23, 1783, aged seventy-seven; also of
George Shakespear of Oxford Street, London, late of this parish,
architect, who died March 29, 1797, in the seventy-fourth year of his
age.

[364] _Notes and Queries_, Seventh Series, viii. 89.

[365] _Ibid._, Sixth Series, ii. 53.

[366] _Ibid._, Third Series, ix. 346, 398.

[367] British Museum Catalogues.

_PART II_

CHAPTER I

THE PARK HALL ARDENS

"No Saint George was born in England:
He was but an Eastern saint;
And the Dragon never vexed him,
As the later legends paint.

"But our Saint was born in Berkshire,
And to Warwick linked his name;
'Twas _Saint Guy_ who killed the Dragon--
Quenched the Giant Colbrand's fame."--C. C. S.

Few families in the country have a descent so nationally interesting as
that of the Ardens. Great Norman families who "came in with the
Conqueror" are numerous enough, but there are few that claim to be
"merely English," and have such a record to show. The fables that have
grown around the memory of the hero do not invalidate the pedigree.
Rohand was Earl of Warwick in the days of King Alfred and King Edward
the Elder, when the title was an official one, not necessarily
hereditary, save of the King's will. Rohand was a great warrior, and was
enriched with great possessions. He dwelt in the Royal Castle of
Warwick,[368] said by Rous to have been founded by the British King
Cymbeline, enlarged by his son Guiderius, and repaired by Ethelfleda,
daughter of King Alfred, the Lady of Mercia. Rohand had one fair
daughter and heir, Phillis, or Felicia, who demanded great proofs of
valour in her suitors. She at last consented to marry the famous hero
Guy, slayer of the Northern Dragon,[369] son of Siward, Baron of
Wallingford, whom the Welsh claim as British by descent. Dugdale[370]
says that in her right Guy became Earl of Warwick, though of course this
was only possible through the King's favour. Some difficulties are
brought forward by Mr. Pegge.[371] Some time after his marriage, says
the legend, Guy went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and on his
return, in the third year of King Athelstan, 926, he found the kingdom
in great peril from an invasion of the Danes. They were, however, secure
in their faith in their champion, Colbrand the Giant, willing to leave
the issue to the result of a single contest between him and any of the
King's knights. King Athelstan's chief warriors were either