WARWICKSHIRE, a county (inland), bounded
on the east by Leicestershire and Northamptonshire,
on the south by Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, on
the west by Worcestershire, and on the north-west and
north by Staffordshire: it extends from 51° 37' BO"
to 52° 42' (N. Lat.), and from 1° f 30" to 1° 56' 40"
(W. Lon.).; and includes an area of nine hundred and
two square miles, or five hundred and seventy-seven
thousand two hundred and eighty statute acres. The
population, in 1821, including that of the city and county
of the city of Coventry, was 274,392. At the period of
the invasion of Britain by Julius Cassar, this county was
included partly in the territory of the Cornavii, and
partly in that of the Wigantes, or Wiccii; the former
occupying the northern part of it, and the latter the
southern. It was first subjected to Roman sway by
Ostorius Scapula, the second Roman governor of Britain,
who entered it with his forces about the year 50, and
constructed a line of intrenched camps along the banks
of the Avon: it was afterwards included in the province
called Flavia C<esariensis. On the complete establishment
of the Saxon Octarchy, Warwickshire formed part of
the powerful kingdom of Mercia, the sovereigns of
which selected Warwick, Tamworth, and Kingsbury, as
occasional places of residence. Near Seckington, at the
northern extremity of the county, in 7'57, a sanguinary
battle was fought, between Cuthred, King of the West
Saxons, and Ethelwald, King of Mercia, in which the
latter was treacherously slain by one of his own commanders.
This county, in common with most other parts
of England, suffered severely, at different periods, front
the ravages of the Danes. In 1147, the Earl of Chester,
who took an active part in favour of the Empress Matilda,
during her contest with Stephen, having received
a severe check at Lincoln, hastened towards his castle
at Coventry, which, however, had been already seized
by the king's forces: he immediately commenced besieging
it, but was attacked by Stephen, and, after an
obstinate conflict, was compelled to retreat. In 1263,
the forces of the revolted barons, already in possession
of the castle of Kenilworth, seized and dismantled that
of Warwick; in 1266, however, a powerful body of the
royal forces, headed by the king, captured the former
fortress, after an arduous siege of six months. During
the wars of the Roses, though the inhabitants
were divided in their attachment to the contending
parties, Warwickshire escaped being the scene of any
important warfare. The Earl of Richmond's increasing
forces marched through it, to meet the army of
Richard III. at Bosworth Field, whence, after the battle,
the victor, become king, by the title of Henry VII., repaired
to Coventry. In the civil war of the seventeenth'
century, the inhabitants were almost unanimous
in favour of the parliament; and the castle of Warwick,
a fortress eminent for its strength, was successfully
held by the same party, though several times
attacked by the royalists. In June and July, 1642,'
Lord Brooke arrayed the militia of the county, in
pursuance of a commission received from the parlia-
ment. On the 28th of August, Caldecote Hall was
attacked by Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice, but
without effect. On the 23rd of October, the sanguinary,
but indecisive, battle of Edge-hill was fought, near
Kington, on the south-eastern border of the county, in
which the men of Warwickshire distinguished themselves
in the right wing of the parliamentarian army,
la January 1643, Lord Brooke was appointed General
and Commander in Chief, under the Earl of Essex,
of the associated counties of Warwick and
Stafford; and in the same year, Prince Rupert, with a
detachment of two thousand men, having been commissioned
to open a communication between Oxford
and York, came to Birmingham, where his entrance
was opposed by the inhabitants, aided by a company
of infantry, and a troop of cavalry: after a smart
skirmish the prince succeeded in driving out the
small body of military, and punished the inhabitants
by a heavy fine. In this year also a party of royalists,
posted at Stratford upon Avon, were driven from that
town by a superior parliamentary force under Lord
Brooke: it was, however, soon after retaken by the
royalists, and afforded a temporary residence to the
queen. In 1643, Warwick castle was again unsuccessfully
attacked by the royalists. After the Restoration,
in 1662, the walls of Coventry were totally demolished
by order of the king, as a punishment for the strenuous
adherence of its inhabitants to the cause of the parliament,
and their refusal to admit his father within its gates.
