This latter date brings us to a very remarkable period in the history of our town. In that year, viz, the 4th of King Charles I., and on the 2nd day of October, the King made a grant of the Castle, to Gilbert North, Esq., one of the Gentlemen of the Privy Bed Chamber. It had been a royal castle from the time that it was taken by Henry I. from Robert de Belesme—a period of more than five hundred years. But now, perhaps on account of the cost of keeping it in repair, it was transferred to the possession of a gentleman belonging to the King’s household, who by a subsequent deed of the same year, transferred it to Sir William Whitmore, Knight, in whose family it has continued ever since.[45] It is indeed greatly to be regretted that its present possessor should have so small a remnant of it to call his own, and that the leaning tower on Castle Hill, as it is popularly called, should be all that is left of this once noble fortress of the middle ages. But how it came to be thus reduced to utter ruin, is the subject which must now occupy our attention; and it is one which is intimately connected with the stirring events of that period. [45] Apley MSS. At the time in which Bridgnorth Castle was transferred to the Whitmore family, the nation was in a great state of political disquietude. The King was disposed to carry his royal prerogative beyond the limit which the law had assigned to it; and many members of the Houses of Parliament in resisting the encroachment, were tempted to invade the rights of legitimate authority, and became in the struggle fierce and unrelenting enemies to the Crown. This contest of prerogative on the one hand, and the spirit of liberty on the other, brought about the Great Rebellion; and this fair land was once more destined to be the scene of civil strife, in which was shed the best and noblest blood of England. Of the two parties into which our countrymen were then divided, the Royalists and Roundheads, it is not my province to say much; I know to which of the two, had I lived at the time, my feelings and principles would have attached me; yet I feel bound to acknowledge, that while I regard some of the opinions and some of the acts of the insurgent party with a feeling nothing short of abhorrence, there were among them, both among their soldiers and their divines, men of the highest character, and whose minds were cast in the finest mould; nor am I unwilling to allow that England is in a great measure indebted to this party for the present freedom of her institutions.[46] Respecting, however, the great leader of the party, Oliver Cromwell, I cannot agree with some late writers, who have endeavoured to canonize his memory, and who try to represent him as a pure and unselfish patriot. He was indeed a man of great qualities, of fearless fortitude, and untiring energy; and perhaps at the commencement of his public course he was upright and single hearted in his intentions: but there can be no