he 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, and foliage here and there intervening, serve
to soften and beautify the mouldering remains. The scene brings to our
minds the words of the poet--

"The old order changeth, yielding place to new";

and, conscious as we may be that society in our day has its dangers and
disorders of a different and more insidious kind, we are thankful that
our lot is not cast in the harsh and troublous times of our history. All
around us the former scenes of rapine and violence are changed to
fertility and peace. The Old Castle serves well to illustrate the
contrast. Its hugely solid walls, reared 600 years ago with so much
pains and skill to repel the invader and to overawe the lawless, have
played their part, and are themselves abandoned to solitude and decay.
Within the arches which once echoed to the clang of arms the owls have
their home; while the rooks from the tree-tops around seem to chant the
_requiem_ of the past.

{Ruins of Old Castle: p21.jpg}

The Church.

{The Church: p22.jpg}

Hawarden Church, with its large graveyard attached, finely situated
overlooking the estuary of the Dee, is supposed to have been built about
A.D. 1275, and has much solidity and dignity of structure. The patron
saint is S. Deiniol, founder of the Collegiate monastery at Bangor, and
about A.D. 550 made first Bishop of that See