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Hi Sheila,
I have been to Northern Ireland, where is the ruins of " Clough's
Castle"? My mother has alot of family over there. If this will be the case
for next years trip, then count me in. Now you have my Irish up and I am very
interested in this.
Love Ronnie
Is the Clough Castle near Dublin? I had thought it was in No. Ireland
probably near Belfast, which would take a few hours to get there & back from
Dublin. Many of the roads are narrow and one does not make as fast a time
as we do here in the US. I had thought we would have to take a day to go see
it, then return to Dublin to catch the ferry to Holyhead.
How many are there who do not live in Boston--is it half the group? Or just
a few of us?
Where is the picture of Sir Richard Clough, the one in the Independent
article, actually on display? I would love to get a better picture of it
than the xerox copy I got of the newspaper article.
Thanks, Susan
Susan,
Arriving in Dublin would not cut into our time in Wales - it would be instead
of arriving in London.
The same things apply to arriving in Dublin as apply to arriving in London.
If everyone flies from their homes to Dublin then we will need to spend a
night there. If everyone flies together from Boston to Dublin then we can
head toward Wales that day. The same applies to landing in London. If
everyone flies from their homes to London then we will need to spend a night
there. If everyone flies from Boston to London then we can head toward Wales
that day. No difference in the time frame, just in the arrival point.
I don't know much about Clough Castle but Richard Williams-Ellis may find
some information for us.
Best Wishes,
Sheila
Sounds okay with me, but cuts into our time in Wales. Who built the Clough
castle in No. Ireland anyway--a different Clough line? Or is that in your
emails you've sent that I've not had time to read yet??
We flew Delta into London and left via Dublin a couple of years ago, took
ferry from Holyhead to Dublin. Wouldn't that cut off one more day from our
time in Wales though? We'd have to stay at least a night or two in Dublin
and the ferry takes two or three hours. Personally, I'd rather spend any
extra time in Wales. Susan
Dear Cousins,
Rebecca had an idea for next years trip. We could all land in Dublin,
Northern Ireland, have a look at the ruins of Clough Castle in Northern
Ireland, and take the ferry from Ireland to Holyhead, Wales. We could return
to Dublin to fly home or we could fly home from London.
Let me know what you think of this idea. :-)
Best Wishes to All,
Sheila
The Story of the Family of John Clough of Salisbury, Massachusetts
Editor: Eva Clough Speare
Pg. 225-7
In England
Beatrice Clough Wright
It is given to few young women of thirty to be in a position of such
conspicuous responsibility as is the case with Beatrice Clough, daughter of
Roland and Frederika Clough of Boston.
She was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1910 and was descended from John-1
through his youngest son, Samuel.
In December, 1940 at the death of her husband, John Rathbone, a member of the
English Parliament from Cornwall who was killed in action, she was elected
unanimously by that district to fill his post as a National Conservative
representative. From the beginning she took her duties seriously and has
been a leader in many reforms.
Due in large measure to her first-hand acquaintance as a child with several
foreign countries on account of her father's business connections in Moscow,
Vladivostok, and Peking, she early became an unconscious cosmopolitan and
learned to think internationally because of her close contact with and
interest in alien peoples. This was a great help to her in her later life in
England.
In her 'teen years she attended private schools in Boston and Simsbury,
Connecticut, with special courses at Radcliffe College, Cambridge, and
completed her education at Oxford where she met her future husband, John
Rankin Rathbone of London, marrying him in 1932.
Their two children, John and Pauline, born in 1933 and '35, were sent to
America in September, 1940, for safety and are living with an uncle and aunt
in New York devotedly cared for by their English "Nannie." They have
accepted this great change in their life with surprising ease and happiness.
Her mother is living near her in London.
During the height of the Blitz in 1941, her London home was struck by bombs
twice and she spent fourteen successive nights on the roof "spotting Nazi
planes and dousing incendiaries with sand," to quote from a letter written at
that time.
In May, 1942, she married Capt. Paul Wright of the King's Royal Rifle Corps.
On April 23, 1943 a daughter was born, Faith Beatrice. Mrs. Wright is the
first woman in the history of the House of Commons to become a mother while a
member of Parliament.
Some of her government activities have been helping to evacuate to America
seven hundred fifty British children in 1940; taking a leading part in
"Bundles for Britain" movement in England; assisting in establishing schools
to train young women in the care of children whose mothers are war workers.
Feeling that English children should be better acquainted with their American
cousins, she has been interested in helping to arrange a number of short
courses on United States history and current problems for teachers in all
types of schools. Our Ambassador, John Winant, has been of great assistance
in this.
