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Elizabeth entering the castle in state; that on the left is devoted to the well known scene of Amy Robsart in the grotto casting herself on the protection of Elizabeth; and that on the right has for its subject, Leicester confessing his marriage to the queen. This fine specimen of art was purchased for £1200, and presented by the county to the present Earl of Warwick, on the occasion of his marriage, March 10, 1852. From the windows of the Great Hall, as indeed also from those of the other apartments, fine views are to be obtained. A hundred feet below flows the Avon, washing the castle's base. A bar, over which the stream has a tiny fall, as some of its water is diverted for the purpose of turning an old mill, and the remains of an ancient bridge in the middle of the stream, richly decked with shrubs, add very much to the picturesqueness of the scene. Farther up the stream is seen the New Bridge, a fine span of 105 feet. The more distant landscape is very fine, taking in the windings of the river for a considerable distance, through open and wooded country, the view being bounded in the far distance by the hills of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.

Before leaving the Great Hall, the visitor would do well to look down the long arched chapel passage, as from this point a splendid equestrian picture of Charles I. by Vandyke can be seen to great advantage. The king is mounted on a grey horse, and attended by his equerry, Mons. de St. Antoine, bearing his helmet. The effect is most life-like. It is said that Sir Joshua Reynolds offered 500 guineas for this painting.

The Great Dining Room is 43 feet long, 25 wide, and 18 high. It contains a costly and magnificent table, formed of precious stones tastefully fitted together, among which are the amethyst, the onyx, the sardonyx, the agate, lapis-lazuli, etc. Two large Etruscan vases will attract attention here, as will also the busts of Augustus Cæsar, Scipio Africanus, and the Emperor Trajan. This room is also adorned with paintings of Frederick, Prince of Wales, by Jonathan Richardson, and of Augusta (his consort) and an infant (George III.), by Philips.

The Red Drawing Room contains many exquisite and valuable paintings, and other objects of art. Above the chimney piece, to the right, is a Dutch Burgomaster (Rembrandt); to the left, the wife of Snyder (Vandyke); opposite, Joanna of Arragon (Raffaelle); near the window, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, collector of the Arundelian marbles (Rubens); near the door on the left, Marquis of Spinola (Rubens); in the centre, Margaret, Duchess of Parma (Paolo Veronese); opposite the window, a Lady and her Son (Vandyke). Some

beautiful urns and vases in marble and bronze adorn the mantel-piece, tables, and buhl cabinets in this room. A clock of curious and beautiful workmanship is over the mantel-piece. A melancholy interest is attached to the table of "pietra commessa or mixed stonework. It was the property of the unfortunate Marie Antoinette. This room also contains some very rare china.

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The Cedar Drawing Room, 47 feet long, by 25 broad, is exquisitely furnished. On every side the eye is charmed with objects of art, rare for their antiquity or splendid workmanship. The chimney-piece is unique, it being affirmed that the marble of which it is composed is of a species not elsewhere to be seen in England. On the tables in this room, all of which are of a beautiful and costly description, and one of which, inlaid with lava from Vesuvius, will attract attention, are placed, a marble bust from the Justinian Minerva at Rome, two fine Etruscan vases, a beautiful wax model of Venus, and two fine busts of the late Earl of Warwick and the Countess of Warwick. The most interesting of the paintings in this room are, Circe, the Enchantress, a noble painting by Guido; the Muse of Painting, by William Patoun; a half-length portrait of Charles I., by Vandyke; James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, and Don Ferdinand de Toledo, Duke of Alva, both by the same artist; and Edward Wortley Montague, by Rowney.

The Gilt Drawing-Room. The ceiling of this room, which is magnificently gilt, attracts universal admiration. On the chimney-piece, which is of elegant workmanship, are fine vases, bronzes, and other antiques. A splendid Florentine table, bronze statues of gladiators, and a fine cinque cento figure in white marble of the Faun Marsyas, will interest the visitor. The paintings with which the walls of this apartment are adorned are of immense value. That of Ignatius Loyola, opposite the fire-place, is one of the finest and most valuable pictures in the extensive collection of the Earl of Warwick. It is a full-length portrait by Rubens, and was painted for the Jesuit College of Antwerp, whence it was brought to this country soon after the French Revolution. Right and left of this picture are portraits by Vandyke, Lely, and Jansens. The following will be found deserving of special notice: Mary Queen of Scots, and her son James I. of England, over the mantel-piece; two portraits of the Earl of Strafford; portraits of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, his consort; Prince Rupert, whole length, by Vandyke; Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, and Lord High Admiral of England during the Commonwealth, by Vandyke; Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, a magnificent

full-length portrait, by Reubens; Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth; and a girl blowing bubbles, by Murillo.

The State Bed-Room.-The chief object of interest in this apartment is the bed of Queen Anne, an interesting relic of antiquity. The bed and its furniture are of crimson velvet, embroidered with green and yellow silk, and were presented to the great grandfather of the present earl by George III. In connection with this room, it is stated that Queen Elizabeth slept here, when on a visit to Warwick Castle. The walls are hung with curious tapestry, made at Brussels in 1604, and supposed to represent the gardens of Versailles. This room contains some rich buhl cabinets, vases; antique Indian bowls, small marble figures, and a very valuable pietra commessa table, similar in construction to those already noticed. There are portraits of Queen Anne, by Lely, full length, over the mantel-piece; Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, by Zucchero; Marquis of Huntly, by Vandyke; Sir Robert Walpole. From the windows at this part of the building may be seen some magnificent cedars, evidently of a great age. The view of near and more distant scenery here, as well as from the other windows in this range of apartments, is of the most charming description.

