CHAPTER I
THE PARK HALL ARDENS
"No Saint George was born in England:
He was but an Eastern saint;
And the Dragon never vexed him,
As the later legends paint.
"But our Saint was born in Berkshire,
And to Warwick linked his name;
'Twas Saint Guy who killed the Dragon—
Quenched the Giant Colbrand's fame."—C. C. S.
Few families in the country have a descent so nationally interesting as that of the Ardens. Great Norman families who "came in with the Conqueror" are numerous enough, but there are few that claim to be "merely English," and have such a record to show. The fables that have grown around the memory of the hero do not invalidate the pedigree. Rohand was Earl of Warwick in the days of King Alfred and King Edward the Elder, when the title was an official one, not necessarily hereditary, save of the King's will. Rohand was a great warrior, and was enriched with great possessions. He dwelt in the Royal Castle of Warwick,[368] said by Rous to have been founded by the British King Cymbeline, enlarged by his son Guiderius, and repaired by Ethelfleda, daughter of King Alfred, the Lady of Mercia. Rohand had one fair daughter and heir, Phillis, or Felicia, who demanded great proofs of valour in her suitors. She at last consented to marry the famous hero Guy, slayer of the Northern Dragon,[369] son of Siward, Baron of Wallingford, whom the Welsh claim as British by descent. Dugdale[370] says that in her right Guy became Earl of Warwick, though of course this was only possible through the King's favour. Some difficulties are brought forward by Mr. Pegge.[371] Some time after his marriage, says the legend, Guy went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and on his return, in the third year of King Athelstan, 926, he found the kingdom in great peril from an invasion of the Danes. They were, however, secure in their faith in their champion, Colbrand the Giant, willing to leave the issue to the result of a single contest between him and any of the King's knights. King Athelstan's chief warriors were either dead or abroad, and he mourned in his spirit. A vision revealed to him that he must welcome at the gate of Winchester an unknown pilgrim as the defender of the country. The King obeyed the vision in faith, unwittingly welcomed Guy, and laid on him the responsibility of becoming the national champion.
WARWICK CASTLE.
To face p. 162.
Footsore, half-starved, and far from young, the pilgrim required rest before he dared prudently attack the Danish opponent. At the end of three weeks, however, he triumphantly encountered the giant, and the Danes kept their promise and retired. The pilgrim, who refused to reveal his name or receive any reward, also departed. He found that his son and heir, Raynborn, had been stolen away, and that his faithful servant Heraud was abroad in search of him. Affected by the strange religious notions of the day, he returned to Warwick, not to gladden the heart of his sorrowing spouse, but to receive charity at her hands among other poor men for three days, and then to retire to a hermitage at a cliff near Warwick, since called Guy's Cliff. There he remained till his death in 929, in the seventieth year of his age.[372] He sent a herdsman with his wedding-ring to tell his wife of his death, bidding her come to him and bury him properly, and she should shortly afterwards follow him. She fulfilled his wishes, set her house in order, left her paternal inheritance to her son Raynborn, and within a fortnight was laid beside her ascetic hero.