Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small]
[ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

"Gaze on yon Arch, and mark the while,

Of all that feudal glory shared,

How war has reft what time had spared.

Oh, for a bard of olden time

To yield thee back thy life in rhyme-
To sing afresh thy glorious prime,
When wassail rout convulsed thy tower,
When banquet shook thy festive halls.
But all is still! thy crumbling walls
No more shall echo back the tread

Of prancing steeds: no more shall War

Roll at thy feet his iron car;

Nor trumpets' clang, nor clashing swords,

Nor prisoner's sigh, nor love's last words,

Whisper amid thy voiceless dead."-LEATHAM.

ONE of the most graphic pictures of "Old Kenilworth" which we have

met with, occurs in the following passage:-" Where wilde brookes meeting together make a broad poole among the parkes, and so soone as they are kept in with bankes, runne in a chanell, is seated Kenelworth-in times past commonly called Kenelworde, but corruptly Killingworth-and of it taketh name a most ample, beautifull, and strong Castle, encompassed all about with parkes, which neither Kenulph, nor Kenelm, ne yet Kincglise built (as some doe dreame) but Geffrey Clinton, chamberlaine unto Kinge Henrie the First and his sonne with him, as may be shewed by good evidences; when he had founded there before a church for chanons regular. But Henrie, his nephew

in the second degree, having no issue, sold it unto King Henrie the Third, who gave it in franke marriage to Simon Montfort, Earl of Leicester, together with his sister Aleonor. And soone after, when enmity was kindled between. the Kinge and Earl Simon, and hee slaine in the bloody wars which he had raised vpon faire pretexts against his Soveraigne, it endured six months' siege, and in the end was surrendered vp to the Kinge aforesaid, who annexed this castle as an inheritance to Edmund his sonne, Earl of Lancaster; at which time there went out and was proclaimed from hence an edict, which our lawyers use to call 'Dictum de Kenilworth,' whereby it was enacted that 'whosoever had tooke arms against the King, should pay every one of them five yeeres rent of their lands.' A severe yet a good and wholesome course, without effusion of blood, against rebellious subiects, who, compassing the destruction of the state, put all their hopes upon nothing else but dissentions. But this Castle, through the bountifull munificence of Queene Elizabeth, was given and granted to Robert Dudleie, Earle of Leicester, who to repaire

[graphic][subsumed]

and adourn it spared for no cost; insomuch, as if a man consider either the gallant building or the large parkes, it would seem as it were to be ranged in a third place amongst the Castles in England."

Such is the concise description and historical epitome of this celebrated Castle, as recorded by the author of the "Britannia." But many changes have occurred since then; its walls have been dismantled, its apartments thrown open to the weather, siege and storm have alternately expended their fury on

« AnteriorContinua »