Scenes in North Wales: With Historical Illustrations, Legends, and Biographical NoticesWright, G. N. (George Newenham)
History
Scenes in North Wales: With Historical Illustrations, Legends, and Biographical Notices
Wright, G. N. (George Newenham)
Wales, North -- Description and travel
The arms of the Lady Angharad, who was directly descended from the Lords
of Tegengle, occupy the next shield. The third is filled with the arms
of Gloddaeth, adopted on the marriage of Howel ap Evan Vychan with the
daughter of Gryffydd, of Cryddyn. Gryffydd Lloyd’s arms are emblazoned
on a fourth. The walls are decorated in a style suitable to the manners
and customs of the age. Guns, swords, pikes, helmets, and breastplates
are disposed in the military quarter; spoils of the chase and funeral
achievements in their allotted places. Against the wall at the upper end
is nailed a falcon, having two bells, a greater and a less, suspended
from its feet. On two of the silver rings are inscribed the name of the
owner, Mc. Kinloch, of Kulrie, in the county of Angus, in Scotland. With
these incumbrances it flew from home on the morning of the 21st of
September, 1772, and was killed at Mostyn on the morning of the 26th. As
the precise time when it reached Wales is unknown, the exact velocity of
its flight cannot be ascertained. Sir Thomas Brown, in his Miscellaneous
Tracts, mentions two instances, of a somewhat dubious kind, of a hawk
that flew thirty miles an hour in pursuit of a woodcock, and a second
that passed from Westphalia into Prussia in one day.
The magnitude and proportions of the kitchen are in every way
correspondent to the hospitality that reigns in the hall. A gallery,
crossing the side wall, leads to the apartments of the lady of the house,
and affords an opportunity of overlooking the culinary arrangements
whenever she passes to her dressing-room or chamber.
At one end of the gallery is an apartment in which the Earl of Richmond
was concealed, when engaged in planning with his Welsh friends the
overthrow of the house of York. While he lodged at Mostyn, a party
attached to the usurper arrived there to apprehend him. He was just
sitting down to dinner when the alarm was given, and had barely time to
leap through a back window, to this day called King Henry’s, and make his
escape.
The library contains a valuable collection; the most rare works are those
comprehending the Medallic History. Amongst the antiques and curiosities
are a torques, found at Harlech, in Merionethshire, and a silver harp,
which has been for time immemorial in the possession of this ancient
family. This badge of honour is five inches in length, and furnished
with strings equal in number to the Muses. The Mostyn family have for
ages exercised the privilege of presenting this harp to the most skilful
bard at the Eisteddfoddau, formerly held by a royal commission in North
Wales. (See Denbigh Castle.)
Richard ap Howel, then Lord of Mostyn, joined Henry in Bosworth field,
and after the battle was presented, by the grateful monarch, with the
belt and sword he wore that day. To King Henry’s invitation to follow
him to court, the Welshman modestly replied, “Sire, I dwell among mine
own people.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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