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DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL 
 
 SKETCH 
 
 OF 
 
 BEDDGELERT 
 
 AND 
 
 Its Nrtgljtsourfjootr. 
 
 BY JAMES HEWS BRANSBY. 
 
 Un pezzo di cielo caduto in terra. 
 
 SANNAZARO. 
 
 LONDON : 
 PUBLISHED BY T. M. CRADOCK, 
 
 PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 1840. 
 

 5415 
 
 'c-z. 
 
 CARNARVON: 
 PRINTED BY W. POTTER AND CO. 
 
A SKETCH, &c. 
 
 Beddgelert, a village consisting, for the most 
 part, of a few cottages, a neat church, and a pic- 
 turesque old bridge, is situated in the bosom of a 
 romantic valley, about thirteen miles to the south- 
 east of Carnarvon. It can boast of an inn, under 
 admirable superintendence, which secures to the 
 visitor, at a moderate charge, not only an elegant 
 retirement, but the kindest attention, and every 
 comfort of a well-ordered home. He who loves 
 to study nature in her own domain, in all her 
 magnificence, in all her sweetness, and in all her 
 glory, may find at Beddgelert enough, and far 
 more than enough, to gratify ?nd improve his taste. 
 
Many exquisite subjects present themselves both 
 to the painter and to the poet. Mountains that 
 seem like the barriers of a world, inaccessible peaks 
 and precipices, fairy glens, enamelled fields, 
 meandering rivulets, expansive lakes, — all are here, 
 and all breathe enchantment. They fill the mind 
 by turns with awe and ecstacy. They bear us 
 away to the land of dreams. Indeed, there is no 
 fiction which on a spot so rich in all kinds of 
 beauty, and in all kinds of grandeur, the imagina- 
 tion cannot readily supply. From this realm of 
 overpowering wonders, it is with difficulty that we 
 withdraw our gaze; but let it be once seen, and 
 it is impressed upon the recollection for ever. 
 
 Persons alive both to the forms and to the co- 
 louring of nature, who have travelled in the North 
 of England, in the Highlands of Scotland, and 
 in Switzerland, concur in testifying that they have 
 not met with any place where, within so short a 
 distance, there is so much to admire as at Bedd- 
 gelert. 
 
 Here also is matter in abundance for observers 
 who take an interest in the great histoiy of man. 
 Hitherto, perhaps, they have deceived themselves 
 
into a belief that the Principality of Wales is in- 
 habited only by 
 
 " Souls made of fire, and children of the sun." 
 
 If they visit these tranquil and happy moun- 
 tains, they will discover, to their astonishment, 
 in the direct descendants of the Britons, our 
 fellow countrymen, that the primitive modes of 
 patriarchal life are not altogether lost. They will 
 perceive many a vestige of habits and observances, 
 many a picture of actions, manners, and thoughts, 
 that we may justly characterize as having been 
 those of the earliest time. Though the occupa- 
 tions of the people in this wild district are rude 
 and simple, the people themselves are not igno- 
 rant, or fierce, or unfeeling. They speak the 
 language and retain the superstitions as well as 
 the proverbial sayings of their forefathers ; severe, 
 however, as are the hardships of their condition, 
 it will be obvious to any one who wanders among 
 them, that theirs is the hearth of contentment, 
 peace, and love — a hearth that is sanctified by reli- 
 gion. They are familiar with the knowledge that 
 leads to everlasting life ; and in their dwellings 
 
 b 2 
 
may be heard the voice of prayer, and the morning 
 and evening song of praise. Oh, how sweet, 
 how heavenly, how touching, is the sound "as- 
 cending from a speck in the immensity !" How 
 it goes to the very soul ! 
 
 Tradition informs us that Llewelyn the Great, 
 who reigned towards the end of the twelfth cen- 
 tury, and who distinguished himself by prodigies 
 of heroism, was accustomed, in the hunting season' 
 to take up his abode, with his wife and children, 
 in the vale in which Beddgelert now stands. He 
 had a favourite greyhound, Kelert, which had 
 been given to him by his father-in-law, the re- 
 nowned King John. The story is, that, on a 
 particular occasion, all the family had gone from 
 home, leaving an infant in the cradle, and that, 
 while they were absent, a wolf entered the house. 
 \Yhen the prince returned, his greyhound met him 
 at the door. The poor animal was wagging his 
 tail ; and his jaws were covered over with blood. 
 An appalling thought in a moment suggested 
 itself to Llewelyn's mind. He ran with breath- 
 less haste into the room in which the child had 
 been left ; and all his fears seemed to be imme- 
 
