The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and
Instruction, No. 484, by Various

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Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 484
Vol. 17, No. 484, Saturday, April 9, 1831

Author: Various

Release Date: June 28, 2004 [EBook #12766]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.

VOL. 17, No. 484.] SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1831. [PRICE 2d.

* * * * *

[Illustration: CORFE CASTLE.]

CORFE CASTLE.

The annexed Engravings are an interesting page in the early history of our
country, and deserve all the space we have appropriated to them. Their
political notoriety, of much less interesting character, we leave to be
set down, said, sung, or set aside, elsewhere.

Corfe Castle nearly adjoins a town of the same name: both are situate in
the Isle of Purbeck; and their histories are so incorporated, that we
shall not attempt their separation.

The town, according to the _Beauties of England and Wales_, vol. iv.
p. 386, is nearly in the centre of the Isle, at the foot of a range of
hills, on a rising ground, declining to the east. Its origin must
undoubtedly be attributed to the Castle, which existed previous to the
year 980; though the town itself does not appear to have attained any
importance till after the Conquest, as it was wholly unnoticed in the
Domesday Book. The Manor and Castle seem always to have descended
together, and were often granted to princes of the blood, and the
favourites of our kings, yet as often reverted to the Crown by attainder
or forfeiture. In the reign of Richard the Second, they were held by
Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, jointly with Alicia, his wife. In the reign
of Henry the Fourth, they were granted to the _Beauforts_, Earls of
Somerset; but were taken from that family by Edward the Fourth, who
bestowed them successively on Richard, Duke of York, and George, Duke of
Clarence; on the attainder of the latter, they reverted to the Crow