HAWARDEN, commonly pronounced Harden, is a small manufacturing town, seated near the estuary of the river Dee, and on the mail coach road from Chester to Holyhead. Tiles and coarse earthen wares are made here, and manufactories are established of Glauber’s salts, sal ammoniac, and ivory black, besides which it possesses an extensive iron foundery. A rail road extending to the water’s edge enables the manufacturer to export his goods with facility. In the legendary history of this place its inhabitants are styled “Harden Jews,” the origin of which epithet is explained by the following curious tale. In the year 946, Cynan ap Ellis ap Anarawd, being king of Gwynedd or North Wales, there stood a christian temple here, to which a rood-loft was attached, containing an image of the Virgin bearing a large cross in the hands and called the Holy Rood. The summer of this year proving unaccountably hot and dry, the Hardeners prayed to the Holy Rood for rain, and Lady Trawst, the wife of Sytsylt, governor of the castle, was one of the most constant in her supplications to the image. One day, when this devout lady was on her knees before the figure, the large cross fell down, and killed her on the spot. The Hardeners, previously chagrined at the indifference of the Holy Rood to their fervent entreaties, the weather continuing as warm as before, determined to bring the image to trial for the murder of the unfortunate Lady Trawst. This ceremony was solemnly performed, and the criminal being brought in guilty, was, by the majority, sentenced to be _hanged_. Spar of Mancot, one of the jurymen, thought _drowning_ would be the most suitable mode of destruction, as their prayers were offered on a watery subject. Another, Corbin, suggested that it would be sufficient to lay the image down upon the beach and leave the rest to fate. The latter suggestion was embraced, and the Holy Rood being placed upon the sands was carried, by the flow of the tide, gently up to the walls of Chester, as the legend has it, _drowned_ and dead. The citizens of Chester immediately took it up, interred it on the spot, and set up a monument with this inscription: The Jews their God did crucify, The Hardeners theirs did drown, Because their wants she’d not supply, And lies under this cold stone. A farther honour was paid to the insulted image by the inhabitants of Chester, whose river, formerly called the Usk, was henceforward denominated Rood Die, or Dee. [Picture: Hawarden Castle; Aberglasslynn; St. Asaph. London. Published by T. T. & J. Tegg, Cheapside, Oct. 1st 1832]