She is an indefatigable worker and a woman of intelligence and charm.
We are proud to have Beatrice Clough Wright an honorary member of the John
Clough Genealogical Society.
Jane S. Clough
The lineage of this line is Samuel-2, David, John, David, David, George, and
Roland.
David-6 was a philosopher and poet when he wrote the following:
The Clock
Could but our tempers move like this machine
Not urged by passion nor delayed by spleen;
But true to nature's regulating power
By virtuous acts distinguished every hour;
Then health and joy would follow, as they ought,
Laws of motion and the laws of thought.
Sweet health to pass ye pleasing moments o'er,
And everlasting bliss when time shall be no more.
David Clough, 1822
Dear Cousins,
Spoke to Richard Williams-Ellis again this morning. While we visited with
him and his family last October Rebecca presented him with the book, 'The
Story of the Family of John Clough of Salisbury, Massachusetts.' The book is
blue and on the cover is a diamond shape and the name Clough in gold. In my
conversation with him he shared with me that while he was looking into the
book he found a picture of one of his oldest and best friends, John Rathbone.
They attended Eton College, Kings Royal Rifle Corps, and Christ Church at
Oxford together. What a connection!! John's mother, Beatrice (Clough)
(Rathbone) Wright is a descendant of our John Clough through his son Samuel!
The story of Beatrice can be found in the Story book on page 225. The
picture Richard referred to can be seen opposite page 226. There you will
see Beatrice with her two children from her first marriage to John Rankin
Rathbone, an MP (Member of Parliament) killed in WWII. The boy in the
picture is Richard's longtime friend, John (aka Tim to friends and family).
Beatrice went on the marry Capt. Paul Wright and their daughter, Faith, lives
in Wales today. Richard remembers Beatrice very well and believes she may
still be alive.
Richard will do his best to have his friend, John, and maybe even his mother
and half sister, Faith, meet with our group next September. How exciting!
American Clough cousins descended from our John Clough who are British!
In an additional e-mail I will copy the story of Beatrice for those who do
not have our Story book.
In a previous e-mail I copied an article entitled, 'Country Houses in the
Vale of Clwyd' written by Peter Howell. Richard knows Peter and will try to
have Peter meet our group next September.
Richard was unable to obtain Plas Brondanw - the trustees had other ideas for
the estate so we will not be able to stay there. I will inquire as to the
possibility of visiting the grounds while we are there next year but since it
has been let to another family I am not sure if we will be able to.
As more information is made available to me I will keep you all informed.
Best Wishes to All,
Sheila
Dear Cousins,
At the end of this e-mail you will see a copy of a recent article in the
newspaper Telegraph about Portmeirion. Richard Williams-Ellis was kind
enough to include it with the other items he sent this past week. Hope you
enjoy reading it.
Best Wishes to All,
Sheila
Portmeirion
Telegraph Newspaper
Saturday, September 21, 2002
Is it right and proper to give a listing to virtually a whole village? Why
not, says Keith Miller, when it's as playfully picturesque as this Welsh
extravaganza.
The eccentric Welsh architect Clough Williams-Ellis has been fingered in this
column as a possible forerunner of some of the more fanciful traditionalists
who sheltered under the wing of the Prince of Wales during the 1980s. Like
them, he certainly felt like a lone voice in the wilderness for much of his
career. Bu there was something very mid-20th-centruy about the way he
combined a wistful romanticism with a frothy sense of the absurd. Some of
the more arch set-pieces on the Festival of Britain site could easily have
been by him.
Much of Williams-Ellis's bread-and-butter work between the wars was typical
of any jobbing country-house architect (he helped turn Stowe into a school,
for instance). He campaigned on conservation issues, helping to set up the
Council for the Preservation (later Protection) of Rural England and its
Welsh counterpart, and wrote a florid but heartfelt book, England and the
Octopus, which advised embattled noblemen to build model rural communities.
His masterpiece was his own house, Plas Brondanw at Penrhyndendraeth, north
Wales, a characterful neo-baroque pile worthy of Edwin Lutyens after a few
pink gins. But he is best known for the nearby Portmeirion, "a holiday
retreat for the discerning," built up over many years on a picturesque
estuarial site.
