into possession, and they entertained within its walls Henry VII in the
latter part of the fifteenth century. During the Parliamentary wars it
was held at first for the Parliament, and was taken by siege in 1643.
The royalists were in possession two years later, and at Christmas time,
in 1645, Parliament ordered that the Castle be dismantled, which was
effectively done. The latest proprietor of those times was James, Earl
of Derby. He was executed and the estates were sold. They were purchased
by Sergeant Glynne, Lord Chief Justice of England under Cromwell, from
whom in a long line of descent they were inherited, upon the death of
the last baronet, Sir Stephen Glynne, in 1874, by the wife of William E.
Gladstone. Sergeant Glynne's son, Sir William, the first baronet, when
he came into possession, was seized with the unaccountable notion of
further destroying the old Castle, and by the end of the seventeenth
century very little remained beyond what stands to-day.

[Illustration: A GLIMPSE OF THE CASTLE FROM THE PARK.]

Hawarden is supposed to be synonymous with the word Burg-Ardden, Ardin,
a fortified mound or hill. It is usually supposed to be an English word,
but of Welsh derivation, and is no doubt related to dinas, in Welsh the
exact equivalent to the Saxon _burg_. The Welsh still call it Penarlas,
a word the etymology of which points to a period when the lowlands of
Saltney were under water, and the Castle looked over a lake. The
earlier history of the Castle goes back to the time when it was held by
the ancient Britons, and stood firm against Saxon, Dane, or whatever
invading foe sought to deprive the people of their heritage in the
soil. On the invasion of William, as we have seen, it was in the
possession of Edwin, sovereign of Deira. "We find it afterwards," says
another account, "in the possession of Roger Fitzvalarine, a son of one
of the adventurers who came over with the Conqueror. Then it was held,