Lower Eatington Hall, Warwickshire ;

THE SEAT OF

EVELYN JOHN SHIRLEY, ESQ.

THE external appearance of this large and venerable Mansion is very irregular, from the additions that have been made in modern times. Part of it is of very ancient date, being supposed to have been extant at the time of the Conquest. The principal apartments are commodious. The Drawing-room is spacious and handsome, and is ornamented with paintings. The Gothic Library adjoining contains a useful collection of books.

Its site is on the east bank of the river Stour, which divides the counties of Warwickshire and Worcestershire at this point, at the distance of five miles from Shipston, and six from Stratford. The House stands on the western extremity of the Park, which is embellished with fine timber trees, and remarkably luxuriant hawthorns.

The truly ancient and honourable family of Shirley derive their descent from Sewallus de Etingdon, who resided at Nether Etingdon about the time of King William the Conqueror. After the Conquest, the lordship of Etingdon was given to Henry, Earl of Ferrers, in Normandy, one of the principal adventurers with the Norman Duke, and was held under him by this Sewallus; to whose posterity, in the male line, it has continued to the present possessor.

This Sewallus founded and endowed the church of Nether Etingdon. In 1795, the late Evelyn Shirley, Esq., father of the present proprietor, obtained an Act of Parliament to desecrate the church, of which the ruins only now remain, and to build a new church for the parishioners at the northern extremity of the parish, in the hamlet of Upper Eatington, which was accomplished principally at the expense of Mr. Shirley. A south transept, is still left entire, for the purpose of preserving the splendid monument of white marble to the memory of Robert, Earl Ferrers, great-grandfather of the present possessor of Eatington Hall.

The ancient monuments are also preserved, comprising those of the early Shirleys. Frances, Lady Freckelton, and many belonging to the old and respectable family of the Underhills of this parish, particularly the engraved brasses, representing the figures of Thomas and Elizabeth Underhill, (celebrated by Fuller in his "Worthies,") and their twenty children. The following, not given by Dugdale, is noticed by Sir Symon Archer, the friend of Dugdale: "Against the north wall of the north isle is a raised monument of Anthony Vnderhill made of freestone of that country, over it, upon the walls, hangeth a certayne table vpō which is this wrytten.

"AN EPITAPH, and true report vpon the death of Anthony Vnderhill, the sonne of Thomas Vnderhill, of Nether Eatington, who died the xvith day of July, Ano. Dii. 1587.

"Anthony Vnderhill lyeth here in stone,

It were but vayne for to obscure his name ;
Though no man write the death of him alone,
Yet heaven and earth will still record the same.
Who lived to dye, who died agayne to live,
With humble hart did all the world forgive.

Noe speech but prayer, noe mind but heaven with him,
Noe hope of life, noe word of vayne delight;
His whole desire to conquere death and sinne,
With hart and voyce, with minde and all his might.
Whose glorious death, and happy end was such,
Which twentie sawe, that did rejoice them much.

For when the tyme of's fatall houre drew neare,
Rose up with ioye, a vision he espyes;
Behold, quoth he, for yonder doth appeare
My Saviour Christ, I see him wth myne eyes.
A ioyfull spectacle was p'sented then
In sight of God, of angells, saints, and men.

And after pawse, to show his gladsome fitt,
He spoke and sayd, I had a question putt,
Though it were hard, yet I have answered itt ;
Wth that he syhed, and so his eyes he shutt.
Thus sayled he into more quiet coast,
Still praysing God, and so gave up the ghost.

As dreams doe slyde, as bubbles rise and fall,
As fflowers doe fade and flourish in an hower;
As smoke doth rise, and vapours vanish all,

Beyond the witt or reach of human power.
As sömers heat doth parch the withered grasse,
Such is or stay, so lyfe of man doth passe,"

Warwick Castle, Warwickshire;

THE SEAT OF

THE RIGHT HON. HENRY RICHARD GREVILLE,

EARL OF BROOKE AND WARWICK.

WARWICK Castle is one of the finest baronial residences in the kingdom, and rendered peculiarly interesting to the traveller by its beautiful situation, and by the many curiosities which either did, or are supposed, to have belonged to the celebrated Guy, Earl of Warwick, which are here carefully preserved.

Ethelfleda, daughter of King Alfred, is supposed to be the first who built a strong-hold on this spot; but there are no authentic particulars respecting Warwick Castle until it came into the possession of the Newburghs, about the time of William the Conqueror. Roger de Newburgh, second Earl of Warwick, about the middle of the twelfth century, took part with King Stephen, and garrisoned this Castle with that monarch's partisans. To the Newburghs succeeded the Beauchamps, Earls of Warwick; Anne, daughter and heiress of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, married Richard Nevil, son and heir of the Earl of Salisbury, in the reign of Henry VI., who thereupon assumed the title of Earl of Warwick, and became afterwards the celebrated king-maker; upon his death, the Duke of Clarence, who had married his daughter, was, by Edward IV., created Earl of Warwick, and put in possession of the Castle, to whose beauty and strength he added considerably. Upon the forfeiture of the Duke's estates, a grant of this Castle was made to the family of Dudley, and that line failing, the title was revived by James I., in the person of Robert, Lord Rich, with whose posterity it continued till the year 1759.

