Nooks and Corners of PembrokeshireTimmins, H. Thornhill (Henry Thornhill)
History
Nooks and Corners of Pembrokeshire
Timmins, H. Thornhill (Henry Thornhill)
Pembrokeshire (Wales) -- Description and travel
So much, then, for Wiston. We now set forth from Slebech, and jaunt
along beside the Eastern Cleddau, with the broad umbrageous woods of
Minwear combing down to the water's edge, upon the farther bank of the
stream. Ere long the Vale of Cleddau begins to widen out, forming a
comely, verdant strath, through which the highroad winds like a narrow
ribbon as it takes its way towards Narberth. For the present, however,
we give this road the go-by, and turn near Canaston bridge into a ruddy
lane, which climbs by a gentle ascent to the crest of the ridgeway.
Down in the vale below, at a place bearing the name of St. Kennox, lived
good Rees Pritchard, the famous Welsh divine, sometime Chancellor of St.
Davids Cathedral, and author of a celebrated book entitled 'Canwyll y
Cymro,' or the Welshman's Candle. Such was the fame of Pritchard's
oratory, that the vast congregations who flocked to hear him preach
overflowed the limits of the cathedral walls, and clustered thick as
hiving bees in the great south porch, and around the precincts of the
sacred building.
In about another mile, our lane suddenly debouches upon the broad,
triangular grass-plot, that forms the village-green of time-honoured
Llawhaden. Grouped around the green rise a number of old substantial
homesteads--true 'homes of ancient peace'--whose low-browed
lattice-windows look out upon a vasty duck-pond, overshadowed by clumps
of gnarled and weather-beaten firs.
[Illustration: LLAWHADEN CASTLE AND BRIDGE.]
Turning to the right at the foot of the green, we fare along the village
street until it terminates abruptly in a sort of _cul-de-sac_, where the
majestic ruins of Llawhaden Castle seem to forbid our further progress.
The great Gatehouse, with its lofty drum towers flanking the
boldly-arched portcullis, indicates the noble scale upon which the
fortress was conceived. The eastern tower is still in a fair state of
preservation, retaining the strong stone floors of its successive
stages, though its fellow has been shorn of more than half its bulk.
These towers are pierced with small but well-proportioned
lancet-windows, apparently of Edwardian date, and the corbelled
battlements are carried forward above the gateway, to form a _couloir_
for pouring down molten lead upon the foe.
On passing beneath the lofty entrance archway, we are confronted by a
well-proportioned Gothic doorway, with one small pointed window, little
more than a loophole, in the wall beside it; these are the sole relics
of the northern front, of which all else has fallen to decay. Near at
hand rises a slender square tower, whose trefoil-headed windows and
finely-worked mouldings point to a later period than that of the main
structure. From its position and certain accessories, there is reason to
suppose this tower contained the chapel of the castle, erected by Bishop
Vaughan, who enlarged and beautified St. Davids Cathedral.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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