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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:13:08 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:13:08 -0700 |
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diff --git a/39590-h/39590-h.htm b/39590-h/39590-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d821516 --- /dev/null +++ b/39590-h/39590-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4171 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Some Account of Llangollen and its Vicinity, by W. T. Simpson</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Some Account of Llangollen and its Vicinity, +by W. T. Simpson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Some Account of Llangollen and its Vicinity + + +Author: W. T. Simpson + + + +Release Date: May 1, 2012 [eBook #39590] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME ACCOUNT OF LLANGOLLEN AND ITS +VICINITY*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1827 G. B. Whittaker edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>SOME ACCOUNT<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">OF</span><br /> +LLANGOLLEN<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">AND</span><br /> +Its Vicinity;<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">INCLUDING A</span><br /> +CIRCUIT OF ABOUT SEVEN MILES.</h1> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">Dedicated, by Permission,</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">TO THE RIGHT +HON. LADY ELEANOR BUTLER, AND</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">MISS PONSONBY.</span></p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">BY W. T. SIMPSON.</p> +<div class="gapshortdoubleline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">LONDON:<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">G. B. WHITTAKER, AVE MARIA LANE.</span><br +/> +<span class="GutSmall">T. AND W. WOOD, BIRMINGHAM;</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS.</span></p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">1827.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><a name="pageiii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. iii</span><span class="GutSmall">TO +THE</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">RIGHT HONOURABLE</span><br /> +LADY ELEANOR BUTLER,<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">AND TO</span><br /> +MISS PONSONBY,<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THIS ACCOUNT OF</span><br /> +Llangollen and its Vicinity<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">IS, BY PERMISSION,</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">MOST HUMBLY DEDICATED,</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">BY THEIR MUCH OBLIGED SERVANT,</span><br +/> +THE AUTHOR.</p> +<h2><a name="pagev"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +v</span>ADVERTISEMENT.</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Fortuitous</span> circumstances having +occasioned me to become an inhabitant of Llangollen, I was +charmed with the beauty of its situation; and the political +importance in which this neighbourhood was formerly held prompted +me to collect a few notices of its local history, which I was +advised by some of my friends to publish. The condescending +politeness of the Ladies of Plas Newydd, in permitting me to +dedicate my Work to them, encouraged me to proceed; and I now +venture to present my little Book to the Public, earnestly hoping +that its defects will not be found such as to render it deserving +of severe criticism, and that it will prove generally useful.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">W. T. S.</p> +<h2><a name="pagevii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +vii</span>CONTENTS.</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">Page</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Aqueduct</span> of Pontcysyllte</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page62">62</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Authorities</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page195">195</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Berwyn Mountains</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page47">47</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Brynkinallt</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page33">33</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Castell Dinas Bran</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page84">84</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Chirk Castle</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page23">23</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>— Village</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page30">30</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Clawdd Offa, or Offa’s Dyke</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page11">11</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Conclusion</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page193">193</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Dee, River</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page137">137</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Glyn Dyfrdwy</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page145">145</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>La Crucis, or Pillar of Eliseg</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page129">129</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Llangollen Town</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page1">1</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>— Church</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page178">178</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>— Bridge</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page143">143</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>— Vicarage</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page77">77</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Llantysilio</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page110">110</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Llys Pengwern</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page78">78</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Plas Newydd</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page188">188</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ruabon, or Rhiwabon</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page12">12</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Subscribers</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page197">197</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Trevor Hall</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page72">72</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Valle Crucis Abbey</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page113">113</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Wynnstay</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page14">14</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +1</span>Llangollen<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">AND</span><br /> +ITS VICINITY.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Here let me still with simple Nature +live,<br /> + My lowly field-flowers on her altar lay;<br /> +Enjoy the blessings that she meant to give,<br /> + And calmly pass my inoffensive day.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> attraction of North Wales, by +its romantic scenery, the antiquity of its language, and the well +authenticated records of its desperate struggle for independence, +renders every part of the Principality interesting, and perhaps +none more so than the beautifully picturesque town and +neighbourhood of Llangollen, which have deservedly excited <a +name="page2"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 2</span>the attention +and admiration of a vast number of strangers and +antiquarians. Nor have the expectations of its numerous +visitors been disappointed; for, though the Alps may raise their +towering summits to a greater height—may embosom in their +dark recesses more ample lakes, and give rise to more magnificent +rivers—yet even they cannot present a more pleasing variety +of scenery, or more picturesque views, than those with which +Llangollen is surrounded.</p> +<p>This small market town is on the border of North Wales, and is +situated in that part of the county of Denbigh which adjoins +Shropshire. It is on the south <a name="citation2"></a><a +href="#footnote2" class="citation">[2]</a> bank of the river Dee, +and the mail road from London to Holyhead passes through the +town. <a name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +3</span>The distance from London to Llangollen is about one +hundred and ninety miles, and from the latter place to Holyhead +seventy-seven miles.</p> +<p>The town consists of one long badly paved street, and a short +cross one, together with some courts and alleys, called squares, +but which at present ill deserve an appellation generally +conveying to the mind an idea of neatness, if not of superiority, +as they are for the most part formed with obscure mean-looking +houses, built of the dark-coloured silicious stone procured from +the rocky bed of the river, and from the surrounding hills. +The houses are seldom more than two stories high, and have a very +sombre appearance, except where the owners have had the good +taste to avail themselves of the lime <a name="page4"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 4</span>which is near at hand, in +rough-casting or plastering the fronts. The difference of +the appearance of the buildings thus finished is so advantageous +that it is to be hoped the plan will be generally adopted.</p> +<p>Increase of population has here the effect which is usually +attributed to it, viz. a manifest improvement in the town. +The last census states the number of houses at 289, and of the +population at 1287; but the inhabitants may at this time (A.D. +1827) be fairly estimated at 1500, and habitations in +proportion. Among the newly-erected houses are some very +neat buildings, at which private lodgings may be obtained, with +every requisite accommodation.</p> +<p>Llangollen has a market on Saturday, and five fairs in the +year, viz. <a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +5</span>on the last Friday in January, the 17th of March, the +31st of May, the 21st of August, and on the 22d of November; at +which, horses, horned cattle, pigs, butter, cheese, &c. are +sold. A market house once stood where the Hand Gardens now +are, and is a convenience much wanted. Besides the London +Mail to Holyhead, which passes through Llangollen every afternoon +at five o’clock, and leaves the letter bags, which it takes +up again about eight o’clock every morning, there are +regular stage coaches passing to and from London and Holyhead +every day. Light vans, for the conveyance of luggage, +&c. pass twice a week from Salop. There are also waggon +conveyances, through Wrexham, to Chester; and boats on a +collateral branch of the Ellesmere Canal, which start at stated +periods for Liverpool, &c.</p> +<p><a name="page6"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 6</span>There are +twelve licensed inns and public houses in this little town, all +of them very respectable; and whether it is owing to superior +management, or to the excellence of the water, which is the most +pure imaginable, and flows abundantly in every part of the town, +the ale brewed in Llangollen is in great and deserved repute all +over the kingdom.</p> +<p>Two principal inns and hotels adorn the town—the Hand +inn, which is in the centre, near the church; and the +King’s Head, at the west end, near the bridge. The +excellent accommodations afforded in both of them are not +surpassed; they are under the best regulations, and abound with +elegance and convenience. Post carriages and horses are +kept at both houses, and the harp resounds in their halls. +The Viceroys of the <a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +7</span>sister kingdom, as well as the nobility, seem to regard +Llangollen as a favourite resting-place, in passing from one +country to the other.</p> +<p>Mountains and hills enclose the town on every side. On +the south, the Berwyn Mountains raise their lofty heads. On +the north, Castell Dinas Bran, vulgarly called Crow Castle, +seated on its conical summit, frowns over the town in ruined +grandeur, and is backed with the vast and wonderful range of +lime-stone, which forms a ridge stratum super stratum, and is +called the Eglwyseg Rocks. A portion of these rocks, with +the little tumulus-like hill of Pen y Coed, forms the eastern +barrier. On the west, the lofty Gerant, <a +name="citation7"></a><a href="#footnote7" +class="citation">[7]</a> or <a name="page8"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 8</span>Moel y Barbwr, with the Bwlch Coedd +Herddyn, and other distant mountains, close the scene.</p> +<p>The sacred Dee, which here foams along its rocky bed, is +crossed by a stone bridge at the western extremity of the town; +the church stands in the centre; and at the east end is Plas +Newydd, the residence of the two highly respected ladies whom +Miss Seward has recorded in song.</p> +<p>Having thus given a brief sketch of Llangollen, embosomed as +it is in a vale where all the beauties of nature seem to +concentre, I shall proceed to retrace and fill up the outline of +the picture, by classing under the <a name="page9"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 9</span>name of each remarkable place its +description, and the particulars of its history, quoting from and +referring to authorities as I proceed; but as, from the varied +scenery and the romantic views with which this neighbourhood +abounds, an attempt to do justice to its several beauties would +be vain, I shall abstain from endeavouring fully to describe what +requires a more nervous hand than mine to paint; leaving to the +reader’s taste full scope to select the scenes most +congenial to his disposition, assuring him, that whether the +dreary waste, over whose vast plains sterility and barrenness +hold eternal sway; or the luxuriance of verdant meads and shady +groves—the sombre haunts of secluded retirement; or the +soul-inspiring gaiety of nature in her most lightsome +mood—be most in unison with his frame of mind, here <a +name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>may be found +solace for the melancholy, amusement for the gay, exercise for +the naturalist, and food for the antiquarian and philosopher.</p> +<p>As a commencement of my proposed tour, I shall now beg my +reader to accompany me on the north side of the Dee, to Clawdd +Offa, or Offa’s Dyke, the ancient boundary of this part of +the Principality.</p> +<h2><a name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 11</span>Clawdd +Offa.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“The best concerted schemes men lay for +fame<br /> +Die fast away.”—</p> +<p>“O lamentable sight! at once<br /> +The labours of whole ages lumber down,<br /> +A hideous and misshapen mass of ruin.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Offa</span> was the eleventh King of +Mercia, and succeeded Ethelbald, A.D. 757. He was born +deaf, lame, and blind. About the year 776, <a +name="citation11a"></a><a href="#footnote11a" +class="citation">[11a]</a> he caused a deep ditch and rampire to +be made across the country, to curb the incursions of the Welch, +beginning at the waters of the Dee, at Basingwerke Abbey, in +Flintshire, to the river Wye, in Herefordshire; <a +name="citation11b"></a><a href="#footnote11b" +class="citation">[11b]</a> or, as some say, to the Severn +sea. <a name="page12"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +12</span>Like the famous wall of China, it is carried over +rivers, rocks, valleys, and mountains, and extends nearly one +hundred miles. <a name="citation12a"></a><a href="#footnote12a" +class="citation">[12a]</a> I intend to commence my +excursion with this ancient Dyke, and pursue it as far as is +consistent with my plan. It runs through the parish of +Ruabon, which is on the west side.</p> +<h2>Ruabon, or Rhiwabon,</h2> +<p>Is a neat pleasant village, about six miles east of +Llangollen. It is surrounded by mines of coal, ironstone, +&c. with which the neighbourhood abounds. One of the +recently formed joint stock companies, denominated the British +Iron Company, is said to have expended on two works in this +neighbourhood £134,952. <a name="citation12b"></a><a +href="#footnote12b" class="citation">[12b]</a> There <a +name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 13</span>are also +other large ironworks, &c. within about two miles of the +town.</p> +<p>The church is dedicated to St. Mary, and is a very respectable +ancient structure. It has an excellent organ, and a pretty +font of white marble, both given by the late Sir W. W. Wynn, +Bart. who has left behind him a character for beneficence that +has been rarely if ever equalled. This is the burial-place +of the highly respected family of Wynnstay; and in the church are +some ancient monumental remembrances, as well as some more +recently erected ones, of Sir W. W. Wynn’s ancestors, well +worthy inspection. Dr. Powel, from whose celebrated +translation of the Chronicle of Caradoc of Llancarvan I have +obtained much information, was Vicar of Ruabon in 1571, and was +buried here. The monumental records <a +name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>of Sir W. W. +Wynn’s family are highly panegyrical; but I cannot in this +small work give copies of the epitaphs, and to record the good +deeds of this excellent family would fill a folio.</p> +<p>Adjoining the town of Ruabon, a road passes into the park, and +to the mansion, of</p> +<h2>Wynnstay,</h2> +<p>The hereditary estate of the ancient and honourable family of +Sir Watkyn Williams Wynn, Bart. A porter resides at a small +house on the left side of the entrance to the park, who admits +all strangers requesting it. A beautiful road leads to the +mansion, and large herds of deer exhibit their graceful forms and +agility among the surrounding trees. Offa’s Dyke runs +through the grounds, which are of <a name="page15"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 15</span>very great extent, well wooded, +tastefully laid out, and kept in nice order. The house is +very extensive, and the stables also capacious. The +premises have acquired their present magnitude by various +additions made at different times by the possessors.</p> +<p>In the eleventh century it was the residence of Madog Gryffydd +Mailor, <a name="citation15a"></a><a href="#footnote15a" +class="citation">[15a]</a> Lord of Bromfield, and of Dinas Bran, +near Llangollen. It was then called Wattstay, from another +old dyke still visible, named Watt’s Dyke; and the space +between that and Offa’s Dyke was a sort of neutral +territory, on which the Welch and Saxons used to traffic with +each other. <a name="citation15b"></a><a href="#footnote15b" +class="citation">[15b]</a> When the noble family of the +Wynns became its possessors, <a name="page16"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 16</span>the original name was changed to +Wynnstay. The house is replete with elegance and +convenience, and is the seat of hospitality as unbounded as the +benevolence of its owner’s heart. Under the auspices +of the late and present noble possessors, both the edifice and +grounds have nearly attained the ne plus ultra of perfection; yet +at this time a vast addition is making to the magnitude of the +park, by changing the direction of the road to Oswestry. In +short, Wynnstay is one of the most beautiful seats, not only in +Wales, but even in the United Kingdom.</p> +<p>In the park stands a fluted freestone column, erected to the +memory of the late Sir W. W. Wynn, Bart. by his mother, who +survived him. The elevation, after a design by Wyatt, is +about one hundred feet, <a name="page17"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 17</span>and is surmounted by a bronze +urn. The base also is of bronze, decorated with eagles and +oak leaves, and bears this inscription:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Filio optimo, mater, eheu! +superstes.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Which may be thus translated:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“A surviving mother, alas! to the best of +sons.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>A spiral staircase runs within the pillar to the top, from +whence is a fine view of the park and grounds.</p> +<p>There are other recently erected decorative buildings on the +domain; one of which, called Waterloo Tower, and built to +commemorate the glorious victory obtained at Waterloo by the Duke +of Wellington, commands a very extensive prospect: on it a flag +is always displayed when Sir Watkyn is at Wynnstay. Another +tower is built on a most beautiful spot on <a +name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 18</span>the bank of +the Dee, called Nant y Bellan, i.e. the Dale of the Martin; and +was erected, as I learn from the Oration in the Ellesmere Report, +p. 24, to the memory of those ancient Britons who fell in +quelling a dangerous rebellion in a neighbouring island, now more +closely united to us. Near this place a boat is kept for +the purpose of crossing the river.</p> +<p>From the old house a road is continued on the rampire of +Offa’s Dyke for nearly two miles, and bears the whimsical +title of Llwybr y Cath, i.e. Cat’s Path, although it is +wide enough for two carriages to pass abreast. The ardent +and inquisitive traveller will find in the interesting domain of +Wynnstay much to examine, much to amuse, and much to admire.</p> +<p><a name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +19</span>Returning through the park to the high road, I crossed +the Dee over a recently erected iron bridge; and entering the +parish of Chirk, I soon regained Offa’s Dyke, the peculiar +features of which plainly distinguish it. The Dyke crosses +the road to London about two hundred yards to the west of +Whitehurst’s new toll gate, and about four miles and a half +from Llangollen. Pursuing the line of the Dyke towards +Chirk Castle, I found in it a number of large and long grey +stones, mossed over, and lying confusedly at the bottom. +They are very remarkable, as there are no quarries in the +neighbourhood, from which such stones could be procured; and as +they all lay in one spot, I conjecture that they have been used +to mark the graves of the slain in the year 1165, when Henry II. +made his first expedition against <a name="page20"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 20</span>North Wales, by way of the Berwyn +Mountains:—“He assembled a large army at Oswelt Tree, +and detached a number of men to try the passes into Wales. +There was a narrow way through the Dyke, near Castell Crogen, now +Chirk Castle; they were set upon by a party of Welchmen, as they +would have passed this strait, and many of them were there slain, +and buried in that ditch; where (says my Author) their graves are +now (i.e. 1697) to be seen.” <a name="citation20"></a><a +href="#footnote20" class="citation">[20]</a></p> +<p>The place was called Adwy’r Beddau, i.e. Pass of the +Graves. There is a field or two near the place still called +Tir a Beddau, i.e. Land, or Field of the Dead. I visited +this place, and found the field under cultivation; and it is +possible that the <a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +21</span>stones may have been removed out of the way of the +plough, to the place where they now lie. On examining an +old survey of Chirk Lordship, I found two or three parcels of +land lying contiguous to each other, and on each side of the +Dyke, at this place, bearing the same name, Tir y Beddau.</p> +<p>From this field of the dead I bent my way along the Dyke, +through bramble, bush, and brier, to the no small disturbance of +its numerous inhabitants, the nimble squirrels, the rabbits, and +the pheasants, springing before me every thirty or forty +yards. At length I arrived at the brink of a sheet of water +called the pool, on which numbers of wild ducks, coots, and other +aquatic birds were disporting. The ditch and rampire +continued through the middle of that pool, and the rampire is +still traceable <a name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +22</span>from the boat house on the opposite side; and running +along the ley in front of Chirk Castle to a wood yard on the west +side of it, it again deepens, and assumes its form. As it +approaches the Ceiriog river, which skirts the south side of the +park, it appears indeed a barrier. I took the depth a +little from the farm or wood yard, and found it about fifty feet, +a little farther on sixty feet, and near its termination at Pont +Melin y Castell, or the Castle Mill, it is about eighty +feet. At this point there is a bridge over the river, up +whose banks, at about half a mile distance, is a farm still +retaining the name of Crogen Isaf, or Lower Crogen.