such gallantry that Elizabeth knighted him for his achievements. The brave old knight closed a life of honour in 1601, being then 102 years of age, and was buried at Bunbury, where his recumbent effigy upon an altar-tomb beneath a pointed arch may be seen, with a long Latin inscription above it in which his services to his country are recorded. The granddaughter of Sir George Beeston conveyed the manor and castle in marriage to William Whitmore, of Leighton, Esquire, from whom it descended through the Savages to Sir Thomas Mostyn, who died in 1831, when the property passed by sale to the present Lord Tollemache. For more than a generation Beeston remained uncared for, and ceased to have any significance as a military station. Under the vigorous rule of the Tudor sovereigns there had been no incursion or civil commotion that rendered a display of strength and resistance necessary, and it was not until the great outbreak of the seventeenth century, when almost every considerable mansion in Cheshire was garrisoned for king or Parliament, that it was again put into a state of defence and made to undergo the ordeal of a protracted siege. At the beginning of 1643 Sir William Brereton, the Parliamentary commander, who had occupied Nantwich with a force of 2,000 or 3,000 men, found himself menaced by Sir Thomas Aston, who at the time was holding the fortified city of Chester on behalf of the King, and had attacked and pillaged Middlewich and other places. Under such circumstances, Beeston, offering as it did so many natural advantages, was too important a station to be neglected, and accordingly on the night of the 21st February (1642-3), 300 of the Parliamentary soldiers climbed the hill, and established themselves in possession, not, however, without some opposition, for it is recorded that on the same night they were met by the horse of the array on Te’erton (Tiverton, the adjoining township) townfield, where one of Colonel Mainwaring’s officers was slain on the Parliamentary side, and a few others of the King’s, who were buried at Tarporley. The first work of the Puritan garrison was to repair and strengthen the fortifications, and put the castle in such a condition as would secure its holders against attack. The contest between sovereign and subject continued throughout the year, with varying results. In November, General Brereton, at the head of the Cheshire and Lancashire forces, marched into Wales, but hearing of the arrival (at Parkgate, probably) of Royalist reinforcements from Ireland, hastily fell back upon Nantwich. His retreat would seem to have disheartened the garrison at Beeston, for within three weeks Captain Steel, the commandant, surrendered the castle, without the semblance of a struggle, to Captain Sandford, an Irish officer, who, with eight men, had a little before daybreak on the morning of the 13th December (1643) crept up the hill, and got possession of the upper ward. The story of the capture is told