Warwickshire is included partly in the diocese of
Lichfield and Coventry, and partly in that of Worcester,
in the province of Canterbury} the former including
the archdeaconry of Coventry, in which are the deaneries
of Arden, Coventry, Marton, and Stonely; and the
latter the deaneries of Kington and Warwick, in the
archdeaconry of Worcester: the total number of parishes
is two hundred and one (exclusively of parts of
four or five more, which extend into other counties), of
which seventy-one are rectories, ninety-one vicarages,
and the remainder perpetual curacies. For purposes
of civil government it is divided into four hundreds;
viz., that of Barlichway, having the divisions of Alcester,
Henley, Snitterfield, and Stratford; that of
Hemlingford, having those of Atherstone, Birmingham,
Solihull, and Tamworth; that of Kington, having those
of Brails, Burton-Dassett, Kington, and Warwick; and
that of Knightlow, having those of Kenilworth, Kirby,
Rugby, and Southanr. The county of the city of Coventry
comprises an extent of eighteen thousand one
hundred and sixty-one acres, forming nine parishes.
Warwickshire contains the city of Coventry (locally),
the borough and market-town of Warwick, the large
manufacturing and market-town of Birmingham; and
the market-towns of Alcester, Atherstone, Coleshill,
Henley in Arden, Kenilworth, Kington, or Kineton,
Nuneaton, Rugby, Southam, Stratford upon Avon, and
Sutton-Coldfield. Two knights are returned to parliament
for the shire, two citizens for the city of Coventry,
and two burgesses for the borough of Warwick:
the county members are elected at Warwick. It is in
the Midland circuit: the assizes and quarter sessions
for the county are held at Warwick; and those for
the city and county of the city of Coventry, at Coventry.
There are sixty-one acting magistrates. The rates
raised in the county, for the year ending March 25th,
1827, amounted to £169,537.4., and the expenditure to
£178,425. 5., of which £144,581.12. was applied to the
relief of the poor.
A considerable tract of Warwickshire is separated,
on its south-western border, from the rest of the county,
by a detached portion of Worcestershire; and a smaller
isolated district, lying at a short distance beyond the
western confines of the county, is surrounded by Worcestershire.
Although the boundaries of the hundreds
are extremely irregular, their situations may be generally
described as follows: Kington on the south 3
Knightlow on the east; Hemlingford on the north;
and Barlichway on the west: the county of the city of
Coventry is bounded on every side by Knightlow hundred,
except on the north, where it is bordered for a
short distance by a small portion of that of Hemlingford.
The general surface consists of gentle hill and
dale, and, though seldom presenting romantic scenery,
has, for the most part, a rich and pleasing appearance,
which is greatly heightened by its numerous small tracts
of woodland. The highest points of land are the hills
at Corley, and the woods near Packington, in the hundred
of Hemlingford. There is an elevated range of
limestone hills, in the hundred of Kington, at Walton
and Long Compton, including both. Edge-hill and the
Brails-hill, which, as well as the other heights above
named, command rich and extensive prospects. The
banks of the Avon, though in some places flat and
uninteresting, are in many, particularly near Warwick,
highly beautiful and picturesque. The climate is generally
esteemed mild and healthy, and is subject to no
peculiar excess of wet or cold. The most prevailing
winds are from the south-west, and are usually accompanied
by rain; but vegetation, in the early spring
season, often suffers severely from continued easterly
breezes. Corley, from its elevated situation, is colder
than any other part of the county, excepting the ridge
above Long Compton and the Brails-hill, which, though
much lower, are less sheltered and have a stronger and colder soil.