</p> +<p>In the bank of limestone rock below the bridge, and on the +side of the river, is a cavern or subterraneous passage, of +unknown extent, and which I <a name="page23"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 23</span>have not had opportunity to +explore. Above Crogen Isaf, and near a bridge of very +capacious span across the Ceiriog, called Pont Madoc, a powder +mill was about to be erected; but when the work was nearly +completed, the projector became unable to proceed, and it was +discontinued.</p> +<p>Thinking it best not to break the narrative of my progress +along the ancient Dyke, by which I passed so near to the +venerable Castle of Chirk, I have hitherto purposely omitted an +account of that celebrated mansion. I shall now, however, +return to it.</p> +<h2>Chirk Castle.</h2> +<p>This noble and ancient pile was built on the site of Castell +Crogen, about the year 1011. I must here hazard a +conjecture concerning this <a name="page24"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 24</span>Castle. I am of opinion that +the old Castle of Crogen was then enlarged and repaired, not +entirely rebuilt; as John Myddleton, who communicated a paper to +the Society of Antiquarians on the subject, says it was begun +A.D. 1011, and was finished in 1013, which makes it only about +two years, probably too short a period for the total re-erection +of so large an edifice.</p> +<p>The building is square, and is flanked by four massive +bastions or rounders, one at each corner. There is a fifth +in the centre of the front, of the same dimensions as the +others. The length of the front is about two hundred and +fifty feet; the square court or quadrangle within the walls is +about one hundred and sixty-five feet, by one hundred. The +grand entrance is under a lofty arched <a name="page25"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 25</span>gateway; the side entrance is by a +double flight of stone stairs, through a postern and colonnade, +into the quadrangle. I measured the walls of the north-west +bastion, and found them more than fourteen feet thick, and all +apparently of solid masonry. The whole of this extensive +and ponderous building is of hewn stone.</p> +<p>On the west side of the quadrangle is the door of the dungeon, +which in feudal times has been the melancholy abode of many +hapless victims, who fell under their Lord’s +displeasure. There is at the entrance a case or hollow in +the thickness of the wall, for a portcullis; and there are two +places of confinement, one below the other. The first is +not formed so far below the surface of the earth as totally to +exclude the light of day; it being admitted obliquely from <a +name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>above. +There is also a fire-place; so that it is probable this might be +a prison for less serious crimes, or for delinquents of noble +quality. The deep dungeon is far below the first, the +descent to it being by forty-two steps; and is said to be as deep +as the walls are high. It is small and circular, and about +twelve or fourteen yards in circumference. The iron doors +are now taken away, and one of oak is substituted, which bears +upon it numberless notches, not, like those of Sterne’s +captive, made to mark the days of misery, but the number of horns +of strong ale drank at one sitting by a party assembled in this +place to drink to the health of the Lord of the Castle. It +is a record of the strength of their heads, if not of their +attachment to their Lord. High up in the wall are two iron +hooks, fixed to support a large <a name="page27"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 27</span>cheese, which was formerly kept here +for the entertainment of those who chose to visit this gloomy +place. The sides of the dungeon are partly formed of the +rock on which the Castle is founded, as is also the floor.</p> +<p>Returning to the light of the sun, on the adjoining south side +of the quadrangle is the servants’ hall, in which are +deposited various ancient and family relics. The walls are +hung round with boar spears, pikes, and halberts; arquebuses, +matchlocks, and other old fire-arms; saddles, spurs, and various +pieces of armour; enormous and curious spoils of the chace, +&c.</p> +<p>Among a variety of deer antlers, is the head of a stag, of +which the following curious story is told:—A young woman, +crossing the Black <a name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +28</span>Park at the early dawn of morning, was assailed by this +furious animal. Her cries for assistance were heard by one +of the numerous retainers of the Castle, whose dwelling was nigh, +and he promptly ran to her aid. The stag, no way +intimidated, made fiercely at the man, and literally gored him to +death. The Black Park is now converted into an extensive +colliery.</p> +<p>Opposite to the servants’ hall is the main entrance into +the Castle from the quadrangle. In the large and lofty +entrance hall are some fine paintings, and a superb billiard +table. The grand stairs front the entrance, and lead to the +stately apartments of the Castle, which have been lately +renovated in a superior style of elegance by Mrs. Biddulph, the +present inheritor. A saloon, a gallery, and <a +name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 29</span>a +drawing-room, in particular, are beautifully finished, and banish +from the mind the idea of a gloomy Castle, which its exterior +seems to promise.</p> +<p>The rooms are enriched with some good paintings; and in the +saloon are some finely executed portraits of the family. In +this room there is a cabinet of most exquisite workmanship. +The views from the different windows are inexpressibly beautiful, +and are said to embrace a prospect extending into seventeen +counties.</p> +<p>In the civil wars this Castle was besieged by Cromwell’s +adherents, and one of its sides, with three of its towers, +overthrown. It is mentioned as a prodigious exertion of +labour, and in which no cost was spared, that the wing was +rebuilt in one year, <a name="page30"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 30</span>at the expense of eighty thousand +pounds; which I think strengthens my idea of the present Castle +being only an enlargement and repair of the more ancient Castell +Crogen.</p> +<p>About a mile and a half from the Castle, stands the pleasant +little village of</p> +<h2>Chirk.</h2> +<p>It is an example of simple neatness and good taste. The +cottages are built in the Swiss style, with singular rustic +elegance, and have the appearance of comfort and quiet. The +inhabitants are mainly indebted for the beauty of their rustic +cottages to the Countess Dungannon of Brynkinallt, and for the +uniformity and useful convenience of water in every house, which +is conveyed by leaden pipes, to the exertions and influence <a +name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 31</span>of Mrs. +Myddelton Biddulph, the owner of the Castle, and the elder branch +of the much-respected family of the Myddeltons. She is Lady +of the Manor of Chirk, and has built and endowed a school for the +education of the village children. Her exertions to promote +the comfort and interest of her tenantry are worthy +imitation.</p> +<p>Near the church, and now enclosed in a garden, stands an +artificial mount, which Mr. Pennant conjectures to be coeval with +Offa’s Dyke. <a name="citation31"></a><a href="#footnote31" +class="citation">[31]</a> A similar one stood on the +opposite side, where now the road runs. These mounts were +probably Saxon stations, and curbs to the Welch, to prevent them +from violating the line of demarcation which Offa had formed.</p> +<p><a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 32</span>The +church is a capacious old structure, dedicated to St. Mary, and +was formerly an impropriation belonging to the Abbey of Valle +Crucis. It has a tower steeple, containing six bells. +All the east side of the church wall within is nearly covered +with marble monuments of the Chirk Castle family. A bust of +Sir Thomas Myddelton, and another of his Lady, are well +executed. There are also many other remarkable <i>memento +mori’s</i> within the church, well worth the attention of +those who love to muse on</p> +<blockquote><p>“Names once famed, now dubious or forgot,<br +/> +And buried midst the wreck of things which were.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I believe there are not standing within the same compass of +ground in the kingdom of Great Britain, three mansions so +eminently deserving admiration for magnificence, <a +name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span>grandeur, and +beauty, as Wynnstay, Chirk Castle, and Brynkinallt; the latter of +which I shall now proceed to describe.</p> +<h2>Brynkinallt</h2> +<p>Is about one mile from the village of Chirk, and is the +ancient seat of the noble family of the Trevors, as I find in an +authentic genealogical table, of which the following is a short +extract:—“In the reign of King Richard II. there was +a noble peer, by name Geofry Lord Trevor, and also John Trevor, +Bishop of St. Asaph, and Chancellor of Chester. He +continued in the bishoprick to the sixth year of King Henry +IV. And in the reign of King Henry VI. (1421) lived two +brothers descended of this honourable family, namely, John and +Richard. John, the eldest brother, was seated at +Brynkinallt. He married Agnes, <a name="page34"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 34</span>daughter and heiress of Peter +Chambre, of Pool, Esq. by whom he had issue five sons, who laid +the foundation of many noble branches. Robert, the eldest, +succeeded his father at Brynkinallt. He married Catherine, +daughter and heiress of Llewellen Ap Howel De Mould, and had +issue. From Edward, the second son, by Amy, daughter of +James Ryffin, Esq. descended Mark Trevor, from whom descended the +Viscount Dungannon in Ireland.” From him the nobleman +who at present inherits the title, and the residence of +Brynkinallt, is a lineal descendant; and under his auspices, +aided by the exquisite taste of his Countess, this superb edifice +has attained the acme of beauty.</p> +<p>To rush at once into this charming labyrinth of delight would +fill the <a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +35</span>mind with confusion; and the beholder would be at a loss +in what direction to commence his observations, where every part +claims his admiration. I therefore beg my readers will +accompany me about two miles on the Oswestry road, to Bryn y +Gwyla Lodge, a beautiful triumphal arch-like entrance into Bryn y +Gwyla Park, through which a new road is now forming to +Brynkinallt. This part of the domain is in Shropshire; the +interesting stream of the Ceriog dividing Shropshire from +Denbighshire at this place.</p> +<p>As you proceed towards the river, whose sides are charmingly +clothed with forest trees, and whose banks are fringed with +shrubs to the water edge, the eye is caught by some of the +pinnacles of Brynkinallt, and by the blue smoke arising from the +<a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 36</span>mansion, +which seems playfully to linger among the lofty summits of the +luxuriant trees that adorn it. Proceeding on the highest +road, called the Green Drive, which runs along the top of the +Hanging Wood, whose majestic and venerable timber seems to +continue the luxuriant line of wavy branches to the very mansion, +through one of the natural vistas which here and there present +themselves, Brynkinallt bursts upon the sight in all its beauty, +embosomed in the softened and variously tinted foliage of the +plantations which surround it. From this spot the most +interesting and picturesque view of the place is obtained; and I +believe it is the point from whence an artist of some celebrity +has designed a picture of the mansion.</p> +<p>At the termination of this drive <a name="page37"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 37</span>the murmuring Ceriog is crossed by an +ornamental stone bridge, at the foot of which, on the bank of the +river, stands a simple rustic cottage, richly clothed with ivy, +and formed of unhewn pebble stones. At this lodge is kept a +key of the bridge gate; and a bell attached to the gate procures +attendance. Crossing the bridge into Denbighshire, the +elegant taste of the inheritor of the place begins to display +itself. New beauties appear at every step, as you approach +the house; pheasants feed in numbers on the smooth verdant lawn +before the windows, and seem to give an earnest of the quiet and +security of the domain.</p> +<p>This beautiful place is thus mentioned by Mr. +Pennant:—“From Chirk (he says) I made an excursion to +Brynkinallt, about a mile below <a name="page38"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 38</span>the village: this had been the seat +of the Trevors. The house is of brick, built in +1619.” <a name="citation38"></a><a href="#footnote38" +class="citation">[38]</a> Nor can I find more attention +bestowed on this charming place by any of the numerous tourists +who have given an account of their excursions to the public; and +I am at a loss to account why this, the most unique and beautiful +spot in the neighbourhood, should thus long have escaped +attention.</p> +<p>The house is undoubtedly the work of Inigo Jones, and was +built on the site of a former mansion of brick, either in the +latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, or early in the +reign of James I. The additions made by the present worthy +possessor are ornamental and useful, and are formed so +judiciously, and so strictly <a name="page39"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 39</span>in character with the old part, as +not to be distinguished from the original design. I should +call the style demi-gothic; it is now cased over with mastic or +Roman cement, and has all the appearance of well hewn stone; and +some think it will have equal durability.</p> +<p>The house is formed with a noble mansion-like centre, +decorated with minarets and pinnacles, and flanked by two low +retiring wings, making altogether a very beautiful and ornamental +front. The grand entrance is through a conservatory and +viranda, elegantly decorated with choice flowers and exotic +plants. Over the inner entrance door are the arms of the +Marquis of Wellesley, Viceroy of Ireland, emblazoned upon glass, +occupying the whole width of the doorway, and bearing an +inscription, <a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +40</span>likewise painted on the glass, signifying that the +Marquis presented this painted glass as a mark of his esteem to +his dear friend and relation, Lord Viscount Dungannon. The +execution is good, and does great credit to the Irish artist.</p> +<p>Advancing a few steps into the interior, the eye is arrested +by the brilliancy of the scene which breaks upon the sight. +Immediately in front, through the spacious hall, is a grand +flight of stairs, terminated by a richly stained glass window, +and leading to a gallery that surrounds the hall, and which is +decorated with the busts of much distinguished and eminent +persons, as the King, the Duke of York, the Duke of Wellington, +&c. Up the passage to the left hand, the view is +bounded by the superb dining room; and on the right it terminates +<a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 41</span>in a +charming conservatory, through which is a way to the pleasure +grounds and gardens. From the dining room on the extreme +left, to the conservatory on the right, it is about one hundred +and sixty feet.</p> +<p>To particularize or to give an adequate idea of the superb and +very tasteful decorations of every room in this elegant mansion +is far beyond my power of description; and therefore I dare not +make the attempt. Suffice it to say, that every nook seems +decorated by the hand of taste, guided by the most correct +judgment; all is elegantly superb, and chastely grand. In +some of the windows is much old painted glass, particularly in +the library, where there are some very excellent specimens.</p> +<p>Here is also a valuable collection <a name="page42"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 42</span>of china; and in one of the rooms are +some beautiful vases of that fragile material.</p> +<p>The mansion is adorned throughout with valuable pictures by +the old masters, some of which his Lordship selected in +Italy. There is a landscape near the fire-place, in the +same room where the china vases stand, painted by Claude +Lorraine, which is a most beautiful production of that great +master. In short,</p> +<blockquote><p>“Whatever in this worldly state<br /> +Is sweet and pleasing unto living sense,<br /> +Or that may daintiest fantasie aggrate,<br /> +Is poured forth with plentiful dispense,<br /> +And made there to abound with lavish affluence.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Spencer</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The beauty and elegance abounding in this place must be seen +to be justly appreciated; and the urbanity and gentlemanly +condescension of the noble owner, in affording me the <a +name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>means of +gratifying my inquiries and curiosity, will never be effaced from +my memory.</p> +<p>In the adjoining shrubbery is an ornamental building called +the china room, fitted up (it would be superfluous to say +elegantly) by Lady Dungannon. Within the room are deposited +the most valuable and beautiful specimens of old china. The +walls are covered with plates, dishes, &c. in many various +figures and forms. There is a fire-place in the room, and a +small portable collection of books for the amusement of a passing +hour. In a room adjoining is an assemblage of +cream-coloured pottery, in its greatest variety; and behind all, +is a cool, well arranged dairy.</p> +<p>To some, and to ladies in particular, <a +name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 44</span>the +examination of the china room will afford the highest +gratification. For myself, I must confess, the exquisite +specimens of art I had just been viewing in the mansion so +entirely engrossed my mind, that I could not look on these later +morceaus with the attention they merited.</p> +<p>I have before stated that the river Ceriog runs through part +of the domain; and it is made to contribute much to its +beauty. It passes through a deep and thickly wooded dingle, +and a rural and shady walk winds along the glen to another +entrance lodge, about half a mile from Chirk. The way is +enlivened by game springing before you at every step, and rousing +the attention from that soothing melancholy which the umbrageous +solemnity of the walk is calculated to inspire.</p> +<p><a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 45</span>There +are four lodges, or gates of entrance into the domain, inhabited +by some of his Lordship’s dependents. They are all +built in an ornamental and romantic style; but about them, though +so varied in design, there are no disjointed or distorted +features to offend the most fastidious.</p> +<blockquote><p>“And that which all fair work doth much +aggrace,<br /> +The art which wrought it all appeareth in no place.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Spencer</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Brynkinallt, as well as Chirk, is on the English side of +Offa’s Dyke, to which I shall now return on my way to the +Berwyn Mountains; observing by the bye, that although this part +of the country is called Wales, yet that Offa’s Dyke, made +in the year 776, cut it off from the Principality, and John of +Salisbury, in his Polycraticon, writeth thus:—<a +name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>“Harold +ordained a law, that what Welchman soever should be found with a +weapon on this side the limit which he had set them (that is to +say, Offa’s Dyke), he should have his right hand cut off by +the King’s officers.” <a name="citation45"></a><a +href="#footnote45" class="citation">[45]</a> So, as Harold +II. reigned nearly three hundred years after the Dyke was cut, it +is plain, by this law, that it continued to be considered the +line of demarcation at that time; and even to this day the bell +of vassalage, the curfew, is rung every night at Chirk, that is, +on the English side the Dyke; but is never heard at Llangollen, +which is on the Welch side. This goes far to prove that +William’s English laws reached Chirk, and no farther. +Leaving the Dyke, I now return to the Berwyn Mountains.</p> +<h2><a name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 47</span>Berwyn +MOUNTAINS.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Clouds rest on the hills: spirits fly, and +travellers fear.</p> +<p>“Where are our chiefs of old? Where our Kings of +mighty name? The fields of their battle are silent: scarce +their mossy tombs remain.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Returning</span> towards Llangollen by the +old road near Chirk Castle, called Oswestry way, the Berwyn +Mountains begin to raise their lofty summits. <a +name="citation47"></a><a href="#footnote47" +class="citation">[47]</a> These Mountains occupy the +eastern side of Merionethshire, and branch into the counties of +Denbigh and Montgomery. Their southern boundary is the +river Tannant; their <a name="page48"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 48</span>northern the Dee. Their length +from north to south is about sixteen miles; their breadth from +east to west varying from five to ten miles. <a +name="citation48"></a><a href="#footnote48" +class="citation">[48]</a> Their highest tops are Cader +Fronwen, or the Whitebreast, and Cader Ferwyn. On the +summit of the former a large quantity of stones, collected from a +distance, and brought here with much labour and difficulty, are +cast round a stone pillar, marking the burial-place of some +chief, whose very name is now forgotten.</p> +<p>These Mountains, as I have before said, form the southern side +of the vale of Llangollen; and forming a frontier barrier for +this part of North Wales, they have been the scene of many a +bloody contest, and on these hills the hardy sons of Cambria have +<a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +49</span>successfully opposed the encroaching armies of their +Saxon neighbours. I trust my readers will excuse me if I +relate one of the most interesting events of that kind which took +place on this part of the Berwyn Mountains, and within my +prescribed limits.</p> +<p>Henry II. King of England, being exasperated by the repeated +predatory incursions of the Welch, <a name="citation49"></a><a +href="#footnote49" class="citation">[49]</a> and by the advantage +they took of ravaging the English territories in his frequent +absence, and finding that no treaties could bind them, resolved +on his return from Normandy to lead an army against Wales; and +having assembled a strong body of veteran troops, selected from +all parts of his very extensive dominions in Normandy, Flanders, +Anjou, Gascoine, <a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +50</span>and England, <a name="citation50"></a><a +href="#footnote50" class="citation">[50]</a> and hearing of some +daring inroads made by the North Wales men, he early in the year +1165, put himself at the head of this chosen army, and set +forward for North Wales, resolving to destroy without mercy every +living thing he could meet with. Having advanced to Croes +Oswalt, now Oswestry, he encamped there, and sent forward a body +of men to try the passes of the Dyke and Ceriog, who being met +near Castell Crogen, as has been before stated, were there +defeated, and buried in the Dyke.</p> +<p>It is probable that the victorious Welchmen were a party +detached from the Welch army; for Owen Gwynedd, then Prince of +Wales, having heard of the great preparations made by the King, +had very prudently <a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +51</span>confederated all the power of the country, and had +assembled his forces at Corwen, a very strong country in +Edernion, and there awaited the King’s approach. He +had with him, besides his brother Cadwalader, and all the power +of North Wales, Prince Rhys, with those of South Wales, Owen +Cyfeeliog and Madog Meredith, with the strength of Powis; in +short, all the forces the Welch could muster. <a +name="citation51"></a><a href="#footnote51" +class="citation">[51]</a></p> +<p>The King, finding the Welch so strong, and knowing their +fickleness, stayed some time at Oswestry, in expectation that a +confederacy so hastily formed would as suddenly dissolve; but +finding them firm and determined in their adherence, and that his +enemies were so near, he became desirous to bring on an +engagement. <a name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +52</span>He therefore moved towards the Dyke with his whole army, +and pushed on a party to the Ceriog river, which washes the foot +of the Berwyn; giving orders that the banks should be cleared of +the woods, which at that time formed a complete jungle, to +prevent his troops falling into the ambuscade of the enemy.