Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 14024-h.htm or 14024-h.zip: (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/dirs//1/4/0/2/14024/14024-h/14024-h.htm) or (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/dirs/1/4/0/2/14024/14024-h.zip) THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. VOL. 20, NO. 566.] SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1832. [PRICE 2d. * * * * * [Illustration: BOLSOVER CASTLE.] BOLSOVER CASTLE Bolsover is a populous village on the eastern verge of Derbyshire upon the adjacent county of Nottingham; and but a short distance from the town of Chesterfield. The Castle occupies the plain of a rocky hill that rises abruptly from the meadows. The building is of great extent, and, from its elevated situation, it is a landmark for the surrounding country. Bolsover has been the site of a castle from the Norman Conquest to the present time; but, of the first fabric of this description not a single vestige now remains. At the Domesday survey it belonged to William Peveril, lord of Derbyshire, in whose family it remained for three generations. King John, when Earl of Moreton, became the possessor of Bolsover; but, during his continuation with Longchamp, bishop of Ely, it became the property of that prelate. Subsequently it again reverted to John, who, in the eighteenth year of his reign, issued a mandate to Bryan de L'Isle, the then governor of Bolsover, to fortify the castle and hold it against the rebellious barons; or, if he could not make it tenable, to demolish it. This no doubt was the period when the fortifications, which are yet visible about Bolsover, were established.