the attainder of the Duke of Suffolk, it appears likely that the castellated building was dismantled. The court is entered by a stone bridge with embattled parapets, through a pointed gateway richly clad with ivy. The building has an embattled parapet at the top, and the windows, of dissimilar shapes, are divided into numerous lights by heavy mullions of stone. The whole is rendered singularly picturesque by a profusion of ivy, which cloaths it in a most grateful and poetical mourning drapery.

The apartments are of fair proportions, but are marked by the cold and gloomy air so frequent in structures of the 16th century. In a window of the hall, and in pannels of other rooms, are armorial paintings; and, in one parlour, is preserved a portrait of the factious and turbulent Duke of Suffolk. This piece is meauly executed, but is curious as it has never been engraved, and we are not aware that another portrait of this nobleman exists. He is represented with a ruff round the neck, a long narrow beard, and a high-crowned hat. The countenance is somewhat saturnine, and indicates habitual reserve. In the hall are shewn a heavy inlaid table, and a rude and cumbrous chair, which are said to have belonged to the Duke. Concerning the secretion of this Nobleman, and his subsequent capture, the following story is told by Dugdale, and a tradition to the same import is yet current in the neighbourhood:-" Finding that he was forsaken, he put himself under the trust of one Underwood, as 'tis said, a keeper of his park here at Astley, who hid him for some few days in a large hollow tree there, standing about two bow shoot southwestwards from the church; but, being promised a reward, he betrayed him."

The Church of Astley is still a building of some interest though deprived of more than half its extent, and otherwise much humbled in pretensions. By Lord Thomas de Astley, in the reign of Edward III. a chantry was first founded in this church; and afterwards the same baron procured a licence from the king for changing the chantry priests into a dean and secular canons. Having thus rendered the building collegiate, he proceeded

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ceeded to erect a new church, in the form of a cross, with a spire so lofty that it acted as a landmark in the then deep woodlands of this district, and was popularly termed the Lanthorn of Arden. Succeeding lords confirmed and enlarged his bounty; and the structure made progressive advances in magnitude and decoration. Many of the noble persons possessing the manor chose this church as their place of burial, and several chapels were added by the zeal of their well-intended piety. The work of demolition commenced in the reign of Mary, and was guided by the person to whom the Duchess of Suffolk remarried. Other parts of the building were destroyed about the year 1607, and many monuments were then removed and utterly defaced ;* but nearly at the same time the present chancel was raised from the materials of a chapel which stood on the north side. The ancient choir is now the body of the church, on each side of which are eight stalls, with painted figures of saints, and scrolls containing sentences of scripture. On the north side of the west end are the alabaster effigies, on an altar tomb, of a warrior and a lady. At the feet of the former is a lion. On the opposite side is an altar-tomb, with the mutilated figure of a female in a recumbent posture; but neither of these monuments has any inscription. The exterior of the building is still handsome, though it forms so inconsiderable a portion of the original structure. At the west end is a square tower, chiefly rebuilt in 1608, and the chancel is marked with the same date. In the windows are some fragments of painted glass.

ARBURY HALL, the seat of Francis Parker Newdigate, Esq. is about two miles from Astley. This mansion was raised on the ruins of an ancient priory, and is indebted to the tasteful exertions of the late Sir Roger Newdigate, Bart. for such improvements as render it a most elegant specimen of the compendious Gothic style,

Burton, in his description of Leicestershire, p. 51, relates some curious particulars connected with the exposure of the remains of Thomas, Marquis af Dorset, on this occasion. See also, Antiq. War. Thomas's edition, p. 113.

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style, which Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, so greatly assisted in rendering fashionable. The house is seated in the midst of a fine and extensive park, well-wooded and adorned with artificial expanses of water. The approach on the north is through a long and magnificent avenue of trees, the lines of which, rich in various foliage, are broken in a manner judiciously conducive to the picturesque. The exterior of the building is entirely cased with stone, and each front presents a separate design of architectural beauty, though all are consistent in general character. We here see the florid style divested of the exuberant and grotesque, and find that extreme lightness and grandeur may be comprehended in the same design.