</p> +<p>It would seem the Welch had taken the precaution to guard the +passes of the river; for the King in person, in an attempt to get +possession of a bridge, experienced one of those hair-breadth +escapes which sometimes decide the fate of kingdoms: <a +name="citation52"></a><a href="#footnote52" +class="citation">[52]</a>—A Welch archer, having marked the +personal exertions of the King, and fired with the hope of +freeing his country, chose a place of concealment, <a +name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>from whence, +watching his opportunity, he discharged an arrow with such deadly +aim, that it must inevitably have slain the King, had not Hubert +De St. Clair, Constable of Colchester, who was in close +attendance, and whose name is deservedly recorded for his +devotion to his monarch, seeing the danger, rushed into the +course of the fatal shaft, and received it in his heart; thus +terminating his attachment with his life.</p> +<p>Whilst Henry was thus employing his forces in clearing the +banks of the Ceriog, a party of Welchmen, relying on their +knowledge of the country, and prompted by patriotic zeal, +attempted to surprise his vanguard, consisting chiefly of +pikemen, and the flower of the King’s army. This +brought on a very bloody engagement, although not general, <a +name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>which cost +the lives of many brave men on both sides; but the attack having +been commenced without any preconcerted plan, and merely from a +sudden ebullition of desperate daring, Henry’s veterans +were victorious, and making good the passage of the river, +advanced up the Berwyn.</p> +<p>In the mean time, the Welch Princes had advanced with their +army from Corwen, and had taken a strong position on the frontier +ridge. A fieldwork and entrenchment are still visible on +the Mountain, over Llangollen, and was probably the station of +part of the Welch forces, under Owen Gwynedd and his +allies. Henry, finding his formidable enemy thus +advantageously posted on the crown of the hill, did not deem it +prudent to attack him in this position, and therefore encamped +his <a name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>forces +on the lower part of the Mountain. <a name="citation55"></a><a +href="#footnote55" class="citation">[55]</a></p> +<p>In this manner the two armies lay menacing each other; the +Welch carefully improving every opportunity of annoyance, and +from their lofty and advantageous situation watching every +movement of the King’s forces. Henry used every means +in his power to induce them to quit their camp, and attack him, +but in vain: while the Welch, by means of their irregular +adherents, cut off all supplies from the English, and reduced +them to the greatest straits and distress; added to which, the +rain now fell in torrents, and pouring down the sides of the +Mountain, rendered the English station so soft and slippery that +they were obliged to retreat, with great loss in men, horses, and +<a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 56</span>warlike +stores, leaving the Welch masters of the field.</p> +<p>The Welchmen, as might naturally be expected, exultingly +celebrated this triumph; while Henry, baffled and disgraced, and +with all his threats unperformed, gave way to rage, and added +savage cruelty to his disgrace. He at this time held as +hostages Rhys and Cadwallhon, the two sons of Owen Gwynedd; and +also Cynric and Meredith, the two sons of Rhys Ap Gryffydh, of +South Wales; as likewise the sons and daughters of other Welch +Lords. <a name="citation56"></a><a href="#footnote56" +class="citation">[56]</a> In the savage fierceness of his +rage, he ordered the eyes of these innocent victims to be pulled +out, and the ears of the young gentlewomen to be stuffed.</p> +<p><a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 57</span>From +this digression, for which, as pointing out the places where +these historical facts happened, I hope my readers will pardon +me, I now return to the Oswestry old way, which runs near Chirk +Castle.</p> +<p>Not more than sixty years ago, this used to be the public high +road to Oswestry, although the capacious and excellent road which +now skirts the Mountains’ base would almost induce one to +think it impossible. A very respectable and old inhabitant +of Llangollen informs me, that before the road was altered and +improved, some of the family from Chirk Castle used to visit +Llangollen once a year in the family coach. On the +appointed day, which was generally known beforehand, all the +inhabitants were on the alert; and no sooner was the rumble of +the <a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +58</span>ponderous wheels heard on the stones, than young and +old, sick and lame, poured out of their dwellings to see the +wonderful phenomenon; and during the few hours of its stay in the +town, it attracted as much attention as a show of wild beasts at +a country fair. On its return to the Castle, the young men +of the village contended for the honour of assisting it to get up +the hill again; and this was the only vehicle of the kind seen +once a year in Llangollen, where now the most splendid and +elegant carriages, from the gig to the state-coach, roll along, +amid these stupendous rocks and mountains, upon roads as smooth, +as level, and as good, as any in the kingdom.</p> +<p>The Oswestry old way is not now much frequented, but it +continues from Chirk Castle along the top of <a +name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>the +Mountain. Many roads intersect it, but the old road is very +distinguishable. By the side of the way, rise two copious +springs, called Ffynnon Arthur.</p> +<p>From the eminence the view is most extensively delightful, and +amply repays the trouble and fatigue of the walk up the +Mountain. The curious Aqueduct of Pontcysyllte forms a very +pleasing and prominent feature in the foreground of the +landscape.</p> +<p>As you approach the descent on the side of the hill, the stone +pedestal of a cross or pillar stands among the gorse on the left +hand side of the road, but the shaft is not to be found. +Trees, planted three in a clump, mark the road at short +distances, and lead to the cultivated and inhabited <a +name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 60</span>part of the +declivity. <a name="citation60a"></a><a href="#footnote60a" +class="citation">[60a]</a> Proceeding to the extreme foot +of the Mountain, on the junction of the Oswestry road stood, +until these few months, another stone pillar, or cross <a +name="citation60b"></a><a href="#footnote60b" +class="citation">[60b]</a>, called Croes y Beddau; and upon it +was rudely cut “<i>Oswestry Way</i>.” This +inscription is of more recent execution than the pillar, although +it is also very antique.</p> +<p>I conjecture these stones were erected as land-marks, and +guides to the traveller. An ancient way from this point +proceeded to the river Dee, which was then crossed by a <a +name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>wooden +bridge. On the north side of the river, nearly opposite the +place where the wooden bridge stood, was another similar pillar, +called Croes Gwen Hwyfr. It stood on the road to Wrexham, +and has been removed only a few years. From Croes Gwen +Hwyfr, an old road proceeds to Castell Dinas Bran, by the +Llanddyn, once the residence of the Owens of Porkington, but now +converted into a farm-house. Through that farm the road +passed in a zigzag direction to Castell Dinas Bran, and the old +road is still traceable, although in some places quite lost.</p> +<p>Before I attempt to give an account of the ancient castle, I +must beg my reader’s attendance to the Aqueduct, which +claimed notice in the view from the top of the Berwyn +Mountains.</p> +<h2><a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 62</span>The +Aqueduct.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Telford, who o’er the vale of +Cambrian Dee,<br /> +Aloft in air, at giddy height upborne,<br /> +Carried his navigable road, and hung<br /> +High o’er Menai’s Straits the bending bridge:<br /> +Structures of more ambitious enterprise<br /> +Than minstrels, in the age of old romance,<br /> +To their own Merlin’s magic lore ascribed.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Aqueduct of Pontcysylte is so +called from a bridge of three arches over the river Dee, and +situated a little higher up the river. This is the most +stupendous work of the kind in the kingdom. It was designed +and executed by and under the inspection of that British +Archimedes, Mr. Thomas Telford, to carry a stream of water for +the supply of the Ellesmere Canal; to the proprietors of which, +in the year 1804, Sir W. W. Wynn, Bart. in the most liberal +manner made an important <a name="page63"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 63</span>donation of the waters of Bala pool, +as far as wanted; and to obtain that essential advantage the +Aqueduct was projected. <a name="citation63"></a><a +href="#footnote63" class="citation">[63]</a> The level of +the canal is taken at a place in the river a little below the +church of Lantysilto, and about two miles on the west of +Llangollen.</p> +<p>The bank of the canal forms a charming promenade of about six +miles from its junction with the Dee to the Aqueduct, abounding +with interesting and picturesque scenery. Here and there +snug little white cottages, peeping from among the surrounding +trees, decorate and embellish the sides and recesses of some of +the eminences; while the tops are dotted with the little mountain +<a name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>sheep, +scarcely distinguishable from the white stones that are scattered +upon their summits. The banks of the canal are ornamented +with trees, and embellished with bridges, &c.</p> +<p>This Aqueduct, the most extraordinary structure of its kind in +the world, was begun on the twenty-fifth day of July, 1795, and +was finished on the twenty-sixth day of November, 1805; having +been ten years and five months in building. It is one +thousand and seven feet in length, and one hundred and twenty-six +feet eight inches in height from the surface of the flat rock on +the south side of the river Dee, to the top of the iron side +plates of the water way; and there are nineteen arches of +forty-five feet span each. The piers, eighteen <a +name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>in number, +are constructed of square masonry, and the arches and water way +are composed of cast-iron.</p> +<p>At the south end of the Aqueduct there is an embankment of +earth, fifteen hundred feet in length, and seventy-five feet +high. The water way is eleven feet ten inches broad, and +five feet three inches deep. There is a broad towing-path +on the east side, guarded by a strong iron palisade, running the +whole length of the Aqueduct; from the north end of which the +canal is continued for a distance of about three hundred yards, +and there terminates in an extensive basin, which affords a +double wharfage, with iron railways.</p> +<p>I have heard of only one fatal accident occurring during the +progress of this arduous undertaking; <a name="page66"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 66</span>when a poor labourer employed on the +work fell from the top of one of the piers, and was dashed to +pieces on the rock below. His suffering was of short +duration, as the tremendous height from which he fell caused +instant dissolution.</p> +<p>The Aqueduct crosses the entrance of the vale of Llangollen +from north to south, and the walks under and about it are really +charming. The view along the beautiful vale of the Dee from +the top, in the centre of the towing-path, is delightful, and to +look down tremendous; and the river,</p> +<blockquote><p>“That on the unnumber’d pebbles idly +chafes,<br /> +Cannot be heard so high.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Indeed, it requires a steady head, and a stout heart, to walk +over the Aqueduct, especially when the wind is high.</p> +<p><a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 67</span>On the +twenty-sixth day of November, 1805, the canal was opened in the +following manner, as described by one of the acting +Committee. He says—<a name="citation67"></a><a +href="#footnote67" class="citation">[67]</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“In going over the Aqueduct and returning, +the sensations varied. As the procession of boats advanced +towards the noble structure now first commencing its public +utility, the complete sense of security in which we floated one +hundred and twenty-six feet above the river Dee, and a just +acknowledgment to Mr. Telford, to whom it was deservedly a proud +day, and who had most happily arranged the whole of our +accommodation, as well as constructed the wonderful edifice that +supported us, naturally united.</p> +<p><a name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +68</span>“On our arrival at the eastern bank, we entered +the canal port. Lady Bridgewater, the ladies of Colonel +Kynaston Powell, and William Lloyd Ashton, Esq. and some others, +as connected with the Committee, now attended Lady Eleanor +Butler, Lady W. W. Wynn and her family, the Hon. Miss Ponsonby, +Miss Ormsby, and many other respectable visitors, to a repast +which had been provided; soon after which an Oration was +delivered.</p> +<p>“On a signal being given, the cannon, which had been +advantageously posted on the platform below the rocks, and nearly +on a level with the Aqueduct, fired a royal salute. The +guns were manned by the Artillery Company, and were some of those +brought from the capture of Seringapatam, <a +name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>now belonging +to the Shropshire Volunteers, whose skill and martial appearance +added much to the brilliancy of the day: they saluted the +Committee on their passage and return with fifteen rounds +each. After the repast and Oration, the whole company +prepared to return.</p> +<p>“The procession of boats was as follows:—In the +first and second boats, the Committee; in the third, the band of +the Shropshire Volunteers, in full uniform; the fourth was +occupied by the engineers, the occupiers of mines and founderies, +&c. with their families. I was invited to take my +passage with them, having been engaged when the Committee set +out, and could from this boat, as a centre, better judge of the +whole. The fifth and sixth boats <a name="page70"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 70</span>closed the procession, gaily +ornamented with flags, and loaded with the first commercial +product of coal that had ever passed over the valley on this +noble bridge of union. The carriages, which conveyed the +rest of the company, formed a curved and continued line over the +bridge of the Dee (Pontcysyllte) and on both its banks.</p> +<p>“The evening was calm, and the favourite tunes of +‘<i>God save the King</i>’ and ‘<i>Rule +Britannia</i>’ floated in the air, amongst the echoes of +the vale. Many (probably more than eight thousand) people +were stationed all around us, from the tops of the mountains to +the banks of the Dee, and were cheering and exulting, with +intervals of silent astonishment. All within sight or +hearing were expressing their sense of the general <a +name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +71</span>happiness. The whole valley of Llangollen might be +said to laugh and sing.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The following inscription is on the Aqueduct upon the side of +the pier next to the south side of the river:—</p> +<p style="text-align: center">The Nobility and Gentry of<br /> +The adjacent Counties,<br /> +Having united their Efforts with<br /> +The great commercial Interests of this Country,<br /> +In creating an intercourse and union between<br /> +ENGLAND AND NORTH WALES,<br /> +By a navigable communication of the three Rivers,<br /> +Severn, Dee, and Mersey,<br /> +For the mutual benefit of Agriculture and Trade,<br /> +Caused the first Stone of this Aqueduct of<br /> +PONTCYSYLLTE<br /> +To be laid on the 25th day of July, 1795,<br /> +When Richard Myddelton, of Chirk, Esq. M.P.<br /> +One of the original patrons of the<br /> +ELLESMERE CANAL,<br /> +Was Lord of this Manor,<br /> +And in the reign of our Sovereign<br /> +GEORGE THE THIRD;<br /> +When the Equity of the Laws and<br /> +The security of Property<br /> +Promoted the general Welfare of the Nation;<br /> +While the Arts and Sciences flourished<br /> +By his Patronage, and<br /> +The Conduct of civil Life was improved<br /> +By his Example.</p> +<p><a name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +72</span>Returning from this stupendous work of human ingenuity +and exertion, towards the Castell Dinas Bran,</p> +<h2>Trevor Hall,</h2> +<p>A large brick mansion, presents itself. It is situated +on a rising ground, on the north side of the Wrexham road; and +was once the residence of John Trevor, Bishop of St. Asaph, who +in the year 1346 caused a stone bridge to be built over the Dee, +at Llangollen, which is accounted one of the wonders of +Wales.</p> +<p>Mr. Pennant says <a name="citation72"></a><a +href="#footnote72" class="citation">[72]</a> “Trevor Hall +passed into the family of the Lloyds, and has continued in that +family to the present time.” The last possessor was a +lady of the name of <a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +73</span>Thomas, deceased in the last year, and leaving a son to +inherit, although at present he does not occupy the +premises. The house is roomy and substantial, and is +pleasantly situated; but has no pretensions to elegance or +beauty. Near the house is a church, or rather chapel, of +ease, enjoying Queen Anne’s bounty, in which English +service is performed on the first Sunday in every month.</p> +<p>In a rocky cliff in the neighbourhood of the Hall, is a cavern +of some extent, in which I was informed there were to be found +the petrified bones of wolves, foxes, and other wild +animals. Resolving to ascertain the fact, I explored the +place, but, whatever there may have been, I could not discover +the vestiges of any such relics. I brought away some +specimens of stalactites, of <a name="page74"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 74</span>curious forms and various +incrustations, with which the roof of the cavern abounds, and +which may by some have been mistaken for petrified bony +substances. This craggy ridge seems to be the commencement +of that wonderful range of limestone called the Eglwyseg +Rocks.</p> +<p>Near to the river is the ancient house of Plas yn Pentre, now +inhabited by Mr. Edward Jones; and between Trevor Hall and the +Dee is one of the most beautifully clear springs of cold water +imaginable. It is called Ffynnon Yryrog, and is in very +great repute as a bath for the cure of rheumatic affections; and +if Saint Collen with a long name <a name="citation74"></a><a +href="#footnote74" class="citation">[74]</a> had thought proper +to have bestowed his benediction, it might perhaps have <a +name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 75</span>rivalled its +prototype at Holywell. Its issue is very abundant, and its +coldness exceeds belief: persons bathing cannot continue in the +water a minute. Many wonderful accounts are told of its +efficacy in chronic disorders. In its passage to the Dee, +it formerly turned a water mill, now in ruins. The spring +rises in a field belonging to Plas yn Pentre.</p> +<p>On the road side, between Trevor Hall and Bron Heulog, is a +small farm house, called Plas Eva or Evan. I notice it only +as marking the spot where formerly was a cemetery, retaining the +appellation of Mynwent y Quacer, or Quaker’s Burying +Ground. It is on the south side of the house; and in +cutting the canal, the earth from the excavation was thrown upon +the old graves and the inscribed stones that lay upon the +surface.</p> +<p><a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +76</span>Opposite the north side of the same house, a few years +ago, as some labourers were working in the limestone rock, they +discovered a pot, filled with gold coin. The men, afraid of +losing their booty, kept the affair secret, and deputed one of +their party to dispose of the treasure at Chester, as old +gold. A rumour of the circumstance having got afloat, an +inquiry was instituted; but the secret was so well kept on all +hands, that only one piece, which a labourer had kept as a +curiosity, with a part of the earthen vessel that contained them, +were recovered, both of which I am informed are now in the +possession of Lady Clive. The name, date, or nominal value +of the coin, I cannot ascertain; but a person who saw one of the +pieces describes it as being about the size of a half crown, and +very thin, with an impression on each side.</p> +<p><a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>About a +mile nearer to the Castle, stands a recently erected mansion, +called Bron Heulog. It is only remarkable for the +narrowness of its windows and the nakedness of its +appearance. Nearing the town on the bank of the river,</p> +<h2>The Vicarage,</h2> +<p>A neat pretty edifice, claims notice. It was built a few +years ago, under the direction of the present vicar, the Rev. R. +W. Eyton, who resides here, and is in the commission of the +peace. In both capacities he does honour to the country in +which he lives, as an able conscientious minister, and an +impartial and upright magistrate.</p> +<p>Having thus given an account of some of the most remarkable +features of the country within my limits on <a +name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 78</span>the north +side of the river, and on the east end of the town, I beg my +readers to cross the river with me to Pengwern Hall, situated on +the south of the Dee, with which I shall conclude my account of +residences on the east of the town, as it is not in my plan to +notice the many pretty snug and pleasant looking retreats with +which the delightful landscape is studded, the beauty and comfort +of which the traveller of taste will not fail fully to +appreciate. Nor have I much to say of</p> +<h2>Llys Pengwern;</h2> +<p>For mouldering time hath swept away much of its grandeur and +its form.</p> +<p>Llys, i.e. Palace or Prince’s Court, of Pengwern, is +situated at the foot of Pen y Coed, a tumulus-like hill on the +east side of Llangollen, in a well <a name="page79"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 79</span>cultivated and fruitful valley, +formed between, or rather of, the bases of Pen y Coed, and the +Berwyn. Little remains of the old house. There are +two vaulted rooms (the use of which I cannot conjecture) standing +at the end of the present house; and they are, I think, part of +the old palace. The roofs are formed with nine stone ribs, +which support a stone floor; for the rooms are one above the +other, and the little light admitted is through narrow loop-hole +windows. There is no vault or cellar beneath them. +The site is extensive, and many old pointed gothic windows appear +about the dilapidated walls.</p> +<p>The place is now in the occupation of a very respectable +farmer. Sir Thomas Mostyn, Bart. is the proprietor, in +whose family it has been a great many years. I find that <a +name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 80</span>“Tudor +Trevor, <a name="citation80"></a><a href="#footnote80" +class="citation">[80]</a> who in the British genealogies is +reckoned to be lineally descended from Vortigern, that +unfortunate King of the Britons, who first invited the Saxons +over into his country, married Gwladdis (some call her Angharad), +daughter of Howell Dda, King of all Wales, by whom he had issue +three sons; from the eldest of whom, Llwydocca, this family of +Mostyn is descended in a direct male line. Tudor Trevor +lived about A.D. 924, and his usual residence was at Llys +Pengwern, in Chirkland, in Denbighshire; which site, and lands +about it (though the house has been long destroyed), is in the +possesion of the family to this day.”</p> +<p>There is a stone which seems to have <a +name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 81</span>belonged to +the old Llys, wrought up in the door-way, with an inscription +which I cannot decipher. The design seems a rude figure of +a sword, with an obtuse point, and the letters cut in relief on +the blade. They are many of them unlike the characters I +have seen, although some of them bear a strong resemblance to the +Roman, and some few to the Saxon. The hilt of the sword, on +which was the beginning of the inscription, is wanting. +This is the only inscribed stone I could discover on the +premises, although I was civilly assisted in my researches by the +occupier of the house. From the appearance of many of the +windows, &c. I should almost suppose it the remains of a +religious sanctuary.