The Spa, it appeared, had been patronised by royalty on several occasions, and Queen Victoria in 1838 acceded to the request that the inhabitants might henceforth style the town the “Royal Leamington Spa.”  Benjamin Satchwell claimed to have discovered the principal well there in 1784, and on his tombstone in the churchyard appeared the following: 

              Hail the unassuming tomb
  Of him who told where health and beauty bloom,
  Of him whose lengthened life improving ran—­
  A blameless, useful, venerable man.

We only stayed a short time here, and then walked quickly through a fine country to the ancient town of Warwick, with Guy’s Cliffe and Blacklow Hill to our right, the monument on the hill being to Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, the hated favourite of Edward II.  Gaveston was beheaded on the hill on July 1st, 1312, and the modern inscription reads: 

In the hollow of this rock was beheaded, on the first day of July 1312, by barons, lawless as himself, Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, the minion of a hateful King, in life and death a memorable instance of misrule.

[Illustration:  GUY’S TOWER, WARWICK]

Gaveston surrendered to the insurgent barons at Scarborough, on condition that his life should be spared; but he had offended the Earl of Warwick by calling him the “Black Hound of Arden,” and the earl caused him to be conveyed to Warwick Castle.  When brought before Warwick there, the Earl muttered, “Now you shall feel the Hound’s teeth,” and after a mock trial by torchlight he was led out of the castle and beheaded on the hill.  Every one of the barons concerned in this rather diabolical action died by violence during the next few years.

[Illustration:  WARWICK CASTLE FROM THE RIVER.  “As we crossed the bridge we had a splendid view of Warwick Castle ... the finest example of a fortified castle in England ... the ’fairest monument of ancient and chivalrous splendour yet uninjured by time.’”]

[Illustration:  WARWICK CASTLE]

[Illustration:  THE PORTCULLIS.]

[Illustration:  ENTRANCE TOWERS.]

[Illustration:  WARWICK CASTLE]

As we crossed the bridge leading over the River Avon we had a splendid view of Warwick Castle, which had the reputation of being the finest example of a fortified castle in England, Sir Walter Scott describing it as “the fairest monument of ancient and chivalrous splendour which yet remain uninjured by time.”  It could boast of a continuous history from the time of Ethelfreda, the daughter of the Saxon King, Alfred the Great, and its towers rose to a considerable height, Caesar’s tower reaching an elevation of 174 feet.  Here could be seen the famous and exquisite Vase of Warwick, in white marble, of unknown age and of fabulous value, said to have been found at the bottom of a lake near Hadrian’s Villa, at Tivoli, in Italy.  There were an immense number of curios