Founded in 1926 as a kind of artistic colony (Noel Coward wrote 'Blithe
Spirit' there), or a house-party without a house, the village acquired its
distinctive identity gradually as Williams-Ellis kitted out with more and
more bits of architectural salvage bought from the distressed gentlefolk of
the locality, and further afield. The first visitor accommodation was two
straightforward vernacular cottages. But things, as Thomas Pynchon says, did
not then delay in becoming curious. The town hall or "Hercules Hall" (both
terms seem almost comically inapt) was built in the 1930s to house the
choicest parts of dismembered 17th century house in Flintshire, notably a
vaulted ceiling and some lovely wrought-ironwork. Never afraid to gild the
lily, Williams-Ellis threw in a window from the Bank of England. Meanwhile
an Italian baroque portal found its way onto the rough masonry base of the
belltower (itself cannibalised from a nearby 12th-century castle), which
Williams-Ellis cheerfully capped off in coarsely detailed concrete.
Indeed, Italy was the lodestar of the whole project. The name Portmeirion
was a Gallicised tribute to Portofino in Liguria, while most of the details
on the various structures dotted about the place nodded - sometimes rather
woozily - towards the Italian classical tradition.
But not even a demiurge of Williams-Ellis's caliber could import Italian
weather to North Wales. The business side of Portmeirion looked to more
temperate pleasures: good food, coastal paths, splendid gardens (full of just
the kinds of plant which a straight-faced traditionalist would want to ban
from the isles entirely), flowery pottery (a sideline set-up by
Williams-Ellis's daughter and son-in-law). The village has also built a
successful TV career, most famously in Patrick McGoohan's paranoid
masterpiece 'The Prisoner,' but also in a 'Dr. Who' story, a Supergrass video
and dozens of adverts. Purist it isn't.
As to the propriety of listing such a creation (most of Portmeirion has been
Grade II* listed since 1971): well, why not? But Williams-Ellis put the
whole thing in trust before his death in 1978, so it is reasonably well
preserved in any case. And there is an irony in the fact that much of it
would have been inconceivable if there had been listing before the Second
World War.
Williams-Ellis certainly saw the village, among other things, as a sort of
architectural Battersea Dogs' Home, a refuge for waifs and strays. But his
readiness to snap up the disjecta of a cash-strapped aristocracy is oddly
reminiscent of the way British grand tourists exploited the economic weakness
of great Italian families such as the Barberini to enrich their own
collections in the late 18th century.
Walter Benjamin, a writer you could not imagine by Williams-Ellis's bedside,
but who might have rather liked Portmeirion, put it very well: there is no
document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of
barbarism.
Dear Cousins,
Richard Williams-Ellis sent me a copy of a couple pages from the book,
'Houses of the Welsh Countryside.' The paragraph he sent contains
information about Plas Clough, Bach-y-Graig, and a couple Wynn family homes
(remember, Katheryn of Berain, Sir Richard Clough's wife, married a Wynn
after Sir Richard died). I hope you enjoy reading this bit of extra
information at the end of this e-mail.
Best Wishes to All,
Sheila
Houses of the Court gentry
Houses of the Welsh Countryside
Pg. 228-9
The accession of the Tudors had brought great benefits to the Welsh landed
classes, and throughout their reign they showed great favour to their
countrymen. Welshmen flocked to Court, and received preferment in church and
in government service on an unprecedented scale. The first buildings showing
strong Renaissance character were, not surprisingly, the houses of men with
Court connections, and, just as the houses of the peasantry can be
differentiated from those of the gentry, so can the houses of the country
gentry be distinguished from those of the Court gentry. The conflict of the
two styles of gentry house seems first expressed in the mansions of Sir
Richard Clough. Sir Richard, a typical Renaissance figure, spent most of his
life outside Wales as sir Thomas Gresham's agent in Antwerp. Later he
returned to his native valley to marry the greatest heiress in Denbighshire,
Catherine of Berain. In 1567, the year of his marriage, he built two houses,
Plas Clough and Bachegraig. Plas Clough was a fairly traditional building
and, though incorporating certain novel features of Flemish origin such as
brickwork and stepped gables, it is not a house that would have been entirely
strange to a north Welsh lady of quality. Bachegraig, however, was totally
alien, built in a style based on that of the province of Antwerp. Designed
in the form of a cube, with the main floor as a piano nobile, it recalls the
villas that Palladio was building in the same decade for the Venetian
nobility. Bachegraig, one suspects, is the house Sir Richard, a merchant of
international experience, built to please himself; Plas Clough is the house
he built to please his wealthy, but provincial, bride. Bachegraig was the
first and, for a long time, the only house to express the Renaissance idea in
its entirety. But the same conflict between the ideas of the Court and the
ideas of the country gentry can be seen in the buildings of another north
Welsh family, the Wynns of Gwydir. Gwydir (Trewydir, Caerns.) was a large
courtyard house developed in a piecemeal fashion from an original tower
nucleus. Eventually it incorporated a typical stone sub-medieval house, a
gatehouse, and various timber-framed offices, all obviously added without any
over-riding plan, though the ultimate effect must have been attractive. The
Wynn family was one of the wealthiest in north Wales, but its fortune and
power were securely founded in the locality. One scion of the family, Robert
Wynn, however, became a soldier and a diplomat, again in Flanders, and when
he returned to Wales and built his town house, Plas-mawr at Conwy, it was
very differently arranged. Although erected in three stages between 1576 and
1595, an overall master-plan is immediately apparent. This plan bears some
resemblance to Eastbury (Barking, Essex) though it is much more strongly
Renaissance in character. The plan was presumable provided by a Court
surveyor. The main block of the house in the form of an H is strongly
symmetrical about a central entrance passage, and has the principal room on
the first floor. A most remarkable feature is the expanse of fine
plasterwork over the ceilings and fireplace overmantels in which both
heraldic and naively classical themes are employed.
