But when James, Earl of Derby, was beheaded, after
the battle of Worcester, in 1651, the estate was purchased under the
Sequestration Act by Sergeant Glynne, whose portrait hangs over the
mantleshelf of the drawing-room; 'but,' says Mrs. Gladstone, in calling
our attention to it, 'he is an ancestor of whom we have no occasion to
be and are not proud.'"
This remark of Mrs. Gladstone's may be explained by the following from
the pen of a reputable author: "Sergeant Glynne, who flourished
(literally flourished) during the seventeenth century, was a most
unscrupulous man in those troubled times. He was at first a supporter of
Charles I, then got office and preferment under Cromwell, and yet again,
like a veritable Vicar of Bray, became a Royalist on the return of
Charles II. The Earl of Derby, who was taken prisoner at the battle of
Worcester, in 1661, was executed, and his estates forfeited. Of these
estates Sergeant Glynne managed to get possession of Hawarden; and
though on the Restoration all Royalists' forfeited estates were ordered
to be restored, Glynne managed somehow to remain in possession of the
property."
[Illustration: WATERFALL IN HAWARDEN PARK.]
It is very probable that Hawarden Castle was no exception to those cruel
haunts of feudal tyranny and oppression belonging to the days of its
power.
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