No doubt most of our readers who have travelled from Derby to the bustling town of Uttoxeter have observed, when they had proceeded about nine miles on the road, some fragments of ruins on a commanding eminence, at the distance of about a mile and a half on their left hand. Those fragments are the sole remains of the once regal Castle of Tutbury. The hill on which the castle stands is an immense rock of gypsum. Its height gives it the advantage of a very extensive prospect over a country comparatively flat, and which is only bounded by the distant mountains of the Peak,, in Derbyshire. Towards its own county-that of Stafford -the view is confined by the rising grounds of what was once Weedwood Forest, a famous hunting-ground, and which, at a distance, still retain their former character, being well covered with noble trees, which form a very pleasing background to the scene. At the foot of this rock runs the "fair Dove" of Charles Cotton, which he repeatedly informs us in his poems is without a rival. "Of all fair Thetis's daughters none so bright, So pleasant none to taste, none to the sight, None yield the patient angler such delight." Henry de Ferrars was the founder of the Castle of Tutbury in the eleventh century. It is the general lot of great possessions frequently to change their owners. Thus we find that Tutbury was forfeited, among his other large possessions, by Robert de Ferrars, Earl of Derby, in the year of grace 1269, and was given by King Edward the First to his brother Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, who dying in 1297, it became the property of his son Thomas, who repaired and greatly improved, both in comfort and in strength, the castle, making it in a great measure his general residence, His style of living here is spoken of by the old chroniclers as most princely; and that it was so may be readily supposed, when we are assured that his household expenses in the year 1313 amounted to not less than twentytwo thousand pounds-an almost incredible sum, when the difference in the price of provisions at that time is borne in mind. This magnificent prince, however, became embroiled with Edward the Second. Disgusted with the manner in which the foolish King suffered himself to be guided by his minions, Gaveston and the De Spensers, he, at the head of a number of the principal nobility, first remonstrated, and, when that was of no avail, took up arms against his sovereign. A civil war was commenced, which was vigorously carried on by both parties. The King had advanced into the heart of the kingdom while the Earl was in the north; and before the latter could arrest its progress, the royal army had advanced nearly to Burton. Here, however, by forced marches, the Earl arrived before the King; and taking possession of the town, made every preparation to prevent the King from entering. Burton is situated on the western bank of the river Trent, which is here remarkably deep, and of such a breadth as to require a bridge of a quarter of a mile to connect it with the neighbouring county of Derby, and to open a communication with the towns of Leicestershire. This bridge, near the conclusion of the thirteenth century, was very narrow and crooked, full of angles and projections, and so contrived that but very few persons could pass abreast over it; it had also a number of chapels and other buildings on and about it. Thus singularly constructed, it was easily guarded, and Earl Thomas made up his mind to dispute the passage to the last extremity. On this bridge of Trent he considered that his safety depended; for, without crossing the river, he knew that his Castle of Tutbury could not be approached, and there was no other bridge within many long miles. Confiding in his situation, though shamefully deserted by the barons who had promised him assistance, he was perfectly astounded when part of the royal army attacked his forces in the rear, having, by means of a rustic guide, found a ford about four miles above Burton, by which they had crossed the river, while the other part remained near the bridge, apparently with a determination of forcing a passage, as a feint to draw off the rebel chieftain's attention from the real quarter of attack. Thus surprised and outgeneralled, the Earl was constrained to flee to the only refuge he had left-his fortress of Tutbury. Tutbury is about five miles from Burton; and scarcely had the fugitive Earl got into the castle with the remnant of his followers, ere he found the King's forces at the gates. To stay under such circumstances he did not deem safe to his beloved person; so, after leaving his baggage and military chest in the care of his treasurer, Leicester, he and his principal retainers made their escape to Pontefract. Leicester did his utmost to fulfil the parting directions of his lord in regard to the military chest, which contained all the "sinews of war" at their command, which were to follow on the first favourable opportunity that presented itself into Yorkshire, using all precautions to avoid falling, with their treasure, into the enemy's hand. But in the confusion of crossing the river one dark and stormy night, with a guard which was, as it were, panic-struck, the chest, with all its valuable contents, was lost in the