made for 
 the assassin ; but he had disappeared and was never 
 afterwards heard of. The river Avon runs pleasantly 
 
 along Stanford Hall, and if we cross it by the road that 
 bounds Stanford Park, and pass what is termed Gravel 
 Hill, we shall reach the road that passes by Swinford 
 on to Market- Harboro'. Within a half-hour's quiet 
 walk we reach South Kilworth, which is very apparent 
 from the distance. The road is exceedingly pleasant 
 and well shaded with trees, and in every direction we 
 see rusticity itself, far away removed as it is from all
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 
 
 159 
 
 manufacturing districts. The living is in the gift of the 
 Lord Chancellor, and the spire and its surroundings 
 form many a pleasant picture to the wayfarer. The 
 
 present holder of the living was a fellow of Magdalen 
 College. The value is put down in the Church records 
 at a gross income of 423 per annum.
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 
 
 161 
 
 North Kilworth is not much more than a mile from 
 South Kilworth, and many are the beautiful prospects 
 we have of it along the road, sometimes disappearing 
 behind trees and soon after showing itself again a little 
 nearer. The living is a valuable one and is in the 
 possession of the Rev. C. W. Belgrave, who was for 
 some time a chaplain in the Royal Navy. He served 
 as such in H.M.S. the 'President,' and the ' Leander ' at 
 Lisbon, and afterwards in the Black Sea fleet during 
 the Crimean War. The patron of the living is his 
 relative Colonel Belgrave. 
 
 As we proceed on towards Market Harboro' we 
 pass the beautiful country town of Husbands Bosworth. 
 The church is a living of great value, and the rectory 
 house which stands near is a fine residence. Bosworth 
 is in possession of the family of Turvile who occupy 
 Bosworth Hall. The Turviles or Tourvilles came over 
 with William the Conqueror, and the name may still 
 be seen on the roll at Battle Abbey. Soon after the 
 Conquest they came into possession of great estates in 
 
 L
 
 1 62 Rambles round Rngby. 
 
 the counties of Warwick and Leicester, being lords of no 
 less than six manors. William de Tourville was com- 
 panion-in-arms to William the Conqueror, and the family 
 have had an uninterrupted succession down to the pre- 
 sent time. William Turville was high sheriff of Leices- 
 tershire in 1433 and 1434. He succeeded to the estates 
 of Staunton Harold, and his grandson, Sir William Tur- 
 ville, was appointed one of the commissioners for taking 
 the ecclesiastical survey of the county of Leicester by 
 Henry VIII. ; and it is a curious illustration of the great 
 power of the Crown that Henry granted him the privi- 
 lege of enclosing his park at Normanton, which, with- 
 out his commission, he would have been unable to do, 
 any more than a man could embattle his dwelling 
 without a permit from the Crown. 
 
 The road from Bosworth on toTheddingworth is finely 
 shaded with trees that bound the park, and which, like 
 those that formerly stood at Ashby St. Legers, are al- 
 most in profusion. The county that had Sir William 
 Turville as an ecclesiastical commissioner had many 
 abbeys, and the moderation of the report would almost 
 show that Sir William stood well with the dignitaries. 
 His descendant, and the heir to the estates, married a 
 daughter of Sir Francis Englefield, whose ancestor had 
 a rather conspicuous history when Sir William Turville 
 was appointed to the commissionership. He was 
 sheriff of Berkshire and Oxfordshire in the reigns of 
 Henry VIII. and Edward VI. He was a chief officer in 
 the princess Mary's household, and was sent to prison 
 by Protector Somerset and the council as he would not
 
 Stone leigh Abbey. 
 
 163 
 
 prevent the hearing of Mass. But on the accession 
 of Mary he was called in as a member of the privy 
 council, made a master of the wards, and he obtained 
 a grant of the manor of Fulbrook in the county of 
 Warwick, part of the lands of the attainted Dudley, 
 Duke of Northumberland. 
 
 Theddingworth is of great interest and beauty. It 
 was given by the Conqueror to the Earl of Chester, 
 Hugh Lupus, who was the ancestor of the Grosvenor 
 
 family. The manor afterwards became the property 
 of the Earl of Mellent, who granted it to Ralph Pin- 
 cerna, or Bottler, as he was also called, from his holding 
 the office of butler to his lordship, and the church was 
 afterwards given to Leicester Abbey. The architecture 
 of Theddingworth is early and very excellent. It has 
 been ' restored,' as the modern word goes, but it is one
 
 164 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 of the very few churches that have not lost their ancient 
 looks by being ' restored,' and we all know that 'modern- 
 ising ' would as a rule be a better word. 
 
 Lubbenham is a large village town two miles from 
 Market Harboro'. Here there once stood a fine old 
 manor-house, of which a sketch and description are 
 still preserved. It was well gabled and supplied with 
 mullioned windows, but it was pulled down in 1774 and 
 the materials sold. The estate had come into posses- 
 sion of a younger son who never had expected it, and 
 during the lifetime of his elder brother he built a much 
 more imposing residence and pulled the family seat 
 down. There is a belief that it once was a religious 
 house, but its chief interest lies in the circumstance 
 that it was here Charles I. spent the last night of his 
 prosperity, the night before the battle of Naseby. 
 There is also a house still remaining at Lubbenham 
 where Charles lodged on the night of June 4th when 
 on his road from Leicester to Oxford. 
 
 It is leaving our route a little, but the subject is per- 
 haps better followed if we turn aside to Holdenby, an 
 old residence near Althorpe Park. We should reach it 
 through Welford, Cold Ashby, Guilsborough, Ravens- 
 thorpe and East Haddon. Some parts of this route are 
 not quite so picturesque as others. Welford has a church 
 of some interest, which, however, was modernised in 1872 
 as a memorial to the Hon. F. W. C. Villiers of Sulby 
 Hall ; a new south porch and south aisle were built. 
 ' The north arcade of the nave is Early English, circ. 
 1240. The chancel is Perpendicular except the eastern
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 165 
 
 bay with its window, which was allowed to remain 
 when the rest was rebuilt, circ. 1430. Remark in the 
 chancel the unwieldy heads serving as corbels, and the 
 modern decorations very striking and harmonious.' 
 The tower is very good Perpendicular work, and not 
 far off is the Premonstratensian Abbey of Sulby. 
 There is nothing to notice at Thornby or Cold Ashby, 
 but Guilsborough is of interest, and here we are some 
 six miles from Market Harboro', and four from the 
 house where Charles was kept confined while arrange- 
 ments were set on foot for his restoration to the 
 monarchy. His old opponents were not against this, 
 as he had promised all kinds of useful reforms and 
 kindly treatment to his old enemies, but letters that 
 fell into Cromwell's hands showed how untrue his pro- 
 mises were, and what designs he had against the sup- 
 porters of the Parliament cause. At Guilsborough 
 there is a grammar-school of some importance, that 
 was founded by Sir John Langham in 1688. His de- 
 scendant lives still at Cottesbrooke Hall. The park is 
 a very large one, and the long straggling village bounds 
 the south-west side. The present school is under the 
 head-mastership of the Rev. F. W. Kingston. The 
 church stands in a beautifully wooded dell, and belongs 
 principally to the fourteenth century. The tower is 
 very simple and beautiful. Ravensthorpe has a church 
 with a very ancient tower belonging apparently to the 
 latter end of the fourteenth century, and there is, what 
 is so priceless now, some original seating. East Had- 
 don has a church of much interest and charmingly
 
 1 66 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 situated among woods, and Long Buckby lies about 
 two miles to the west. On one of its church bells is 
 the inscription 
 
 If at my sound you don't prepare, 
 You are not inclined to come to prayer. 
 
 East Haddon lies within a short distance of Hol- 
 denby Hall, where Charles was confined. 
 
 In the excellent Northamptonshire Notes and Queries 
 there is a very interesting record of the way in which 
 the high-handed cavaliers treated those opposed to 
 them, and it is valuable as showing the disturbed state 
 of the county in 1642, just at the beginning of the 
 parliamentary action. This relates to a very scarce 
 tract that belonged to the collection of George III., and 
 the title is, ' A True Relation of the Barbarous Crueltie 
 of divers of the bloudie Caveleers ; so especially and 
 principally now in the County of Northampton, where 
 they fight and kill and slay, and commit other horrible, 
 execrable, and detestable insolences and outrages, as 
 may be seen by the examination of divers persons 
 taken. Before Laurence Ball, Mayor of Northampton, 
 Sir Richard Samwell, Clifton Catesby. Sent up to 
 Parliament and by them commanded to be printed. 
 John Browne, Cler. Parl. August n, 1642.' The 
 information, which bears the stamp of truth, says that 
 on August 9, fourscore of troopers armed with carbines 
 and pistols beset the house of John Hollis the elder, but 
 the informant could not repeat what was said as the 
 house was far distant, but he found near by, one Thomas 
 Winckles, shot dead in the breast, and inquiring of one
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 167 
 
 Obadiah Harriot, who was there, how such a thing 
 could have happened, he said that he heard Winckles 
 say he was for the king and the Parliament, whereupon 
 he was at once shot dead, and when Harriot said that 
 they had slain a faithful subject of the king's, one of 
 the troopers struck him several times with a sword, and 
 when he fled away for safety, he was fired at, but, of 
 course, in the musketry of those days the direction of a 
 ball was erratic, and he escaped. Witnesses beyond 
 reproach confirmed all this, and in some way it may 
 partly illustrate the circumstance that Northamptonshire 
 was really the beginning and the end of the Civil War. 
 
 Holdenby was one of the manors belonging to 
 Charles, and when he was sent there after the Civil War 
 had been ended, he was well treated, and all luxuries 
 allowed him. His removal was in February 1647, an d 
 the lanes and highways were well lined at places by 
 crowds, not unkindly, to see him pass. When he was 
 surrendered by the Scotch, he was taken, with a guard 
 of 900 horse and dragoons, to Holdenby, which was the 
 favourite resort of his father, owing to its great hunting 
 attractions. Indeed Charles entered Holdenby with all 
 the state of royalty. When he was settled at his 
 residence he wrote to the Parliament requesting that 
 some of his chaplains might be sent to him because he 
 wished to consult them about various matters of great 
 import, but the Commons were too much alive to permit 
 this, most probably knowing that he was meditating a 
 new civil war. 
 
 The Parliamentary commissioners had their own
 
 i68 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 chaplains, and these were earnest men, and preached 
 each week in the chapel Charles attended, but he would 
 not let them say grace at his table that he always did, 
 standing up, himself. Every freedom and luxury was 
 granted him. He used to play chess after dinner, and 
 was especially fond of the game of bowls, which he 
 played sometimes at Holmby, and sometimes at 
 Althorpe, where the ground was rather better. Whyte 
 
 Melville in his work Holmby House thus speaks of this 
 charming county. ' The slope of the ground which 
 declines from it on all sides offers a succession of the 
 richest and most pastoral views. Like the rolling 
 prairie of the far west, valley after valley of sunny 
 meadows, dotted with oak and elms, undulates in cease- 
 less variety as far as the eye can reach, but, unlike the 
 boundless prairie, deep dark copses and thick luxuriant 
 hedgerows diversify the foreground, and blend the
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 169 
 
 distance into a mass of woodland beauty.' There was 
 a long walk in the garden here, that Charles used to 
 enjoy, though accompanied, of course, by one or two 
 commissioners, and this is still called the ' King's walk.' 
 
 There can be no doubt that during his stay here he 
 was plotting another war, and secret information was 
 conveyed to him, sometimes by Mrs. Cave of Stanford 
 Hall, and sometimes by Major Bosville, who came 
 disguised as a fisherman. But all this was intercepted 
 by the commissioners, until at last he was removed 
 from Holmby. And here there seems to be some little 
 difference in the accounts ; some say that he himself was 
 a party to his removal. Green, in his History of the 
 Englisli people, says, 'A rumour that the king was to be 
 removed to London, a new army raised, a new civil war 
 begun, roused the soldiers to madness. Five hundred 
 troopers suddenly appeared before Holmby House, 
 where the king was residing in charge of the Parlia- 
 mentary commissioners, and displaced its guards. 
 " Where is your commission for this act ? " Charles 
 asked the cornet who commanded them. "It is behind 
 me," said Joyce, pointing to his soldiers. " It is written 
 in very fine, legible characters," laughed Charles. The 
 seizure had in fact been previously concerted between 
 Charles and his coadjutors.' 
 
 Very high as such an authority is, there seems to be 
 some little difficulty in seeing why Charles should be a 
 party to his removal, unless he contemplated, in some 
 way, a renewal of the civil war, for Holmby was the last 
 place where he enjoyed any personal liberty. There is
 
 170 
 
 Rambles round R^lgby. 
 
 another account that differs slightly, but both may be 
 correct in a measure. On June 2, 1647, the commis- 
 sioners informed the Parliament that a party of horse, 
 700 strong, had arrived at Kingsthorpe, near Nor- 
 thampton, from the army on Triplovv Heath, and that 
 they proposed to seize the king. Charles was playing 
 
 at bowls in Althorpe Park when word was sent him 
 that an unknown party of horse was on its way to 
 Holmby. He at once returned, and for some reason 
 that seems unaccountable, Colonel Graves, who was the 
 governor of Holmby, fled away, believing that he was
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey. 1 7 1 
 
 wanted. The troops were at Harleston when Charles 
 was apprised of their mustering, and he had the place 
 closed and everything made ready for a defence. At 
 break of day, June 3, or not very long after midnight, 
 the troops from Harleston appeared, drawn up in front 
 of the great gates of Holmby, and the soldiers in charge 
 of the king received them with the most cordial of 
 welcomes. They remained quiet all the next day, and 
 it was afterwards resolved that ' For the peace sake of 
 the kingdom,' the king should be removed. Cornet 
 Joyce, according to this account, went up to the king's 
 bed-room door and demanded admittance, which Charles 
 refused till the morning. But at six the following day, 
 the troops were drawn up in the principal court, and 
 Charles was removed. They reached the delightful 
 residence of Hinchingbrooke House, now the seat of 
 the Earl of Sandwich, but formerly belonging to the 
 Cromwell family. The commissioners, it is said, 
 protested, but all in vain. 
 
 When the Commonwealth was established, all the 
 royal houses and domains were, of course, under the 
 control of commissioners, and there was passed 'An 
 Act for the Commons in Parliament assembled, for sale 
 of Honours Manours and Lands heretofore belonging 
 to the late King, Queen, and Prince,' and in January 
 1650, Holdenby House was sold to Adam Baynes, Esq. 
 He had been a captain in the Parliamentary forces, and 
 lived at Knowshop Hall, near Leeds, and he represented 
 Leeds in the Long Parliament. He paid what in those 
 days was the enormous sum of 22,299, an d this sum
 
 i 7 2 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 included the house, the park, and mill, and 200 heads 
 of several sorts of deer, and some wild cattle. In the 
 conveyance, which is dated 27 January 1650, it is said 
 that the building materials of the house available for 
 re-using were worth ;6ooo, over and above the cost of 
 taking them down. But this seems to have been rather 
 excessive, as Captain Baynes, according to a memo- 
 randum in possession of the Isham family, states that 
 he sold the materials for 3500 and the timber for 
 about 500. There is in Northamptonshire Notes and 
 Queries a well-illustrated page showing three houses 
 built from the materials. Now, unfortunately, they are 
 pulled down, for the architecture is excellent. 
 
 Captain Baynes thought that his title to the property 
 might possibly be disputed, as indeed it was pretty 
 certain to be if the royal family were ever restored. 
 
 At the Restoration, the whole of the property 
 was claimed by the second Charles and his commis- 
 sioners, and the ruins with the title of baron were given 
 by James II. to the French Marquis de Blanquefort. 
 We know now that the house must have been of great 
 splendour. It was said to have been built by John of 
 Padua, a designer of whom we know very little. He is 
 said to have designed Longleat and Woollaton, and 
 some portions of Stoneyhurst College, in Lancashire, 
 but his name is quite enshrouded in doubt and mystery, 
 and we can see that Woollaton is the work of more 
 than one architect. Hatton, in 1579, writes to Lord 
 Burleigh that it was built in imitation of Theobalds, 
 and in the same year Burleigh visited Holdenby, and
 
 Stone leigh Abbey. 173 
 
 as he came to the house he speaks of it as, ' Led by a 
 large, long, straight, fair way, I found a great magni- 
 ficence in the front or front pieces of the house, and so 
 every part answering to the other, to allure liking. I 
 found nothing of greater grace than your stately ascent 
 from your hall to your great chamber, and when you 
 were wont to say it was a young Theobalds, truly 
 Theobalds I like as my own, but I confess it is no other- 
 wise worthy in any comparison than a foil.' Sir Thomas 
 Heneage, writing in 1583, speaks of the house: 'The 
 best and the most considerate ' that his eyes ever saw, 
 and says it will hold the pre-eminence to all other 
 houses he ever saw in England. Morton, who wrote a 
 description of Northamptonshire not very long after the 
 house was built, says of the gardens, ' Above the rest is 
 especially to be noticed with what industry and toil of 
 man the garden has been raised, levelled, and formed 
 out of a most craggy and unprofitable ground, now 
 framed a most pleasant, sweet and princely place, with 
 divers walks, many ascendings and descendings, re- 
 plenished also with many delightful trees of fruit, artifi- 
 cially composed arbours, and a distillery house. The 
 house itself is a very beautiful building, erected with such 
 uniformity and so answerably contrived, as for the 
 quantity and quality is not to be matched in the land.' 
 There is the fine old neglected mansion of Kirby still 
 remaining, and it is worthy of note that by careful 
 measurement it was found that the same templates 
 were used for the mouldings of both houses.
 
 MARKET HARBORO'. 
 