</p> +<p>Returning to the north side of the Dee, I must notice a small +factory, <a name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +82</span>where cotton is spun and manufactured into cloth by +machinery. It was erected by a Mr. Turner. The main +wheel is worked by a partial diversion of the river. It has +also a claim upon the Ellesmere Canal for a supply of water, and +affords employment for many of the inhabitants. The builder +and his partner unfortunately proving insolvent, the concern was +for a while stopped, and the factory stood unoccupied about five +years. It is now carried on by a very respectable firm from +Manchester, and is a great benefit to the town. The factory +was destroyed by fire in 1814, but being fully insured it was +soon rebuilt. By means of an outlet from the mill dam, a +great quantity of fine trout and salmon are caught here in the +season.</p> +<p>I shall now proceed to give some <a name="page83"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 83</span>account of Castell Dinas Bran, to +which I had before conducted my readers by the ancient road from +the Berwyn Mountains and Castell Crogen, or Chirk Castle.</p> +<h2><a name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +84</span>Castell<br /> +DINAS BRAN.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Desolate is the dwelling of Morna: silence +is in the house of her fathers. The voice of the people is +heard no more. The stream of Cultha is removed from its +place by the fall of its walls. Raise the song of mourning, +O bards!”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Castell Dinas Bran, vulgarly +called Crow Castle, is one of the primitive Welch Castles. +I shall not bewilder myself or my readers, by seeking for the +origin of its name, which so many learned men have sought in +vain; all their researches ending in conjecture: nor can I find +any account to be relied upon, when or by whom it was +erected.</p> +<p>The Castle stands, as hath before been shown, immediately +above and <a name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +85</span>on the north side of Llangollen, on a conical mountain, +about six hundred yards above the level of the river Dee; <a +name="citation85"></a><a href="#footnote85" +class="citation">[85]</a> and is built on the summit of the hill, +which probably was leveled to procure materials, as the building +occupies the whole flat. It seems to have been about one +hundred yards in length, by fifty yards wide. The present +remains are almost without form: they are built of the silicious +stone of the mountain, set in a coarse mortar or grout, which is +grown as hard as the stone itself. There are here and there +scattered remains of hewn stone for facings, &c. some +vestiges of a small round tower and a vaulted passage, and also a +very limpid stream, now almost choked with ruins.</p> +<p><a name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 86</span>A room +has been built within these few years, for the shelter and +convenience of visitors to the Castle; the key of which may be +obtained at a little white cottage half way up the hill, +inhabited by a very civil woman of the name of Parry, who +conducts the visitants, and provides them with tea if +required.</p> +<p>The Castle is conjectured to have been built by the Britons +before the Roman invasion; and was probably the residence of +Eliseg in the year 600. <a name="citation86"></a><a +href="#footnote86" class="citation">[86]</a> In the absence +of all authentic accounts, I present my readers with a free +translation of what I conceive to be a legendary tale, hoping it +will at least amuse.</p> +<p>I find in the fragment of an old <a name="page87"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 87</span>Welch book (from which the title-page +is lost), obligingly lent to me by Mr. Edward Morris, of Rhiscog, +to whom I am indebted for much valuable information, the +following account of the building of Castell Dinas +Bran:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“The Duke of Difnal, or Cornwall, having +conquered all his enemies, was crowned King, and reigned in peace +forty years, leaving at his death his kingdom to his two sons, +who were twins; Beli was the firstborn, Bran was the +youngest. They began to reign Anno Mundi 3600, but +contentions soon arising between them, they appealed to arms, and +called their friends and adherents to the field; and, +notwithstanding the persuasions and remonstrances of the chiefs +and great men of the <a name="page88"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 88</span>country, a day was appointed for the +decision of their claims by arms.</p> +<p>“In the meanwhile, their mother, the old Queen Corwena, +obtained an interview with her sons in her own apartments; when, +placing herself between them, she fell on her knees, her grey +hair disheveled, and her bosom bare, and thus addressed +them:—‘O! my dear sons, look on your mother, and for +her sake forbear to shed the blood of your friends; remember, it +is the Queen who solicits you to peace and unity; and remember +also that the blood of those brave men who fall in this quarrel +will cry for vengeance, and a life for a life, and a tooth for a +tooth, will be required. Consider, you once lived together +in peace upon this bosom, and now this great <a +name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>kingdom is +too small for you. For God’s sake, and as you value +my blessing, cast away this fierce wrath; be not more cruel than +the wolves of your forests, and the bears of your woods. +See how my tears fall upon those breasts where you were wont to +be cherished together. Do not let me go to my dark house in +sorrow. Throw down your arms, and embrace each other as +brothers, that God may bless the end of your days with peace and +prosperity, and crown your wives and your children with comfort +and joy. Amen.’</p> +<p>“The two brothers were so affected by this address from +their mother, that they both assisted to raise her from her +knees, and intreated her blessing. They then embraced, and +drinking to their mother and to each other, dismissed their +armies. Beli <a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +90</span>went to New Troy, <a name="citation90a"></a><a +href="#footnote90a" class="citation">[90a]</a> and Bran took up +his residence at a strong fortress, which he had built near +Llan-collen, <a name="citation90b"></a><a href="#footnote90b" +class="citation">[90b]</a> and called Dinas Bran, after his own +name.</p> +<p>“The Queen, returning to the portion of land which had +been given to her as a jointure, there built a small town, which +she named after herself, Corwen.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The following seems to be another version of the same story; +and as the Brut from which it is taken is by the learned +translator supposed to be the real Book of Gildas, <a +name="citation90c"></a><a href="#footnote90c" +class="citation">[90c]</a> I hope the antiquity and rarity of the +account <a name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +91</span>will be a sufficient excuse to my general +readers:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Beli and Bran were the sons of Dyfnwal, and +began to reign 667 years before Christ. <a +name="citation91"></a><a href="#footnote91" +class="citation">[91]</a> A violent struggle arose for the +sovereignty of the kingdom, which ended in it being divided +between them: however, in process of time, ambition again +prompted the two brothers to collect their respective forces, in +order to obtain supremacy; but when the two armies were about to +engage, their mother, the old Queen Torwen, or Tarevin, rushed +between the lines, and hastening to her son Bran, who had long +been absent from her, she tenderly embraced him, and with many +sighs and tears intreated him to be reconciled to his brother +Beli. <a name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +92</span>Her intreaties so wrought upon Bran that he turned all +his thoughts to peace, and laying aside his helmet, he went +unarmed to meet his brother. A reconciliation then took +place, the forces on each side throwing down their arms, and +approving the peace; and both parties went together to London, at +that time called Troia Newdd.” <a name="citation92"></a><a +href="#footnote92" class="citation">[92]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>As Eliseg’s Pillar has given a name to a fertile valley, +to a township, and to the wonderful and stupendous Egwlseg Rocks, +and which they all retain to this day, I presume to ask, is it +not as reasonable to suppose, since we find it recorded that +there was a British King of the name of Bran, that the name of +the Castle I <a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +93</span>am describing should have been derived from him, rather +than from a paltry stream bearing the name of Bran, or from an +insignificant bird; for Bran in the Welch language signifies +Crow. Might not, also, the streamlet of the Bran take its +name from the city of Bran? for I find in Richards’s Welch +Dictionary, “<i>Dinas</i>,” English +“<i>City</i>;” therefore, “<i>Castell Dinas +Bran</i>,” i.e. “<i>The Castle of the City of +Bran</i>;” “<i>Din</i>,” “<i>a fortified +city or mount</i>,” as Dinbrin, which adjoins the Castle +Hill. Should these hints, which with all deference I +venture to suggest, invite others to a deeper and more successful +research, I shall be happy; and I sincerely wish some one may +prosecute further inquiry, furnished with more ample materials, +and endowed with a superior degree of antiquarian knowledge.</p> +<p><a name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 94</span>Leaving +apocryphal accounts, I find that Madog Ap Gryffydd Maelor, who +founded the Abbey Crucis A.D. 1200, and who was by his +mother’s side the grandson of Gwen Gwynedd, Prince of North +Wales, resided at Castell Dinas Bran. <a +name="citation94a"></a><a href="#footnote94a" +class="citation">[94a]</a> He inherited Powis Madoc, and +was Lord of the second Bromfeild and Mochnant Is Rhauader. <a +name="citation94b"></a><a href="#footnote94b" +class="citation">[94b]</a></p> +<p>In the year 1209, Madog, forgetting his duty to his country +and to his prince, led his vassals and adherents to join the +English army under King John, then lying at Oswestry <a +name="citation94c"></a><a href="#footnote94c" +class="citation">[94c]</a> (Wynne says at Chester <a +name="citation94d"></a><a href="#footnote94d" +class="citation">[94d]</a>); where he had assembled a great +force, and with his usual violence and passion had resolved to +execute the severest <a name="page95"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 95</span>vengeance on the inhabitants of North +Wales, and not to suffer a person to remain alive in the +country. But such resolves are sooner made than executed; +and Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, no sooner heard of these mighty +preparations, and of the disaffection of some of his own +countrymen, particularly of the Lord of Dinas Bran, than he +issued his orders to his subjects in the counties of Denbigh and +Flint, to remove all their cattle and moveable substance for a +season, to the mountains of Snowdon; by which means, and by +getting into the rear of the King’s army, now advanced as +far as the Castle of Teganwy, he so straitened and harassed the +English forces, that, after eating their horses, and being +reduced to the greatest extremity, they were obliged to retrace +their steps at that time in disgrace, and <a +name="page96"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 96</span>breathing +revenge, which the King in some measure executed the next year. +<a name="citation96"></a><a href="#footnote96" +class="citation">[96]</a> But as I mean to confine myself +to the history of the Lords of Dinas Bran, I will not deviate +from my plan, by noticing matter which may be deemed +extraneous.</p> +<p>When John by his maladministration had quarrelled with his +great Barons, and thrown England into confusion, the vaccillating +Madog, Lord of Dinas Bran, again swore fealty to his lawful +Prince, Llewellyn, who politically overlooked his disaffection, +and accepted his submission. This and some other accession +of force enabled the Welch Prince successfully to assail the +English, from whom he took all the castles the King had +garrisoned, and most <a name="page97"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 97</span>cruelly and unjustly put to death all +their defenders in cold blood. This happened A.D. 1213. <a +name="citation97a"></a><a href="#footnote97a" +class="citation">[97a]</a> The remainder of the time of +this factious man, Madog, was occupied in rapine, war, and +slaughter; and he closed his turbulent life in Castell Dinas +Bran, and was buried at his Abbey of Llan Egwest, or Valle +Crucis, A.D. 1236, <a name="citation97b"></a><a +href="#footnote97b" class="citation">[97b]</a> leaving his son +Lord of Powis Fadog, Lord of Dinas Bran, and all his other +signiorities.</p> +<p>Gryffydd Ap Madog, like his father, partook of the character +of the times, and was fickle and turbulent. His father, +Madog Ap Gryffydd Maelor, had generally resided at Wattstay, now +Wynnstay; but Gryffydd Ap Madog made the <a +name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 98</span>Castell Dinas +Bran his chief residence, and it is probable that his confidence +in this almost inaccessible retreat might strengthen and +encourage him in his waywardness.</p> +<p>I find him joining Prince Edward, the son of Henry III. then +King of England, with all his forces, in the year 1257; and his +disaffection is thus stigmatized by the old writers: <a +name="citation98a"></a><a href="#footnote98a" +class="citation">[98a]</a>—“But Gryffydd Ap Madog +Maelor, Lord of Dinas Bran, a person of notorious reputation for +injustice and oppression, basely forsook the Welch, his +countrymen, and with all his forces went over to the Earl of +Chester.” <a name="citation98b"></a><a href="#footnote98b" +class="citation">[98b]</a></p> +<p>The following year, Llewellyn the <a name="page99"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 99</span>Prince, returning from an expedition +into South Wales, met the Earl, and forced him to retreat with +great precipitation, leaving the possessions of his unnatural +allies at the mercy of the conqueror, who now resolved to be +revenged on that ungrateful fugitive, the Lord of Dinas +Bran. He therefore passed through Bromfeild, and miserably +laid waste the whole country, and obliged Gryffydd to keep close +in his Castle of Dinas Bran, which, being situated on the summit +of a very steep hill, seemed impregnable to all the daring +efforts that could be used against it. <a +name="citation99"></a><a href="#footnote99" +class="citation">[99]</a></p> +<p>King Henry, being now much incensed against the Welch Prince +Llewellyn, on account of the obstinate resistance he experienced, +and <a name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +100</span>having drawn together the whole strength of England, +even from St. Michael’s Mount, in Cornwall, to the river +Tweed, marched with his son Edward in great rage to North Wales, +and without any opposition advanced as far as Teganwy; but +Llewellyn having taken precaution, as was the practice of the +Welch in cases of invasion, to have all manner of provision and +forage carried over the river, and having secured the strait and +narrow passages whereby the English might advance into the +country, the King’s troops were in a short time so mortally +harassed and fatigued, that they were obliged to return to +England in haste, and with great loss.</p> +<p>Gryffydd Ap Madog, finding King Henry unable to protect his +estate, submitted to his rightful Prince; <a +name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>and +Llewellyn then passed to Powis, and banished Gryffydd Ap +Gwenwynwyn, who had also joined the English, and took all the +lands in the country of Powis into his own hands.</p> +<p>Llewellyn, who was a politic prince, received the submission +of the Lord of Dinas Bran, because he knew that inaccessible +fortress could not be forced from him, and that it would not be +safe to have an avowed enemy, with so strong a refuge for his +disaffected subjects, in the rear of his operations; otherwise +Gryffydd Ap Madog had merited banishment as much as his namesake +of Powisland: nay, Gryffydd, Lord of Dinas Bran, married an +English lady, <a name="citation101"></a><a href="#footnote101" +class="citation">[101]</a> Emma, daughter of Lord Audley, whose +<a name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>father +did much mischief and hurt to the Welch, by bringing from Germany +a body of horsemen, who, by the uncommon size of their horses, +and their unusual manner of fighting, terrified and easily +defeated the Welchmen at the first; but when they had become more +familiarized with their mode, they took their revenge upon them, +even on Lord Audley’s own land. <a +name="citation102a"></a><a href="#footnote102a" +class="citation">[102a]</a></p> +<p>All the nobility of Wales had solemnly sworn to defend their +country till death against the invasion of the English, and not +to relinquish or forsake one another; and the return of Gryffydd +Ap Madog to his allegiance diffused through every breast the hope +of better days. <a name="citation102b"></a><a +href="#footnote102b" class="citation">[102b]</a></p> +<p><a name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 103</span>From +this time to the day of his death, I do not find that he again +deserted his Prince, but attached himself to the fortunes of his +country, although fears of the resentment of his countrymen for +his former conduct made him keep close to his Castle of Dinas +Bran, where he died in 1270, <a name="citation103a"></a><a +href="#footnote103a" class="citation">[103a]</a> and was buried +by the side of his father in the Abbey Church of Valle Crucis; +leaving his country in the enjoyment of freedom and peace; the +Welch having, by innate bravery and constancy, aided by the +fastnesses of their country, and the good policy of their Prince, +freed themselves for a time from the thraldom of their potent +enemy.</p> +<p>Mr. Pennant gives a different account of his end. <a +name="citation103b"></a><a href="#footnote103b" +class="citation">[103b]</a> He says that <a +name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 104</span>“his +wife, Emma, having alienated his affection from his own country, +made him an instrument of its subjection, and of the destruction +of his own family; for, as he took part with Henry III. and +Edward I. against his natural Prince, the resentment of his +countrymen was excited against him, and he was obliged to shelter +himself from their rage in his Castle of Dinas Bran, where +probably shame and grief put an end to his life.”</p> +<p>Be that as it may, Gryffydd Ap Madog, by his wife Emma, +daughter of John, Lord Audley, left issue four sons, viz. Madog, +Llewellyn, Gryffydd, and Owen. <a name="citation104"></a><a +href="#footnote104" class="citation">[104]</a> Madog, the +eldest, became Lord of Dinas Bran &c. He died, it is +supposed, not <a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +105</span>long after his father, leaving two sons to inherit his +property. <a name="citation105a"></a><a href="#footnote105a" +class="citation">[105a]</a> The eldest, called Madog, had, +by his father’s will, Bromfeild and Yale, the Castell Dinas +Bran, &c.; the second son, Llewellyn, the Lordship of Chirk, +&c. It should seem these children were not of age when +their father died; for Edward I. King of England, took on him to +appoint guardians to them both, and committed Madog, the elder, +to the care of John, Earl of Warren, one of his favorites; and +Llewellyn he intrusted to Roger Mortimer, son of Lord Mortimer, +of Wigmore. <a name="citation105b"></a><a href="#footnote105b" +class="citation">[105b]</a> These men well understood the +nature of the appointment; and it is probable that Edward had +maturely weighed in his mind the potency of <a +name="page106"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 106</span>their +enmity, who could be such powerful friends, and having then but +recently subjugated the country, he might wish out of his way two +scions of a stock which had proved so stubborn and so +valiant. It was well known that Warren and Mortimer had rid +themselves of their respective charges, and had possessed +themselves of their estates, which they were suffered to enjoy +without an inquiry being instituted respecting them, or about the +disappearance of their wards; but the manner of the murder of +these two unfortunate children has but lately been discovered, in +a manuscript in the Bodleian Library. <a +name="citation106"></a><a href="#footnote106" +class="citation">[106]</a> The guardian of the two boys +caused them to be drowned under Holt Bridge; and no doubt from +hence arose the <a name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +107</span>origin of a fable which was long current in the +country, of two fairies having been drowned in that place.</p> +<p>From the Earls of Warren the Castell Dinas Bran passed to the +Arundel <a name="citation107"></a><a href="#footnote107" +class="citation">[107]</a> and other families. In 1390, +Myfanuy Fechan, a descendant of the house of Tudor, resided +there, and was celebrated for her beauty in a long ode by Howel +Ap Einion Lygliw, a celebrated bard of that time. The +Castle was probably then held under the Earls of Arundel. +It is now the property of Mrs. Myddelton Biddulph, of Chirk +Castle. The period of its destruction is as completely +unknown as the time of its foundation. Eagles and hawks in +abundance used to breed, <a name="page108"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 108</span>as some now do, in the neighbouring +rocky ridge of the Eglwyseg, and</p> +<blockquote><p> “Along the narrow valley +you might see<br /> + The wild deer sporting on the +meadow ground,<br /> + And here and there a solitary tree,<br /> + Or mossy stone, or rock with +woodbine crown’d.<br /> + Oft did the cliffs reverberate the sound<br /> + Of parted fragments tumbling from +on high,<br /> + And from the summit of that craggy mound<br /> + The perching eagle oft was heard +to cry,<br /> +Or on resounding wing to shoot athwart the sky.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The view from the Castle is not so extensive as might be +expected from its elevation, being bounded, except towards the +east, by more lofty mountains; yet the scenery is most truly +grand and magnificent. According to the plan laid down in +the beginning of this work, I leave my readers to their own +observations; only informing them that the house which makes a +distinguished figure to the westward is Dinbrin Hall, the +residence of Richard Jones, Esq.</p> +<p><a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +109</span>Descending on the west side of the hill, and proceeding +on the old way to the Abbey Crucis, stands a neat house, called +the Twr, i.e. Tower, which I conjecture, for I can obtain no +written document on the subject, to have been a look-out or +watch-tower belonging to the Castle; especially as it is placed +on the side most easy of access. Some additions have been +made to the Tower, and it is now a comfortable farm-house, +inhabited by a very respectable lady, of the name of Price. +It has been a square building, built of hewn stone, as evinced by +the massive walls which now surround the old part converted into +a parlour, and by an old spiral stone stair at the back of the +room.</p> +<p>The old way from the Castle to the Abbey has been much +intersected <a name="page110"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +110</span>and crossed, especially by the branch of the Ellesmere +Canal, and by roads made to recently erected retreats and farms; +among which I must not, however, reckon the road to</p> +<h2>Llantysilio,</h2> +<p>Which is a place of great antiquity. It belonged of old +time to the ancient family of the Cuppers of the North, <a +name="citation110"></a><a href="#footnote110" +class="citation">[110]</a> so called even in the time of King +Henry II.; and by the marriage of a daughter of that family with +a Mr. Jones, of Llanbothian, in Montgomeryshire, it became the +heritage of the late possessor of that name, and is now inhabited +by Major Harrison, who resides in the Hall, a large brick +building, bearing <a name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +111</span>a strong affinity to Trevor Hall in antiquity of +erection. It is situated in a pleasant valley, watered by +the river Dee, over which it enjoys a fine prospect.</p> +<p>The Church of Llantysilio is dedicated to a Welch saint, from +whom the township takes its name. He was Prince of Powis, +and was called St. Tysilio. It is a neat little edifice, +with a very pleasant church-yard, and contains nothing very +ancient in the monumental way; but there are around it many very +venerable yew trees, with their wide spreading sombre +foliage. I had the curiosity to measure one, and found it +above twenty feet in girth. The inside of the Church is, +like its neighbour at Llangollen, indebted for some of its +decorations to the Abbey Crucis, which seems after its <a +name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 112</span>dissolution +to have been considered as lawful plunder; and this circumstance +in some measure accounts for its so speedy dilapidation. +English service is performed in the Church of Llantysilio on the +third Sunday in every month.