Part 9

In the valuable collection of pictures in Warwick Castle are a curious portrait of Queen Elizabeth, painted very early in her reign; portrait of Sir Philip Sydney, the intimate friend of Fulke Greville; Charles I. on horseback, probably a copy made by Vandyke from that at Blenheim; and the colossal picture of Charles I. copied from the original in the Vandyke Room at Windsor, a duplicate of which is to be seen at Hampton Court. At Warwick, too, is Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII. noted for the exquisite finish of its details. The collection of ancient and modern armour is very valuable. The great hall of the castle, in its appearance and furniture, retains much of its ancient character. Externally, the form of the building has sustained little alteration; its site is a solid rock, in which the cellars are excavated. Cæsar's Tower is the most ancient; Guy's Tower, of Decorated English character, is la fine preservation. In one of the greenhouses is the celebrated ancient marble vase brought to England by the Earl of Warwick, to whom it had been given by Sir William Hamilton; it is known as the _Warwick Vase_, and has been copied in various materials.

As you look from the castle windows upon the soft-flowing Avon, with its gentle ripple in your ears, the effect is fascinating, and you are almost carried back to the age of fays and fairies. Henry V. visited Guy's Cliff; and Shakspeare is supposed to have made it a favourite retirement.

Warwick has its apocryphal antiquities, more especially Guy's curiosities. The story of this famous fellow is said to have been taken from the exploits of Earl Leofric, husband of Lady Godiva; though the legendary Guy is derived by some from a French romance of the twelfth or thirteenth century. Guy, or a prototype, was reputed to be a living personage, and his sword and coat of mail formed the subject of a bequest in 1369. In the reign of Henry VIII. a pension was granted for the preservation of Guy's porridge-pot; but the conflict with the dun cow is not mentioned until in a seventeenth century play, though Dr. Caius, about 1552, saw a bone of a bonassus (cow) at Warwick Castle kept with the arms of Guy. In 1636 the rib of the dun cow was exhibited at Warwick. Guy's armour is a medley: a bassinet of Edward III.; breast-plate, fifteenth and seventeenth century; sword, Henry VIII.; staff, an ancient tilting-lance, very curious; the horse-armour, and "Fair Phillis' slippers" (strap-irons), are fifteenth century. In conclusion, "the renowned Guy" is considered to be a myth.

The first historical Earl of Warwick was so created by the Conqueror. The history of the castle has some strange episodes. In 1468, Edward IV. marching towards Warwick, was met by an embassy from the Earl of Warwick to treat for peace; which the king, too credulously listening to, rested in his camp at Wolvey; but the Earl surprised him by night in his bed, and took him prisoner to his castle at Warwick. In the Civil War, 1642, Warwick Castle, garrisoned for the Parliament, was besieged; and, after the battle of Edge Hill, when Charles left Birmingham, the inhabitants seized the carriages containing the loyal plato, and conveyed them to Warwick Castle. Then Warwick and Kenilworth were in deadly hate: in 1230 (47th Hen. III.), Maudit, Earl of Warwick, and his Countess, were surprised in Warwick Castle, by a party of rebels from Kenilworth Castle, when the walls were thrown down lest the royalists should use them again; and the Earl and Countess were carried prisoners to Kenilworth Castle.

