Chapter III: Part 3

[Picture: Llangollen vale & aqueduct; Plas Newydd; Denbigh Castle.
London. Published by T. T. & J. Tegg, Cheapside, Oct. 1st 1832]

PLAS-NEWYDD, LLANGOLLEN.

THE history of the late occupants of this beautiful little cottage is at variance with the censure of the poet’s Angelina on the quality of friendship. Lady Eleanor Butler, daughter of the Earl of Ormond, was born in Dublin, and almost from her cradle had been an orphan. Wealthy, beautiful, and nobly sprung, her hand was sought by persons of rank and fortune equal to her own; but to all addresses of that description she expressed at once her disinclination. Although she openly avowed this taste for independence, no woman was ever more distinguished for mildness, modesty, and all those feminine graces which adorn and give interest to the sex. Miss Ponsonby, a member of the noble family of Besborough, had been an early associate of Lady Eleanor; and, possibly, it may have contributed in some degree to cement their growing friendship, the incidental circumstance of both having been born in the same city, upon the same day and year, and being both bereaved of their parents at precisely the same period. Minds of so much sensibility soon mistook their fancies for realities, and rapidly concluding that they were destined for a life of independence, at the early age of seventeen vowed eternal friendship and devotion to each other for the residue of their lives. At the age of twenty-one, when the arm of the law rescued them from the friendly detention of their relatives, they withdrew to the solitary little cottage of Plas-Newydd, never to return again to the gay, glittering world of fashion, or the country which gave them birth. Having enlarged and decorated their rural dwelling, laid out and planted their grounds, the selection of a library became an early care. Here much time was spent; and the glowing language of Miss Seward, a friend and frequent guest at Plas-Newydd, bears a high testimony to the philosophic quality of their minds. “All that is grateful, all that is attached, will be ever warm from my heart towards each honoured and accomplished friend, whose virtues and talents diffuse intellectual sunshine that adorns and cheers the loveliest of the Cambrian vales.”—Letter 38.

The habits and manners of the “Llangollen ladies” were frank and open, and their hospitality of the most liberal kind. They visited and received the neighbouring gentry until the “weight of years pressed heavy on them.” Madame de Genlis and the Mademoiselle D’Orleans, are to be numbered amongst their visiters; and it was here that intellectual being first heard the wild notes of our Æolian harp, of which she remarks, “it is natural for such an instrument to have originated in a country of storms and tempests, of which it softens the manners.”

Upwards of half a century these amiable companions graced the valley of Llangollen, extending a cheerful hospitality to their numerous guests, and exercising a benevolence the most unlimited towards the most friendless of their neighbours. At length they were called before the throne of brightness and purity, at the advanced ages of seventy-two and seventy-seven. Their remains are deposited in a vault in Llangollen cemetery, where the body of Mrs. Mary Carroll, their faithful servant, had been laid at rest before them.

DENBIGH CASTLE.

THE castle of Denbigh (_Dinbach_, the little fort) occupies the crown of a rocky eminence on the south side of the noble vale of Clwyd, and commanding an extensive prospect over that rich and beautiful vein of country. This impregnable fortress, with one thousand pounds in lands, was granted by Edward the First to Davydd, the brother of Llewellyn, as a marriage portion with the Earl of Derby’s widow, whom he espoused at the king’s request. Davydd forfeited these grants by his rebellion, which enabled Edward to reward one of his English followers with this noble estate. The fortunate grantee was Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln and of Denbigh, who had married the daughter and sole heiress of Long-sword, Earl of Salisbury, by whom he had two sons, Edmund and John, who both died young, one of them by a fall into a very deep well within the castle of Denbigh; and a daughter named Alicia, espoused by Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, who, in right of this lady, became Earl of Lincoln and of Sarum, Lord of Denbigh, Halton, Pomfret, and constable of Chester Castle. The melancholy death of his son Edmund so afflicted the earl, that Leland assures us it caused him to desert his proud castle without completing its great design. Upon the attainder of Thomas of Lancaster, son-in-law of Lacy, the lordship of Denbigh was conferred upon Hugh D’Espencer, a favourite of Edward the Second; but this unpopular person being also cut off by violence, Roger Mortimer obtained a grant of his estates, in fulfilment of a promise made to his mother by Edward the Third, before he ascended the throne, “that he would bestow one thousand pounds upon her son if ever he should succeed to the crown of England.” The proprietorship of this impregnable rock seems to have inspired its lords with ideas of independence, uniformly growing up into rebellion. Mortimer was infected with the same anti monarchical notions, and met with a similar fate. The succession of tragedies was at length arrested by a Sir William Montacute, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, who continued a grateful and zealous adherent of the crown. Salisbury dying without issue, and the attainder of Mortimer being reversed, Denbigh was restored, by marriage, to the house of York, and, consequently, to the crown once more.

Queen Elizabeth bestowed the lordship of Denbigh upon her favourite Leicester, who did not conciliate the affections of the Welsh people with the same zeal he did those of his royal mistress, and an insurrection of the tenantry was the consequence of his tyrannical government. In the year 1696 a similar unpopular grant was made of the lordships of Denbigh, Bromfield, and Yale to the Earl of Portland; but the resistance given to the investment of the grantee by the Welsh gentry was so decided, that parliament petitioned the crown to reverse the grant.

Edward the Fourth, while Duke of York, sustained a siege here from the army of Henry the Sixth, and ultimately effected his escape. Charles the First lodged in the castle for a short period after his retreat from Chester; and the Siambr y Brennin, or king’s apartments, though totally ruined, are still pointed out. The Welsh, however, have greater cause of self-gratulation, and may point to this monument of departed power with more pride, from the gallant defence which they made from its walls, under the conduct of the brave William Salisbury, against the parliamentary forces, than from any adventitious circumstance involved in its sad and eventful history.

