The noble residence of Colonel Myddelton Biddulph, is situated near to Chirk, on elevated ground on the Berwyn range of hills, commanding delightful views of the surrounding scenery. It is a bold castellated mansion, built of grey stone, partly mantled with ivy, and is supposed to have been erected on the site of an ancient fortress called by the Welsh _Castell Crogen_, near which, as is recorded, the celebrated Battle of Crogen took place in 1164, when the Welsh fought with more than their usual bravery against Henry II., for the recovery of their independence. The present castle was built in the reign of Edward I. by Roger Mortimer, son of Roger, Baron of Wigmore, to whom the king had granted the united lordship of Chirk and Nanheudwy. [Picture: Chirk Castle] The Castle continued in the hands of the Mortimer family but a short period, it being sold by John, grandson of Roger Mortimer, to Richard Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, whose family possessed it for three generations. It afterwards passed to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk and Justice of North Wales, Chester, and Flint, in right of his wife, Elizabeth, eldest sister to Thomas, Earl of Arundel. It then devolved upon the Beauchamp and Neville families, and afterwards became the property of Sir William Stanley, together with Holt Castle. Henry VIII. bestowed it upon his natural son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset; in the following reign it was granted to Thomas, Lord Seymour, brother to the Protector Somerset. Queen Elizabeth granted it to her favourite Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and on his death it became the property of Lord St. John, of Bletso, whose son, in 1595, sold it to Sir Thomas Myddelton, Knight, Lord Mayor of London, in a branch of whose family it still remains.