The Castle, however, did not pass with the title, but was granted by the same king to Sir Fulke Greville, afterwards Lord Brooke. This nobleman, who found it in a ruinous condition, expended large sums in the restoration of the Castle, and to his care and taste the structure is indebted for its present appearance of preservation. Under his successor Warwick Castle was garrisoned for the parliament.

Francis, Lord Brooke, was created Lord of Warwick Castle in 1746, and in 1759, upon the death of the last Earl of Warwick of the Rich family, created Earl of Warwick. In these titles he was succeeded in 1773 by his son George, the late Earl.

In proceeding to describe the most prominent features of this vast fabric, we will begin with pointing out what is most remarkable in the exterior.-Situated in the south-east part of the town of Warwick, it occupies a lofty site on the banks of the Avon. To the left on approaching is seen Cæsar's Tower, with an embattled turret of stone on one side; and to the right, Guy's Tower, named after that famed hero of the legends of antiquity, Guy, Earl of Warwick. The intervening space is occupied by the entrance, which is flanked by embattled walls clothed with ivy. On each side of the gate are double machiolated towers, leading through passages into the Great Court. On the left of the Court are the family apartments, and the only part that is now habitable. The other parts of the Court-yard are bounded by ramparts and turrets communicating by means of various passages. On one side of the area is an artificial mount, ascended by a spiral path, skirted by trees and shrubs, and surmounted by the remains of an ancient fortified building. A fine view of the antique pile, though somewhat irregular in its outline, is seen from the opposite bank of the river, and here the rock on which the Castle stands rises to a considerable height, and is incorporated in the wall of the building. The late Earl of Warwick, with good taste, altered and improved this part of the structure; but the entrance front has undergone no change since its erection by Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, about the latter part of the 14th century.

The habitable part of the interior consists of a grand suite of apartments, extending three hundred and thirty feet in a right line, chastely furnished and handsomely decorated. The principal Hall is 62 feet long, and 37 wide, paved with black and white stone, and wainscoted. The walls are hung with spears and other implements of ancient warfare, interspersed with pieces of armour. Many of the rooms are decorated with rich tapestryhangings and family portraits. In one of the apartments attached to Cæsar's Tower, are still preserved the sword, shield, helmet, &c., said to have belonged to that redoubted champion, Guy, Earl of Warwick. The grounds contiguous to Warwick Castle, which are very extensive, are well laid out, and kept in good order.

THE SEAT OF

GORE TOWNSEND, ESQ.

HONINGTON HALL is situated two miles from Shipston upon Stour, in the Hundred of Keinton. The present Mansion, a large edifice of brick, with stone dressings, commands a fine view of a tract of country enlivened by the river on the south; and, on the east, is a prospect of equal beauty within the Park. It was originally erected in the reign of Charles II., but was considerably improved by Joseph Townsend, Esq., who added a very handsome octagonal room, which measures thirty feet from side to side, and is thirty feet high; the dome is painted with the classical subject of Venus rising from the Sea, and the alternate angles are ornamented with carving, representing the Four Seasons of the year. The Dining-room, thirty-six feet long, opens upon a portico. The Hall, too, is lofty and spacious, being thirty feet long.

The same gentleman also made a really valuable collection of pictures, which adorn the principal apartments: amongst which are, The Prodigal Son, by Teniers; Seven Views of Venice, by Canaletti; Landscapes by both Nicolo and Gaspar Poussin; two Sea-pieces, by Vandervelde; a Landscape, by Jarvis ; Venus lying on a Couch, by Titian; a Boar Hunt, by Snyders; Portraits of Charles I. and his Queen, Henrietta Maria, by Vandyck; Sir Kenelm Digby, and Endymion Porter and Family, also by Vandyck; together with other very fine pictures, by the following scarcely less celebrated masters, Salvator Rosa, Ruysdaal, Taverner, Watteau, Vanderbank, Berchem, Guido, Vandermeer, Luca Giordano, &c. &c.

The Park, in which were formerly many head of deer, consists of nearly two hundred acres, and is finely wooded, admitting much variety in the scenery.

Dugdale, in his History of Warwickshire, describes Honington to be one of the Manors that Earl Leofric gave to the Monastery of Coventry, in the first year of the reign of Edward the Confessor. In the thirty-third of Henry III. the monks granted it to Ralph de Leicester, Canon of Lichfield, to hold during his life, together with the advowson of the church.

This property, with the rectory and advowson of the parish, was sold to the ancestors of Sir Ralph Gibbs, whose family possessed it in 1640. In the year 1662 the whole was purchased by Henry Parker, Esq., who then built the present Mansion. He was the father of Sir Henry Parker, Baronet. Afterwards the Estate came into the possession of Joseph Townsend, Esq., M.P. for Wallingford, Berks, who married Judith, the daughter and co-heiress of John Gore, Esq. of Bush Hill, Middlesex, third son of Sir William Gore, Knt. of Tring Park, in Hertfordshire, and M.P. for Great Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, in the reign of George the Second. Joseph Townsend, Esq. had an only son, Gore Townsend, Esq., the present possessor, who married Lady Elizabeth, second daughter of Other-Lewis Windsor, fourth Earl of Plymouth, and a daughter Anne, married to John Tempest, Esq., of Wynniard House, M.P. for Durham.