House and Garden 
new owner had to expend £30,000 upon their res¬ 
toration. Sir Fulke was a favourite of both Queen 
Elizabeth and James I, the friend and biographer of 
Sir Philip Sidney, whose shade still haunts Pens- 
hurst. 
The earldom, however, was no longer conjoined 
with the ownership of the castle and property, but 
was granted by King James I., to Lord Rich, in whose 
family it continued until its extinction in 1759. The 
Lords Brooke in the mean time, continued to hold 
the castle. Sir Fulke was assassinated by his ser¬ 
vant in 1628 after he had restored and beautified the 
castle. Robert, Lord Brooke, his successor, was a 
strong Puritan, who fell in the close at Lichfield 
when the Parliamentarian forces were besieging the 
cathedral garrisoned for the king. On the site of 
the present orangery in the gardens of the castle 
stood an old timber framed house which was used as 
a Presbyterian chapel, where Lord Brooke listened to 
the discourses of Samuel Clarke the younger. Lord 
Northampton made a dash to seize the castle, the 
garrison of which was commanded by Sir Edward 
Peto of Chesterton. The king’s forces were driven 
back. Sir Edward had hung woolpacks outside the 
gate house on great hooks, which still remain, to pro¬ 
tect the walls from Lord Northampton’s cannon¬ 
balls. No royal standard waved on Guy’s Tower, 
but a winding-sheet and a Bible in order to show to 
the enemy that the Puritan leader was ready to die 
for his faith. The Roundheads trembled for the 
fate of the Castle of Warwick; but it held its own, and 
Lord Northampton withdrew his troops discomfited. 
After the extinction of the Rich family in 1759, 
the earldom was conferred on Francis Greville, Lord 
Brooke, and has remained in the family ever since, 
together with the noble castle which it is now our 
privilege to visit. 
In the year 1634, three pilgrims set out from the 
city of Norwich on a tour through England. They 
are described as “the Captain, Lieutenant, and An¬ 
cient of the Military Company at Norwich,” and 
they were wise enough to record their experiences. 
Happily their descriptions of the places visited have 
been preserved, and are now in the British Museum. 
Here is their impression of Warwick, “which for a 
fayre and stately castle may compare with most in 
England. It is most sweetly and very pleasantly 
seated on a rocke very high, upon that pleasant river, 
the Avon, that divides the shire in twaine: whether 
ye sumptuousnesse of the building with the richnesse 
of the ffurniture, the pleasantnesse of the seat, or the 
strengthe of the brave ancient high towers with her 