diately confirmed. The cradle was overturned; 
 the floor around it was besmeared with blood. 
 Concluding in his paroxysm that the greyhound 
 had destroyed the child, he grasped his sword and 
 slew him. On lifting the cradle, however, he 
 found the little innocent in perfect safety, sleeping 
 beside the dead wolf* It is not in words to de- 
 scribe the tumultuous, conflicting emotions that 
 agitated his breast. He erected a. tomb over the 
 grave of his faithful dog ; and from this affecting 
 incident, the place is said to have derived the 
 name of Beddgelert, or The Grave of Kelcrt. 
 
 That the story is well known in Wales, is evi- 
 dent from the adage still current among the Welsh 
 peasantry : " he repents as much as the man who 
 killed the dog." It is to be seen sculptured on a 
 rock in the county of Limerick ;* and it is intro- 
 duced into an old English romance, under the 
 title of " the Knight and the Greyhound." In- 
 deed, it seems to have prevailed over the whole of 
 Europe. Nor is this all. Sir William Jones 
 met with a tale similar in its principal circum- 
 stances, when lie was translating an ancient drama 
 * Croker's Irish Tales. 
 
from the Persian. The coincidence is by far too 
 remarkable to justify us in deeming the traditions 
 to be independent of each other ; and who shall 
 now determine which is the genuine picture and 
 which the copy ? It will frequently happen, if 
 a popular story or belief be common to several 
 countries, that it is impossible to fix the place of 
 its birth or to assign it to its real origin. 
 
 Of late years, men eminent for philological 
 attainments have employed themselves in tracing 
 such narrations, through different channels, from 
 age to age, and from one quarter of the globe to 
 another. It must be acknowledged that their re- 
 searches have not always proved satisfactory ; but 
 they have ascertained that an oriental source has 
 supplied us with many of the wild legends and ro- 
 mantic allegories of the cottagers' fire-side and of 
 the nursery. Morier heard the story of Whittington 
 and his cat in Persia. Maglotti told it in Italy of 
 Anselmo Degli Ormanni. It exists likewise in 
 Denmark. The legend of the Seven Sleepers, 
 adorned as it is with so much elegance by Gibbon,* 
 has its parentage in a very early Greek story. 
 • Decline and Fall, cbap. xxxiii- 
 
9 
 
 It has been the delight of the German peasant for 
 unknown centuries ; its prototype may, perhaps, 
 be discovered in " the Golden East," — in the 
 day-dreams of Hafiz or Sadi. 
 
 At Beddgelert was once a splendid Priory of 
 Augustine monks. It must have been founded 
 at a very remote period ; for it is described in 
 Rymer's Fcedera, as the oldest religious house in 
 all the country, except Bardsey. The building 
 was of considerable magnitude. It had many 
 apartments appropriated to different uses ; and, 
 being on the high road from England and West 
 Wales into North Wales, and from Ireland and 
 North Wales into England, it often afforded lodg- 
 ing to travellers whom darkness or tempest had 
 overtaken. Llewelyn endowed it with munificent 
 grants of land. It received great damage in con- 
 sequence of an accidental fire in 1283. That the 
 brotherhood might be enabled to support their 
 hospitality, Edward the First took measures for 
 putting the edifice into complete repair ; and in 
 augmentation of its income, Anian, bishop of 
 Bangor, about the year 1286, remitted to all 
 benefactors who " truly repented of their sins," 
 
10 
 
 forty days of any penance that might be inflicted 
 on them.* 
 
 The prior had many granges in Carnarvonshire 
 and Anglesey, and an allowance of fifty cows and 
 twenty-two sheep, together with a certain share of 
 the bees on several estates. Every farm in the 
 district had then its colony of bees ;f and although 
 an appropriation of them to the maintenance of 
 the Priory may, at first sight, seem curious, it 
 is easy to imagine why they were highly valued. 
 They have always been very numerous in Pales- 
 tine. Frequent mention is made in the sacred 
 volume, of " honey out of the rock."]: The Scrip- 
 tures also speak of honey as forming a part of the 
 presents which it was usual to send to persons of 
 distinction^ Canaan is described as " aland flow- 
 ing with milk and honey ."|| John the Baptist is 
 said to have lived upon " locusts and wild ho- 
 ney ;"1f and among the articles of food set before 
 
 * Rymer ii. 317. 
 
 t There the blithe bee his fragrant fortress built, 
 The free-born wanderer of the mountain air. 
 
