K E N I L 
court-letters of the day, that plots and difturbances had 
i'o awakened the earl of Leicelter, that, whether it were 
for his own lafe recefs, or the queen’s, of for the bringing 
of the queen of Scots thither, he had now many workmen 
at his feat at Kenilworth to make it ftrong, and had fur- 
niflied it with armour, munition, and. all neceffaries for 
defence. In 1572, in her prOgrefs to Warwick, we find 
Elizabeth paying a Ihort vifit here to her favourite; but 
her capital vifit was in 1575, on which Leicelter exerted 
liis whole magnificence, in a manner fo Iplendid, lays bi- 
ftiop Hnrd, as to claim a remembrance even in the annals 
of our country. Accounts of it were given, at the time 
in two very fcarce and curious tra£ls, which have been 
reprinted in “Queen Elizabeth’s Progrelfesone by 
Laneham, and the other by George Gafcoigne; the latter 
entitled •“ The Princely Pleafures of Kenilworth Caftle.” 
At the queen’s firl’c entrance, which appears to have been 
by what is called the Gallery Tower, a floating illand 
was difcprned upon the pool, glittering with torches, on 
which fat the Lady of the Lake, attended by two nymphs, 
who addrefled her majefty in verfe, with an hiftorical ac¬ 
count of the antiquity and owners of the caltle ; and the 
fpeech was clofed with the found of cornets, and other 
inftruments of loud mufic. Within the bafe-court was 
erefted a itately bridge, twenty feet wide and feventy long, 
over which the queen was to pafs; and on each fide flood 
columns, with prefents upon them to her majelty from 
the gods. Silvanus offered a cage of wild fowl, and Po¬ 
mona divers forts of fruits ; Ceres gave corn, and Bac¬ 
chus wine ; Neptune prefented fea-filh ; Liars the habili¬ 
ments of war ; and Phcebus all kinds of mufical inftru- 
ments. During the reft of her flay, a variety of fports 
and fliows were daily exhibited. In the chace was a favage 
man with fatyrs; there were bear-baitings and fire works, 
Italian tumblers, and a country bride-ale, running at the 
quintin, and morrice-dancing. And, that 110 fort of di- 
verfion might be omitted, hither came the Coventry men, 
and afited the ancient play, fo long fince ufed in their 
city, called Hocks-Tuefday, reprefenting the deltrufilion 
of the Danes in the reign of king Ethelred ; which proved 
fo agreeable to her majefty, that fhe ordered them a brace 
of bucks, and five marks in money to defray the charges 
of the feaft. There were befides, on the pool, a Triton 
on a mermaid eighteen feet long, and Arion upon a dol¬ 
phin. To grace the entertainment, the queen here 
knighted Thomas Cecil, eldeft fen to the lord treafurer ; 
Henry Cobham, brother to the lord Cobham ; Francis 
Stanhope, and Thomas Trelham. An eftimate may be 
formed of the expence from the quantity of ordinary beer 
that was drunk on the occafion, amounting to 320 hogf-. 
heads. The queen ftaid here nineteen days; during which 
time, befides the expence of the recreations, the caftle 
appears to have been ftill farther furruflied with artillery 
and ammunition from fome of the royal arfenals. The 
former, it is particularly faid by Stry.pe, were never car¬ 
ried back. Here alfo Elizabeth touched nine perfons for 
the evil. The verfes, plays, and pageants, were deviled 
by the moft ingenious writers of the time. It was in par- 
cular allufion to the feenes here depifted that Mr. War- 
ton, in deferibing the great features in the poetry of the 
age, obferves that, “ the books of antiquity being famili- 
arifed to the great, every thing was tinflured with ancient 
■hiftory and mythology. The heathen gods, although dif- 
countenanced by the Calvinifts, on a fufpicion of their 
tending to cherilh and revive a fpirit of idolatry, came 
into general vogue. When the queen paraded through a 
country town, almoft every pageant was a pantheon. 
