the remains of whose fortresses and tumuli can be seen to-day in many quarters of this historic land.

Evidences of the great Roman invaders are to be seen in the famous roads, which they wrought through the woodland fastness of Shakespeare's country in the days of their triumph; and visitors to Warwickshire to-day can walk in their footsteps, and along their wonderful chariot drives of Watling Street, Ickneild Street, the Ridgeway, and the Fosse Way, which enter the county at four points; marvelling at the grandeur of the Romans' building, their stupendous energy, and the immutability of the work they did, contrasted with the striking mutability of themselves; who could hold an invaded island for four hundred years, and yet could not preserve themselves from a decline and fall!

From the days of King Offa, the Mercian Prince, who held a most brilliant Court in his Palace, upon the site of the present Offchurch Bury, near Leamington, and who built a Church there which retains his name (Offa's Church) to this day, all down the line of Sovereigns who have sat

in the Royal seat of England, to the stirring Stuart times when the Civil Wars ravaged the country, and the last great Battle was fought at picturesque Edge Hill, that charming natural terrace which looks over into Oxfordshire; all down these ringing centuries of change leafy Warwickshire has been the very heart and scene of action in the varying fortunes of Merrie England; and remains at the present time one of the least changed of the English counties, pictures on every hand reminding the sightseer of the coloured age of ruffs, rapiers, and chivalry. Memorials of the history of this Heart of England are to be found whichever way the eye turns in the Mansions and Castles with which the greenwood is studded. Two of these lordly monuments of the past and present, typical only of the rest, will vie with any to be seen in the wide domain of rural England. These are the wonderful feudal fastness of Warwick Castle and the imposing, dismantled ruins of the once princely Kenilworth.

Both have received the shock of War; one has successfully withstood the shocks of Time, and is now as firmly placed as it

was in the days of the learned Sir Fulke Greville, Earl of Warwick and Servant to Queen Elizabeth, being mentioned by Sir Walter Scott as 'the finest monument of ancient and chivalrous splendour which remains uninjured by time'; the other succumbed to the assaults of the Roundheads, and is now a labyrinth of splendid ruins, each stone of which has a tale to tell of the days of its glorious historya history over which the great Magician of the North has woven an everlasting glamour.

THE HEART OF ROMANCE.-And if there were no other scenes of romance in leafy Warwickshire than those which cling to the lasting fastness of Warwick Castle, and the broken walls of Kingly Kenilworth, they would be enough to justly give to Shakespeare's country the title of 'The Heart of Romance'; for the romances attached to these two fabrics alone have lived through the centuries, and have found a recording place in all our histories. They are painted in the richest of colours-Princely Kenilworth in particular.

So far back as 1279 a famous Tournament,

called The Round Table,' was held at Kenilworth. One hundred knights are said to have been present, and as many ladies, comprising the élite of the fashion and beauty of the then really 'Merrie England.' They are all recorded to have been clad in silken mantles; and when we consider the taste that prevailed in ladies' dresses during the latter part of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth centuries, we may not only imagine the gorgeous, but also the graceful, display then and there exhibited. Visitors to Kenilworth, therefore, in the present day, should they know something of English history, as Sir Walter Scott knew the history of this very castle, will be able to call up in their mind's eye something of the romantic splendours of this thirteenth-century Tournament of 'The Round Table,' in the rooms of the lordly fabric which is now but a group of noble ruins.

Then the touch of regal glamour has always rested upon Warwick. Coming from 'The Princely Pleasures of Kenilworth,' in 1575 (where, at the age of eleven, Shakespeare himself was a spectator, being taken

thither by his father, John Shakespeare, to see the great Show Pageant, which was then the talk of the world), the Virgin Queen, by Robert Dudley's request and invitation, entered the Gates of Warwick -of which Ambrose Dudley, his brother, was then the Earl; for at that time Dudley's town was a shut-up town, with East and West Gates looking frowningly down upon all intruders.

Queen Elizabeth's visit to the quaint town of Warwick is spoken of by the old chroniclers as a very royal, very romantic, and a very gorgeous affair. Mr Aglionby was the Recorder of the town, and the Rev. Mr Griffin, Master of Leicester's Hospital; and upon these two persons devolved the chief honours of the occasion. There was a touch of humour in the proceedings, and this occurred in her Majesty's pleasant address to Mr Aglionby, who was reported to have been very much in awe of the good and great queen.

Come hither, little Recorder,' said the august Lady. 'It was told to me by my Lord of Leicester, that you would be afraid to look upon me or speak boldly. But you were not so afraid of me as I was