Scenes in North Wales / With Historical Illustrations, Legends, and Biographical Notices

by G. N. Wright

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.