The ruins are of great extent, and the grand portal is nearly entire; but from the mode of its erection, as well as the means of its destruction, they afford but little that is picturesque in their appearance. The ground plan was at first surrounded by double walls, parallel to each other, and distant only by six or eight feet, the intermural space was then filled up with rubble stone and hot mortar, which on cooling became a solid conglomerate. Upon the barbarous dismantling of the castle, after the Restoration, which was done by springing a mine of gunpowder beneath it, the walls separated and fell from the grouting, exposing a mass of shattered fragments, without the advantage of a single tree or any impending object to throw a relieving shadow over the melancholy heap.

Near to the grand entrance of the castle stand the side walls of an unfinished church, one hundred and seventy feet in length, and pierced by many spacious windows. These were raised by the Earl of Leicester, and destined for the celebration of the reformed service; but he did not like, or, as others say, did not live to visit his oppressed Welsh tenantry, and left this pious work unfinished. A subscription was some years afterwards set on foot, and ample funds obtained for roofing over the walls, but the Earl of Essex, on his way to Ireland, procured a loan of the sum collected, and no effort was ever after made to save the whole from falling to decay.

An interesting and national spectacle was exhibited on the bowling-green under the castle walls of Denbigh, in the autumn of 1828; it is called in Welsh an Eistedfodd, and means a meeting of the bards. This is an institution of ancient origin, and was formerly held under a precept or commission from the crown, directed to the principal inhabitants in the district where the meeting was intended to be held. The latest royal mandate for the holding of an Eistedfodd was issued by Queen Elizabeth, and directed to the ancestors of some of the most respectable families now resident in Flint and Denbigh shires. The bardic assemblage of 1828 was accompanied by circumstances of a very peculiar and gratifying character, and the remembrance of it will long be cherished by all Cambrians who witnessed it, with feelings of the deepest and warmest enthusiasm. The verdant platform of the bowling-green commands one of the richest and happiest prospects in nature; the eye sweeps down the green hills on the south, and passing over the noble and broad valley of the Clwyd, climbs rapidly the Clwydian hills, where it finds an index to a brighter prospect in the national monument on Moel Ffammau. Here a handsome obelisk on the highest of the hills commemorates the fiftieth year of the eventful reign of King George the Third. This accidental circumstance gave an additional interest to this bardic meeting, for, by a singular coincidence, Sir E. Mostyn, a descendant of Sir Piers, one of the persons named in the precept of Elizabeth, was president of the Eistedfodd. A noble individual, the representative of the brave William Salisbury, the defender of the castle, graced the assemblage by his presence. A dignitary of the church, who embodied those gallant actions in a valuable history, judged some of the bardic effusions, and a royal prince looked gratefully over the heads of an innocent and happy people towards the monument which their loyalty and affection had raised to his venerable father.

[Picture: Valle Crucis Abbey; Ruthin Castle; Wynnstay. London.
Published by T. T. & J. Tegg, Cheapside, Oct. 1st 1832]

VALLE CRUCIS ABBEY.

THE Vale of Crucis opens into the beautiful scenery of Llangollen, about two miles from the little village. Fancy cannot paint a scene more suited to the indulgence of solemn thought. It is the spot which a recluse, enamoured of the great scenes of nature, where the eye is continually presented with sublime ideas, where every object contributes to soothe, but not transport the mind, would select as an habitation of cheerful solitude. In the days of its greatness it must have been a place consecrated to retirement, but now how much is the solitude of the scene heightened by the accompaniment of a ruined abbey shrouded in forest trees that wave over its mouldering towers,—

Say, ivy’d Valle Crucis; time decay’d
Dim on the brink of Deva’s wandering floods,
Your ivy’d arch glittering through the tangled shade,
Your gray hills towering o’er your night of woods;
Deep in the vale recesses as you stand,
And, desolately great, the rising sigh command:
Say, lonely ruin’d pile, when former years
Saw your pale train at midnight altars bow,
Saw superstition frown upon the tears
That mourn’d the rash, irrevocable vow,
Were one young lip gay Eleanora’s {77} smile?
Did “Zara’s look serene one tedious hour beguile?”

The foundation of the Cistercian Abbey of Valle Crucis is attributed to Gryffydd ap Madoc Maelor, Lord of Bromfield and Yale, about the year 1200; considerable parts of both church and abbey still remain. The former was cruciformed, and exhibits several styles of architecture. The eastern end is the most ancient; it is adorned by three lancet slips, forming one grand window. The entrance was in the west beneath a broad and beautifully ornamented window, above which is a smaller one of a marigold form, decorated with tracery and fret work, and under it may be discovered the following inscription:

A.D.A.M. D.N.S.—fecit hoc opus, pace beatâ quiescat. Amen.

The abbey and cloisters are more imperfect, the latter evidently built in a rich and ornamental style of architecture, well calculated to shed a “dim religious light,” but now desecrated into a farm house and offices.

RHUTHIN CASTLE.

RHUTHYN, or (Rhudd-Din, the red fort), is placed upon a gentle eminence on the south side of the vale of Clwyd, backed by wooded hills, and is one of the best and most agreeable towns in North Wales. It has undergone much modern improvement, and is possessed of several ancient endowments and privileges. The great sessions for the county are held here in a very elegant modern hall, faced with cut stone, and accurately finished in the interior. The church is spacious and architectural, designed and finished in an excellent style. A range of alms houses surround the churchyard, and represent the ancient hospital; and adjacent to the mansion of the warden is the free school, richly endowed by Gabriel Goodman, D.D. whose monument is set up against the north wall of the church.