Kenilworth, five miles from Warwick and Coventry, respectively, had a castle which was demolished in the war of Edmund Ironside and Canute the Dane, early in the eleventh century. In the reign of Henry I. the manor was bestowed by the king on Geoffrey de Clinton, who built a strong castle, and founded a monastery. The castle keep is attributed to the reign of King John; the outer wall to the time of Henry III. The castle was one of the strongholds of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, in his insurrection against Henry III. and afforded shelter to his son, and others of his adherents, after the fatal battle of Evesham, in 1265; next year, however, it capitulated, after a gallant defence. A tournament of 100 knights was held here in 1278, the Earl of March principal challenger of the tilt-yard: of the ladies, who were splendidly attired, it is recorded, that they wore "silken mantles." The east range of buildings is referred to the middle of the reign of Edward II. who was confined in the castle, shortly before his murder in Berkeley Castle, in 1327. In the following reign, John of Gaunt became owner of the castle, which he much augmented by new and magnificent buildings. Henry IV. son of John of Gaunt, united the castle, which he inherited, to the domains of the Crown, of which it formed a part until the time of Elizabeth, who granted it to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who erected "Leicester's Buildings." The magnificent entertainments given here by Leicester to Elizabeth are minutely described by Laneham, an attendant on the court, in a tract, entitled _The Princely Pleasures of Kenilworth_. On her way thither, the Queen was entertained by Leicester under a splendid tent at Long Itchington. Kenilworth has been made familiar to the general reader by Sir Walter Scott's picturesque romance, which has sent thousands to pic-nic among the castle ruins: it was dismantled after the Civil War of Charles I.

Kenilworth ruins remind one of a _puzzle_, a few of the pieces of which have been lost, but are so few as to be readily supplied. The ruins are principally Late Perpendicular, but there are some Norman portions. Cæar's Tower, of which three sides remain, has walls sixteen feet thick. John of Gaunt's large and massive additions are in decay; and the Leicester Buildings, though comparatively modern, present, from the friable nature of the stone, an appearance of great antiquity: they contain the remains of the noble banqueting-hall. The gate-house, also Leicester's, is better preserved, and has in our time been occupied as a farm-house. The ruins are, in many parts, mantled with ivy, which adds to their picturesqueness; and being on an elevated, rocky site, they command extensive views of the country round:

"Grey memory of centuries past, Proud Kenilworth! How dear The charm that mellowing time hath cast Over thy portals drear. Thy battlements are crumbling now, And ivy decks thy faded brow.

"Green grows the moss, where banners told Ambitions Leicester's hour of pride; Years their all-changing course have roll'd-- All tenantless the chambers wide. Bank weeds upon the portals grow; Noble and knight, where are ye now?"

Traditional tales of the festive joys of Kenilworth linger on the spot; and among other things, it is told that the great clock was stopped during Elizabeth's stay at the castle, as if Time had stood still, waiting on the Queen, and seeing her subjects enjoying themselves!

Arundel Castle, the last baronial home we have to describe, is a seat of great historic interest, derived from the long list of warriors and statesmen, whose names are identified with the place; and whose deeds, during the lapse of eight centuries, have shed lustre on our national history:

"Since William rose, and Harold fell, There have been Counts of Arundel; And earls old Arundel shall have While rivers flow and forests wave."

The castle stands on the river Arun in Sussex, at a short distance from the sea, which is once supposed to have washed the castle-walls, as anchors and other implements have been found near it. The castle is mentioned as early as the time of King Alfred, who bequeathed it to his nephew Adhelm. After the Norman Conquest, it was given by William to his kinsman, Roger de Montgomeri, created Earl of Arundel and Shrewsbury. Robert, one of the successors of this Earl, supported Robert, Duke of Normandy, the eldest son of William I. against Henry, the youngest son of the Conqueror. Afterwards the castle passed into the family of Albini; and at last, by the marriage of that race with Thomas, Duke of Norfolk (in the reign of Elizabeth), into the family of the Howards. It gives to its possessor (now the Duke of Norfolk) the title of Earl of Arundel, and is an instance of a peerage attached to the tenure of a house, which is now an anomaly. In 11th Henry VI. it was decided that the tenure of the castle of Arundel alone, without any creation, patent, or investiture, constituted its possessor Earl of Arundel. Sir Bernard Burke, however, considers this fact to admit of doubt. (See _Visitation of Seats and Arms_, vol. i. p. 89.) For a place of defence, the castle must have been well calculated, standing, as it does, at the extreme point of an eminence which terminates one of the high and narrow ridges of the South Downs; and in the two immense fosses which still remain, we have evident tokens of the ancient mode of fortification. The entrance gateway, anciently defended by a drawbridge and a portcullis, was built by Richard Fitzalan, in the reign of Edward I. This, with some of the walls and the keep, is all that remains of the ancient castle.