Country Houses in the Vale of Clwyd
By Peter Howell
Country Life magazine
December 1977
Dorothy Wordsworth wrote in a letter on August 30, 1793, that her brother,
who was staying with his friend Robert Jones, was passing his time "exactly
according to his taste: he says that 'their House is quite a cottage, just
such an one as would suit us' and oh! how sweetly situated in the most
delicious of all Vales, the Vale of Clwyd!" The house of Robert's father
(who was, like Wordsworth's father, a country lawyer) was Plas-yn-llan, up a
lane on the astern side of the Vale, just beyond Llangynhafal church.
Immediately above are the bracken-clad slopes of Moel Famau, the highest of
the Clwydian Hills.
Robert Jones, whom Dorothy years later described as "fat and roundabout and
rosy," was the only one of Wordsworth's Cambridge friends with whom he
remained intimate for the rest of his life. The two made a tour of
Switzerland in 1790, and in the next year Wordsworth spent a month at
Play-yn-llan, from where he and Jones explored North Wales. The chief
literary result was the striking account of their ascent of Snowdon included
in the 'Prelude.'
Plas-yn-llan can stand as a typical representative of the modest old
farmhouses of the Vale, where (especially towards the southern end)
half-timbering was common. Six miles further down the Vale, between Bodfari
and Tremeirchion, stand the remains of a house of far greater pretensions,
and one which was at least as old, but which, coincidentally, also has 18th
century literary associations - Bachegraig. When Dr. Johnson visited it in
1774, he described it as "an old house, built 1567, in an uncommon and
incommodious form." It was, in fact, so that Mrs. Thrale could take
possession of the house that the Thrales and Johnson made their trip to
Wales. Her father was a descendant of Roger Salusbury (of the Lleweni
family), who had married Anne, the daughter and heiress of Sir Richard
Clough, builder of Bachegraig.
The career of this fascinating character has been described in a recent
series of articles by Robin Gwyndaf Jones in the 'Transactions of the
Denbighshire Historical Society' (1970-73). Born in about 1532, he was the
younger son of a Denbigh glove merchant. He was a chorister at Chester
Cathedral, and later went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where he became a
Knight of the Holy Sepulchre. In about 1552 he settled at Antwerp, the
center of the British export trade in cloth, as factor to Sir Thomas Gresham.
In addition to his mercantile activities, he acted as agent for the
(illegal) supply of arms from the Low Countries, and ran an intelligence
service. He was the keenest supporter of Gresham's project for building an
Exchange in London on the model of the one at Antwerp, and when the Royal
Exchange was built in 1565-66 he supervised the exporting from Antwerp of
most of the materials. The architect, "Henryke," was also Flemish.
In 1564 Clough obtained land in Wales, including Bachegraig. In 1567 he
returned there to marry Katheryn of Berain, celebrated as "the Mother of
Wales." The well-known (but probably apocryphal) story tells how Maurice
Wynn of Gwydir proposed to her as she left the church after the funeral of
her first husband, John Salusbury, but she told him that she had already
accepted Clough's proposal on the way to church - promising, however, to
marry Wynn if she outlived Clough. The she did. After Wynn's death she
married Edward Thelwall.
In the year of his marriage Clough began to build two houses in the Vale of
Clwyd. They were both revolutionary in that they were the first brick
buildings in Wales. The bricks were probably brought from the Low Countries.
Plas Clough (a mile northwest of Denbigh) had crow-stepped gables - again
the first in Wales. They must have been imitated from Flemish examples, and
set quite a local fashion. Otherwise the house (which has been considerably
altered) is comparatively traditional.