 Byron. 
 X Deut. xxxii. 13. 2 Chron. xxxi. 5. Psalm lxxxi. 16. 
 5 Gen. xliii. 11. 1 Kings xiv. 3. 
 I! Exod. iii. 8. IT Matt. iii. 4. 
 
1] 
 
 our Saviour, when, after his resurrection, he ate 
 with his disciples, was a piece of an honey-comb.* 
 These circumstances combined have, doubtless, 
 had their share in leading the uninstructed — and 
 that in nearly all countries and times — to look 
 upon the bee with a feeling of superstitious reve- 
 rence that approaches to idolatry. Mead, the pro- 
 duce of the bee, was the favourite drink, the nectar 
 of the ancient Britons, and their attachment to 
 this extraordinary little insect ascended to a 
 very remote period. According to their popular 
 belief, " tli3 high origin of the bees is from para- 
 dise ; it was on account of man's transgression 
 that they left it; and then God gave them a 
 blessing."f The priests maintained that, there- 
 fore, no mass ought to be celebrated except by the 
 light of wax. 
 
 On the dissolution of monasteries by Henry the 
 Eighth, the revenues of the Priory at Beddgelert 
 were estimated at seventy pounds, three shillings, 
 
 * Luke xxiv. 42. 
 
 t Bonedd gwenyn o baradwys pan yw ; ac o achaws 
 pechawd dyn y dacthynt oddyno, ac y dodes Duw rad 
 arnynt.— Leges Wallu, 
 
12 
 
 and eight pence. Edward Conway is stated to 
 have been the last prior.* 
 
 It has, however, ceased to be. " It hath not 
 been inhabited or dwelt in, from generation to 
 generation. "f The ploughman has drawn his 
 obliterating furrow over it ; we seek in vain even 
 for its ruins,t 
 
 What interesting associations cluster round such 
 a spot ! The barefooted monks, each in his grey 
 habit, with his leathern girdle, his crucifix, and 
 his rosary, seem to stand before us. We picture 
 to ourselves the inflexible confessor and the timid 
 noviciate ; we hear the authoritative question and 
 the half reluctant reply. We see the midnight 
 procession ; and listen to the chaunt and the 
 anthem, now swelling in accents high and clear, 
 now returning, and now floating away as if in 
 melancholy sadness. Though we must acknow- 
 ledge, when we consider the age in which 
 these institutions flourished, that something may 
 be advanced in their favour, we have reason 
 
 * Dugdale's Monasticon, Hi. 21. 
 
 t Is. xiii. 20. : etiam perierc ruinae. 
 
13 
 
 enough to rejoice that their date is past, and that 
 they have sunk into oblivion. To live religiously 
 we are not called upon to give up all the innocent 
 pursuits and gratifications of human nature ; for 
 what is life, uncheered by life's sweetest charities, 
 unblest by its holiest ties — life without interest, 
 without change, and, as far as this world is con- 
 cerned, without hope ! 
 
 The Priory was dedicated to Saint Mary. Mr. 
 Pennant was inclined to believe that it consisted 
 of both men and women, who lived under the 
 same roof, and were strictly separated from each 
 other by a wall. Perhaps the conjecture, — and 
 it is nothing more than a conjecture, — derives 
 some plausibility from the fact, that there is a 
 piece of ground, near the church, which to this 
 day is called D61 y Lleian, — The Nuns Meadow. 
 
 Opposite to the village, on the western side, 
 frowns the huge steep of Moel Hebog, the Hill 
 of the Hawk. Not far from the brow of this 
 mountain is a cave in which Owen Glendwr 
 once found a shelter from the enemy. Although 
 the character of this Cambrian chief furnishes 
 problems on which the learning and ingenuity of 
 
14 
 
 modern writers have been abundantly exercised, 
 and in regard to which the disputants have ar- 
 rived at the most opposite conclusions, yet there 
 is something about it which has a secret charm for 
 the imagination. No one can deny that the Eng- 
 lish had greatly excited the national feeling by 
 their government of Wales. They had committed 
 acts in the highest degree tyrannical and oppres- 
 sive ; and Owen, being descended from the ancient 
 British princes, asserted his title to the sceptre, 
 and raised his arm against the hated dominion of 
 the stranger, and for the protection of the rights 
 and liberties of his countrymen. Adventurers has- 
 tened from the capital, the universities, and every 
 quarter of the kingdom, to cheer him on and to 
 fight under his standard. The whole of North 
 Wales and a great part of South Wales acknowl- 
 edged his authority ; his ambassadors were receiv- 
 ed in France, as those of an independent prince ; 
 and there was in his bravery a fascination which 
 led his followers to attempt and execute the most 
 hazardous enterprises, and which compelled the 
 king and the army of England, when baffled by 
 his activity and preserverance, to console them- 
 
