Among the numerous buildings lately raised at Leamington Spa, provision is made for the gay as well as the sick and drooping. A capacious assembly room is completed, with attached apartments for the dissimilar amusements of reading and playing billiards; and a splendid pump-room and neat theatre are in a forward state of preparation. A news room, including a picture gallery and promenade, has been constructed by Mr. Bisset, late of the Museum, Birmingham. The lodging-houses and hotels contain every accommodation which the sick or gay may desire; and, as a circumstance equally connected with the amusement of the fashionable, and the benefit of the convalescent, it must be obscrved that the scenery around is rural and attractive, and the walks and rides well calculated to add to the celebrity of the waters. The season lasts from April to November. KIRBY DIVISION contains the following parishes, hamlets, and townships :-Allesley; Arley; Astley; Bedworth; Binley, with the liberty of Earnsford; Brandon and Bretsford (hamlet;) Brinklow; Bulkington; Burton Hastings; Combe-Fields, otherwise Combe Abbey; Copston (Hamlet ;) Coundon; Easenhall (hamlet ;) Harborough-Magna; Monks-Kirby; Pailton (township ;) Shilton; Sow (part of;) Stretton-Baskerville; Stretton-under-Foss, and Newbold-Revel (township;) Wibtoft (hamlet;) Willenhall (hamlet;) Willey; Wolreley; Whythebrook, with Hopsford. The noble mansion termed COMBE ABBEY is erected on the site of a religious house of the Cistercian order, founded by Richard de Camvill, in the reign of King Stephen. This was the first settlement of the Cistercian monks in the county of Warwick, and various benefactors arose, whose pious gifts cuabled the abbots and brethren to maintain a course of secluded dignity through the long term of nearly four centuries. When the dissolution of eudowed religious houses took place in the time of Henry VIII. the revenues of this monastery were stated at 3021, 15s. 3d. per ann. The The property was granted by Edward VI. to John, Earl of Warwick; and, after the attainder of that nobleman, was leased, at the rent of 1961. 8s. 1d. to Robert Kelway, surveyor of the court of wards and liveries, whose daughter Anne conveyed the possession, by marriage, to John Harrington, Esq. afterwards Lord Harrington. Lucy, the daughter of this Lord, and wife to Edward, Earl of Bedford, became heir on the death of a brother, but the profuse expenses in which she indulged caused the estate to be alienated to the ancestors of the Earl of Craven, In the latter noble family it is at present vested. The name by which this seat is distinguished implies the flatness of its situation ; but the adjacent country is of a pleasing character, and the attached park, which comprises five hundred acres, is finely adorned with wood and water. The greater part of the present edifice was raised by Lord Harrington, on the ruins of the monastic pile. The form of the structure is that so usual in the early part of the seventeenth century, the half of the Roman H; but, in selecting this mode of architectural disposal, it would appear that his lordship in some measure attended to the shape of the original building. Considerable remains of two cloisters are still to be seen, which mark the course of the antient structure. These fragments are in careful preservation, and chiefly consist of Norman arches and pillars, which are exhi bited on the inner face of a fine corridor that ranges along the lower division of the mansion. The sides of this corridor are hung with antlers, of every growth and size, and various emblems of baronial free warren. Considerable enlargements have been made by different noble owners, but a laudable attention has been paid to architectural consistency in the great front view. On the west an additional pile has been raised, from a design, as it is said, of Inigo Jones. This division, though by no means allusive to the prevailing character of the edifice, is sufficiently distinct to avoid offending by incongruity 2 E 2 ⚫ Cwm, in the British, and Combe, or Cumbe, in the Saxon, signify a low and hollow place. See Antiq. of War, &c. incongruity of style, while it forms a fine and judicious augmenttation to the interior. Few ancient mansions contain ranges of apartments better suited to purposes of state and dignified hospitality than Combe Abbey. Many rooms are of noble proportions, and the avenues of communication are chiefly light and spacious. The walls are lined throughout with paintings of high interest, both from story and execution ;-accumulated memorials of the taste and liberality. of many noble proprietors. From our limited notice of those which appear most attractive, it will be seen that the collection is particularly rich in portraits of the ill-fated Stuart family.. This circumstance is to be accounted for in the following manner. William Lord Craven, one of the heroic characters of the seventeenth century, was the most forward, and the most entirely devoted, of the many champions produced by the charms and misfortunes of Elizabeth of Bohemia. This princess was the eldest daughter of James I. and was married to Frederic, the elector palatine, who was advanced to the regal honour, as King of Bohemia, by the revolted states when an attempt was made to shake off the yoke of the Emperor Ferdinand II. The battle of Prague deprived Frederie at once of regal dignity and hereditary right. On descending from the throne he encountered fortune in her most adverse mood, and entered Holland a fugitive and a beggar. Many English cavaliers, the latest offspring of decayed chivalry, struggled without avail to reinstate him in power. The ardour of these knights was partly stimulated by a romantic admiration. of Elizabeth his queen. The votaries of this bright star of the Stuarts were numerous, and it is supposed that at an after period, It was to Elizabeth that Sir Henry Wotton addressed the elegant lines, commencing You meaner beauties of the night, That weak lie satisfie our eies More by your number than your lighte, Like common people of the skies, Eee Beauties, &c. for Kent, 1213. |