</p> +<h2><a name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 113</span>Vale +Crucis<br /> +ABBEY.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“How many hearts have here grown cold,<br /> + That sleep these mouldering stones among!<br /> +How many beads have here been told!<br /> + How many matins here been sung!<br /> +But here no more soft music floats,<br /> + No holy anthems chanted now;<br /> +All hush’d, except the ring-dove’s notes,<br /> + Low murmuring from yon beachen bough.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Abbey of Llan Egwest, or Valle +Crucis, so called from a very ancient inscribed pillar or cross, +the mutilated remains of which stand in an adjacent field, and +will next come under consideration, was built and founded by +Madog Ap Gryffydd Maelor, Lord of Dinas Bran, as before related +under the head of Dinas Bran.</p> +<p><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 114</span>This +Abbey was built in the year of our Lord 1200, was dedicated to +the Virgin Mary, and belonged to a community of Cistercian Monks, +an order founded in France in the year 1098. The remains of +the Abbey Church are the most picturesque and entire part. +It was built in the form of a cross, which was contrary to the +form in common use before the twelfth century. <a +name="citation114"></a><a href="#footnote114" +class="citation">[114]</a></p> +<p>This proves that Madog availed himself of the aid of skilful +workmen, and it is probable that the fraternity called Free +Masons were employed, as they were incorporated about this time, +and were the chief undertakers of such works. Their +government was regular, and they were wont to make an encampment +of huts. A <a name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +115</span>surveyor governed in chief; every tenth man being +called a warden, and overlooking nine. They ranged from one +country to another, as they found churches to be built. <a +name="citation115"></a><a href="#footnote115" +class="citation">[115]</a></p> +<p>The Church is built in different styles of architecture. +The east end seems the most ancient, and the three lancet-like +arched windows have a very peculiar effect. It is situated +at the foot of a lofty hill, called Fron Fawr, and a little +stream runs at the back of the Abbey, skirting its gardens, and +turning a corn-mill in its passage to the Dee. The view +from the high bank beyond the rivulet (which is crossed by a +rustic plank bridge) of the east end of the Church and Abbey, is +particularly beautiful.</p> +<p><a name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 116</span>On +its front or west side rise the Berwyn Mountains; on the east, +the Fron Fawr; and the whole is so enveloped in beautiful foliage +that it is perhaps one of the most enchantingly secluded places +in the kingdom. The west front of the Church affords some +admirable specimens of ancient gothic architecture. The +grand entrance has been through the ornamented pointed arch +gateway at the west end; over which is a fine gothic window, +consisting of three lancet-shaped arches, surmounted by a +circular or rose window, of eight divisions; but it is too lofty +to admit of close inspection, as is also the following mutilated +inscription, which is above it:—</p> +<blockquote><p>AD . . . ADAM . . . DMS fecit hoc opus. Pace +beata quiescat. Amen.<br /> +MD . . .</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The rest of the last line is obliterated. <a +name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 117</span>The +following translation may not be unacceptable:—</p> +<blockquote><p>AD . . . ADAM . . . DMS built (or rebuilt) this +work. May he rest in happy peace. Amen.<br /> +MD . . .</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The letters MD seem to have been meant as part of the date +marking the time when the Church was repaired, and go far to +prove the little veneration shown to this once elegant structure +by the neighbouring people, and that its dilapidation was +unusually rapid. Now, we will suppose that the inscription +MD means 1500, and allow that it was then in complete repair, and +that it was one of the first Abbeys dissolved, say in 1538; for I +do not read that Henry VIII. began his reformation among the +religious houses before that time; I find in Camden’s +Britannia, speaking of this place, the following +passage:—“Save onely a <a name="page118"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 118</span>little Abbay, now <i>wholly +decaied</i>, but standing most richly and pleasantly in a vale, +which among the woody hils cutteth itself overthwart in manner of +a crosse, whereupon it was called in Latin Vallis Crucis, that +is, the Vale of the Crosse, and in British, Lhane Gwest.” +<a name="citation118a"></a><a href="#footnote118a" +class="citation">[118a]</a></p> +<p>Camden’s great work, Britannia, was published in 1586; +and from these facts I draw my conclusion that it was ransacked +and destroyed soon after its dissolution, as I suppose it +was—</p> +<p>In complete repair, A.D. 1500;</p> +<p>Dissolved by order of Henry VIII. A.D. 1538; <a +name="citation118b"></a><a href="#footnote118b" +class="citation">[118b]</a></p> +<p><a name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +119</span>Wholly decayed, as by Camden, 1586. <a +name="citation119"></a><a href="#footnote119" +class="citation">[119]</a></p> +<p>Of the magnificence of this ancient Monastery no adequate +description can now be given, and scarcely an idea formed of what +it has been. The body and nave of the Church are +disfigured, and nearly choked up with masses of ruins, and large +and luxuriant forest trees, among which the ash and sycamore are +most predominant. The length of the Church is about one +hundred and eighty feet; the width I can only guess at, as the +north side is wholly gone. An author before me says the +nave was thirty-one feet broad, and the side aisle thirteen +feet.</p> +<p><a name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 120</span>In +the north transept are the remains of a chapel, said by some to +have contained the tomb of the founder. In a wall in the +cloister stands a double benetoir, or vessel for holy +water. The cloister is small and gloomy, whose</p> +<blockquote><p>“Storied windows, richly dight,<br /> +Have shed a dim religions light.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The solemnity of the place, and the stillness that reigns, +aided by the subdued light of the moon, and by a vivid fancy, may +conjure up strange ideas, and</p> +<blockquote><p>“Still may imagination’s ardent eye<br +/> +In the tall grove the sage’s form espy;<br /> +See him intent with sacred zeal to plan<br /> +Some moral lesson for ungrateful man.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The part of the Abbey now remaining is inhabited by a farmer, +who will show the premises on proper <a name="page121"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 121</span>application. There, is a Saxon +or semicircular arched gateway in the farm-yard, adjoining a very +curious gothic window, well worthy attention. The dormitory +or sleeping cells were formerly entered by stone stairs from the +outside, which have been removed within the last two years. +The floor of the dormitory is supported by low massive pillars; +and the arches which spring from their capitals form vaulted +rooms, in which the family reside. There are many beautiful +features in this interesting ruin, to amply repay the attention +of the curious, and the research of the antiquarian. The +front seems to have been extensive, and before it gurgles up a +very pure spring of water. The Abbot’s apartments +were contiguous to the church, and there opened from one of them +a small space, where he might stand, <a name="page122"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 122</span>and hear the holy services performed +below.</p> +<p>The venerable ruin is lessened by every succeeding tenant, and +some of the recently erected buildings exhibit stones with +mutilated devices and inscriptions worked up in the walls. +In one of the farmer’s bedchambers a stone forms part of a +chimney-piece, which is carved with running foliage, and contains +this imperfect inscription:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Hic jacet Arvrvet.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This is the only remain of any tomb discovered. In +digging a few months ago in the farm-yard, to make a drain, at a +short distance from the surface were dug up the remains of eleven +men, in a very small compass of ground, which goes far to prove +that this was the common <a name="page123"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 123</span>cemetery of the Abbey; and also a +wedge-like stone, having carved on its front a hand, holding a +vine or olive branch, bearing fruit. The stone is now at +Plas Newydd.</p> +<p>I have in my account of Castell Dinas Bran recorded that Madog +Ap Gryffydd Maelor was buried in this Abbey, A.D. 1236; and his +son, Gryffydd Ap Madog Maelor, Lord of Dinas Bran, A.D. 1270.</p> +<p>Having thus given the best account I can of the present state +of this once noble Abbey, I now proceed to state what I can +collect from authentic sources of its Abbots and its +endowments.</p> +<p>Reyner, Bishop of St. Asaph, who died in 1224, bestowed on +this Abbey half the tithes of Wrexham. Abraham, <a +name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 124</span>his +brother, succeeded him in the Bishoprick in 1227, and gave the +remaining half. <a name="citation124a"></a><a +href="#footnote124a" class="citation">[124a]</a></p> +<p>Howel Ap Ednyfed, successor to Abraham, gave to it the Church +of Llangollen. <a name="citation124b"></a><a href="#footnote124b" +class="citation">[124b]</a> The monks also obtained, +besides these endowments, the patronage of several other livings, +as Wrexham, Ruabon, Chirk, Llansanfraid, and Llandegla.</p> +<p>The freemen of Llangollen made a grant in part of the river +near their town of a fishery to the monks of Valle Crucis; and, +for want of a seal of their own, affixed the seal of the founder +of the Abbey to the grant. <a name="citation124c"></a><a +href="#footnote124c" class="citation">[124c]</a></p> +<p>The landed endowments were, in <a name="page125"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 125</span>the year 1291, near the Abbey, a +grange, with three ploughlands, <a name="citation125"></a><a +href="#footnote125" class="citation">[125]</a> a mill, and other +conveniences, probably the donations of the founder Madog; the +granges of Bodhange, Tregam, Rudryn, and Baketon. I have no +means of ascertaining who were the donors of the farms, but I +find they had also the dairy farm of Nante; the grange of +Nostroyz, Convenet, and Grennychamt; also the grange of +Wyrcessam, consisting of one ploughland and some pasture, with +thirty cows, valued in those days at only thirty shillings.</p> +<p>All these estates were vested in the Abbot for the time being, +and formed no inconsiderable revenue; but the title of the monks +to several of the livings was disputed by a succeeding <a +name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 126</span>Bishop of +St. Asaph, called Y Brawd Du O Nannau, or the Black Brother of +Nanny, who obtained a decision in his favour. The third of +the tithes of Bryn Eglwys, or Egwestl, was, however, allotted to +them, in lieu of the patronage of Llandegla.</p> +<p>The monks had also a dispute with the freemen of Llangollen +respecting the fishery, the former having erected works on the +river, whereby they caught more fish than the Llangollen folks +thought came to their share, or than abstemious monks could +require. However, the affair was referred to the Prince of +Wales, and the fishery was confirmed to the Abbey in 1234.</p> +<p>I will now lay before my readers a short account of some of +the Abbots.</p> +<p><a name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +127</span>Dafydd Ap Ivan Jorwerth is highly celebrated by a bard +in the year 1480, who says of him, and of his successor, Ivan, or +John, that they lived in great splendour, that they had four +courses every day served on bright silver dishes, and they drank +claret, &c. He also commends the piety of the house, +and says that he was so happy as to be blessed by Abbot John, who +had three of his fingers covered with rings. The last Abbot +was John Herne, who received an annuity of 23<i>l.</i> per annum +on his surrender. In 1553 this annuity, and others to some +of the surviving monks, to the amount of 10<i>l.</i> 13<i>s.</i> +4<i>d.</i> were the whole of the remaining charges. <a +name="citation127"></a><a href="#footnote127" +class="citation">[127]</a></p> +<p>This is said to be the first Abbey that was dissolved in +Wales, and it <a name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +128</span>remained in the crown until the ninth of James I. who +then granted it to Edward Wotton, created Lord Wotton. In +1654, Margaret Wotton was in possession. She was a +recusant, and Cromwell then put it under sequestration to Edward +Davies, the Cneifwr Glâs of Eglwyseg.</p> +<p>The last possessor, Mrs. Thomas, of Trevor Hall, built a kind +of summer-house at the back of the Abbey, adjoining to a pond +abounding with trout. Here was a charming field for the +display of taste; but, as in the hut at the top of Dinas Bran, +the opportunity has been lost.</p> +<p>Leaving the Abbey, let us now proceed through the adjoining +meadow to the Pillar of Eliseg, from which the valley takes its +name.</p> +<h2><a name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 129</span>La +Crucis;<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">OR</span><br /> +THE PILLAR OF ELISEG.</h2> +<blockquote><p>—“The time draws on<br /> +When not a single spot of burial earth,<br /> +Whether on land, or in the spacious sea,<br /> +But must give back its long committed dust<br /> +Inviolate.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Pillar of Eliseg is supposed to +be one of the oldest inscribed British columns now existing, and +is erected in a field about three furlongs from the Abbey, +standing in a delightful valley, to which it gives the name of +Valle Crucis, or the Vale of the Cross. The spot on which +it stands is a gentle elevation, and is called Llwyn y Groes, +i.e. the Grove of the Cross. The pillar was twelve feet <a +name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 130</span>high, and +inscribed all round with letters. It stood in its place +until some of Cromwell’s fanatical soldiers overthrew and +broke it.</p> +<p>The pillar remained cast down many years, until Trevor Lloyd, +Esq. of Trevor Hall, reared its mutilated remains again into its +base, which had not been removed, and placed upon it this Latin +inscription:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span +class="GutSmall">QUOD HUJUS VETERIS MONUMENTI</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">SUPEREST</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">DIU EX OCULIS REMOTUM</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">ET NEGLECTUM</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">TANDEM RESTITUIT</span><br /> +T. LLOYD<br /> +TREVOR HALL<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">MDCCLXXIX.</span></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Translated as follows:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“T. LLOYD, of Trevor Hall, at length, in the +year 1779, restored what remains of this ancient Monument, which +had been a long time removed from sight, and +neglected.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 131</span>The +Cross, or Pillar, for it seems never to have had the form of a +Cross, is now little more than eight feet high. The old +inscription, which time has rendered illegible, has been +carefully copied by that great antiquarian, Mr. Edward Llwyd, <a +name="citation131a"></a><a href="#footnote131a" +class="citation">[131a]</a> and informs us nearly of the time of +its erection, as under:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Concenn filius Cateli . . Cateli <a +name="citation131b"></a><a href="#footnote131b" +class="citation">[131b]</a> filius Brochmail Brochmail filius +Eliseg . . Eliseg filius Cnoillaine Concenn itaque pronepos +Eliseg edificavit hunc Lapidem proavo suo Eliseg.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Of which the following seems to be an exact +translation:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Concenn, the son of Cateli; Cateli the son +of Brochmail; Brochmail, the son of Eliseg; Eliseg, the son of +Cnoillaine; Concenn, therefore the great-grandson of Eliseg, +erected this stone to his great-grandfather Eliseg.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 132</span>The +characters resemble one of the alphabets in use about the sixth +century, at which time this sepulchral pillar was erected. +Concenn and Eliseg probably resided at Castell Dinas Bran; and a +township adjacent bears the name of Eglwyseg, as well as the +stupendous and picturesque mass of rocks that range along the +vale, called the Eglwyseg Rocks, from Eliseg. Brochmail, +another of the persons mentioned, deserted the protection of the +Monks of Bangor at the battle of West Chester, when twelve +hundred of those unfortunate unarmed religious were cut to pieces +by the forces of Athelfrid or Edilfred, King of Northumberland, +A.D. 607. <a name="citation132"></a><a href="#footnote132" +class="citation">[132]</a></p> +<p>Brochmail, whom I suppose to be <a name="page133"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 133</span>the same the Latins called +Brochmailus, was a great prince in that part of Britain called +Powisland, which was then very extensive, stretching from the +Severn to the Dee in a right line, from the end of Broxon Hills +to Salop, and comprehending all the country between the Wye and +Severn. He resided at Pengwern Powis, now Shrewsbury, <a +name="citation133a"></a><a href="#footnote133a" +class="citation">[133a]</a> in a house situated where the College +of St. Chad now stands. He was a great friend and favourer +of the Monks of Bangor, and took part with them against the +Saxons, instigated by Augustine the Monk to prosecute them with +fire and sword, because they would not agree to the forms and +ceremonies of the Church of Rome, and forsake their own +established customs. <a name="citation133b"></a><a +href="#footnote133b" class="citation">[133b]</a></p> +<p><a name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>I was +so fortunate as to meet with two persons who assisted in opening +the tumulus before the pillar was re-erected; and they gave me +the following account:—On digging below the flat pedestal +in which the base of the Pillar had been inserted, they came to a +layer of pebble stones; and after having removed them, to a large +flat slab, on which it seems the body had been laid, as they now +found the remains of it, guarded round with large flat blue +stones, and covered at top with the same; the whole forming a +sort of stone box or coffin. The bones were entire, and of +very large dimensions. The skull and teeth, which were very +white and perfect, were particularly sound. My informants +said they believed the skull was sent to Trevor Hall, but it was +returned, and again deposited, with <a name="page135"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 135</span>the rest of the bones, in its former +sepulchre. By this it should seem that Eliseg was not an +old man when he was buried here, and it is wonderful that greater +decomposition had not taken place in twelve hundred years.</p> +<p>One of the persons who assisted at the exhumation is now a +very old man, and was huntsman to Mr. Lloyd when the tumulus was +opened. He says there was a large piece of silver coin +found in the coffin, which was kept; but that the skull was +gilded to preserve it, and was then again deposited with its +kindred bones. I asked if the bones were sound; and he +answered (I give his own words), “O, no, sir; they broke +like gingerbread.”</p> +<p>I have now reached the limits I <a name="page136"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 136</span>prescribed for myself on the north +side of the Dee, and trust I have noticed every thing most worthy +of attention. I purpose next to give a short account of the +river, and passing Llangollen Bridge, continue my route to +Glyndyfrdwy and Sycharth, once the residence of Owen Glyndwr.</p> +<h2><a name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 137</span>The +River Dee</h2> +<blockquote><p>“On scenes like these the eye delights to +dwell,<br /> +Here loud cascades, and there the silent dell;<br /> +The lofty mountains, bleak and barren, rise,<br /> +And spread their ample bosoms to the skies;<br /> +While still the rushing river rolls along,<br /> +The theme of many a humble shepherd’s song,<br /> +And as it rolls, the trout, in speckled pride,<br /> +Springs playful in the smooth translucent tide.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> river Dee forms a beautiful and +interesting feature in all the most picturesque views around +Llangollen. Passing from Glyndyfrdwy down the river, it +successively assumes the appearance of the brawling brook over +beds of pebbles; the deep tranquil character of the gliding lake, +reflecting on its pure bosom the woods and mountains that +surround it; the rushing cascade <a name="page138"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 138</span>or rapids, over beds of rocks, or +through chasms of stone.</p> +<blockquote><p>“The current that with gentle murmur +glides,<br /> +Opposed by rocks impatiently doth rage;<br /> +But when his fair course is not hindered,<br /> +He makes sweet music with the enamelled stones,<br /> +Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge<br /> +He overtaketh in his pilgrimage;<br /> +And so by many winding nooks he strays<br /> +With willing sport to the wild ocean.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It rises a few miles beyond Bala, a town about twenty miles +from Llangollen, on the west, and runs through a pool now called +Bala pool, some say without mingling its stream. <a +name="citation138"></a><a href="#footnote138" +class="citation">[138]</a> There is no river in England +which has been so much celebrated by our poets for its sanctity +as the Dee; and Camden describes it as “riseing on the east +sideof Merionethshire, and forthwith passeth entire and whole +through Lhintegid, in <a name="page139"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 139</span>English, Pimble Meare, or Plenlin +Meare, <a name="citation139a"></a><a href="#footnote139a" +class="citation">[139a]</a> a lake spreding far in length and +bredth; and so runneth out of it with as great a streame as it +entred in; for neither shal a man see in the Dee the fishes +called guiniad, which are peculiar to the Meare, nor yet salmons +in the Meare, which neverthelesse are commonly taken in the +river.” <a name="citation139b"></a><a href="#footnote139b" +class="citation">[139b]</a></p> +<p>The mazy windings of the Dee, embellished as its banks are +with the fresh green shrubs and plants which flourish there in +great luxuriance, afford a very delightful walk, independent of +the great amusement to anglers for which this river has ever been +so famous. The trout are as fine as any in the kingdom, and +<a name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 140</span>are very +plentiful. Many men obtain a livelihood during the season, +by fishing in this beautiful river, which they contrive to manage +in their little coracles, a large kind of round basket, covered +with skins or tarpawling, and with a board across the centre for +a seat. It is amusing to see them waft themselves where +they please, with a little paddle in one hand, and a fly-rod in +the other, fishing every corner of the deep pool; and when tired, +rowing to land, throwing their boats on their shoulders, and +walking with them to another deep pool, where they again commence +operations.</p> +<p>Salmon come up the river to spawn; and although so many do not +reach Llangollen as in former times, owing to the new inventions +erected on the river to entrap them <a name="page141"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 141</span>in their way from the sea, yet many +of them overcome all impediments, and reach their usual +haunts. I saw last summer, at the season when the salmon +fray, or fry, seek their way to the sea from the river where they +have been bred, large shoals of these fish, and at one time more +than forty fishing rods successfully employed in a small space of +water near the water-mill just above the bridge. This +fishery continued in great activity for many days; the bait used +being a common ground-worm, or a straw-worm, here called +corbet. A little fresh in the river at length came, of +which the fish took advantage, and proceeded on their way, after +having lost some thousands of their numbers at Llangollen.