through which we passed, about five miles in extent, seemed to be well
planned, and kept in excellent order. This castle has always been
inhabited; and, having escaped the fate of all other castles in Wales,
during the civil wars, it retained, till very late, much of its original
external form.
Mr. Fenton’s description of this noble spot is so correct and energetic,
that I shall, in justice to him, as well as to Picton, here insert it.
“Picton castle owes its beauties to circumstances that wealth cannot
supply, or titles confer; circumstances that age, and an unbroken line of
ancestry in its possessors, have given value to, and have made venerable;
an ancient structure, that nothing can so much disfigure as an attempt to
modernize, and make less so;—a castle (and I believe a solitary instance)
never forfeited, never deserted, never vacant; and that never knew a
melancholy blank in its want of a master; from whose walls hospitality
was never exiled, and whose governors might be said to have been
hereditary; a castle in the midst of possessions and forests coeval with
itself, and proudly looking down over a spacious domain, on woods of
every after-growth, to an inland sea, bounding its property and its
prospects beyond them; for such is Picton Castle.”
The ground plan occupies an oblong area, having three large projecting
bastions on each side. At the east end was the grand gate, with a
portcullis between two similar bastions: this, without any injury to the
general aspect, has yielded to a modern entrance, as has the moat and
drawbridge, to a terrace, with an open parapet: the additions at the west
end are not so fortunate: they injure the appearance, but add to the
comforts of the castle, as a modern residence; affording Lord Milford
more ample scope for that noble hospitality which he so liberally
exercises according to the usage of his ancestors.
Lord Milford possesses a fine cabinet of drawings by eminent masters,
collected in Italy by Sir Erasmus Phillips, his uncle. The park is well
wooded, but destitute of deer. The gardens, forcing houses, &c. &c. are
very extensive, and in high order.
A beautiful walk, which passes near the old encampment, called Castle
Lake, leads to Slebech, an ancient commandery of the Knights of St. John
of Jerusalem, but neither trace nor vestige of the old commandery are now
to be found. The church is ancient and respectable, but not large; it
contains two figures in alabaster, believed to be of the Barlow family.
Returning again to Picton, at the extremity of the park, a good turnpike
road soon conducted us to