Short is my tale:—­Fitz-Eustace’ care
  A pierced and mangled body bare
  To moated Lichfield’s lofty pile;
  And there, beneath the southern aisle,
  A tomb, with Gothic sculpture fair,
  Did long Lord Marmion’s image bear,
  (Now vainly for its sight you look;
  ’Twas levell’d when fanatic Brook
  The fair cathedral storm’d and took;
  But, thanks to Heaven, and good Saint Chad,
  A guerdon meet the spoiler had!)
  There erst was martial Marmion found,
  His feet upon a couchant hound,
    His hands to heaven upraised: 
  And all around, on scutcheon rich,
  And tablet carved, and fretted niche,
    His arms and feats were blazed. 
  And yet, though all was carved so fair,
  And priest for Marmion breathed the prayer,
  The last Lord Marmion lay not there.

[Illustration:  MEREVALE ABBEY.]

[Illustration:  “KING DICK’S WELL.”]

The Marmion stone on the bridge has five unequal sides, and at one time formed the base for a figure of the Virgin and the Child, which stood on the bridge.  The ancient family of Basset of Drayton, a village close by, were in some way connected with this stone, for on one side appeared the arms of the family, on another the monogram M.R. surmounted by a crown, and on the two others the letters I.H.C.  About two miles farther on we entered the village of Fazeley, purposely to see a house where a relative of ours had once resided, being curious to know what kind of a place it was.  Here we were only a short distance away from Drayton Manor, at one time the residence of the great Sir Robert Peel.  Having gratified our curiosity, we recrossed the River Tame, passing along the great Watling Street, the Roman Road which King Alfred used as a boundary in dividing England with the Danes, towards Atherstone in search of “fields and pastures new,” and in a few miles reached the grounds of Merevale Abbey, now in ruins, where Robert, Earl Ferrers, was buried, long before coffins were used for burial purposes, in “a good ox hide.”  Here we reached the town of Atherstone, where the staple industry was the manufacture of hats, the Atherstone Company of Hat-makers being incorporated by charters from James I and Charles II.  Many of the chiefs on the West Coast of Africa have been decorated with gorgeous hats that have been made at Atherstone.  When the Romans were making their famous street and reached the spot where Atherstone now stands, they came, according to local tradition, to a large stone that was in their way, and in moving it they disturbed a nest of adders, which flew at them.  The stone was named Adders’ Stone, which gradually became corrupted to Athers’ Stone, and hence the name of the town.  The Corporation of the Governors embodied this incident in their coat of arms and on the Grammar School, which was endowed in 1573:  a stone showed the adders as springing upwards, and displaying the words, “Adderstonien Sigil Scholae.”  We called at the “Old