Some doubt appears to exist as to the foundation of a castle here anciently, the Welsh name “Castell gôch yn gwernfor,” indicating a fortress of earlier date than any erected by the Saxons. The general belief, however, is, that Reginald de Grey, second son of Lord Grey de Wilton, had a grant of the lordship of Rhuthyn, then embracing nearly the whole vale of Clwyd, as a reward for his services in reducing the ancient Britons. This great captain built the noble castle and enclosed the town, and, to secure the quiet enjoyment of his grant, did homage to Edward the Second at Chester in the year 1301. A drawing preserved amongst the manuscripts in the British Museum exhibits the magnitude and stateliness of De Grey’s castle, and fully justifies the wordy description of the honest Churchyard:

“This castle stands on rocke much like red bricke,
The dykes are cut with toole through stonie cragge,
The towers are hye, the walles are large and thicke,
The worke itself would shake a subject’s bagge.”

Both castle and lordship continued in the posterity of De Grey until the reign of Henry the Seventh, when, by a special compact, George Grey, Earl of Kent, and Lord of Rhuthyn, assigned them to the crown. From this period until the reign of Elizabeth this stately fabric was suffered to decay, but was then new roofed and entirely restored by Ambrose, Earl of Warwick, on whom the queen bestowed it. From the Warwick family it passed to the Myddletons of Chirk Castle, by the marriage of Charlotte, daughter of Sir Thomas Myddleton, who had for her first husband an Earl of Warwick. The lordship has since continued in this family, and the rights are exercised by one of the coheiresses of the late Richard Myddleton, Esq.

A modern castle has arisen from the ruins, the ancient ground plan being pursued with the assistance of the drawing before alluded to. The restoration does not extend over the entire area, yet forms a truly lordly residence. A reference to the original plan indicated the existence of a well in the centre of the rocky citadel, where, after a careful examination, it was at length discovered, built around with stone, and having a depth of nearly one hundred feet.

WYNNSTAY.

THE noble demesne of Wynnstay, the seat of Sir Watkyn Williams Wynne, Bart. is situated at the eastern extremity of the vale of Llangollen, in an open and level, though elevated district. The grounds owe much to the taste and magnificent ideas of its successive proprietors, and the embellishments, that have been added year after year present now a wonderful and beautiful association, their grandeur being accompanied, as the scenery of all private parks usually is, with an air of melancholy. The Hall is a spacious but not a regular building. It consists of an ancient mansion, to which a part only of a new and extensive design has been attached. The old house stands upon the site of a British palace, once the residence of Gryffydd ap Madoc Maelor, Lord of Bromfield and Yale, and founder of the abbey of Valle Crucis. The new house, part of a greater design, by Cockenell, was built by the first Sir Watkyn; it is a simple regular elevation, possessing the great merit of capaciousness, a quality indispensably requisite in the Hall of a family conspicuous through generations for the exercise of a liberal hospitality. The principal apartment or state drawing-room is seventy feet in length by thirty in breadth, lighted by six spacious windows, the piers being occupied by richly ornamented cabinets filled with curiosities of various descriptions. The ceiling, which is separated into sunk panels and beautifully finished with stucco and gilding, is sustained by pillars of porphyry corresponding with the elegant pilasters which adorn the side walls. In this splendid apartment are a few portraits by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Vandyck, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Dahl, with a bust of the _Great_ Sir Watkyn, as he is sometimes styled, by Rysbach; and two admirable busts by Nollekens, one of the present baronet, the other of Lord Grenville. A few good landscapes are hung in the different apartments, a portrait of Wilson by himself is a masterly performance, and an original three-quarter portrait of Flora Macdonald is both interesting and clever. The library contains the remains of a choice collection of manuscripts, the rest having unhappily been destroyed by an accidental fire; those that were preserved are chiefly biographical. In the dining-room stands a large silver font about three feet in length, supported by a pillar of the same height. This tribute of public merit was presented to the present Sir Watkyn by the gentry of his native county, Denbigh.

The extent, elegance, and beauty of the demesne are more than proportionate to the arrangements of the mansion. A spacious park well stocked with red and fallow deer surrounds the house, it is adorned with noble forest trees, and varied by well disposed artificial pieces of water. The quarter of the demesne, called the “Bath Grounds,” is a most gratifying specimen of landscape gardening. These delightful pleasure grounds, laid out by Mr. Evans, consist of shrubberies, walks, and bowers, disposed with admirable taste. A noble sheet of water occupies the centre of the wood; it is formed by the expansion of a little brook, artfully conducted over a rocky precipice at the extremity, where it is thrown into a pleasing and picturesque cascade. The Bath, which lends a distinguishing name to this part of the demesne, is a limpid fountain confined by an enclosure of cut stone. A beautiful Grecian temple, adorned with a portico of four columns, supporting an entablature and pediment, stands close by it, and is beautifully reflected in its smooth waters at the approach of evening. Near the entrance to the Bath Grounds a fluted column of one hundred feet in height, surmounted by a funeral urn, presents an interesting memorial of maternal affection, and a beautiful specimen of columnar architecture: it was designed by Mr. Wyatt. The entablature is surrounded by a gallery approached by steps concealed within the shaft, and the plinth is adorned with wreaths of oak leaves descending from the beaks of eagles. On the cenotaph is graven this brief but feeling epitaph—

Filio optimo, Mater, eheu! superstes.

