Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/424

410 vitality they possess compared with the religious buildings of the country, which seemingly renovate themselves into perpetual strength and beauty. Here, for example, are the Leicester Buildings, a splendid fabric, erected only so far back as 1571, and no older on its foundations than hundreds of village churches scattered over the kingdom. The best material and art and labour of the time were employed upon the structure. There are many one-story, thatched cottages in the village of Kenilworth that now make sunny homes for young children, quite as old as this superb wing of the palace castle. But here stands the latter with all its lofty pretensions in haggard ruins. It could not have been demolished by a bombardment; for in Cromwell's time it could not have had much fighting capacity. Oliver Martel smote even sacred things hip and thigh that came in his way, but it must have been like shooting chickens in a farm-yard with a breech-loader, for him to point his cannon at the ornate and helpless windows of the Leicester Buildings and John o' Gaunt's Banqueting Hall. But his soldiers did seize and possess it, and, so it is charged, laid unscrupulous hands upon its ornamental wealth, doubtless regarding it as a part of the pomps and vanities which were inconsistent with a sober and a religious people. Still, the Parliamentary Puritans were apt to save some