John's
Priory and Church, the Wesleyan Chapels, and the various other
denominational places of worship, do not admit of full description.

* * * * *

BROUGHTON CASTLE, the old seat of Lord Saye and Sele, now the residence of
Lord Algernon Gordon Lennox, is about two and a half miles to the westward
of Banbury. The older parts are at the east end, and comprise a chapel,
several small rooms and groined passages, and an embattled and loopholed
tower, all of early decorated or 14th century work. The chapel contains a
geometrical window and stone altar. Both north and south fronts, together
with a wooden inner lobby at the entrance to the drawing room, are figured
in Skelton's "Antiquities of Oxfordshire." The north front, of the date
1544, is best seen from the meadow adjoining the Broughton Road. In the
hall, dining and drawing rooms, are rich plaster ceilings of a half
century later. The moat, which still encircles the castle grounds, is
spanned by a modern bridge with a turretted gatehouse of early 15th
century work. The outbuildings on the east side of the gatehouse are of
contemporaneous date. The embattled wall on the west side is part of the
original castle, and belongs to an early part of the 14th century. In the
hall are portraits of Charles I. and Cromwell, by Dobson, and in other
parts of the building works by Westall, Dorcy, and Gainsborough. A large
historical painting of Lord Saye before Jack Cade (Shakespeare's King
Henry VI., pt. 2, sc. 7) formerly hung at the end of the drawing room.
After the Edge Hill fight, Banbury surrendered to the Royalists, who
attacked Broughton on the following day. The Castle, with wool-sacked
windows, stood siege for a day, and then it is said to have been taken by
Prince Rupert. There is little or no evidence to show the phases of the
fight, but when it is remembered that the Fiennes' in the vale of the Red
Horse were within an hour's ride, and that Ramsay and some of his troops
found a way to Banbury on the Sunday, it would point to the probability of
fierce defence. Bretch Cave, on the Banbury Road, has the common repute
of being a secret passage to the Castle, and perhaps some sally port of
the kind may have a tale to tell.

[Illustration: BROUGHTON CASTLE.]

The two paper mills on the borders of the Broughton estate, the Woad Mill
and the Fulling Mill, together with the settlements of the plush and other
weavers near by, point to surrou