Powisland was in possession of Madoc ap Gruffydd in 1270; and when he died in that year he left the dominion to his four sons. The eldest of these himself died soon afterwards, and his share of the patrimony descended to his two infant sons, who became the wards of Earl Warren and Roger Mortimer. The guardians proved treacherous, and drowned both the children in the river, near where the bridge now stands. Edward I., without concerning himself about the death of the Welsh princes, then granted the lord, ship of Bromfield (which included Holt) to Earl Warren, who straightway began to build Holt Castle, but died before the erection was completed.

About half a century later-namely, in 1347-the castle came into possession of the Earl of Arundel. In 1377 it reverted to the Crown upon the execution of Earl Richard, but was afterwards restored to the family. During an expedition of Richard II. to Ireland in 1394, that king left a great deal of treasure in Holt Castle for safe keeping.

paired and altered the building at very great expense. On the subsequent attainder of Sir William for high treason, the king resumed the lordship, and confiscated to his own use the jewels, plate, and money found within the castle, they being valued at more than £40,000. This treasure was said to have been the spoils of Bosworth Field. The real estate belonging to Sir William, and also confiscated, was valued at £3,000 a year. In 1535 Henry VIII. granted the castle and lordship to his illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy; but this lad died at the age of seventeen, and the property again reverted to the Crown. During the reign of Edward VI., the lordship and castle were held by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Protector, Somerset), Lord Admiral, who collected here a large magazine of stores and ammunition. His ambitious projects, whatever they may have aimed at, were stopped by a charge of high treason, of which being found guilty, he was beheaded on Tower Hill.

Once more the castle reverted to the Crown, and was held by King Charles in 1643, when it was wrested from him by the Parliamentarians, and, like the Castles of Chirk and Powis, was re-taken, and again besieged. The governor at this time was Sir Richard Lloyd, who defended Holt Castle for more than a month, the Parliamentarians being commanded by Major-General Mytton. After a very gallant defence, Sir Richard

secured honourable terms of capitulation; but it was during this holding of the castle that the Royalists burnt forty houses in the town, the burgesses of Holt being much in favour of the Parliamentarians. The castle was subsequently dismantled by order of the Parliament; and in 1742 only a few fragments of the walls were left.

Nearer than Chester to this old-world township of Holt is Wrexham; and Wrexham must be noticed here, if we would not leave it behind and forgotten. It is three miles away to the south-west, in Denbighshire, is a borough sending one burgess

to Parliament, is likewise a market-town with large streets crossing at right-angles, and busies itself chiefly in paper, flannel, corn, coal, iron, and lead. Most notably it has a church, formerly collegiate, and in all respects a very remarkable edifice. Gossips who ignore the nil admirari doctrine, and who mix their marvels indiscriminately, account the steeple of Wrexham Church one of the "Seven Wonders of Wales," whereof the other six are-Snowdon; St. Winifred's Well; the circle of ancient yews in Overton Churchyard, already mentioned; the wild and beautiful cascade of Pistyll Rhaiadr, in the Berwyn mountains; the bells of Gresford; and Bishop Trevor's Bridge at Llangollen.

Wrexham Church was built about 1472, on the site of a much older building, which was burnt to the ground in 1457. The steeple, however, so much admired by Venedocians, was not finished till 1506. Very few churches built in the reign of the seventh

Henry can vie with this of Wrexham. The tower is embellished with statues of thirty saints, placed in niches of the buttresses, amongst the figures being St. Giles, to whom the church is dedicated. He has by his side the hind which, according to the old Church legend, miraculously supported him in the desert during a grievous famine. In the church there is a great deal that is worthy notice, beginning with an ancient statue of a mail-clad knight which, having been found among rubbish in the churchyard, has been placed within the porch. On an altar-shaped monument in the chancel lies a full-robed figure representing Hugh Bellot, Bishop of Bangor and afterwards of Chester, a famed linguist, who took part in the translation of the Scriptures, and who died near Wrexham in 1596. Two monuments of the Myddelton family are by Roubiliac. One is a medallion exhibiting two profile portraits, in high relief, of the Rev. Thomas Myddelton and Arabella Hacker, his wife. The other is to the memory of Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Myddelton, of Chirk Castle. She is represented rising from the tomb in the fulness of youth and beauty. The exquisite skill and the delicacy of pathos brought by the French sculptor to works of this character will be recalled by those who have seen the striking monument, in Westminster Abbey, of a young wife, whose husband vainly interposes to shield her from the dart of Death. The bells of Wrexham Church are scarcely less melodious than the peal in the belfry of Gresford, which was built about the same time.

In the old vicarage house of Wrexham, the good Bishop Heber's missionary hymn, "From Greenland's icy mountains," was written; and another and very different memory -as different, indeed, as darkness is from light-is associated with the neighbourhood, the wretch whom history gibbets as Judge Jeffreys having been born within a mile of the town.

Eaton Hall, one of the princely seats of the Duke of Westminster, is passed on the course of the Dee to the sandy estuary beyond the ancient city. The present magnificent edifice has been erected on the site of the stately old brick mansion built by Sir John Vanbrugh, and also upon ground of far wider area than that occupied by the original structure. Indeed, Eaton Hall is unquestionably the most spacious and splendid example of revived Gothic architecture in England or the world. The grounds by which it is surrounded are fittingly beautiful; though the park of 860 acres, entered by as many as six different lodges, is somewhat flat. The stateliness of Eaton Hall has been the growth of years, additions being in progress even down to the present time. The large Gothic building, which was erected from the designs of Porden, early in this century, has given place to the sumptuous and elegant example of modern "domestic Gothic" which we now behold. The readiest access to the park from Chester is at the Grosvenor Gateway, an edifice copied from St. Augustine's Gate at Canterbury. Well wooded, but deficient of old or full-grown trees, the level park is a pleasant, if not an especially picturesque resort; and it affords here and there a good out-look across large tracts of country towards Beeston Castle and the Clwydian hills. Adjacent to the park is the beautiful modern village of Chester, which is wholly the property of the duke, and is maintained by him in a state of exemplary neatness. Every house is a model dwelling, clothed in woodbine or choice evergreen, and adorned with a small, sweet-smelling garden.

The chief object of attraction in Eccleston is the church, a modern structure of red