118 



MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



are often modernised in so tasteless a manner 

 as to destroy all sentiment of antiquity. Plate 

 glass windows ill accord with antique case- 

 ments, and Paris furniture and upholstery are 

 not in keeping with apartments of the time 

 of Elizabeth. 



In Warwick Castle and all that belongs 

 to it, I found none of this. All was entire 

 harmony, and I lingered within and about it, 

 enjoying its absolute perfection, as if the whole 

 were only conjured up by an enchanter's spell, 

 and would soon dissolve into thin air. And 

 yet, on the contrary, I knew that here was a 

 building which is more than nine hundred 

 years old ; which has been the residence of 

 successive generations of the same family for 

 centuries ; which was the fortress of that 

 mightiest of English subjects, Warwick, 

 "the great king-maker," (who boasted that 

 he had deposed three English sovereigns and 

 placed three in their vacant throne,) which, 

 long before the discovery of iVmerica, was the 

 scene of wild jarring and haughty chivalry, 

 bloody prowess — yes, and of gentle love and 

 sweet affections, but which, as if defying time, 

 is still a castle, as real in its character as a 

 feudal stronghold, and yet as complete a ba- 

 ronial residence, as the imagination can con- 

 ceive. To an American, whose country is but 

 two hundred years old, the bridging over such 

 a vast chasm of time by the domestic memo- 

 rials of a single family, when, as in this case, 

 that family has so made its mark upon the 

 early annals of his own race, there is some- 

 thing approaches the sublime. 



The small town of Warwick, a quaint old 

 place, which still bears abundant traces of its 

 Saxon origin, is situated nearly in the centre 

 of England, and lies on one side of the castle, 

 to which it is a mere dependency. It is pla- 

 ced on a rising hill or knoll, the castle occu- 

 pying the highest part, though mostly con- 

 cealed from the town by thick plantations. 

 Around the other sides of the castle flows the 



Avon, a lovely stream, whose poetical fame 

 has not belied its native charms ; and beyond 

 it stretch away the broad lands which belong 

 to the castle. 



The finest approach for the stranger is from 

 the pretty town of Leamington, about two 

 miles east of Warwick. At a turn, a few 

 hundred rods distant from the castle, the road 

 crosses the Avon by a wide bridge with a mossy 

 stone balustrade, and here, looking upward, 



" Bosomed high in lufled trees. 

 Towers and baulements he sees." 



The banks of the stream are finely fringed 

 with foliage ; beyond them are larger trees ; 

 upon the rising ground in the rear grow lofty 

 and venerable chestnuts, oaks, and elms ; and 

 over this superb foreground, rises up, grand 

 and colossal, the huge pile of grey stone, soft- 

 ened by the effects of time, and the rich 

 masses of climbers that hang like floating 

 drapery about it. For a few moments you 

 lose sight of it, and the carriage suddenly 

 stops before a high embattled wall, where the 

 porter answers the knock by slowly unfold- 

 ing the massive iron gates of the portal. 

 Driving through this gateway you wind through 

 a deep cut in the solid rock, almost hidden by 

 the masses of ivy that hang along its sides, 

 and in a few moments find yourself directly 

 before the entrance front of the castle. Who- 

 ever designed this front, made up as it is of 

 lofty towers and irregular wall, must have 

 been a poet as well as architect, for its com- 

 position and details struck me as having the 

 proportions and congruity of a fine scene in 

 nature, which we feel is not to be measured 

 and defined by the ordinary rules of art. And 

 as it rose up before me, hoary and venerable, 

 yet solid and complete, I could have believed 

 that it was rather a magnificent effort of na- 

 ture than any work of mere tools and masonry. 

 In the central tower opened another iron 

 gate, and driving through a deep stone arch- 

 way, I found myself in the midst of a large 

 open space of nearly a couple of acres, car- 



