KIDWELLY CASTLE.
BIRDS EYE VIEW.
Charles granted Kenilworth, in 1621, on a lease on lives to Carey, Earl of Monmouth, which was converted into a freehold in 1626, and upon which the Careys founded a claim at the restoration in 1660; Colonel Hawkesworth and others having held it while Cromwell was in power. Finally it was granted by Charles II. to Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, from whom it has descended in the female line to its present owner, whose conduct shows a true appreciation of the value of the remains.
KIDWELLY CASTLE, CAERMARTHENSHIRE.
DESCRIPTION.
THE reader who places before him the two sheets, 37 and 41, of the Ordnance Survey, may observe, between the ranges of Penbrè and Mynydd-Sulen on the east, and Mynydd-Garreg and Llangyndeyrn on the west, a valley of about ten miles in length, and from one and a half to three in breadth. The head waters of its stream spring from the well-known elevation of Mynydd-mawr, and its mouth opens upon the Bristol Channel, between the estuaries of the Llwchwr and the Towy, in the bay of Caermarthen.
This is the valley of the Gwendraeth (white-strath)—
“Gwendra that with such grace delib’rately doth glide”—
one of the larger rivers of Caermarthen. West of this valley, between it and the Towy, but of much smaller dimensions than either, is a second valley and stream, tributary to the former, and bearing, like it, the name of Gwendraeth (“fach,” or “the less,” being its distinction). The rivers meet in a sort of estuary, chiefly formed by the “Gwendraeth-fawr.”
These valleys are traversed by the roads leading from the strait and tower of Llwchwr to the castles of Llanstephan and Caermarthen, as well as by the northern and originally Roman road from Llwchwr to Caermarthen, so that the district lies in the way between England and Pembroke and Cardigan, and was, in consequence, known at an early period to, and often crossed by, the Norman invaders of South Wales, who attached considerable importance to its possession.