 To return to our route to Market Harboro'. Lubben- 
 ham lies within about a mile of it, and very charming 
 the road is on a summer's day. Market Harboro', like 
 other centres in this part of England, is surrounded 
 
 with old churches, and, before proceeding, we might 
 make a few remarks on some of them. Little Bowden 
 is to the south-east of Market Harboro', and its church 
 tower is built of wood, though not of great antiquity. 
 
 174
 
 Market Harboro .. 175 
 
 Great Bowden is on the Leicestershire side of Mar- 
 ket Harboro', and is well worthy of a visit. The church 
 belongs, for the most part, to the early years of the 
 fourteenth century, but in the fifteenth century, as at 
 Market Harboro', the decorated piers had been cut 
 away to make room for those of a later date. The 
 parapet of the tower is pierced with cross-slits, such 
 as were used in the middle ages for fortified buildings. 
 There is a septagonal font in the church, with a large 
 wooden cover, which would seem to belong to the 
 Jacobean period. 
 
 Sutton Bassett lies a little farther down on the 
 Welland valley. The chapel here is small, and unim- 
 posing in outline ; ' its bell, gable, and turret being the 
 only elements of the picturesque in its exterior.' The 
 south and west windows are interesting, and partly to 
 these it is owing that the church escaped demolition. 
 The doorway is early Norman, and of great interest ; 
 and in the north side of the chancel there is a little old 
 low side window of which there are plenty of examples 
 round Rugby, but their use is quite a puzzle now. 
 They were not glazed, but had a wooden shutter, and 
 if we only consider what the plagues and pestilences 
 were in old times, perhaps this may lead to some slight 
 explanation. Not very long after the building of Sutton 
 Bassett, a great pestilence swept over England, and it 
 is estimated that within five years England had lost 
 one-third of her inhabitants. In 1352, when Gothic 
 architecture was in its glory, a fearful plague swept 
 over England, which had travelled from China, where
 
 ] 76 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 nearly a million people fell victims to it ; and it is 
 calculated from statistics that, taking a fair average, 
 75,000 perished in London alone. Now it is probable, 
 and no other explanation is so free from doubt, that 
 those who were afflicted with the plague came to the 
 low side window for priestly aid and ablution, and 
 were, perhaps, borne away by their friends. This 
 chapel is a very interesting example of Norman work, 
 somewhat altered a century after it was built. 
 
 Weston by Welland has some picturesque old houses 
 with mullioned windows and projecting bays, and is 
 abundantly worthy of a visit ; but the church has been 
 quite modernised. The church of Ashley, which lies about 
 a mile farther east, has been to some extent modern- 
 ised, but not quite so completely. A description of it 
 in the Leicester Archaeological Society's Transactions 
 thus speaks of it : ' The beauty of the tower and spire 
 excited general admiration;' and the visitors said: 'Of all 
 the churches they had seen, this was the most remarkable 
 for its beauty. The tower and spire had a history if it 
 could be gone into. There had evidently been repairs 
 effected, and at that time the coats-of-arms, that were 
 evidently of the fifteenth century, had been put up on 
 the tower, which, considering how little was done, was 
 rather unfair to the original founders.' The stilted 
 bases of the pillars formed a remarkable feature in this 
 church. There were specimens of the windows seen at 
 Sutton, on each side of the chancel, and the three sedilia 
 resembled those at Market Harboro'. 
 
 To return, however, to Market Harboro', and to
 
 Market Harboro '. 
 
 177 
 
 quote the account of the parish church, which the 
 Rev. T. James read to the Leicester Archaeological 
 Society : ' The great feature of the church, as all might 
 perceive, was the extremely beautiful tower and 'spire 
 which were built on the pyramidical principle from the 
 very basement to the apex. Every stage of the tower 
 battered in, and there was not a singular perpendicular 
 line about it. If they examined all the finest spires in 
 
 Europe, he believed they would find them formed on a 
 similar principle. He could not agree that the window 
 alluded to had been brought from another church ; he 
 thought that the chancel tower and spire were built in 
 the early part of the fourteenth century, and that the 
 same architect designed the whole. This might L be 
 inferred from the similarity of the window referred to 
 and the fine geometrical east window, which had been 
 so well restored. It was remarkable that in the fifteenth 
 
 M
 
 178 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 century they cut the whole of the nave, put in architec- 
 ture of a very inferior character, and added a perpen- 
 dicular clerestory. Against the tower might be seen 
 the pitch of the lofty roof, and probably the aisles had 
 formerly gabled roofs. 
 
 'About a quarter mile north-west of the tower of 
 Market Harboro', some labourers digging gravel for 
 the London Road in the beginning of July 1779, found 
 two sculptured urns, one of a large size, and the other 
 less by about half. The former was discovered in 
 an inverted position, and the latter lying on one side. 
 They were about three feet six inches under the surface. 
 The ground above them was quite solid, but that about 
 the smaller urn was black with fire. The contents of 
 the larger were equal to one gallon wine measure ; of 
 the other, not more than three pints. They were 
 formed of rough materials, and burned but slightly.' 
 They fell to pieces on exposure to the air, but their dimen- 
 sions and accurate drawings of them were taken. Nichols 
 goes on to say that the following year two smaller urns 
 were dug up at only a few yards' distance from the 
 same spot ; these were strongly made and well burned 
 and stood exposure to the air thoroughly well. Other 
 urns were discovered in the next few years, and also a 
 pit was found three feet in diameter, and lined with 
 stones ; these bore the marks of fire, and it is probable, 
 the same history says, that here the bodies were 
 cremated before placing the ashes in the urns. 
 And near the spot was also found a Roman patera in 
 an imperfect state. ' It was of a beautiful coral colour
 
 Market Harborrf. 179 
 
 and its material and shape would not have disgraced 
 our Staffordshire Etruria.' This it is also said was to 
 contain the remains of the dead, and to be enclosed in 
 an urn after it had served funeral libations. These 
 accounts are given by Nichols with great care, and a 
 drawing of the urns and paterae is carefully shown in 
 order to confirm that Market Harboro' is not founded 
 as the traditions, before alluded to in Nichols, state. 
 Other Roman remains are also enumerated. No men- 
 tion, however, is made of the town in Domesday Book, 
 which is somewhat singular, if, as asserted, it really 
 existed then. 
 
 The headquarters of Charles were here before the 
 battle of Naseby, and here it was decided at a council 
 of war to attack Cromwell's army, for which, Nichols 
 says, they had a great contempt. A well where Charles 
 watered his horse after his defeat, is still called Charles's 
 well. The church is a fine old building that has been 
 recently modernised ; it has the unusual claim of being 
 dedicated to St. Dionysius the Areopagite. It belongs 
 principally to the early part of the sixteenth century, 
 and the tower is well proportioned, as also is the 
 beautiful broached spire. On the south side of the 
 chancel are two sedilia that have been recently dis- 
 covered. According to old traditions that are narrated 
 in Nichols, the church was originally built by John of 
 Gaunt, in compliance with a papal order as an atone- 
 ment for some kind of irregularity, but it is now believed 
 to have been founded by one of the Scrope family. 
 Some parts of the church are, however, earlier than
 
 1 80 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 the sixteenth century, parts of it, like the tower and 
 chancel, belong to the fourteenth. There are porches 
 on the north and south sides, and there is a parvis 
 over each. 
 
 There is a singular and picturesque free grammar- 
 school near the church at Market Harboro'. It stands 
 on three arches in the front and two at each end, and 
 is quaintly covered with diamond-shaped oak panels, 
 underneath- is the market-place. It is called the Market 
 Harboro' Free Grammar School, and it was built and 
 endowed by Robert Smyth, a wealthy citizen of Lon- 
 don. The Merchant Taylors' Company, with the 
 accustomed liberality that has always marked them 
 in educational matters, gave the sum of j$o to the 
 Lord Chamberlain of London to purchase land for a 
 schoolhouse. 
 
 TO ROCKINGHAM ON TO STAMFORD. 
 
 FROM Market Harboro' to Rockingham the distance 
 is about nine miles, and the country is exceedingly 
 pleasant. Between the two places lay Pipewell Abbey, 
 that has had a very singular history, but at the time 
 of the dissolution its revenues were very considerable, 
 for after paying .63, 193. for pensions to the Bishop, 
 and Dean, and Chapter of Lincoln, there still remained 
 an annual balance of ,283. 
 
 The Abbey was built in 1 143 for the Cistercian Order 
 by William de Butevleyn, and in early days it was called 
 in Charters, St. Mary de Devises, either because it stood
 
 Market Harbord. 181 
 
 on two fees, or because its demesnes lay on each side 
 of Harper's Brook, separating the Ruthvvell and Corby 
 Hundreds. Soon after the erection of the Abbey, 
 William Flemyng appropriated some of its resources, 
 ' at the instigation of the Devil/ as the registers say ; 
 but he afterwards arranged to restore them on the son 
 of the founder granting him others in exchange. 
 The Earl of Chester was among the benefactors, and 
 Henry de Rokeby gave the abbey his lands at Rugby. 
 Pipewell stood in the very middle of the great forest of 
 Rockingham. 
 
 Here Richard I. held his first great council in 
 September 1189, and nearly all the English and Irish 
 bishops were there, besides many abbots and priors, 
 and some influential laymen. The vacant bishoprics 
 were filled, and money was raised for the Crusade. 
 Beyond this is Oakley Hall, an old building that is 
 the seat of Sir Richard de Capell-Brooke, and beyond 
 this the road ascends to the higher ridge of land that 
 borders the county, and soon reaches the village and 
 church ; and here \ve are in the land of beauty. There 
 is, however, a railway station at Rockingham, near the 
 village. The castle was founded by the order of the 
 Conqueror, in the middle of the great hunting-grounds 
 that have left their marks to the present time. There 
 were ironworks here from time immemorial, #nd it 
 has been fancied that the castle was built to protect 
 them. But this is not so, for it was built on ancient 
 British foundations, and if we only examine the neigh- 
 bouring grounds, we shall at once see traces of ancient
 
 1 82 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 handiwork. Rockingham Castle was a favourite royal 
 residence, and the forests round it may well account 
 for its popularity. Among its records we find that a 
 great council was held here to discuss the recognition 
 of Anselm as Archbishop of Canterbury. The council 
 broke up in disorder, and the scene is famous in history. 
 We would gladly know more of the relations of the 
 Church and State party at the time, but the scene at 
 Rockingham, as described by the late Dean of St. 
 Paul's, gives us probably one of the most striking 
 pictures we have. 
 
 Like other royal castles, Rockingham had its con- 
 stables, who were either appointed for three years, or 
 during the king's pleasure. But in 1475, or about the 
 period when the Wars of the Roses were raging with 
 the greatest cruelty, Edward iv. made Lord Hastings 
 ' Constable for life.' Rockingham Castle, though it is 
 not so complete as Warwick, has many ancient remains ; 
 some indeed are among the most ancient and interesting 
 of any inhabited house in England. The castle within 
 the enclosed walls occupies a space of three and a half 
 acres ; the boundary wall is nearly nine feet in thick- 
 ness. The private chapel, where the conclave was held 
 concerning the status of Anselm, is dedicated to St. 
 Leonard, and it occupies a place over the present 
 cellars. Anselm occupies, of course, one of the foremost 
 places in the early history of England, and he raised 
 up a spirit of independence in the kingdom that bore 
 fruit in after days. The Red King did well to appoint 
 him to Canterbury, even though his conscientious,
 
 Market H arbor o . 
 
 183 
 
 simple, honest life procured his banishment. Henry I. 
 recalled him, seeing how popular he was, and he con- 
 tinued to advance the revival of letters till his death. 
 In his character and tone of life, he must have resembled 
 Sir Thomas More of later days. They were distin- 
 guished beyond all other men of their age, by their 
 learning, their utter unselfishness, and undaunted 
 courage. Each of them followed the course he be- 
 
 lieved to be right, without the slightest reference to 
 any other consideration. 
 
 But Rockingham Castle has recent associations 
 that are of great interest to us now. It was the 
 residence of the Marquis of Rockingham, who so often 
 figured in the annals of Bute, and Pitt, and Fox ; and 
 it was Rockingham who joined with Pitt and the Caven- 
 dishes to support the commercial classes ; and this in
 
 184 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 opposition to the selfish policy of the Bedfords and 
 Grenvilles. Indeed, if his counsels and those of his 
 party had been listened to, the separation of our Ameri- 
 can colonies would have taken place in a different 
 manner, or, some think, might not have taken place 
 at all.;.: ,cv 
 
 The scene at Rockingham between Anselm and 
 Rufus is well described by Eadmor, who gives us 
 pictures of the king's advisers. The council broke up 
 without coming to any decision, and Anselm made 
 some sort of a submission, but with a reservation in 
 favour of Pope Urban II., who was then at feud with 
 the Antipope Clement III. The scene at Rockingham 
 is described by Eadmor, and it must have been very 
 dramatic, for we cannot forget that the two rival Popes, 
 Urban and Clement, each wished to conciliate the 
 powers of England, both lay and clerical. 
 
 The Edwards were often here, and doubtless the 
 proximity of its castle to the residence of Piers Gave- 
 ston was a. temptation for the visits of one of them. 
 Often has the castle been altered and added to, but 
 Leland's description of it as he saw it in 1545 is very 
 graphic and true. He says, 'The castle standeth on 
 the top of an high hill right stately, and hath a mighty 
 ditch, and bulwarks again without the ditch. The 
 keep is exceeding fair and strong, and in the walls be 
 certain strong towers. The lodgings that were within 
 the area of the castle be discovered and fall to ruine. 
 One thing within the walls of this castle is much to be 
 noted, that they be embattled on both sides, so that if
 
 Market Harbor rf. 185 
 
 the area of the castle were won by coming in at either 
 of the two great gates of .the castle, yet the keepers of 
 the walls might defend the castle. I marked that 
 there is a strong tower in the area of the castle, and 
 from it, over a dungeon dyke, is a drawbridge to the 
 dungeon tower.' 
 
 Part of the castle still remains since Leland's time. 
 One of the great gates is left, and also the mound of 
 the dungeon-keep or tower. The buildings in the first 
 court were falling to ruins, but they soon after were 
 restored and repaired, and they became the family 
 residence. The massive entrance gateway is very 
 interesting. It dates back to 1275, and has an arch 
 flanked by two circular bastion towers. The castle as 
 it stands has architecture of the thirteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries. A deep chimney projects from the 
 hall, and two early English windows have been found 
 adjoining. 
 
 The residence is surrounded by a very heavy wall 
 that encloses three acres and a half, and parts of this 
 wall are three yards in thickness. The chapel of St. 
 Leonard in which the great council was held stood 
 between the main buildings and the keep, over the 
 present cellars. 
 
 The estates belong to the Watson family, who have 
 for long been lords of the manor. Sir Lewis Watson 
 garrisoned the castle for the Crown in Charles I.'s time, 
 and ' was afterwards created Baron Rockingham of 
 Rockingham. The earldom became extinct in 1746, 
 but the barony passed over to the last earl's cousin,
 
 1 86 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 Thomas Watson Wentworth, who in 1746 was created 
 Marquis of Rockingham. There is a curious inscrip- 
 tion that is carved along the principal beams in the 
 hall : ' This house shall be preserved and never will 
 decaye, where the Almighty God is honoured and 
 served daye by daye.' There are some very interesting 
 and valuable pictures here by Gainsborough, Vandyck, 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds, and others. The rebuilding of 
 portions of the castle have been carried out by Mr. 
 Salvin, who has had much to do with the construction 
 of ancient country dwellings, including the splendid 
 seat, Peckforton Castle, which was built in the second 
 part of the present century by the first Lord Tolle- 
 mache. But the outward appearance of Rockingham 
 has not been much altered. 
 
 The village is of considerable extent and of great 
 beauty, it ascends a steep street, and the houses are 
 remarkably well kept and in excellent order, owing 
 greatly to the example and care of the Watson family. 
 There is an old house near the western entrance that at 
 one time was the principal hostelry, such as is common 
 to all great residences, but now it is much altered. 
 There is a bridge over the Welland here, and at its 
 end the counties of Rutland, Leicester, and Northamp- 
 ton join. These places where the counties joined used 
 to be held in great estimation in old times for bull-baits 
 and prize-fights, because when a justice with police 
 appeared it was only necessary to go to the adjoining 
 county, and indeed too often it is said the justices were 
 among the spectators. The bridge over the Welland
 
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 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 leads to the highway through Caldicott, Uppingham, 
 and Oakham : from some parts many churches are seen. 
 
 The houses of Caldicott are built of a reddish- 
 yellow stone which gives the village rather a gloomy 
 appearance, yet there is more life and activity inside it 
 than might have been expected from the exterior, and 
 some little trade in farming produce is done. Rocking- 
 ham station stands in it. The church is poor, and built 
 almost in the latest style of Gothic. There was a 
 fresco at one time of Adam and Eve under the tree of 
 knowledge, but this is almost entirely obliterated. The 
 tower is weak and slender, and the tall spire that stood 
 on it was shattered by lightning in 1798, but has since 
 been rebuilt. This church is a chapelry of Lyddington, 
 and is dedicated to St. John. In the roof is the date 
 1648. There is one interesting feature in it, and that is 
 the front, which is Early English. This front is square, 
 and has chamfered edges ; it is enriched with an unusual 
 ornament. 
 
