The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-01
Rn EEoRGE T. BYE

Whselright Marsh, an insurance cdpI- talist of Chicago and Boston, has taken possession as tenant of Warwick Castle one of the grandest and hoariest roots of English history. When this little ancient town of Warwick, which for so many centuries has looked up trust ingly and obeisantly to the castles s great battle towers, had partially re- covered from the shock of an Ameri- can commoner occupying the seat of the great earl and oYerlord of War wickshire, there came second earth quake The rumor is out that MT Marsh is so pleased with the place he is negotiating to buy 1t.
 Mir and Mrs. Marsh recently arrived, had commissioned an agent to look up a fine old house in the English coun- try where they might live for few weeks, "expense no object" Radium is not scarcer than houses in Great Britain. But the agent was finally gloriously successful in getting rent quoted for Warwick castle. War taxes have embarrassed the earl and countess of Warwick, who have another enor- nous estate at Easton Lodge DunmoW, Essex. They needed MT. Marsh's money, and he was delighted to get their castle with all it's magnificent furnishings and priceless objects of art.
 Warwick castle is even more im-
 
 of the royal family. and much older. We speak of a mans man. Warwick is a castles castle, with a view up and down the Avon as majestic as any in England. The present towers and fit- teen-foot walls were completed in the fourteenth century, but parts of the stronghold date back at least 800 years earlier. English kings have occupied the castle. Ethelfreda, daughter of Al. sc caf1 fp h1 araRtpd a dungeon keep on fortress mound within the inner court in 9l5. This was enlarged by the Earl of Warwick in the time of William the Conqueror. Richard III built what is known as the Bear Tower and his brother, George, Duke of Clarence, started what is known as the Clarence tower.
 Although only MT. Marsh may call Warwick castle his invoilable home citadel for the moment, anybody With two spare shillings may go through it during certain hours of the day, as has been the custom for years. corps of guides is on hand, and so popular is the castle and it's grounds to sightseers that these guides are al- ways out with parties of ten to thirty.
 You buy your admission ticket out side the castle walls. You enter through the gatehouse, and after a
  cut into solid rock you suddenly get closeup view of the principal battle- ments of the castle which sets on vantage hill a hundred feet above the little river at the hills base. In the so-ca1led outer court the great walls loom grimly in front of you with the two famous towers Guys and Caesars, to the left and right.
 FAMOUS TOWERS
 s-, eff dod fhiTfU in diameter at the base, and 12S feet high. and has solid stone walls ten feet thick It was built by the second Thomas de Beauchamp in 1894. Caesars Tower, which is thirty or forty years older. is one of the chief architectural marvels of England. It is an irregular polygon, stands 147 feet high on solid rock m a series of four stories, eacn with a groned roof, and was practically proof against attack in ancient battles. 1t has a projecting battlement at the top, and it's loop holes were designed most scientifically. It was first known IS the Porctiers tower because prisoners from the great battle of Porietors in 1856 were confined in it's dungeons.
 Between the two towers, but not mid way. is the gateway of the inner court. The inevitable moat is now filled with immense thickets of rhododenrons. Where once was a drawbrdge is now a macadam road supported by an arch. A pronged portculis hangs in position, ana directly back of it are four holes in the stone vault overhead through which any besiegers who were able to pass the portcuilis were destroyed with streams of blazing pitch, hot lead and other an- cient forms of "flammenwerfer. Any assailants still active would next find themselves in small open court or Barbican surmounted by a gallery from which additional frightfulness could be hurled down. The Barbican ends with a gatehouse having another portcullis, ioopholes and defensive bridge.
 hundred gorgeous peacocks squawk a fanfare of welcome to the visitor as he emerges into the inner court, all grassy and flowery and edged With magnificent old trees. The living rooms of the castle are to the left, faced by the rather modern wing in which are the entrance hall and bedrooms.
 The 2-shilling visitors are ushered past this entrance to small door In the an- cient wing In a hall hung with paint ings by Raphael, Rubens and Sir Joshua Reynolds, and exquisite wood carving by Grinling Gibbons, called the chapel passage, the visitor is asked to leave his coat and hat as he will spend at least an hour in the state apartments of the great castle.
 The chapel ana compass room ndVo another Raphael and other fine paint ings. The guide next proceeds to tho armory passage where there is cele- brated collection of medieval arms, bat tle-axes cross-b bows, bikes, arquebuses, suits of mail and revolving gun from which Colt got the idea of the revolver There is also a death mask of Crom- we'll in the armory In the Civil War the democratic Earl of Warwick was on Cromwells side, just as today the Countess of Warwick is one of the best known socialists and labor exhorters in the British Isles.
 VIEW OF BOUDOIR
 From the grim confines of the armory passage a door clanks open and dazes one with a glimpse of beautiful boudoir, the Blue Room from which there is a balcony view of the western stretch of the Avon the Warwick part across the river and the terraced gar dens directly below. From the boudoir at one end, one may look through the series of state apartments for 336 feet, when the great doors are all open. The boudoir has paintings by the Holbeins. Lely, Rubens and Van Dyke, precious inlaid tables, a Venetian mirror and Florentine cabinet and a famous clock in which the hours are illustrated by twelve principal events in the life of Christ enameled in silver.
 Next is the state bedroom which has not been in use for some years other than as receiving room. The great canopied bed, extraordinarily sur mounteed by two red plush catafalques, hearse emblems as well as the other i furniture, was Queen Anne's and was uresented to the Earl of Warwick by