Читать книгу The Cambrian Tourist, or, Post-Chaise Companion through Wales: 1834 онлайн

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The large banqueting hall divides the two courts; it still retains the arms of the Marquis of Worcester, with the motto “Mutare vel timere sperno.”

During the civil wars, Henry, first Marquis of Worcester, several times afforded a refuge to Charles the First, but at length, when that monarch’s fortune was past retrieving, Ragland Castle, after having been various times summoned by detachments of the Parliamentary forces, was regularly invested and taken by Sir Thomas Fairfax; a window is still shewn through which a girl in the garrison, by waving a handkerchief, introduced his troops. The aged marquis was sent prisoner to London, where he died in the 85th year of his age, and his property having been confiscated, and the castle dismantled, it became a prey to his own tenantry, who pulled it down for the sake of the materials, but more particularly for the staircases, of which they removed above twenty.

At the Restoration, this, with other estates, was restored to the family, but in such a state of ruin, that being considered unworthy their repairing, it was left as an object of pillage to the vicinity, which it has but lately, since its ruins have become venerable, ceased from being. It appertains to the noble house of Beaufort.