 There used to be an old family of Caldicott living 
 here who were of some dignity, for, in the reign of 
 Henry VIII., John de Caldicott was twice high sheriff 
 of the county, and his son served the same office under 
 Elizabeth, but the Caldicotts have long since ceased as 
 a family. There is a very pleasant approach to all this 
 district from Uppingham, that leads through Stoke Dry 
 to Easton Magna and Caldicott, and on all directions 
 there are scenes of rustic beauty. Uppingham, like 
 Rugby, cannot boast of much antiquity or picturesque 
 beauty, though it is surrounded by charming land-
 
 Market Harboro' , 189 
 
 scapes, as indeed we may say all this part of England 
 is. There are many roads leading here, but the road 
 that leads from Uppingham is extremely fine, and as 
 we pass a place called King's Hill Lodge a grand 
 valley opens up on our right hand, which is seen 
 through an avenue of forest trees that grow on each 
 side of the road. Everything is in a high state of cul- 
 tivation, and when farming was lucrative this must 
 have been a most desirable place for an estate. A 
 road across some fields will bring us in about an hour's 
 walk to Great Easton. The spire and .tower of this 
 church are peculiarly fine and were built when Early 
 English architecture was at its best. There are not 
 many villages in England, if we except those near 
 large towns, that can boast of such comfortable, sub- 
 stantial houses. Many of these stand in well-kept 
 gardens, and Thackeray's beautiful description of 
 Clavering almost applies to Great Easton. ' Looking 
 at the little old town of Clavering St Mary's from the 
 London Road as it runs by the lodge at Fairoaks, and 
 seeing the rapid and shining Brawl winding down from 
 the town and skirting the woods of Clavering Park, 
 and the ancient tower and peaked roofs of the houses 
 rising up among trees and old walls, behind which 
 swells a fair background of sunshiny hills that stretch 
 from Clavering westward, the place looks so cheery 
 and comfortable that the traveller's heart must have 
 yearned towards it from the coach-top, and he must 
 have thought that it was in such a calm friendly nook 
 he would like to shelter at the end of life's struggle.'
 
 190 Rambles round Rugby . 
 
 The road across the fields to Easton is rather dull in 
 places, but there cannot be many poachers about if we 
 may judge from the great numbers of partridges that 
 spring up as we pass along it. 
 
 If we take the high road, which is a little longer, we 
 pass through a much more beautiful country, and after 
 turning to the left and entering the Easton Road we shall 
 soon come to two lane-ends, the right one will bring 
 us to the site of Bradley Priory. There is still a well 
 left which is called the holy well, but no trace of the build- 
 ings remains. The establishment was very small, and 
 in King John's time its revenues were only 4, 53. pd. 
 per annum, and only two names besides the last prior's 
 have been discovered, John de Querendon and John 
 Penny, who was also Abbot of Leicester, but resigned 
 it on becoming Bishop of Carlisle. John Owndell, the 
 last prior, came to his slender dignities in 1 509, and at 
 the time of the dissolution the total annual value was as- 
 sessed at 20, 35. 6d., and included the lands that were 
 the demesne of the priory. The situation in a little vale 
 that forms a sort of close to the larger is extremely 
 picturesque, and could we see it as it was at the disso- 
 lution we should see a very charming picture indeed. 
 
 After passing Caldicott we cross the Eye, and soon 
 after come to a bridge of three arches that crosses the 
 Welland. The low meadow-lands that lie between 
 Easton and Rockingham are very delightful in summer 
 weather. I went over them on a glorious July day and 
 here and there were groups of cattle and sheep that 
 seemed as if they were bent upon enjoying their brief
 
 Market Harbord . 191 
 
 lease of life, in their own listless way, and they were 
 arranged often in groups so picturesque that Cooper or 
 Ansdell though they might have copied them could 
 never have postured them. Rockingham village lies on 
 each side of a steep street which ends with the castle 
 gates and the church. There is a fine old conduit here 
 over which once stood a cross. The base of it is yet 
 remaining. A never-ceasing spring of the clearest 
 and most delicious water runs from it, and without 
 pump or bucket supplies the pails of the villagers ; 
 indeed if the group I saw there had only been furnished 
 with the panniers we see in Germany, Rockingham 
 would have conveyed the idea of a beautiful old country 
 town on the Rhine. 
 
 If one village is to be chosen as the most charming 
 in this land of pleasant ones, the palm must fall to 
 Rockingham. The street is steep and there are well- 
 kept houses with broad charming gardens and shady 
 trees, and there is at the western entrance of the village 
 an old ' hostel ' such as we so commonly find outside 
 important strongholds like Rockingham Castle. It has 
 been altered much, but retains some of its ancient 
 character still, though it cannot compare with that near 
 Fotheringhay. Even yet we commonly see outside great 
 manor-houses a good inn with the armorial bearings of 
 the lord of the manor, and on the sign-board we see 
 the ' Arms,' giving the hostel the family name. 
 
 The approach to Lyddington is extremely pleasant. 
 The village is well set off with forest trees, and the 
 houses are exceptionally fine so fine, indeed, that they
 
 192 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 seem almost out of place in a comparatively small 
 country town. Doubtless, however, it is that formerly 
 Lyddington was an important market-town, and even 
 though the houses may not, in all respects, be equal in 
 antiquity to the days of the prosperity of the old town, 
 they indicate very clearly that it did not collapse when 
 the market was removed to Uppingham. This, however, 
 was a slow process, for both places had markets at the 
 same time. But Uppingham was more conveniently 
 situated, and though the Bishop of Lincoln protested 
 against the market in the larger town as an infringement 
 of the rights of Lyddington, the superior advantages 
 of Uppingham finally prevailed, and the wagons and 
 country carts lined the church square each market-day. 
 The church at Lyddington is extremely interesting, 
 and it contains some monuments and brasses. There 
 is one monument to an ancestor of the Rockinghams 
 who died in 1530, and he was apparently the secretary 
 and confidante (scribam et electum) of the Bishop of 
 Lincoln, who had a palace here. That he should have 
 been able to acquire sufficient wealth to found the 
 family which rose to such power in George III.'s time 
 we hardly need to wonder, if we consider what vast 
 wealth and power the bishop of a great diocese would 
 hold, and then at his death Wolsey was Bishop of 
 Lincoln, being one of the very many ' advantages ' he 
 held. It would hardly avail to search out the vast 
 possessions, with the benefices and sees from which he 
 drew his great revenues ; a single line of Henry VIIL 
 would show; and the power he held is happily expressed
 
 Market Harbord . 193 
 
 by Norfolk in that most dramatic and finished of 
 plays (n. ii. 47) : 
 
 'This imperious man will work us all 
 From princes into pages ; all men's honours 
 Lie like one lump before him, to be fashioned 
 Into what pitch he please.' 
 
 Whether Wolsey lived in his palace at Lyddington, or 
 if so, for how long, I do not know if there is anything 
 to show ; but he certainly must have passed by it often, 
 and probably made his occasional abode there. The 
 palace, which is built on the north side of the church, is 
 a building of exceeding beauty. It would be a model 
 now for any advanced architect to follow, as it has so 
 many features of excellence. Two things are kept well 
 in mind, the chimneys are a prominent feature and so is 
 the roof, though in modern times it would almost seem 
 as if we wished to keep these out of sight, at any rate 
 we might travel through the streets of London, and if 
 we did not know it, we should hardly suspect that the 
 houses were furnished with either the one or the other. 
 The great mass of masonry that a chimney consists of, 
 if we take for an example such ones as we see at the 
 bishop's palace, becomes warmed through, and acts like 
 a Roman hypocaust in warming a room or a residence. 
 The possessions of the Bishops of Lincoln were 
 enormous, and we may learn from the transactions 
 between Bishop Grossteste and the Pope how inde- 
 pendent they were. Grossteste was sorely exercised, as 
 indeed many other Englishmen were, at the proceedings 
 of the Pope, when the Vatican was even in its most 
 
 N
 
 1 94 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 palmy days. The Pope, among other things, used to 
 appoint Italian priests to wealthy offices in England, 
 and not only was Grossteste free enough of speech to 
 condemn many of the Pope's doings, but he went to 
 Rome to remonstrate with His Holiness, and ended by 
 saying the Pope might take to heart some lessons he 
 could learn from previous occupiers of the Chair. The 
 Pope was naturally indignant, and said, ' What, shall this 
 old dotard, whose king is my vassal, lay down rules for 
 me ! ' and he ended by excommunicating the Lincoln 
 prelate with all the circumstance of ' bell, book, and 
 candle.' This of course was to have prevented Grossteste 
 from taking any part in any church services or cele- 
 brations ; but he astonished the see by taking no notice 
 of the anathema, and proceeded with his duties as usual, 
 and died eighteen years afterwards much respected by 
 every one, and his denunciation of the excesses of the 
 ecclesiastical orders was destined to bear good fruit 
 among the Catholics of later years. 
 
 Some old writers speak of a castle having once 
 stood here, but it is probable that this may have been 
 the episcopal residence before the beautiful manor- 
 house in the churchyard was built a residence that 
 would be familiar enough to the reforming bishop, but 
 every trace of them has departed. Some maps of the 
 last century speak of ' Snelston ruins,' and though these 
 have for long ceased to exist, the name still remains, 
 and is attached by some old-fashioned people to a field 
 near Stoke Dry church. 
 
 The present remains of Lyddington Manor, though
 
 Market Harborrf. 195 
 
 they are very noble, formed only a small part of the 
 episcopal palace. The Hall, and the large chamber 
 which is attached to it, formed a part of the bishop's 
 own apartments. Some of the stained glass yet 
 remains, and there is the inscription, ' Dominus exaltatio 
 mea,' and ' Delectare in Domino.' There are also the 
 arms of Lord Chancellor Russell, who was the Bishop 
 of Lincoln in the reign of Edward IV. In Edward III.'s 
 reign, Lincoln was occupied by a great Nimrod, who 
 hunted about these parts, and he had the power to 
 inflict a fine of ten pounds on any one who hunted 
 without his leave. The manor of Lyddington remained 
 in the possession of the Bishops of Lincoln until the 
 reign of Edward VI., and then the yearly rent was 
 6g, 145. pd. It came in Elizabeth's time to her 
 adviser, Lord Burleigh, and descended to his son 
 Thomas. In the year 1602 he converted the old 
 palace into an hospital, for a warden, twelve poor men 
 and two women, and called it Jesus Hospital, a use it 
 retains until the present day ; and in beauty and pleasant 
 situation it fully equals the foundations of Abingdon 
 and Ewelme near Oxford. In the hall there is a large 
 folio Bible with an inscription in which it is called 
 ' Lyddington Hospital Bible.' This book was given by 
 John Clare, who was steward to the Earls of Exeter ; 
 and it has a MS. prayer inside which is always read by 
 the warden, along with the others, at the church service. 
 The Gentleman s Magazine for 1796 contains a view of 
 Lyddington Hospital, and a careful account of the 
 foundation and early history, and there is a copperplate
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 engraving of it, which is geometrical, and characteristic 
 of the art of the age. 
 
 When at Lyddington a road to Oakham would take 
 us past the villages of Wing and Manton. Wing, or 
 Wenge, as it is sometimes called, is an extensive 
 
 scattered village, and though it is not mentioned in 
 Domesday-book it had an existence, and it was granted 
 to the family of Montfort, whose ancestor, Hugh de 
 Montfort, came over with William the Conqueror. He
 
 Market Harbord. 197 
 
 seems to have been a man of eminence and consideration, 
 and was appointed coadjutor with William Fitz-Osborne, 
 and Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, for the administration of 
 justice throughout England. He lost his life in a single 
 combat with Walchelm de Ferrars, but the manor 
 descended to his posterity. Robert de Montfort, in the 
 reign of Henry II., granted a moiety of the church in the 
 parish to the monks of Thorney Abbey in Cambridge. 
 He was succeeded by his brother who absolutely 
 refused to confirm his gift, and refused to pay the 
 abbot a legacy his brother had left. 
 
 A complaint was made to King Stephen, who 
 commissioned the Bishop of Lincoln and the Earl of 
 Warwick to force him to comply with the bequests of 
 his brother, and he was obliged to submit, granting the 
 monks of Thorney Abbey a new charter conferring on 
 them a moiety of the church. And the mill the mill 
 was an ancestor of the quaint old peg-mill which forms 
 a picturesque feature of the landscape. This was the 
 old form of windmill that turned bodily round to let its 
 sails catch the wind. Shortly after this, the monks got 
 all the manor in their hands, and John de Stuteville, who 
 possessed the other half of the town of Wenge, gave 
 it up to the abbey. The history is interesting, as some 
 of the abbot's successors granted a lease of ninety-nine 
 years to the Lacy family at a rental of ten pounds per 
 annum, and it remained in their hands until the 
 dissolution, when it was seized by the Crown. The 
 village stands on a hill, and has a very pleasing appear- 
 ance from the surrounding country.
 
 198 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 From Manton to Oakham the road is short, and we 
 see the grand woods of Burleigh Park as we travel along 
 it. Oakham is a large, straggling country town, and the 
 road from the station does not show it to advantage, 
 but there are many picturesque scenes in it that would 
 well repay a long journey. The church is seen at 
 considerable distances, and often groups pleasantly 
 
 with the town buildings. The advowson was given by 
 Edward VI. to Nicholas Ridley, Lord Bishop of London, 
 and his successors, but was granted to the Earl of 
 Winchilsea in the last century. 
 
 A circumstance in the history of Oakham will 
 illustrate curiously how landed property was held, and 
 the penalties for trespass after game. Henry II. granted
 
 Market Harbord '. 
 
 199 
 
 the manor of Oakham to one of the family of Ferrars, 
 and he accompanied Richard I. to the Holy Land, but 
 he died before the walls of Acre, during the siege that 
 has given the theme to so much romance. It was royal 
 property before. The manor was held by the service of 
 one knight's fee and a half. Now the forest of Leafield 
 
 was not included in the liberties of Ferrars, and 
 unluckily he trespassed in pursuit of venison into its 
 limits. The exact amount of fines was hardly statutory 
 in those days, and much would depend upon the 
 circumstances of the delinquent. But he was fined 100 
 marks, and not only so, was compelled to pay it, about 
 seventeen years before he met with his death in Palestine. 
 The manor passed through many hands, but it may not be 
 generally known that at one time it belonged to Thomas
 
 2OO Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 Cromwell, who is said by Camden to have been Baron 
 of Oakham, and Dugdale repeats the statement, which, 
 as it seems, is accurate, though he was better known by 
 the title of Baron Wimbledon in his lifetime. Until 
 Green wrote his History of the English People, not much 
 was known of Thomas Cromwell. Indeed he passed 
 for a rather clever, able servant for whom Wolsey had 
 no longer employment, in most of our school histories, 
 but, in truth, he was certainly the ablest, and perhaps 
 the least scrupulous, minister that ever served an English 
 monarch. Nobody else could have dissolved the 
 monasteries as he did, but he simply chronicled out, 
 from period to period, the list of those that were 
 doomed, and the fate that awaited the abbots. 
 
 Yet it was recorded of him that he was deeply 
 attached to Wolsey, his old master, and so rapid was 
 his rise that he was able to screen his former master 
 from attainder. Wolsey had soon seen the power 01 
 Cromwell, and it is probable that he owed much of his 
 overwhelming fortunes to his genius. Yet the leave- 
 taking, as related by Shakespeare, is very human and 
 pathetic, and nothing can be more certain than that 
 the historical plays of Shakespeare rank amongst the 
 accurate records of history : 
 
 Wol. ' Go, get thee from me, Cromwell ; 
 
 I am a poor fallen man, unworthy now 
 
 To be thy lord and master. . . . 
 Crom. O my lord, 
 
 Must I, then, leave you? must I needs forego 
 
 So good, so noble, and so true a master ?' 
 
 Henry VIII., in. ii. 413.
 
