A Book of North Wales

by S. Baring-Gould

His conduct rendered him odious to the inhabitants, and his extortions drove them to open rebellion against his authority. He raised rents from £250 per annum to £800, he levied fines arbitrarily, encroached on private estates, and enclosed commons. Two of the young Salusburys of Lleweni pulled down the fences he had set up on the common land. He had them arrested, taken to Shrewsbury, and hanged there. The exasperation against Leicester became so great that the Queen was compelled to interfere, and he, with a view to make some satisfaction for the evils he had inflicted, began the erection of his cathedral, of which he laid the first stone on March 1st, 1579. But now the fate that had already fallen on three of the holders of Denbigh reached him. He died of poison at the age of fifty-six, on September 5th, 1588. The castle and lordship then reverted to the Crown, and from that time till the commencement of the Civil War drops out of historical importance.

The keep, grand entrance, and Goblin Tower are undoubtedly the work of Henry de Lacy. The gateway is best preserved, and over the entrance in a niche is a mutilated statue of Edward I., with lovely ball-pattern sculpture in the mouldings of the niche enclosing it.

The views from the castle over the Vale of Clwyd are most beautiful; none finer than from the bowling green. That was inaugurated by the Duke of Sussex in 1829.

During the carouse on that occasion, that took place in the arbour, His Royal Highness had the misfortune to spill a glass of punch over his lap. As his breeches were white, and he had not another pair with him, he was constrained to retire to bed till a local tailor could fit him out afresh. When the august visitor to Denbigh re-emerged into the streets, lo! already had the little tailor inscribed over his shop: “By Special Appointment, Richard Price, Breeches-maker to his R.H. the Duke of Sussex.”

There are two modern churches in Denbigh. The old parish church, S. Marchell’s, is at Whitchurch, about a mile out of the town. S. Hilary’s, in Old Denbigh, was only the castle chapel. S. Marchell’s is a good fifteenth-century building, and is now used as a mortuary chapel. The roofs are specially fine. In it is the tomb of Sir John “of the double thumbs.” He was a man of enormous strength, and is reported to have killed a white lioness in the Tower by a blow of his fist. He died in 1578. In the porch are two brasses of Richard Myddelton, of Gwaenynog, Governor of Denbigh Castle in the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, and of his wife Jane. Denbigh was the native place of Hugh Myddelton, who, largely at his own expense, brought the New River from Ware, twenty miles distant, to London. He was the sixth son of the above-mentioned Richard, and was a goldsmith in Basinghall Street. His elder brother Thomas was a grocer—so little in those days was trade thought to be unsuitable for men of gentle birth and good position. He represented Denbigh in Parliament several times, and obtained a charter of incorporation for his native town. A proper supply of pure water to the Metropolis had often been canvassed by the corporation, and the wells were frequently contaminated and productive of periodical outbreaks of fever.

Myddelton declared himself ready to carry out the great work, and in 1609 “the dauntless Welshman” began his undertaking. The engineering difficulties were not all he had to contend with, for he had to overcome violent opposition from the landowners, who drew a harrowing picture of the evils that would result were his scheme carried through, as they contended, for his own private benefit. Worried by this senseless but powerful party, with a vast and costly labour only half completed, and with the probability of funds failing, most men would have broken down in bankruptcy and despair. But James I. came to his aid and agreed to furnish one half of the expense if he were granted one half of the ultimate profits. This spirited act of the King silenced opposition, the work went on, and in about fifteen months after this new contract the water was brought into London.

The popular story is that Myddelton ruined himself by this undertaking, and had to apply for relief of his necessities to the citizens of London, who, however, failed to unbutton their pockets for their benefactor. He fell into poverty, and disguising himself under the name of Raymond, laboured as a common pavior in Shropshire.

This is, however, a myth. After the completion of his great achievement for the benefit of London, Sir Hugh reclaimed Brading Harbour, in the Isle of Wight, and undertook the working of Welsh mines, whose tin and lead brought in a large revenue, but he sank much money unprofitably in looking for coal near Denbigh. He died at the age of seventy-six, leaving large sums to his children, and an ample provision to his widow. When James I. created him a baronet he remitted the customary fees, amounting to over a thousand pounds—a very large sum of money in those days.

But he was not the only Myddelton who was a benefactor. In 1595 his brother Sir Thomas purchased Chirk Castle and Denbigh from the Crown. He provided the Welsh “nation” (in 1630) with the first portable edition of the Scriptures at his own expense. His brother William gave the Welsh a metrical version of the Psalms.