Dove; nor had the unlucky treasurer ever after an opportunity of returning to attempt its recovery. Two bridges had subsequently been built, a corn-mill erected, and then s cotton-mill; weirs and dams had been formed; and many cuts and alterations made in the river, without this treasure having been again brought to light, when, on Wednesday, the 1st of June, 1831, the proprietors of the cotton-mill, having commenced the operation of deepening the river, for the purpose of giving a greater fall to the water from the wheel, the workmen found among the gravel, about sixty yards below the bridge, a few small pieces of silver coin, of such a kind as they had never seen before. As they proceeded up the river they continued to find more, lying about half a yard below the surface of the gravel, apparently as if they had been washed down from a higher source. On the fol lowing Tuesday the men left their work in the expectation of finding more coin; nor were they disappointed, for several thousands were obtained that day. As they advanced up the river, they became still more successful; and the next day, Wednesday, June the 8th, they came to the grand deposit of coins, from whence the others had been washed by the cur rent, about thirty yards below the present bridge, and from four to five feet beneath the surface of the gravel. The coins were here so abundant that one hundred and fifty were turned up in a single shovelful of gravel, and nearly five thousand of them were collected by two of the men thus employed on that day. Upwards of three hundred individuals were engaged in the exciting search at one time; and the idle and inquisitive of all ranks were attracted from the surrounding district to the "gold diggings" of Staffordshire. Quarrels and disturbances, as a matter of course, ensued; and the interference of the neighbouring magistrates became necessary. At length the officers of the Crown at the eleventh hour-asserted the King's right to all coin which might subsequently be found in the bed of the river, since the soil thereof belonged to his Majesty in the right of his Duchy of Lancaster. A commission was issued from the Chancellor of the Duchy prohibiting all persons, except those appointed therein, from searching, or authorizing others to search, for coin in the river; and the commissioners were directed to institute a rigorous search on behalf of the Crown. This search commenced on the 28th of June, and was discontinued on the 1st of July, after having obtained upwards of fifteen hundred coins. At the end of this search, the excavation from whence the coins were principally taken was filled up, and a quantity of gravel spread over it, so that any search hereafter would not likely be attended with the least success. The total number of coins thus found is supposed to have been at least one hundred thousand. Tutbury Castle having fallen into the possession of the Crown, it was given in succession to several parties, and at length passed into the hands of the famous John of Gaunt. On his marriage with the Lady Constance, Queen of Castile and Leon, he presented her with this castle. Here she fixed her residence, and appears to have kept a splendid court. It was in the fourth year of King Richard II. that Duke John instituted the celebrated "Minstrels' Court" at Tutbury. This was a corporation subject to the government of a chief, under the title of "King of the Minstrels." The instrument for investing him with this authority is thus translated from the original Norman-French : "John, by the Grace of God, King of Castile and Leon, Duke of Lancaster, to all who shall see or hear these our letters, greeting. Know ye that we have ordained, constituted, and assigned to our well-beloved the King of the Minstrels, in our honour of Tutbury, who is, or for the time shall be, to apprehend or arrest all the minstrels in our said honour and franchises that refuse to do the service and attendance which appertains to them to do, from ancient times, at Tutbury aforesaid, yearly, on the days of the Assumption of Our Lady; giving and granting to the said King of the Minstrels, for the time being, full power and commandment to make them reasonably to justify, and to constrain them to perform, their services and attendance, in manner as belongeth to them, and has been here used, and of ancient times accustomed." By this instrument, it appears that the Duke of Lancaster before that time considered these minstrels as his vassals, and expected certain services from them, which, in all probability, being irregularly paid, rendered some rules or regulations absolutely necessary. He then, in addition to the power given to the King, soon afterwards established the "Minstrels' Court," in which all plaints and controversies among the minstrels might be heard and determined. It was held annually before the steward of the honour, on the 16th of August; and the jury, who consisted of minstrels, elected four stewards, one of whom was to be king for the ensuing year. These officers had full power and authority to levy and distrain for all such fines as were inflicted by the jury of the court upon any minstrels for the infraction of such orders as were then made for the government of that society; and the amount of such