“And gave to rapture all the trembling strings.”
Under the British princes, the bards and minstrels were associated in corporate, or rather collegiate bodies; into which none were admitted but such as had given proof of their skill in the respective sciences before proper judges, duly appointed by royal commission. And although the institution is now dissolved, and the character officially no more, yet those who, “born with music in their souls, that wish to feast on raptures ever new,” will consentaneously say,
“But hail ye mighty masters of the lay,
Nature’s true sons, the friends of man and truth!
Whose song, sublimely sweet, serenely gay,
Amused my childhood, and inform’d my youth.
O let your spirit still my bosom soothe,
Inspire my dreams, and my wild wanderings guide!
Your voice each rugged path of life can smooth;
For well I know, wherever ye reside,
There harmony, and peace, and innocence abide.”Beattie’s Minstrel.
The distance from Caerwys to Denbigh is about ten miles. You pass Lleweni Hall, formerly occupied by the Hon. Thomas Fitzmaurice, uncle to the Marquis of Lansdowne, brother to the Earl of Shelburne, and father of the late noble possessor. Mr. Fitzmaurice used here to bleach the cloths made on his estates in Ireland. He travelled to Chester in his coach and six, and when there stood behind a counter selling cloth. He lived with the affected humility of a tradesman, and the pomp of a lord: his conduct was singular, but his motives were good.
DENBIGH,
situated nearly in the centre of the vale of Clwyd, is a well-built town, standing on the declivity of a hill. A large manufactory of shoes and gloves is here carried on, and annually supplies London with a vast quantity. The ruins of the Castle, still remaining on a rock commanding the town, are too celebrated in history, and too cruelly shattered by the ravages of war, to be passed unnoticed. The principal entrance forms a fine Gothic arch, with the statue of King Edward the First, its founder, above it, in an elegant niche, curiously carved, encircled with a square stone frame. No part of this castle is perfect; but the huge thick fragments, which are scattered in the most extraordinary and fantastical manner, seem to tell its former magnificence; and a present view of things, such as they are, with a retrospect of what they originally were, spreads a gloom over the mind, and interrupts the pleasure of contemplation; yet still the singular character of this ruin is particularly interesting. Masses of wall still remain, the proud effigies of sinking greatness; and the shattered tower seems to nod at every murmur of the blast, and menace the observer with immediate annihilation. Amongst these ruins we lingered till the whole was silvered by the pale rays of the moon. To form a conjecture on the extent of its apartments is now impossible; but it is thus described by Leland in his Itinerary.
“The castelle is a very large thinge, and hath many toures in it; but the body of the work was never finischid. The gate-house is a mervelus strong and great peace of worke, but the fastigia of it were never finischid. If they had beene, it might have beene counted among the most memorable peaces of workys in England. It hath dyverse wardes and dyverse portcolicis. On the front of the gate is set the image of Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, in his stately long robes. There is a nother very high towre, and large, in the castelle, caullid the Redde Towre. Sum say, that the Earl of Lincoln’s sunne fell into the castelle welle, and there died; wherapon he never passid to finisch the castelle. King Edward the Fourth was besiegid in Denbigh castelle, and ther it was pactid betwene King Henry’s men and hym that he should with life departe the reaulme, never to returne. If they had taken King Edwarde there debellatum fuisset.” After the restoration of Charles II. it was blown up by gunpowder.
The parish church stands within the walls of the original town. Below the castle are the fragments of an old church, which, for particular reasons, that cannot now be ascertained, was never finished: it contains nine windows on two sides, with a large and handsome one on the east.
In this town was born the famous Sir Hugh Myddleton. The market is held on a Wednesday: its distance from London, through Mold, is 218 miles.
In conjunction with Ruthin and Holt, it sends a member to Parliament. The principal inns are the Bull and the Crown.