</p> +<p>The otter is found in this river, and, owing to the many +fastnesses, <a name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +142</span>can seldom be destroyed. There are also numerous +and various aquatic birds. The rock-ousel, the kingfisher, +the sand-piper, the crane, and a duck-like bird, with black and +white plumeage, which the inhabitants term a cormorant, are very +common.</p> +<p>About a mile above the bridge is a deep chasm in the rocky +bed, through which the whole river, when not swollen, +rushes. It is six yards across, and bears the name of Llam +Y Lleidr, i.e. Thief’s Leap, from the circumstance of a +robber, who was pursued closely, having possessed sufficient +agility to clear this space, while his unfortunate pursuer fell +short, and was engulphed in the roaring torrent, narrowly +escaping the loss of life, as well as of property. There is +another chasm nearer the <a name="page143"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 143</span>bridge, still deeper and narrower, +called the Cow’s Leap.</p> +<p>The river runs over a bed of dark-coloured silicious rock, +which is sometimes got by the inhabitants for the use of +building. The bed of the river is consequently very uneven, +which causes it to foam and rush very impetuously along.</p> +<h3>The Bridge</h3> +<p>Is a plain gothic structure at the west end of Llangollen, and +consists of four irregularly formed pointed arches, with +projecting angular buttresses. The bridge was built across +the Dee by John Trevor, Bishop of St. Asaph, and Chancellor of +Chester, A.D. 1346, and was accounted one of the wonders of +Wales. The arches are of various dimensions, <a +name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 144</span>but the +only wonder I can discover seems to be the foundation, which is +laid upon the rock that forms the bed of the river, and is +fastened thereto with iron clamps. The bridge is built of +hewn stone, and is, like most other old bridges, very narrow and +ill-paved.</p> +<p>Many wonderful tales are related of the sudden rise of this +river, and it certainly is a very inconstant stream; but I cannot +conceive it possible that the water should ever have risen, as +reported, so high as the base of the parapet. There is +another little bridge called the Chain Bridge, about two miles up +the river.</p> +<p>I will now cross the bridge to the south side of the +river.</p> +<h2><a name="page145"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 145</span>Glyn +Dyfrdwy.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“They look’d a manly, generous +generation,<br /> + Beards, shoulders, eyebrows, broad and square and +thick;<br /> +Their accents firm, and loud in conversation;<br /> + Their eyes and gestures eager, sharp, and +quick.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">About</span> five miles west of +Llangollen, upon the road to Corwen, and on the south side of the +Dee, the way being enriched by such varied and enchanting scenery +as will amply repay the traveller of taste for the fatigue of the +excursion, is Glyn Dyfrdwy, once the property and residence of +that famous chieftain Owen Glyndwr, whose birth Shakspeare says +marked him extraordinary. I will, however, here give a +short account of his life, which I <a name="page146"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 146</span>trust will prove entertaining to +many of my readers, and plainly show that “he was not in +the roll of common men.”</p> +<p>Owen Ap Gryffydd Fychan, better known by the name of Owen +Glyndwr, <a name="citation146a"></a><a href="#footnote146a" +class="citation">[146a]</a> was descended from a younger son of +Gryffydd Ap Madog, Lord of Powis Bromfeild, and of Dinas +Bran. He received his education in one of the inns of +court, and became a barrister-at-law.</p> +<p>It seems that about the year of our Lord 1395, he came into +great favour with King Richard II. who made him his scutifer, or +shield-bearer; <a name="citation146b"></a><a href="#footnote146b" +class="citation">[146b]</a> and Owen was with the King when he +was surrendered to <a name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +147</span>Henry, Duke of Lancaster, together with the Castle of +Flint. <a name="citation147a"></a><a href="#footnote147a" +class="citation">[147a]</a></p> +<p>Betwixt Owen and Reginald, Lord Grey, of Ruthin, there arose a +fierce dispute, about a common lying between the Lordship of +Ruthin and Glyndyfrdwy, and belonging to Owen, who now assumed +the name of Glyndwr; and who was held in great respect by his +countrymen, having artfully induced them to believe that he could +“call spirits from the vasty deep.” Reginald +was at first conquered, and Owen possessed the disputed land; but +after the deposal and murder of King Richard in Pomfret Castle, +and Henry had mounted the throne, <a name="citation147b"></a><a +href="#footnote147b" class="citation">[147b]</a> the scene was +changed; as Henry <a name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +148</span>aided Lord Grey, who with his own vassals, and assisted +by some of the King’s forces, again dispossessed Owen of +the land. Several severe encounters took place between the +rival chieftains; and although Reginald’s adherents were +more numerous, the wily lawyer was more fertile in +expedients.</p> +<p>Owen, being apprised of an attack intended to be made upon him +by Lord Grey, here practised a successful ruse de guerre. +He erected a number of stakes in a bottom still called +<i>Dôl Benig</i>, <a name="citation148"></a><a +href="#footnote148" class="citation">[148]</a> and having clad +them in jackets and Welch caps, so alarmed Reginald by their +appearance that he gave up the expedition.</p> +<p><a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 149</span>At +length Owen’s good fortune and perseverance brought his +enemy into his power. <a name="citation149a"></a><a +href="#footnote149a" class="citation">[149a]</a> Having +artfully drawn Reginald from his strong hold of Ruthin, he caused +his horses to be shod backwards, which induced Reginald to +advance, supposing he was pursuing a flying enemy, when he fell +into an ambuscade, and was suddenly surrounded by Owen’s +forces, and made prisoner. Owen then marched to Ruthin, +burnt the castle, destroyed the town, and despoiled the country. +<a name="citation149b"></a><a href="#footnote149b" +class="citation">[149b]</a></p> +<p>Prior to this success, Owen had laid his complaints before the +King’s Parliament, and John Trevor, Bishop of St. Asaph, +and Chancellor of Chester, seeing that no attention was paid to +his petition, after a long <a name="page150"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 150</span>delay, ventured to expostulate with +the Lords, and to caution them that they did not, by slighting or +neglecting Owen’s complaint, provoke the Welch to +insurrection. The reply of the Lords was full of contempt, +saying, “They did not fear those rascally bare-footed +people.” <a name="citation150"></a><a href="#footnote150" +class="citation">[150]</a> It was subsequent to this time +that Glyndwr, finding his suit neglected, resolved to endeavour +to redress his own wrongs, which terminated in the capture of +Reginald, as before related.</p> +<p>This signal success drew to Owen many of his countrymen from +all parts of the principality, who urged him on, asserting that +the period was now arrived in which the prophecies of Merlin +would be <a name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +151</span>fulfilled; and that he was the man through whose valour +the lost honour and liberties of their native country were to be +recovered.</p> +<p>Owen Glyndwr, smarting with resentment, and impelled by his +ambition, suffered himself to be persuaded to undertake the +emancipation of the principality; and in the mean time kept +Reginald Lord Grey a close prisoner; demanding ten thousand marks +for his ransom; six thousand to be paid on the feast of St. +Martin, in the fourth year of the King’s reign, and +Reginald to deliver up his eldest son, with other persons of +quality, as hostages for the due performance. <a +name="citation151"></a><a href="#footnote151" +class="citation">[151]</a></p> +<p>The King, at the humble suit of <a name="page152"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 152</span>Lord Grey (he finding no other means +for his enlargement), appointed a council to treat with Glyndwr, +who stoutly refusing to recede from his terms, they agreed to +give him the sum demanded. It is also said that Owen +obliged Reginald to marry one of his daughters. <a +name="citation152a"></a><a href="#footnote152a" +class="citation">[152a]</a></p> +<p>Owen, being thus amply provided with money, and joined by +numbers of his countrymen, now flew at higher game, and boldly +attacked the Earl of March, who met him with a numerous body of +Herefordshire men. They came to close action, when the +Welchmen under Owen proved victorious, and the Earl of March was +taken prisoner, some accounts say by Owen himself in single +combat. <a name="citation152b"></a><a href="#footnote152b" +class="citation">[152b]</a> With his freedom he lost above +a <a name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +153</span>thousand men, who were most savagely abused after they +were dead.</p> +<p>Edmund, Earl of March, whom Owen Glyndwr now held in thraldom, +was next in blood to Richard II. and therefore it was not +displeasing to King Henry that he should be thus kept out of the +way: nay, Camden says—“He (Edmund) stood greatly +suspected to Henrie the Fourth, who had usurped the kingdome; and +by him was first exposed unto danger, insomuch as he was taken by +Owen Glyndwr, a rebell.” <a name="citation153"></a><a +href="#footnote153" class="citation">[153]</a> King Henry, +therefore, as might be supposed, turned a deaf ear to every +solicitation made on the Earl’s behalf.</p> +<p>Now it was that Glyndwr, flushed <a name="page154"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 154</span>with success, resolved to assume the +title of Prince of Wales; and treating the King as a usurper of +the crown, and simply as Duke of Lancaster, he caused himself to +be proclaimed throughout the Principality. The better to +grace the matter, he feigned himself descended in the female line +from Llewellyn Ap Gruffydh, the last Prince.</p> +<p>His ambition now knew no bounds; and, by virtue of his new +title, he summoned a parliament at Machynlleth, in +Montgomeryshire, whither all the nobility and gentry of Wales +resorted. He kept his court at Sychnant, about seven miles +from Llangollen, on the road to Corwen. It is now +distinguished by a grove of firs, situated in a beautifully +fertile country, and overlooking the Dee. A few scattered +stones <a name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +155</span>are all that remain to mark the site where the palace +of Owen Glyndwr once stood, which his bard, Iolo Goch, sung was +as large as Westminster Abbey. <a name="citation155"></a><a +href="#footnote155" class="citation">[155]</a></p> +<p>About the middle of August, 1402, Henry, finding the power of +Owen Glyndwr increasing, and the turbulence of the Welch breaking +all bounds, resolved to crush their rebellion, and putting +himself at the head of a powerful army, marched into Wales. +But the very elements seemed to fight against him, the weather +proving so extraordinarily inclement that the King was obliged <a +name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 156</span>to make a +precipitate retreat, without accomplishing his intentions. <a +name="citation156a"></a><a href="#footnote156a" +class="citation">[156a]</a> The people attributed the +dreadful tempests which at that season occurred to the magic +power of Owen, who found it his interest to encourage their +credulity.</p> +<p>Edward Mortimer, perceiving the King had no intention of +opening his prison doors, and Glyndwr treating him with increased +gentleness and respect, fell into the scheme this artful and +politic man had devised. Owen Glyndwr <a +name="citation156b"></a><a href="#footnote156b" +class="citation">[156b]</a> was married to Margaret, the only +daughter of Sir David Hanmer, of Hanmer, in Flintshire (who was +one of the Justices of the King’s Bench, and was knighted +by King Richard <a name="page157"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +157</span>II.) by whom he had many children; and at this time +three of his daughters were unmarried, on one of whom the captive +Earl cast an eye of affection. Glyndwr at once saw the +advantage of this predilection, and proposed to league with him +against the King, and to cement this union by the marriage of his +daughter to the Earl.</p> +<p>To strengthen this league, and make the proposed insurrection +irresistible, the Earls of Worcester and Northumberland, two of +the most powerful Nobles in England, together with the Scottish +Chief Douglas, and Northumberland’s valiant son Henry +Percy, better known by the name of Hotspur, were invited to join +their standards; and these rebellious Lords met at the house of +Dafyd Daron, the Archdeacon <a name="page158"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 158</span>of Bangor, <a +name="citation158a"></a><a href="#footnote158a" +class="citation">[158a]</a> and there signed an indenture, +sealing it with their own seals, to bind themselves to assemble +their forces, and join in putting down the King, and for dividing +the kingdom, vainly relying upon a foolish prediction of Merlin, +in which the King was depicted as an execrable moldwarp, and +Glyndwr and his colleagues as the wolf, the lion, and the dragon, +that were to pull the moldwarp down. <a +name="citation158b"></a><a href="#footnote158b" +class="citation">[158b]</a></p> +<p>This treaty, made with so much secrecy, and executed in the +recesses of Glyndwr’s dominions, was soon communicated to +King Henry. Sir David Gam, so called because he had a +crooked eye, or squinted, or, as some say, had but one eye, <a +name="page159"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 159</span>was a +strong and faithful partizan of the Duke of Lancaster, now King +Henry IV. and consequently the inveterate enemy of Owen Glyndwr, +now Prince of Wales, at whose Parliament he attended, together +with the chief of the Welch nobles and gentry, but with very +different intentions; he having determined to put an end to +Glyndwr’s rebellion with his life. <a +name="citation159a"></a><a href="#footnote159a" +class="citation">[159a]</a></p> +<p>David Gam was the son of Llewellyn Ap Howel Vaughn, a +gentleman of Brecknock. His scheme and his purpose were, +however, unfortunately for him, discovered and frustrated, and he +was immediately secured, and ordered by Owen for execution; <a +name="citation159b"></a><a href="#footnote159b" +class="citation">[159b]</a> but many of his greatest <a +name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 160</span>friends and +adherents pleading for Gam’s life, Owen thought it politic +then to stifle his resentment, and to grant him both life and +liberty, on his solemnly promising to continue in future true and +faithfully loyal to Glyndwr.</p> +<p>The promises of men in those days were frequently regarded +only so long as it suited their interests or convenience. +Such was the case with David Gam, who no sooner found himself +among his own friends, and in his own country, than he began to +assail and annoy all the favourers and adherents of Glyndwr, who +being soon apprised of the practices against him, and of the use +Sir David made of his liberty, marched with all expedition at the +head of a small body of his retainers, intending to make him +prisoner; <a name="citation161"></a><a href="#footnote161" +class="citation">[161]</a> <a name="page161"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 161</span>but Sir David had the good fortune +to elude his vigilance, and escaped into England, where he lived +for the most part at court, not daring to visit his native +country until after the death of Owen Glyndwr.</p> +<p>Having thus missed his prey, Owen set no bounds to his +resentment. He burnt Gam’s house to the ground, +wasted his substance, despoiled his tenants and friends, and by +the rigor of his proceedings so estranged the hearts of all, and +created so many enemies, that it was reasonable to expect that +through Sir David’s means, or some of his emissaries, the +King would have information of what was plotting against him in +Wales.</p> +<p><a name="page162"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 162</span>Henry +at this time, fortunately, had a small army assembled for another +purpose; and no sooner was he apprised of this conspiracy against +him, than, placing himself at the head of his troops, he marched +them for Wales, to attack the confederates before they had time +to conjoin their forces. <a name="citation162a"></a><a +href="#footnote162a" class="citation">[162a]</a> Owen had +not collected all his strength,<a name="citation162b"></a><a +href="#footnote162b" class="citation">[162b]</a> and the Earl of +Northumberland, who was considered generalissimo, being seized +with a sudden illness, and confined to his bed at +Berwick-upon-Tweed, the King found the rebels under the command +of Hotspur at Shrewsbury.</p> +<p>The insurgent chiefs, seeing a battle inevitable, and knowing +that <a name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +163</span>Glyndwr, with his hardy Welchmen, was in full march to +join them (in fact, he reached Oswestry at the head of 12,000 men +on the very day the battle was fought), to gain time proposed a +conference, and drew up a list of grievances to be redressed; but +the matter ended in mutual recrimination, and both sides prepared +for battle. The numbers were nearly equal, about 12,000 on +each side, and the two armies were inflamed by the most dreadful +animosity.</p> +<p>The battle began with the most determined courage. The +King was seen every where animating his troops in the post of +danger, and he was most nobly seconded by his son, afterwards the +renowned Henry V. the conqueror of France. On the other +side the chieftains fought like men accustomed to the bloody +business <a name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +164</span>of war; and the battle was fierce, obstinate, and +doubtful; when the daring Hotspur, supporting the high character +which he had purchased by so many victories, and seeking a +personal encounter with the King, fell by an unknown hand.</p> +<p>The loss of their gallant leader was the loss of the +battle. The fortune of the King prevailed; and although on +that day no less than two thousand six hundred gentlemen, and six +thousand common men were slain, this victory served to confirm +Henry on his usurped throne, humbled the great Barons, and +restored peace to England. Had Owen Glyndwr at this +juncture pressed forward from Oswestry, where it has been before +said he was lying with a fresh army, and as numerous as the +English were before <a name="page165"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 165</span>they had sustained so severe a loss, +he might have changed the aspect of affairs; but at this distance +of time a proper judgment cannot be formed. Some historians +blame him for his precipitate retreat into Wales, whither he was +followed by a part of the English army, under young Henry, who +made himself master of the Castle of Aberystwith, which Owen +afterwards recaptured.</p> +<p>After this time Owen’s fortunes appeared to decline, <a +name="citation165"></a><a href="#footnote165" +class="citation">[165]</a> and the fatal battle of Husk, fought +on the 15th of March, in which Glyndwr’s son was taken, and +more than fifteen hundred of his men slain, seems to have sealed +his doom. But Glyndwr, although reduced, was not subdued, +and he continued a predatory and <a name="page166"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 166</span>harassing warfare, most annoying and +destructive; sometimes making a sudden eruption into the marches, +and sometimes into the heart of the country; for now, the Welch +having submitted to the King, and being reconciled, Glyndwr +considered his countrymen his enemies. His skill in +devices, together with his local knowledge of the country, kept +the Principality in a dreadful state of fear and fermentation; +and although he eluded every effort made to entrap him, yet his +turbulent spirit drew upon his country the vengeance of the King, +in the most severe laws that were ever enacted against a +civilised people. <a name="citation166"></a><a +href="#footnote166" class="citation">[166]</a></p> +<p><a name="page167"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 167</span>Owen +Glyndwr, once Prince of Wales, was now reduced to hide himself in +the caves and fastnesses of the country, to avoid the pursuit of +his enemies. He was concealed and supported for some time +by Ednyfed Ap Aron, in a cave near the sea-side, at Llangelynin, +in Merionethshire, still called Ogof Owain. <a +name="citation167"></a><a href="#footnote167" +class="citation">[167]</a> The danger past, he again <a +name="page168"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 168</span>blazed +forth in the destruction of a territory he had once aspired to +govern; sometimes a fugitive, enduring hunger, thirst, and every +privation; at others revelling as a conqueror, on the spoils of +his countrymen and former friends. At last his depredations +became so general and so indiscriminate that he feared every one, +and became as “a wild man, and his hand was against every +man, and every man’s hand was against him.” +Being thus driven by his fears from society, he fled to the most +solitary places, and at length died for lack of sustenance. <a +name="citation168"></a><a href="#footnote168" +class="citation">[168]</a></p> +<p>Thus ignobly perished Owen Ap Gryffydd Fychan, commonly known +by the name of Owen Glyndwr—a <a name="page169"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 169</span>man who, from trifling causes, had +conceived more determined hostility against the English, and had +conducted that hostility with more consummate skill, than any +other general the Welch had ever produced. In his early +career he was uniformly victorious: he was proclaimed Prince of +Wales with the sanction of the chief men of the country, made +alliances with princes, and exercised his authority with becoming +dignity; but now—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Mighty victor, mighty Lord,<br /> + Low on his funeral couch he lies:<br /> +No pitying heart, no eye t’ afford<br /> + A tear to grace his obsequies.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Owen Glyndwr was one of those fiery meteors which Providence +sometimes permits to visit the earth, for the instruction of +mankind, and to show us the vanity of all sublunary things: +astonishing the world with <a name="page170"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 170</span>their splendour, they blaze for a +short time; and as suddenly decline, and sink into +obscurity. Such, in our own horizon, have been Glyndwr and +Cromwell, and in later times Bonaparte. Their course was +brilliant, but short; and as their greatness grew, so did their +suspicions and their fears; until, at last, life itself became +burdensome, and the end of their career was clouded by +disappointment, misery, and despair.</p> +<p>But Owen Glyndwr had more legitimate reasons to plead than +either of his compeers. Deprived of a part of his patrimony +by power, and unable to obtain redress by law, he took the law +into his own hands, and had recourse to force. Success +produced ambition, which proved his overthrow.</p> +<p><a name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 171</span>Owen +was bold, wary, and revengeful: he set no bounds to his +resentment. He made a smoking ruin of the dwelling of his +countryman, Sir David Gam, and thereby made him an implacable +enemy. He was the cause of the loss of one hundred thousand +lives, <a name="citation171"></a><a href="#footnote171" +class="citation">[171]</a> and of the destruction of immense +property. Many houses and other buildings were burnt and +destroyed by him; among which I find enumerated the Castle of +Ruthin, the Cathedral of St. Asaph, the Cathedral of Bangor, the +Bishop’s Palace, &c. at Llandaff, the towns of +Leominster and Old Radnor, besides the house of Sir David Gam, +&c.</p> +<p>It will be right to notice that Mr. Pennant gives the +following account <a name="page172"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +172</span>of the death of Owen Glyndwr; but as he states there is +nothing confirmatory of Owen’s interment at Monnington, I +have thought it right to adhere to the older +authorities:—“He matched his daughters,” says +Mr. Pennant, “into considerable families: his eldest, +Isabel, to Adam Ap Iorwerth Ddu; his second, Elizabeth, or as +some say, Alicia, to Sir John Scudamore, of Ewyas, and Home Lacy, +in Herefordshire; Jane he forced upon Lord Grey De Ruthin; and +his youngest daughter, Margaret, to Roger Monnington, of +Monnington, in Herefordshire, at whose house some accounts say he +died, and was buried in the church-yard there.” <a +name="citation172"></a><a href="#footnote172" +class="citation">[172]</a></p> +<p>The prison where Owen confined <a name="page173"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 173</span>his captives, and of which some +remains may still be seen, was near the church at Llansanfraid +Glyndyfrdwy; and the place is still called Carchardy Owen +Glyndwr. He is said to have died in the sixty-first year of +his age.