The Antiquarian Magazine & Bibliographer; Vol. 4, July-Dec 1884Various
History
The Antiquarian Magazine & Bibliographer; Vol. 4, July-Dec 1884
Various
Archaeology -- Periodicals; Great Britain -- Antiquities -- Periodicals
On Saturday morning, in spite of the wetness of the day, about sixty of
the members of the Congress started in carriages for Gumfreston and St.
Florence, _en route_ for Carew and Upton Castles. Arrived at Gumfreston,
they were received at the church by the Rector and by Mr. Edward Laws,
who had acted throughout as local secretary and _cicerone_. Here Mr.
Charles Lynam read a paper upon the structural peculiarities and
historical associations of the church, for which he received a special
vote of thanks. The sanctus bell, the piscina, and the baptistery were
much admired. From Gumfreston the party drove through drenching showers
of rain to St. Florence, where they minutely inspected the church,
which, like its neighbour they had just left, is an excellent specimen
of the usual Pembrokeshire church, with heavy walls and stone roof, and
low depressed arches of early date in the chancel and transepts. The
vicar, the Rev. Eric Rudd, here showed to the party the remains of a
holy water stoup and of a stone cross which had not long since been
unearthed in the immediate neighbourhood. Mr. Brock also made some
remarks upon the fabric, and the parties inspected the remains of an old
Flemish house close by. From St. Florence they drove on to Carew Castle,
which was the principal attraction in the day’s programme. Less in size
than, and not equal in situation to, Manorbeer, Carew Castle--which, by
the way, is generally styled Carey in Pembrokeshire--is not inferior to
it in historic interest. It was the original fortress of the ancient
Princes of Wales when they were independent of the British Crown, and,
as the home of the earlier of the Tudors, it holds a high rank among the
historic castles of the Principality. It passed, by the marriage of an
heiress, to one of the Geralds or FitzGeralds, who was castellan of
Pembroke Castle, and it is famed in comparatively recent times as having
been the place where one of the Welsh lords, Sir Rhys ap Thomas,
received Henry of Richmond when he landed in these parts on his way to
win the battle of Bosworth Field. Here, therefore, the party were glad
to lunch, being hospitably entertained, by the courtesy of Mr. Charles
Allen, in the ruined and windowless, but, happily, not roofless chapel.
The outlines of Carew Castle are so familiar to the Cambrian traveller
that we need not attempt to describe them in detail; sufficient to say
that it stands at the extreme end of one of the many “tentacles” of
Milford Haven, which washes the bases of its northern and western
towers. The great “Edwardian” banqueting hall, with its fine flight of
stone steps externally, still frowns down upon the visitor in the
quadrangle, reminding him of many details of Ludlow and Berry Pomeroy.
On his right are the remains, roofless, of the state apartments, very
magnificent in their decay, not unlike those of Kenilworth. Of the
chapel but little is to be seen externally, though it is interesting
enough in its interior details.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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