Raglan's active history ended with its surrender August 15, 1646, to the
Parliamentary army under General Fairfax, after a severe siege of more
than two months. It was the last fortress in England to hold out for the
lost cause of King Charles, and a brave record did its gallant defenders
make against an overwhelmingly superior force. The Marquis of Worcester,
though eighty-five years of age, held the castle against the
Cromwellians until starvation forced him to surrender. The old nobleman
was granted honorable terms by his captors, but Parliament did not keep
faith, and he died a year later in the Tower of London. On being told a
few days before his death that his body would be buried in Windsor
Chapel, he cheerfully remarked: "Why, God bless us all, then I shall
have a better castle when I am dead than they took from me when I was
alive."

After the surrender the castle was dismantled by the soldiers, and the
farmers in the vicinity emulated the Parliamentary destroyers in looting
the fine edifice. Seventeen of the stone staircases were taken away
during the interval and the great hall and chapel were seriously
injured. Enough of the massive walls is left to convey a vivid idea of
the olden grandeur of the castle. The motto of the time-worn arms
inscribed over the entrance speaks eloquently of the past, expressing in
Latin the sentiment, "I scorn to change or fear."

A quiet, unpretentious old border town is Hereford, pleasantly located
on the banks of the always beautiful Wye. The square tower of the
cathedral is the most conspicuous object when the town first comes into
view. Though dating in part from the Eleventh Century, work on the
cathedral occupied the centuries until 1530, when it was practically
completed as it now stands. The vandal Wyatt, who dealt so hardly with
Salisbury, had the restoration of the cathedral in hand early in the