_Maxstoke_ is one of the very few castles which have come down to us without the expression "dismantled by order of Parliament" being applied to it. It affords us an idea of the beauty the face of England would present, so far as magnificent castles are concerned, if the forces of destruction and revolution had never been let loose upon our fair isle. It dates from 1346, when William de Clynton, Earl of Huntingdon, obtained licence to crenellate. The Duke of Buckingham owned and occupied it in 1444; he was killed at Northampton in 1460, and his son Humphrey, Earl of Stafford, having died of wounds received at the First Battle of St. Albans in 1455, his grandson Henry succeeded him but was beheaded without trial at Salisbury in 1483. Edward Stafford, however, succeeded to the estates in the reign of Henry VII.; his death by beheading occurred on Tower Hill in 1521. Maxstoke came to the Crown but was given by Henry VIII. to Sir William Compton, from whose descendants it was purchased by the family of Dilke in whose possession it still remains. [Illustration: MAXTOKE CASTLE, WARWICKSHIRE.] The gatehouse is in excellent preservation, the entrance being flanked by hexagonal towers, while the archway contains the grooves for the portcullis, and also the old gates themselves, plated with iron and bearing the arms of the Stafford family. A fine groined roof is inside the gatehouse, while the battlements have an alur behind them. The walls of the enceinte and the four towers at the corners are in good preservation, and show marks of the wooden buildings formerly erected against them for accommodating the soldiers. The Chapel and a number of the domestic apartments are original, dating from the time of Edward III.