Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/357

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WARWICK—WARWICKSHIRE
341

a famous collection of pictures. The Great Hall and other apartments suffered from fire in 1871, but were restored. A vase of marble attributed to the 4th century B.C. is preserved here, it was discovered near Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli in Italy. Below the castle the Avon, with thickly wooded banks, affords one of the most exquisite reaches of river scenery in England. The church of St Mary is principally, as it stands, a rebuilding of the time of Queen Anne, after a fire in 1694. It appears from Domesday that a church existed before the Conquest. It was made collegiate by Roger de Newburgh, the second Norman earl, in 1123. At the Dissolution Henry VIII. granted the foundation to the burgesses of the town. The Beauchamp Chapel survived the fire; it is a beautiful example of Perpendicular work, founded by the will of Earl Richard Beauchamp, and built between 1443 and 1464. The fine tomb of the earl stands in the centre. There are only scanty traces of the old town walls, but the east and west gates remain, rendered picturesque by chapels built above them. The priory of St Sepulchre was founded by Henry de Newburgh and completed in the reign of Henry I., on the site of an ancient church, for a society of canons regular. It is now a private residence. Leicester Hospital, established by Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, is a picturesque example of half-timber building. It was originally used as the hall of the united gilds of the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin and St George the Martyr. The earl of Leicester, by an act of incorporation obtained in 1571, founded the hospital for the reception of twelve poor men possessing not more than £5 a year, and a master. The first master, appointed by the earl himself, was the famous Puritan, Thomas Cartwright. St John's Hospital, a foundation of the time of Henry II., is represented by a beautiful Jacobean mansion. There are numerous charities in the town, the principal being those of Henry VIII., Sir Thomas White and Thomas Oken. The first is devoted to ecclesiastical and municipal stipends and to the King's School. By the charity of Sir Thomas White, the sum of £100 is lent, without interest, to young tradesmen for a period of nine years. The King's School, an important foundation for boys, dates from the reign of Edward the Confessor. It occupies modern buildings. Upon the same foundation are the high school for girls and the King's middle school. Among public buildings are a shire hall, free library and museum. Industries include gelatine- and brick-making, and there are ironworks. The parliamentary borough returns one member. Area, 5613 acres.

A famous site in the vicinity of Warwick is Guy's Cliffe, where a modern mansion, embodying ancient remains, crowns the precipitous rocky bank of the Avon. Here was the hermitage of the first Guy, earl of Warwick. Blacklow Hill in the vicinity was the scene of the execution of Piers Gaveston, the favourite courtier of Edward II., in 1312.

Warwick (Warwic, Warrewici, Warrewyk) is said to have been a Roman station, and was later fortified by Æthelflaed, the lady of Mercia, against the Danes. At the time of the Domesday Survey, Warwick was a royal borough, containing 261 houses, of which 130 were in the king's hands, while 19 belonged to burgesses who enjoyed all the privileges they had had in the time of Edward the Confessor. The Conqueror granted the borough to Henry of Newburgh, who was created earl of Warwick, and in all probability built the castle on the site of Æthelflaed's fortification. The Beauchamps, successors of Henry of Newburgh as earls of Warwick, held the borough of the king in chief. Although the borough owed its early importance to the castle of the earls of Warwick as well as to its position, and received a grant of a fair from John, earl of Warwick, in 1261, it seems to have developed independently of them, and received no charter until it was incorporated under the title of the burgesses of Warwick in 1546 after it had come into the king's hands by the attainder of Edward, earl of Warwick, in 1499. Other charters were granted in 1553, 1665, 1684 and 1694, of which that of 1533 allowed the appointment of assistant burgesses, though this was discontinued in 1698 because through their means a candidate for the borough was elected who was not supported by the recorder and aldermen. The charter of 1694 conferred the title of “Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses” on the corporation, and appointed the offices of the borough. The mayor, aldermen and assistant burgesses were to assemble yearly at Michaelmas, and in the presence of all the burgesses nominate two aldermen, who should elect the new mayor and other officers. A mayor refusing office was to be fined £20, an alderman £10 and an assistant burgess £5. In 1882 the borough was divided into three wards, and the corporation consists of a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 town councillors. Warwick returned two members to parliament from 1295, but in 1885 the number was reduced to one. In addition to the fair granted by the earl to the burgesses in 1261, he himself held by prescriptive right a yearly fair in August and a market every Wednesday. Another fair was granted in 1290, and in 1413 the fair held at Michaelmas was changed to the feast of St Bartholomew. Fairs are now held on the 12th of October and on the Monday before St Thomas's day. A market is held every Saturday, the first charter for this being granted in 1545. A gaol is mentioned here as early as 1200 in a pipe roll of that year.

WARWICK, a township of Kent county, Rhode Island, U.S.A., about 5 m. S. of Providence, on the W. side of Narragansett Bay (here called Providence river) and crossed by the Pawtuxet river, which is in its lower course a part of the township's northern boundary. Pop. (1890) 17,761; (1900) 21,316, of whom 7792 were foreign-born, (1910 census) 26,629. The township is crossed by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and electric lines serve most of its twenty-seven rather scattered villages. The larger villages are on the river, Pontiac, Natick, River Point (at the junction of the two upper branches of the Pawtuxet), Phoenix, Centreville and Crompton, on Greenwich Bay, Apponaug and Warwick, and on Providence river, Shawomet, Warwick Neck, Oakland Beach, Buttonwoods, Conimicut and Long Meadow, which are summer resorts. Water power is provided by the Pawtuxet river, and much cotton and some woollen and print goods are manufactured. The value of the factory product in 1905 was $7,051,971 (17.1% more than in 1900), of the total, nine-tenths was the value of textile products. Warwick, originally called Shawomet (Shawmut), its Indian name, was settled in 1643 by Samuel Gorton (q.v.) and a few followers. Gorton quarrelled with the Indians, was carried off to Boston, was tried there for heresy, was convicted, and was imprisoned, was released with orders to leave the colony in March 1644, went to England, and under the patronage of the earl of Warwick returned to his settlement in 1648 and renamed it in honour of the earl. In 1647 the settlement entered into a union with Providence, Newport and Portsmouth under the Warwick (or Williams) charter of 1644, but during 1651–1654 Warwick and Providence were temporarily separated from the other two towns. Warwick was the birthplace of General Nathanael Greene.

WARWICKSHIRE, a midland county of England, bounded N. by Staffordshire, E. by Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, S. by Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, and W. by Worcestershire. The area is 902.3 sq. m. The river Avon, watering a rich valley on a line from N.E. to S.W., divides the county into two unequal parts. The greater, lying to the N.W., drains principally to the Trent through the rivers Cole, Blythe, Rea, Anker and minor streams. Between these valleys, and dividing the system from that of the Avon, the land rises in gentle undulations, and is of plateau-like character, generally between 400 and 600 ft. in elevation. There are considerable tracts of this nature on the western boundary, both north and south of Birmingham, on the eastern boundary north of Rugby, and in the centre between the Blythe, the Anker and the Avon. From this side the Avon receives the Swift, the Sowe and the Alne. The northern district was distinguished by Camden as the Woodland, as opposed to the southern or Feldon, “a plain champain.” The northern woodland embraced the ancient forest of Arden (q.v.) and it is this district which gave to the county the common epithets of “woody” or “leafy.” The Feldon or south-eastern district is almost wholly in the Avon valley. From this side the Avon receives the Learn, the lichen and the Stour. Along the