In a demesne of such extent, the creation and combination of so many persons, years, events, &c. many beautiful and romantic rides may naturally be supposed to have been formed. The new approach, opened by the present Sir Watkyn, and commencing at the iron bridge, leads to the Hall by an avenue of three miles in length, through an amazing variety of sylvan scenery. But this is not the great boast of Wynnstay; the consummation of all its wonders and its beauties is reserved for the vale of Nant y Belan. {83} Here nature has profusely displayed her charms. Two steep banks, richly clothed with woods that dip into the torrent’s bed and wave upon either side, form a long vista of inexpressible grandeur. The winding Dee here pours her rapid flood along with awful murmurings and at a fearful depth, then throwing herself headlong into a deep dark pool, seems to rest, as if exhausted with the violence of the efforts by which it was attained. This grand picture forms but the foreground of an extensive landscape, wherein the middle distance is occupied by the happy scenery of Llangollen, and the remotest filled by the British Alps. Upon the rock from whence this panorama is beheld, Sir Watkyn has erected a circular temple, to the memory of his brave associates, his army of ancient Britons, who fell in the unhappy Irish rebellion of 1798.

The whole of this spacious demesne is enclosed by a stone wall nine miles in extent, and the principal entrance is through a straight avenue, one mile in length, overshadowed by aged oaks. Wattstay was the original name of this estate, so called from its situation upon Watt’s Dyke, but exchanged for Wynnstay by Sir John, when it became his property by marriage with Jane, daughter and heiress of Eyton Evans of Wattstay, Esq.

[Picture: Chirk Castle; Llanrwst Church; Flint Castle. London.
Published by T. T. & J. Tegg, Cheapside, Oct. 1st 1832]

Sir Watkyn is of the ancient Gwydyr stock, and traces his descent to Owen Gwynedd, Prince of Wales. The Wynnstay branch has been united with some of the noblest families of England; the present baronet is married to the Lady Harriet, daughter of the Earl of Powis, and sister of the Duchess of Northumberland.

The manufacturing village of Ruabon, or Rhiwabon, lies immediately outside the demesne wall, and is inhabited by persons connected with the iron foundries and coal pits of this mineral district. On a conspicuous height above it, commanding a view of the vale of Llangollen, stands a handsome square embattled tower of two stories, erected by the present owner of Wynnstay to commemorate the event of the field of Waterloo.

The posthumous honours paid to this ancient family have employed the chisels of the ablest sculptors, and adorn a temple which their munificence has erected. The first Sir John of Wynnstay, who was the grandson of Sir John of Gwydyr, is interred in Rhiwabon church, beneath, as Mr. York calls it, perhaps for the exercise of a pleasant alliteration, “a mass and massacre of marble.” The monument of Lady Harriet Somerset, first wife of Sir Watkyn, who died in 1769, is one of _Nollekens’_ happiest designs; and on one side of the altar is a noble monument, by Rysbach, of the first Sir Watkyn, who was killed by a fall from his horse, on the 26th of September, 1749. The image of this eminent person’s mind has been as feelingly pourtrayed by the classic Dr. King, as the graces of his person are truly expressed by the chisel of the artist.

An elegant baptismal font, of white marble, and resting on a tripod of distinguished grace, was presented to the church and parish, along with the excellent organ in the gallery, by the second Sir Watkyn, in the year 1772.

CHIRK CASTLE,

THE seat of Mrs. Myddleton Biddulph, stands in a spacious and noble demesne, spreading over the sides and summit of a finely situated and isolated hill. It is an ancient building, uniting the castle with the mansion, in which strength and solidity have been consulted to the neglect or prejudice of grace and beauty. Its form is quadrangular, strengthened by a massive flanking tower at each corner, and a fifth projects from the principal front, through which a lofty archway passes, giving admission to a court within. The dimensions of the court yard are one hundred and sixty-five feet in length by one hundred in breadth, surrounded on all sides by various apartments, the windows of which, for the most part, open towards the enclosed area. A handsome arcade, which formerly occupied the basement on the east side, has been closed up and converted into habitable rooms. The dungeon said to be as deep towards Tartarus as the castle walls were reared towards Heaven, is still entire, still furnished with its dread machinery, and its floor is reached by a descent of two-and-forty steps. The great entrance of the castle was originally protected by handsome and lofty iron palisades, having statues of Hercules and Mars on either side; but the former have been removed, and set up at the western entrance to the park, and the statues are probably committed to the dungeon.

The principal apartments are both comfortable and elegant. The picture gallery, one hundred feet in length by twenty-two in breadth, is adorned with portraits of illustrious persons, and of different members of the Myddleton family; amongst them are those of the great Duke of Ormond and of his son the Earl of Ossory. This was the virtuous stoic who censured the corrupt age and court in which he moved by exclaiming on the early decease of his favourite son, “I would not exchange my dead son for any living one in Europe.” Besides portraits of Sir Thomas Myddleton, and his daughter the Countess of Warwick, there are some rare landscapes in the state rooms, painted by Wilson, and coloured on the spot from nature. They are chiefly views in Chirk-Castle Park, and are very reflections of the grayish tone of colouring so peculiar to Wales. Here is also a view of Pystil Rhaidar, in which the cataract appears falling into the _sea_, while a few _ships_ are seen sailing past it. The cause of this singular misrepresentation is explained in this way: a foreign artist, not very familiar with the English language, was engaged to execute a painting of this noble waterfall; but, when his work was completed, one of the first persons to whom he exhibited it observed, that a few _sheep_ at the foot of the fall would give animation to the whole. Willing to accept the advice, but mistaking the adviser, the artist immediately introduced a few _ships_ (sheeps) with the natural and necessary accompaniment of the _sea_.