15 
 
 selves with the reflection, that a comet was his 
 birth-star, and that he owed his success to his fa- 
 miliar intercourse with the land of shadows. His 
 exploits form one of the most imposing chapters 
 in the page of history, and his name, like that of 
 Wallace, will be respected by the generous as 
 long as valour and constancy shall be appreciated 
 upon earth. 
 
 Just rising from the valley, on the road to Aber- 
 glaslyn, is a stone " The Chair of Rhys Goch o'r 
 'Ryri," a celebrated mountain bard, the contem- 
 porary of Owen Glendwr. Upon this rocky seat, 
 it was his practice to seek the inspiration of the 
 Muses. Here he composed a poem, the very 
 essence of satire and derision, on a Fox that had 
 destroyed his favourite Peacock. He died about 
 the year 1420, and was buried at Beddgelert. He 
 could pass with ease from the borders of the lu- 
 dicrous to those of the sublime, and could 
 kindle his readers with enthusiasm, or melt them 
 into tenderness at pleasure. His impassioned 
 and glowing strains were consecrated to freedom 
 as one of the choicest blessings that man can re- 
 
16 
 
 -ceive ;* and they are said to have had a marvellous 
 effect in animating the fallen hopes of his country- 
 men. Hence he was looked upon with suspicion 
 and dislike, and was even proscribed by the Eng- 
 lish. "An ordinance," says Sir James Mackin- 
 tosh, " was passed by the king, (Henry IV.) in 
 1403, to prohibit minstrels, bards, and rhymers, 
 from infesting the territories of Snowdon, where 
 the remains of a national spirit still glowed."f 
 
 About a mile and a half from Beddgelert, in 
 the direction of Tre' MadocJ and Tan-y-Bwlch.§ 
 is the far and justly famed Pont Aberglaslyn,|| 
 which connects the counties of Carnarvon and 
 Merioneth, and is compassed round by a thousand 
 spectacles of unimaginable sublimity. The ap- 
 proach to it is bounded on either side by moun- 
 tains of such terrific height that they seem to carry 
 
 * Dear Liberty ! stern nymph of soul untam'd ; 
 Sweet nymph! oh, rightly of the mountain nam'd. 
 Wordsworth. 
 + History of England, tcI. i. p/347. Rymer viii. 184. 
 Ordonnance de Gales. 
 i The town of Madoc. 
 § Under the Pass. 
 II The bridge at the confluence of the Blue Lake. 
 
17 
 
 their cliffs into the sky,* and to stand like the 
 walls of some stupendous temple, roofed by the 
 vault of heaven; They disregard the thunder and 
 the lightning ; the whirlwind disturbs them not. 
 The storm rages, and the clouds are hurrying to 
 and fro; but they are for ever steadfast, for ever 
 serene, for ever still. Time cannot shake those 
 eternal pillars. The road, which is narrow and 
 steep, winds in such a manner as gradually to 
 reveal object after object, and to exhibit in the 
 most striking point of view the glories of the scene. 
 On the left, the river rolls rapidly along, and being 
 every where broken and interrupted by innume- 
 rable jutting crags and rocky shelves, it murmurs 
 and pauses and foams and sparkles, and murmurs 
 yet more distinctly,! in endless variety, till it 
 dashes into a broad, impetuous torrent, and then 
 pursues its way .J The grandeur, the profound 
 
 * the mountains touch the stars divine.— Spenser, 
 
 t • Decursu rapido de montibus altis 
 
 Dant sonitus spumosi amnes, et in sequora currunt. 
 Vikg. JEn. xii. 523. 
 t Now from a murmur faint it swell'd anew, 
 Like the first note of organ heard within 
 Cathedral aisles— ere yet its symphony begin. 
 
 Campbell. 
 
I 6 
 
 gloom, the surpassing melancholy of the seclusion 
 no human tongue can express. The soul feels 
 itself alone as it were with God. 
 
 Prsesentiorem conspicimus Deum, 
 Fera per juga, clivosque praeruptos 
 Sonantes inter aquas. 
 