The soils are generally fertile, but very various,
comprising almost every kind, except such as contain
chalk, or flints. All the southern and south-eastern
part of the county, separated from the rest by an
imaginary line drawn from the. border of Northamptonshire,
near Willoughby, south-westward by Grandborough,
Long Itchington, Southam, Harbury, Ashorn,
and Wellesbourn - Hastings, to the vicinity of Atherstone
upon Stour, has, very nearly throughout, a strong
clay loam, resting on limestone. A soil of a similar nature
occupies the north-eastern extremity of the county,
bordering on the course of the small river Anker, and
may be separated from the rest by a line passing from
the confines of Leicestershire, near Nuneaton, by Oldbury
and Kingsbury, to the point where the river Tame
begins to form the north-western boundary of Warwickshire,
a little above Tamworth. The soil of an extensive
tract of Barlichway hundred, reaching from the
vicinity of Warwick to the western border of the county,
near Tamworth', and in the neighbourhood of Salford,
and including the towns of Henley in Arden and
Alcester, is a strong clay loam, which rests on marl
and limestone. A little westward from Warwick
there commences a considerable tract of strong clay,
resting on limestone, which extends south-westward to
the confines of the county, Stratford upon Avon being
situated on the south-eastern side of it: the large
detached portion of the county, lying westward of its
southern extremity, has a soil of similar quality. A
light sandy soil, in several places mixed with sharp
gravel, and well adapted for the turnip husbandry,
occupies the tract lying between the town of Rugby
and the village of Grandborough, bounded on the
east by the confines of the county, and on the west
by the road from Southam to Coventry. A soil of a
similar kind, poor, but also well adapted for the same
purpose, extends from the vicinity of the village of
Meriden, northward, to the boundary of the county,
chiefly bordering on the vallies of the Blythe and the
Tame. Between this and the northern tract of clay and
limestone land is a considerable extent of various poor
and moory soils, which also occupy another large
district on the western side of these light lands, in
the vicinity of Sutton-Coldfield. The remaining extensive
portions of the county consist chiefly of a
red sandy loam, and a red clay loam, resting on freestone,
or limestone, and sometimes on a sharp gravel:
some of the sand is well adapted for the turnip husbandry.
Coventry is also surrounded by a rich deep
sandy loam, resting on marl and freestone, which, in
different directions, soon becomes intermingled with
some of the other soils above mentioned. On the
south side of the river Avon, in the vicinity of Castle
Bromwich, a good red clayey loam is found, extending
eastward to Coleshill, and westward towards Birmingham;
near the latter town, and in the vicinities of
Aston and Hackley brook, a light, dry, red, sandy soil
prevails. A considerable district around Solihull, and
various parishes to the north and east of that town,
are composed of a strong marl clay soil, on a wet clay
substratum. In the vale of the Avon the soil is remarkable
for its fertility, and is excellently adapted for
the culture of turnips.
The courses of crops are very various: those commonly
cultivated are, wheat, barley, oats, peas, beans,
turnips, potatoes, and tares, or vetches. On the rich
loams wheat is sown only once in four or six years, and
on the light sandy soils hardly ever. Much of the barley
is made into malt, of which there is a great consumption
in the county itself. Rye is seldom sown, except
upon the light, poor, sandy soils, and then chiefly for
spring food for sheep. The finer kinds of peas are grown
to a considerable extent by the market-gardeners and
farmers in the vicinity of the towns, and are gathered
green; the grey peas are grown only by the farmers,
who apply them chiefly to the fattening of hogs. The
cultivation of turnips is general on all the lighter and
drier soils: they are chiefly eaten upon the land by
sheep. Cabbages, carrots, and parsnips, are cultivated
only in the gardens; but potatoes are a common agricultural
crop, more particularly in the vicinities of the
larger towns. Both winter and spring tares are grown:
they are chiefly consumed by sheep folded upon them,
and are also given green to horses. Flax is cultivated
in different places, but not to a great extent. The principal
artificial grasses are red and white clover, and
ray-grass: most of the young clover is eaten off by
sheep. It is computed that the permanent meadow
and pasture lands amount to no less than two hundred
and thirty-five thousand acres, and the quantity of land
under artificial grasses to sixty thousand, making a total
of two hundred and ninety-five thousand acres. Out
of this, it is supposed that from eighty to eighty-five
thousand acres are meadows, and their produce mown
every year for hay: from ten to fifteen thousand acres of
the artificial grasses are cut and given green to horses
and other cattle, or made into hay; the large remaining
portion, of from one hundred and ninety-five, to two
hundred and five, thousand acres, is pastured with sheep
and cattle; this being a noted grazing county. The
most extensive tracts of permanent pasture are towards
the eastern and north-eastern confines of the county,
bordering on Leicestershire. Towards Oxfordshire, at
Radway, Warmington, Avon-Dassett, Shottswell, &c.,
and along the great road thence towards Warwick, as
far as Gaydon, is a large extent of very rich pastures.