Castel Crogen, the original name of Chirk, was an ancient British fortress, and fell into the hands of Roger Mortimer, Justice of North Wales, in the following manner. John Earl of Warren and Roger Mortimer Earl of Wigmore, being appointed guardians over the sons of Gryffydd ap Madoc, a partisan of Henry the Third and Edward the First, put their wards to death and seized upon their estates, Mortimer taking Nanheuddwy and Chirk, the portion of the younger child, and Warren possessing himself of Bromfield, Yale, and Dinas Bran. A property held by so base a title required to be protected by powerful measures, and Mortimer thought it expedient to erect a strong castle at Chirk, on the site of the British fortress. The building was commenced in the year 1011, and completed in 1013. The crimes of Mortimer were punished by an ignominious death in the Tower of London, but Chirkland continuing in his family, was sold by his grandson, John, to Richard Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, whose son was appointed governor of the castle with a continuation of the grant, whereby Chirkland was again annexed to Bromfield and Yale. Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, having espoused a sister of Lord Arundel, the estate passed over to him, but was transferred to the Earl of Abergavenny, who had married another of the sisters of Lord Arundel, upon the Duke of Norfolk’s disgrace and banishment in 1397. By the marriage of Edward Nevil with the granddaughter of the last proprietor it passed into his family, in the reign of Henry the Sixth. Sir William Stanley appears to have been the next proprietor, upon whose untimely death it escheated to the crown. Elizabeth bestowed it upon the Earl of Leicester, at whose death it passed into the possession of Lord Bletso, from whose son it was purchased by Sir Thomas Myddleton, Knt. in 1595, and is now possessed by his descendant, Mrs. Myddleton Biddulph.

Previous to the year 1506 the castle was regularly garrisoned: during the usurpation it was besieged, and three of the towers battered down by Cromwell’s artillery. Sir Thomas Myddleton, the owner, defended himself gallantly, and was reimbursed by Charles the Second for his losses, amounting to thirty thousand pounds, accompanied by an offer of elevation to a peerage, which honour he very modestly declined.

The view from the high grounds of the park is amazingly extensive, commanding a prospect over seventeen different counties. A part of the grounds, distinguished by the name of the “Black Park,” derives its epithet from the death of a keeper, who, coming to the assistance of a young woman who was attacked by a stag, was himself gored to death by the ferocious animal. The village of Chirk lies at the foot of the hill on which the castle stands. It consists of a few cottages built from agreeable rustic designs, and presents a neat and cheerful appearance. The church is handsome, spacious, and adorned with a noble tower. The interior is ornamented with monuments of the Chirk-Castle family; the best and most interesting of which is erected to the memory of the famous Sir Thomas Myddleton.

The little river Ceiriog, which separates England from Wales, flows through the valley of Chirk, and is crossed by a handsome aqueduct conveying the waters of the Ellesmere canal. This extremity of the aqueduct is met by a tunnel passing under the hill, and carrying the line of navigation towards the aqueduct at Llangollen. A singular mound may be observed on the brow of the hill hanging over the Ceiriog, and at a little distance from the church, it is obviously artificial, and is doubtless a sepulchral barrow, such as are frequently found in other parts of the principality.

LLANRWST CHURCH.

THE town of Llanrwst is situated on the eastern bank of the river Conway, in the beautiful and luxuriant vale to which it lends its name. The river is broad, smooth, and shallow, except when swollen by the mountain floods, which rise and fall with wonderful rapidity. One of the most celebrated objects here is the famous shaking bridge, built from a design of Inigo Jones. It consists of three arches, the centre sixty feet span, and, if the crowns of the arches were not too high, would be a light, beautiful, and ingenious work. The ceremony of shaking is performed by two persons upon the crown of the centre arch, first rocking themselves sufficiently to acquire a gentle momentum, and then falling back against the great centre stone of the battlements; a person leaning against the opposite battlement will feel the tremulous motion communicated through the whole masonry of the bridge. The view of Llanrwst vale from the bridge, and from the road leading to it on the Denbighshire side of the river is of unexampled beauty. The Gwydyr woods clothe a precipitous mountain on the west, for a length of five miles, through which a bold crag here and there is seen protruding with a fine effect. The opposite side is also finely wooded, and variegated with mansions, parks, meadow, corn-land, and all that enriches a landscape. This perspective of the vale presents a composition embracing grandeur and magnificence in a high degree, combined with scenes of great pastoral beauty.

The town possesses no architectural or other peculiar attractions, and from the lowness of its situation does not participate in the exquisite scenery with which it is surrounded. Its recommendations are of a less romantic though not less useful character, consisting in the excellence of its fairs and markets, and its convenient position for the conduct of a profitable inland trade. The town and market-hall, the free school, and the almshouses {91} are its most ancient institutions of a public class. The church is picturesquely placed on the bank of the river; and the view of the valley, with the famous bridge in the foreground, enjoyed from the churchyard, is eminently beautiful. The church is dedicated to Saint Rystyd or Rwst, archbishop of London in the year 361, and one of those who were present at the council of Arles. The ground on which it is built was given by Rhun ap Nefydd, in expiation of the foul murder of Prince Idwal, who was slain in Cwm Idwal, by order of his foster-father Nefydd Haradd. The chief object of interest here is the Gwydyr chapel, adjoining the church, of which Inigo Jones was the architect, A.D. 1663, the expense being defrayed by Sir Richard Wynne. The design is much admired, and its restitution by Lord Willoughby D’Eresby, representative of the ancient house of Gwydyr, is characteristic of a happy exertion of munificence and taste. The carved roof is not part of Jones’s design, it was brought hither from the dissolved abbey of Maenan, three miles from Llanrwst. In this mausoleum of the Wynnes are some curious monuments, illustrative of history, and no mean specimens of the progress of the arts at the period of their execution. A white marble tablet contains a pedigree of the family from the time of Edward the First down to the year in which the chapel was erected. Underneath this pedigree is an exquisite portrait, engraved on brass, of Dame Sarah Wynne, daughter of Sir Thomas Myddleton, of Chirk Castle, executed in a masterly style by William Vaughan in the year 1671. On the south side are two pyramidal columns of variegated marble adorned with military insignia, one to the memory of Meredyth; the other of Sir John Wynne, and his consort the Lady Sidney, daughter of Sir William Gerard, chancellor of Ireland; and between the columnar monuments is a simple tablet to John ap Meredydd who died in 1559.