</p> +<p>I trust it will be deemed a pardonable digression, if I now +give the sequel of the military career of that loyal and truly +brave Welchman, Sir David Gam. I have before recounted that +Glyndwr forced him to fly for protection to the court of England, +where he continued in favour with King Henry IV. until the death +of that monarch. I then find him accompanying his son, King +Henry V. on his expedition into France, in the year of our Lord +1415, at the head and in the command of a numerous body of stout +and valiant <a name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +174</span>Welchmen, who on all occasions distinguished themselves +by their courage and conduct. <a name="citation174"></a><a +href="#footnote174" class="citation">[174]</a></p> +<p>To Sir David Gam was assigned the important office of +reconnoitring the French army, on the approach of the famous +battle of Agincourt. Finding the French nearly ten times +more numerous than the English army, he replied to the +King’s question as to the enemy’s +strength—“An’t please you, my Liege, they are +enough to be killed, enough to run away, and enough to be taken +prisoners.” The King was well pleased with such an +answer from a man of Sir David’s valour.</p> +<p>In the battle which followed, and which was fought on the 25th +of <a name="page175"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +175</span>October, 1415, the King alighted from his horse to head +his footmen, and to encourage them to resist the charge of the +second line of the French army, then advancing; when eighteen +French cavaliers, who had bound themselves by an oath to kill +King Henry, or perish, rushed upon him in a body, and one of them +with a blow of his battle-axe so stunned the King that he would +have fallen an easy victim, had not Sir David Gam, with his +son-in-law, Roger Vaughn, and his kinsman, Walter Llwyd, of +Brecknock, seasonably sprung to his rescue. They slew +fourteen of the assailants, and delivered the King, when they +fell at his feet, covered with wounds. In the heat of the +battle, Henry was separated from his brave defenders; but being +soon afterwards informed that their wounds were mortal, he <a +name="page176"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 176</span>immediately +repaired to the spot where Sir David and his faithful companions +lay; and, as the only recompense in his power then to bestow, he +knighted them all three upon the field, where they soon after +died. <a name="citation176"></a><a href="#footnote176" +class="citation">[176]</a></p> +<p>Thus ended the life of Sir David Gam; but the remembrance of +his loyalty, and the fame of his valour, will live, and +perpetuate his memory.</p> +<blockquote><p>“So sleep the brave, who sink to rest,<br /> +By all their country’s wishes bless’d.<br /> +When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,<br /> +Returns to deck their hallow’d mould,<br /> +She there shall dress a sweeter sod<br /> +Than Fancy’s feet have ever trod.<br /> +By fairy hands their knell is rung,<br /> +By forms unseen their dirge is sung.<br /> +There Honour comes, a pilgrim grey,<br /> +To bless the turf that wraps their clay;<br /> +And Freedom shall awhile repair,<br /> +To dwell a weeping hermit there.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 177</span>It is +conjectured that Shakspeare took Sir David as a specimen, when he +wrote the character of Captain Fluellen, in Henry V.</p> +<p>Returning towards Llangollen from Glyndyfrdwy, along a +beautiful level road, made at the expense of Government, with the +Berwyn Mountains rising abruptly on the right hand, and the +murmuring Dee pursuing its devious course on the left, I pass a +small brook, which divides the counties of Merioneth and +Denbigh. A pillar on the top of the mountain above is for +the same purpose. The views over the Dee are incomparably +charming.</p> +<h2><a name="page178"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +178</span>LLANGOLLEN<br /> +Church.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Hail, ancient edifice; thine aisle +along,<br /> + In contemplation wrapt, now let me stray;<br /> +And stealing from the idly busy throng,<br /> + Devoutly meditate the moral lay.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Llangollen</span> Church, which stands in +the middle of the town, is a low gothic structure; and the south +side appears the most ancient part of the edifice. At the +east end, on the outside wall, are two knees, which seem to have +been intended as the spring of an arch, for an enlargement of the +building. The roof is slated, and there is a tower steeple +at the west end, containing four bells and a clock, with quarter +chimes.</p> +<p><a name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 179</span>The +Church is dedicated to Saint Collen Ap Gwynnawg, Ap Clydawg, Ap +Cowdra, Ap Caradog Freichfras, Ap Lleyr Merim, Ap Einion Yrth, Ap +Cunedda Wledig, by Ethni Wyddeles, daughter of Matholwch, Lord of +Cwl, in the kingdom of Ireland; <a name="citation179"></a><a +href="#footnote179" class="citation">[179]</a> which saint was +buried here. In the Church was formerly a recumbent figure +in alabaster, vulgarly called Saint Collen. The unshapely +remains of this monument are still to be seen in the belfry, +where it has been thrown.</p> +<p>The roof of the Church is supported with three massive stone +octagon Doric pillars, of great antiquity, and two heavy +abutments. The roof itself is very curiously enriched with +carved compartments, <a name="page180"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 180</span>in old oak, supported by figures of +angels, in various attitudes, also of solid oak. These +figures and the roof I suspect to be spoils of the Abbey Crucis, +to which the Church of Llangollen was incumbent. The +transom beams that support the roof are indented with tracery; +and on the north side of the beam over the north aisle, is the +following very curious inscription cut in old letter. It is +so lofty that it can scarcely be made out distinctly, but I have +taken some pains to give it correctly:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Y nav i ti mair vydd barod bob +awr.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Which may be thus translated:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Heaven for thee, Mary, will be open every +hour.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I have little doubt that this beam, as well as the other +decorations of the roof of the Church, was brought <a +name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 181</span>from Llan +Egwest, which it will be recollected was dedicated to the Virgin +Mary.</p> +<p>There is a beautiful half-length of our Saviour in the window +over the altar, painted upon glass by Eginton, of Birmingham, +with this inscription under it:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Nid fy Ewyllys i ond yr eiddo ti a +wneler.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">S. Luc pen 22 ver 42.</p> +<p>“Not my will, but thine be done.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I believe there are no other Welch inscriptions in the Church, +among the many grave stones, tablets, &c. which abound; and +yet service is performed in no other language, except on the +second sabbath in every month, and on Good Friday. There +are many English families now resident in Llangollen and its +neighbourhood; and to those that <a name="page182"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 182</span>are seriously disposed this is a +great privation.</p> +<p>The Church is well served by the very worthy and pious Vicar, +who resides at the Vicarage; yet, notwithstanding, there are four +dissenting congregations in the town, viz. Wesleyan Methodists, +Whitfield or Calvinistic Methodists, Independents, and +Baptists.</p> +<p>In the church-yard is a school, under which is a vestry-room, +bearing this inscription:—“This school-house was +built at the expense of the parishioners, having obtained the +ordinary license, with consent of the Rev. R. Price, vicar, +1773.”</p> +<p>The customs of the orthodox Welch Church are similar to those +<a name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 183</span>in +England, except in the following, viz. that of bedecking the +graves of the dead with shrubs and flowers; of singing before the +corpse to the church; and the very annoying one of ringing a +passing bell in the following manner:—On the day prior to +the funeral the bells are tolled in a very quick succession of +strokes; that is to say, twelve quick strokes on the first bell, +and after a short pause, twelve on the second; and so on once +round, the number of strokes on each bell, denoting the condition +of the deceased. Thus, twelve strokes on each bell denote +the death of a married master of a family; eleven strokes the +mother or mistress of a family; ten strokes an unmarried or young +man; nine a young woman unmarried; six a boy; and five a +girl. Then begins an incessant monotonous toll of the <a +name="page184"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 184</span>great bell, +in minute time, which generally continues all that day until +eight o’clock at night: it commences again at eight +o’clock on the following morning, and does not cease until +eight o’clock at night, except during the time of +interment. The usage at the burial is also novel to an +English observer. When the service in the church is +concluded, the officiating minister goes to the steps of the +altar, whereon a sort of wooden plate is previously placed; and +the attendants and friends of the deceased immediately proceed to +deposit money thereon in his presence, which is instead of +dues. When the corpse is consigned to the earth, the clerk +receives the donations of the people that are around the grave, +upon the spade with which he is throwing the earth upon the +coffin; and this is his share of the fees.</p> +<p><a name="page185"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 185</span>There +is also an old and curious custom observed at Christmas, called +Plygan, or Pylgain, that is, “the time of night when the +cock croweth; the morning twilight.”—On the morning +of Christmas Day, the bells are rung as is usual to assemble to +church, about four o’clock; and on their ringing about six +o’clock, most of the parishioners assemble, some bringing +candles, and the church is also lighted up. After the +prayers (morning service for the day) are read, the congregation +continue, and the minister also, hearing original carols in the +Welch language, on our Saviour’s nativity. This time +and custom were formerly much more seriously observed, when men +believed</p> +<blockquote><p>“That ever ’gainst that season +comes<br /> +Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,<br /> +The bird of dawning singeth all night long;<br /> +And then they say no spirit walks abroad;<br /> +<a name="page186"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 186</span>The +nights are wholesome, then no planets strike;<br /> +No fairy takes, no witch hath power to charm;<br /> +So hallowed and so gracious is the time.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Except two or three marble monuments in the Church, there are +no other remarkable objects; but in the church-yard are many very +neat and handsome freestone tombs. Some of those recently +erected are in the sarcophagus form, and are very nicely +executed.</p> +<p>Nearly opposite the south door of the Church stands a +triangular gothic column of freestone, surrounded by a light iron +railing, erected over the grave of a highly respected domestic of +the Right Hon. Lady E. Butler, and the Hon. Miss Ponsonby. +The pillar is executed in good taste, and on one of the three +facades are the following lines, doing much honour to the heart +as well as to the head of the composer:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><a +name="page187"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 187</span>In Memory +of<br /> +Mrs. Mary Carol,<br /> +Deceased the 22d of November, 1809,<br /> +This Monument is erected,<br /> +By Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby,<br /> +Of Plas Newydd, in this Parish.</p> +<p>Released from earth, and all its transient woes,<br /> +She whose remains beneath this stone repose,<br /> +Steadfast in faith, resign’d her parting breath,<br /> +Look’d up with Christian zeal, and smiled in death;<br /> +Patient, industrious, faithful, gen’rous, kind,<br /> +Her conduct left the proudest far behind;<br /> +Her virtues dignified her humble birth,<br /> +And raised her mind beyond this sordid earth.<br /> +Attachment, sacred bond of grateful breasts,<br /> +Extinguish’d but with life this tomb attests,<br /> +Rear’d by two friends, who will her loss bemoan,<br /> +Till with her ashes here shall rest their own.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The poor of Llangollen have much reason to pray that period +may be far distant; for the benevolence of these retired ladies +is extensive and discriminate; and it may justly be said there is +not a poor deserving object in this little town, who does not +participate in their bounty. I shall conclude with a brief +notice of their residence.</p> +<h2><a name="page188"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 188</span>Plas +Newydd.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“’Tis pleasant through the loopholes +of retreat<br /> +To peep at the great world—to see the stir<br /> +Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Plas</span> Newydd, situated at the east +end of the town of Llangollen, has long been the residence of two +eminently distinguished ladies, the Right Hon. Lady Eleanor +Butler and the Hon. Miss Ponsonby, who came to Llangollen, and +after a time purchased the domain, and planted and decorated the +grounds. It has attained its present beauty under their own +superintendance.</p> +<p>Many years have elapsed since these ladies withdrew from the +world, to which, from their rank and <a name="page189"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 189</span>accomplishments, they would have +been distinguished ornaments, and secluded themselves in this +beautiful retreat, where they have uniformly been the +benefactresses of the poor, the encouragers of the industrious, +and the friends of all in their neighbourhood. The peculiar +taste and beauty with which these noble and highly distinguished +ladies have decorated and adorned both the exterior and the +interior of their far-famed retreat, excites universal admiration +from the first characters and families, who are continually +visiting them.</p> +<p>A palisade, ornamented with antique and grotesque figures, +carved in oak, encloses the front, before which a profusion of +the choicest flowers and shrubs is tastefully arranged. The +entrance and the <a name="page190"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +190</span>windows, which are formed after the manner of ancient +religious houses, are decorated with carving in the same +material. The entrance-door is unique, and a great +curiosity, being beautifully ornamented with well polished carved +figures; the whole of which are of black oak, and kept +particularly bright, giving the retreat a very uncommon +appearance. The entrance-hall, stairs, and passages, are +chastely in character; and the windows are ornamented with +painted glass in the most appropriate manner.</p> +<p>The gardens, in which nature and art are judiciously united, +are extensive, and display much taste. The thick and +umbrageous foliage of the lofty forest trees, that occupy a part +of the lawn and gardens, is <a name="page191"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 191</span>the safe asylum of numerous birds, +which in this calm seclusion revel unmolested. A pair of +beautiful wood-owls have found a safe and quiet shelter in the +trunk of an old ivy-covered tree; and on a lawn a little further, +is erected a pretty moss-covered alcove, furnished with a few +well-selected books: it is nearly in the centre of the garden, +and is open in front. The confidence of the birds is shown +by some of them every year building their nests in this recess: +indeed, these airy inhabitants appear to be quite tame and +familiarized by the kindness of their amiable protectors. I +believe the birds have much the larger portion of the produce of +these beautiful gardens, as none of them are suffered to be +molested.</p> +<p>Through the lower part of the <a name="page192"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 192</span>shrubbery, a brook, called Cyflymen, +i.e. Speedy, murmurs o’er its pebbly bed, and is crossed by +a rustic bridge, which leads to a bank covered with lichens, and +furnished with appropriate seats, near which rises a pure +fountain, whose waters are as clear as the crystal glasses which +ornament its margin: in short, the beauty of the scenery, aided +by a little enthusiam, might inspire the idea that</p> +<blockquote><p>“Here in cool grot and mossy cell,<br /> +The rural fays and fairies dwell:<br /> +Though rarely seen by mortal eye,<br /> +When the pale moon, ascending high,<br /> +Darts through yon limes her quiv’ring beams,<br /> +They frisk it near these crystal streams.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The carved stone brought from the Abbey Crucis, and mentioned +as being dug up at the time the bodies were discovered, stands +near the entrance.</p> +<h3><a name="page193"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +193</span>CONCLUSION.</h3> +<p>I have thus completed the circuit I proposed at the +commencement of my labours. To hope the attainment of +perfection in a work of this nature would with justice be deemed +presumptuous; but I trust any inaccuracy will be treated with +lenity, and that due allowance will be made for the disadvantage +under which verbal information is at all times collected by a +person who does not understand the native language. Thus +far I can with truth say, that, from a desire to combine +correctness with intelligence, I have in no case given that on +hearsay, which might be readily ascertained by ocular +demonstration.</p> +<p>With regard to the quotations which I have thought proper to +introduce, I must here again draw <a name="page194"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 194</span>upon the kind indulgence of my +readers. Not having an extensive library at my command, I +have sometimes been obliged to quote from memory. This will +also, in some degree, account for omissions of which I may in +places be deemed guilty.</p> +<p>I will now take leave of my friends, assuring them that, if I +have not done all I might for their information and amusement, it +must be attributed to any other cause rather than a want of +desire and endeavour on my part. It would, indeed, be +unpardonable in me to deserve such an imputation, after having +received so many marks of attention from friends whom I have had +occasion more than once to consult in the progress of my +researches, and <a name="page195"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +195</span>being furnished with information from quarters where I +had not the least claim.</p> +<h2>AUTHORITIES<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK.</span></h2> +<p><i>The Brut</i>, <i>or Chronicle of the Kings of Britain</i>, +contained in <i>Collectanea Cambrica</i>, vol. 1, by the Rev. P. +Roberts, A.M. This title was taken from the <i>Book of +Basingwerke Abbey</i>; which work the learned author has +translated and collated with <i>Brut Tyssillio</i>, the Welch +copy of the Chronicle <i>Gruffudd ab Authur</i>; <i>Collations of +the Brut</i> in the Archialogy; Geoffrey of Monmouth’s +<i>Translation of the Brut</i>; the <i>Wynnstay MS.</i> and the +<i>M.S. Chronicle</i> of Mr. Jones, of Gelly Lyfde. These +books are supposed by Mr. Roberts to contain the genuine epistle +of <i>Gildas</i>, published A.D. 560.</p> +<p><i>Camden’s Britannia</i>, Philemon Holland’s +translation, A.D. 1610.</p> +<p><i>Caradoc of Lhancarvan’s History of Wales</i>, first +published A.D. 1150, translated by Dr. Powel, and augmented and +improved by the Rev. W. Wynne, A.M. from whose octavo edition, +published A.D. 1697, the quotations are made.</p> +<p><a name="page196"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +196</span><i>History of Wales</i>, by the Rev. William +Warrington, quarto edition.</p> +<p><i>Pennant’s Tour in Wales</i>, two vols. quarto, +1784.</p> +<p><i>Report to the General Assembly of the Ellesmere Canal +Proprietors</i>.</p> +<p><i>The English Baronets</i>, three vols. A.D. 1727.</p> +<p><i>Cambrian Itinerary</i>, <i>&c.</i></p> +<h2><a name="page197"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +197</span>LIST<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">OF</span><br /> +SUBSCRIBERS.</h2> +<h3>A.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Avonmore</span>, Lord Viscount, <i>four +copies</i></p> +<p>Adams, Mr. George, Ruthin</p> +<p>Allen, Joshua, Esq. Wenffrwd</p> +<p>Andrews, Mr. Wrexham</p> +<p>Androse, Miss</p> +<h3>B.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Butler</span>, the Right Hon. Lady +Eleanor, and Miss Ponsonby, <i>twelve copies</i></p> +<p>Besborough, the Earl of</p> +<p>Babbington, Miss, Oswestry, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Babbington, Mr. Thomas, Oswestry</p> +<p>Bains, the Rev. E. A.M. Llanderfel</p> +<p>Barlow, Mr. Thomas, Oswestry</p> +<p>Bickerton, Mr. William, Oswestry</p> +<p>Bill, Mr. Richard, Oswestry</p> +<p>Bland, John T. Esq. Ireland, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Bowen, Mr. John, Dinbryn</p> +<p><a name="page198"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +198</span>Boycot, Miss, London, <i>three copies</i></p> +<p>Bradshaw, Miss</p> +<p>Bradshaw, Mr. George, jun. Oswestry</p> +<p>Brelisford, Mr. John, Llangollen</p> +<p>Bridgman, Captain, R.N. Knocking</p> +<p>Bridden, Mr. William, Chirk</p> +<p>Burbidge, Mr. John, Llangollen</p> +<p>Butterys, Miss, Chirk</p> +<h3>C.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Carbery</span>, Lord, <i>three +copies</i></p> +<p>Cartwright, Mr. John, Shrewsbury</p> +<p>Chambey, Mr. Robert, British Iron Co.</p> +<p>Clarke, Mr. Francis, Corwen</p> +<p>Cooper, Mr. George, Oswestry</p> +<p>Coward, Mr. John, Llangollen</p> +<h3>D.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Dungannon</span>, Lord Viscount, <i>ten +copies</i></p> +<p>Duncannon, Viscountess</p> +<p>Davies, the Rev. I. M. Chester</p> +<p>Davies, Mr. David, Ruabon</p> +<p>Davies, Mr. Edward, Chirk</p> +<p>Davies, Mr. Edward, Oswestry</p> +<p>Davies, Mr. Edward, Llangollen</p> +<p>Davies, Mr. William, Plas Issa</p> +<p>Dickens, John, Esq. New Hall, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Dicken, Mr. J. Cefnwern</p> +<p>Dicken, Mr. Halton</p> +<h3><a name="page199"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +199</span>E.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Edwards</span>, Mrs. Llangollen</p> +<p>Edwards, Mr. Edward, Pengwern Hall, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Edwards, Mr. Edward, solicitor, Wrexham, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Edwards, Mr. William, Llanrwst</p> +<p>Edwards, Mr. Richard, Liverpool</p> +<p>Edwards, Mr. David, Oswestry</p> +<p>Edwards, Mr. J. bookseller, Oswestry, <i>three copies</i></p> +<p>Edwards, Mr. Edward, Pontcysyllte</p> +<p>Edwards, Edward, Esq. Oswestry</p> +<p>Edwards, Mr. Robert, Rhisgog</p> +<p>Edwards, Mr. John, surgeon, Oswestry</p> +<p>Evan, Mr. William, Liverpool, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Evans, Mr. Chester, <i>six copies</i></p> +<p>Evans, Mr. Robert, Llangollen</p> +<p>Evans, Mr. John, Llangollen, <i>three copies</i></p> +<p>Evans, Mr. Edward, Bryn Howell</p> +<p>Evans, Mr. Edward, Dinbryn</p> +<p>Evans, Mr. David, Pentre</p> +<h3>F.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Farewell</span>, Mrs. Chirk +Castle</p> +<p>Foulkes, Mrs. Eliza, Oswestry</p> +<p>Foulkes, Mr. Chirk</p> +<h3>G.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Gardiner</span>, Mr. James, Llangollen, +<i>four copies</i></p> +<p><a name="page200"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +200</span>Gething, Mr. Zopher</p> +<p>Gisborne, Mr. W. Hartley, Manchester, <i>five copies</i></p> +<p>Glover, Mr. John, Royton</p> +<p>Godfrey, Mr. Englefield Green</p> +<p>Griffiths, the Rev. T. A.M. Llangollen</p> +<h3>H.