 It was probably of this wonderful defile that a 
 monk in the twelfth century observed : " The 
 territory of Conan, particularly Merionyth, is the 
 rudest district of all Wales ; the ridges of its 
 mountains are very high, ending in sharp peaks, 
 and so irregularly jumbled, that if the shepherds 
 conversing together from their summits, should 
 agree to meet, they could scarcely effect their 
 purpose in a whole day.""* 
 
 A few yards above the bridge, was formerly one 
 of the best salmon-leaps in Wales. In the au- 
 tumnal months, the salmon leave the sea and 
 ascend the rivers for the purpose of depositing 
 their spawn in the sandy shallows. If in their 
 course they meet with a fall of water or a dam, 
 they make the most extraordinary exertions to 
 
 * Giraldi Itin. Camb. p.l8S. Ed. 1585. 
 
19 
 
 surmount it. To accomplish this object, they put 
 their tails in their mouths, and poising themselves, 
 strike the surface of the water, and spring forward 
 with a desperate jerk, as though they had learnt 
 their feats at a gymnastic school . They are fre- 
 quently unsuccessful in the first attempt, and fall 
 back again into the stream. It was no uncommon 
 thing, a few years ago, for visitors in their way 
 from Beddgelert to Aberglaslyn, to see as many as 
 twenty or thirty of these delightful fish gambol- 
 ling in different parts of the river. For some time, 
 the weir has been broken down. In the reign of 
 Henry the Fourth, it was a royal weir. Salmon 
 were then reckoned by the Welsh among game, 
 and laws were made for their preservation. They 
 are now taken by the peasants apparently without 
 effort or science. 
 
 In the middle of the last century, these fish 
 seem to have been much more abundant than they 
 are at present; for it used to be stipulated on the 
 part of a servant when he was hired, that he should 
 not be obliged to eat salmon more than three 
 times a week. It is remarkable that the true 
 
 salmon has never been discovered in any river that 
 
 c 
 
20 
 
 fells into the Mediterranean, and that the most di- 
 ligent enquirers have not been able to trace its 
 presence at the tables of the ancient Greeks and 
 Romans. 
 
 The fastness of Aberglaslyn has repeatedly been 
 the scene of protracted and bloody strife. His- 
 tory records that here a handful of gallant Welsh- 
 men have more than once disconcerted the hosts 
 of the invader, and hurled his proud ensign to 
 the earth. 
 
 How highly favoured must we deem ourselves, 
 whether we be Cambrians or Saxons, that we live 
 at a period, when these mountains no longer echo 
 to the battle-cry or stream with gore! Well may 
 we congratulate each other on the extinction of 
 our antipathies, our heart burnings, and our jea- 
 lousies. Well may we rejoice, in whatever part 
 of the empire we were born, that we can slake our 
 thirst at the same fountains of knowledge, and 
 claim an equal share in the same magnificent and 
 beautiful institutions, — institutions which have for 
 ages been the boast, and which are every day be- 
 coming more and yet more deservedly the boast, 
 of our beloved country, constituting her glory 
 
21 
 
 abroad, and her honourable pride, her security, 
 her happiness at home. 
 
 It is only justice to add that Wales has long 
 been as exemplary in its attachment to the com- 
 mon interest, as it was formerly conspicuous in 
 struggling for its own independence. 
 
 The road to Tre' Madoc, a distance of between 
 four and five miles to the right, is overhung by a 
 line of stupendous, uncouth, rugged mountains, 
 the sides of which are seamed with clefts and 
 chasms Traeth Mawr* and Traeth Bachf spread 
 themselves out and form an admirable fore- 
 ground ; while the gloomy castles of Harlech 
 and Criccieth, towering afar off in ruined splen- 
 dour, X excite emotions much holier and higher 
 than the cravings of curiosity, in the mind of him 
 who knows how to connect the past with the 
 present. 
 
 The mountains in this precipitous ridge are 
 not more interesting to the common observer from 
 the singularity of their figure and situation than 
 
 * The Great Sands. i The Little Sands. 
 
 J But now the wild flowers only round them breathe, 
 Yet ruin'd splendour still is lingering here. 
 