A fine effigiated tomb, sunk in the floor, represents Howel Coetmore ap Gryffydd Vychan ap Dafydd Gam, in complete armour, his feet resting on a lion couchant. He was grandson of Gryffydd, {93} who lies interred in the church of Bettws-y-coed, and proprietor of the Gwydyr estates, which were purchased from one of his descendants by the Wynnes.

Here also is preserved the stone coffin in which the remains of Llewellyn the Great were deposited in the abbey of Conway; upon the dissolution of religious houses in Wales it was removed here. A singular Latin inscription, of which the following is a translation, appears on a monument in the pew belonging to the Davises of Cyffddû; it is dedicated to the memory of Gryffydd Lloyd of Bryniog, and is supposed to have been written by himself,

“Once the undeserving schoolmaster,
Then the more undeserving lecturer,
And last of all the most undeserving rector of this parish.
Do not think, speak, or write any thing evil of the dead.”

FLINTSHIRE,

THE smallest of the six shires included within North Wales. It occupies an area of one hundred and ninety-seven thousand seven hundred and sixty acres, and extends thirty-three miles in length and ten at its mean or average breadth. The estuary of the river Dee and the waves of the Irish sea lave its shores on the east and north. Denbighshire joins it on the west and south, and Cheshire on the east. A range of hills, the loftiest of which, Moel y Gaer, attains a height of one thousand and twenty feet above the sea-level, extends from Prestatyn to Hawarden, and bisects the surface of the county longitudinally. The section on the sea side is the richest mineralogical district in the principality, and that on the land side yields an abundant agricultural return. The coal field occupies the parishes of Whitford, Holywell, Flint, Northop, and part of Hawarden; and considerable quantities are exported from Mostyn quay for the consumption of the principality. Pure limestone exists along the sea coast, and constitutes a valuable export. Lead ore, lapis calaminaris, zinc, pseudo-galena, petro-silex, and other valuable minerals are found in the Holywell and Mold districts. Many of these are wrought at the towns along the coast, the supply of fuel being abundant, from which circumstance this small county has acquired considerable wealth. The Marquis of Westminster, Lord Mostyn, Lord Dinorben, and Sir Edward Mostyn are amongst the wealthy mineral proprietors. The scenery here is less interesting than in the adjoining shires; it possesses less variety of surface, less plantation, fewer rivers, and there is a partial denudation of the surface from the mine waste, which completely poisons vegetation. The termination of the beautiful vale of Clwyd, and the embouchure of its meandering river, lie within the county boundaries, and the Allen makes a circuitous, but not picturesque, course through the south-eastern hundreds. Flintshire includes the respectable manufacturing towns of Holywell, Mold, and Hawarden, and returns one member to the imperial parliament. The boroughs of Flint, Caergwrle, St. Asaph, and Holywell, enjoy the privilege of electing a second; the two last mentioned places deriving that advantage from a clause in the Reform Bill of 1832.

FLINT CASTLE.

FLINT, an ancient borough town and the capital of the shire, is situated upon the banks of the navigable estuary of the river Dee, and was anciently an important military position and valuable maritime situation. It was probably a Roman citadel or encampment, afterwards adopted by the ancient British as being happily circumstanced both for commerce and secure habitation; and, lastly, selected by the conqueror of Wales, Edward the First, as an appropriate site for the erection and establishment of a vast military depôt. The borough was erected in the year 1283, and is contributory with Holywell, Rhuddlan, Caerwys, Caergwrle, and St. Asaph in returning one member to parliament. The decay of trade here, and the vast increase of commercial prosperity in the vicinity of Mold, in addition to its more central position, have occasioned the transfer of the great sessions from Flint to that town. Here, however, all prisoners are confined, and the county jail, an admired and clever design by Turner, stands in a healthy elevated position within the courtyard, of the ancient castle. Provision has been made in the interior for the infliction of that most cruel of all species of earthly punishments, solitary confinement; but the habitual morality of the Cambrians has superseded the necessity of its operation, and the constitution of Britain, which disclaims all species of torture, must assuredly shrink from this, the most merciless of all. The following inscription, which is engraven on a tablet above the principal gate, was written by the learned and accomplished Mr. Pennant:—

“In the twenty-fifth year of his Majesty, George the Third, in the
Sheriffalty of Thomas Hanmer, Bart. this prison was erected, instead
of the ancient loathsome place of confinement, in pity to the misery
of even the most guilty, to alleviate the sufferings of lesser
offenders, or of the innocent themselves, whom the chances of human
life may bring within these walls. Done at the expense of the
country: aided by the subscriptions of several of the gentry, who, in
the midst of most distressful days, voluntarily took upon themselves
part of the burden, in compassion to such of their countrymen on whom
fortune had been less bounteous of her favours.”