On each bank of the Avon, during the whole of its
course through this county, there is also much rich
meadow and grazing land, and numerous other parts
abound in fine old pastures. Though meadows exist
in almost every part of the county, the most valuable
are situated on the banks of its numerous streams:
the produce of these is generally from one and a half to
two and a half tons of hay per acre; that of the less
fertile from one to two tons. About three thousand
acres of grass land in the county of the city of Coventry
are subject to a common right of pasturage from
the 13th of August to the 13th of February, enjoyed
by the freemen of Coventry, and not transferable.
The principal manures are, lime, which is burned
from the limestone in various parts of the county, and
is also imported, in considerable quantities, by the
canals, from Staffordshire and Leicestershire; marl,
which abounds in the western districts, but in place
of which lime has, of late years, been much employed;
soap-ashes, horn-scrapings, malt-dust, and soot. Many
different breeds of cattle are common in the county,
although the Scotch and Herefordshire oxen, and the
long-horned heifers and cows, are always preferred for
grazing. The cows and oxen bred are chiefly of the
long-horned Lancashire sort: the other breeds that have
been introduced are principally the Devonshire, the Herefordshire,
the Yorkshire, the Tees-water, the Scotch,
and the Welch; of these, the Yorkshire and long-horned
and the Durham breeds are most esteemed for the dairy.
The sheep bred are chiefly of the Old Warwickshire and
the New Leicester breeds; the former are a large polled
kind, which, when fat, frequently weigh from forty to
forty-eight pounds per quarter; the average weight of
their wool was nine pounds, but they have been much
intermingled with the New Leicester sheep, which are
here bred in great perfection. A few Wiltshire, South
Down, Small Welch, and Spanish, or Merino, sheep
are also kept. Those bred and kept upon the commons
are a mixed sort, some having black, and others
grey, faces and legs; the best of them, when fattened
at three years old, weigh from eighteen to twentythree
pounds per quarter, and carry from four to six
pounds of wool each; the inferior sort weigh only from
five to-ten pounds per quarter, and yield a fleece of from
one to three pounds weight of coarse wool: the .New
Leicester sheep are preferred by the graziers. The extent
of ground devoted to horticulture, for which the soil
is generally very well adapted, is about five thousand
acres: there are few orchards of any considerable extent.
The middle, western, and northern parts are those
most abounding in timber, of which a large proportion
is oak of remarkably fine growth, those parts having
been formerly occupied by the extensive forest of Arden:
elm is also very common, and grows to the largest
size near the banks of the Avon. The coppice woods
consist of oak, ash, hazel, alder, birch, and beech; and
their produce is chiefly made into hurdles for folding
sheep, hoops, fagots, rails, and broom shafts. There
are numerous thriving plantations of different kinds of
forest trees in various parts of the county. The hedgerows
of the old enclosures contain many timber trees j
those of the northern parts of the county consist chiefly
of hazels and brambles on high banks; all of them
have a flourishing appearance. The extent of unenclosed
land is inconsiderable consisting chiefly of small
Commons in different parts of the county: Sutton-
Coldfield and Sutton-Park are the only extensive ones.
