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

by G. N. Wright

The front,

“If front it might be call’d, that shape has none
Distinguishable,”

consists of the most ancient part of the hall. A lesser building is attached, designed as a symposium for the servants and retainers; and on the outside, again, is annexed, in an irregular manner, the ancient chapel, now desecrated into sleeping apartments. The porch appears to have been rebuilt in 1623, and is ornamented with the arms of four great alliances of the family, rudely cut in stone, and copied from the heraldic designs over the chimney-piece in the great hall. The most ancient part of the house is certainly earlier than Henry the Sixth’s reign, for Bolton Hall, in Yorkshire (the most antique seat we know of), is a mansion on a less scale, but exactly similar to this, and in that house, it is well known, the unfortunate prince concealed himself for a length of time.

The great banqueting hall of the interior is a solemn gloomy apartment, furnished with a dais or elevated stage at the upper end, with its long table for the lord and his jovial company, and another on one side, where the more humble participators of the good cheer were seated. The upper servants took their dinner on the dais, but the inferior at the side-table. The roof is lofty, and crossed by long beams. The nen bren, or top beam, was a frequent toast when the master’s health was intended to be given, and “Jached y nen bren y Ty” [108] was the cordial phrase. The spacious chimney-piece is adorned with the arms of the family and its alliances, properly emblazoned. The first coat belongs to Jeuan Vychan, of Llys Pengwern, in Llangollen, who espoused Angharad, daughter and sole heiress of Howel ap Tudor, of Mostyn, in the reign of Richard the Second. It appears that Jeuan had farmed the estate of Mostyn, and wisely determined to turn his lease into a perpetuity, by gaining the affections of the heiress.

Connubio junxit stabili, propriamque dicavit.

The arms of the Lady Angharad, who was directly descended from the Lords of Tegengle, occupy the next shield. The third is filled with the arms of Gloddaeth, adopted on the marriage of Howel ap Evan Vychan with the daughter of Gryffydd, of Cryddyn. Gryffydd Lloyd’s arms are emblazoned on a fourth. The walls are decorated in a style suitable to the manners and customs of the age. Guns, swords, pikes, helmets, and breastplates are disposed in the military quarter; spoils of the chase and funeral achievements in their allotted places. Against the wall at the upper end is nailed a falcon, having two bells, a greater and a less, suspended from its feet. On two of the silver rings are inscribed the name of the owner, Mc. Kinloch, of Kulrie, in the county of Angus, in Scotland. With these incumbrances it flew from home on the morning of the 21st of September, 1772, and was killed at Mostyn on the morning of the 26th. As the precise time when it reached Wales is unknown, the exact velocity of its flight cannot be ascertained. Sir Thomas Brown, in his Miscellaneous Tracts, mentions two instances, of a somewhat dubious kind, of a hawk that flew thirty miles an hour in pursuit of a woodcock, and a second that passed from Westphalia into Prussia in one day.

The magnitude and proportions of the kitchen are in every way correspondent to the hospitality that reigns in the hall. A gallery, crossing the side wall, leads to the apartments of the lady of the house, and affords an opportunity of overlooking the culinary arrangements whenever she passes to her dressing-room or chamber.

At one end of the gallery is an apartment in which the Earl of Richmond was concealed, when engaged in planning with his Welsh friends the overthrow of the house of York. While he lodged at Mostyn, a party attached to the usurper arrived there to apprehend him. He was just sitting down to dinner when the alarm was given, and had barely time to leap through a back window, to this day called King Henry’s, and make his escape.

The library contains a valuable collection; the most rare works are those comprehending the Medallic History. Amongst the antiques and curiosities are a torques, found at Harlech, in Merionethshire, and a silver harp, which has been for time immemorial in the possession of this ancient family. This badge of honour is five inches in length, and furnished with strings equal in number to the Muses. The Mostyn family have for ages exercised the privilege of presenting this harp to the most skilful bard at the Eisteddfoddau, formerly held by a royal commission in North Wales. (See Denbigh Castle.)

Richard ap Howel, then Lord of Mostyn, joined Henry in Bosworth field, and after the battle was presented, by the grateful monarch, with the belt and sword he wore that day. To King Henry’s invitation to follow him to court, the Welshman modestly replied, “Sire, I dwell among mine own people.”