Bachegraig, however, so amazed local people that the story soon got round
that it had been built by the Devil. In fact, the architect may have been
the same "Henryke" who built the Royal Exchange. As Peter Smith says, in
'Houses of the Welsh Countryside' (1975), it was "totally alien, built in a
style based on that of the province of Antwerp…designed in the form of a
cube, with the main floor as a piano nobile." It had a pyramidal roof, in
which were set three rows of dormers (compare the Castle Hotel at Ruthin,
said to have been built by Clough, which was illustrated in my article in
Country Life for October 13, 1977). Above was a kind of rectangular gazebo,
crowned by a cupola, and on top of it all a copper lion, emblem of the
Salusburies, which (according to Mrs. Thrale) was a later addition, brought
from Lleweni.
The main block of the house formed the east side of a courtyard, of which the
north side was open. Along the other two sides ran a two-storey range,
intended to be used as warehouses. The ground floor of the south side was
open to the yard, with a stone cornice supported on columns. In the center
of the west side was the main gateway, dated 1569, marked by an extra storey
with a pyramidal roof. This was probably the first gatehouse in North Wales.
The explanation for the warehouses is that Clough apparently intended to
make Bachegraig a trading center. Commerce with the Low Countries was in
decline. Bachegraig is only a quarter of a mile from the river Clwyd, and
Clough is said to have thought of canalizing the five miles or so up to here
from Rhuddlan, up to where it had already been canalized by Edward I. But he
died in 1570, in Hamburg.
By the time Mrs. Thrale visited the house, it was in very poor repair,
without floors and with the windows blocked. She was none too pleased: it
had "three excellent rooms, over which there seems little else but
pigeon-holes in a manner peeping out of the roof, and at the top of all a
ridiculous Lanthorn with a ladder to get up to it." However, she liked the
situation, and the surrounding woods. She thought of removing the top and
adding "a story of decent rooms," but nothing was done. Mr. Thrale cut down
some of the woods to raise cash, but she refused to let him cut more.
After her second marriage, to her Italian music-teacher, Gabriel Piozzi, they
decided to build a new house on a different site. Neighbours advised them to
demolish Bachegraig, but Mrs. Piozzi would not hear of it, and in 1800 her
husband repaired it for a new tenant. However, on the marriage in 1814 of
the nephew of Piozzi's, she gave him the estate, and he soon demolished the
main block of the house. The other two wings survive, altered and adapted,
as a farmhouse. Some fittings also survive at Glasfryn (in the possession of
Mr. R. C. Williams-Ellis): they include the original main door, with the date
1568, and heraldic glass, probably made at Antwerp.
The new house built by the Piozzis was on a site up above Bachegraig from
which Mrs. Piozzi had often stopped to admire the view. The project was
first discussed in 1791, and Piozzi started to make plans. However, the
surveyor called C. Meade showed at the Royal Academy in 1794 designs for
"Brynbella, a new building near Denbigh for Gabriel Piozzi, Esqr." The name
was an appropriate hybrid - bryn, Welsh for hill, and bella, Italian for
beautiful. Foundations were laid in 1793, but it was not until September 17,
1795, that Mrs. Piozzi woke up for the first time in what she described in
her journal as "my beautiful new Residence built for me in my own lovely
Country, by the Husband of my Hearts Choice. Never was so Charming a lot,
never ought there to be so grateful a creature as I." But the poor woman,
whose whole life had been clouded by lack of money, went on: "The House is
only a little too elegant, too expensive; but I yet hope we may live to pay
for it, to enjoy it - and to die in Nobody's Debt."
She and her husband had only intended to build a cottage, but the handsome
villa, "in the Italian style," with its pair of semi-circular bows and
flanking pedimented wings, its stables and lodges, cost over £20,000. The
interior is of exceptional elegance and refinement. Furniture costing more
than £2,000 was specially made for it by Gillow of Lancaster. On the walls
hung Canalettos purchased in Italy. Richard Fenton, on a visit in 1808,
mentioned the "admirable Gardens" and the "woods amazingly grown" since his
last visit seven years before. He was enthralled with the view: "Perhaps no
spot in the Kingdom, from one window, can command so delicious and so finely
varied a prospect, for you see the whole of Denbigh rising most magnificently
in the middle of it - St. Asaph, the Promontory of Orme's Head and the Sea,
with, nearer home, many gentlemen's Seats."
One of Mrs. Piozzi's friends in the Vale was the Bishop of St. Asaph, Lewis
Bagot. He was the third son of Sir Walter Bagot, Bt, of Blithfield, and was
translated from Norwich to St. Asaph in 1790. Unlike some of his
predecessors, he took the job seriously, and was the first bishop to reside
in the diocese for more than a month or so each year since about 1750. He
had a family connection with the Vale, since his great-grandfather had
married Jane Salusbury, the heiress of Bachymbyd. He pulled down much of the
old Bishop's Palace, dating from the 16th-17th centuries, and built a new
block, facing up a steeply sloping lawn to the west front of the Cathedral.