 Market Harboro . 201 
 
 Green, in his History of England, says : 'In the 
 whole line of English statesmen there is no one of 
 whom we would so willingly know so much, no one of 
 whom we know so little, as of Thomas Cromwell.' Yet 
 as the castle must have been his residence, and Oakham 
 was his title, one is almost disposed to think that there 
 must be some records in the Rutland town that would 
 prove of deep interest. For though the great chancellor 
 was brought to the block at Tower Hill, the lands of 
 Oakham were conveyed to his son, and in his line they 
 were continued for three generations. It is said that, 
 at the close of the seventeenth century, considerable 
 remains of the old castle were standing where Crom- 
 well must have often resided, but now all that remains is 
 the hall. There are large and small horse-shoes in it of 
 all dates, and in every kind of smith-craft, which are 
 interesting to the curious, and some of them have 
 really a sort of historical interest about them. There 
 is a total obscurity about the origin of these horse- 
 shoes, but the law or custom was that any baron 
 passing through the town was obliged to leave a horse's 
 shoe behind him. This is supposed to have some 
 occult reference to the ancient arms of the Ferrars, 
 but most probably it is only another form of poll-tax. 
 In Lancashire, for example, at the country town of 
 Ormskirk, a tax of twopence is, or till very recent 
 years was, imposed on all four-footed animals that 
 came to the fair, and Lord Derby's agents had barriers 
 erected with toll-collectors. The Ferrars, in fact, were 
 only connected with Oakham for so short a time that
 
 2O2 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 such a custom must have had an older and broader 
 origin ; most probably it denotes some sort of service, 
 and in later times the service was generally paid, not 
 by a horse's shoe, but ancient coin ; perhaps the ex- 
 pression that was formerly applied to a new apprentice 
 ' paying footing,' may have some connection with some 
 such custom. At Oakham is a strange old mansion 
 that is quite worth a pilgrimage to see, it is called Flore's 
 House, and is only inferior in interest as a residence 
 to the Jew's house at Lincoln. It was at first Early 
 English, but it was much altered in the fifteenth 
 century. The house was originally in the form of 
 three sides to a quadrangle, and the doorway, which 
 belongs to the thirteenth century, is still standing, and 
 indeed is of great value. In the passage there is a 
 very singular drain that projects from the walls, and 
 is ornamented. ' The slat is sunk on all four sides to 
 the centre, where there is a human head in relief, and 
 four holes for carrying off the water ; ' and at the point 
 of the arch is a staple for suspending a chained dish. 
 Roger Flore, whose name is chiefly connected with the 
 house, died in 1483. His estate is described in his will, 
 and it forms a still further illustration of old times and 
 customs. There were in his possession ten messuages, 
 but we cannot well estimate the value of these, for no 
 record of their size is left. Then he had a hundred 
 acres of land, ten acres of meadow, and all their appur- 
 tenances, held of the lord of the manor by fealty only. 
 He bequeaths his body to the parish church, and his 
 best animal, or palfrey, to the vicar for a ' mortuary,'
 
 Market Harboro . 203 
 
 and we are almost reminded of conscience-money that 
 we see acknowledged by the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer for short-paid income-tax in the Times, though, 
 in his case, it was a genuine giant A belief, which we 
 would hope was a heresy, prevails that these conscien- 
 tious acknowledgments in the Times are only sugges- 
 tions by the chancellor of the period, and, indeed, that 
 in some cases the initials indicate men known in the 
 money world. But Roger Flore gave shillings for 
 ' forgotten tythes.' Very few houses are left in England 
 that can compare in antiquity with this. In York 
 there are a few remains of value, and at Lincoln and 
 Stamford there are also some, but in Chester there are 
 none. In the market-place is the celebrated Butter 
 Cross, though why this particular cross should be called 
 a ' butter cross ' is not very apparent, yet the same 
 name lingers round all old crosses, such as Winchester, 
 or Salisbury, or Malmesbury. It, of course, separates 
 them from the other crosses, such as the memorial ones 
 of Queen Eleanor, of which only three remain out of 
 twelve, or preaching crosses like that at Blackfriars', 
 Hereford, or the more beautiful one of Iron Acton in 
 Gloucestershire. The cross at Oakham, or rather the two 
 crosses, are almost unique ; one has been pulled down 
 and rebuilt recently ; the octagonal one is supported 
 by a great stone column in the centre, in which the 
 rafters rest. Nearly everything is oak about it, and, 
 of course, we know that Oakham derived its name 
 from the oak, when that tree was flourishing in those 
 parts. Those who are interested in following the
 
 204 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 tenures of property would be greatly interested in 
 reading the astonishing changes that Oakham was 
 subject to. It reverted to the Crown between the 
 reigns of Henry III. and Edward in. no less than three 
 times, and was regranted to whomsoever the king of 
 the period desired, and though the precise dates are not 
 now available, this must have occupied a space of not 
 more than 1 50 years. At one time the manor belonged 
 to the widow of the worthless Piers Gaveston, who, one 
 seems to think, would have been a fitting comrade for 
 ' Steenie! the Duke of Buckingham, that once held the 
 neighbouring manor of Burley-on-the-Hill. 
 
 The celebrity of Oakham, as the guide-books say, 
 was the notable dwarf, Jeffrey Hudson, who occupied 
 the dubious honour of being dwarf to the selfish Queen, 
 Henrietta Maria. One almost wonders at the straits 
 the upper classes were put to for amusement in those 
 days, and the slender resources they had in themselves. 
 The fools, as we see in Shakespeare, were really the 
 wits of a family. This Hudson figures in Scott's 
 Peveril of the Peak, and Fuller in his Worthies alludes 
 to him as the smallest man in the smallest county of 
 England. Yet it is recorded that his father was a fine 
 powerful man. He was granted two tall footmen to 
 wait upon him when in the distinguished position he 
 held as ' dwarf to the queen ; ' and he seems to have 
 made a profound sensation by breaking through the 
 crust of a large pie, and showing himself to the 
 delighted audience as he skipped out on the table. 
 He appears to have been suspected of some connection
 
 Market Harbord. 205 
 
 with the Gunpowder Plot, and was imprisoned. But it 
 is an actual fact that his portrait has been painted by 
 Vandyck, as in attendance on the queen, and the picture 
 yet remains in possession of the Earl of Portarlington. 
 We have, it is true, got over the taste for possessing 
 dwarfs or jesters, but still any lusus naturae is a valu- 
 able possession to the owner who will exhibit it. 
 
 The town is large and somewhat straggling, but it 
 is very pleasant, and many are the scenes of beauty 
 that we find in it. Some of the bye-streets even have 
 grass growing in them, but on market-days the pleasant 
 old place is full of quaint country carts, and farmers, and 
 gamekeepers, and a paradise for artists. 
 
 On the outskirts of Oakham is the hospital of St. John, 
 founded about 1390 by William Dalby, a merchant of 
 Exton. His daughter and heiress married Roger Flore of 
 Oakham, Esq. His descendant Roger made great alter- 
 ations and additions to Flore's house, and died in 1483. 
 
 Every one who has been to Manton will have 
 noticed the grand prospect that opens out as we look 
 past Oakham. The spire of All Saints is very visible, 
 and Burleigh rises grandly up on a well-wooded hill. 
 There are, indeed, few mansions in all England so 
 magnificently situated. The park, which is enclosed, 
 covers an area of a thousand acres, and is full of 
 landscapes of great beauty. Elms and oaks that have 
 not been warped by sea breezes seem as if they were 
 part of the ancient forests that covered these parts, so 
 free and easy is their growth, and they look so stately 
 that they seem as if they were to the manner born.
 
 206 Rambles round Rugby, 
 
 Mr. Wright tells us that when Villiers, the ' Steenie ' 
 of James I., purchased it, he made it one of the finest 
 seats in England, superior even to Belvoir, and here 
 it was that the worthless favourite entertained James 
 in a perfectly royal manner ; and it is a curious circum- 
 stance that some of the sermons that were preached 
 before the king on the occasion of the visit are still 
 preserved. They are by Bishop Andrewes. 
 
 Stamford lies to the east of Oakham, and is a town 
 that is not nearly so much known by the admirers of 
 old England as it should be ; there are churches not 
 only of antique beauty, but some of them figure in the 
 works on English architecture as the best of existing 
 models. Indeed I can hardly call to mind any work 
 that has not an illustration of St. Mary's as the most 
 perfect example of an early spire known, but the 
 spire seems to be a little later than the tower. It is 
 delightfully situated on the Welland, and half of it lies 
 in Northampton while the other half is in Lincoln- 
 shire. That which lies in Northampton belonged to the 
 Abbots of Peterborough. They held it by a baronial 
 tenure, and it is even yet known by the name of Stamford 
 Baron. The portion that lay in Lincoln is the ' burgh,' 
 and was once a royal one. It is one of the five 'burghs' 
 that, under Danish rule, had special rights and privi- 
 leges, the others being Lincoln, Leicester, Notting- 
 ham, and Derby. Edmund Ironside when in difficulty 
 with the Danes granted this, but in 944 he retook the 
 towns and they all remained in the hands of England 
 until the invasion of Sweyne, the king of Denmark, in
 
 Market Harboro . 207 
 
 1013. The bridge that crosses over the Welland is ex- 
 ceedingly pleasant, and very picturesque are the views 
 from it. It probably occupies the site of the ford from 
 which Stamford takes its name. It lies on what is called 
 the Great North Road that is connected with Ermyn 
 Street and is the highway to Yorkshire from London. 
 Dickens in Nickleby describes a drive on a winter's night 
 in a mail coach, when Nicholas and Squeers were going 
 to Dotheboys Hall with some unhappy youths : ' The 
 night and the snow came on together, and miserable 
 enough they were.' Then he graphically describes the 
 fast-falling snow, and says, speaking of Stamford as the 
 mail coach rolled through it : 'The streets of Stamford 
 were deserted as they passed through the town, and its 
 old churches rose dark and frowning from the whitened 
 ground.' Many of the English sovereigns stopped here. 
 King John has left his unhappy record in the town, and 
 all the Edwards stayed here. When Edward lost his wife 
 Eleanor, to whom he was so much devoted, Stamford 
 was one of the places where his Queen's remains rested 
 for the night, and one of the notable Eleanor crosses 
 was erected here. Three only of these are left, but 
 they are simply models of beauty ; the other nine were 
 destroyed during the civil war which Charles brought 
 on. Those at Northampton and Waltham, which 
 happily have survived the ruin, partly resemble each 
 other, but Geddington differs widely and it is clearly 
 the work of a different hand ; still the details on it are 
 very beautiful, and Geddington is within easy reach of 
 Rugby. Sometimes one hopes that these models of
 
 208 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 beauty may not all be lost, but that some may have 
 the same happy luck which fell to the writer, who one 
 day in an ancient rockery discovered the remains of 
 the historical Cross of Chester, about two miles from 
 the city. 
 
 Henry VIIL, Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., also 
 visited Stamford, and Charles I. fled here in the dis- 
 
 guise of a servant in May 1646. On his escape from 
 Hampton Court he was received in the house of Alder- 
 man Wolph. William III., George IV., and Queen Vic- 
 toria also visited Stamford, but perhaps Burleigh was 
 more connected with some of the visits than the town 
 itself. In 1401 the manor of Burleigh belonged to
 
 Market H arbor d . 209 
 
 Gervase Wykes who was chief magistrate of Stamford ; 
 it afterwards came into the possession of his nephew who 
 was the vicar of All Saints ; he bequeathed it to his 
 cousin Margaret Chambers, and she sold it to Richard 
 Cecil. The manor of little Burleigh was owned by the 
 Lord Chancellor, Michael de la Pole, but as he was 
 attainted and condemned to death in Richard II. 's reign 
 it reverted to the crown, and eventually it was pur- 
 chased by Richard Cecil, and his son William, Lord 
 High Treasurer of England, built the palatial residence 
 ' on the foundations of the old house that had descended 
 to him from his father.' 
 
 Among the family pictures at Burleigh is one by Sir 
 Thomas Lawrence known as the 'Cottager's Daughter,' 
 and its history is very romantic. When Henry Cecil, 
 who afterwards became the Earl of Exeter, was a 
 minor, he married the comely Emma Vernon, from 
 whom he was divorced ; and besides that, he lost his 
 money by gambling. His uncle was the Earl of 
 Exeter, and he advised his retirement to the country. 
 Cecil retired to a country farm-house in Shropshire that 
 was rented by Farmer Hoggins, and here he resided for 
 two years. This farmer had a daughter of great beauty 
 and quiet natural gifts, that made Cecil compare her 
 with others that he had met in the circles of fashion, and 
 he married her in 1791. When the Earl died she was 
 quite unconscious of the fact that she was a countess, 
 and according to report they went together simply 
 looking at the grand residences they passed, but she 
 thought of the cottage that her husband had promised 
 
 O
 
 2 io Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 her, little dreaming of her future. The beautiful ballad 
 that Tennyson wrote is one of his best-known works : 
 
 ' So she goes by him attended, 
 
 Hears him lovingly converse, 
 Sees whatever fair and splendid 
 
 Lay betwixt his home and hers ; 
 Parks with oak and chestnut shady, 
 
 Parks and order'd gardens great, 
 Ancient homes of lord and lady, 
 
 Built for pleasure and for state. 
 All he shows her makes him dearer, 
 
 Evermore she seems to gaze 
 On that cottage growing nearer, 
 
 Where they twain will spend their days. 
 O but she will love him truly ! 
 
 He shall have a cheerful home ; 
 She will order all things duly, 
 
 When beneath his roof they come. 
 Thus her heart rejoices greatly, 
 
 Till a gateway she discerns 
 With armorial bearings stately, 
 
 And beneath the gate she turns ; 
 Sees a mansion more majestic 
 
 Than all those she saw before. 
 
 While he treads with footsteps firmer, 
 
 Leading on from hall to hall. 
 And, while now she wonders blindly, 
 
 Nor the meaning can divine, 
 Proudly turns he round and kindly, 
 
 " All of this is mine and thine." ' 
 
 There is at the end of St. Martin's long street an 
 entrance to Burleigh House, which, of course, is one of 
 the historical residences in the kingdom, and like Eaton 
 near Chester the public are kindly admitted to see the 
 noble mansion, and the lower parts of the park are
 
 Market Harboro . 2 1 1 
 
 always open to the public. Burleigh at the time of the 
 Conquest belonged to the Abbey of Peterborough, but 
 in the Domesday Survey it seems to have been held by 
 Geoffrey of Winchester. It soon, however, returned to 
 its former owners, but at about the first year of Henry 
 VIII. it was purchased by Cecil, the father of the Lord 
 Treasurer ; still there was a monastic cell belonging to 
 Peterborough, but all rights of ownership soon came to 
 Richard Cecil and his son. The eldest son of the Lord 
 Treasurer was created Earl of Exeter in 1605 \ the 
 Marquisate dates from 1801. The house was built by 
 Lord Burleigh in 1575, and the earliest date that is 
 seen on any part of the building is 1577. 
 
 Fergusson, in his excellent history of architecture, 
 alludes to Burleigh as being not a very beautiful 
 building either in general effect or in detail, but this is 
 owing to the great prejudice that, when he wrote, ex- 
 isted against all Elizabethan architecture, so much so, 
 that one authority speaking of Elizabethan architecture 
 in a well-known book of reference, says that if there 
 were an Elizabethan building belonging to his family 
 he would not have it destroyed any more than he would 
 wish to see the extermination of a cripple in his family. 
 This is hardly fair, for the Elizabethan architecture 
 suits our woodlands and parks and our towns very much 
 more than the exotic productions of Athens. Then 
 the noble bay windows in the mansion that front the 
 outside of the building point to a feeling of security arid 
 happiness that in those days had not commenced on 
 the continent of Europe, where the outsides of baronial
 
 2 1 2 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 mansions were castellated to repel invaders, for all 
 Europe was a troubled sea that could not rest, and 
 the entertaining rooms of a castle faced the quad- 
 rangle of the court. The house of Burleigh is built 
 round a court and is of Barnack stone. The Barnack 
 quarries are now unworked, but doubtless building- 
 stone is not exhausted. The monasteries of Peter- 
 borough, Thorney, Ramsey, Crowland and others, were 
 built from them, and the sharpness of the carvings is 
 still a great feature. The tower of Barnack is a very 
 interesting example of early work. It has long and 
 short work at the angles, and narrow square-edged 
 bands of stone project from all four walls at intervals. 
 A plain string-course divides the walls about mid-way, 
 and there are the traces of a circular sun-dial such as 
 we see at Earl's Barton, a Northampton church that is, 
 of course, well known all over England. The discussion 
 as to the dates of the churches of Saxon and Norman 
 origin, of which these have formed texts, must soon be 
 renewed, as so great an authority as Rickman has 
 drawn the line quite too finely. He drew, as it always 
 seemed, a too sharp division between the Norman 
 architecture of England and the Saxon, and some of 
 the finest Norman buildings in England, as they are 
 recorded in works have, it is now certainly established, 
 a record that dates back to Saxon times. But perhaps 
 this subject might be, and indeed will be soon, fully 
 discussed. 'The tower of Barnack,' an excellent 
 authority says, 'is supposed to be Saxon, but Sir 
 Hervcy Dryden, from the convoluted ornaments on
 
 Market Harbord . 2 1 3 
 
 the small window on the south side, and from the 
 carvings on the upright stones, believes it to be of 
 Danish workmanship,' and here indeed a new feature is 
 beginning to open in our architecture. 
 
 Burleigh House is built in the form of a parallelogram 
 round a central court, and Sir Horace Walpole said, 
 ' The inside court struck me with admiration and reve- 
 rence.' The west front is a noble example of Eliza- 
 bethan architecture. The interior of the house, which 
 is free to visitors, is a splendid example of an old 
 palatial residence, perhaps too large, as very probably 
 a future age would say, for human requirements where 
 only a family is concerned. The pictures belong, for 
 the most part, to the later Italian school that is not very 
 much in favour now, but there are many excellent 
 works besides. Burleigh House contains the great 
 number of 145 rooms. The banqueting-hall is very 
 magnificent, with its open roof and carved pendants. 
 The chapel is reached by a vaulted staircase, and it 
 is decorated with carvings by Grinling Gibbons, and 
 as this is so often repeated in houses of his age, it 
 may be well to say that the carvings are not always 
 his, but under his guidance, and, perhaps, finishing- 
 touch. Burleigh is finely furnished with royal fur- 
 niture, and many are the beds on which it is said 
 royalty rested, as indeed the houses that claim in the 
 districts round Rugby that Charles slept before and 
 after his battles ; so I think we may very fairly say, 
 in the matchless language of Henry IV. when he speaks 
 of sleep
 
 2 1 4 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 ' How have I frighted thee 
 That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down 
 And steep my senses in forgetfulness ? 
 And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, 
 Than in the perfumed chambers of the great, 
 Under the canopies of costly state ? 
 O, thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile 
 In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch 
 A watch-case or a common 'larum bell ? 
 
 Now there really are so many claimants to houses 
 where Charles slept before and after his battles that 
 this would seem to be a fair answer to all. 
 
 The ceilings of Burleigh are in many instances 
 adorned by saints from the brushes ofVerrio and La- 
 guerre, like so many of the great residences in the 
 south. 
 
 The name of these artists is, of course, well known, 
 and \ve can easily point out their work in the great 
 mansions they were commissioned to embellish. There 
 was a princely residence named Canons, where the 
 Dukes of Chandos used to live, that lies on the road 
 from Rugby to London, but is not many miles away 
 from the latter, and here the foreign artists seem to 
 have expended their best talents. Pope thus speaks of 
 it in his moral essays : 
 
 'And now the chapel's silver bell you hear, 
 That summons you to all the pride of prayer, 
 Light quirks of music broken and uneven, 
 Make the soul dance upon a jig to heaven. 
 On painted ceilings you devoutly stare, 
 Where sprawl the saints of Verrio and Laguerre 
 Or gilded clouds in fair expansion lie, 
 And bring all Paradise before your eye.'
 
