Page:Hawarden Castle (guide).djvu/20

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16
HAWARDEN CASTLE.

Shropshire, including the city of Chester, the rock and ridge of Beeston, and, in clear weather, the Wrekin. In the opposite direction are views, less extensive, of the estuary of the Dee and the peninsula of West Chester. The Welsh view is inconsiderable, being cut off by the higher ground.

It is laid to the charge of Sir John Glynne, that he made free with the materials of the castle, and so provided an ample field for antiquarian speculation. Even, however, though this be so, it must be admitted that his descendant has done his best to atone for the spoliation. No ruin in the kingdom is more carefully preserved, or situated to more advantage; the spreading oaks and fantastic beeches that rise from its velvet slopes beautify without concealing the structure, and when circumstances require their removal, they fall before the axe of no unskilled or vulgar woodman.

G. T. CLARK.
Dowlais, 1870.