 Chllde Harold, Chap. 1. 5 22, 
 
22 
 
 they are to the mineralogist from their composition 
 and structure. On the side of one of them, is a 
 mine producing crystals of quartz, which have 
 become celebrated and are much prized as 
 Snowdon crystals. Clusters are occasionally 
 found of a considerable size and of great splen- 
 dour; 
 
 At the mouth of the Glaslyn lies the Traeth 
 Mawr, a large extent of sands over which the tide 
 flows so suddenly that they have sometimes been 
 fatal to the adventurous passenger. As far back 
 as the year 1625, a bold design was conceived by 
 Sir John Wynne, of Gwydir, for an embankment 
 which should shut out the sea and gain the surface 
 for agricultural purposes. Owing to some cause 
 or other, the scheme was soon abandoned ; but it 
 has since been carried into execution. A private 
 individual, in 1800, secured two thousand acres 
 of land from the encroachment of the waters. A 
 few years after, he accomplished the gigantic task 
 of carrying an embankment, nearly a mile in 
 length, from the shore of Carnarvonshire to that of 
 Merionethshire, at the western extremity of Car- 
 digan Bay ; and he subsequently reclaimed for 
 cultivation a tract of seven thousand acres more. 
 
23 
 
 Those once unprofitable wastes now employ the 
 labour of the husbandman and satisfy " his long 
 hope*" 
 
 On a portion of Traeth Mawr thus recovered 
 from the sea, the modern little town of Tie' 
 Madoc has been built. It is laid out in the form 
 of an oblong square, having on the eastern side 
 a market house, in the upper story of which is a 
 spacious assembly room. On the other sides of 
 the area are substantial houses, a handsome 
 church, and a place of worship for Dissenters. 
 A very respectable inn is also to be found here. 
 
 The honour of effecting these improvements 
 belongs to the late W. A. Madocks, Esq. To 
 his enterprising spirit, they must all be ascribed ; 
 and surely they give him a claim to the gratitude 
 of his country. Before such benefactors to their 
 species, the conqueror, the spoiler of kingdoms, 
 and the rapacious destroyer, shrink into insigni- 
 ficance and become objects of contempt. 
 
 Towards the north of Beddgelert, at the distance 
 of between four and five miles, Snowdon lifts its 
 majestic head. A range of mountains, bold, dark 
 and precipitous, stretches itself in a curve line, 
 
24 
 
 across Carnarvonshire, for thirty-six miles, from 
 the neighbourhood of Bardsey Island to Penmaen- 
 mawr, at the entrance of Conway Bay. Here, 
 and there, they are separated from each other by 
 transverse vallies. For the most part, their outlines 
 are clearly marked ; though sometimes they are 
 not distinguishable from the piled clouds that are 
 about them. Snowdon forms the centre, and is 
 the loftiest. It rules the region, subjecting all 
 other altitudes to its sway. None of these, how- 
 ever, can be called infant hills. 
 
 " All that expands the spirit, jet appals 
 Gathers around their summits, as to show 
 How earth may pierce to heaven, yet leave vain man 
 below." 
 
 Snowdon was held sacred by the ancient Bri- 
 tons ; and they believed that if a person slept upon 
 its top, the most beautiful forms and images would 
 float before him, and he would aw r ake in posses- 
 sion, and under the influence, of a poetical spirit. 
 
 It was formerly, also, a royal forest and 
 abounded with red deer. They were driven from 
 these haunts early in the seventeenth century. A 
 few remains are still preserved in the parks of some 
 
25 
 
 of our nobility. The wolf, so much dreaded by our 
 ancestors, maintained its ground on Snowdon to 
 a comparatively late period. The eagle, during 
 time immemorial, regarded the Snowdonian cliffs 
 as the territory of his dominion ; but he long since 
 shifted his abode. 
 
 On the northern and north-eastern side, the 
 botanist finds Alpine heaths and mosses of 
 great rarity : here, too, is to be seen many a 
 simple flower from which the solitary wanderer 
 may draw the delightful argument of confidence 
 in God. 
 
 The volcanic fires which constitute so grand a 
 feature in the geological history of mountainous 
 districts in other parts of the world have doubt- 
 less extended their empire to this region. Those 
 who have applied themselves to the interesting 
 science of geology tell us, that while some por- 
 tions of Snowdon are porphyritic, the western 
 side is composed of hornstone or chertz, together 
 with basaltic columns, pentagonal and standing 
 at right angles to the plane of the horizon. These, 
 being igneous rocks, are inclosed in great masses 
 of schistus, a formation which has of late been so 
 ably described by Professor Sedgwick. 
 