 Market Harboro. 215 
 
 Greatly did Pope afterwards regret his notice' of 
 Canons, of which this is an extract, for the Duke of 
 Chandos was an excellent and amiable man, and Pope 
 even went so far as to say that he was alluding to 
 another palatial residence, but no his allusions were 
 too clear, and he was not forgiven. 
 
 The collection of paintings at Burleigh numbers 
 over 700, and contains some really very fine ones. 
 A good authority has said, 'There is no 'other seat 
 which affords so complete, and on so grand a scale, a 
 view of the taste in arts which prevailed among the 
 English nobility from the middle of the seventeenth to 
 about the end of the eighteenth century.' This is per- 
 haps true, but he omits to say that art was imported 
 from the Continent, as indeed almost a veto had been 
 placed on English art. The pictures we see at the 
 time alluded to are from second-class Italian artists, 
 and, though fairly good, are not equal to what we 
 might acquire at any public exhibition of pictures, with 
 indeed some fine exceptions. And I may fairly bring 
 in the description Thackeray gave of so many houses 
 that the wealthy built, though it is extreme. 'The 
 house is in full view of the lake all the way, except 
 where intercepted by the trees in the miserable island 
 on the lake an enormous red brick mansion, square, 
 vast, and dingy. It is flanked by four stone towers 
 with weather-cocks. In the midst of this grand facade 
 is a large Ionic portico, approached by a vast, lonely, 
 ghostly staircase. Rows of black windows framed in 
 stone stretch on either side, right and left three storeys
 
 2 1 6 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 and eighteen windows of a row. You may see a pic- 
 ture of the palace and staircase in the views of England 
 and Wales, with four carved and gilt carriages waiting 
 in the gravel walk, and several parties of ladies and 
 gentlemen in wigs and hoops, dotting the fatiguing 
 lines of stairs.' This is the satiric description Thack- 
 eray gave of one of the revival houses of England, 
 perhaps too severe, but not indeed quite without truth, 
 and there is, perhaps, a slight under-current in Tenny- 
 son's beautiful ballad when he speaks of what the over- 
 whelming feeling was when the new countess saw the 
 gorgeous paintings at Burleigh : 
 
 ' Faint she grew, and ever fainter, 
 As she murmured, " O that he 
 Were once more that landscape painter 
 Which did win my heart from me." ' 
 
 Burleigh House is finely wooded, and there is a large 
 lake in the park. The avenues are very fine and 
 extensive, and there are very grand trees of Spanish 
 chestnut, elms, and oaks, and limes. The elm avenue, 
 which we enter from Stamford, is very fine, and the 
 branches of the trees are knitted and twisted in an 
 extremely picturesque fashion. Happily strangers 
 are allowed, on very easy terms, to visit the grand 
 mansion, and there are among the pictures not a few 
 that are very well worthy of notice. In the billiard- 
 room there are seven portraits of Kneller's, and there 
 is a head that is reported, perhaps justly, to be by 
 Rembrandt. There is a Virgin and Child ascribed 
 to Albert Durer, and also a Venus and Cupid which is
 
 Market H arbor d . 2 1 7 
 
 said to be the work of Michael Angelo. The great 
 staircase has some works of Verrio's which are said to 
 be his best ; but there is a singular Burleigh tradition 
 about one of the figures which is said to represent the 
 cook. Verrio was very particular about his dinner, and 
 on one occasion the cook would seem to have neglected 
 his tastes, and his portrait was placed among the 
 sufferers in the Inferno, where it still remains. 
 
 When James I. came from Scotland to assume the 
 English crown, he stayed at Burleigh, and was enter- 
 tained with great magnificence. ' The house seemed so 
 rich as if it had been furnished at the charge of an 
 emperor. All the offices of the house were set open, 
 that every man might have free access to buttery, 
 pantries, kitchen, to eat and drink at their pleasure.' 
 
 On the night of the 23rd July 1643, Cromwell, with 
 3000 of his warriors, arrived at Stamford, and at once 
 advanced upon Burleigh House, then occupied by a 
 cavalier force composed of Noel, Viscount Campden's 
 troop of horse and 300 foot, which had been annoying 
 the Parliamentarians under Colonel Palgrave in the 
 neighbourhood of Peterborough. At daylight, next 
 morning, the besiegers opened fire upon the house from 
 fourteen pieces of ordnance, but the place was found 
 too strong for their shot, and after three hours of 
 cannonading they sounded a parley, and offered terms. 
 The Royalists declared they would neither take nor give 
 quarter. A hot musketry fire was directed against the 
 defenders, and in the middle of the day they surrendered. 
 Oliver was magnanimous and generous, instead .of
 
 2 1 8 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 sacking the mansion, he presented the widowed countess 
 with his portrait, which is shown in the collection. 
 
 The sixteenth century has been termed the era of 
 palaces, and they were generally erected by high officers 
 of state who had a convenient control over national 
 funds. Burleigh owes its origin to William Cecil. 
 ' My house of Burghley,' wrote Cecil in 1585, 'is of my 
 mother's inheritance. I have set my walls on the old 
 foundations, and yet one side remaineth as my father 
 left it me.' There are several dates about the present 
 building that point out the Lord Treasurer's time. 
 Near one of the entrances within the central court is 
 the inscription, W. Dau. de Burghley, 1577, and beneath 
 a turret is the date 1585, and the present grand entrance 
 was built in 1587. 
 
 William, Lord Burleigh, was the successor to Sir 
 Christopher Hatton, for whom the memorable letter of 
 Elizabeth was written to the Bishop of Ely when he 
 objected to give up Ely House, in London, that Chris- 
 topher Hatton desired for a town residence. 
 
 ' Proud Prelate, You know what you were before I 
 made you what you are ; if you do not immediately 
 comply with my request, by G d I will unfrock you. 
 
 ' ELIZABETH.' 
 
 The sagacity which chose Burleigh and Walsing- 
 ham, says Green in his History, was just as unerring as 
 that which chose the meanest of her agents, and the 
 minister on whom Elizabeth principally relied was 
 Cecil, and even he trembled for her success against 
 all the great forces of France and Spain. It was in
 
 Market Harboro*. 2 1 9 
 
 1598 that the manor was inherited by his eldest son, 
 Lord Burleigh the second, who was made a knight of 
 the garter by Elizabeth, and elevated to the title of 
 Earl of Exeter by James I. Sir Robert Cecil, the 
 second son of the Lord Treasurer, was created Earl 
 of Salisbury, a title that has since been raised to a 
 marquisate. The architect for Burleigh was John 
 Thorpe, who, in his time, built more houses than any 
 one in England. There is a singular tale about this 
 eccentric man among the architectural relics. He 
 often spoke of his tomb and the monument it should 
 support, and in a severe illness he asked a friend to 
 write his epitaph, which was to be very short and to 
 rhyme. This his friend managed to do in two lines of 
 three words each. But, short as this was, Sir John 
 Thorpe said it was too long, and faintly taking the 
 pencil he wrote the memorable couplet of ' Thorpe's 
 corpse.' 
 
 If we travel about a mile south-west we arrive at 
 Wothorpe, where there is a noble old ruin, the ivy- 
 clad remains of a fine old turreted mansion, which was 
 built by the first Earl of Exeter about the year 1600, 
 who said that ' He built it only to retire out of the dust 
 when his great house at Burleigh was a-sweeping.' 
 Easton lies close to, and it is the highest point in the 
 neighbourhood, and from the tower of Easton Church, 
 Ely Cathedral and Boston Tower may be seen on a 
 clear day. The interior of the church is more ancient 
 than the exterior, which dates back to the sixteenth 
 century.
 
 22O Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 The celebrated antiquarian, Dr. Stukeley, lived at 
 Stamford. He was an M.D., an F.R.S., and F.C.P. 
 He was appointed to the vicarage of All Saints, 
 Stamford, in 1729, and held the living until 1747, when 
 he became rector of St. George's, Queen's Square, 
 London. He bought Mr. Wolfe's house, and, writing of 
 this in 1744, he says, 'The great gate in the town wall 
 for the passage of waggons into the farm-yard I built 
 up in the present form, leaving only the door ; this 
 opens into the fields. By it is a pond in that part of 
 the town ditch, called to this day Wolfe's pond.' Dr. 
 Stukeley founded the Brazenose Society at Stamford, 
 which he said was ' designed to inquire into the anti- 
 quities of the kingdom, make discoveries in natural 
 history, and improvements in the arts and sciences 
 generally.' But the town and all the district are full of 
 interest for the antiquarian, the historian, and the 
 architect.
 
 BILTON 
 
 BlLTON lies a little more than a mile to the south- 
 west of Rugby, and is reached along a pleasant road. 
 When we arrive there we shall find two roads : one is 
 a continuation of the Rugby Road, and it leads to 
 what is called Dunsmore Heath, where a route or 
 high ground through many shady trees takes us on to 
 Coventry, passing the Roman Fosse before it reaches 
 Ryton on Dunsmore and the valley of the Avon. 
 
 The village is a neat, pleasant, scattered one, and a 
 charming resort on any summer's day, but, of course, 
 the great attraction is Bilton Hall, which is so long 
 identified with the name of Addison. He had passed 
 a varied life, but was enabled by his ability to save 
 enough money to purchase the hall and lands for 
 10,000, before his marriage with the Countess of 
 Warwick. This he did in 1711 from the proprietor, 
 William Boughton, Esq., of Lawford, and here he lived 
 for the comparatively short period that preceded his 
 death. 
 
 Bilton Hall is a spacious but picturesquely-irregular 
 mansion, and the front that is shown is an excellent 
 example of English architecture of the first part of 
 the seventeenth century. The date of its erection, 
 
 1623, still remains on the entrance, incised in stone. 
 
 221
 
 222 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 The gables are beautifully proportioned, and the tall 
 chimneys give the front a fine architectural appear- 
 ance. 
 
 The garden front has been altered considerably, 
 having, in fact, been rebuilt in 1831 by the Hon. John 
 Bridgman Simpson. Here we may see a most excellent 
 example of what is termed the ' Dutch Gardens/ or the 
 formal method of laying out grounds that would seem 
 
 to have been imported during the reign of the real 
 ' William the Conqueror,' as William III. is now some- 
 times called. These consisted of long straight walks 
 with yew-trees clipped into form, only too often fan- 
 tastic, and representing peacocks or warriors, as I have 
 sometimes seen, or other eccentric devices. But if these 
 gardens are well kept, as those at Bilton are, they are 
 always^agreeable and pleasant to wander in, and it may
 
 Bilton. 223 
 
 not be out of place to say that the rules of Kemp and 
 Loudon differ entirely in their arrangements, as their 
 especial maxim was to let no end of any road be seen, 
 but turn it round, and so plant some evergreen that its 
 direction cannot be distinguished. There is a long 
 walk that is still called Addison's Walk, and here, and 
 in a summer-house at the end, he spent some of his 
 most happy days. There is an avenue of elms that 
 leads to the entrance of the old mansion, and very 
 picturesque these are in their formations ; some have 
 been removed, but there are very good ones left. 
 
 The life of Addison and the great effect that he had 
 and still has upon the literature of England has often 
 been discussed and written about, and a short epitome 
 would show how this was developed in his lifetime. 
 If not a profound scholar, he was a very accomplished 
 one. Macaulay says, in his usual style, that ' his know- 
 ledge of Greek, though doubtless such as was in his 
 time thought respectable at Oxford, was evidently less 
 than that which many lads now carry away every year 
 from Eton and Rugby.' He was not, of course, such 
 a scholar as Bentley, or as the professors of Greek now, 
 but he had a very excellent appreciation of the Greek 
 poets and writers, and many allusions to them in his 
 works show that his knowledge was extensive and 
 intelligent, and we all are willing to grant one of his 
 latest requests when he wrote : ' It was said of Socrates 
 that he brought philosophy down from Heaven to 
 inhabit among men ; and I shall be ambitious to have 
 it said of me that I have brought philosophy out of
 
 224 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell at 
 clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffee-houses.' 
 This really is a pithy analysis of the Spectator. 
 
 Addison was born on May i, 1672, or just in the 
 middle of the reign of Charles II. His father was the 
 rector of Milston, near the charming old country town 
 of Amesbury, which is situated on the Upper Avon, 
 some two miles distant from Salisbury Plain. The 
 church was once portion of an abbey, and any one who 
 has passed through the dreary wastes of the plain will 
 remember the delight that Amesbury gives them when 
 they enter its pleasant street. Amesbury House is 
 charmingly situated on the river-side, and here Gay, 
 the poet, stayed when it was the residence of the notable 
 Duke of Queensbury. I happened to be there in 1873, 
 and in the week that I was there two birds of a kind sup- 
 posed to be extinct in England, the bustard, were killed. 
 This may give some idea of how solitary the plain 
 must be, and since writing the above I came across an 
 excellent paragraph concerning Addison's recollections 
 of his youth there, edited by John Morley : 'A man of 
 Addison's imagination could hardly fail to be impressed 
 by the character of the scenery in which his childhood 
 was passed. No one who has travelled on a summer's 
 day across Salisbury Plain, with its vast canopy of sky, 
 and its open tracts of undulating down-land, relieved 
 by no shadows except such as are thrown by a passing 
 cloud, and the great circle of Stonehenge, will forget 
 the delightful sense of refreshment and repose pro- 
 duced by the descent into the valley of the Avon.
 
 Bilton. 225 
 
 The sounds of human life rising from the villages 
 after the long solitude of the plain, the shade of the 
 deep woods, the coolness of the river, like all streams 
 rising in the chalk, clear and peaceful, are equally 
 delicious to the sense and the imagination. It was 
 doubtless the recollection of these scenes that inspired 
 Addison in his paraphrase of the twenty-third Psalm 
 
 ' " The Lord my pasture shall prepare 
 And feed me with a Shepherd's care. 
 
 When in the sultry glebe I faint, 
 Or on the thirsty mountain pant, 
 To fertile vales and dewy meads 
 My weary, wand'ring steps He leads, 
 Where peaceful rivers, soft and slow, 
 Amid the verdant landscape flow." ' 
 
 Addison's father became afterwards Dean of Lichfield, 
 which was an excellent appointment ; and Addison 
 himself went to Charterhouse, where he acquired the 
 classical knowledge that did him such service in after- 
 time. Charterhouse did not then stand amongst the 
 leading public schools ; Rugby also, unlike Eton, 
 Harrow, and Winchester, was little known. 
 
 He was especially careful in all words when he 
 wrote, that they should be the very best to express 
 in detail what he meant, and there is a somewhat 
 amusing instance of this which appeared in some recently 
 discovered MSS. : ' A sentence in one of the papers on 
 the Pleasures of Imagination shows by the various 
 stages through which it passed before the form became 
 satisfactory to the writer, what nice attention he gave 
 
 P
 
 226 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 to the balance-rhythm, and lucidity of his periods. 
 In its original shape the sentence was written thus : 
 
 ' " For this reason we find the poets always crying 
 up a country life, where nature is left to herself, and 
 appears to the best advantage." 
 
 'This is rather bald, and the MS. is accordingly 
 corrected as follows : 
 
 ' " For this reason we find all Fancifull men, and y e 
 poets in particular still in love with a country life ; 
 where Nature is left to herself and furnishes out all y e 
 variety of scenes y* are most delightful to y e Imagina- 
 tion." 
 
 ' The next text as it stands is this : 
 ' " For this reason we always find the poet in love 
 with a country life, where nature appears in the greatest 
 perfection, and furnishes out all those scenes that are 
 most apt to delight the imagination." ' 
 
 This is what appears in the Spectator, No. 414, and 
 is certainly the best. But Wharton in his essay on 
 Pope even says that Addison was so precise in his 
 wording that he would often stop the press to alter a 
 preposition or conjunction. Addison's knowledge of 
 the Latin language was much more complete and pro- 
 found, as Macaulay admits, for he had travelled by the 
 means of a government pension in many parts of 
 Europe, including Italy ; and in his prime of life the 
 Italian Renaissance was in its height. All the minor 
 Latin poets were familiar to school-boys of talent, and 
 this was the time when Italian mansions crowded out, 
 and destroyed the picturesque gabled halls of the
 
 Bilton. 227 
 
 English landlords; some, indeed, of the latter are left in 
 all counties, but England in Addison's time, if it could 
 be seen, was like the dream of an antiquary. 
 
 He left Charterhouse in 1687 at the age of fifteen, 
 and was entered at Queen's College, Oxford. In 
 some two years he left, and a copy of his Latin 
 verses fell into the hands of Dr. Lancaster, who was 
 the Fellow of the college, but afterwards became the 
 Provost, and he thought so highly of them that he 
 managed to secure for him a demyship of Magdalen. 
 Addison became a Probationary Fellow, and in 1698 
 he was an actual Fellow, an honour he retained for 
 thirteen years. While travelling on the Continent, 
 Addison heard of the death of his father, who had 
 reached the high office of Dean of Lichfield ; his own 
 fortunes were at a very low ebb at this time, but within 
 three years he became Under-Secretary of State, and 
 rose from one post to another, until he was enabled to 
 retire with comparative affluence from public life. 
 