The castle, build by Edward the First, and the outer walls of which are still entire, is placed upon a freestone rock jutting into the river Dee, in a north-east direction from the town, with which it was originally connected by a drawbridge falling against the barbacan, a fine remain of the Norman style, but now nearly demolished. The first design consisted of a square building, flanked at three corners by massive towers, with a keep or citadel, called the double tower, removed a little distance from the remaining angle of the square. This must have been an inaccessible prison before the invention of gunpowder; it was approached from the castle court by a drawbridge, and was formed by concentric walls six feet in thickness, the intermural gallery being eight feet wide, and encircling a central apartment of about twenty feet in diameter.

The foundation of Flint Castle is attributed by all chroniclers to Edward the First, and dated in 1275. About six years after its completion it was surprised, and nearly wrested from Edward, in a sudden insurrection of the Welsh, and was only relieved by the greatest activity and courage on the part of the English king. The reception of Piers Gaveston, in the year 1302, was the next historic event of consequence that occurred here, this was followed by the appointment of the Black Prince as governor, A.D. 1335. In the year 1385 Flint Castle, with some lands of the Lord Audley, were granted, by Richard the Second, to De Vere, Earl of Oxford, whom he farther honoured by creating Earl of Dublin and Lord Chief Justice of Chester. On the attainder of De Vere, Percy, Earl of Northumberland, extorted a grant of this castle from his unsuspecting monarch, where he afterwards basely betrayed him into the hands of his rival Bolingbroke.

Richard was in Ireland when he received an invitation from the treacherous Percy to meet his rival, who professed his only objects to be the restoration of his property, inquiry into the death of his uncle, and that the kingdom should be allowed a parliament. To all which reasonable requests the king consented; and passing over to Conway, and thence, at the pressing solicitation of the false Northumberland who accompanied him, advancing towards Flint, he met, in the recesses of the hills at Penmaen Rhôs, a party of soldiers assembled. At length, perceiving that treachery was meant, he attempted to turn his horse round, but Percy springing forward, grasped the bridle, and in this forcible manner conducted him to Rhuddlan Castle, where they dined, and thence to Flint. Stowe details the interview at Flint between Richard and Lancaster in the following circumstantial manner: “The Duke of Lancaster entered the castle all armed, his helmet excepted; King Richard came down to meet him, and the Duke, as soon as he saw the king, fell on his knees, and coming nearer unto him, he kneeled a second time, with his hat in his hand; and the king then put off his hoode, and spoke first. ‘Fair cousin of Lancaster, you are right wellcome.’ The duke, bowing low to the ground, answered, ‘My lord, I am come before you sent for me, the reason why I will shewe you. The common fame among your people is such, that ye have for the space of twenty, or two and twenty, years ruled them very rigorously: but, if it please our lord, I will helpe you to govern better.’ The king answered, ‘Fair cousin of Lancaster, sith it pleaseth you, it pleaseth me well!’ The duke then, with a high sharp voyce, bad bring forth the king’s horses, and two little naggs, not worth fourtie franks, were brought forthe; the king was set on the one, and the Earl of Salisbury on the other; and thus the duke brought them from Flint to Chester; from whence, after one night’s rest, they were conveyed to London.”

In the civil wars of Charles the First’s reign this fortress was garrisoned for the king, having been repaired at the expense of Sir Roger Mostyn, the governor. It was closely invested in 1643, by Colonel Brereton and Sir Thomas Myddleton, and held out until compelled to surrender from want of food and ammunition, having obtained from the enemy the most honourable conditions. The royalists a second time crept into possession, and defended themselves for a while, but yielded at last to the disciplined forces of General Mytton. In the month of December, 1646, the castles of Flint, Hawarden, and several others in the principality, were dismantled by the orders of parliament.

RHUDDLAN CASTLE.

THE time-decayed honours of Rhuddlan frown over the fragments of monastic greatness, and throw the little dwellings of the village into an insignificant obscurity by the effect of contrast. The lofty and substantial towers of this military relic are rendered more conspicuous by the remarkable flatness of the circumjacent district, and as its accompaniments are devoid of any picturesque attractions, it relies wholly on historic and classic recollections for the interest it uniformly excites. The little place itself, though an ancient contributary borough, retains nothing of wealth or comfort in its exterior. It boasts but one tolerable street, a range of warehouses for the storage of goods landed at the quays, and a handsome bridge of one large arch, and one auxiliary, erected in 1598. The Clwyd, which flows below the castle walls, and passes by the town, is navigable by vessels of small burden up to the wharfs of Rhuddlan, to which fortunate circumstance the continuance of a modern settlement here is probably to be attributed.

Near the centre of the town, and on the north side of the high street, are situated the scanty remains of the hall in which King Edward once convoked a parliament. They are now incorporated with the gabel of a cottage; one small doorway and the architrave of a pointed window forming all the witnesses that can be produced to identify the court in which the never to be forgotten statute of Rhuddlan was enacted. The late Dean of St. Asaph caused a tablet to be inserted in the only remaining wall of the Rhuddlan Council Hall bearing this inscription: “This fragment is the remains of the building where King Edward the First held his parliament, in 1283, {101} in which was passed the statute of Rhuddlan, securing to the principality of Wales its judicial rights and independence.”

