Kenilworth is one of England’s most magnificent castles. Once standing at the heart of a 1,600-ha (4,000-acre) hunting ground, and surrounded by a vast man-made lake, it represented a rich prize to the generations of royal and almost-royal great men who owned and embellished it: among them Geoffrey de Clinton, John of Gaunt, Henry V, and Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester. Even in melancholy decay its influence has been far-reaching, thanks, in part, to Walter Scott’s best-selling romance, Kenilworth, which brought the castle new fame.