 Through the influence of the celebrated publisher, 
 Jacob Tonson, aided also by Lord Halifax, Addison 
 became a member of the Kit Cat Club. Halifax was 
 at all times a warm friend of Addison, and when he 
 left his office as High Treasurer, and was succeeded by 
 Godolphin, the latter asked him, as he was a man of 
 letters, to name any one who could write a poem that 
 would worthily celebrate Blenheim. Halifax refused, 
 because he said that he would never recommend any 
 one of parts and learning to celebrate a ministry, ' who 
 had neither the justice nor generosity to make it worth
 
 228 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 his while ; ' and on being assured that this was an error, 
 he named Addison. Boyle, the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, was sent to interview him, and, according 
 to Pope, he found him in a very humble lodging indeed. 
 The poem is not perhaps very excellent, but one verse, 
 and that the best, may be worth recording, for a great 
 national calamity of which it speaks : 
 
 "Twas then great Marlbro's mighty soul was proved. 
 That, in the shock of charging hosts unmoved, 
 Amidst confusion, horror, and despair, 
 Examined all the dreadful scenes of war ; 
 In peaceful thought the field of death surveyed, 
 To fainting squadrons sent the timely aid, 
 Inspired repulsed battalions to engage, 
 And taught the doubtful battle where to rage. 
 So when an angel, by divine command, 
 With rising tempests shakes a guilty land, 
 Such as of late o'er pale Britannia passed, 
 Calm and serene he drives his furious blast, 
 And, pleased the Almighty's orders to perform, 
 Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm.' 
 
 There is a line in this that commemorates one of 
 the most fearful hurricanes that ever passed over Eng- 
 land. This was the great hurricane of 1703, and in every 
 county there are records of it. Houses were blown 
 down, as were also steeples and barns, and the wrecks 
 and the loss of life were something that caused mourn- 
 ing over half of England at the sea-ports. It is greatly 
 to Addison's credit that he saved enough money from 
 his appointments, and from the sale of the Spectator 
 and Tatler, to purchase Bilton Hall. The Spectator, of 
 course, is not so much read now as it was, but it will 
 always bear perusal, and that with advantage.
 
 Bilton. 229 
 
 Sir Roger de Coverley will live as long as the Vicar 
 of Wakefield, and it certainly is an admirable record of 
 the best class of country gentleman of the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries a class that has not been 
 quite extinguished in the nineteenth, though the facili- 
 ties which railways give of journeys to London have 
 much altered their character. 
 
 He was, Addison says, a Worcestershire gentleman 
 of ancient family, and his great-grandfather invented 
 the famous dance that bore his name. When Sir Roger 
 went as a young man to London, he often supped with 
 Lord Rochester and Sir George Etheridge, and fought a 
 duel on his first coming to town. At fifty-six he was 
 gay and hearty, and loved the company of mankind. His 
 tenants grew rich under him, and he was a distinguished 
 chairman of the Quarter Sessions, especially versed in 
 the clauses of the game laws. So seldom does Sir Roger 
 change his servants ' that you would take his valet-de- 
 chambre for his brother, his butler is grey-headed, and 
 his coachman has the look of a Privy Councillor.' His 
 chaplain was chosen not for his learning, but for his 
 clear voice, his amiable temper, and his great skill at 
 backgammon ; and so far had his choice been a wise 
 one, that for thirty years there had not been a single 
 law-suit in the parish ; for if neighbours fell out they 
 placed their differences before him, and in a few rare 
 cases only they appealed to Sir Roger. 
 
 He was, Addison says, the ' landlord ' of the whole 
 congregation at church, and occupied his family pew 
 with great regularity, allowing no one to sleep except
 
 230 
 
 Rambles round Ritgby. 
 
 himself; and ' if by chance he has been surprised into a 
 nap during the sermon, upon recovering out of it he 
 stands up and looks about him, and if he sees anybody 
 else nodding, either wakes them himself or sends his 
 servant to them.' On leaving the church he goes 
 down from his square pew in the chancel and all the 
 
 
 congregation rise, not attempting to leave the build- 
 ing until he has departed. This is not an unknown 
 feature near Rugby. There is by Ayston, not far from 
 Uppingham, a fine old church, picturesquely situated 
 among woods, and the rector, Sir J. Henry Fludyer,
 
 Bilton. 
 
 231 
 
 has till recent times taken an active part in the services 
 of the church. He is also the lord of the manor, and 
 when the service is completed all the congregation rise 
 and stand until he has left the building. Not very far 
 from this is Preston church, which has many singular but 
 
 interesting features, though it has been sadly modern- 
 ised and the old appearance swept away. Sir Roger's 
 end is most pathetically told, and the utterly broken- 
 down servants and retainers who had known him so 
 long are well described ; and, indeed, we cannot but think
 
 232 Rambles round Rugby, 
 
 sometimes that if the Irish landlords of his time had 
 followed more closely in his steps, the country with 
 untold natural beauties might have been happy and 
 wealthy in a very high degree. 
 
 Bilton church is charmingly situated among trees 
 and rustic scenes, and its entrance is near to the hall. 
 The tower belongs to fourteenth century architecture, 
 but the spire is of somewhat later construction. The 
 church contains monuments to the Boughton family 
 a family that figures so conspicuously in this part 
 of the country. The living is a rectory valued in 
 the king's books at ^"16, los. 7^d., but now worth 
 over ;6oo. 
 
 ' In pursuance of an agreement between the lord of 
 the manor of Bilton and others, about the year 1660, 
 for the enclosure of Bilton, forty-two acres of the common 
 were set out for the use of the poor of the said town for 
 ever. The whole is now cultivated ; about eight acres 
 are let as garden ground. There are sixteen or seven- 
 teen houses on the poor's land paying with their 
 gardens 1 a year each, 1833,' but these terms are 
 advanced. In the year 1783 Langton Freeman, by 
 will, directed his executors to lay out ^"400 in estab- 
 lishing a charity school in this parish ; the master re- 
 ceives 20 yearly from the estate. 
 
 Bilton Grange is situated about a mile from Bilton 
 Hall, and there are no less than three roads to it, all of 
 nearly equal length. There was an old house, of which 
 part remains, but the new part is a fine brick mansion, 
 which was commenced in 1846 from designs of Augustus
 
 Bilton. 
 
 Welby Pugin, the most excellent architect of Gothic in 
 his day, and indeed he has had few equals since. It 
 occupied three years in building, and was a happy 
 illustration of the style of the time of Henry VII., when 
 the Tudor or Perpendicular architecture, as it is equally 
 termed, was at its best. Oak panels and oak floors ap- 
 
 pear in its interior which is quite worthy of the exterior. 
 It has been sold to the Rev. W. Earle, and converted 
 into a large preparatory school. Wm. Lancaster was 
 the next previous owner. 
 
 Close to Bilton Grange is Dunchurch, a very well-
 
 234 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 built country village that gives the name to a rural 
 deanery. The church is dedicated to St. Peter, and is 
 in very good preservation, and belongs to the latter 
 part of the fourteenth century. In the reign of Stephen, 
 Dunchurch belonged to Clement, and he gave all his 
 lands to the monks of Pipewell. 
 
 Pipewell Abbey was in Northampton, but within a 
 moderate distance from Rugby, and it had a very 
 signal history. It was a Cistercian house, and founded 
 by William Butevileyn. Here Richard I. in the first 
 year of his reign held a great council. It was attended 
 by nearly all the bishops of England and Ireland, 
 besides abbots and priors, and many laymen of great 
 influence. Green, in his history of Richard, after 
 speaking of his love of adventure, his pride in his 
 personal strength, and other parallel characteristics, 
 says that ' he was at heart a statesman, cool and patient 
 in the execution of his plans as he was bold in their 
 conception.' The vacant bishoprics were filled, and he 
 raised money for his memorable crusade. I was not 
 able to find any traces of the abbey, though in some 
 Warwickshire histories it is said that the remains, 
 though very slight, still exist. This abbey was wealthy, 
 as at the dissolution its revenues were recorded at ^283 
 per annum. Pipewell, it is said, stood in Rockingham 
 Forest, so that the state business might be enlightened 
 by the royal chase. This forest was one of the largest 
 in the kingdom, and lay from Northampton to Stamford, 
 or about thirty-three miles, and its average breadth was 
 about eight miles. Until very recent years wild deer
 
 Bilton. 
 
 235 
 
 were occasionally met with in it. Twice was Dunchurch 
 confiscated to the Crown, and in the reign of Mary it 
 was purchased by Sir Thomas Leigh, and afterwards it 
 descended to Lord Dunsmore. There is in the church 
 a very singular monument to Thomas Newcombe, which 
 is almost unique. He was the king's printer in the 
 
 time of Charles II., James II., and William III. He 
 founded an almshouse, which was rebuilt in 1818 by 
 subscription. His monument is preserved by folding 
 doors of white marble, which are still in perfect con- 
 dition.
 
 236 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 A notable feature in Dunchurch is the stocks. 
 These may yet be seen in many country villages, and 
 they were even in use in comparatively late times. In 
 Henry iv.'s time an Act was passed, A.D. 1405, that 
 every village and every town in England should be 
 provided with stocks, and this was done. James I., in 
 1606, passed an Act that all persons convicted of 
 drunkenness should be fined five shillings and placed 
 
 for six hours in the stocks. These stocks were never 
 intended for cases of felony, but misdemeanour ; and 
 the great idea was that a prisoner so exposed should 
 be a warning to his fellows. In 1623 James I. for some 
 cause brought in a supplementary Act confirming what 
 he had done before. Not only was the captive a public 
 object, but the achings of the stocks, as we have learned
 
 Bilton. 237 
 
 from a very high authority, were dreadful. This 
 authority is no less than the Lord Chancellor Eldon, the 
 year before he was raised to the Chancellorship. He 
 was staying at Lord Dacre's seat, Hoo Park, in Hert- 
 fordshire, and on a summer afternoon he was walking in 
 a neighbouring village with a country magistrate who 
 was also on a visit to Lord Dacre. Speaking of the 
 stocks and the pillory, he said that he had often sent 
 men to the stocks, and he had often seen men in, and 
 he wondered whether they were so very unpleasant as 
 some people averred. He thought not. When his 
 friend said that he had a key in his pocket and asked 
 him if he would like to try what the effect of the stocks 
 was, and he said, after seeing that the lanes were clear, 
 that he thought he would for a short time. Now his 
 friend unfortunately was of an absent mind, and he had 
 scarcely left the Chief Justice of the Court of Common 
 Pleas when his thoughts reverted to some other subject 
 in which he was deeply interested, and he wandered up 
 to Hoo Park. Great was the shock when he was asked 
 where he had left his friend, and the fleetest servant 
 was despatched with the key to release the Chief Justice, 
 who returned to Hoo not, it is said, in the best of 
 humours ; for while he was in durance, the tale goes 
 that some market carts slowly rambled back from the 
 market, and much regret was expressed to see any one 
 so well habited in such a place. In great anger he 
 called out to them that he was the Chief Justice of 
 Common Pleas, and some of them must at once get him 
 free, even if they broke the stocks ; but what was his
 
 2 3 8 
 
 Rambles round Riigby. 
 
 horror when he heard them say that it was shocking to 
 see so very well-dressed a man in such a state ! 
 
 It is said that the tale was kept quiet until there 
 happened to be a trial for some illegal committal to the 
 stocks, and the sufferer brought an action against the 
 bench of justices. For the defence the counsel, who 
 was a ' serjeant,' claimed only farthing damages, as 
 
 the stocks were merely a slight and not always an 
 unpleasant refuge, the prisoner being surrounded often 
 by friends, and sitting in warm sunshine, etc., etc., till 
 the judge interrupted him with, ' Brother, were you ever 
 in the stocks?' 'Certainly not,' was the astonished 
 reply. ' Ah, well, I thought as much,' the judge said, 
 ' I have been.'
 
 Bilton. 239 
 
 We return now to the western side of Rugby, and 
 pass again into Warwickshire, and there are several 
 roads to Stoneleigh besides those that have been 
 alluded to. The train will take us to Birdingbury, a 
 small village on the river Learn, which is spanned by 
 a fine bridge built in 1873, as the old one had been 
 destroyed by the floods of that year.
 
 KENILWORTH 
 
 FROM Stoneleigh to Kenilworth the road is simply 
 delightful, and this part of the country is among the 
 most rustic in England. The Avon winds through 
 pleasant meadow lands, and is a real English river. 
 The Rhine I know well, and nobody would compare its 
 grand beauty with the Avon ; but as it often occurred to 
 me when you leave any well-known continental resort 
 of beauty you find little behind. The French villages are 
 not picturesque, and, with some exceptions and those 
 not many, the same may be said of the German ones. 
 The wars and wars that desolated Europe were not, it 
 is true, destructive of the grand ecclesiastical buildings 
 that were guarded by the episcopacy, who were supreme, 
 for the quarrels were between different nationalities that 
 cared little for the homesteads of the people. But in 
 England there were no invaders, and the wars were 
 civil. Indeed, it is well worthy of note that in the Wars 
 of the Roses the trade of England was little disturbed, 
 and the judges went their circuits in quiet. The castles 
 and the surroundings of the great residences of the 
 nobles had innumerable retainers, who were without 
 occupation, and lived on their rent-rolls. 
 
 Probably the bulk of these were descendants from their 
 ancestors, and they went on multiplying until, as in the
 
 Kenilworth. 241 
 
 Wars of the Roses, the result of the great congregations 
 was a contest to thin them out. In As you like It there 
 is a very suggestive line that is perhaps overlooked 
 sometimes. When Rosalind and Celia were in Ardennes 
 Forest and wondering where they could purchase some 
 food, Corin the shepherd appears, and Touchstone the 
 jester calls out to him pompously, ' Hollo, you clown ! ' 
 and Rosalind suddenly checks him with, ' Peace, fool ; 
 he is not thy kinsman.' Indeed, in old times, when the 
 feudal system was at its height, the kinsmen of the 
 nobles were often troublesome hangers-on, and this 
 might throw some little light upon the records of 
 Kenilworth. 
 
 Happily, there is a spa at Leamington that is very 
 near Kenilworth, which is said to be of great value in 
 many internal disorders, and this brings a vast number 
 of visitors, so that Kenilworth Castle is not as so many 
 other places of interest are, buried in obscurity. 
 
 Perhaps in Kenilworth Sir Walter Scott went rather 
 too far in bringing in Amy Robsart. No doubt the 
 scenes are most dramatic, and, indeed, almost the 
 essence of the work, but, as a matter of fact, the Countess 
 of Leicester met her end some two or three years before 
 the grand festivities at Kenilworth, which, so far as we 
 know or can judge, have no parallel for lavish costliness 
 in our history. But at the same time there is hardly a 
 doubt that Scott's careful examination of the old castle 
 has been the result of a painstaking search, and his 
 description is well worth recording. Sir Walter Scott 
 says that the Earl of Leicester spent 60,000 in 
 
 Q
 
 242 
 
 Rambles round R^lgby. 
 
 improving the castle, which he considers would be equal 
 to fully half a million now, but nothing is more illusive 
 than the ordinary comparisons of the value of money 
 between this time and that. In some things we are 
 much cheaper, as, for example, a journey from Liverpool 
 could be done now for as many shillings as it would have 
 cost pounds ; but in a case like building a castle, where 
 
 the labour and materials were so much at Leicester's 
 disposal, it is probable that the sum named would more 
 nearly represent a million of money of our day. 
 
 'The outer wall/ Scott says, 'of this splendid and 
 gigantic structure enclosed seven acres, a part of which 
 was occupied by extensive stables, and by a pleasure 
 garden, with its trim arbours and parterres, and the rest
 
 Kenilworth. 
 
 243 
 
 formed the large base-court or outer yard of the noble 
 Castle. The lordly structure itself, which rose near the 
 centre of this spacious enclosure, was composed of a 
 huge pile of magnificent castellated buildings, apparently 
 of different ages, surrounding an inner court, and bearing 
 in the names attached to each portion of the magnificent 
 mass, and in the armorial bearings which were there 
 
 I IjW, Jf-[J - -?< '-"., .-' i Sfig|, 'A - ' ' v r ^t t- & ^JW *>5V>; 'o 
 
 teH^fel^^si: ;M?fet:' ^SM 
 
 blazoned, the emblems of mighty chiefs who had long 
 passed away, and whose history, could ambition have 
 lent ear to it, might have read a lesson to the 
 haughty favourite, who had now acquired and was 
 augmenting the fair domain. A large and massive 
 Keep, which formed the citadel of the Castle, was of 
 uncertain though great antiquity. It bore the name of 
 Caesar, perhaps from its resemblance to that in the Tower
 
 244 Rambles round Riigby. 
 
 of London so called. Some antiquaries ascribe its 
 foundation to the time of Kenelph, from whom the 
 Castle had its name, a Saxon king of Mercia.' Since 
 Scott wrote Kenilworth, the belief in this origin to its 
 name has certainly increased. In Elizabeth's day it 
 was called Killingworth, but now it is attributed to the 
 words Kenelph and ' worth,' the Saxon for a dwelling- 
 place or house. 
 
 ' Old John of Gaunt, " time-honoured Lancaster," 
 had widely extended the Castle, erecting that noble 
 and massive pile which yet bears the name of Lan- 
 caster's Buildings ; and Leicester himself had outdone 
 the former possessors, princely and powerful as they 
 were, by erecting another immense structure, which 
 now lies crushed under its own ruins, the monument 
 of its owner's ambition. The external wall of this 
 royal Castle was, on the south and west sides, adorned 
 and defended by a lake partly artificial, across which 
 Leicester had constructed a stately bridge, that Elizabeth 
 might enter the Castle by a path hitherto untrodden, in- 
 stead of the usual entrance to the northward, over which 
 he had erected a gate-house, or barbican, which still 
 exists, and is equal in extent, and superior in architec- 
 ture, to the baronial castle of many a northern chief. 
 
 ' Beyond the lake lay an extensive chase, full of red 
 deer, fallow deer, roes, and every species of game, and 
 abounding with lofty trees, from amongst which the 
 extended front and massive towers of the Castle were 
 seen to rise in majesty and beauty. . . . The bed of 
 the lake is but a rushy swamp ; and the massive ruins
 
 Kenilworth. 245 
 
 of the Castle only serve to show what their splendour 
 once was, and to impress on the musing visitor the 
 transitory value of human possessions.' 
 
