situated on an eminence in the midst of this most luxuriant country. After the many indifferent Welsh towns which we had passed through since the commencement of our pedestrian excursion, we felt ourselves not a little chagrined at our uncouth appearance on entering so gay a place. The streets are commodious, and the houses and public buildings extremely neat. The gravel walks round the castle are extensive, and command, at occasional points, distinct prospects of the gentlemen’s seats in the neighbourhood, with their grounds and noble plantations. The river Teme gives additional beauty to this fascinating spot: the new bridge recently erected, a little below the castle, forms likewise, from this spot, by no means an uninteresting object; add to this, at suitable distances, the river, by means of dams, is formed into small artificial cascades. At the extremity of the town is another bridge, separating the counties of Shropshire and Hereford. These walks were laid out in the year 1772, by the Countess of Powis, at a great expense. The overshadowing trees not only afford refreshing shelter from a summer’s sun, but are likewise a protection from the piercing winter’s wind: indeed,
. . . “I could rove
At morn, at noon, at eve, by lunar ray,
In each returning season, through your shade,
Ye rev’rend woods; could visit every dell,
Each hill, each breezy lawn, each wand’ring brook,
And bid the world admire; each magic spot again
Could seek, and tell again of all its charms.”
Towards the north, the mazy course of the Teme,—Oakley Park, the elegant seat of the Dowager Lady Clive,—the Clee Hills,—the celebrated Caer Caradoc, with the other eminences near Stretton, terminating the view, present a most pleasing landscape. Towards the west, a combination of rock, wood, and water, gratifies the warmest wish of fancy.
The Whitecliff, opposite to the castle, and Hackluyt’s Close, near the Leominster road, are the two other most favourite walks; but that round the castle is resorted to as the most fashionable promenade. The town of Ludlow has been calculated to contain seven hundred and two houses, and nearly three thousand five hundred and sixty-five persons. [299] The public buildings are the market-house, the guildhall, the prison (called Gaolford’s tower), and the cross. The rooms over the latter are dedicated for the instruction of thirty poor boys, and fifteen poor girls; and the former at a proper age are apprenticed out. The town enjoys no particular manufactory, but its chief trade consists in the article of gloves.
The castle, the palace of the Prince of Wales in right of his principality, is now entirely in ruins, except Mortimer’s Tower, which was repaired by Sir Henry Sidney, during his presidency. It is now inhabited by an old servant of Lord Powis’s, a very civil and intelligent man, who related with the utmost concern the sad vicissitudes this castle had experienced: he insisted on our entering the tower of his habitation, and ascending the crumbling stairs, for a full display of the various beauties in the vicinity of Ludlow. He expatiated much on a valuable diamond ring, which he had discovered himself when attempting to drain a cellar; the inscription of Hebrew characters round the gold within the ring was interpreted by the learned, “a good heart;” this, and several coins of silver and gold, which were found at the same time, are now in the possession of Lord Powis: near the same spot a number of skeletons were likewise dug up. He next conducted us to a small room in this tower, to observe an old stone placed over the fire-place, with a cross, the letters W. S. and the date 1575, engraven on it.
Over the south-east gateway, leading into the interior of the castle, are the arms of Elizabeth, Queen of England; and beneath, those of the Sydney family, with the following inscription:
HOMINIBUS INGRATIS LOQUIMINI
LAPIDES.—ANN. REGNI REGINÆ
ELIZABETHÆ 23.—THE 28 YEAR
COPLET OF THE RESIDENCE
OF SIR HENRY SYDNEY KNIGHT
OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE
GARTER, 1581.
This castle, founded by Roger de Montgomery, on a rock, in the north-east angle of the town, supposed to be in the year 1112, was considerably enlarged by Sir Henry Sydney. Its ancient British name, Dinan Llys Tywysog, signifies the Prince’s Palace. The vicissitudes of war have frequently been exemplified in this castle; it has had its lords and its princes; it has been plundered, captured, dismantled, and repaired, in those periods of civil warfare, which this unfortunate country in former times continually experienced. Philips, in the History and Antiquities of Shrewsbury, during those melancholy troubles, gives some account of this castle. Some historians affirm that King Edward V. and his brother were born in Ludlow Castle; but others, not crediting this assertion, attribute their birth-place to Wigmore; certain, however, it is, that during their minority they here held their court, under the tuition of Lord Anthony Woodville and Lord Scales, till they were removed to London, and soon after smothered in the Tower by the command of their cruel and ambitious uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. Here, likewise, Prince Arthur, the eldest son of King Henry VII., celebrated his marriage with the virtuous Catherine of Arragon; and in the year 1502 he here paid the debt of nature, and was buried in the cathedral church of Worcester.
The account of the representation at Ludlow of Milton’s celebrated mask of Comus, is thus mentioned in the life of that poet, prefixed to Newton’s edition:—“It was in the year 1634 that this mask was presented at Ludlow Castle. There was formerly a president of Wales, and a sort of a court kept at Ludlow, which has since been abolished; and the president at that time was the Earl of Bridgewater, before whom Milton’s mask was presented on Michaelmas night; and the principal parts, those of the two brothers, were performed by his lordship’s sons, the Lord Brackly and Mr. Thomas Egerton; and that of the lady, by his lordship’s daughter, the Lady Alice Egerton.”
In the first year of William and Mary the presidency was dissolved by Act of Parliament, “being a great grievance to the subject, and a means to introduce an arbitrary power, especially in the late reign, when a new convert family were at the head of it.”