140 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



William the Conqueror, was granted by him, with the adjacent 

 territory, to Robert Marmion, lord of Fontenoy, in Normandy. It 

 continued in this family till the year 1291, when it passed by mar- 

 riage to William Mortein, and from him to the Freviles. In little 

 more than a century it was carried by marriage into the family of 

 Ferrers, and afterwards to the Comptons. In 1751, Lady Charlotte 

 Compton carried Tamworth Castle, and the estates belonging to it, 

 to her husband, the Hon. George Townshend, afterwards Marquis 

 Townshend. 



" The architecture of the Castle now remaining seems to have 

 been of various periods. The hall is large, but exceedingly rude 

 and comfortless. This, and some other parts, appear of a veiy 

 ancient date. The rooms and stair-cases are most of them irre- 

 gular and uncouth. Yet, by Leland's account, it seems, the greater 

 part was built since his time. ' The base-court/ says he, ' and the 

 great ward of the castle, is clean decayed, and the wall fallen 

 downe, and therein be now but houses of office of noe notable build- 

 ing. The Dungeon-hill yet standeth, and a great round tower of 

 stone, wherein Mr. Ferrers dwelleth, and now repaireth it/* Such 

 was its state in Henry the Eighth's time. 



" There are two noble rooms, comparatively modern, fitted-up 

 with oak wainscot, and round the cornice of the largest, the arms 

 of the family, impaling every match to the earliest periods. From 

 the windows of this room are pleasing and rich views over the 

 river (which runs at the foot of the Castle mount,) to the mea- 

 dows and woodlands, where formerly the park was. Lord Leicester, 

 it is said, once had thoughts of making this castle his residence, 

 and for that purpose had Wyatt down to survey it ; but finding, 

 from the antiquity of the greater part of the building, and the 

 neglect of inhabitation here for nearly a century, the scheme not 

 very practicable, he gave it up: it is still, however, kept in exter- 

 nal repair. 



" From the Castle leads is a noble circular view of a rich 

 woodland country in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, 

 and Derbyshire. Canwell, the elegant new mansion of Sir Robert 

 Lawley, Bart, appears to great advantage from hence.f" Tamworth 

 Castle has lately been fitted-up as a cotton factory. 



The beauty of the situation of Tamworth is seen from the Castle 



Leland's Itinerary, Vol. IV. p. 181. 

 f Shaw's History and Antiquities of Staffordshire, Vol. I. p. 419-80. 



