OLD WARDOUR CASTLE. 29 



Lovcll, the builder of tlie castle, and one of tlioir granddaughters 

 married a Sir Thomas Arundell, whose son John was the father of 

 two sons, the eldest of whom was Sir John Arundell of Lanherne, 

 and the younger Sir Thomas Arundell of Wardour. Though 

 this Sir Thomas was the first who resided in the county, his 

 father Sir John had property in the Maiuor of Westhury, as may 

 be seen from deeds in the muniment room at the new castle. This 

 was an outlying part of the Chideock property which came to Sir 

 John Arundell by marriage with the heiress of the Chideocks. 



The Sir Thomas Arundell who in 1545 purchased, as we have 

 seen, the castle which his ancestor Lord Lovell had built about 

 150 years before, did not live long to enjoy his new property. 

 Those were dangerous times to live in ; recollect that that much 

 over-praised monarch, Edward VI., ascended the throne in 1547, 

 and the whole of his reign was a miserable time for England at 

 large. The dissolution of the monasteries had caused untold miseries 

 to the poor, and the king's youth gave opportunity for the intrigues 

 of ambitious nobles, among whom the best known were the 

 Protector, Duke of Somerset and uncle of the king, and Dudley, 

 afterwards Duke of Northumberland, who also filled the office of 

 Protector. It is a matter of English History how Somerset 

 perished on the block, and Sir Thomas Arundell and two others 

 falsely accused, as it seems, of a plot against Northumberland, 

 were unjustly done to death in like manner in 1552. The 

 Wardour property was then confiscated and conferred on Lord 

 Pembroke, bat in Quocn Mary's reign the attainder was removed, 

 and an arrangement made between Sir Matthew, the son of Sir 

 Thomas Arundell, by wliich AVardour came back into tlie family, 

 and has remained their's till the present day. Sir Matthew 

 Arundell is recorded to have greatly embellished the castle. 

 I think we shall be able to see some of his work to-day ; at any 

 rate, the insciiption over the entrance records the fact. He seems 

 during part of his life to have let the castle to tlie Hyde family, 

 and to have resided in a house in Shaftesljury, which has now 

 disappeared. To him succeeded his son Sir Thomas Arundell, 



