6 



THE FORTIFICATIONS OF WARWICK, 



By J. Tom Burgess, F.S.A. 



Local Member of Council of British Archaological Association. 



It has been the fashion of historians to compile from John 

 Rous, who was a monk at Guy's Cliff in the fifteenth 

 century,* certain statements with respect to the early history 

 of Warwick without any reference either to the existing 

 remains, or to the manifest improbabilities and vagueness of 

 his statements. Even Dugdale, with all his industry and all 

 his knowledge of the places and of old authors, seems to place 

 implicit reliance on Rous, and quotes his statements almost 

 literally. Rous's " Historia Regum Anglia" was printed by 

 Hearne at Oxford in 1716, and though it professes to treat 

 of the history of Britain, Warwick occupies the large space 

 of 200 out of the 800 pages of which the book consists. 

 The early pages of Rous are calculated to raise a smile even 

 on the face of the most credulous believer in antiquarian 

 lore, for he quotes a Dean of Mayence as an authority as 

 to the number of cities in Palestine before the Deluge of 

 Noah; but as he is, I believe, the first author who mentions 

 the name of " Warwick" in connection with the mythical 

 histoiy of England, I give the extract entire. 



" When King Bladud was dead, his son Leyr succeeded 

 him as king, who built ' Leyr-cestria,' on the river Sora, and 

 appointed there a ' flamen,' and built a temple dedicated to 

 Janus; and when he died he was buried, as he had ordered, 

 iu a certain subterranean cave beneatli the river Sora in Leyr- 

 cestria. Now this subterranean cavern was built in honour 

 of James Bifrons. There all the works men of the city, 



Leland, wrltiug about St. Mary's Church in Henry VIII.'b time says, "Johannes 

 Bous, Chaplain of the Chantry of Guy's Cliff, who built the library over the south 

 porch [of fcit. llai-y's Church] and furnished it with books, died the 14th Jan., 1491." 