The chief mineral productions are coal, limestone,
freestone, and a blue flag-stone. The coal of the
best quality is found at Bedworth, between Coventry
and Nuneaton, where the seam varies in thickness
from three to four feet, and is worked to a considerable
extent. Large quantities of coal are also raised
at Griff-hollow, Chilvers-Coton, Nuneaton common,
Hunts hall, and Oldbury, lying to the north of the
first-mentioned place: that obtained at Oldbury is of
an inferior kind, fit only for burning lime: the same
bed of coal extends still further northward, by Merevale,
to Polesworth and Wilnecote. Limestone is found to
a great extent, and is largely quarried at Bearley, Grafton
Court, Stretton,Princethorpe,Ufton,Harbury, Wilnecote,
Bidford, Newbold on Avon, and numerous other
places, where it is also burned into lime; it also
abounds along the borders of Oxfordshire and Leicestershire;
it is generally of a close texture and a
dark blue colour, and produces strong lime: Abundance
of freestone exists in the neighbourhood of Warwick,
Leamington, Kenilworth, Coventry, and many
other places, chiefly where the soil is light and sandy:
it is sometimes quarried for building, and is more
particularly employed in the erection of all public
edifices. The blue flag-stone is found in many places,
and large quarries of it are wrought in the neighbourhoods
of Bidford and Wilnecote: it is used for paving
and flooring. Iron-stone is found at Oldbury and
Merevale, near the former of which places it was formerly
worked. The western part of the county abounds
with marl of different colours and qualities, much of
Which is strong and excellent.- A peculiar kind" of
blue clay, having some of the properties of soap, exists
in great quantities in the eastern part of the county.
The hardware manufactures of Birmingham and
its vicinity are the principal in the county. The next
in importance is that of silks, ribands, &c., which is
calculated to employ not less than sixteen thousand
persons in the city of Coventry and the surrounding
villages; watch-making is also very extensively carried
on in that city. At Berkeswell and Balsall, and the vicinity
of Tamworth, are considerable flax-mills; much
linen yarn being spun at those places. At Kenilworth
horn-combs of all descriptions are manufactured. At
Alcester about six hundred people are employed in
making fish hooks and needles; and at Atherstone
are several manufactories for hats and ribands; the
latter article is also manufactured at Nuneaton. The
commerce of the county, which is greatly facilitated by
its numerous canals, consists chiefly in the exportation
of the abundant produce of its manufactures, and the
importation of the materials necessary for carrying them
on, as well as of the usual foreign supplies for its inhabitants,
together with some corn. Notwithstanding
the great consumption of butchers' meat at Birmingham,
Coventry, &c., great numbers of cattle and sheep
are annually driven from Warwickshire to London.
The principal rivers are the Avon and the Tame:
the former, called the Upper Avon, to distinguish it
from the river Avon, which forms the harbour of
Bristol, rising on the confines of Leicestershire and
Northamptonshire, soon enters this county at Bensford
bridge, and thence pursues a westerly course, a
little northward of Rugby, to the vicinity of the village
of Ryton on Dunsmoor, where it commences a very
devious south-westerly course, by Warwick and Stratford
on Avon: a little below the latter town it forms,
for some miles, the southern boundary of the county, a
projecting portion of which it then crosses, and having
again formed the boundary line for a short distance,
finally quits Warwickshire, a little below Abbots-Salford.
It receives the small river Dove, from Leicestershire,
a little below Brownsover; the Sow, from the
eastern parts of this county near Stoneleigh; the Learn,
from-the borders of Northamptonshire, which is joined
by the Watergall, flowing northward by the vicinity
of Southam, a little above Warwick; the Stour, from
the southern extremity of the county, about a mile
and a half below Stratford; and the Alne, from the
western parts of it, which is joined by the small stream
of the Arrow, about half a mile below Priors Salford.
The current of the Avon, like that of the other streams,
is gentle: the river was made navigable for vessels of
forty tons' burden up to Stratford, in the year 1637-
The .Tame enters from Staffordshire, a little above
Aston, near Birmingham, having formed the boundary
of the county for a short distance, and, taking an
easterly direction, is joined, a little below that village,
by the small river Rea, which has its source in Worcestershire,
and flows north-eastward by Birmingham.
Having passed Castle-Bromwich and Water-Overton, it
is joined by the Blythe, which, descending from the
western border of the county by Solihull, is augmented
by the stream of the Cole, a little below the town of
Coleshill: at this junction the Tame suddenly turns
northward by Lea-Marston and Kingsbury, and having
again formed the north-western boundary of the county
for some miles, wholly quits it for Staffordshire, at Tamworth,
in its further progress to the Trent: the small
river Anker, from the eastern border of the county,
flowing by Nuneaton and Atherstone, falls into the
Tame at TamwOrth.