26 
 
 Few tourists are satisfied without climbing the 
 steeps of Snowdon ; and not seldom has the visi- 
 tor on reaching its summit, stood for some time, 
 motionless and silent. Those hills, those rocks, 
 those vallies, those streams, those lakes, — what 
 could they less ? — have laid strong hold on his 
 feelings and thrilled him with ecstatic wonder. 
 
 The perpendicular height of Snowdon, ascer- 
 tained by the latest trigonometrical survey, is 
 3,571 feet, a little less than three quarters of a 
 mile, above the level of the sea. The other points 
 by which it is surrounded are of nearly equal ele- 
 vation. 
 
 Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Great Bri- 
 tain, is 4,358 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
 Mont Blanc is the loftiest mountain in Europe : 
 its height is 15,735 feet. 
 
 The convent of St. Bernard, on the frontier of 
 the Valois, is the highest inhabited spot in Europe,, 
 being 8,606 feet above the level of the sea ; but 
 the mountain rises 2,400 feet above this. 
 
 The hamlet of Antisana, in Mexico, elevated 
 3,800 feet above the plain of Quito, and 19,134 
 above the sea, is unquestionably the highest inha- 
 
27 
 
 bited spot on the surface of the globe. Animals 
 as well as the vegetable tribes shrink from the 
 regions of perpetual snow. 
 
 Chimboraco, in South America, is the highest 
 spot which has ever been explored by the curiosity, 
 or trodden by the foot of man- Its altilude is 
 21,464 feet above the level of the sea. On the 23d 
 of June, 1805, Baron Humboldt and a scientific 
 companion, with incredible labour reached its 
 eastern slope, and planted their instruments on a 
 narrow ledge of rock, which projected from the 
 vast field of unfathomed snow. The air was re- 
 duced to half its usual density, and felt intensely 
 cold and piercing. Respiration was laborious, 
 and blood oozed from their eyes, their lips, and 
 their gums* This elevation was 19,300 feet 
 above the level of the sea. 
 
 The Andes, that mighty chain of which Chim- 
 boraco forms a part, was long supposed to be the 
 highest in the world ; but recent observations have 
 assigned this distinction to the Himalayan chain, 
 in the eastern hemisphere. The mountains of 
 Thibet are above 25,000 feet high. They give 
 
 * Tableau Physique des Regions Equatorial«s, 1807. 
 
28 
 
 rise not only to the Ganges and the Burampooter 
 in India and China, but also to several vast rivers 
 in Siberia and Tartary. 
 
 Let it be remembered that the Snowdonian 
 mountains, if less stupendous than these, are not 
 inferior to them in fantastic beauty. 
 
 Many thousands of Sheep find pasturage on 
 Snowdon and the neighbouring mountains. For 
 the most part they are not confined within any in- 
 closures, and they are never housed. As the sheep, 
 generally speaking, is not only a harmless but also 
 a stupid animal, having few wants and fewer ex- 
 pedients, those of this lofty and extensive range 
 have been thought by some zoologists to be a 
 distinct race, well suited to the circumstances in 
 which they are placed, and exhibiting a greater 
 spirit of independence and more powerful capa- 
 bilities than the larger sized breeds that occupy 
 the brakes and meadows in Leicestershire, and in 
 other richly cultivated parts of "merry England." 
 The subject presents a curious and interesting 
 question, surrounded, however, with difficulties, 
 and incapable of being demonstratively settled 
 either the one way or the other. 
 
29 
 
 The sheep of these majestic hills are obliged to 
 depend upon themselves for protection from the 
 foxes which lurk in the dark cavities and amidst 
 the crags, and from birds of prey. At the crisis 
 of attack, they generally unite their exertions, and 
 show wonderful intrepidity and courage in en- 
 countering, harassing, and beating off the enemy. 
 On such occasions, they form themselves into a 
 compact body, placing the feeble, helpless nurse- 
 lings, with their mothers, in the centre. 
 
 During the barren months of winter, they seek 
 their food under the snow; and this they do without 
 being much reduced in condition. Whenever the 
 cold is extremely piercing, they leave the highest 
 elevations, and keep very much together. In the 
 summer time, they are to be seen, scattered up 
 and down, here and there, on the green declivities 
 and on the most rugged eminences, grazing in small 
 bands of not more than twelve or fourteen each. 
 