 The gate-house, which is passed on the public road, 
 is a fine massive building with four octagonal towers at 
 the corners, and the masonry is of very fine quality 
 indeed. There are two shapely gables which were 
 added in the seventeenth century, and only the angle of 
 one appears in the sketch, but probably the view from the 
 other side where they are seen is finer, and they, indeed, 
 compare well with the older parts, and the gate-house is 
 quite a roomy abode. It was converted into a residence 
 during the Parliamentary War, and was occupied by one 
 Hawkesworth who was a Parliamentary officer, and to 
 him was intrusted the demolition of the castle. Sad 
 indeed as the havoc was, which the Parliamentary party 
 inflicted on the churches and wayside crosses, which 
 included even the Eleanor Crosses, the demolition of the 
 great baronial houses that Charles brought about for 
 it was impossible that Cromwell could allow such 
 strongholds to remain for a menace was even quite as 
 regrettable. 
 
 But the record of Scott, though from its dramatic 
 picturesqueness it brings Kenilworth more prominently 
 before us than any other, is in import not to be com- 
 pared with its former history. Kenilworth was rebuilt 
 by Geoffrey de Clinton, who was Lord Chamberlain and 
 Treasurer to Henry I., but it passed afterwards to the 
 Crown. He seems, though starting from a somewhat 
 obscure position, to have been a man of great ability,
 
 246 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 and even had a judgeship, but the most important of 
 all its records is its possession by Simon de Montfort. 
 
 Pope Innocent III. had been the most exacting and 
 oppressive of Pontiffs, and his successor, Honorius, was 
 much more at variance with the English ecclesiastics 
 than is commonly supposed. When the Archbishop of 
 York was excommunicated, which, indeed, was rather a 
 high-handed measure, the people flocked round him all 
 the more, and defied the papal power over their own 
 country. Even such men as Grossteste, the most ex- 
 cellent of prelates, concurred, and the papacy had sunk 
 much by the removal to Avignon, in a charming valley 
 on the left side of the Rhone, where the popes were the 
 nominees of the Kings of France, during, indeed, the 
 Edwardian period. Simon de Montfort was an English 
 patriot, but he was of foreign extraction, and he was 
 devoted to the popular cause, though related by mar- 
 riage to the king. Kenilworth was the seat of the de 
 Montforts, and there are doubtless some of their relics 
 in architecture still remaining there ; and Simon de 
 Montfort, senior, had taken up arms against the king 
 in the popular cause, although for Edward I. he had a 
 great admiration. 
 
 On the 4th of August, 1265, Edward appeared on 
 the heights above Evesham. He had been for a time 
 in the custody of Simon de Montfort, the elder, and 
 with his soldierly skill he strongly desired to avenge 
 old days. It was at the battle of Lewes that de 
 Montfort defeated Edward and his father, Henry, and 
 made them both prisoners. This battle was a very
 
 Ken ilworth. 247 
 
 remarkable affair, and it would be impossible to go 
 into half the causes of the quarrels between the king 
 and the barons ; but Simon de Montfort was victorious, 
 and the King Henry and his son Edward were both 
 taken prisoners and strongly guarded. In the course 
 of some short time the prince escaped from his confine- 
 ment, and the battle of Evesham was the result. There 
 was a very dramatic part in this that connects Kenil- 
 worth with the day. Kenilworth had been the strong- 
 hold of the barons in their struggle with the king, and 
 after the escape of Edward, Leicester required the king 
 to proclaim him a traitor, which he did ; but Simon de 
 Montfort, the elder, sent to his son to join him at the 
 forthcoming battle of Evesham. Prince Edward met 
 the younger Simon de Montfort by Kenilworth and 
 utterly routed him and took his banners away. When 
 Simon de Montfort was in battle array at Evesham he 
 saw the banners that had been taken at Kenilworth, 
 and supposed they indicated the arrival of his son. 
 But when he saw Edward's army, he said : ' Now, God 
 have mercy on our souls, for our bodies are Prince 
 Edward's.' He and his son Henry were slain in the 
 battle ; and so the wars of the barons were ended for 
 the time at least. 
 
 One of the next features we read of in the history 
 of Kenilworth is its occupation by John of Gaunt, 
 'time-honoured Lancaster.' Gaunt made extensive 
 additions to Kenilworth, and some of them remain, 
 though in ruins, but they are very beautiful architec- 
 turally. This was only one of the great residences of
 
 248 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 Lancaster. He owned Hertford Castle, and was the 
 Lord of the Manor. This castle was built at least a 
 century before the Conquest, but hardly any trace of it 
 remains, and the present castle was built in the time of 
 Charles I. He also owned the magnificent Savoy Palace 
 on the Thames, of which we have fortunately some few 
 illustrations left. This, had it survived like the tower, 
 would probably now be the happy hunting-ground for 
 all architects who could have entered its close. Part 
 of it was standing so lately as 17 II, and perhaps even 
 later still. But some drawings are preserved of this, 
 and, unlike the castles of the period, which were frown- 
 ing strongholds externally, the walls of London pro- 
 tected it, and the builders could devote themselves to 
 architectural beauty. And this, if we will only look at 
 the churches and dwellings of the period, would show 
 that even builders and masons were born with a sense 
 of architectural beauty. I have seen a contract for a 
 church in Cheshire that is very excellent as an example 
 of architecture, and there were no plans as there would 
 be now. The builder was directed to have so many 
 bays with windows of so many lights, and everything 
 was to be in fair form. This dated at the time of 
 Richard III. Even the farm-houses and porches, and 
 everything that was built, was of such pleasing form in 
 early days that builders might have said with Ovid : 
 
 ' Et quod tentabam scribere versus erat.' 
 
 John II. of France was captured at Poitiers, though 
 he really showed something like a commander's ability,
 
 Kenilworth. 249 
 
 but the battle was actually lost by the French, who 
 numbered nearly five to one, and who were in their 
 own country. By an attack on the rear, where the 
 Dauphin was, and the danger of any member of the 
 royal house falling into the hands of an enemy at once, 
 caused the knights and officers to flee \vith him ; and 
 the Duke of Orleans, who commanded another division, 
 seeing the confusion, fancied all was lost, and fled too. 
 King John was taken prisoner, and was under the 
 charge of John of Gaunt. It is not improbable that 
 part of his captivity was spent at Kenilworth, where 
 John of Gaunt was living in great splendour. But 
 much time was passed at his residence, Savoy Palace, 
 and he received nothing but kind hospitable treatment, 
 though he never could forget that he was a captive, 
 and said to those even who wished him well, ' How can 
 I sing the Lord's song in a strange land ? ' 
 
 John of Gaunt lived, of course, in the days of Edward 
 II., one of the most feeble and useless of monarchs, 
 indeed it has often been a matter of wonder to me 
 how such an outcast could have had such a noble father 
 and such a noble son. In another way John of Gaunt 
 was connected with the surroundings of Rugby, for he 
 was a close adherent and friend of Wycliffe, who held 
 the living of Luttenvorth in Leicestershire, and whose 
 name is a text-book even now. Lutterworth Church 
 has undergone many alterations and modernisings since 
 Wycliffe was there, but much of the old building remains. 
 A pulpit is shown where he preached. It is of black 
 oak, and, though the style would suggest a somewhat
 
 250 Rambles roimd Rugby. 
 
 later period, there is no reason to suppose that at any 
 rate part of it (for it has been altered) may not have 
 been contemporaneous with the great Lollard. Their 
 dwellings were not far distant, and a close alliance was 
 formed between the Lord of Kenilworth and the incum- 
 bent of Lutterworth. 'The attack of Wycliffe began 
 precisely at the moment when the church of the Middle 
 Ages had sunk to its lowest point of spiritual decay. 
 The transfer of the Papacy to Avignon robbed it of 
 much of the awe in which it had been held, for not only 
 had the Popes sunk into creatures of the French kings, 
 but their greed and extortion produced almost universal 
 revolt. The assumption of a right to dispose of all 
 ecclesiastical benefices in ecclesiastical patronage, the 
 imposition of direct taxes on the clergy, the intrusion 
 of foreign priests into English livings and English sees 
 produced a fierce hatred and contempt of Rome which 
 never slept till the Reformation. The people scorned 
 a " French Pope " and threatened his legates with 
 stoning when they arrived. The wit of Chaucer flouted 
 the wallet of " pardons hot from Rome," and Piers the 
 ploughman and Wat Tyler were in strong sympathy 
 with the people, but not with John of Gaunt ; and the 
 reason was simply this that though he was at one with 
 them all in their antagonism to the Roman Church as 
 far as her rule of England was concerned, John of 
 Gaunt was a leader of the barons, and though indeed 
 they stood up at first fairly against undue kingly in- 
 fluence, it was quite clear that they would lord it just 
 as much themselves over the people when they had put
 
 Kenilworth . 251 
 
 down the prerogatives of the Crown and the Church. 
 Worthless as John of Gaunt seems to us, it was with 
 him that Wycliffe allied himself in the first effort he 
 made for the reform of the Church. As yet his quarrel 
 was not with its doctrine but with its practice. It was 
 on the principles of Ockham that he defended the par- 
 liament's indignant refusal of the "tribute" which was 
 claimed by the papacy, the expulsion of bishops from 
 office by the Duke of Lancaster, and the taxation of 
 Church lands. But his treatise on "the Kingdom of 
 God " (de dominio divino) shows how different his aims 
 were really from the selfish aims of the men with whom 
 he acted.' 
 
 Wycliffe was working hard with John of Gaunt, and 
 doing all he could to advance ecclesiastical reform, 
 when the insurrection of the peasants under Wat Tyler 
 broke out, and this quite crippled all the work he had 
 done. The Lancastrian party was annihilated, and the 
 dispute between the baronage and the Church was for 
 the time ended by a common danger. The friars took 
 advantage of the outbreak by taxing Wycliffe with 
 being the chief cause, and they said he was a sower of 
 strife who, by his serpent-like instigation, had set the 
 serf against his lord ; and, though Wycliffe treated such 
 words with disdain, some of his followers were not quite 
 so free from blame as he was. But, even if the peasant 
 revolt had not deprived him of much support, his doc- 
 trines were sadly against his advancement, for he had 
 begun to protest against what are termed the cardinal 
 beliefs of the Church. The doctrine of transubstantia-
 
 252 Rambles roimd Riigby. 
 
 tion was the stronghold of the Mediaeval Church, for it 
 was held that the performance of this miracle by even 
 a lowly priest placed its performer above all princes, 
 and in the year 1381 Wycliffe issued a formal denial of 
 transubstantiation. This, of course, led to the great 
 antagonism between the Lollards and the ecclesiastical 
 authorities, and commenced a severance between the 
 English people and Rome that only ended in Thomas 
 Cromwell's time when monasteries were put down. 
 Oxford declared strongly for Wycliffe, but was put 
 down by the Archbishop Courtenay, and nothing can 
 show more strongly the great power of Wycliffe than 
 the fears of Courtenay to proceed against him when he 
 was summoned to appear before the Council, and abso- 
 lutely refused, and even petitioned the king that he 
 might be allowed to prove the doctrine he had asserted. 
 He went so far as to say that tithes should go to the 
 maintenance of the poor, and the clergy be supported 
 by the free offerings of their congregations, and that 
 excommunication from Rome should not prevent any 
 man from being engaged in any civil employment or 
 make him liable as it did to imprisonment and con- 
 fiscation. He was summoned to the convocation at 
 Oxford, and quite perplexed his opponents with his 
 scholastic knowledge and argumentative powers, and 
 the result of all was his expulsion from the University 
 and his retirement to Lutterworth. He was summoned 
 to appear at Rome, but said that his failing health 
 would not permit him to do so, and in a characteristic 
 reply he told the Pope that when Christ was on earth
 
 Keniiworth. 
 
 253 
 
 He was the poorest and humblest of men and cast away 
 all worldly authority, and he recommended the Pope 
 ' as a counsel of his own ' to do the same. The energy 
 of his reply, as has been stated, was almost a mark that 
 he knew his end was near, and soon after, while hearing 
 mass in Lutterworth church, he was struck with para- 
 lysis and died the next day. The chair is still shown in 
 which he died in the year 1384. There is a narrow river 
 called the Swift that runs by Lutterworth and enters 
 
 the Avon by Brownsover not far from Rugby station 
 after passing by Cotesbach and Churchover, and forty 
 years after his death his remains were exhumed and 
 cast into the Swift near the churchyard in a spot which 
 is still pointed out.
 
 254 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 Here we are quite within one of the most Roman 
 parts of England. We have York and Chester that 
 are, it may be, more notably connected with history, 
 but the quiet life of the Roman settlers was always 
 away from fortified cities, and the finest villas are found 
 in country parts ; and it has often been thought that 
 the Romans left in country parts records and relics 
 behind them that are even now developing. Dr. 
 Temple in a fine essay speaks of ancient Rome as a 
 centre where the people had all the wisdom of age with 
 the energy of youth, and that makes their history so 
 intensely interesting to us. But it has often been 
 thought that there was a Roman element left in Eng- 
 land that is still developing. We know that when 
 Honorius left for Rome he left behind him great multi- 
 tudes of his country-men and country-women, who had 
 settled in England for life, and it may be that our skies 
 were fitted to retain the Roman type while it vanished 
 under those of Italy and all other Roman settlements. 
 One thing is certain, that if we look at any old statues 
 or busts, such as Marcus Aurelius, Julius Caesar, or 
 Vespasian, or indeed any other, we shall see the most 
 pronounced English faces, and, as has been remarked, if 
 we visit any ancient collection of statues in Italy we 
 shall almost think we are among our countrymen, and 
 those who are outside are like foreigners. 
 
 It was a century after Caesar's attack upon Britain 
 that Claudius conquered the island, and he did his work 
 thoroughly. In about thirty years he and his generals 
 had completely subdued the country, and there does
 
 Ken ilworth . 255 
 
 not seem to have been so much ruin and pillage as in 
 some other Roman conquests. Indeed, no colony 
 appears to have adapted itself more thoroughly to 
 Roman ways than Britain. The natives worked the 
 mines and helped to build the great roads that even 
 yet are among the important highways of England. 
 Watling Street was the most important, and extended 
 from Kent to Cardigan Bay, and also the Firth of Forth. 
 For a considerable distance it forms the boundary 
 between Leicestershire and Warwickshire, and enters 
 Staffordshire at Fazeley, a short way to the south 
 of Tamworth. It then runs in a very direct line 
 through Staffordshire, and enters Shropshire by Sheriff- 
 Hales, and then it runs by Wallington on to Shrewsbury, 
 and from thence it proceeded on its way to the north. 
 There are old remains of villas and towns along the 
 road, and many more lie buried under the soil, perhaps 
 only a short distance below. Just before entering 
 Shrewsbury the road passes by Wroxeter, or the ancient 
 Uriconium. Now the remains of this interesting place 
 show that it must have been an important city, and well 
 in accord with natives of Britain. Some of the relics in 
 precious metals show also that it was the seat of people 
 of wealth and refinement, and there is no doubt that a 
 not very expensive excavation would reveal many 
 details of Roman occupation, and many treasures. 
 Three Roman roads, however, would seem to have 
 crossed the country Watling Street, Ickneld Street, 
 and the Via Devana which led to Chester. There were 
 also the Roman towns of Etocetum and Pennocrucium
 
 256 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 upon the road, and though this may perhaps have been 
 rather a favourite district with the Romans, we find 
 some even more beautiful remains of Roman villas in 
 Gloucestershire and Oxford, and in many parts of the 
 counties that lie to the south of the Thames, and, 
 indeed, it is often sad to see how these have been 
 broken up most ruthlessly by either Picts, or Scots, or 
 intruders of whom we know so little. Ermine Street ran 
 from London to Lincoln, and though it is continued past 
 that city, its traces are lost. This was only a system of 
 the roads that the Romans built in England. Watling 
 Street went from Richborough to Anglesea, and there 
 are traces of it even in the sea. The Fosse was the 
 highway between Bath and Lincoln, and Ickneld Street 
 or Icneld Street went from Norwich to the capital city. 
 The four Roman roads traversed at least 1250 miles, 
 and they were engineered under every possible dis- 
 advantage, for the stone had often to be brought from 
 great distances, and the makers were compelled to em- 
 ploy the unskilled labour of the native Britons, though, 
 indeed, we may well suppose that the engineers attached 
 to their legions kept the inhabitants in the right way. 
 The present Roman road through Rutland does not, 
 indeed, exactly adhere to the lines of Ermine Street, 
 but it so nearly coincides that we may take the present 
 road for the original street. If the suggestion of Mr. 
 Laird, that the name Ermine Street is derived from the 
 Saxon word ' Herman/ a warrior, is just, this would 
 account for much ; because the Roman commanders, 
 who certainly laid out the lines of all the roads, and
 
 Ken ilworth. 257 
 
 superintended their construction, would be looked upon 
 by subsequent dwellers as the conquerors. It certainly 
 is more reasonable than the fanciful definitions and 
 derivations that have been tacked upon it. Selden 
 traces its name to ' Irmensul,' a name given by the 
 Saxons to Mercury, who, according to some interpreta- 
 tions of Roman mythology, presided over highways in 
 some perfunctory manner. And some other authorities 
 have agreed in deriving the name from ' Armyinth,' a 
 British word, because it crosses mountains and pathless 
 places, and indeed, if we followed such shadowy logic, 
 almost anything might be made out of anything. There 
 are plenty of traces of this grand road, and Roman remains 
 have been found. Some parts of its ancient construction 
 about Casterton and Tickencote are well worthy of 
 study. The Roman roads differed entirely from ours 
 in their construction, and in almost every particular. 
 The highways of Macadam which traverse our counties 
 were suggested to that almost untaught genius by the 
 following considerations : He found that if cinders and 
 shale and stone-clippings were thrown over any road 
 across a piece of marsh land, they gradually formed 
 a hard bed, if only this bed were kept dry, so that, 
 without a solid foundation like the Romans built all 
 through England, a lasting road could be formed. 
 
