neglecting to keep proper guard, the fortress was surprised, and all the building, except the towers, levelled with the ground, while himself and his Countess were carried prisoners to Kenilworth. The family of Beauchamp shortly succeeded to the Earldom, and by Thomas Beauchamp, in the reign of Edward the Third, the castle was repaired, strong gates were added, and the gateways fortified with embattled towers. Thomas de Beauchamp, his son and successor, passed a great portion of his time here, during his exile from Court; he had, thus, leisure to repair and strengthen the castle; and he it was who built the tower as stated above, on which he bestowed the name of Guy’s Tower; it is a fine relic of early castellated building, and is represented in our initial letter.[66] The daughter of this Richard Beauchamp married Richard Nevil, son and heir of the Earl of Salisbury, and in consequence of this marriage the Earldom of Warwick came into the possession of the Nevils. This powerful Earl played a conspicuous part in the wars of the Roses, and has been immortalised by Shakspeare, in his drama of King Henry VI.; and, after a life of strange vicissitude and high excitement, he was killed in the battle of Barnet, A.D. 1471. His estates were forfeited, his widow was deprived of all power, “as if she had been naturally dead,” and her vast inheritances were settled upon her daughters, Isabel and Anne, the latter of whom was married to George Duke of Clarence, created Earl of Warwick by his brother, King Edward the Fourth. He chiefly resided at Warwick Castle, and added much to the strength and beauty of its works. On the accession of Henry the Seventh, the jealousy of that monarch to his son Edward, the last of the male Plantagenets, induced him to compass his death, by holding out to him fair promises and a hope of liberty (for he had been imprisoned in the Tower on a groundless charge, to keep him secure), to confess a connection with Perkin Warbeck, after which confession he was beheaded on Tower-hill. From this time until the 1st of Edward the Sixth there was no Earl of Warwick; until John Dudley having been advanced to the dignity of Viscount L’Isle, was so created through the favour of the Duke of Somerset, the powerful Protector; and on the failure of that line, the title was revived by James the First, in the person of Robert Lord Rich, in whose posterity it continued till the year 1759, when it passed into the family of the Grevilles, who now hold the title of Earl Brooke and Earl of Warwick, their seats being Warwick Castle and Brooke House, Dorset. The Castle occupies the summit of a steep hill, which greatly aided its artificial defences in “the olden time.” The present approach is [Illustration]