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 



