CHAPTER XI. PEMBROKE STACKPOLE COURT-ST. GOVAN'S-CAREW CASTLE, ETC. AND this was once the stately home Of pleasant festival; Where gallant lords and ladies shone, And knights in glittering mail; The Feast of Shells" here brought the throng, To revel and wassail. The pomp and splendour have no sway In this deserted scene, Yet still the vanished leaves a ray, To tell of what has been ; And now the spirit of decay The Highland Castle. UPON a bold rocky eminence that projects into the estuary of Milford Haven stand the frowning ruins of Pembroke Castle, the most extensive and magnificent, perhaps, as well as varied, of which the Principality can boast. Its grand imposing outline, with its numerous sides, bastions, and projections, incorporated, as they are, with precipitous and picturesque masses of rock, acquires bolder relief from the lofty site, and its skilful combination of old Norman architecture with the Gothic. The tower which overlooks the water, the entrance from the town, and the round tower, are all that remain in tolerable preservation. It was divided into an inner and outer ward, in the former of which was the keep with the state apartments, formerly occupied, it is thought, by the Countess of Richmond; in the latter are the different offices for the use of the garrison. From this ward the town was entered by a gateway defended by a semicircular barbican, and a dry ditch cut out of the solid rock. Connected with this part of the fortress is the "chambre where King Henry VII. was born," which old Leland describes as having "a chymmeney" containing the arms and badges of that monarch. In the basement story of this suite was the door that opened into the staircase leading to "the marvellus vault caullid the Hogan;" but it is now approached by a path carried along the verge of the castle rock. In Elizabeth's time this place is described as containing a copious spring of fine fresh water, but it is now choaked up. This fortress, the chroniclers relate, was built by Arnulph de Montgomery in the time of Henry II, and on the disgrace of the Norman, passed into the hands of Gerald de Windsor, the King's lieutenant in those parts, on his marriage with Nest, sister of the reigning Welsh prince. The history of this lady forms an episode in the national annals. The report of her beauty and endowments inflamed the curiosity of the son of Cadwgan, Prince of Powys, a youth of reckless courage and profligate manners. Under the pretext of a friendly visit he was admitted into the castle, and became deeply enamoured of her. He returned home, but only to assemble a party of his "rake-hell companions," and on that same night secretly obtained entrance into the castle, and forcibly carried off this Helen of Wales. The seducer paid dearly for his violation of the marriage sanctities, and was slain a few years afterwards by an arrow from the enraged husband. The ruins are seen, perhaps, to greatest advantage when approaching the place by water from Pennar Mouth. |