Sir Roger commenced his task of alteration on a large square house, where the reception of numbers was chiefly studied, with intervening court-yard, and piles of chimney projecting from each front. The chimneys he hid by massy yet ornamental turrets; and deprived the court-yard of its disproportionate size by surrounding it with a cloister. The whole range of principal apartments is finished in the most costly style, and combines a selection of the more beautiful parts of Gothic architecture, made with exquisite taste. The cieling of the Dining Room is enriched with pendant ornaments, and supported by taper pillars. In niches, delicately canopied, are placed good casts from the antique; and in a recess at the farther end is inserted the top of a sarcophagus, brought by Sir Roger Newdigate from Rome, on which is sculptured the marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne. The Drawing Room is of moderate but pleasing proportions, and is ornamented in a style peculiarly chaste. Every use is here made of the wild and prolific genius of Gothic designers, with such corrections as occur to the critical taste that perceives their errors by comparison. Inserted in the panuels of this room are five whole length family portraits; and different armorial bearings are introduced, on small shields, in the tracery work of the cieling. The fine bay window of the Saloon looks into the gardens, which are extensive and disposed with much elegance. The

cieling

cieling of this apartment is elaborately worked in imitation of that of King Henry the VII.'s chapel. In a room adjoining the saloon, is the well-known picture of which an engraving is given in the Antiquities of Warwickshire. This very curious painting commemorates the achievements of Sir John de Astley, concerning whom Dugdale thus writes: "Of the Patshull branch of the Astley family was John de Astley, who, on the 29th of Angust, 1438, maintaining a duel on Horsback, within the street called St. Antoine, in Paris, against one Peter de Masse, a Frenchman, in the presence of Charles VII. king of France, pierc't the said Peter through the Head, and had (as by the articles betwixt them was conditioned) the helmet of the said Peter, being so vanquish't, to present unto his lady. And, on the 30th of Jan. 20 of Henry VI. undertook another fight, in Smythfield, within the city of London, in the presence of the same K. Henry VI. with Sir Philip Boyle, an Arragonian knight, who, having been in France, by the K. his Master's command, to look out some such hardy person against whom he might try his skill in feats of armes, and missing there of his desires, repaired hither. After which combate ended (being gallantly perform'd on foot with battail axes, speares, swords, and daggers) he was knighted by the King, and had an annuity of one hundred marks given him during his life. Nay, so famous did he grow for his valour, that he was elected Knight of the Garter." In two central compartments of the painting are representations of the combats in Paris and London; and in smaller divisions on each side are eight separate pieces, descriptive of interesting passages connected with those exploits. This ancient picture was presented in 1773, to the late Sir Roger Newdigate, by Sir John Astley, Bart. as an heir loom to Astley Castle, and was removed from that decaying residence to the spot it at present occupies, solely with a view to its preservation. When thus presented it was in a state of absolute ruin through age, but has lately been restored, with great care and attention to the original design.

It must certainly

* Dugdale's Warwickshire, p. 110.

certainly be ever considered of high value, as a portraiture of the costume and manners of the chivalric age in which Sir John de Astley flourished.

In the truly splendid alterations of Arbury, Sir Roger Newdigate was himself sole architect, and employed only country workmen in the execution of his designs. A work so conducted would necessarily make slow progress; owing to which circumstance the chapel remains untouched by the tasteful hand of the improver. The apartment dedicated to religious purposes by the original builders of the mansion is of fair proportions, and is embellished with some carving by Gibbon. In the picture gallery, and in several other parts of the mansion, are many good casts from the antique.

The late Sir Roger Newdigate, Bart. was a distinguished ornament of the county in which his best years were passed. His education was completed at University College, Oxford; and he retained through life a warm attachment to the scene of his youthful studies, and was a constant friend to the learned institution on which he reflected so much honour. He once made the tour of Italy, because it was then esteemed essential for every man of fortune to make such a tour before he sat down to enjoy the paternal estate; and he again visited that interesting country, from a genuine love of the arts, and a veneration for the classic scenes that had raised in his mind the noblest species of emulation. When he studied his own gratification he sought retirement, but, conscious that affluence afforded no solid pretext for the preference of individual feeling to public duty, he mixed largely in the business of society. He was an officer in the Warwickshire militia, when first that regiment was established; and was, through many sessions, a representative in Parliament of the University of Oxford.* His discharge of the duties of a VOL, XV. magistrate

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His solicitude for the interests of the University of Oxford, was conspicuous, and will long be remembered with veneration. One act of liberality is so directly connected with his love of the arts, that it requires especial mention.