This county possesses an extensive artificial navigation:
Birmingham is the grand centre from which
most of these important lines of comnmnication radiate,
enabling that town to send the produce of its manufactures,
by a direct and easy water-carriage, to the four
great ports of the kingdom. The Birmingham old canal,
entering the county near Birmingham, from the Worcestershire
and Staffordshire canal near Wolverhampton,
terminates in the Birmingham and Fazely canal, at
Farmer's Bridge, near the former place, where it also
communicates with the Worcester and Birmingham
canal: by this channel coal and iron are conveyed to
Birmingham and other places, from the numerous
mines on its banks, and the manufactured goods of that
town are forwarded to Liverpool, Manchester, &c. The
Birmingham and Worcester canal, the chief objects in
the formation of which were, the conveyance of coal, and
opening a more direct communication between Birmingham
and the river Severn, takes its coxrrse from Worcester,
through a detached portion of this county, to
the Birmingham canal at Farmer's Bridge. The Dudley
Extension canal branches from this, a little before it
enters the county near Birmingham; and the Stratford
on Avon canal, commencing in it at King's Norton in
Worcestershire, soon enters Warwickshire, through the
western part of which it proceeds, a little eastward of
Henley in Arden, to its termination in the navigable
channel of the Avon at Stratford: this canal has a short
branch to the village of Tanworth, and a longer one
to the Grafton limeworks; it also communicates by a
short cut with the Warwick and Birmingham canal,
near Lapworth-street. The Birmingham and Fazely
canal, commencing in the Coventry canal at Whittington
brook, proceeds near the course of the Tame, which
it. crosses a little below Aston, to its junction with
the Birmingham, and the Worcester and Birmingham,
canal at Farmer's Bridge, a little beyond Birmingham;
the great objects of this canal are, the conveyance of the
produce of the Birmingham manufactures towards
London and Hull, and the supply of Birmingham with
grain and other commodities. The Coventry canal,
which forms an important line in the communication
between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool,
&c., and by means of which great quantities of coal
are conveyed from the pits in its vicinity, chiefly to the
city of Coventry, enters a little above Tamworth, and
pursues its course up the valley of the Anker, by Ather-
stone and Nuneaton, and thence to Coventry: a branch,
of about a mile in length, extends from it to the Griff
collieries; and another, having several minor branches,
runs to those near Lees-wood, Pool, and Bedworth. The
Ashby de la Zouch canal commences from the Coventry
canal at Marston bridge, near Nuneaton, and taking an
irregular north-easterly course, soon quits the county
near Hinckley. The Oxford canal, the course of which is
extremely irregular, commencing in the Coventry canal
at Longford, about four miles from Coventry, winds
south-eastward by Brinklow and Brownsover, crossing
the Avon, near the latter place, to the eastern border
of the county, near which, occasionally crossing
small portions of Northamptonshire, it passes by Wolfhamcote,
Lower Shuckburgh, Napton on the Hill, and
Merstondale, in this county, which it finally quits for
Oxfordshire, a little southward of Wormleighton; the
Grand Junction canal commences in this last-men-
tioned at Braunston, on the eastern border of Warwickshire,
but in the county of Northampton. The
Warwick and Birmingham canal, commencing in the
Digbeth cut of the Birmingham and Fazely canal at
Digbeth near Birmingham, proceeds south-eastward
near Solihull to Warwick, whence the navigation is con-
tinued by the Warwick and Napton canal, which commences
from the former in the parish of Budbrook,
and proceeding eastward near Leamington-Priors, terminates
in the Oxford canal near Napton on the Hill;
these two canals, with the few miles of the Oxford
canal lying between Napton and Braunston, where the
Grand Junction canal commences, form an important
part of the most direct line of water communication
between Birmingham and London, and the first supplies
the town of Warwick with coal. The principal roads
are, one entering the county near Long Compton, and
passing through Shipston, Stratford on Avon, Henley in
Arden, and Birmingham, soon after which it quits the
county; and another, entering near Willoughby, and
proceeding through Coventry to Birmingham; from this
road a branch diverges at Packington Magna, and,
passing through Coleshill, quits the county for Lichfield
a little beyond Middleton.
