oswestry to ruabon. ii3 



Chirk Castie 



l*s about a mile and a half from the village. This 

 building, like that of Powys, flill retains a mixture 

 of the caflle and manfion. It ftands in an open 

 fituation, on the fummit of a confiderable eminence^ 

 which commands an extenfive view, into fcventeen 

 different counties. On the exterior it retains much 

 of its primitive afped:. It is a quadrangular flruc- 

 tUre, having five towers, one at each corner, and 

 the fifth for the gateway, in front. The entrance is 

 into a fpacious court yard, a hundred and fixty feet 

 long, and a hundred broad ; and on the eaft fide of 

 this there is a handfonie colonade. The principal 

 apartments are a faloon, a drawing-room, and gal- 

 lery ; in the latter of which there is a large colledion 

 of paintings, confiding, however, almofi: entirely of 

 family portraits. 



In a room adjoining to the gallery I obferved a 

 fingular landfcape, in which Pi/iyll Rhaiadr, the 

 waterfall in Montgomery (hire. Is reprefented as fal- 

 ling into the fea. I aiked the caufe of this ftrange 

 impropriety, and was informed that the painter was 

 a foreign artifl ; he had been employed by one of 

 the Middletons to take a view of that cataraiTl, and 

 when the piece was neai'ly finifhed, it was hinted 

 that a ie\N Jheep, fcattered in different parts, would 

 probably add to its beauty. The painter miflook 

 the fuggeftion, and nettled that a perfon whom he 

 judged ignorant of the art fliould prefume to inftru6t 



VOL. lu I him. 



