The Hawarden Visitors Hand-Book | Page 6

summons to surrender,
which gave occasion to a correspondence, followed by a further and
more peremptory summons from Captain Thomas Sandford, which ran
as follows:--
Gentlemen: I presume you very well know or have heard of my

condition and disposition; and that I neither give nor take quarter. I am
now with my Firelocks (who never yet neglected opportunity to correct
rebels) ready to use you as I have done the Irish; but loth I am to spill
my countrymen's blood: wherefore by these I advise you to your fealty
and obedience towards his Majesty; and show yourselves faithful
subjects, by delivering the Castle into my hands for His Majesty's
use--otherwise if you put me to the least trouble or loss of blood to
force you, expect no quarter for man woman or child. I hear you have
some of our late Irish army in your company: they very well know me
and that my Firelocks use not to parley. Be not unadvised, but think of
your liberty, for I vow all hopes of relief are taken from you; and our
intents are not to starve you but to batter and storm you and then hang
you all, and follow the rest of that rebellious crewe. I am no
bread-and-cheese rogue, but as ever a Loyalist, and will ever be while I
can write or name
THOMAS SANDFORD, Nov, 28, 1643. Captain of Firelocks.
I expect your speedy answer this Tuesday night at Broadlane Hall,
where I am now, your near neighbour.
Reinforcements having arrived from Chester, this was followed by a
brisk attack on the 3rd December, whereupon the garrison being short
of provisions, a white flag was hung out from the walls, and the Castle
surrendered on the following day to Sir Michael Emley. It was held by
the Royalists for two years, but after the surrender of Chester, in Feb.
1646, Sir William Neal, the governor, capitulated (after receiving the
King's sanction--then at Oxford--) to Major-General Mytton after a
month's siege. It was probably during these operations that the
specimens of stone and iron cannon balls still remaining were used.
An entry in the Commons' Journals refers to this last event, dated 16th
March, 1645.
Ordered: That Mr. Fogge the Minister shall have the sum of 50 pounds
bestowed upon him for his pains in bringing the good news of the
taking of the Castle of Hawarden; and that the Committee of Lords and
Commons for advance of Moneys at Haberdashers' Hall do pay the

same accordingly.
The Lords' concurrence to be desired herein.
In the following year there is an Order "That the Castles of Hawarden,
Flint, and Ruthland be disgarrisoned and demolished, all but a tower in
Flint Castle, to be reserved for a gaol for the County"; and a
confirmation of it follows in the next year, dated 19th July, 1647.
These orders were no doubt forthwith executed, and of Flint and
Rhuddlan little now remains. At Hawarden gunpowder has been used
to blow up portions of the Keep. Sir William Glynne, son of the Chief
Justice, twenty or thirty years later, carried further the work of
destruction. Sir John Glynne, too, is said to have made free with the
materials of the Castle, and certain it is that a vast amount has been
carted away and used up in walls and for other purposes. His successors,
however, have done their utmost to make amends for these ravages, and
to preserve the ruins from further injury. The entrance and the winding
stair by which the visitor mounts to the top of the Keep are a restoration
skilfully effected not long ago under the direction of Mr. Shaw of
Saddleworth. The view embraces a wide range of country, North, East,
and South, extending from Liverpool to the Wrekin: on the West it is
bounded by Moel Fammau or Queen Mountain, on the summit of
which is seen the remnant of the fallen obelisk raised to commemorate
the 50th year of the reign of George III. Round about lie the Woods and
the Park, presenting a happy mixture of wild and pastoral beauty; while
close beneath the Old stands the New Castle, affecting in its turreted
outline some degree of congruity with its prototype, but much more
contrasting with it in its home-like air, and the luxury of its lawns and
flower-beds.
Not less striking is the view of the Ruins from below. Here judgment
and taste have combined with great natural advantages of position to
produce an exceedingly picturesque effect. From the flower garden a
wide sweep of lawn, flanked by majestic oaks and beeches, carries the
eye up to the foot-bridge crossing the moat, thence to the ivy-mantled
walls which overhang it, and upward again to the flag-topt tower that
crowns the height. Clusters of ivy,