RHUTHYN, or (Rhudd-Din, the red fort), is placed upon a gentle eminence
on the south side of the vale of Clwyd, backed by wooded hills, and is
one of the best and most agreeable towns in North Wales. It has
undergone much modern improvement, and is possessed of several ancient
endowments and privileges. The great sessions for the county are held
here in a very elegant modern hall, faced with cut stone, and accurately
finished in the interior. The church is spacious and architectural,
designed and finished in an excellent style. A range of alms houses
surround the churchyard, and represent the ancient hospital; and adjacent
to the mansion of the warden is the free school, richly endowed by
Gabriel Goodman, D.D. whose monument is set up against the north wall of
the church.
Some doubt appears to exist as to the foundation of a castle here
anciently, the Welsh name “Castell gôch yn gwernfor,” indicating a
fortress of earlier date than any erected by the Saxons. The general
belief, however, is, that Reginald de Grey, second son of Lord Grey de
Wilton, had a grant of the lordship of Rhuthyn, then embracing nearly the
whole vale of Clwyd, as a reward for his services in reducing the ancient
Britons. This great captain built the noble castle and enclosed the
town, and, to secure the quiet enjoyment of his grant, did homage to
Edward the Second at Chester in the year 1301. A drawing preserved
amongst the manuscripts in the British Museum exhibits the magnitude and
stateliness of De Grey’s castle, and fully justifies the wordy
description of the honest Churchyard:
“This castle stands on rocke much like red bricke,
The dykes are cut with toole through stonie cragge,
The towers are hye, the walles are large and thicke,
The worke itself would shake a subject’s bagge.”
Both castle and lordship continued in the posterity of De Grey until the
reign of Henry the Seventh, when, by a special compact, George Grey, Earl
of Kent, and Lord of Rhuthyn, assigned them to the crown. From this
period until the reign of Elizabeth this stately fabric was suffered to
decay, but was then new roofed and entirely restored by Ambrose, Earl of
Warwick, on whom the queen bestowed it. From the Warwick family it
passed to the Myddletons of Chirk Castle, by the marriage of Charlotte,
daughter of Sir Thomas Myddleton, who had for her first husband an Earl
of Warwick. The lordship has since continued in this family, and the
rights are exercised by one of the coheiresses of the late Richard
Myddleton, Esq.
A modern castle has arisen from the ruins, the ancient ground plan being
pursued with the assistance of the drawing before alluded to. The
restoration does not extend over the entire area, yet forms a truly
lordly residence. A reference to the original plan indicated the
existence of a well in the centre of the rocky citadel, where, after a
careful examination, it was at length discovered, built around with
stone, and having a depth of nearly one hundred feet.