y
preserved, since the Middle Ages. Parts of it have stood for six
centuries. In the upper portion of the Vale of Towy is the Golden Grove,
a seat of the Earl of Cawdor, a modern Elizabethan structure. Here lived
Jeremy Taylor, having taken refuge there in the Civil War, and he here
wrote some of his greatest works.

Beyond Caermarthenshire is Pembrokeshire, forming the western extremity
of the Welsh peninsula. The river Cleddan, flowing south-westward,
broadens at its mouth into the estuary known as Milford Haven. It
receives a western branch, on the side of which is the county-town,
Haverfordwest, placed on a hill where the De Clares founded a castle, of
which little now remains but the keep, used (as so many of them now are)
as the county-jail. Cromwell demolished this castle after it fell into
his hands. The great promontory of St. David's Head juts out into the
sea sixteen miles to the westward. The Cleddan flows down between the
towns of Pembroke and Milford. The ruins of Pembroke Castle upon a high
rock disclose an enormous circular keep, seventy-five feet high and one
hundred and sixty-three feet in circumference. It was begun in the
eleventh century, and was the birthplace of Henry VII. in 1456. Here
Cromwell was repulsed in 1648, but the fortress was secured for the
Parliament after six weeks' siege. The garrison were reduced to great
straits, but were only subdued by the skilful use of artillery in
battering down the stairway leading to the well where they got their
water: the spring that supplied them is still there. Pembroke has
extensive trade, and its shipbuilding dockyard covers eighty acres.
Opposite this dockyard is Milford, the harbor being a mile and a half
wide. The railway from London runs down to the pier, and passengers are
transferred to steamers for Ireland, this being the terminus of the
Great Western Railway route, two hundred and eighty-five miles from the
metropolis. Milford Haven, at which we close this descriptive journey,
stretches for ten miles inland from the sea, varying from one to two
miles in breadth, affords ample anchorage, and is strongly fortified.
The ancient Pictou Castle guards the junction of the two branches of the
Cleddan above Milford, while Carew Castle stands on a creek entering
Milford Haven on the south-eastern shore, and is an august though ruined
relic of the baronial splendors of the Middle Ages. It well represents
the condition of most of the seacoast castles in