Its handsome ashlar front, dated 1791, has a central bow surmounted by a
shallow dome. The architect is unknown, but the Palace closely resembles
Bodorgan House, in Anglesey, built by James Defferd, and possibly designed by
Samuel Wyatt. In 1836 the Palace was extended towards the west by Edward
Blore for Bishop Carey. His larger gabled block is in a rather crude Tudor
style. Unfortunately a new Bishop's House has recently been built between
the old one and the Cathedral, and the future of the old one in uncertain.
Dr. Johnson commented in 1774 that the Vale "seems full of very splendid
houses." There are, as it happens, no particularly good 18th-century
examples surviving. For example, Pengwern, near Rhuddlan, handsomely rebuilt
in 1778, was oddly truncated after a fire in 1864, and has been unpleasantly
rendered. There are, however, several Victorian houses, although almost all
of them turn out on closer inspection to be merely remodellings of older
houses. This is conspicuously true of Llanrhaeadr Hall (between Denbigh and
Ruthin). The handsome symmetrical Jacobean front which can be seen from the
new village bypass (which has sadly bisected the avenue) was added in 1842 by
Thomas Penson, but is said to be based on the original front, and is only
skin-deep: the roof-structure dates from the 16th or 17th century.
There used to be a pretty loggia along the ground floor, but it was later
removed (presumably because it darkened the rooms). Penson (1790-1859) was
an interesting architect, a pupil of Thomas Harrison, who practiced in
Wrexham and Oswestry. He worked in a variety of styles, but seems to have
had a partiality for Jacobean. Behind this gabled front there is a plain but
elegant late-18th-century range, built by Richard Parry.
An equally complicated house is Ruthin Castle. It was begun in 1277 by
Edward I, and given by him in 1282 to Reginald de Grey. It belonged to the
family until Richard, 5th Baron Grey of Ruthin and 3rd Earl of Kent, sold the
castle and lordship to the Crown in 1508. Afterwards it was granted to a
succession of different owners.
In 1632 it was bought by Sir Thomas Myddelton of Chirk (nephew of Sir Hugh
Myddelton of New River fame). He fought for Parliament in the Civil War, but
failed to capture his own castles of Chirk and Ruthin. Ruthin was, however,
taken by General Mytton after a siege in 1646, and was subsequently
dismantled. Nothing survives now of the medieval structure except parts of
the curtain wall and towers. The pile of jumbled ruins near the present main
gate is just a kind of super-grotto.
When Richard Myddelton, last male heir of the Chirk family, died intestate in
1796, his estates were divided among his three sisters. Ruthin went to the
youngest, Harriet, but she died unmarried and left it to the middle daughter,
Maria. In 1826 she and her husband, the Hon. Frederick West (brother of Lord
Delawarr), built themselves a large castellated house, rambling but papery,
among the old ruins. Their son, Frederick Richard West, MP, pulled the main
part of it down and replaced it with a substantial new wing in 1849-52.
Built of warm red sandstone, instead of the rough grey stone used by his
parents, it cost £12,000.
The architect was Henry Clutton, who was already in the 1840's producing such
convincingly Puginian works as Trinity College, Carmarthen (1846-48), and St.
John's Stanmore (1849). Pugin disapproved of sham castles, but at Ruthin
Clutton's gestures to the genre consist only of battlements and a grand
octagonal tower in the manner of Caernarfon. Otherwise the house is in a
style described by the Builder as "Henry VII adapted to the needs of the 19th
century." The entrance front is especially striking: it has a canted oriel
on each corner, and a shallow oriel in the center, with the main entrance
placed asymmetrically.
Plenty of blank wall offsets these features. H. R. Hitchcock (in 'Early
Victorian Architecture') describes this front as "an original composition
based on principles of abstract order and consonant geometrical forms,"
looking forward to High Victorian design. Clutton also added red stone trim
to the surviving parts of the 1826 house, including a clock stage on top of
an octagonal turret. Inside, the decoration was by "Mr. Creeses of London"
(probably J. G. Crace). Elaborately Gothic chimneypieces, door-cases, and
ceilings survive, but the original colouring, gilding, and wallpapers have
gone.
