4^6 LETTERS FROM ENG-LAND. 



if old, they are often Diodernized in so tasteless a manji«T as to des«;, 

 troy all sentiment of antiquity. Plate glass windows ill accoid with 

 ailtique jcasements, and Paris furniture and upholstery are not in 

 keeping with apartments of the time of Elizabeth, 



In Warwick Castle and all that belongs to it, I found noneof 

 this. All was entire harmony, and I lingered within and about it, 

 enjoying itsabsolue perfeetioit, as if the whole *ere only donjnred 

 up by an enchanter's spell, and would soon dissolve into thin ajr. 

 Arid yet, on the contrary, I knew that here was a building which is 

 more' than nine hundred years old ; which has been the residence 

 of successive generations of the same family for .centuries ; which* 

 was the fortress of that mightiest of English subjects, Warwick, 

 "the gi'eat-'king-maker," (who boasted that he had deposed, thiTee' 

 Enghsh sovereigns and placed three in their vaeant throne,) which, 

 long before the disdovery of America, was the seeiie of wild jarri&g 

 and haughty chivalry, bloody prowess — yes, -and of- gentle love and 

 sweet aflfections, but which, as if defying time-, is ' still a castle, aa 

 real in its eharactelf as a feudal stronghold, aild yet as complete a 

 baronial residehw, as the" iiBaginatioii can conceive. To all Ameil- 

 eaiOj v^hose country is but two hundred ye&s old, the bridging over 

 such a vast chasm of tiiae by the d&iUcSstid memorials of a singW 

 family, when, as in this tJstee, that fainily has so made its mark upo* 

 the early annals 6f his own race, tb^re is sortiething that appro3cb€8i? 

 . thfe sublime. - 



The small town of Warwick, a quaint old ^liace, which Still 

 bears abundant traces of its Ssixoii origin, is situated neatly in the 

 centre of Englandj and lies on one side of the castle, to which it iS 

 it mere dependency.,. It is placed on arising hill or kQoUi the castte 

 occupying the highest part, though mostly' concealed from the town 

 ty thick plantations; : Around the other, sides of the ostle flows 

 the Avon, a lovely streaia, whose' poetical fame has not belied, its 

 native charms ; .and beyond it stretch away the broad lands which 

 belong to the castle. - 



The finest approach ht the stranger is from the pretty town of 

 Leamington, about two miles east of Warwick. At a turn, a few 

 hundred rods distant from the oastle, the road crosses the Avon by 



