WARWICK CASTLE.

somed by the payment of 1900 marks. In the ninth year of Edward II. upon an extent of the lands of Guy Beauchamp earl of Warwick, taken after his death, the ditches and courts of this Castle were valued at 6s. 8d. per annum; and the garden adjoining, with another called the vineyard, at the same sum. In the fourteenth year of the same reign, on account of the minority of Thomas de Beauchamp, son and heir of the deceased earl, the command of the Castle was given to Thomas Sutton, to whom Walter de Beauchamp, then constable, was ordered to deliver it up. The next year it was put into the custody of the sheriff, who being forcibly driven out by one Thomas Blauncfort, the king directed his precept to the sheriff, ordering him to take with him John Peche, a leading man in the county, or any other of his loyal subjects, to require the delivery thereof, and to commit Thomas Blauncfort and his adherents to prison, which was accordingly performed, and Peche constituted governor; he was succeeded in the twentieth of the same reign by Thomas de Blount. In the time of Edward III. the government of the Castle was, during the minority of the then earl, entrusted to Roger Mortimer of Wigmore; and in the forty-fifth year of this reign, Thomas, carl of Warwick, rebuilt the walls of the Castle, which were demolished during the reign of Henry III. adding strong gates, and fortifying the gateways with embattled towers. This earl Thomas obtained great honour by his courage and good conduct at the battles of Cressy and Poictiers.

WARWICK CASTLE.

On the accession of Richard II. the earl of Warwick retired from court to his Castle, and amused himself with building: he erected the tower at the north-east corner of the Castle, called Guy's Tower, the walls of which are ten feet thick. In the twenty-first year of Richard II. the earl was siezed by order of the king, and condemned by parliament to lose his head, for having appeared in arms with the duke of Glocester; the sentence was afterwards remitted, but his estates were forfeited, and the custody of the Castle given to John de Clinton. Beauchamp was sent to the Isle of Man, there to remain a prisoner for life; but the same year he was brought back to the Tower, and, on the revolution in favour of Henry IV. restored to all his honours and estates.

In the first year of the reign of Edward VI. John Dudley was made earl of Warwick, and had granted to him the Castle at Warwick, with divers lands, which belonged to the former earls: on his attainder the honours escheated to the crown, and were afterwards granted by queen Elizabeth, with the title, to Ambrose his son, who, dying without issue, it reverted to the crown. In the second year of James I. the Castle was granted in fee to sir Foulk Greville, knight, who was afterwards created a baron; the Castle was then in a very ruinous condition, and used as the county jail. Sir Foulk expended £20,000 in embellishments and reparation, and in this family it has ever since continued.

The present noble possessor some years since com