Lady Warwick's Boudoir is a delightful retreat, at the west end of the castle, terminating this range of apartments. It is hung with pea-green silk and velvet, and the furniture and ornaments are of the richest and most tasteful kind. Its windows, too, command a fine and varied prospect. It would be impossible to enumerate here all the objects of vertu with which this exquisite boudoir is adorned. There are bronze casts, groups in terra cotta, crystal vases, ormolu, buhl, and marqueterie tables and stands, etc. There is also a large number of splendid paintings, many of which are of much historical interest. Here is the portrait of "bluff King Hal,” a half length, by Holbein, (over the mantel-piece), and one of Anne Boleyn, by the same artist, (opposite the south window); one of the Duchess of Cleveland, by Lely, as well as portraits of several others of the beauties of the court of Charles II.; a fine half-length portrait of Martin Luther, by Holbein; Henry IV. of France, by Patoun. There are also landscapes, figures, and sacred subjects, by Salvator Rosa, Teniers the younger, Gerard Dow, Vandervelde the younger, Vandyke, etc.

The Compass Room is next visited. It has a fine window of painted glass, said to be the work of Reubens. Among the paintings are, Head of an Old Woman, by Reubens; A Re

former, by William Van Mieris; Storm at Sea, by Vandervelde the younger; A Bacchanalian group, by Rubens, and Triton and Sea Horses by the same great master.

The Chapel Passage, besides a number of interesting paintings, contains a beautiful bust in white marble of Edward the Black Prince, and a plaster cast of the face of Oliver Cromwell. The effect of the fine equestrian painting of Charles I., as seen from the end of the corridor, has already been noticed. The Chapel itself does not call for any special notice. It is tastefully fitted up; its Gothic windows being filled with painted glass.

THE TOWERS AND GROUNDS claim the attention of the visitor, after a survey of the interior of the castle. Cæsar's Tower is the most ancient part of the structure. The origin of its name is not known, the opinion which some writers have held, that it was built by Julius Cæsar, being utterly destitute of any reasonable grounds. It is octangular in form, of immense strength, and in excellent preservation. Beneath it is a gloomy dungeon, with inscriptions on its walls by some of the miserable wretches who have pined within it. This tower is 147 feet high. Guy's Tower, to the top of which the tourist may ascend, if he please, was built in 1394, by the second Thomas de Beauchamp, at a cost of £325:5:2. From the base to the battlements it measures about 130 feet, but looks higher and more imposing than Caesar's Tower, from being built on a more elevated part of the rock. On the walls of various apartments in this tower may be seen devices of various kinds, initials, names, and sentences in English or French scraped in relief, the work, doubtless, of long and weary hours of captivity. A fine view is to be had from the summit. The eye sweeps over an extensive range of country, and the guide will point out Kenilworth and Guy's Cliff, as well as other places of interest in the neighbourhood, while, looking southward, the Edge and Cotswold hills may be seen in the far distance. This tower is upwards of 150 feet above the level of the river. The position of the ancient moat may be very distinctly seen below. Besides the smaller towers, which do not require any special notice here, the tourist should not fail to visit

The Green House, which contains the famous Warwich Vase. This exquisite work of Grecian art was discovered in 1774, at the bottom of a lake near the Emperor Hadrian's Tiburtine villa at Tivoli, 14 miles from Rome, and purchased by Sir William Hamilton, then ambassador at Naples. From

Sir William Hamilton it was purchased by the grandfather of the present Earl. It is of white marble, of circular shape, measuring, including the plinth, nearly seven feet in height; in circumference it is 21 feet; and it is capable of holding 163 gallons. We copy the inscription :

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Hoc pristina Artis

Romanæ Q. Magnificentiæ Monumentum
Ruderibus Villæ Tiburtinæ

Hadriano Aug. In Deliciis Habitæ Effosum
Restitui Curavit

Eques Gulielmus Hamilton
A Georgio III. Mag. Brit. Rege
Ad Sicil Regem Ferdinandum IV. Legatus
Et in patriam transmissum

Patrio Bourarum Artium Genio Dicavit
An. Ac. n. CIODCCLXXIV.

Visitors are allowed to walk through the pleasure grounds, which are charmingly laid out. Among the fine trees which adorn them, the stately cedars of Lebanon will not fail to attract admiration.

A brief Account of the Earls of Warwick will be interesting and appropriate in this place. The first of note is the famous Guy, the hero of numberless legendary tales. After many wonderful exploits, the last and greatest of which was the killing of Colbrand, a Danish giant, he retired to Guy's Cliff, where he lived the secluded life of a "palmer poor," and died in 929. The Saxon Earls, descendants of Guy, are enumerated by early chroniclers, but nothing in their history entitles them to mention. The earldom of Warwick, in the Norman line, was created by William the Conqueror, who conferred it on Henry de Newburgh, one of his followers, who died 1123. The male line failing with the sixth earl of this family, the title and estates eventually passed by marriage into the family of the Beauchamps, Barons of Elmley, in Worcestershire. Guy de Beauchamp, second earl of this house, distinguished himself in Scotland in the invasions of Edward I. In the reign of Edward II. he, in concert with the Earls of Lancaster, Hereford, and Arundel, seized the person of Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, the king's worthless favourite, and beheaded him at Blacklow Hill, 1312. Thomas, his son, signalised himself in the campaigns of Edward the Black Prince. He died, 1370, at Calais, of which he was governor for many years, and lies buried in St. Mary's choir. Thomas, the second of that name, was the next earl. He also distinguished himself in the French wars, and proved himself a faithful servant of his country. Falling under the displeasure of the worthless

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