When fhe paid a vifit at the houle of any of her nobility, 
at entering the ball (lie was faluted by the Penates, and 
conducted to her privy chamber by Mercury. Even the 
paftfy-cooks were expert mythologifts. At dinner, felect 
transformations of Ovid’s Metamorphofes were exhibited 
in confectionary ; and the fplendid iceing of an immenfe 
hiftoric plumb-cake was emboffed with a delicious baffo- 
relievo of the deftriRtion of Troy. In the afternoon, 
WORT H. 6(33 
when (he condefcended to walk in the garden, the lake 
was covered with Tritons and Nereids ; the pages of the 
family were converted into wood-nymphs, who peeped 
from every bower ; and the footmen gambled over the 
lawns in the figures of fatyrs. I lpeak it, (lays Mr. War- 
ton,) without defigning to infinuate any unfavourable 
fufpicions ; but it l'eems difficult to fay why Elizabeth’s 
virginity fliouid have been made the theme of perpetual 
and excelfive panegyric ; nor does it immediately appear, 
that there is lefs merit or glory in a married than a mai¬ 
den queen. Yet the next morning, after deeping in a 
room hung with the tapeftry of the voyage of Eneas, when 
her majefty hunted in the park, (lie was met by Diana, 
who, pronouncing our royal prude to be the brighteft pa¬ 
ragon of unfpotted chaftity, invited her to groves free 
from the intruflons of Afteon.” 
Lord Leicelter continued to make Kenilworth an occa- 
ftonal reiidence till his death ; when, by an inventory taken 
the 14th day of November, 1588, bis goods and chattels in 
the caftle amounted to 2684I. 4s. id. Having no iffue by 
his wife, he bequeathed the caftle to his brother Ambrole, 
earl of Warwick, and in reverfion to fir Robert Dudley, 
who was by fome thought to have been his illegitimate fon. 
Sir Robert Dudley offending king James, by not return¬ 
ing from his travels when fummoned, his poll'd lions at 
Kenilworth were feized, by virtue of the ftatute of fugi¬ 
tives, to the king’s life. In the furvey which was made 
on the occafion, the walls of the caftle are reprel'ented to 
have been fifteen feet in thicknefs ; the park-ground to 
contain 789 acres, and the pool to cover 111. The cir¬ 
cuit of the caftle, manors, parks, and chace, was rated at 
from nineteen to twenty miles; and the value of the wdioie 
at 38,554b 15s. When the fequeftration was removed, 
not long after, the agents of prince Henry agreed to give 
fir Robert 14,500b for his right in the caftle and its ap¬ 
pendages. Of this 3000I. alone were paid ; but into the 
hands of a merchant who broke, fo that n.p money ever 
reached fir Robert Dudley. On the death of prince Henry, 
his brother Charles claimed the caftle, as his heir ; and 
retained polleflion of it till hvs acceflion to the throne. 
In the firft year of his reign, lie granted it to Robert earl of 
Monmouth, Henry lord Carey, his eldeft fon, and Tho¬ 
mas Carey, efq. for their lives. The inheritance was af¬ 
terwards granted to Lawrence vilcount Hyde of Kenil¬ 
worth, in wliofe defendants, the earls of Clarendon, the 
property is ftill veiled. 
Dilapidated as the caftle now is, fufficient may be traced 
among its ruins to give us fome notions of its former 
fplendcur. The prefent entrance is nearly in the centre 
of the north fide, through the gate-houle erected by 
lord Leicelter, which is now the only inhabited remain. 
R. L. is been in the fpandrils of the door; and the fame 
letters, with the Garter, appear on each fide the fire-place 
of one of the rooms, with ragged Haves and Droit et loyal. 
Between every pannel of the wainfeot, the ragged ftaff is 
repeated. For the appropriation of the other buildings 
we are principally indebted to fir William Dugdale’s Hil- 
tory, whole plan of the caftle ftill furnilhes the belt clue 
both to the antiquary and the traveller in tracing its re¬ 
mains. Palling from the gate-houfe, the veftiges of what 
was once the garden may be clearly feen ; with the anci¬ 
ent (tables at a confiderable diftance to the left, againft 
the eaft wall which bounds the bafe court of the caftle. 
A little further; on the right, Hands Caffar’s lower, r* 
fquare building, ftrengthened by four fmall towers at the 
corners. This is not only the moft maffive, but, in its 
main ftrufture, the molt ancient remnant of the fortrefs 5 
it feems to have been the caftle as it was erected in the 
time of Henry I. with a few alterations by the earl of 
Leicelter. Clofe beyond the weltern fide, but detached 
from the tower, are feen the remains of the kitchens ; 
joined by a fmailer, though not fo ftrong a tower as the 
. former, at the north-weft corner. Nearly the whole of the 
weltern fide is occupied by the hall ; the windows, walls, 
4 c. of which are ornamented with the riclieit tracery. 
