Any mention of Warwick Castle without a reference to the celebrated Warwick Vase, one of the most remarkable remains of the art of ancient Greece, would be incomplete. This fine vase, which was purchased by the second Earl of Warwick from his uncle Sir William Hamilton, is not in the castle itself, but in the conservatory standing in the grounds beyond the stone bridge spanning the moat, which was built to replace the ancient drawbridge. The inscription on the pedestal runs, “This monument of ancient art and Roman splendour was dug out of the ruins of the Tiburtine Villa, the favourite retreat of Hadrian Augustus, that it was restored by the order of Sir William Hamilton, Ambassador from George III., King of Great Britain, to Ferdinand IV., King of Sicily, who sent it home, and was by him dedicated to the ancestral or national genius of liberal arts in 1774.” The romantic story of the vase runs as follows. During some excavations which were being carried out in the bed of a small lake called Pantinello near Tivoli, about sixteen miles from Rome, in 1770, the workmen unearthed the vase. How it came to be at the bottom of this lake has never been discovered and, indeed, can even scarcely be conjectured. But in view of the fact that Hadrian’s Villa was, in the year A.D. 546, occupied by Totila, King of the Goths, who was laying siege to Rome at that time, it may be that the vase was cast into the lake by Adrian’s orders to save it from the invaders. The villa itself was finished about A.D. 138, but the vase is undoubtedly of considerably earlier date, and by some authorities is considered to have been the work of a Greek artist, Lysippus of Sicyon, who lived at the close of the fourth century, when a more elegant style was just replacing the more severe types of art of Phydias and his school. The vase is circular in form, 5 feet 6 inches high and 5 feet 8 inches in diameter, and is constructed of white marble. The base or pedestal on which it stands is modern. The handles of the vase are formed of vine stems, smaller branches of which run round the upper lip, and from which depend bunches of grapes so as to form a frieze. Covering the lower rim are two tiger and panther skins, of which the heads and four paws adorn the sides of the vase, the hind legs interlacing and hanging down between the handles. The heads of Sileni or male attendants of Bacchus are arranged along the tiger skins, with one exception of a female head, probably that of a Bacchante or faun. With regard to this head, however, some authorities have held that it is a modern restoration, and represents Sir William Hamilton’s wife Emma—of Nelson fame. Between the heads are thyrsi or Bacchic rods entwined with ivy and vine shoots, and litui or augural wands used in taking omens. The capacity of the vase is more than one hundred and sixty gallons, and the use to which it was put or for which it was intended has been the subject of much speculation.