Part 37
“The scale has shifted--freighted barks no more Visit, with welcome sail, the lonely shore: Unprofitable weeds usurp the strand-- The once wide port presents a mound of sand. But these stout towers, defying time and tide, Still o’er the scene in massive strength preside Kidwelly’s walls, firm as the native rock, Have braved, for centuries, the tempest-shock.”
Many fruitless attempts have been made to improve the navigation of the river, by removing the obstructions alluded to. In 1766, some docks and a short canal were constructed here. The navigation was afterwards transferred to the “Kidwelly Canal Company,” by whom it was extended about two miles up the valley of the Gwendraeth; and a branch, three miles and a half in length, was constructed to communicate with Pembrey harbour. Here were formerly both iron and tin works, the former of which have been entirely abandoned, and the latter are continued only in a diminished scale.
Kidwelly received its first charter of incorporation from King Henry VI. James II., in the sixteenth year of his reign, granted to its inhabitants their present charter, by which the government is vested in a mayor, a recorder, two bailiffs, and a common council of twelve aldermen, and twelve principal burgesses, assisted by a town-clerk, chamberlain, two sergeants-at-mace, and other officers.
LLANSTEPHAN CASTLE,
Carmarthenshire .
“Let them pass-- I cried: the world and its mysterious doom Is not so much more glorious than it was, That I desire to worship those who drew New figures on its false and fragile glass, As the old faced--phantoms ever new Rise on the bubble, paint them as you may; _We_ have but thrown--as some before us threw-- Our shadows on it as it passed away. But mark how chained to the triumphal Cross Were the great figures of an elder day!”
This Castle --one of the oldest in Wales--crowns a bold eminence projecting into the bay of Carmarthen, and defends the entrance of the river Towy, which falls into the sea at this point. It is a military fortress of great strength and antiquity, but by whom founded--whether by Roman or Briton--or to what precise era it belongs, are questions which have never been satisfactorily answered. Yet the very obscurity which hangs upon it imparts to its dilapidated walls, mouldering turrets, and grass-covered courts, an interest which is seldom or never felt in the survey of those castellated ruins which make a prominent figure in the pages of history. All that has yet been advanced by archæologists regarding the founder of Llanstephan, is only based on plausible conjecture. It is not improbable, however, that the present castle occupies the position of a Roman fort; for it is not to be supposed that, during their occupation of the Silurian territory, a situation presenting so many natural advantages, and commanding the embouchure of the Towy, would be neglected by a people so prone to conquest, and so circumspect in all the means that could secure and fortify them in their new possessions. Nor were the Normans--who were equally observant and expert in the distribution of their military posts--likely to lose sight of the advantages which a castle on this promontory would afford in facilitating their operations, and widening their encroachments beyond the Welsh frontier; and in the citadel which now covers the steep, we have ample
testimony, that whatever hands may have raised the first structure, that which now occupies our attention is of Norman architecture.
The historical details of Llanstephan are meagre and unsatisfactory; we would desire to learn the circumstances of siege and storm and surrender, the acts of fortitude and valour which mutually distinguished the besieged and their assailants, their patient endurance of privations, their resolute and determined resistance, the nightly assault, the treachery of professing allies, the regular investment by open enemies, the daily skirmishes, the nightly advance, the scaling of the walls, the final struggle, the throwing open of gates, the dismantling of towers, with mingled traits of personal prowess, magnanimity, and fortitude. But of these, history observes a mysterious silence. We learn, however, that
Caddell , Meredydd, and Rhys, sons of Gryffyd-ap-Rhys[405]--the prince so often named in these pages--having in 1143 succeeded in their enterprise against Carmarthen Castle, were induced to make a similar attempt upon Llanstephan, and, directing their march to that point, invested the walls, and summoning the Norman garrison to surrender, were answered by a message of contempt and defiance. This, however, served merely to stimulate the Cambrian leaders into immediate action; for, after a spirited resistance, they carried the fortress by storm or stratagem, and planted their own countrymen within its walls. This daring exploit was instantly reported to the Norman legions beyond the frontier, who made all possible haste to vindicate the tarnished honour of the garrison; and mustering all their available strength, soon made their appearance under the walls of Llanstephan.