F. R. West's grandson, George Cornwallis-West, after fighting in the Boer
War, married successively Lady Randolph Churchill (mother of Sir Winston),
Mrs. Patrick Campbell, and Mrs. Georgette Hirsch. His sisters became
Princess of Pless and Duchess of Westminster. It was he who sold the Castle
in 1921, after which it became a luxury clinic. It is now a hotel, and was
among the first establishments to offer "medieval banquets."
The finest Victorian house in the Vale, up at the northern end, between
Rhuddlan and Dyserth, is Bodrhyddan, which was built in 1696-1700, but
splendidly enlarged in 1872-73 by W. E. Nesfield. It will be described in a
later article in Country Life by Clive Aslet.
Dear Cousins,
Richard Williams-Ellis sent me a copy of a wonderful article that appeared in
Country Life magazine in December 1977. It is entitled, 'Country Houses in
the Vale of Clwyd.' St. Asaph, Denbigh, and Ruthin are all in the Vale of
Clwyd so the article mentions Bach-y-Graig, Plas Clough, Brynbella, and other
notable houses in the Vale. The article also mentions some of the
individuals you have read about in the Denbighshire History information I
sent to the list.
Although the article is long it is enjoyable and informative to read. I will
send it in a following e-mail to the list and hopefully it will spark your
desire to see some of the houses mentioned.
Best Wishes to All,
Sheila
'Grandmother Salesbury':
A Stuart family saga
Elizabeth Thelwall was the widow of Charles Salesbury of Bachymbyd, Colonel
William's younger son. In a portrait of her later in life is seen her
grandchildren, offspring of her daughter Jane and Sir Walter Bagot, third
baronet of Blithfield in Staffordshire. The story behind the charming scene
in the portrait, however, might have inspired a Jane Austen novel, or even a
modern 'soap.'
Its beginnings stemmed from the 'wilfullness' of Old Blue Stockings himself.
Infuriated by his eldest son Owen - who had not only fought on the 'wrong'
side in the Civil War but secretly married without his consent - the Colonel
partially disinherited him, bequeathing Bachymbyd and the majority of his
estates instead to his younger, Royalist, and more obedient son Charles.
Jane, only surviving child of Charles and Elizabeth was thus a considerable
and much pursued heiress.
According to family tradition, young Walter Bagot met Jane - and loved her at
first sight - when his spaniel strayed onto her land. But Stuart heiresses
could not marry merely for love, and nearly a year of hard business
negotiations about a marriage settlement followed between Walter's father Sir
Edward and Jane's uncle, Elizabeth's brother, Eubule Thelwall. Rival suitors
- including a widower Earl and 'Mr. Lewis of Glamorgan, with a great estate'
- clouded the issue, and Elizabeth remained suspicious not only of Bagot but
also of her own brother Eubule, 'and perhaps of every man.' Then Jane's
cousin William - son of the disinherited Owen - dropped a bombshell. Jane,
he declared, was not an heiress at all. Her estates were rightfully his.
The couple were nevertheless married in July 1670 - in great secrecy since
William's 'loose relations, in their cups,' were threatening to kidnap the
bridegroom on his way to the ceremony. Then William, increasingly desperate,
'discovered' a deed 'proving' his rights - which turned out to be a forgery
produced by a gang of London highwaymen. Only with William's death in 1677
was the matter settled and 'old Mrs. Salesbury' - long reconciled to the
marriage - came to stay with the couple. Perhaps the family group celebrates
this happy ending. Certainly 'Grandmother Salesbury' is still remembered
affectionately in the Bagot family for her Denbighshire hospitality:
'Grandmother Salesbury
Lived at Bachymbyd
Kept a good table
Better than some did.'
Places to Visit
Bachymbyd, rebuilt in 1666, is a private residence. But charmingly carved
Elizabethan panels from Old Bachymbyd - Colonel Salesbury's house - can be
seen around the altar of nearby Llanynys church, which is also well worth a
visit for its striking medieval wall painting, monuments, and other notable
features.
'Old Blue Stockings':
Colonel William Salesbury (1580 - 1660)
The face which stares squarely from William Salesbury's portrait leaves no
doubt that he was, as an opponent complained, 'A very wilfull man.' When it
was painted in 1632 he had already led a full and active life, serving during
his twenties as a privateer in the West Indies aboard the 'Barque Wylloby.'
He returned to unexpectedly inherit his family estates around Bachymbyd
(between Ruthin and Llanrhaeadr) and Rug, near Corwen. He found them run
down and in debt - even the mansions were mortgaged - and it took him thirty
years of hard work and frugal living to recover them.
