In My Vicarage Garden 



can have some faint idea of the abundance of 

 grand castles in every part of England at the 

 end of the sixteenth century from the few which 

 remain to us entire, and from the far larger number 

 which for us only exist as ruins. In Shakespeare's 

 day they were still standing in all their strength, 

 and in all their beauty ; but what can we learn of 

 them, or of the history of any of them, from his 

 writings ? Many castles are mentioned, and in 

 many of the plays the scenes are laid in castles 

 or their neighbourhood, and yet not one is described 

 in such a way that it could be distinguished from 

 others. He notices sometimes the surroundings of 

 a castle, and describes the scenery in which it 

 stands, but of the castle itself he says next to 

 nothing. For many years of his life he lived 

 within a very few miles of Warwick Castle, then, 

 as now, remarkable for its great strength, and, 

 from its unequalled position on the banks of the 

 Avon, one of the most beautiful of English castles ; 

 and in more than one of the plays the Earl of 

 Warwick plays an important part, yet he tells us 

 nothing of the castle. He probably had often 

 seen Berkeley Castle, and he could tell of the 

 " high wild hills and rough uneven ways " over 

 the Cotswold that led to it ; but he has nothing 

 to tell us of the castle itself except its natural 

 surroundings " There stands the castle by yon 

 tuft of trees." He also knew Windsor Castle and 

 its surrounding forest, and he has laid many scenes 

 there ; but the only account that we get of the 

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