fines was returned at every audit by the stewards, one half of which was pocketed by the Duke of Lancaster, and the other was kept by the stewards for their trouble. The singular court thus established continued for many years, and orders were annually issued for the better government of a body always very much inclined to be refractory. Indeed, in this respect, it would be a matter of difficulty to decide whether, in the olden time, the apprentices or the minstrels were the most obstreperous. As a specimen of what these orders were, the following, of the date of Charles I., is given:-"That no person shall use or exercise the art and science of music within the said counties, as a common musician or minstrel, for benefit and gains, except he have served and been brought up in the same art and science, by the space of seven years, and be allowed and admitted so to do at the said court by the jury thereof, and by the consent of the steward of the said court for the time being, on pain of forfeiting, for every month that he shall so offend, 3s. 4d. And that no musician or minstrel shall take into his service to teach and instruct any one in the said art and science, for any shorter time than for the space of seven years, under the pain of forfeiting for every such offence 40s. And that all the musicians and minstrels above mentioned shall appear yearly at the court called the Minstrels' Court, on pain of forfeiting for every default, according to old custom, 3s. 4d. Nearly coeval with this institution, and in some degree forming "part and parcel" of it, was the establishment of the barbarous diversion called "bull-running." This exhibition was thus celebrated on the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. All the minstrels within the honour came early on that day to the house of the bailiff of the manor of Tutbury, and from thence to the parish church in procession, the king of the minstrels for the year past walking between the steward and the bailiff of the manor, attended by the four stewards of the King of the Minstrels, each with a white wand in his hand, and the rest of the company following in ranks of twoand-two together, with the music playing before them. After service was ended they proceeded from the church to the castle-hall, when the steward and bailiff took their seats, placing the King of the Minstrels between them, whose duty it was to cause every minstrel dwelling within the honour who made default to be presented and amerced. The Court of the Minstrels was then opened in the usual way, and proclamation made that every minstrel dwelling within the honour of Tutbury, in any of the counties of Stafford, Derby, Nottingham, Lancaster, or Warwick, should draw near and give his attendance, and that if any man would be assigned of suit or plea, he should come in and be heard. Then all the musicians being called over by a court-roll, two juries were empanelled, one for Staffordshire and one for the other counties, whose names being delivered to the steward and called over, and appearing to be full juries, the foreman of each was sworn, and then the rest of them, in the manner usual in other courts. The steward then proceeded to charge them, first commending to their consideration the antiquity and excellence of all music, both of wind and stringed instruments, and the effect it had upon the passions; how the use of it had always been allowed in praising and glorifying God, and how that skill in it had been esteemed so highly that it was ranked amongst the liberal arts, and admired in all civilized states. He concluded by exhorting them, on this account, to be very careful to make choice of such men to be officers amongst them as feared God, men of good life and conversation, and had knowledge and skill in the practice of the art. When the charge was ended, the jurors proceeded to the election of the officers of the next year. The jurors then departed out of the court, and the steward, with his assistants, and the King of the Minstrels, in the meanwhile, partook of a banquet, during which the other musi cians played on their several instruments; but as soon as the jurors returned, they presented, in the first place, the new King whom they had chosen; upon which the deposed King, rising with as much dignity as possible from his seat, delivered to him his wand of office, and then drank a bumper of wine to his health and prosperity; in the like plea sant manner the old stewards saluted the new, and resigned their offices to their successors. The election having been thus concluded, the court rose, and all repaired to another large room within the castle, where a plentiful dinner was prepared for them; after which the minstrels went anciently to the priory gate, but, after the dissolution, to a barn near the town, in expectation of the bull being turned loose for them. This bull was formerly provided by the Prior of Tutbury, but afterwards by the Duke of Devonshire, who enjoys the priory lands. His horns were sawed of, his ears cropped, his tail cut off to the stump, all his body smeared over with soap, and his nostrils blown full of pounded pepper. Whilst this inhuman preparation was in progress, the steward made a proclamation that all manner of persons should give