Warwickshire contained the Roman station of Manduessedum,
situated on the Watling-street, at Mancetter;
and that of Alauna, at Alcesterj while another was
probably fixed at Chesterton: it was traversed by the
following great Roman roads; viz., the Watling-street,
which, running from south-east to north-west, forms,
first, the boundary between this county and the northwestern
extremity of Northamptonshire, and then the
entire boundary between Warwickshire and Leicestershire,
until it reaches the vicinity of Atherstone,
whence it crosses the northern extremity of the former
county, and quits it on passing the Tame, a little
above Tamworth, being visible throughout the whole of
its course; the Fosse-way, which, crossing the Watlingstreet
into' this county at High Cross, passes southwestward,
near Monks' Kirby and Stretton, through
Brinklow, Bretsford, and Stretton upon Dunsmoor, and
a short distance to the west of Chesterton, Lighthorne,
and Combrook, to the neighbourhood of Stretton on the
Foss, in the south-western detached portion of it, where
it enters Gloucestershire, also discernible in many places;
the Ryknield-street, which enters from the south, near
Bitford, and proceeds, in a northerly direction, across
the western parts of Warwickshire, and the eastern extremity
of Worcestershire, finally quitting the former
for Staffordshire, to the west of Sutton-Coldfield, and
being traceable in the vicinity of Bidford, to the north
of Alcester (where it is called the Headen-way), and oa
the north-eastern border of the county; and a minor
road, termed the Ridge-way, which skirts the county
for some distance on the east: several vicinal ways diverged
from each extremity of the great roads. The
principal of the Roman camps still visible, which are
not very numerous, are situated along the course of
the Fosse-way, and on the banks of the river Avon; in
the vicinity of these, and of the roads, many tumuli and
coins are found, and various other vestiges of Roman
occupation have been discovered in almost every part
of the county. On Welcombe hills, to the west of the
village of Alveston, are extensive earthworks, called the
Dingles, supposed to be of Saxon origin.
The number of religious houses, including hospitals
and colleges, was about fifty-seven. There yet exist
remains of the abbey of Merevale, which comprise
some interesting specimens of Saxon architecture j of
the priories of Coventry, Kenilworth, and Maxstoke;
and of the nunneries of Nuneaton, Pindley, and Polesworth.
The churches most remarkable for their antiquity,
or otherwise, are those of Astley; St.. Martin
at Birmingham; Balsall; Beaudesert; Coleshill j St.
John, St. Michael, and the Holy Trinity, at Coventry
Kenilworth; Nuneaton; Shustock; Stoneleigh;
Stratford; St. Mary and St. Peter, at Warwick; aud
Wolston. Different places in the county have curious
chapels. There are remains of the castles of Astley,
Brandon, Kenilworth, Maxstoke, Tamworth, and
Warwick, the latter of which are particularly extensive,
and form the chief part of the present magnificent
residence of the Earl of Warwick. The most
remarkable ancient mansions are, Clopton House, situated
about a mile to the north of Stratford, and
Compton Wyniates House, on the south-eastern border
of the county. The more modern seats of the
nobility and gentry are rather numerous; some of the
ntost distinguished, besides Warwick castle before mentioned,
are Ragley Hall near Alcester, the residence of
the Marquis of Hertford j Combe Abbey, that of the
Earl of Craven; Packington Hall, that of the Earl of
Aylesford; and Stoneleigh Abbey, that of J. Chandos
Eeigh, Esq. In the vicinity of Birmingham are numerdus
country houses of opulent merchants and tradesmen
of that town, surrounded by ornamented grounds.
There are. various chalybeate springs, particularly at
Birmingham, Ilmington, and Newnham-Regis. But the
mineral waters of Ileamington, about two miles to the
east of Warwick, are by far the most celebrated, and
their reputation has of late years converted this formerly
obscure village into a place of considerable fashionable
resort.