The curious word “beth” we may read as “be-eth,” _i.e._ “it is”; or, as a rustic might say, even to this day, “it be.” These words are enamelled in black on a white ground. Below them, on a seal, are Lord Cobham’s arms: gules, on a chevron or, three lions rampant sable. He died in 1408, at a very great age; about ninety-five. His granddaughter, Joan, married, as her fourth husband, Sir John Oldcastle, the “good Lord Cobham,” friend of Henry the Fifth and of Wycliffe. He became a religious reformer and friend of the Lollards, and thus incurred the enmity of the Church; churchmen then, as now, and at all times, being eager in heresy-hunting. He was cited to appear before Archbishop Arundel, but when the apparitor appeared he shut himself up behind these formidable walls and defied the citation. But eventually he was brought to trial in London. He denied the doctrine of the Real Presence, and in the disputes with the bench of bishops declared the Pope was Antichrist, the prelates his members, and the friars his tail. He was condemned to be burnt, and although he escaped and wandered about the country nearly four years, he met a martyr’s fate at Christmas 1417, when he was hanged, and burnt hanging. Thus ended the “good Lord Cobham,” one of the earliest victims of a bloodstained Church without pity or remorse. Of the castle little remains except the gatehouse towers with their bold machicolations, the moat, and the crypt of the Great Chamber. A modern house has been built in the enclosure. [Illustration: THE “CHARTER,” COOLING CASTLE.]