And the old story is still told about the country-side to show how one who had fame, great wealth, high position, and love, sacrificed it all for the lowly yet holy calling of a simple heremite.
All this happened so long ago that nobody knows exactly when it was, but you may still see at Guy’s Cliff, that beautiful old place a short walk from Warwick, the cave in the rock where the hermit and Guy lived. And in the little chapel of St. Mary Magdalene there, you will see carved in the living rock a mighty figure, eight feet high, of the fearless Guy; though time has wrought much damage to this strange effigy.
Warwick and Leamington are both close at hand; Warwick, one of the most picturesque towns in the whole country with Shakespeare’s Avon flowing gently by it, and the grim and wonderful Warwick Castle with its grounds stretching to the river’s edge. And Leamington, that bright clean-streeted spa, with its healing waters, and its quiet atmosphere of other days, when our great-grandfathers posted to it from all parts of the country to drink the waters and to indulge in the gaiety of the latest and most fashionable of inland watering-places.
All round about is the rich leafy England that Shakespeare knew so well. Stratford-on-Avon is but eight miles away. Shottery—the village of Shakespeare’s wife, where Anne Hathaway’s charming little cottage still stands—Henley-in-Arden, Charlecote, and Hampton Lucy; pretty historic names we know so well, are all in the neighbourhood.
This country has a sixteenth century atmosphere even now. It is one that the foreign visitor seldom misses; yet the British tourist knows all too little of it and its peculiar rural beauty and charm.
Guy’s Cliff Caves.
THE GHOSTLY BISHOP OF FINGEST.
