of Leamington, a fashionable watering-place two miles and a
half distant, one of the mushrooms of this century, but in a practical
point of view one of the brightest and most attractive places in England.
At present it far surpasses Warwick in business and bustle, and possesses
all the adjuncts of a health-resort, frequented all the year round, and
inhabited by hundreds of resident invalids for the sake of the excellent
medical staff collected there. One of its famous physicians was often sent
for, instead of a London doctor, to the great houses within a radius of
forty or fifty miles. The assembly-rooms, hotels, baths, gardens, bridges
and shops of Leamington vie with those of the continental spas, and the
display of dress and the etiquette of society are in wonderful contrast to
the state of the quiet village fifty years ago. But it is pleasant to know
that the new town has already an endowed hospital, founded by Dr.
Warneford and called by his name, where the poor have gratuitous baths and
the best medical advice. Not content with being a centre in its own way,
Leamington has improved its prospects by setting up as a rival to Melton
Mowbray in Leicestershire, known as the "hunting metropolis." Three packs
of hounds are hunted regularly during the season within easy distance of
the town, which has also annual steeplechases and a hunting club; and this
sporting element serves to redeem Leamington from the character of masked
melancholy which often strikes a tourist in visiting a regular
health-resort.

In natural beauty Warwickshire is surpassed by other counties, but few can
boast of architectural features equally striking--such magnificent
historical memorials as Kenilworth and Warwick castles, and the humbler
beauties to be found in the houses of Stratford-on-Avon, Polesworth and
Meriden. The last is remarkable--as are, indeed, all the villages of
Warwickshire--for its picturesque beauty, and above all for the position
of its churchyard, whence lovely views are obtained of the country around.
Of Polesworth, Dugdale remarks, that, "for Antiquitie and venerable esteem
it needs not to give Precedence to any in the Countie." "There is a
charming impression of age and quiet dignity in its remains of old walls,
its remains of old trees, its church and its open common," says Dean
Howson. Close to the village, on a hill commanding a view of it, stands
Pooley Hall, whose owner in old days obtained a license from Pope Urban
V