way to the bull, no person coming nearer to him than forty feet, except the minstrels; but that all should attend to their own safety, every one at his peril. Thus enraged to the utmost, the poor animal was then turned out, to be taken by the minstrels, and none else, within the county of Stafford, between the time of his being turned out and the setting of the sun on the same day. If the bull escaped, he remained the property of the person who gave it; but if any of the minstrels could take and lay hold of him, so as to cut off a small portion of hair, and bring the same to the market-cross in proof of their having taken him, the bull was then brought to the bailiff's house, where a collar and rope were fastened to him, by which he was brought to the bull-ring in the High-street, and there baited with dogs; after which the minstrels held him for their own, and might sell, kill, and divide him among themselves as they thought fit. This revolting institution continued to be celebrated from about 1377 to 1778, when a tragical event-the death of a bull persecutor-gave the Duke of Devonshire immediate occasion for abolishing the practice. With the other estates pertaining to the Duchy of Lancaster, the Castle of Tutbury became the property of the crown when Henry Bolingbroke ascended the throne. From this time there is little to record concerning the fortress, except that Henry VII. occasionally resided in it for the sake of hunting in the neighbouring forest, until the reign of Elizabeth, when it was awhile the prison of the beauteous but ill-fated Mary, Queen of Scots. That Princess was removed from her place of confinement at Bolton to Tutbury. On her arrival here she was placed under the surveillance of the kind-hearted Earl of Shrewsbury, not by any means to the satisfaction of his Countess. A few days after, the Bishop of Ross, Lord Herries, and her other commissioners, arrived to present her with the register they had prepared for the conferences at York and Westminster, and to receive the approval of their conduct. Mary was taken hence, and sent to Wingfield; but, on the 21st of September, 1569, returned hither again, under the guardianship of the Earl of Huntingdon. On the 13th of January, 1585, she was once more transferred from Wingfield to Tutbury Castle, with Sir Ralph Sadler and Somers for her jailers. Mary was domiciled at Tutbury less conveniently than in any of the many residences in which her long captivity had hitherto been spent. There was no stable in connection with the castle, and the sixteen horses which constituted her stud were left behind at Sheffield. "Without them," she wrote to Burghley, "I am more a prisoner than ever." Her legs were so enfeebled by rheumatism and inactivity, that she was unable to take the least walking exercise in the open air. The walls of the castle at this time are reported to have been full of cracks and crevices; the place was damp, unhealthy, and ill-furnished, and by no means a fit residence for herself and her servants, now considerably reduced in number. She was, therefore, continually ill. To the inconvenience of the fortress were added the severities of captivity, when, at the beginning of May, 1585, she passed from the custody of Sadler and Somers to that of Anuis Paulet. Mary was not allowed to walk out, unless he could accompany her, with an escort of eighteen men, fully armed. He would not even suffer her to send the least alms to the poor of the village which lay beneath the castle, and Mary bitterly deplored her hard fate in being refused this Christian consolation; "there being," she wrote, "no criminal so poor, vile, and abject, to whom she should ever be, by any law, denied." A report having been spread that she had attempted to escape, Paulet wrote to assure the Lord Treasurer of her safe custody, in these terrible words "Mary cannot escape without great negligence on my part. If I should be violently attacked, I will be so assured, by the grace of God, that she shall die before me." After nearly a year's residence at Tutbury, Mary was removed, towards the end of December, 1585, to Chartley. : Burns, in his "Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots," touchingly expresses the weary feelings which probably existed in the breast of the royal captive in this dreary retreat :: "Oh, soon to me may summer suns Her son, James I., often visited Tutbury for his favourite diversion of hunting in the old forest of Needwood. Charles I. spent several days here before the commencement of his troubles; and afterwards, in the company of his nephew, Prince Rupert, took up his abode in the castle, while his army encamped at the foot of the hill and in the surrounding country. This was a few weeks before the battle of Naseby; a short time after it he returned to the castle, but instead of having a noble army along with him, he was attended only by about a hundred men. Tutbury Castle held out for the King after most of the other strongholds in Staffordshire had yielded to the parlia ment. But it was at last forced to yield also, and the victorious party, according to their usual plan, razed the fortifi cation. It has remained a ruin ever since. The parts left are rather fine, but too scattered to allow it to be considered a |