Warwick Castle 
modern style ring the bell in order to gain entrance to 
the residential part of the castle. The whole of the 
eastern portion has been restored after the great tire 
of 1871. The main walls however, were too thick 
and strong to suffer greatly from the fire, which 
brought to light some of the old features of the cham¬ 
ber, disclosed some clerestory windows, and enabled 
the architect to reproduce with fair accuracy the 
design of the mediaeval hall. The furniture, car¬ 
pets, screens and flowers give it the appearance of a 
modern drawing-room rather than of the ancient 
hall which once witnessed the condemnation of Piers 
Gaveston, echoed with the sound of the feastings of 
the retainers of the Last of the Barons, and heard the 
snuffling, whining voices of the extreme sectaries of 
Cromwell’s day. 1 he whole castle is indeed a well- 
stored museum, replete with objects of antiqua¬ 
rian and historical interest, and abounding with 
paintings of important personages and family pic¬ 
tures by the great masters of the art. 1 he hall con¬ 
tains many ob)ects of supreme interest. There is 
some good Flemish tapestry of the 17th century, 
many suits of armour, the huge antlers of an Irish 
elk, measuring 10 ft. 9 inches, Queen Elizabeth’s 
saddle on which she rode on her journey to Kenil¬ 
worth, Cromwell’s helmet, some crusader’s armour, 
a Knight Templar’s helmet, a doublet blood-spotted, 
in which Lord Brooke was slain at Lichfield in 1643, 
the mace of Richard III., Scottish claymores, a swivel 
gun taken from a Lrench pirate off the Irish coast, 
armour worn by Montrose, some suits of armour of 
the 15th and 16th centuries, some horse armour of 
the 15th century, and that used by the “noble imp.” 
Popular attention is always attracted to a huge caul¬ 
dron made of bell-metal known as Guy’s Porridge 
Pot. The large vessel holds 120 gallons, and is 
sometimes described as a punch-bowl. It is, how¬ 
ever, conjectured that the pot was made for cooking 
the soldier’s dinners by order of Sir John Talbot, 
who died in 1365. Guy’s sword, a large weapon 
which really belongs to the time of Henry VIII., 
is also preserved, for the keeping of which William 
Hoggeson, Yeoman of the Buttery, received 2d. a 
day in the time of the last named monarch. 
Before leaving the hall, we must glance through 
the deeply recessed windows, and see the magnifi¬ 
cent view, the Avon flowing 100 feet below with its 
wooded banks, the remains of the old bridge over 
which Queen Elizabeth rode when she visited the 
castle, and the “new” bridge erected more than a 
century ago. It is a delightful prospect. 
Then we traverse the fine suite of state apartments, 
first examining the red drawing-room, which con¬ 
tains Van Dyck’s painting of Snyder’s wife, the 
Marquis of Spinola by Rubens, Velasquez’s Gotama, 
and the portrait of the present Countess of Warwick, 
a prominent lady in English society, socialistic pol¬ 
itician, founder of the Ladies’ Agricultural College at 
Studley Castle, and an authoress whose history of her 
ancestral home is the standard work on the subject. 
The cedar drawing-room, panelled with cedar- 
wood, beautifully carved by local workmen, and 
magnificently furnished, contains a series of por¬ 
traits by Van Dyck, which includes the second Earl of 
Warwick of the Rich family (1642), Charles I., and 
his Queen Henrietta ( the dress is said to have been 
finished by Sir Joshua Reynolds), James Graham, 
Marquis of Montrose, the Countess of Brignola and 
her son (brought here from the palace of the family at 
Genoa), the first Duke of Newcastle and Lely’s Nell 
Gwynn. The mantelpiece of this exquisite room was 
designed by Adams and is said to be unique. There 
are valuable bronzes, Etruscan vases, and some 
beautiful cabinets. 
The green drawing-room has a fine ceiling richly 
gilded. Here is the wonderful Grimani table which 
came from the palace of that family at Venice, por¬ 
traits of Ignatius Loyala by Rubens, a Spanish war¬ 
rior by Moroni, Robert Bertie, Earl of Lindsay, 
Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, and Prince 
Rupert, both by Van Dyck, and Lord and Lady 
Brooke. 
Queen Anne’s bedroom is hung with Gobelin tap¬ 
estry, manufactured in 1604. 1 he bed, bung with 
crimson velvet, and the furniture belonged to Queen 
Anne, and were presented to the Earl of Warwick by 
George III. Kneller’s portrait of the Queen appro¬ 
priately adorns the room. Queen Anne’s travelling 
trunk is curious and interesting. There is a fine ex¬ 
ample of seventeenth century buhl work, consisting 
of silver and tortoise-shell inlaid. 
We next pass into the Countess’s boudoir, a charm¬ 
ing little room which abounds with treasures of art 
and vertu. 1 he walls are covered with silk tapestry 
and the ceiling was constructed in 1750. The pic¬ 
tures include Holbein’s portraits of Henry VIII., 
Martin Luther, and Anne and Mary Boleyn, Lely’s 
Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, a boar-hunt 
by Rubens, and many others by well-known masters. 
Lovers of ancient armour will find in the armoury 
passage many examples of supreme interest, includ¬ 
ing cross-bows, crusaders’ armour, weapons from 
various countries, Moorish, Spanish, Indian, cedar 
brought from Palestine by the crusaders, Cromwell’s 
mask, his armour and boots, a bugle taken from the 
battle-field of Edgehill, guns from the field of Water¬ 
loo, etc. Here is also a table which belonged to poor 
Queen Marie Antoinette. 
The dining-room is a noble chamber, built by 
Francis, Earl of Warwick, about 1770. The furni¬ 
ture is French work, upholstered with applique em¬ 
broidery, and there is a fine carving by Grinling Gib¬ 
bons of the Battle of the Amazons. The pictures in¬ 
clude the well-known equestrian portrait of Charles 
I. by Van Dyck, some Lions by Rubens, Augusta, 
Princess of Wales and George III. when an infant by 