The abbey belonged to a monastery of black friars, and was founded about the year 1268, it stood a little to the south-east of the castle, and its remains form part of the enclosure of a farmyard. Two pointed arches are still entire, and an effigy in alto relievo, but much effaced, occupies a niche in one of the walls. An eminence, called Twt Hill, rises between the castle and the site of the old abbey. It appears to have been originally fortified and surrounded by a deep fosse, which embraced the abbey in its circuit. There is a tradition that it was from this mount the castle was battered.

[Picture: Rhuddlan Castle; Mostyn; St. Winifred’s Well. London.
Published by T. T. & J. Tegg, Cheapside, Oct. 1st 1832]

The castle of Rhuddlan, its sole surviving monument of grandeur, stands on a rock overhanging the river Clwyd, and within a short distance of an ancient British fortress, built by Llewellyn ap Sitsylt, who chose this as his chief place of residence, at the commencement of the eleventh century. In the year 1063, when Gryffydd ap Llewellyn was Prince of North Wales, this fortress was attacked and burned by Harold (afterwards King of England), son of Godwin, Earl of Kent, in retaliation for injuries committed by the Welsh upon some of the Saxon borderers. The Britons soon repaired a hold of so much consequence; it was their asylum whenever they desired to avoid a conflict with the Saxons, and the depository of spoils probably courageously, but not honourably, carried off from the borders. Robert, sirnamed De Rhuddlan from the event, the nephew and lieutenant of Hugh, Earl of Chester, unable to endure any longer the incursions of the Rhuddlan men, took a signal vengeance upon them, and even wrested the fortress out of their hands. He enlarged, strengthened, and garrisoned the old castle; and having made this his principal quarters, here received the solicitations and importunities of Gryffydd ap Cynan for aid against some of his own countrymen. Robert granted Gryffydd’s request, but learned too late that the interference of the stranger in allaying domestic quarrels is not only thankless, but often even multiplies the number of our enemies. The Welsh, who had just before been at variance with each other, combining all their efforts, directed their united power against Robert, burned his castle to the ground, slew numbers of his men, and compelled him to consult his safety by flight.

The great fortress of Rhuddlan, which still exhibits the powerful resources of the founder, was erected by Henry the Second, from the very foundation, and is completely Norman in its character. It is built of red stone, in a quadrangular form: the curtain walls are flanked by six enormous rounders, the walls of which are nine feet in thickness, having but few loops or arrow slits. One of these, distinguished by the name of the king’s tower, is still entire, as well as three of the others. In fact, such is the amazing strength and thickness of the walls, the tenacity of the mortar with which they are cemented so great, the freedom from doors, windows, or any weakening aperture so complete, that the ruins will not probably present a farther appearance of decay for centuries to come. It is even a matter of uncertainty where the principal entrance was situated, the aperture between the two north-western turrets resembling, at this day, an accidental breach of small extent, more than the entrance of so vast a pile. Security alone appears to have been consulted by the founder; a sortie from the castle was impracticable; the intromission of light was even jealously permitted, and the design seems to express a great prison erected to immure some royal captive for the residue of his life.

Hugh Beauchamp was either grantee or governor, in the year 1169, when Owen Gwynedd and his brother Cadwalader, assisted by Rhys ap Gryffydd, sat down before the walls, and after a close blockade of two months continuance, compelled the famished garrison to surrender. It reverted again in some peaceful moment to the English; but the Welsh having driven King John almost wholly from the principality, compelled this, his last fortress in their country, to give way to the vigorous assaults of Llewellyn ap Jorwerth in the year 1214.

From the expulsion of King John the Welsh continued in quiet possession of this border castle, until Llewellyn ap Gryffydd, declining to do homage to Edward the First at Chester, called down the vengeance of that great king upon his fellow countrymen. Edward, at the head of a powerful army immediately directed a march into Wales, when he laid the country waste, and seizing Rhuddlan, amongst other places of strength, placed a strong garrison within it. Here Edward resided for some time, and during his sojourn taught the too credulous Welsh that candour is not always a quality inseparable from the character of princes. He here again performed the conjurer who was to call up a prince of British birth, their fellow countryman, to preside over the Welsh. Here he enacted his politic statute, and here his queen gave birth to a princess, the second of the royal race then born in Wales. {104} The possession of Rhuddlan was included in the grant extorted from Richard the Second by the faithless Percy, who detained the injured monarch here to dine, while he was conveying him to Flint to deliver to his rival.

In the civil wars Rhuddlan held out for the king with that zeal which characterized the loyalty of the ancient Britons, through all that unnatural and bloody conflict. And the Cromwelians, as a further security to their usurpation, dismantled every castle that had rendered itself conspicuous in the royal cause. In this general devastation the castle of Rhuddlan shared, being dismantled in the month of December, 1646.

Morfa Rhuddlan, or Rhuddlan Marsh, is an extensive tract lying between the town and the sea, and possessing a melancholy notoriety in the history of Wales. Here a most desperate and bloody battle was fought between the ancient Britons, headed by Caradoc, and the Saxons under Offa, King of Mercia, in which the former were defeated with frightful loss, and their king and general slain upon the field. The Saxons gave no quarter to those that fell into their hands after the battle, and even carried their barbarous revenge still farther, by the cowardly assassination of all the children of their enemies who were so unfortunate as to become their captives. There is a pathetic air, preserved in the relics of Welsh poetry, which was composed by the bards upon the death of the brave Caradoc. It possesses a remarkable solemnity, simplicity, and plaintive harmony. The custom of celebrating the fame of heroes, who fell in defence of their country, is of very ancient date in other nations as well as in Cambria. “Celtæ Hymnorum suorum argumentum faciunt, viros qui in præliis fortiter pugnantes occubuerunt.” Ælian.

MOSTYN HALL, FLINTSHIRE,