some other persons were detained as prisoners, permitted him to retire to Italy. But he was there briefly seized with a fever, under the pressure of which he expired in his 23d year. The grounds attached to this residence are not extensive, but they abound in natural beauties, and are disposed with much taste. The rock on which the house and chapel are built, presents, towards the Avon, a rugged and varied face most fertile of the picturesque; and, perhaps, this portion of the Cliff acquires a transient and mysterious charm from its connexion with antient poesy. Here is shewn a cave, devoutly believed by neighbouring peasants to be that which Guy "hewed with his own hands," and in which he lived "Like a Palmer poore." The chapel founded by Richard Beauchamp is a plain, substantial edifice, in good repair, but otherwise treated with little ceremony. The founder caused to be carved, from the solid rock on which this chapel abuts, a rude statue of the famous Earl Guy, about eight feet in height. It would appear, from a print in Dugdale, that this figure was well preserved in the seventeenth century, but it is now much mutilated. The right hand formerly sustained a drawn sword, but both sword and arm have now disappeared. The hand of the shield-arm is also lost. The statue was likewise deficient in a leg; but a new one was bestowed, a few years back, by a female statuary of rank and deserved celebrity, while on a visit at the Cliff. The capacious stables, cellars, and out-offices of Guy's Cliff House, are all formed by excavations in the solid rock. About half a mile from Guy's Cliff is BLACKLOW-HILL, rendered memorable by the summary execution of Piers Gaveston. This assuming favourite of Edward II. was arrested at Scarborough, by a faction composed of many of the ancient nobles. It was intended to grant him an interview with the king, then at Wallingford; but on his way thither he was seized at Dedding ton, by Guy Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, whom he had branded with the epithet of the black hound of Arden, and was hurried to Blacklow-Hill, where his head was stricken off. On a part of the rocky hill near the top is the following ancient inscription: P. GAVESTON, EARL OF CORNWALL, At CHESTERTON there are, on the Roman Foss Way, the remains of a spacious castrametation; and that this was Roman appears evident," says Gibson," from three circumstances ;— first, the name of the place, which plainly comes from the Roman Castrum; secondly, its nearness to the Roman Foss, upon which it is certain that, at convenient distances, places of entertainment were built for the reception of the armies in their march; the third token is that, in the compass within which the Roman building is supposed to have stood, several old coins have been digged up." It is observable, that in the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, there is an omission of one station between Alcester (Alauna) and High Cross, (the presumed Benona.) In the commentary on this Itinerary, in the edition recently published by Mr. Hatcher, it is conjectured that this omission may safely be supplied by the place now under notice. Chesterton is about sixteen miles from the former station, and about twenty from the latter, Warwick is in a more direct line; but the advantages offered by the Foss-way may be well supposed to have induced the deviation; and we have already said that at Warwick there are not any traces of the Romans to be discovered. The manor of Chesterton was long possessed by the family of Peito; of which house was the Cardinal Peito, who had been Confessor to Queen Mary, and who was named Bishop of Salisbury, though the see was not then vacant, by Pope Paulus II1, and was appointed legate by the same Pontiff. But Mary, who, according • See Beauties, &c. for Oxfordshire, p. 468. according to Fuller," though drenched, was not drowned in popish principles," forbade the landing of the Cardinal, which he" took so tenderly," that he retired to France, and died in the ensuing April. At NEWBOLD-PACEY is the handsome residence of William Little, Esq.; and, in the parish of TANWORTH, is UmbersladeHall, a seat belonging to Lady Archer. The Archer family resided on this spot so early as the reign of Henry II.; and, in the twenty-first of George II. Thomas Archer was created Lord Archer, Baron of Umberslade. His lordship was succeeded by his son, Andrew, who, dying in 1778, without male issue, the title became extinct. THE HUNDRED OF BARLICHWAY is situate to the west of that named by the town of Kineton, The Roman road termed Icknield, or Ryknild, Street, enters this hundred on the south, and quits it in the neighbourhood of Ipsley. A minor road, constructed by the Romans, called the Ridgeway is distinguishable in many parts of the western border of this district. Barlichway Hundred is subject to four divisions;-Stratford, Snitterfield, Alcester, and Henley. STRATFORD DIVISION comprises the Town of Stratford-on-Avon, and the following parishes and hamlets :-Aston Cantlow; Bickmersh and Little Dorsington, (hamlet ;) Bidford; Billesley; Binton; Exhall; Haselor; Luddington (hamlet;) Oversley (hamlet ;) SalfordPrior; Stratford, old; Temple Grafton, and Arden; Wixford. STRATFORD-ON-AVON, the town so interesting as the birthplace of our great national poet, and the chosen spot to which he retired retired when competence allowed a freedom of choice, is situate near the south-west border of the county. It appears from an cient records, of an authentic description, that Stratford was a place of some note three centuries before the Norman Conquest. A monastery was founded here shortly after the conversion of the Saxons to the Christian faith; which stood, according to a tradition preserved by Leland, on the spot now occupied by the church. The town of Stratford was given to the bishopric of Worcester by Ethelard, viceroy of the Wiccians; and it continued to form a part of the possessions of that bishopric for many ages subsequent to the Conquest. In the Norman Survey Stratford is rated at fourteen hides and a half, and was then the property of St. Wolstan, Bishop of Worcester. At that time there was a church; a mill, value ten shillings per ann. and a thousand eels, &c. The value of the whole was estimated at 251. The town was much indebted, at an early period, to the patronage afforded by its mitred lords. John de Constantiis, the thirty-sixth Bishop of Worcester, (who, according to Godwin and several other writers, was consecrated in this town in 1196,) procured, in the seventh of Richard I. a charter for a weekly market on the Thursday; and Walter Grey, a succeeding bishop, obtained, in the sixteenth of King John, a charter for an annual fair, to commence on the eve of the Holy Trinity, and to continue for the two succeeding days. William de Bleys, the fortieth bishop, obtained a charter for another annual fair, to be kept on the eve of St. Augustin, and two following days. A charter for a third annual fair, to be holden on the eve of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and two subsequent days, was procured by Walter de Cantalupe, Bishop of Worcester, in the twenty-fourth of King Henry III. And, in the fifty-third of the same king, Bishop Godfrey obtained a charter for a fourth fair, to be kept on Holy Thursday and the two following days. |