CHAP. II.

CHESTER TO FLINT.

Hawarden and Castle.-Euloe Castle.-Coed Euloe.-Defeat of the Army of Henry the Second by the Welsh.-Northop. -Flint.-Flint Gaol and Castle.-Richard the Second betrayed to Bolingbroke.-Borough.

It was early in the morning of the sixth of July that I commenced my route from Chester into Wales, in a direction towards St. Asaph and Conwy. The day had not dawned more than two hours, the dew then sparkled upon the leaves and grass, and the sun shot his red beams through the undispersed fog. The birds on every side were pouring forth their melodious notes, and the cheering coolness of the air corresponding with my own disposition at the time, to enjoy in the full all these beauties of nature, rendered the outset of this journey infinitely more pleasing than that of any of my rambles through the romantic parts of England. The fog soon cleared away, and the now unclouded sky seemed to indicate a continuance of the most delightful weather. I wandered so slowly along, that it was near seven o'clock before I arrived at

HAWARDEN.

This is a small clean-looking town in Flintshire, celebrated only for its castle, which has

been an extensive building, and was formerly of considerable importance to the interests both of the Welsh and the English. This building, of which at present little more than the fragments of the walls and keep are left, stood on a considerable eminence, near the road, at the east end of the town, within the grounds of Sir Richard Stephen Glynne, Bart. It commands an extensive prospect towards the river Dee and the county of Chester.

The late Sir John Glynne was at the expence of having much of the rubbish removed from the ruins and in one place there was discovered a long flight of steps, at the bottom of which was a door, and formerly a draw-bridge. This crossed a deep long chasm, to another door leading to two or three small rooms, probably places of confinement, where prisoners, after pulling up the bridge over the chasm, might be lodged in the utmost security.*

The circular keep, which is more elevated and perfect than the other parts of the building, has a room fitted up in it in the modern stile. This addition, however, and the painted statues interspersed in the grounds, but ill accord with the wild and shattered ruins around them.†

Pennant's Tour, i. 104.

+ History of Hawarden Castle.-The time of the foundation of this fortress is not known. It appears however to have been in existence soon after the Norman conquest; for it was then possessed by Roger Fitzvalerine, son of one of the noble adventurers who followed the fortunes of William the Conqueror. It was held by the seneschalship to the earls of Chester, and was afterwards the seat of the barons of Mont Alt, who were stewards of the palatinate of Chester.

On the extinction of the ancient earls in 1237, Hawarden

C.

I continued my route towards Northop. A little beyond the ninth mile-stone from Chester, I turned, on the right, over some meadows, in search of a small fortress called

castle and some other fortresses belonging to them were resumed by the crown. But, about thirty years afterwards, when Henry III. and his son Edward were taken prisoners by Simon de Montfort at the battle of Lewes, their libe ration was purchased by the resignation to him of the earldom of Chester from Edward, who then held it, and by the absolute cession to the prince Llewelyn, not only of this place, but of the absolute sovereignty of Wales.

Shortly after this time it must have been destroyed; for Llewelyn, in 1867, when he restored to Robert de Mont Alt the lands of Hawarden that he had formerly possessed, strictly enjoined him not to build any castle there for thirty years. A fortress seems, however, to have been raised long before the expiration of that period; for in the night of Palm Sunday, 1281, David, the brother of Llewelyn, ungrateful for the favours which had been so lavishly conferred upon him by Edward I. surprized and took this castle, cruelly massacring all who resisted.

Hawarden seems to have continued in the barons of Mont Alt for nearly fifty years from the death of David; when Robert, the last baron, having no male issue, conveyed it to Isabella, queen of Edward II. but on her disgrace it came once more to the crown.

In 1336 Edward III. granted it, along with the stewardship of Chester, to William de Montacute, earl of Salisbury; in whose family it continued till the year 1400, when John, his great nephew, was beheaded by the townsmen of Cirencester, after attempting an insurrection in favour of his deposed master, Richard II. The earl, however, prior to this event, had made over his estates in fee to four of his friends; but, after his attainder; by an act of parliament they became forfeited to the crown.

Thomas, duke of Clarence, the son of Henry IV. who was afterwards slain at the battle of Baugy in 1420, had a grant of Hawarden; and about twenty years after his death it was given to Sir Thomas Stanley, who held it till the year 1450, when it was resumed, and granted to Edward Prince of Wales.

EULOE CASTLE.

It is about a quarter of a mile distant from the road, and from its situation on the edge of a glen, and being surrounded with wood, I had no little difficulty in finding it. It formerly consisted of two parts; the larger of which was an oblong tower, rounded at one end, and about

The surviving feoffee of the Earl of Salisbury now laid claim to his estates, on the plea that the Earl was not possessed of them at the time of his forfeiture. An inquisition was taken, his plea found good, and complete restitution was made to him.

In 1454 Hawarden was again conveyed to Sir Thomas, afterwards Lord Stanley; and on the death of his son Thomas, earl of Derby, it descended to his second wife Margaret, the mother of Henry VII. After her decease it continued in the family till the execution of the gallant James, Earl of Derby, in 1651; and was subsequently purchased of the agents of sequestration by serjeant Glynne, in one of whose descendants it still continues.

In the civil wars Hawarden was betrayed by its governer to the parliament and kept for them till 1643, when part of the English forces, who had been serving against the rebels in Ireland, upon the cessation there, came over to assist the king, and landed at Mostyn, a place about sixteen miles distant. Soon after their arrival they made an attack on this castle, and after a fortnight's siege, it was surrendered to them.

In the hands of the Royalists it continued until after the surrender of Chester in 1645, when it was vigorously besieged by the parliament's forces under general Mytton, and in about a month was taken.

On the twenty-second of December, in the same year, the parliament, alarmed at some disturbances which had taken place amongst their soldiers, ordered this and four other castles to be dismantled. These orders extended only to the rendering of it untenable; its further destruction is said to have been subsequently effected by its owner, Sir William Glynne.

fourteen yards long, and ten or twelve in width, guarded on the accessible side by a strong wall. The other part consists of an oblong court, at the extremity of which are the remains of a circular tower. Leland says that Euloe Castle was the property of a gentleman in Flintshire, of the name of Howell, who, by ancient custom, a privilege he inherited from his ancestors, used to give the badge of a silver harp to the best harper in North Wales. In his own time it was, he informs us," a ruinous castelet or pile *.'

It was in the wood adjoining to this place, called

COED EULOE,

that king Henry the Second, in an expedition against Owen Gwynedd, prince of North Wales, received a severe and most memorable repulse from David and Conan, the two sons of that hero. The army of Owen was encamped, and seemed ready for engagement, and some slight skirmishes were commenced. These, however, were but artifices to draw the English into a narrow and dangerous pass between the hills, where a numerous ambuscade was secretly placed under the command of his sons. Henry, too confident in the strength of his men, and not relying sufficiently on the opinion of those who had a more perfect knowledge of the country than himself, fell into the snare, and paid dearly for his rashness; for when he and

Leland's Itinerary, v. 53.