[9] Robert Dudley [1532-1588] seems not to have been an admirable man, but certain facts of his life appear to have been considerably misrepresented. He married Amy Robsart, daughter of Sir John Robsart, of Siderstern, Norfolk, on June 4, 1550, publicly, and in presence of King Edward the Sixth. Amy Robsart never became Countess of Leicester, but died, in 1560, four years before Dudley became Earl of Leicester, by a "mischance,"--namely, an accidental fall downstairs,--at Cumnor Hall, near Abingdon. She was not at Kenilworth, as represented in Scott's novel, at the time of the great festival in honour of Queen Elizabeth, in 1575, because at that time she had been dead fifteen years. Dudley secretly married Douglas Howard, Lady Sheffield, in 1572-73, but would never acknowledge her. His third wife was the Lætitia whose affection deplores him, in the Beauchamp chapel. [10] Those cedars are ranked with the most superb trees in the British Islands. Two of the group were torn up by the roots during a terrific gale, which swept across England, leaving ruin in its track, on Sunday, March 24, 1895. [11] Length. Height of Tower. Winchester 556 ft. 138 ft. St. Albans 548 ft. 4 in. 144 ft. York 524 ft. 6 in. 213 ft. [12] The White Horse upon the side of the hill at Westbury was made by removing the turf in such a way as to show the white chalk beneath, in the shape of a horse. The tradition is that this was done by command of Alfred, in Easter week, A.D. 878, to signalise his victory over the Danes, at Oetlandune, or Eddington, at the foot of the hill. Upon the top of that hill there is the outline of an ancient Roman camp. [13] The curfew bell is rung at Bromham church, at eight o'clock in the evening, on week days, from Michaelmas to Lady Day, and at the same hour on every Sunday throughout the year; and on Shrove Tuesday the bell is rung at one o'clock in the day. [14] Sloperton Cottage is now, 1896, the property of H. H. Ludlow Burgess, of Seend. [15] The famous actor was knighted, by Queen Victoria, in 1895, and became Sir Henry Irving. [16] "In our stage to Penrith I introduced Anne to the ancient Petreia, called Old Penrith, and also to the grave of Sir Ewain Cæsarius, that knight with the puzzling name, which has got more indistinct."--_Journal of Sir Walter Scott_, Vol. II., p. 151. [17] The poet Gray, who visited these mountains in 1769, wrote, in his Journal, October 1: "Place Fell, one of the bravest among them, pushes its bold broad breast into the midst of the lake, and forces it to alter its course, forming first a large bay to the left and then bending to the right."