A plain man, as his countrified clothes and his nickname 'Old Blue Stockings'
declared, he was sustained by the devout piety proclaimed in the portrait's
Welsh motto: 'A vynno dew dervid' - 'What God wills shall come to pass.' His
few leisure hours were spent in writing religious verse, and among his first
actions after recovering Rug was to build the lovely and virtually unaltered
chapel still to be seen there.
But the greatest test of Salesbury's 'wilfullness' was still to come when the
portrait was painted. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1642, although by
then into his sixties, he took command of Denbigh Castle - which he had
repaired at his own expense - for King Charles I. There he received the King
in 1645, treating him to two hours of 'plain speaking' which made Charles
ruefully remark, 'Never did a prince hear so much truth at once.' And there,
between April and September 1646, he held off a much superior force of
Parliamentarian attackers in an epic six month siege.
With 'hearts as hard as the very foundations of the castle, being an
unpierceable rock,' Salesbury and his garrison defied cannon bombardments,
attempts to cut off their water supply, and polite but increasingly
exasperated demands for surrender. Only when he received a direct royal
command did 'Old Blue Stockings' at last march out with the honors of war,
from one of the very last fortresses in Britain to hold out for the King.
Places to Visit
Rug Chapel commissioned by 'Old Blue Stockings' in 1637.
Dear Cousins,
My initial thought for next years trip was to have everyone meet in Boston so
that we could become a cohesive group before leaving the US. That way we
would be able to have our bus pick us up from the airport. We could then
head up to Oxford/Chester where we would stay the night. This would bring us
closer to Wales so we wouldn't have as far to travel the next day to our
northern Wales destination. It would also mean that we would be able to do
some sightseeing the day we arrive as well as the next day as we drove into
Wales. However, this scenario means everyone not living near Boston will
have to purchase additional roundtrip airfare to and from Boston.
Some family members have expressed their desire to purchase roundtrip airfare
to and from London from where they live and meet the group in London. This
will probably be a cheaper way to fly. This scenario is possible but it will
mean that we would have to stay in London (or the outskirts) that first night
and everyone would have to find their way to our hotel from the airport.
Why would we have to stay in London the first night? In order to have a
meeting place (our hotel); and, if anyone is delayed by a day do to airline
difficulties of any sort they would be able to leave a message with the hotel
to let me know.
Why would everyone have to find their way to our hotel? Because different
airlines land at different London airports and everyone would be arriving at
different times.
I am willing to arrange the trip around either scenario but I need to know
which scenario the majority of trip members prefer - this will affect the
dates I need to get hotel reservations for.
Please contact me about what your preferences are in this matter so that I
may firm up hotel reservations for September dates.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me via e-mail
(TouringBritain(a)aol.com) or phone (860-651-0745). Sometimes it is easier to
explain things over the phone so please don't hesitate to call if you would
like to speak with me. :-)
Best Wishes to All,
Sheila
Dear Cousins,
You may be wondering why I need to make hotel reservations this early. The
reason is that we may have a large group. I am holding space for 30 people
and if we have 30 people on the trip we will need 15 rooms where ever we
stay. In order to get reservations for 15 rooms at a place like Portmeirion
we need to make the reservations a year in advance.
In order to assure that we have at least one night to stay at Portmeirion I
called the General Manager this morning. I have reserved all the necessary
rooms for 3 nights. If it turns out the majority of trip members do not wish
to stay at Portmeirion then the reservations can be canceled - it is MUCH
easier to cancel reservations than to try and get reservations for a large
group later. Once we figure out which date(s) we would like to stay at
Portmeirion (if at all) then I can cancel the extra date(s).
For those interested in joining the trip that have not yet contacted me with
your preferences please contact soon.
Best Wishes to All,
Sheila
Dear Cousins,
Just received word from England that Dr. Sykes will be happy to meet with the
group at Portmeirion next year! What a treat! :-)
I have now heard from a total of 7 interested trip members and the consensus
so far is to stay at least one night at Portmeirion. Please let me hear from
additional trip members.
Best Wishes to All,
Sheila
Dear Cousins,
The best price we can get for a stay at Portmeirion is £90 per person per
night including breakfast and dinner. Depending on the exchange rate that
works out to around $135 - $150 per person per night. Obviously at that rate
we will not stay at Portmeirion for the duration of our time in Wales.
However, we can stay there for a night or two if the majority of interested
group members wish to do so.
I have heard from 6 trip members that are interested in staying a night or
two at Portmeirion at those prices but I need to hear from more interested
trip members regarding a possible stay so that I may give Portmeirion an
answer. If you have not already contacted me regarding this, please e-mail
me privately (TouringBritain(a)aol.com) about your feelings on staying at
Portmeirion for a night or two ASAP.
Best Wishes to All,
Sheila