The Newtown bee., 1905-01-27
THE SHAKESPEARE COUNTRY.

THE SHAKESPEARE COUNTRY.
 IN TWO PAPERs-NUMBER oNE.-
 WRITTEN FOR THE BEE BY ROSS
 JEwELL.1z
 Two Englishmen once laid a wager as to the finest walk in England. | After the money had been put up, it | was found that one had named the l walk from Stratford to Coventry, and | the other that from Coventry to Strat- l ford.
 These interesting towns are eighteen miles apart in Warwickshire, in the heart of England. The history of both loses itself in obscurity about thous- and years back. Warwick is about midway between them, and Kenil-
 worth midway between Warwick and Coventry. All four towns are either
 upon or near the Avon, which flows in southwesterly direction through 1 WarwickShire on it's way to the Severn. l Warwick is also a station on the
 Great Western railway, two-thirds of
 the way from Oxford to Birmingham.
 It has neither the size nor the con-
 veniences of bennington, the popular
 watering place on the opposite side of
 England. Legend associates King
 Cymbeline with it's history and assigns it's foundation to the year one! What
 we know is that the Romans found a 1 Celtic settlement here nearly two mill leniumS ago and, in true Roman fash
 ion, converted it to their own uses
 The town retains much that is medi-
 eval, as the East and West Gate, the
 ivy-clad house formerly belonging to
 the Knights of St John and quaint
 half-timbered building known, since 1H71 as 1,aVcaStor Hos Crito1 for roor
 brothers. The founder of this hospital
 was Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, of Amy RObSart memory. The dis
 tinguished courtier lies buried in St
 Mary's church along with other mem-
 bers of the family, among them an in-
 fant son described in the inscription
 as a "Noble Impe." Here is also the
 tomb of Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, who, at the end of long life spent in l the service Of two sovereigns, made his , name immortal in a breath when he
 wished to be remembered by the after
 world as Servant to Elizabeth, coun- sellor to James, friend to Sidney" |: An unassuming home on the main s street was the house of Walter Savage Landor, a native of the town. A remarkable man was Landor. What an enigma he has proved for the critics! ] They are still looking for convenient | K, f His tremendous literary activity was U bounded by his nineteenth year and ] almost his ninetieth. "The unsubdu. - able old Roman," cries Carlyle ad. , miringly.
 stife; , warmd both hands against the fire of life; ] It sinks, and am ready to depart" s A bridge over the Avon affords fine I view of Warwick Castle, said to have Q been founded thousand years ago by . the daughter of King Alfred. Here | dwelt Warwick the "King- Maker, '' . who had 10000 men in his private g service at the breaking out of the Wars , of the Roses, and here the Parliamen- tarians successfully defended 6hem- {, selves against the Cromwellians. I James I gave the castle to Sir Fulke 9 Greville and it is still the property of :, the Grevilles. Scott and Hawthorne A have famous descriptions of it.
 5 The highway leading north from the ] town soon passes Guys Cliff, the seat r of Lord Percy, but formerly the posses. :, sion of Guy of Warwick. He it was J sters in Eye olden time." A short dis. tance from the house is a cave where t he lived in the disguise of an anchorite
 after his return from the Holy Land
 receiving daily aims from his unsus s pecting. wife, the Countess Felice. O1
 course he revealed himself to her al O last, and of course they were buried together. in the cave. Guys Cliff }. House was for some time the home o1 r Mrs Siddons, the great actress.
 s The road now passes Blacklow Hill r. on the top of which is monument marking the spot where Piers Caves s ton, the unfortunate favOrite of Ed. f ward II, was slain. Dickens, who had 0 no great love for Kings favorites, tells
 the story in the vigorous style char . acteristic of him when dealing witt : an object of his contempt.
 l In the Kings Arms Inn in Kenil