The keep is a circular stone tower, sixty-eight feet in diameter, and the most perfect in England. In the middle of it is a dungeon, a vault about ten feet high, accessible by a flight of steps, and thought to have served as a storehouse for the garrison. The keep has long been tenanted by some owls of large size and beautiful plumage, sent over from America as a present to the then Duke of Norfolk. The barbican was named Bevis's Tower from this legendary story. A giant named Bevis officiated here as warder, in payment for which the Earl of Arundel built this tower for his reception, allowing him two hogsheads of beer every week, a whole ox, and a proportionate quantity of bread and mustard. So huge was the giant, that he could, without inconvenience, wade the channel of the sea to the Isle of Wight, and frequently did so for his amusement. So, great as that wonder may be, a greater marvel is, how he ever got into his tower, which, upon ordinary calculations, must have been totally inadequate to contain him.

Among the Norman remains is an extensive vault, now used as a cellar, about fifteen feet in height. That it was anciently used as a dungeon is undoubted; and in it were confined not only military captives, but every civil delinquent within the privileges of the honour. This was a considerable source of profit to the Earls, and was, therefore, sturdily maintained by them as a vested right. The ancient hall, with its appendant buildings, was in the style of the reign of Edward III. The north-east wing was last erected. Such was the building as it stood at the commencement of the seventeenth century, inclosing five acres and a half, and resembling in ground-plan Windsor Castle.

Arundel Castle was almost battered to pieces in the Civil War: the hall and other living apartments were rendered untenantable, and the place was abandoned by its noble owner, till about the year 1720, from which period until 1801 only partial restorations were carried out. Then was built the magnificent library for 10,000 volumes, in imitation of the aisle of a Gothic cathedral; with ornamentation from Gloucester Cathedral, and St. George's, Windsor: the ceiling, columns, &c. are of mahogany. In 1806 was begun the Barons' Hall: the roof is of Spanish chestnut, designed from Westminster, Eltham, and Crosby Halls; and it has a large stained end window, of King John signing Magna Charta,[30] and thirteen windows painted with baronial and family portraits; and in the drawing-room is a stained glass window, by Eginton, representing the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk as King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba at a banquet! The renovation of the castle cost Charles Howard, the eleventh Duke of Norfolk, the large sum of 600,000_l_. Upon the completion of the work in June, 1815, he gave a magnificent fête, which accelerated his death in December following. The appointments of the castle are very superb. The Duke of Norfolk received here, in 1846, a state visit from Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

The park is extensive and finely wooded, and has much picturesque scenery. Vineyards formerly abounded in this country; so that, in 1763, there were sixty pipes of excellent wine resembling Burgundy, in the cellar of the castle, the produce of one vineyard attached to it. The river Arun, on which the town of Arundel stands, is famous for the grey mullets which, in summer, come up here in large shoals, in quest of a particular weed, the feeding on which renders them a great delicacy.

Among the events in the castle history was the reception of the Empress Maud, in 1139, at Arundel Castle, by Adeliza, a relict of Henry I. King Stephen, apprised of her movements, appeared suddenly before the castle, with a well-appointed army. The Queen Dowager sent him this spirited message:--"She had received the Empress as her friend, not as his enemy; she had no intention of interfering in their quarrels," and therefore begged the King to allow her royal guest to quit Arundel, and try her fortune in some other part of England. "But," added she, "if you are determined to besiege her here, I will endure the last extremity of war rather than give her up, or suffer the laws of hospitality to be violated." The Queen's request was granted, and the Empress retired to Bristol.

