SIR ROBERT PEEL.
From the portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence.
Sir Robert Peel died from the effect of an accident sustained when riding on horseback in Hyde Park, on June 25th, 1850; he fell from his horse, dying three days afterwards, and was buried in his mausoleum, in the Parish Church of Drayton Bassett, a village about two miles from Tamworth.
It was the day of the Municipal Elections as we passed through Tamworth, but, as only one ward was being contested, there was an almost total absence of the excitement usual on such occasions.
TAMWORTH CASTLE.
Tamworth Castle contains some walls that were built by the Saxons in a herringbone pattern. There was a palace on the site of the castle in the time of Ofta, which was the chief residence of the Kings of Mercia; but William the Conqueror gave the castle and town of Tamworth and the Manor of Scrivelsby in Lincolnshire to his dispensor, or royal steward, Robert of Fontenaye-le-Marmion in Normandy, whose family were the hereditary champions of the Dukes of Normandy:
These Lincoln lands the Conqueror gave,
That England's glove they might convey
To Knight renowned amongst the brave—
The Baron bold of Fontenaye.