120 



MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



still beautiful and noble, but with the marks 

 in her features of that suffering which alone 

 reveals to us the depth of the soul. 



Not to weary you with the interior of what 

 is only the first floor of the castle, let me take 

 you to one of the range of large, deep, sunny 

 windows which lights the whole of this suite 

 of apartments on their southern side. Each 

 window is arched overhead and wainscoted on 

 the side, and as the walls of the castle are 10 

 to 12 feet thick, each window above 8 feet 

 wide, it forms almost a little room or closet 

 by itself. And from these windows how 

 beautiful the landscape ! Although we enter- 

 ed these apartments by only a few steps from 

 the level of the court-yard, yet on looking 

 from these windows I found myself more than 

 60 feet above the Avon, which almost washes 

 the base of the castle walls on this side, wind- 

 ing about in the most graceful curve, and lo- 

 sing itself in the distance among groups of 

 aged elms. On this side of the castle, be- 

 yond the Avon, stretches away the park of 

 about a thousand acres. As far as the eye 

 reaches it is a beautiful English landscape, 

 of fresh turf and fine groups of trees — and 

 beyond it, for several miles, lie the rich farm 

 lands of the Warwick estate. There are few 

 pictures more lovely than such a rural scene, 

 and perhaps its quietness and serenity, Were 

 enhanced by contrast with the sombre gran- 

 deur of the feudal court-yard where I first 

 entered. 



Passing through a gate in the castle wall, 

 I entered the pleasure grounds, and saw in the 

 orangery or gr^n-house, the celebrated War- 

 wick vase — the giant among vases. It is a 

 magnificent mass of marble, weighing 8 tons, 

 of beautiful proportions, of which reduced 

 copies are now familiar to us all over the 

 world. It was brought from the temple of 

 Vesta, and is larger than I had been led to 

 believe, holding nearly two hogsheads. It is 

 also rather more globular in form, and more 



delicate in detail than one would suppose from 

 the copies. 



In the pleasure grounds my admiration was 

 riveted by the " cedar walk" — a fine avenue 

 of cedars of Lebanon — that noblest of ever- 

 greens — some sixty feet high, a tree which in 

 its stately symmetry and gi-eat longevity, 

 seemed a worthy companion of this princely 

 castle. But even the cedar of Lebanon is 

 too short lived, for the two oldest trees which 

 stand almost close to the southern walls of the 

 castle, and which are computed to be about 

 five hundred years old — gigantic and venera- 

 ble in appearance — have lately lost several of 

 their finest branches, and are evidently fast 

 going to decay. It was striking to me to 

 see, on the other hand, how much the hoary 

 aspect of the outer walls of the castle were 

 heightened by the various beautiful vines and 

 climbers intermingled with harebells, daisies 

 and the like, which had sprung up of them- 

 selves on the crevices of the mighty walls that 

 overhang the Avon, and sustained by the 

 moisture of its perennial waters, were allowed 

 to grow and flower without molestation, though 

 everything else that hastens the decay of the 

 building is jealously guarded against. 



If anything more were wanting to heighten 

 the romantic interest of this place, it would be 

 found in the relics which are kept, partly in 

 in the castle, and partly in the apartments at 

 the outer portal, of the famous Grey, Earl 

 OF Warwick, who lived in Saxon times, 

 and whose history and exploits heretofore al- 

 ways seemed as fabulous to me as those of 

 Blue-Beard himself. Still, here is his sword, 

 an enormous weapon six feet long, which it 

 requires both hands to lift, his breast-plate 

 weighing fifty-two pounds, and his helmet se- 

 ven pounds. The size of these, (and their 

 genuineness is beyond dispute,) shows that he 

 must have been a man whose gigantic stature 

 almost warrants the belief in the miracles of 

 valor which he performed in battle — as an 



