[Illustration: KENILWORTH CASTLE.]
About five miles from Warwick are the ruins of Kenilworth Castle, the
magnificent home of the Earl of Leicester, which Scott has immortalized.
Geoffrey de Clinton in the reign of Henry I. built a strong castle and
founded a monastery here. It was afterwards the castle of Simon de
Montfort, and his son was besieged in it for several months, ultimately
surrendering, when the king bestowed it on his youngest son, Edward,
Earl of Lancaster and Leicester. Edward II., when taken prisoner in
Wales, was brought to Kenilworth, and signed his abdication in the
castle, being afterwards murdered in Berkeley Castle. Then it came to
John of Gaunt, and in the Wars of the Roses was alternately held by the
partisans of each side. Finally, Queen Elizabeth bestowed it upon her
ambitious favorite, Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who made splendid
additions to the buildings. It was here that Leicester gave the
magnificent entertainment to Queen Elizabeth which was a series of
pageants lasting seventeen days, and cost $5000 a day--a very large sum
for those times. The queen was attended by thirty-one barons and a host
of retainers, and four hundred servants, who were all lodged in the
fortress. The attendants were clothed in velvet, and the party drank
sixteen hogsheads of wine and forty hogsheads of beer every day, while
to feed them ten oxen were killed every morning. There was a succession
of plays and amusements provided, including the Coventry play of "Hock
Tuesday" and the "Country Bridal," with bull-and bear-baiting, of which
the queen was very fond. Scott has given a gorgeous description of these
fetes and of the great castle, and upon these and the tragic fate of Amy
Robsart has founded his romance of _Kenilworth_. The display and
hospitality of the Earl of Leicester were intended to pave the way to
marriage, but the wily queen was not to be thus entrapped. The castle is
now part of the Earl of Clarendon's estate, and he has taken great pains
to preserve the famous ruins. The great hall, ninety feet long, still
retains several of its Gothic windows, and some of the towers rise
seventy feet high. These ivy-mantled ruins stand upon an elevated rocky
site commanding a fine prospect, and their chief present use is as a
picnic-ground for tourists. Not far away are the ruins of the priory,
which was founded at the same time as the castle. A dismantled
gate-house with some rather extensive foundations are all that remain.
In a little church near by the matins and the curfew are still tolled,
one of the bells used having belonged to the priory. Few English ruins
have more romance attached to them than those of Kenilworth, for the
graphic pen of the best story-teller of Britain has interwoven them into
one of his best romances, and has thus given an idea of the splendors as
well as the dark deeds of the Elizabethan era that will exist as long as
the language endures.
[Illustration: ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, BIRMINGHAM.]