To conclude. No place in England deserves more notice than the Castle of Arundel--a grand pile of buildings, modern for the most part, and not capable of supporting criticism; but the ivy-grown keep, at least as old as the days of Henry I., may challenge comparison with any of the same date in this country. The castle has not withstood sieges as others have; it is but too well known for its surrender to Sir William Waller, who took from it seventeen colours of foot, two of horse, and a thousand prisoners. Nor is it associated with any decisive battles or events; but no residence presents us with such a picture of feudal times; no other baronial home has sent forth thirteen dukes and thirty-five earls. What house has been so connected with our political and religious annals as that of Howard? The premiers in the roll-call of our nobility, have been also among the most persecuted and ill-fated. Not to dwell on the high-spirited Isabelle, Countess Dowager of Arundel, and widow of Hugh, last Earl of the Albini family, who upbraided Henry III. to his face with "vexing the church, oppressing the barons, and denying all his true-born subjects their rights;" or Richard, Earl of Arundel, who was executed for conspiring to seize Richard II.--we must think with indignation of the sufferings inflicted by Elizabeth on Philip, Earl of Arundel, son of "the great" Duke of Norfolk, beheaded by Elizabeth in 1572 for his dealings with Mary, Queen of Scots. In the biography of Earl Philip, which, with that of Ann Dacres, his wife, was well edited by the late lamented Duke, we find that he was caressed by Elizabeth in early life, and steeped in the pleasures and vices of her court by her encouragement, to the neglect of his constant wife, whose virtues, as soon as they reclaimed him to his duty to her, rendered him hated and suspected by the Queen, so that she made him the subject of vindictive and incessant persecution, till death released him at the age of thirty-eight. To another Howard, Thomas, son of Earl Philip, the country is indebted for those treasures of the East, the Arundel Marbles; though Lord Clarendon describes him somewhat ill-naturedly, denying him all claims to learning, and even gravity of character.

The sight of the embattled towers of Arundel conjures up before us many historic personages, whom in fancy we can see emerging from their venerable gateways, in all the pride of youth and ancestry, whose mouldered ashes now repose under those grey walls. And there too now lies, alas! added to the number, the late kind-hearted and amiable Duke, snatched away, like so many of his forefathers, in the very prime of manhood.[31]

FOOTNOTES:

[21] Southey's _Naval History of England_, vol. i. p. 121.

[22] From Poundbury may be seen Woolverton House, formerly the seat of the Trenchard family, and in it the fortunes of the House of Russell, humanly speaking, began to rise in the ascendant. When the Archduke of Spain was obliged to land at Weymouth, he was brought to the Sheriff of Dorset, and lived at Woolverton House. The Sheriff, not being able to speak in any language but "Dorset," found it difficult to converse with the Archduke, and bethought him of a young kinsman, named Russell, who had been a factor in Spain, and sent for him. The young man made himself so agreeable to the Archduke that he brought him to London, where the King took a fancy to him, and in time he became Duke of Bedford, and was the founder of the House of Russell.

[23] The Roman bricks in the remains of a villa found at Stonesfield, near Woodstock, were fresh and sound.

[24] The uses of these openings are, however, much controverted by antiquarian writers:--"With regard to the holes made in the archways of the gates as found both at Windsor and the Tower of London, the most probable theory of their use is that they were formed, not as is generally supposed, for the purpose of throwing down burning sand and other corroding substances on the assailants of the castle, but to pour down water on any fires which the enemy might make with faggots or other materials before the gate and portcullis."--_J. H. Parker_, F.S.A.

[25] _A Visitation of Seats and Arms._ By John Bernard Burke, Esq. Vol. i. p. 64.

[26] _Quarterly Review._

[27] Charles Knight; _Penny Cyclopædia, sub_ Windsor Castle.

[28] Surrey's _Poems_.

[29] _History of Bremhill._

[30] This window is by Buckler, after a design of Lonsdale; in it are portraits of Charles, Duke of Norfolk, as Baron Fitz-Walter; Captain Morris, as Master of the Knights Templar; Henry Howard, jun. as the Baron's Page; and H. C. Combe, Esq. as Lord Mayor of London.

[31] _Quarterly Review_, July, 1862. The twelfth Duke died in 1842, the thirteenth in 1856, and the fourteenth in 1860. The present Duke, the fifteenth, succeeded at the age of thirteen.

III. Household Antiquities.

THE OLD ENGLISH HOUSE.