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Hutchinson</span>, Lady</p> +<p>Hales, Mr. Oswestry</p> +<p>Harrison, Major, Llantysilio Hall, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Harrison, Captain, Rhyd y Murn</p> +<p>Haycock, Mr. E. Priory, Shrewsbury</p> +<p>Heyward, Mrs. Richard, London, <i>three copies</i></p> +<p>Howell, Mr. Samuel, Chirk</p> +<p>Hughes, the Rev. D. A.M.</p> +<p>Hughes, Mr. Deputy Registrar of Bangor</p> +<p>Hughes, Mr. Edward, Pentre Felen</p> +<p>Hughes, Mr. John, Llangollen</p> +<p>Hughes, Mr. John, jun. London</p> +<p>Hughes, Mr. Henry, Oswestry</p> +<p>Hughes, Mr. Hugh, Halton</p> +<p>Humphries, Mr. John, Wrexham</p> +<h3>J.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Jackson</span>, Mr. Grove House, Wrexham, +<i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Jackson, Mrs. Oswestry</p> +<p>Jebb, R. Esq. Chirk, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Johnson, Mr. Hand Inn, Chirk</p> +<p><a name="page201"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +201</span>Jones, Hugh, Esq. London, <i>six copies</i></p> +<p>Jones, Richard, Esq. Dinbryn Hall</p> +<p>Jones, Lewis, Esq. Oswestry</p> +<p>Jones, John, Esq. Oswestry</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. Robert, solicitor, Llangollen</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. Richard, post-master, Llangollen</p> +<p>Jones, the Rev. Mr. Llangollen</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. Hugh, Llangollen</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. David, Llangollen</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. John, Llangollen</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. John Maesmor, Llangollen</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. Thomas, Llangollen</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. watchmaker, Llangollen</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. William, Chirk</p> +<p>Jones, Master W. Vestris</p> +<p>Jones, Master Robert Albion</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. John, Oswestry</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. Edward, Wern Issaf</p> +<p>Jones, the Rev. J. Ruabon</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. Evan, New House</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. Richard, Dolgelly</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. John, Red Lion, Llangollen</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. John, Glyndyfrdwy</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. John, Llangollen</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. William, Trevor</p> +<p>Jones, Mr. Edward, Llangollen</p> +<h3>K.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Kenyon</span>, the Hon. Thomas</p> +<p><a name="page202"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +202</span>Kendrick, Mr. John, Gobowen</p> +<p>Knight, Mr. James, Oswestry</p> +<h3>L.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Lethbridge</span>, Lieut.-Gen. +Shrewsbury, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Lloyd, Godfrey, Esq. Llangollen Fechan, <i>two +copies</i></p> +<p>Laing, Mr. Oswestry, <i>five copies</i></p> +<p>Lever, Mr. Chirk</p> +<p>Lewis, Mr. Thomas, Brook House</p> +<p>Lloyd, Richard, Esq. Rhagatt, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Lloyd, Mr. R. King’s Head Hotel, Llangollen, <i>two +copies</i></p> +<p>Lloyd, Mr. Thomas, Chirk Green</p> +<p>Lloyd, Mr. William, Chirk</p> +<p>Lolly, Miss</p> +<p>Lucas, Mr. Francis, Oswestry</p> +<p>Lucas, Mr. James, Staffordshire</p> +<h3>M.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Martindale</span>, Mr. Nicholas, +Liverpool</p> +<p>Mason, Mr. Liverpool</p> +<p>Maxwell, Major</p> +<p>Maxwell, Mrs. Major</p> +<p>Maxwell, Miss</p> +<p>Maxwell, Miss Eliza G. </p> +<p>Maxwell, Miss Anna Maria Sophia</p> +<p>M’Nure, Mr.</p> +<p><a name="page203"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +203</span>Minshall, Mr. W. Llanddyn Hall</p> +<p>Morris, Mr. Edward, Rhisgog, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Morris, Mr. Charles, Wrexham</p> +<p>Morris, Mr. David, Chirk</p> +<p>Morgan, Mr. Thomas, Llangollen</p> +<p>Moxon, Mr. John, Manchester</p> +<h3>N.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Newcome</span>, the Rev. Richard, Warden +of Ruthin</p> +<p>Nicholas, Mr. W. Pentre Hobbin</p> +<p>Noel, Mrs. Edward, <i>four copies</i></p> +<h3>O.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Ormonde</span>, the Marquess of</p> +<p>Ormonde, the Marchioness of</p> +<p>Ossory, the Earl of</p> +<p>Ormonde and Ossory, the Countess of</p> +<p>Owen, Mr. surgeon, Llangollen, <i>four copies</i></p> +<p>Owen, Mr. G. D. wine merchant, Oswestry, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Owen, Mr. William, Chirk</p> +<p>Owen, Mr. Edward, Halton</p> +<h3>P.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Ponsonby</span>, the Right Hon. Lady +Barbara</p> +<p>Parry, Mr. Evan, Llangollen</p> +<p>Parry, Mr. Richard, Pontcysyllte</p> +<p>Parry, Mr. John, Trevor, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p><a name="page204"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +204</span>Perry, S. Esq. London</p> +<p>Peters, Miss, Glyn Allyn</p> +<p>Phillips, Mr. Joseph, Hand Hotel, Llangollen, <i>four +copies</i></p> +<p>Pierce, Mr. Wolverhampton</p> +<p>Povis, Mr. London</p> +<p>Povey, Mr. Penvin y Pandy</p> +<p>Powell, Mr. Richard, Oswestry</p> +<p>Powell, Mr. Thomas, St. Martin’s</p> +<p>Powell, John Richard, Esq. Presgwern</p> +<p>Price, Mr. Edward, Llangollen</p> +<p>Price, Mr. William, Oswestry</p> +<p>Price, Dr. Llangollen, <i>three copies</i></p> +<p>Pugh, Mr. Eagles, Llangollen</p> +<h3>R.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Richards</span>, Mr. Mardol, +Shrewsbury</p> +<p>Richards, Mr. S. Chirk</p> +<p>Richardson, Mrs. Manchester</p> +<p>Roberts, Mr. Peter, Oswestry</p> +<p>Roberts, Miss Harriet, Chirk</p> +<p>Roberts, Mr. land-surveyor, Wern Lodge, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Roberts, Mr. Factory, Llangollen, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Roberts, Mr. confectioner, Oswestry</p> +<p>Roberts, Mr. Samuel, Oswestry</p> +<p>Roberts, Mr. John, Llangollen</p> +<p>Rodgers, Mr. Thomas, Oswestry</p> +<p>Royd, Miss, Bath</p> +<h3><a name="page205"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +205</span>S.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Stackpole</span>, William Wentworth, Esq. +<i>six copies</i></p> +<p>Stewart, the Hon. Mrs. Killyman Castle, Ireland</p> +<p>Savage, John, M.D.</p> +<p>Scoltock, Mr. Shrewsbury, <i>four copies</i></p> +<p>Shebbeare, Capt. R.N. Cottage, Llangollen, <i>two +copies</i></p> +<p>Shiffer, Mr. Thomas, Denbigh</p> +<p>Simpson, Mr. T. Wolverhampton, <i>twelve copies</i></p> +<p>Smale, Mr. Oswestry, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Smith, Mrs. Maria, Chirk</p> +<p>Smith, Mr. Thomas, Chirk</p> +<p>Spencer, Charles, Esq. Worcester, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Stanton, Mr. Robert, Oswestry</p> +<h3>T.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Taylor</span>, the Hon. General</p> +<p>Talwrn, Mr.</p> +<p>Taylor, Mrs. Isaac, Shiffnal</p> +<p>Thomas, Mr. David, Oswestry</p> +<p>Thompson, Mr. excise officer, Wrexham</p> +<p>Thompstone, Mr. S. Manchester, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Titley, Mr. Chester</p> +<p>Tomkies, Mr. T. Oswestry</p> +<p>Tompkins, Mr. Lion Inn, Shrewsbury, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Tompkins, Mrs. Edmund, Shrewsbury</p> +<h3><a name="page206"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +206</span>V.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Valentine</span> and Throsby, Walsall, +<i>six copies</i></p> +<p>Vaughan, Mr. surgeon, Chirk</p> +<h3>W.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Wynn</span>, Sir Watkyn Williams, Bart. +<i>ten copies</i></p> +<p>Ward, T. E. Esq. Cefnwern, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Warrington, the Misses, Wrexham</p> +<p>Warter, Thomas, Esq. Llangollen</p> +<p>Warter, Mrs. sen.</p> +<p>Whitehurst, the Rev. E. A.B. Chirk</p> +<p>Whitehurst, Miss, Chirk</p> +<p>Wift, Mr. Thomas, Chirk</p> +<p>Williams, I. C. Esq. Chirk</p> +<p>Williams, Mr. Owen, Tyddn Ucha</p> +<p>Williams, Mr. Glyndyfrdwy, <i>two copies</i></p> +<p>Williams, Mr. Thomas, Wrexham</p> +<p>Williams, Mr. Edward, Wrexham</p> +<p>Wood, Mrs. Birmingham</p> +<p>Woodcock, Mr. G. Hinckley</p> +<p>Wright, Mr. William</p> +<p>Wynn, Master Jones Lloyd, Dolfawr</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<div class="gapmediumline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">Printed by T. and W. Wood, +Birmingham.</p> +<h2><a name="page207"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +207</span>ADVERTISEMENT.</h2> +<p style="text-align: center">LATELY PUBLISHED,<br /> +IN OCTAVO,<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">PRICE SEVEN SHILLINGS AND SIX PENCE, EXTRA +BOARDS.</span></p> +<div class="gapshortdoubleline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">HERBAN,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">A Poem,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">IN FOUR CANTOS.</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<blockquote><p>I sing unwonted.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Anon.</span></p> +<p>Scribimus indooti doctique poëmata passim.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Hor.</span></p> +</blockquote> +<div class="gapshortdoubleline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">LONDON:<br /> +G. B. WHITTAKER, AVE MARIA LANE;<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">AND SOLD BY ALL OTHER +BOOKSELLERS.</span></p> +<h2>Footnotes.</h2> +<p><a name="footnote2"></a><a href="#citation2" +class="footnote">[2]</a> The north side of the river is +called “<i>Trevor Ucha</i>,” i.e. “<i>Upper +Trevor</i>.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote7"></a><a href="#citation7" +class="footnote">[7]</a> The Welch have a great readiness +in attaching names to record occurrences: thus, the Gerant, which +is a part of the Berwyn Mountains, is called by them Moel y +Barbwr, i.e. Barber Hill, and obtained this appellation from the +circumstance of a barber, who was an associate of a desperate +gang of ruffians, having been hanged on the summit, for the +murder of his wife in the last century.</p> +<p><a name="footnote11a"></a><a href="#citation11a" +class="footnote">[11a]</a> Welch Chron. p. 3.</p> +<p><a name="footnote11b"></a><a href="#citation11b" +class="footnote">[11b]</a> Camden’s Britan. p. +623.</p> +<p><a name="footnote12a"></a><a href="#citation12a" +class="footnote">[12a]</a> Warrington, p. 102.</p> +<p><a name="footnote12b"></a><a href="#citation12b" +class="footnote">[12b]</a> Cort’s Letter.</p> +<p><a name="footnote15a"></a><a href="#citation15a" +class="footnote">[15a]</a> Camb. Itin. p. 342.</p> +<p><a name="footnote15b"></a><a href="#citation15b" +class="footnote">[15b]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 275.</p> +<p><a name="footnote20"></a><a href="#citation20" +class="footnote">[20]</a> Wynne’s Caradoc, p. +223.</p> +<p><a name="footnote31"></a><a href="#citation31" +class="footnote">[31]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 282.</p> +<p><a name="footnote38"></a><a href="#citation38" +class="footnote">[38]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 293.</p> +<p><a name="footnote45"></a><a href="#citation45" +class="footnote">[45]</a> Camden, p. 623.</p> +<p><a name="footnote47"></a><a href="#citation47" +class="footnote">[47]</a> Cambr. Trav. Guide, p, 327.</p> +<p><a name="footnote48"></a><a href="#citation48" +class="footnote">[48]</a> Pennant, vol. 2, p. 77.</p> +<p><a name="footnote49"></a><a href="#citation49" +class="footnote">[49]</a> Warrington, p. 325.</p> +<p><a name="footnote50"></a><a href="#citation50" +class="footnote">[50]</a> Wynne, p. 190.</p> +<p><a name="footnote51"></a><a href="#citation51" +class="footnote">[51]</a> Warrington, p. 326.</p> +<p><a name="footnote52"></a><a href="#citation52" +class="footnote">[52]</a> Wynne, p. 191.</p> +<p><a name="footnote55"></a><a href="#citation55" +class="footnote">[55]</a> Warrington, p. 327.</p> +<p><a name="footnote56"></a><a href="#citation56" +class="footnote">[56]</a> Warrington, p. 328. +Hollins’s Chron. p. 73.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60a"></a><a href="#citation60a" +class="footnote">[60a]</a> These trees were planted +immediately after the great election for the boroughs of Holt, +Ruthin, and Denbigh, in which Mr. Myddelton was chosen, to mark +the way to the Castle of Chirk, for the convenience of his +constituents coming to share its hospitalities.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60b"></a><a href="#citation60b" +class="footnote">[60b]</a> The ancient pillar and its +pedestal now lie by the side of the road, near a place called Pen +y Bedau, about a quarter of a mile from the toll-gate at the east +end of the town.</p> +<p><a name="footnote63"></a><a href="#citation63" +class="footnote">[63]</a> Hunt’s Letter to the Earl +of Bridgewater, in the Ellesmere Report.</p> +<p><a name="footnote67"></a><a href="#citation67" +class="footnote">[67]</a> Hunt’s Letter to the Earl +of Bridgewater, p. 7.</p> +<p><a name="footnote72"></a><a href="#citation72" +class="footnote">[72]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 294.</p> +<p><a name="footnote74"></a><a href="#citation74" +class="footnote">[74]</a> See “Llangollen +Church”, in this book.</p> +<p><a name="footnote80"></a><a href="#citation80" +class="footnote">[80]</a> English Baronetage, vol. 2, p. +114, printed 1727.</p> +<p><a name="footnote85"></a><a href="#citation85" +class="footnote">[85]</a> Cooke’s Brit. Trav. p. +111.</p> +<p><a name="footnote86"></a><a href="#citation86" +class="footnote">[86]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 401.</p> +<p><a name="footnote90a"></a><a href="#citation90a" +class="footnote">[90a]</a> London, so called by Camden and +the Brut.</p> +<p><a name="footnote90b"></a><a href="#citation90b" +class="footnote">[90b]</a> See Llangollen Church, dedicated +to St. Collen.</p> +<p><a name="footnote90c"></a><a href="#citation90c" +class="footnote">[90c]</a> See the Brut, or Chronicle of +the Kings of Britain, in vol. 1 of Collectanea Cambrica, by the +Rev. P. Roberts, A.M.</p> +<p><a name="footnote91"></a><a href="#citation91" +class="footnote">[91]</a> Chron. of the Kings of Britain, +p. 49.</p> +<p><a name="footnote92"></a><a href="#citation92" +class="footnote">[92]</a> Brut, p. 30. Camden. +Gildas wrote A.D. 560; Geoffrey of Monmouth, 1070.</p> +<p><a name="footnote94a"></a><a href="#citation94a" +class="footnote">[94a]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 395.</p> +<p><a name="footnote94b"></a><a href="#citation94b" +class="footnote">[94b]</a> Warrington, p. 345.</p> +<p><a name="footnote94c"></a><a href="#citation94c" +class="footnote">[94c]</a> Warrington, p. 359.</p> +<p><a name="footnote94d"></a><a href="#citation94d" +class="footnote">[94d]</a> Wynne, p. 229.</p> +<p><a name="footnote96"></a><a href="#citation96" +class="footnote">[96]</a> Wynne, p. 230.</p> +<p><a name="footnote97a"></a><a href="#citation97a" +class="footnote">[97a]</a> Warrington, p, 363.</p> +<p><a name="footnote97b"></a><a href="#citation97b" +class="footnote">[97b]</a> Wynne p. 257. Warrington, +p. 398.</p> +<p><a name="footnote98a"></a><a href="#citation98a" +class="footnote">[98a]</a> Wynne, p. 273.</p> +<p><a name="footnote98b"></a><a href="#citation98b" +class="footnote">[98b]</a> Wynne, p. 274.</p> +<p><a name="footnote99"></a><a href="#citation99" +class="footnote">[99]</a> Wynne, p. 180.</p> +<p><a name="footnote101"></a><a href="#citation101" +class="footnote">[101]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 216.</p> +<p><a name="footnote102a"></a><a href="#citation102a" +class="footnote">[102a]</a> Wynne, p. 275.</p> +<p><a name="footnote102b"></a><a href="#citation102b" +class="footnote">[102b]</a> Warrington, p. 440.</p> +<p><a name="footnote103a"></a><a href="#citation103a" +class="footnote">[103a]</a> Warrington, p. 458.</p> +<p><a name="footnote103b"></a><a href="#citation103b" +class="footnote">[103b]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 216.</p> +<p><a name="footnote104"></a><a href="#citation104" +class="footnote">[104]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 217.</p> +<p><a name="footnote105a"></a><a href="#citation105a" +class="footnote">[105a]</a> Wynne, p. 181.</p> +<p><a name="footnote105b"></a><a href="#citation105b" +class="footnote">[105b]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 217.</p> +<p><a name="footnote106"></a><a href="#citation106" +class="footnote">[106]</a> Pennant, vol. 1. p. 217.</p> +<p><a name="footnote107"></a><a href="#citation107" +class="footnote">[107]</a> Camden’s Brit p. 304.</p> +<p><a name="footnote110"></a><a href="#citation110" +class="footnote">[110]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 324. A +gentleman who knows the fact says, however, that it came to the +Cuppers recently, through an intermarriage with a Miss Davies; +and that Mr. Pennant was wrong informed.</p> +<p><a name="footnote114"></a><a href="#citation114" +class="footnote">[114]</a> Whittington on Gothic +Architecture. Dr. Milner’s History of Winchester.</p> +<p><a name="footnote115"></a><a href="#citation115" +class="footnote">[115]</a> Sir Christopher Wren’s +Parentalia.</p> +<p><a name="footnote118a"></a><a href="#citation118a" +class="footnote">[118a]</a> Camden’s Britan. p. +677.</p> +<p><a name="footnote118b"></a><a href="#citation118b" +class="footnote">[118b]</a> These dates may have been some +years later. In a MS. obligingly lent to me, it is stated, +“Dissolved by statute of Henry VIII. 1561, at which time it +was rated in the King’s Books at 214<i>l.</i> 3<i>s.</i> +3<i>d.</i>:” so that it was wholly decayed, as Camden has +it, in twenty-five years.</p> +<p><a name="footnote119"></a><a href="#citation119" +class="footnote">[119]</a> This is the year in which +Camden’s Latin Edition appeared; consequently, this survey +must have been made before.</p> +<p><a name="footnote124a"></a><a href="#citation124a" +class="footnote">[124a]</a> Pennant, vol. 1.</p> +<p><a name="footnote124b"></a><a href="#citation124b" +class="footnote">[124b]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 395.</p> +<p><a name="footnote124c"></a><a href="#citation124c" +class="footnote">[124c]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 397.</p> +<p><a name="footnote125"></a><a href="#citation125" +class="footnote">[125]</a> A ploughland is nearly one +hundred acres.</p> +<p><a name="footnote127"></a><a href="#citation127" +class="footnote">[127]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 398.</p> +<p><a name="footnote131a"></a><a href="#citation131a" +class="footnote">[131a]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 399.</p> +<p><a name="footnote131b"></a><a href="#citation131b" +class="footnote">[131b]</a> Although Pennant spells the +second Cateli with two letters of <span +class="GutSmall">T</span>, yet it has been published by others +with only one; and as the name in both instances refers to the +same person, I have adopted the latter course.</p> +<p><a name="footnote132"></a><a href="#citation132" +class="footnote">[132]</a> Warrington, p. 87.</p> +<p><a name="footnote133a"></a><a href="#citation133a" +class="footnote">[133a]</a> Camden, p. 505.</p> +<p><a name="footnote133b"></a><a href="#citation133b" +class="footnote">[133b]</a> Wynne, p. 23.</p> +<p><a name="footnote138"></a><a href="#citation138" +class="footnote">[138]</a> Pennant, vol. 2, p. 80.</p> +<p><a name="footnote139a"></a><a href="#citation139a" +class="footnote">[139a]</a> Bala Pool.</p> +<p><a name="footnote139b"></a><a href="#citation139b" +class="footnote">[139b]</a> Camden’s Brit. p. +666.</p> +<p><a name="footnote146a"></a><a href="#citation146a" +class="footnote">[146a]</a> Wynne, p. 315.</p> +<p><a name="footnote146b"></a><a href="#citation146b" +class="footnote">[146b]</a> Wynne, p. 320.</p> +<p><a name="footnote147a"></a><a href="#citation147a" +class="footnote">[147a]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 327.</p> +<p><a name="footnote147b"></a><a href="#citation147b" +class="footnote">[147b]</a> Wynne, p. 315.</p> +<p><a name="footnote148"></a><a href="#citation148" +class="footnote">[148]</a> About seven miles from +Llangollen, and not far from Glyndyfrdwy, on the Corwen road, +there is a meadow called “<i>Dôl Benig</i>,” or +Head Meadow, where this scheme was practised.</p> +<p><a name="footnote149a"></a><a href="#citation149a" +class="footnote">[149a]</a> Camb. Trav. Guide, p. 324.</p> +<p><a name="footnote149b"></a><a href="#citation149b" +class="footnote">[149b]</a> Wynne, p. 316.</p> +<p><a name="footnote150"></a><a href="#citation150" +class="footnote">[150]</a> Wynne, p. 316.</p> +<p><a name="footnote151"></a><a href="#citation151" +class="footnote">[151]</a> Wynne, p. 316.</p> +<p><a name="footnote152a"></a><a href="#citation152a" +class="footnote">[152a]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 331.</p> +<p><a name="footnote152b"></a><a href="#citation152b" +class="footnote">[152b]</a> Wynne, p. 317.</p> +<p><a name="footnote153"></a><a href="#citation153" +class="footnote">[153]</a> Camden, p. 625.</p> +<p><a name="footnote155"></a><a href="#citation155" +class="footnote">[155]</a> Pennant, vol. l, p. 328. +Iolo Goch says—“Owen’s Palace had a gate-house; +was surrounded with a moat; had nine halls, furnished with the +wardrobes of his retainers; had a house adjoining, built of wood, +and covered with tiles, designed for his guests. The office +of porter was useless; locks and bolts were unknown; and no one +could be hungry or dry at Sycharth.” So Mr. Pennant +spells it.</p> +<p><a name="footnote156a"></a><a href="#citation156a" +class="footnote">[156a]</a> Wynne, p. 317. Pennant, +vol. 1, p. 355.</p> +<p><a name="footnote156b"></a><a href="#citation156b" +class="footnote">[156b]</a> English Baronetage, vol. 1, p. +167.</p> +<p><a name="footnote158a"></a><a href="#citation158a" +class="footnote">[158a]</a> Wynne, p. 317.</p> +<p><a name="footnote158b"></a><a href="#citation158b" +class="footnote">[158b]</a> Wynne, p. 318. Pennant, +vol. 1, p. 321.</p> +<p><a name="footnote159a"></a><a href="#citation159a" +class="footnote">[159a]</a> Wynne, p. 320.</p> +<p><a name="footnote159b"></a><a href="#citation159b" +class="footnote">[159b]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 360.</p> +<p><a name="footnote161"></a><a href="#citation161" +class="footnote">[161]</a> Wynne, p. 321.</p> +<p><a name="footnote162a"></a><a href="#citation162a" +class="footnote">[162a]</a> Rapin’s England.</p> +<p><a name="footnote162b"></a><a href="#citation162b" +class="footnote">[162b]</a> Pennant.</p> +<p><a name="footnote165"></a><a href="#citation165" +class="footnote">[165]</a> Wynne, p. 319.</p> +<p><a name="footnote166"></a><a href="#citation166" +class="footnote">[166]</a> Wynne, p. 319. These +rebellious practices of Glyndwr so exasperated King Henry against +the Welch people, that he enacted laws which in effect took away +all their liberties. They were rendered incapable of +purchasing any lands, or of being elected Members of any county +or borough; or of undertaking any office civil or military in any +town incorporate. No Englishman could be convicted of any +crime against a Welchman, but by an English judge and jury. +An Englishman, by marrying a Welch woman, was deprived of all his +privileges as an English subject. No Welchman could possess +any castle or place of defence, or be supplied with victuals or +armour, without a warrant from the King or from his Common +Council. And further it was enacted that no Welchman should +be capable of undertaking the office of Justice, Chamberlain, +Sheriff, or other place of trust, in any part of Wales; +notwithstanding any patent or license heretofore given to the +contrary. With other rigorous and unjust laws, forbidding +any Welchman from bringing up his children to learning, or +binding them to any trade or occupation. Henry V. at his +succession repealed these abominable laws.</p> +<p><a name="footnote167"></a><a href="#citation167" +class="footnote">[167]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 371.</p> +<p><a name="footnote168"></a><a href="#citation168" +class="footnote">[168]</a> Hollinshead. Wynne, p. +319.</p> +<p><a name="footnote171"></a><a href="#citation171" +class="footnote">[171]</a> Cambr. Trav. Guide, p. 324.</p> +<p><a name="footnote172"></a><a href="#citation172" +class="footnote">[172]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 331.</p> +<p><a name="footnote174"></a><a href="#citation174" +class="footnote">[174]</a> Wynne, p. 322.</p> +<p><a name="footnote176"></a><a href="#citation176" +class="footnote">[176]</a> Wynne, p. 322.</p> +<p><a name="footnote179"></a><a href="#citation179" +class="footnote">[179]</a> Pennant, vol. 1, p. 296.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME ACCOUNT OF LLANGOLLEN AND ITS +VICINITY***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 39590-h.htm or 39590-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/9/5/9/39590 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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