CAREW CASTLE.
Pembrokeshire.
“Now is the stately column broke—
The beacon-light is quench’d in smoke;
The trumpet’s silver note is still;
The warder silent on the hill.”
The lordly towers and quadrangular pile of Carew Castle rise conspicuously above the waters of the surrounding creek, and are intimately connected in the spectator’s mind with scenes of bygone splendour.[408] It was one of the demesnes belonging to the sovereign Princes of South Wales, and, with seven others, was given as a dowery to Nesta, daughter of Rhys-ap-Tewdwr, or Tudor, on her marriage with Girald de Windsor, who, as already mentioned, was appointed by Henry I. lieutenant of these counties. His son William took the name of Carew, and the castle passed through various branches of that family, until, after the lapse of centuries, it was garrisoned for Charles I., and reduced at last, like all its neighbours, by the irresistible hand of Cromwell. The noble edifice is built upon a neck of land washed by the tide of two estuaries, with a gentle fall towards the water, and consists of a superb range of apartments, round a quadrangle, with an immense bastion at each corner, containing handsome chambers. Most of the rooms had each an elegant chimney-piece of wrought freestone. The barbican may still be traced; and through the portcullised gateway we pass into the great court, or inner ballium. The ground rooms of the north front contain magnificent windows, lighting the great state-room, which is one hundred and two feet long, by twenty feet wide. On the east side, over the chimney-piece, is an escutcheon, bearing the royal arms, in compliment, perhaps, to Henry the Seventh—Richmond,—who is traditionally reported to have been munificently lodged and entertained here, on his way to Bosworth Field, by the princely Sir Rhys-ap-Thomas, lord of the mansion. A handsome suite of rooms is included in the octagon tower, which covers the right of the entrance; and along the whole course of the south-west side are seen the remains of ancient towers, of various height, diameter, and form. The whole of the north side is very majestic, ending in the return of a bastion to the east. The building is of various epochs—combining the stronghold with the ornamented and castellated mansion. Sir Rhys-ap-Thomas, according to Leland, new-modelled the whole, and added the splendid range of state apartments which are the admiration of every traveller in these parts.
In the extensive deer-park attached to the castle, Sir Rhys held a grand tilt and tournament on St. Giles’s day, in honour of his receiving the royal badge of a Knight of the Garter. This splendid festival, we are told, lasted a week, and was attended by six hundred of the aristocracy of Wales—such were the splendid pageantries, and such the numerous courtly throng, that once animated and emblazoned the kingly halls of Carew. “This festivall and time of jollitie continued the space of five dayes,” as the historian relates; “and tentes and pavillons were pitched in the parke, neere to the castle, for the spectators of these rare solemnities, wheare they quartered all the time, every man according to his qualities.”
Sir Rhys-ap-Thomas, lord of this and many other castles, was descended from Rhys-ap-Twdor, of the royal house of South Wales; and had been appointed governor of these counties by Richard III. One of his residences was Abermarles, in the county of Carmarthen—a princely mansion in its time, and called by Leland, “a faire house of old Sir Rees’s.” Newcastle-in-Emlyn, in the same county—once belonging to the princes of Dynevwr, and celebrated in Cambro-British history—was also his property, and often honoured with his presence.
By Sir Edward Carew the castle was mortgaged to Sir Rhys-ap-Thomas, who made it his favourite residence, and there spent the latter part of his life. The Bishop of St. David’s, then a constant resident at Lamphey, induced Sir Rhys to prefer Carew to his other demesnes; for they were devoted friends, and spent much time in the society of each other. In the following reign his vast possessions and castellated mansions were forfeited by the attainder of his grandson, Rice Griffith. Abermarles was granted by the crown to Sir Thomas Jones, Knt.; thence by marriage it passed to Sir Francis Cornwallis, whose son leaving issue four daughters, and the three youngest married, the estate was divided in 1793 among their descendants. Abermarles came to Lord Viscount Hawarden, who disposed of the mansion, demesne, park, and manor, to the gallant Admiral Foley, who led the fleet into action at the battle of the Nile; commanded the Britannia in Lord St. Vincent’s action, and on board whose ship Nelson shifted his flag at the battle of Copenhagen. He built a magnificent mansion near the site of the old house. Emlyn and its extensive demesnes became the property of the Vaughans of Golden Grove—whose ancestors were successively Lords of Mollingar, Earls of Carbery, and Lords of Emlyn—and are now the property of Lord Cawdor, as devisee of the late “J. Vaughan, of Golden Grove, Esquire.”
Carew, with its castle and barony, was granted by leases, for specified terms, to Sir J. Perrot and others, the remainder of which terms was purchased by Sir John Carew, kinsman of Sir Edmund above-mentioned, to whom Charles the First restored the fee simple and inheritance, from whom it descended to the present owner.[409]