LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



I. 



WAEWIOK CASTLE: KENILWORTH: STRATFOED-ON- 



AVON. 



ff, July, 1850. 



MY DEAR SIR : — As, after looking at some constellation in- a 

 summer ^igh.t, one remembers most vividly its largest and 

 most potent star, so, from amid a constellation of fine country-seats, 

 I can write you to-day only of my visjt to one, but that one which, 

 for its peculiar extent, overtops all the rest — ^Warwick Oastle. 



Warwick Castle,- indeed, combines in itself perhaps more of ro- 

 mantic and feudal interest than any actual residence in Europe, and 

 for this very reason, because it unites in itself the miracle of exhib- 

 iting at the same monient hoar antiquity, and the' actual vivid pre- 

 sent, having been held and maintained from iirst to last by the same 

 family. Ih niost of the, magnificent country-seats of England, it is 

 ratherivast extent and enormous expense which impresses one. If 

 they are new, they are sometimes overloaded with elaborate details ;* 



* Like Eton Hal], near Livei-pool, perhaps visited by more Americans 

 tUan any other seat— though the architecture is meretricious, and the whole 

 place as wanting in genuine taste as it is ahoui^ding in evidences of immense 

 . wealth. WBrwick Oastle bears, to ail Ameiioan, the same relation to all 

 modern castles that the veritable Noah's ark, if it could be found still in full 

 preservation, would to a model made by an' ingenious antiquarian: 