The consequence of this movement was a protracted siege, in the progress of which everything promised a successful issue to the Normans. At last, while the Cambrian garrison within did little more than regard their operations with passive indifference, the signal was given to scale the ramparts, and at the word every Norman flew to the assault. Meredydd, however, was well prepared to give his unbidden guests a Welsh welcome; and while the Normans, like swarming bees, were covering fosse and rock with their numbers, he ordered a wedge to be struck home, and no sooner was the hammer at work than an avalanche of rocks, suddenly let loose from the highest point of the ramparts, overwhelmed the invaders, and hurled the scaling party and their ladders into the ravine below. A shout of derision followed them from the garrison above; operations on both sides were suspended; and with their ranks thus suddenly thinned by a catastrophe as unseen as it was disastrous, the Normans sullenly withdrew. But it was only to return with increased strength and whetted vengeance. They had sworn to extirpate the garrison at their next visit, and the Norman leader was not a man to break his word whenever stimulated by a thirst of revenge or plunder.
We need not dwell upon the skill and vigour of the besiegers, nor the spirited resistance of the garrison. But, in the present instance, the siege was conducted in a more regular and systematic method than heretofore; they had recourse to all the appliances of military art. The warlike engines employed against stubborn fortresses were now called into perpetual action, and night and day the _butting_ of the battering-rams continued to shake the ramparts, until here and there a stone dropping from the mason-work, the whole ramparts began to shake under the feet of the besieged. At length, a breach being effected, the Normans poured in their best troops, and for a time the conflict was maintained with desperate fury. Foot to foot the assailants met, fought, and fell where they stood. Too proud to ask quarter, the fiery Cambrian rushed upon his adversary with a blind impetuosity that often placed him at his mercy; while the Norman, adroit in the management of his weapon, and bent on revenging his countrymen, was only stimulated to indiscriminate slaughter; and long before sunrise the Norman banner waved on the Castle of Llanstephan.
In M.CC.XVI the fortune of war was again invoked. The Norman sway, so intolerable to native independence, had extended its influence and territory; and with these had inspired into the heart of every reflecting Cambrian, a deep sense of the wrongs inflicted upon his country. With an irrepressible and Wallace-like determination to crush or expel the invader, he rushed to the conflict. This, so far as regards Llanstephan, was partly effected by Llewelyn-ap-Iorwerth, who, after a successful attack, entered the fortress, slew or captured the garrison, and then, to prevent its being again turned against the peace of the country, dismantled the walls, threw down the gates, filled up the ditches, and left its towers for a habitation to the owls.
The position of the Castle, however, was too advantageous to be neglected for more than a season: for, as war continued rampant along the marches, the demand for garrisons increased; and Llanstephan was again converted into a fortress, and crowded with troops. In this state it appears to have continued until the year 1254. But in those days of mutual hatred and jealousy--when neighbour plotted against neighbour, and friendships cemented at morning were often changed, by some sudden exasperation, into mortal enmities before night--the garrison of Llanstephan could never remain unconcerned spectators of passing events. Llewelyn-ap-Grufydd, whose name is so familiar in the Cambrian annals, finding himself in a position to resent, to the very death, some personal insult from the haughty castellan of Llanstephan, summoned his countrymen to arms. “This offensive castle,” said he, “must be demolished! Ye have true British hearts; and if your hands will only obey those hearts, my countrymen, before two days elapse ye shall drive your goats to pasture in the courtyard, of Llanstephan!”
This old Griffin kept his word--the raid was successful--his flag soon waved over the battlements of the castle; and there we leave him for the present to enjoy the fruits of his new seigneurie.
* * * * *
St. Anton’s Well , in the parish of Llanstephan, was long a place of popular resort for invalids. Impregnated by some mysterious qualities which escaped detection by the _ancient_ process of analysis, the water was lauded as a never-failing resource under those forms of corporeal malady which had baffled the skill of physicians, and conducted the sufferer to the very brink of despair. It may, therefore, be imagined, that the concourse of pilgrims was a source of no little emolument to the place, more especially to the “hydropathic” friar of the olden day, who presided at the well, and propitiated, for a consideration, the kind offices of St. Anthony. But all the medicinal virtues of this holy well are now left to the gossip of old tradition; and although the fountain bubbles up as fresh, and clear, and salubrious as ever, public faith in its qualities has been shaken; and no pilgrim, in these days of scientific analysis, ever stoops down to taste the water, and, in testimony of its virtue, leaves his crutch behind him.[406]
LAUGHARNE CASTLE,
Carmarthenshire .
“Now strike ye the harp that has slumbered so long, Till yon mountains re-echo the theme of my song! Come forth, ye bold warriors, from forest and tarn, And up with the banner of Guy of Laugharne !
The sound is gone forth--all the land is awake, Swords flash in the valley, and spears in the brake; And, gleaming in arms, at their head ye discern The fearless in battle--bold Guy of Laugharne !”
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.”