wing commerce,
acquired a vast fortune, and was Lord Mayor of London. In the time of
the great civil war it hoisted the banner of the king, and under Sir
Thomas, the son of the Lord Mayor, made a brave defence against Lambert,
the Parliamentary General, though eventually compelled to surrender. It
was held successively by four Sir Thomas Middletons, and if it acquired a
war-like celebrity under the second, it obtained a peculiarly hospitable
one under the fourth, whose daughter, the fruit of a second marriage,
became Countess of Warwick and eventually the wife of the poet and
moralist Addison. In his time the hospitality of Chirk became the theme
of many a bard, particularly of Huw Morris, who, in one of his songs, has
gone so far as to say that were the hill Cefn Uchaf turned into beef and
bread, and the rill Ceiriog into beer or wine, they would be consumed in
half a year by the hospitality of Chirk. Though no longer in the hands
of one of the name of Middleton, Chirk Castle is still possessed by one
of the blood, the mother of the present proprietor being the eldest of
three sisters, lineal descendants of the Lord Mayor, between whom in
default of an heir male the wide possessions of the Middleton family were
divided. This gentleman, who bears the name of Biddulph, is Lord
Lieutenant of the county of Denbigh, and notwithstanding his
war-breathing name, which is Gothic, and signifies Wolf of Battle, is a
person of highly amiable disposition, and one who takes great interest in
the propagation of the Gospel of peace and love.

To view this place, which, though in English called Chirk Castle, is
styled in Welsh Castell y Waen, or the Castle of the Meadow, we started
on foot about ten o'clock of a fine bright morning, attended by John
Jones. There are two roads from Llangollen to Chirk, one the low or post
road, and the other leading over the Berwyn. We chose the latter. We
passed by the Yew Cottage, which I have described on a former occasion,
and began to ascend the mountain, making towards its north-eastern
corner. The road at first was easy enough, but higher up became very
steep, and somewhat appalling, being cut out of the side of the hill
which shelves precipitously down towards the valley of the Dee. Near the
top of the mountain were three lofty beech-trees growing on the very
verge of the precipice. Here the road for about twenty yards is fenced
on its dangerous side by a wall, parts of which are built