July 2.
_Guy's Porridge Pot._--In the porter's lodge at Warwick Castle are
preserved some enormous pieces of armour, which, _according to
tradition_, were worn by the famous champion "Guy, Earl of Warwick;" and
in addition (with other marvellous curiosities) is also exhibited Guy's
porridge pot, of bell metal, said to weigh 300 lbs., and to contain 120
gallons. There is also a flesh-fork to ring it.
Mr. Nichols, in his _History of Leicestershire_, Part ii. vol. iii.,
remarks,
"A turnpike road from Ashby to Whitwick, passes through Talbot
Lane. Of this lane and the famous large pot at Warwick Castle,
we have an old traditionary couplet:
"'There's nothing left of Talbot's name,
But Talbot's Pot and Talbot's Lane.'
"Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, died in 1439. His eldest
daughter, Margaret, was married to John Talbot Earl of
Shrewsbury, by whom she had one son, John Viscount Lisle, from
whom the Dudleys descended, Viscount Lisle and Earl of Warwick."
It would therefore appear that neither the armour nor the pot belonged
to the "noble Guy"--the armour being comparatively of modern
manufacture, and the pot, it appears, descended from the Talbots to the
Warwick family: which pot is generally filled with punch on the birth of
a male heir to that noble family.
W. Reader.
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