Some odd cures for certain ailments are prescribed in remote parts of
the Cotswolds. Garden snails, for instance, which in Wiltshire are sold
for ordinary consumption, namely, food, as "wall fruit," are used here
externally as a remedy for ague: and roasted mouse is a specific for the
whooping-cough. But for the latter complaint as efficacious a result may
be obtained by the pleasanter mode of riding on a donkey's back nine
times round a finger-post. This remedy, however, properly belongs to
Worcestershire.
If we continue in a south-westerly direction we shall pass historic
Sudeley, near Winchcombe, Postlip Hall, and Southam House. Sudeley
Castle must have been magnificent before it was dismantled in the Civil
War. Bravely it stood two sieges, but at length capitulated; and being
left a ruin by Cromwell's soldiers, the magnificent fifteenth-century
mansion was left for close upon two centuries to act as a quarry for the
neighbourhood. Under such disadvantages was its restoration commenced,
and it is wonderful what has been done; yet there has been a certain
admixture of Edwardian and Elizabethan portions which is somewhat
confusing. The banqueting room, with its noble oriel windows (originally
glazed with beryl), the keep with its dungeons, and the kitchen with its
huge fireplace four yards across, speak of days of lordly greatness, and
the names of many weighty nobles as well as kings and queens are closely
associated with the castle. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was once
possessed of it; the youngest son of Owen Tudor and Henry V.'s widow
lived there; so did Sir Thomas Seymour, Edward VI.'s uncle, who married
and buried there Henry VIII.'s last queen, at which ceremony Lady Jane
Grey was chief mourner. Elizabeth was here upon one of her progresses,
and Charles I. was the last sovereign who slept there. The restored
rooms are full of historical furniture, pictures, and relics. Here may
be seen Amy Robsart's bed, or one of them, from Cumnor Hall: and the bed
upon which the martyr king slept, not here but at Kineton, before
Edgehill. There are numerous relics of the queen, who had the tact to
outlive her august spouse, and the foolishness to marry a fourth
husband. Catherine Parr's various books and literary compositions may
here be studied, including the letter in which she accepted Seymour's
offer of marriage. He was by no means the best of husbands, but a vast
improvement on the royal tyrant who had coldly planned the queen's
destruction; but owing to her ready wit his wrath was turned upon
Wriothesley, who was to have arrested her; for when he came to perform
that office, Henry called him an "an errant knave and a beast." There
are lockets containing locks of her auburn hair, and portions of the
dress she wore. But the main interest is centred in the chapel where the
queen was buried. This building was dismantled with the rest in 1649,
and the fine Chandos monuments destroyed. Catherine's tomb, which was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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