"Aberglasney is situated in a hollow between two hills, namely Grongar Hill and Banc y Berllan, in the Parish of Llangathen, Carmarthenshire. The present derelict house incorporates portions of a mansion, which was known to have been constructed on this site by the Bishop Rudd of St. David's (1593-1614).

At an earlier time there was a large house on the same location, this was known as Llys Wen, and was at one time the home of Sir William Thomas an Adjutant to the King in Tudor times. Bishop Rudd had built his mansion at Aberglasney in 1603 after demolishing the earlier house that stood on the site.

Aberglasney once displayed all that was embodied in Georgian 'good taste'. It had a good fenestration of windows designed to Euclid's basic square, and cube ratios of proportionality as found in Classical Greek Architecture. The Georgian style was never static, and this was also the case at Aberglasney, where the constructional changes by the various owners over the years had generally enhanced the place before it fell into dereliction.

This could be seen in particular where a portico in the Neo Classical style had been added in Victorian times. The portico led to a central oak panelled front hall with adjoining rooms, which in turn gave vistas of the gardens, the terrace and the lake

In addition to the architecture, the interior design and furnishing of mansions saw great changes in the decorative arts, and Aberglasney was no exception in this trend. For example, the Phillips Family added a stained glass window in the Front Hall in the Victorian era. In 1603, Aberglasney was described as a commodious house of thirty hearths, with two floors and a water-cooled cellar. Between the Wars, the eclectic changes in interior styles of furnishings were self-evident. Whilst the Front Hall's walls were oak panelled, other rooms were wall papered with various decorative patterns as had been developed by the Victorian block printing techniques.

During the early 1900's, decorative marble and carved wooden cornices were also evident, and standing out above all the rest, were the white plaster mouldings, seen above the fireplaces and alongside the landings, corridors and staircase walls. These mouldings were replicas of Nash and Adam architectural patterns, and depicted classical swags, acanthus leaves, anthemions and palmette fan foliage.

In later years, many of the above ornamental mouldings were chiselled from the walls and stolen. However, in their hey-day, when seen against the backdrop of the oriental inspired wallpapers depicting sprigs and flowers, they were a vision of splendour.

In the 1970's Sir Roy Strong was Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum and he brought to the fore his concern for the lost heritage of the British Isles. He arranged a travelling exhibition which displayed many grand houses in their hey day. I visited this exhibition in Swansea there I saw a picture of Aberglasney. It was regarded by many as the most handsome country house on display."

Idris Davies