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WAR 



tives concerning tlie harpers and miiiftrels of our country, 

 and the liigh elUmation in which the former ftood with our 

 princes and the latter with the nobihty, till they became fo 

 numerous and licentious, that they loft, the favour of the 

 great, and reverence of the vulgar. Till about the end 

 of queen Elizabeth's reign, there was no great pcrfonage 

 who had not a band of muCcians attached to his houfehold, 

 and a choir to his chapel, in England; in Ireland and Wales 

 a domeftic harper, and in Scotland a bagpiper domiciliated. 

 The late lord Marihal, who had a very good talle in Italian 

 vocal and German inftrumental mufic, had a Scots bagpiper 

 in his fervice at Potzdam and elfewhere, till the time of his 

 deceafe. The laureat and Oxford poetry- profelTor was fond 

 of mufic, and loved to be talking and writing on the fub- 

 jeft ; and in his hiftory of poetry has kept back nothing 

 which he accidentally found in the courfe of his other in- 

 quiries. As Milton's minora perhaps delight the generality 

 of his readers more than his fublime epics, fo the ballads and 

 fmaller pieces of T. Warton were in more general favour 

 than thofe of length, upon graver fubjefts, which had coft 

 him more meditation and midnight oil. 



Warton, or Wharton, in Geography, a townlhip of 

 Pennfylvania, in the county of Fayette, containing 922 

 inhabitants. 



WARWICK, the county-town of Warwickfliire, Eng- 

 land, is fituated in the Warwick divifion of the hundred of 

 Kington, on a rocky eminence on the banks of the Avon, 

 near the centre of the county, at the diitance of 10 miles 

 S.S.W. from Coventry, and 90 miles N.W. from London. 

 It is a neat pleafant town, enriched with a caftle of ilupendous 

 grandeur, and fevcral public buildings pofrcfling great at- 

 traftions. Dugdale, and more early writers, conjedturcd 

 this to be a Roman ftation, but no veftiges have been found, 

 or other circumftances fhcwn, to ftrengthen the fuppofition, 

 and its origin has been aHigned to the Saxon era. Dugdale 

 fliews, from feveral authorities, that this town was highly 

 favoured by the patronage of Ethelfleda, daughter of king 

 Alfred, who in the year 915 conftrufted a fortified building 

 (termed the Dungeon) on the artificial mount, which itill 

 remains on the weft fideof the cattle; and that the town, under 

 fuch proteftion, advanced rapidly in population and repute. 

 In Domefday-book it is called a borough, and is there ftatcd 

 to contain 261 houfes. The fame record ftates, that in the 

 lime of Edward the ConfefTor, a caftle was erefted here, 

 which belonged to the crown ; that it was " a fpecial ftrong 

 hold for the midland part of the kingdom," and that Tur- 

 kill was appointed governor. When William the Con- 

 queror obtained the crown, he ordered Turkill, who was 

 vicecomes of Warwick, to fortify and enlarge the caftle, 

 which at that time confiftcd of little more than the keep or 

 dungeon. The king afterwards gave the caftle to his adhe- 

 rent, Henry de Nowburgh, whom he created earl of War- 

 wick ; and under the patronage of this nobleman, and a long 

 line of defcendants, the town advanced in importance and 

 profperity, and obtained many privileges an.i immunities. 

 The paving of the town, and the building of the walls, com- 

 menced in the latter part of Edward I.'s reign, and the ex- 

 pence was defrayed by feveral tolls granted in this and the 

 two following reigns ; but thefe proving very prejudicial to 

 the markets and trade, were aboliihed in the thirty-fecond 

 year of Edward III. The appearance of the town in the 

 reign of Henry VIII. is thus defcribed by Leland : " The 

 toun of Warwick hath been right ftrongly defended and 

 walled, having a compafs of a good mile within the wall. 

