Warwickshire

es from Warwick and situated amidst lovely scenery, is Baddesley Clinton, a typical old moated manor–house, such as a few years ago was associated in Christmastide publications with st

gs dating from the fifteenth century, and nowadays, alas! becoming fewer

e last years of the fifteenth century the property of one Nicholas Brome, at whose death it passed in 1517 to his daughter and co–heiress, Constantia, who had married in 1497 Sir Edward Ferrers, a grandson of Willia

ally on the bridge at St. Neots; Groby passing into the hands of the Greys. A younger son of the Ferrers of Tamworth

a grey and a bright bay horse, which were led away by the troopers, one of them with a rich plush saddle trimmed round about the skirts with gold lace and gold fringe; arms and armour; gunpowder; cash taken from a desk; a Geneva Bible, and even the linen from the drying room! But the fam

lived quietly at Baddesley Clinton, and died leaving no heir; his widow marrie

a well–like shaft of stone, formerly provided with steps or projecting stones, by means of which a fugitive was able to reach a secret passage extending round nearly the whole length of two sides of the house, and giving access to a small water–gate opening on the moat, at which a boat was kept at hand for

f which may possibly at some future time be diescovered quite by accident,

HAWAY'S

der an embattled tower, which although giving a distinction to this, the north–eastern front of the building, is apparently of no great age. The door is an an

from the middle of the seventeenth century, and ornamented with seven shields of the family arms painted on the stone–work, the last shield commemorating the marriage of Edward Ferrers and Ann Peyto in 1611. The chief features of the room, however, are the heraldic devices of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries which adorn the windows; an old seventeenth century cabinet of quaint design, the front of which is divided into twenty small panels and ornamented with g

table by the large carved oak fireplace, which is ornamented by the arms of the Ferrers of Groby. In thi

ng to the enclosed gallery running round the inner part of thre

aching from the floor to the ceiling, is on the left of the staircase, and this room i

us bell, dating from 1555, and having on it a small incised female effigy, supposed to represe

d window, and containing some good and very ancient oak carving and panelling, and also some beautiful

e parish priest he found, according to Dugdale, "chocking his wife under the chin, whereat he was so enraged that he presently kil'd him." For this offence the murderer had to obtain the King's pardon and also the Pope's, who enjoined him

. In connection with the manor of Baddesley Clinton there is an interesting entry in the Manor Rolls, recording that the Shakesp

rchitecture, and to the eyes of the skilled antiquarian, the three chief periods of its history. The outer walls are those of the ancient home of the Bromes, as it came into possession of the Ferrers family; but inside the house are many evidences of the money spent in its fittings and beautifying by

linton, and the views from the upper windows into the ivy–covered courty

ter. Packington Hall is now the seat of the Earl of Aylesford, a substantial building, set amid a pleasant park, built by Sir Clement Fisher in 1693, and enlarged and faced with stone three–quarters of a century lat

that this ancient fortified residence possesses for students of architecture and of the manners and customs of past ages. In Maxstoke, indeed, there is little to break the medieval spell which seems to hang so closely about its time–worn walls, and be so in keeping with its retired si

is so intimately connected with the neighbouring city of Birmingham, the house has be

ving place to dwelling–houses, well–defended, it is true, but which, though still protected by walls, towers, and even

f the old barbican, is beneath or rather between two tall and formidable towers; the ancient drawbridge having been replaced by a stone bridge crossing the moat, and leading from the avenue of elms to the courtyard. But although both drawbridge and portcullis are gone, the g

the feudal privileges of gallows and tumbril, and assay of bread and beer. Edmund Oddingsells, who died without issue in Edward I.'s reign, had, however

rly times became identified with the doings of men who played a conspicuous part in the affairs of their country. The mother of Ida, the wife of John de Clinton, was Elizabeth, daughter of the famous William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury. John de Clinto

the Castle was left to his nephew, a Sir John de Clinton, for whom he appears to have designed it. This John de Clinton was the son of his elder brother John, and was, therefore, the grandson of the first possessor of Maxstoke of the Clinton line. The family were barons by writ, and the new owner was a soldie

. He was succeeded by his son, another John, who in 1437 exchanged the castle with Humphrey, Ea

mbassador to France. He had also another distinction conferred upon him, that of precedence before all other Dukes who might thenceforward be created, excepting only descendants of the King. He was a warm supporter of the Lancastrian cause and, owing to his marriage with Margaret Beaufort, daughter and heiress of Edmund Duke of Somerset, was related to t

ARE'S BI

y sheets of iron bearing his arms and supporters, and also the "

chief residence, but the names of many of the constables he appo

ited by the second Duke and have

is a partly timbered house, the front portion having been rebuilt in t

ining this, and communication between it and the hall must have been carried on across the chapel, the lower part of which is nowadays used as a butler's pantry, and the upper p

lighted by three windows. On the west side there is a fine carved mantelpiece of coloured stone, orname

s Sider

ode is, No

th out; Str

n the hall are also some interesting relics of former times, such as stone cannon balls, iron balls, pipe bowls f

oorway forming a sort of inner porch, and with the door very deeply panelled. There is in this room a curious picture of

s was brought from an old house at Bosworth Field. It bears on the brass plate attached to it th

bove it is the bedroom known as Henry VII.'s; and over that again is the top to

een made out of a tree at which Oliver Cromwell practised marksmanship in Coleshil

t of all those interested in architectural survivals and the preservation of historic houses that the castle presents in this twentieth century so interesting and perfect

rather an example of the defensive manor–house which came into being when residences of a more formidable nature had become no longer necessary. The

was born Mary Ann Evans, afterwards to become famous as "George Eliot." The building is quite a small farmhouse, having one bay and a

Arbury Estate, and the family afterwards, whilst the future n

in "Mr. Gilfil's Love Story," which she commenced to write on Christmas Day 1856, Astley Church appears under the disguise of "Knebley Church"; whilst Sir Ro