Hitherto we have but glanced at the earlier periods of what may be termed Domestic Life in England. We have attempted to trace our British ancestors in their "woods and caves, and painted skins;" in their rude state, before the Roman colonization; in their advancement under that enlightened sway; and their decadence after their conquerors had left them. To these periods have succeeded the ages of Castle-building, when edifices were built for purposes of defence. In lawless times, might lorded it over right, and stronger places of abode than we regard a _house_ were necessary for the security and protection of the inhabitants. Throughout these periods we have few evidences, from their dwellings, of how the _people_ lived: from the earth caverns of the Early Britons to the Roman civilization is a dreary picture of rude accommodation; and though the excavation of ancient sites, and the operation of the plough, may bring to light many a splendid pavement and appliances, which denote luxurious life,--these are the remains of the embellished villas of the wealthy Roman, and not of the abodes of the conquered Briton. The Saxons lived so meanly, that it were vain to expect to find many traces of their dwellings; and of the Danes there are still fewer remains. With these exceptions we have, before the Conquest, no actually existing witnesses.

With the Norman period our series of evidences begins. For some time after the Conquest, strictly domestic remains are very scanty. The great men lived in castles, which are, indeed, domestic so far as men lived in them, but whose architecture is too much affected by military considerations to be called strictly domestic architecture, which is the building of _houses_, whose defence is either not thought of or is something quite secondary. It is clear that houses of this sort, of such pretensions as to possess any architectural character, or to be preserved down to our time, could not well exist, in the open country at least, till the land had become comparatively settled and civilized. Hence, our list of Norman houses in England is very scanty, and they are chiefly formed in walled towers, like Lincoln and Bury St. Edmund's. [The erection of Lincoln Castle by order of William the Conqueror, in 1086, is said to have caused the demolition of 240 houses. Perhaps the only perfect and untouched Norman example is the small unroofed house at Christ Church, in Hampshire. The church is Norman, and the tower is supposed to be of Roman origin.]

Several of the fragments elsewhere have very fine Norman detail; but for Norman architecture exhibiting anything like the real grandeur of the style, we must look to the castles and monasteries. In the thirteenth century our examples are still but few and small, though much more numerous than before. After the age of Edward III. the castle became more like a mansion, as we have seen in the castles of Windsor, Warwick, and Kenilworth.

As the character of the times became more peaceful, and law succeeded to the reign of the strong hand, a still further change took place in the construction of these dwellings, and they partook but slightly of the castellated character. Beauty and ornament were consulted by the builders instead of strength; and the convenient accommodation of the in-dwellers, in lieu of the means of disposing of a crowded garrison, and its necessary provision in time of siege. They usually retained the moat and battlemented gateway, and one or two strong turrets, to build which a royal licence was necessary. Thus, the idea of the English manor-house seems to have disengaged itself from that of the castle, and we begin to have a noble series of strictly domestic buildings, defence being quite secondary, and in no way obtruded. They were generally quadrangular in plan, the larger class inclosing two open courts, of which one contained the stables, offices, and lodgings of the household; the second, the principal or statechambers, with the hall and chapel. The windows were large and lofty, reaching almost to the ground, and several of them opening to the gardens on the outside of the building, though these were inclosed by high battlemented walls and a moat. It should, however, be remarked, that the mansion, except in edifices of considerable extent and consequence, seldom contained more than one court.

The hall, in most cases, retained its original design. It was distinguished by its superior elevation, its turreted towers (or lantern), its windows, and projecting bay. The principal doorway entered upon a vestibule or lobby, extending across the edifice, with a door of inferior dimensions at the opposite extremity, having, on one side, the lower wall of the hall, in which were doors leading to the buttery and kitchener's department; and on the other, the screen, or lofty partition of wood, designed to conceal those doors from the view of persons in the hall. In the Companies' Halls of the City of London, a moveable screen is generally used for this purpose.

The screen was often panelled with wood from top to bottom, and divided into compartments, which were enriched with shields and carved work, having usually two or three arched doorways opening on the lobby. In many instances, the minstrels' gallery was placed above this compartment.