 The dike is nioft manifeftly perceived from the caftle to the 

 weft, gate, and there is a great creft of earth that the wall 

 ftood on. Within the preciiicis of the toun is but one pa- 

 roche church, dedicated to St. Mary, ftanding in the middle 



of the toun, fair and large. The toun ftands on a main 

 rokky hill, rifing from eaft to weft. The beauty and glory 

 of it is in two ftreets, whereof the High-ftreet goes from eatt 

 to weft, having a riglit goodly crofs in the middle of it ; and 

 the other croffith the middle of it, makelh a quadrivium, 

 and goeth from north to fouth." A charter of incorpora- 

 tion was granted to the burgefles in the firft year of Philip 

 and Mary ; and in the year 1572 the town received a vifit 

 from queen Ehzabeth, an account of which is preferved in a 

 curious manufcript, called the Black Book, which is in 

 the pofTeflion of the corporation. The adive part taken by 

 lord Brooke in the civil wars of the fcventeenth century, pro- 

 duced here, as might be expefted, great confufion and dif- 

 may. The caftle was placed in a regular ftate of garrifon ; 

 at one period it fuftained a fiege, and feveral (Idrmifties took 

 place in the neighbourhood. In the year 1 694, the greater 

 part of the town, including the High-ftreet, and nearly the 

 whole of St. Mary's church, was confumcd by fire ; and 

 1 20,000/. were colleAed by briefs, a royal grant, and private 

 fubfcriptions. The town was rebuilt by aft of parhament 

 in a more commodious form, partly of free-ftone, from the 

 rock on which it ftands. It now confifts principally of two 

 ftreets : the High-ftreet, which is fpacious and handfome, is 

 formed in a dired line from eaft to weft, with an ancient 

 gateway at each extremity ; that at the weft end is fur- 

 mounted by a chapel. The two churches which now orna- 

 ment the town are thofe of St. Mary and St. Nicholas. A 

 church, having a fimilar dedication to the former, occupied 

 the fame fpot before the Conqueft. Henry de Newburgh, 

 the firft earl of Warwick of the Norman line, formed the 

 defign of making it collegiate, which was carried into exe- 

 cution by his foil, earl Roger, in the year 1 123. The latter 

 beftowed on the aflbciated canons tithes and other property 

 of confiderable value, and his fuccelFors, the earls of War- 

 wick, and other benefaftors, continued to proteft and fof- 

 ter them during feveral ages. Through the munificence of 

 the earls of Warwick, St. Mary's church was rebuilt in the 

 fourteenth century. The choir was commenced by the firft 

 Thomas de Beauchamp, the earl fo much diftinguifhed in the 

 French and Scottifti wars of Edward HI., and tl>e whole 

 ftrufture was completed by his fon, of the fame name, in the 

 year 1394. At the difl"olution, tliis church was granted by 

 letters patent to the inhabitants of Warwick and their fuc- 

 ceflbrs. The great fire of 1694, as before obfcrved, con- 

 fumed the greater portion of this church. In the middle of the 

 choir is an altar-tomb to Thomas Beauchamp, earl of War- 

 wick, who died Nov. 13, I370,andhis wife, Catherine, daugh- 

 terof Roger Mortimer, firft earl of March. This monument is 

 pronounced by Mr. Gough to be oneof themoft beautiful of 

 its kind in the kingdom. On the fouth fide of this church 

 is St. Mary's chapel, ufually termed the Beauchamp chapel, 

 which was ercfted according to tiie direftions of the will of 

 Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick : it was begun iu 

 1443, and was finiOied in the year 1464. The total expence 

 of the ftrufture, including the tomb of the founder, was 

 2481/. 4/. 7</., equal at prcfent to more than twenty 

 times that fum ; wheat being then only 3^. ^J. per quarter. 

 The architecture and decorations of this cliapel are at once 

 very beautiful and interefting. It couiifts of one oblong 

 apartment, having one large window at the eaft end, three 

 others on the fouth and north fides, a door of entrance from 

 the weft, a richly ornamented altar-fcreen at the eaft end, 

 fome carved feats, and three oratories, or inclofed fe.its, on 

 tlie north fide. Nearly in the centre of the chapel is a large 

 and elegant altar-tomb, for the founder, whofe eftigy in 

 brafs, very finely executed, is laid on the top. Of this cu- 

 rious tomb and chapel fome interefting documents are pre- 

 ferved aud publilhcd in the " Architcdural Antiquities of 



Great 



