We were sorry we could
not explore the castle, but we wanted particularly to visit the
magnificent Beauchamp Chapel in St. Mary's Church at Warwick. We found
this one of those places almost impossible to describe, and could
endorse the opinion of others, that it was "an architectural gem of the
first water and one of the finest pieces of architectural work in the
kingdom." It occupied twenty-one years in building, and contains the
tomb of Richard Beauchamp, under whose will the chapel was begun in
1443; Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the haughty favourite of Queen
Elizabeth, was also entombed here. We had too much to do to-day to stay
very long in any place we visited, but we were interested in the remains
of a ducking-stool in the crypt of the church, although it was far from
being complete, the only perfect one of which we knew being that in the
Priory Church of Leominster, which reposed in a disused aisle of the
church, the property of the Corporation of that town. It was described
as "an engine of universal punishment for common scolds, and for
butchers, bakers, brewers, apothecaries, and all who give short measure,
or vended adulterated articles of food," and was last used in 1809, when
a scolding wife named Jenny Pipes was ducked in a deep place in one of
the small rivers which flowed through that town.
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