<g>Pembrokeshire.</g>
“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.”
<g>The</g> 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 <g>Henry</g> I.
lieutenant of these counties. His son William took the name of <g>Carew</g>,
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.
[Illustration]
In the extensive deer-park attached to the castle, Sir Rhys held a grand
tilt and tournament on <g>St. Giles’s</g> 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.”
<g>Sir Rhys</g>-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. <g>Abermarles</g>
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 <g>Foley</g>, 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. <g>Emlyn</g> and its
extensive demesnes became the property of the <g>Vaughans</g> 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.”
<g>Carew</g>, 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]