 There are along the Roman roads many ancient 
 towns that were built in the Danish and Saxon 
 times, and some few places may be mentioned, in con- 
 clusion, that are within reach of the great highway. 
 The Roman Fosse crosses the river Avon at Bretford, 
 
 R
 
 258 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 which is a joint hamlet with Brandon. It is a small 
 village, and is interesting as having been once held by 
 the celebrated Geoffrey de Clinton, whose son in the 
 time of Henry II. founded a cell for black nuns there. 
 The joint hamlet of Brandon is of great beauty, and 
 the illustration shows one of our most beautiful country 
 villages. There are good residences in it and round it, 
 and it does almost seem as if it were the model home, 
 
 where any one would willingly end 'life's fitful fever.' 
 Almost joining Brandon is the charming village of 
 Wolston. It is approached by a long bridge across the 
 Avon, and is exceedingly picturesque. Rods and lines 
 are generally seen over the bridge, and the Avon is 
 a halting-place there for perch, and roach, and dace, 
 but they say that trout have for long ceased to make 
 it their rendezvous. The church is very interesting, and 
 has a valuable amount of Norman work ; though there 
 are later examples of architecture in it, some of which
 
 Kenilworth. 
 
 259 
 
 date from the years of the dissolution of monasteries. 
 There was an alien priory here, of which some part 
 still remains. 
 
 The view of the church from the south-east, which 
 is here given, shows a regular cruciform structure, 
 and the chancel window belongs to the fourteenth 
 century. In the reign of Henry I. the manor and 
 
 lordship of Wolston belonged to Roger de Fredvill, 
 and he generously divided his lands among the monks 
 of Burton and Kenilworth, Alcester and Coombe. The 
 manor soon after came into possession of the Turvilles. 
 Sir Richard Bagot afterwards, in the time of Richard 
 II., possessed it, and his daughters afterwards passed it 
 over to the canons of Kenilworth, but without a licence;
 
 260 
 
 Rambles round 
 
 and then it was seized by the king, Henry VI., from 
 whom it came among others to the members of the 
 Throckmorton family, a name that so often appears in 
 Cowper's letters. 
 
 From Wolston and Brinklow the Roman Fosse 
 proceeds to Leicestershire, and enters that county by 
 the High Cross, near Wibtoft and Copston. This 
 latter was given by Geoffrey de Wrice in the twelfth 
 
 year of William I. (1077-78) to the monastery of St. 
 Nicholas at Angers, and after the dissolution of 
 monasteries it was granted to Charles Brandon, Duke 
 of Suffolk, from whose family it afterwards came by 
 purchase to Basil, Lord Feilding, who was afterwards 
 the Earl of Denbigh. 
 
 Claybrooke is a large parish that comprehends an
 
 Kenilworth. 
 
 261 
 
 area of some four miles in length, by nearly two and a 
 half in breadth, and is estimated to contain 4000 acres 
 of land. The parish is divided into two villages, which 
 are named in various ways. The church stands in 
 Upper Claybrooke, and is on the great highway that 
 separates Lutterworth from Hinckley. There is in Clay- 
 brooke Lane a piece of quickset hedge that betokens 
 
 one side of the Fosse. The church, which may be ap- 
 proached from the high road between Hinckley and 
 Lutterworth, or else there is a much more pleasant 
 route across the fields from Rugby, is a fine example 
 of the best fourteenth century style, but its inside has 
 been obliterated by what is called restoration, and flimsy 
 chairs take the place of the fine old oak pews, and this
 
 262 
 
 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 is only another weary example of the demolition of the 
 fine old parish churches of England. The distance to 
 High Cross is not considerable, and at a short distance 
 to the west side is a tumulus called Cloudsley Bush, 
 about which Dugdale offers some suggestions and con- 
 jectures, but nothing really explanatory has come to 
 light. From this high elevation, it is said, and perhaps, 
 indeed, truly said, that with the aid of a spy-glass no 
 
 less than fifty-seven churches can be seen. Macaulay 
 wrote a history of Claybrooke at the beginning of this 
 century, and he gives a just account of how we have 
 neglected to see the old roysterings in their right form. 
 The wakes at Claybrooke were met by farmers and 
 cottagers with great hilarity, and these were almost a 
 scene of dissipation at times, but the worst of all was
 
 Kenilworth. 
 
 26 
 
 the attendance from the Leicester towns, where working 
 was carried on, and even in the villages, for there was 
 always a week of idleness and dissipation. Claybrooke 
 is situated between one and two miles from Ullesthorpe 
 station, and the country all round it is of great interest. 
 Great was my surprise to see a bittern, a bird of great 
 scarcity for a number of years, rise up from a pond, 
 and fortunately there was no double-barrelled gun 
 
 about to end its days ' after its life of hazard.' The 
 rustic scenes that are here shown will give a fair idea 
 of the character of the country. 
 
 The Rambles round Rugby have embraced a wider 
 area than was at first proposed, but then the places are so 
 accessible by railways that it must be held as an excuse.
 
 264 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 If, for example, though without going very far from 
 Rugby, a trip should be taken to the neighbourhood of 
 Coombe Abbey, or the beautiful neighbourhood that lies 
 between that and Coventry, the distance would be easily 
 met by the choice of two lines to return by ; there is 
 Shilton or Bulkington on the London and North- Western 
 line, and Brandon and Wolston on a branch of the same 
 that lies towards the south, and this also applies to the 
 routes in Northampton and Leicestershire. So that it 
 may be fairly said a long walk will generally bring a 
 pedestrian within reach of two lines, and if one does 
 not suit his time there is a chance that the other may. 
 The country round Rugby is exceedingly healthy, 
 raised high above the sea, and having an extensive 
 water-shed ; it stands very high indeed among the 
 healthful parts of our island. The climate of Warwick- 
 shire is mild, and the winds that generally prevail are 
 from the south-west, and this brings a fair amount of 
 rain. Towards the middle of May there are often 
 easterly winds, but the climate does not, as a rule, suffer 
 much from the effects of wet or cold weather. Barley 
 would seem to be the grain which is most commonly 
 grown ; but there are good crops of wheat, and many 
 other crops of value. Where the country approaches 
 Leicestershire the permanent grazing lands are more 
 extensive, and in this county we may see the hills 
 pleasantly dotted over with the celebrated cattle and 
 sheep for which it is so famous everywhere. Watling 
 Street, for nearly thirty miles, forms the boundary be- 
 tween Leicester and Warwick, and the three counties
 
 Ken ilwortk. 265 
 
 join near Dunsland, which lies a short distance to the 
 east of Rugby. 
 
 Fuller in his Worthies says : ' It bordereth on more 
 counties than any other in England, being more in 
 number. It is as fruitful and populous as any in 
 England, insomuch that sixteen several towns with 
 their churches, have at one view been discovered 
 therein by my eyes (other men have discovered two- 
 and-thirty), which I confess none of the best ; and God 
 grant that those who are sharper-sighted may hereafter 
 never see fewer. Sure I am that there is as little waste 
 ground in this as in any county in England, no mosses, 
 mears, fells, heaths, which elsewhere fill so many shires 
 with emptiness.' 
 
 Fuller's description of Northampton is even truer 
 now than it was when he wrote it. There are in the 
 county something like 630,000 statute acres, and nearly 
 600,000 are arable and pasture. Fuller is quite correct 
 in saying that Northampton touches nine counties, and 
 this exceeds any other English record, though Cam- 
 bridge joins eight The Oolite sandstone that occupies 
 so large a space in this district is very interesting, as 
 it contains the most interesting and remarkable of all 
 fossil relics. But in every direction the country round 
 Rugby is full of interest and beauty, and indeed one or 
 two works might be written in addition to this, that 
 would show up new scenes and landscapes of beauty, 
 with ever so many records of interest. Perhaps, indeed, 
 it would hardly be an exaggeration if we said that for 
 any persons who desired to see England as it was, and
 
 266 Rambles round Rugby. 
 
 greatly such a party is increasing, more even in America 
 than here, for even travelling carriages are now some- 
 times sent over to England to see the land. If a centre 
 was desired for the Midland Counties, Rugby would 
 stand very high indeed.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ABBEY commissioners for dissolu- 
 tion, 147. 
 
 Abbey rent-rolls, 130. 
 
 Addison, 221-227, 229. 
 
 Allingham, Sir Richard Giles, 86. 
 
 Amy Robsart, 112, 241. 
 
 Anthony Foster, 112. 
 
 Architectural styles (Rickman), 124. 
 
 Ashby St. Leger, 38, 42, 56. 
 
 Ashby de la Zouche, 85. 
 
 Ashby de la Zouche canal, 140. 
 
 Avon River, I, 95, 119, 120, 132, 
 137, 138, 154, 258. 
 
 BAGINTON, 133. 
 Barnack stone, 212. 
 Bilton, 221. 
 
 Hall, 222. 
 
 Church, 231. 
 
 ,, Grange, 230. 
 Blisworth Station, 32. 
 Blue Boar Inn, Leicester, 66. 
 Bolingbroke, 95, 97. 
 Bordesley Abbey, 1 19. 
 Bosworth, Battle of, 65, 67. 
 Boughton, Sir Theodosius poisoned, 
 
 138- 
 
 Brackenbury, Sir Robert, 69. 
 Braunston Cleves, 64. 
 Brinklow, 140, 141. 
 
 to Rugby, 142. 
 Britain, Conquest of, by the Romans, 
 
 254- 
 
 Brownsover, 12, 13. 
 Bullet Hill, 76. 
 Burleigh Park, 205. 
 
 CALDICOTT family, 188. 
 Canock, Staffordshire, 117, 118. 
 Catesby, 40, 46, 47. 
 
 ,, Lady, 46. 
 Catherine of Arragon, 43. 
 Cavaliers, their Tyranny, 166. 
 Cave family, 157. 
 Cedar of Lebanon at Ashby St. 
 
 Legers, 56. 
 Coombe Abbey, 89, 142-146. 
 
 ,, dissolution (Dugdale), 146. 
 Coventry, 89. 
 
 ,, Cross, 98. 
 
 Spires, 95, 134. 
 
 St Mary's Hall, 92, 99. 
 
 ,, St. Michael's Church, 92, 
 100. 
 
 Holy Trinity, 102. 
 
 ,, Parliaments at, 104. 
 
 ,, ,, Indoctorum, 104. 
 
 ,, Diabolicum, 105. 
 
 ,, Walls wrecked by Charles 
 after restoration, 91, 92. 
 Crick, 38, 61, 63. 
 Cubbington, 114. 
 Cumnor Church, 1 12. 
 
 DASSETT HILLS, 77. 
 Digby, Sir Everard, 48, 59. 
 ,, Kenelm, 48.
 
 268 
 
 Index. 
 
 unchurch, 233. 
 
 ,, Church, 235. 
 
 ,, Stocks, 236. 
 
 Dunsmore Heath, 4. 
 
 EDGEHILL, Battle of, 72, 74, 79, 80. 
 
 Edgecott House, 75. 
 
 Elizabethan Architecture, 211. 
 
 Elizabeth, Princess, Lord Harring- 
 ton's maid, 144. 
 
 Elizabeth's letter to the Bishop of 
 Ely, 218. 
 
 Ellesmere, Lord Chancellor, 117. 
 
 Erasmus, 131. 
 
 FLORE'S HOUSE, 202, 203. 
 Fosse way (Roman), I, 257, 260. 
 Fotheringhay Castle, 100. 
 Fuller's description of Northampton, 
 265. 
 
 GAUNT, JOHN of, 247. 
 
 Gloucester Cathedral, 106. 
 
 Gosford Green, Meeting of Boling- 
 
 broke and Mowbray at, 94 ; the 
 
 combatants banished by Richard 
 
 II., 98. 
 
 Great Bowden, 175. 
 Green on Edgehill, 79. 
 Greathead, Samuel, 121. 
 Greek Architecture, 126, 127. 
 Grey Friars' Hospital, 103. 
 Grossteste, Bishop, 193. 
 Gunpowder Plot : Collapse, Capture, 
 
 and Execution of conspirators, 52- 
 
 56. 
 
 Guy Fawkes, 46, 48. 
 Guy's Well and Cliff, 120. 
 
 HEAD-MASTER'S HOUSE, Rugby, 26. 
 Hoggins, father of Countess Burleigh, 
 
 209. 
 Hoggins, Tennyson's Poem, 210. 
 
 Holdenby (Holmby), 164, 168-172. 
 Hood, Vicount, 134. 
 Hoxton, 49. 
 
 IRONSIDES, 82. 
 
 KENILWORTH, 114, 240-245, 247. 
 
 Keyes of Lambeth, 47. 
 
 Kilsby, 38. 
 
 Kineton, 75. 
 
 'King Charles Tower,' Chester, 81. 
 
 Kirby, Old Hall, 173. 
 
 Knevett, Sir Thomas, 51. 
 
 LANGDALE, SIR MARMADUKE, 84, 
 
 85- 
 
 Lawrence, Sheriff, 15. 
 Leamington, 241. 
 Leicestershire, Agriculture in, 152. 
 
 ,, Cattle and Sheep, 152, 264. 
 
 ,, Geology, 150. 
 
 ,, Roads, 150. 
 
 Leicester's Hospital, Warwick, 108. 
 Leigh, Sir Thomas, 46. 
 Leigh Family, 116. 
 Lindsey, Lord, 77. 
 Lollards, 252. 
 Lubbenham, 164. 
 Lutter worth Church, 249. 
 Lyddington, 193. 
 Lyddington Manor, 195. 
 
 MANTON CHURCH, 196. 
 
 Mill, 198. 
 Market Harboro', 148, 175. 
 
 ,, Roman remains, 178. 
 
 ,, School, 177. 
 
 ,, Church to Dionysius 
 
 the Areopagite, 179. 
 Marston Trussel Church, 87. 
 Maurice, Prince, 84. 
 Mickle's Ballad of Amy Robsart, 113.
 
 Index. 
 
 269 
 
 Minster Lcwell, 40. 
 Monteagle, 49. 
 Montrose, Marquis of, 81. 
 More, Sir Thomas, 45. 
 
 NASEBY CHURCH, 85. 
 Naseby Woolleys, 86. 
 New Bilton, 7. 
 Newbold-on-Avon, 137. 
 Newnham Regis, 138. 
 North Kihvorth, 158. 
 Northampton, Earl of, 84. 
 Nottingham, Charles I. Standard at, 
 73- 
 
 OAKHAM, 198, 199. 
 
 ,, Hospital of St. John, 205. 
 Oakley Hall, 181. 
 Old Quadrangle, Rugby, 28. 
 Oneley Charity, 138. 
 Oxford Canal, 140. 
 
 PERCY, 46. 
 
 Piers Gaveston, 184. 
 
 Pipewell Abbey, 22, 178, 234. 
 
 Plantagenet, rise of House, 71. 
 
 Post and Petrel, or black and white 
 
 work, in. 
 Preston Church, 230. 
 
 RADWAY, 75, 76. 
 Ratcliffes, the, 40. 
 Richard III., 65, 66. 
 Rockingham, 180, 182. 
 
 ,, Castle, 183, 184. 
 
 ,, Church, 187. 
 
 Roman remains, 255-257. 
 Rupert, Prince, 74, 82. 
 Rugby Church, 6. 
 
 ,, Chapel, 37. 
 
 ,, Masters, 16, 20, 25. 
 
 ,, School, 9. 
 
 ,, Village, 10. 
 
 SENHOUSE, family of, 53-60. 
 
 ,, Humphrey, founder of 
 Maryport, 59. 
 Shelly, R. 45. 
 
 Siddons, Mrs., portrait of, 122. 
 Simon de Montfort, 247. 
 South Kil worth, 158. 
 Snelstone Ruins, 194. 
 Spencer of Althorpe, 74. 
 Spon Tower Magazine, 134. 
 Stamford, 206. 
 
 ,, Bridge, 207. 
 
 ,, Churches, 208. 
 Stanford Church, 155. 
 
 Hall, 158. 
 
 Stanley at Bosworth, 68. 
 Stivichall, oak trees and history, 
 
 135. 136. 
 
 Stoneleigh Abbey, 114, 116. 
 ,, Abbots, 123. 
 ,, Church, 132. 
 ,, Foundation of, 119. 
 ,,' Mausoleum, 132. 
 .,, Village, 132. 
 
 TEMPLE, Dr., 34. 
 Tichbourne, 45. 
 Thedding worth, 162, 163. 
 Thorpe, Sir John, 219. 
 Tresham, 49. 
 Tripontium, 154. 
 Tulip Tree, Ashby, 56. 
 Turville Family, 162. 
 
 ULLESTHORPE, 262, 263. 
 Uppingham, 189. 
 
 Uxbridge, Meeting of Charles and 
 Parliament, 8l. 
 
 WAPENBURY, 114. 
 Warwick, 106. 
 
 Castle, 80. 
 
 ,, St. Mary's Church, no.
 
 270 
 
 Warwickshire Scenery, 2. 
 Watford Court, 63. 
 Watling Street, I, 264. 
 Watson of Rockingham, 185. 
 Wat Tyler, 251. 
 Welford Church, 164. 
 Weston by Welland, 176. 
 Whitley Abbey, 134. 
 Wigston Magna, 85. 
 
 Index. 
 
 Wing Village, 196. 
 Winter of Huddington, 46. 
 Wolsey, 43. 
 Wolston, 89, 259. 
 
 ,, Church, 260. 
 Wright, John, 47. 
 Wycliffe, John, 250. 
 
 YOUNG, ENSIGN, 78 
 
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 at the Edinburgh University Press.

 
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