 They are shy and timid to an extraordinary de- 
 gree. One of every company is always stationed 
 upon the look out, forty or fifty yards from the 
 rest. On the approach of a stranger, the trusty 
 sentinel, as if he had been disciplined in a camp, 
 
30 
 
 strikes with his foot upon the ground, and utters 
 twice or thrice a short hiss or a shrill whistling 
 through his nose. In a moment, his associates 
 take the alarm, and are gone. They start off and 
 run with great agility to a considerable distance, 
 and then face suddenly about. This is also the 
 practice of the American sheep, and of all the less 
 domesticated tribes. 
 
 To enlarge in detail upon their qualities, in- 
 stincts, and propensities, would require a treatise. 
 One of the most singular is their strong attachment 
 to the enchanting wilds of their nativity, — the spot 
 where first they "felt the fresh world about them." 
 When they are taken from their acquaintances, as 
 is sometimes the case, to a pasture many miles off, 
 they seldom fail to watch their opportunity ; and, 
 stealing quietly away, travel homeward, for the 
 most part "between the dusk and the dawn,' 7 
 with incredible sagacity and perseverance. 
 
 It must be regarded as a merciful provision, 
 with respect to these animals, that the more in- 
 hospitable the land is on which they feed, the 
 more promptly do they seem to answer to all the 
 gentle impulses of nature, — the more assiduous, 
 
31 
 
 in particular, are the kindness and attention 
 which they manifest towards their young. There 
 is among them a disease, a sort of paralysis 
 which frequently carries off a great number. In 
 the last stage of the malady, the poor victims 
 falter and sink down, and are unable to lift 
 their heads from the ground. It is not an 
 uncommon thing to see an ewe, in these cir- 
 cumstances, holding up its leg, to invite its 
 tottering, starving lamb, to the wretched pittance 
 which the udder may still supply. What spectacle 
 can be more touching! The man who can be- 
 hold these workings of nature without emotion, 
 nay, without being melted into tears, has a claim 
 upon our pity. 
 
 When one in a flock loses its sight, it is not 
 abandoned to its desolate and apparently hopeless 
 condition. Some individual of its fellows is al- 
 ways ready to attach itself to it, accompanies it 
 in its wanderings, calls it back by impatient bleat- 
 ings from the precipice, the pool, or the bog,* and 
 apprizes it of every danger to which it may happen 
 
 * Parcite, oves, nimium procedere : none bene ripae 
 Creditnr.— Virg. Eel. iii. 94. 
 
 D 2 
 
32 
 
 to be exposed. The moral comes home to our 
 hearts. 
 
 Burns had a favourite sheep, " an only pet 
 yowe j" he gave it the name of Mailie ; and in a 
 pathetic elegy on its death, he places its friend- 
 ship on a level with that of a human being, The 
 reader may now find himself prepared to enter in 
 some measure into his feelings. 
 
 " Through a' the town she trotted by him, 
 A lang half mile she could descry him, 
 Wi' kindly bleat when she did spie him 
 
 She ran wi' speed ; 
 A friend mair faithful' ne'er cam' nigh him, 
 
 Than Mailie dead." 
 
 Perhaps we may also be in a frame of mind to 
 perceive new beauty in Merrick's incomparable 
 paraphrase of those words in the cxix. Psalm : — 
 < ( I have gone astray like a lost sheep ; seek thy 
 servant; for I do not forget thy commandments." 
 It perfectly unites truth, simplicity, and elegance. 
 and is a radiant gem : — 
 
 '.' Thine eyes in me the sheep behold 
 Whose feet have wander'd from the fold; 
 That guideless, helpless, strives in vain 
 To find its safe retreat again : 
 
33 
 
 " Now listens, if perchance its car 
 
 The shepherd's well-known voice may hear ; 
 
 Now, as the tempests round it blow, 
 
 In plaintive accents vents its woe. 
 
 " Great Ruler of this earthly ball ! 
 Do thou my erring steps recall : 
 Oh, seek thou him who thee has sought, 
 Nor turns from thy decrees his thought." 
 
 There are amiable enthusiasts who please them- 
 selves with fancying that as these innocent, de- 
 fenceless, unsuspecting animals have been the 
 charge of the common Father, through their little 
 span of life on earth, so they will rise hereafter to an 
 immortal state of existence. The advocates of this 
 opinion would fain believe that since in the hea- 
 venly world He who was once " led as a lamb to 
 the slaughter," sitteth upon the throne, it will be a 
 part of its blessedness to look around and see va- 
 rious orders of happy beings that range its ever- 
 lasting hills, and rejoice in security on every side ; 
 to see its valleys smile with flocks against which 
 no hand of violence shall be raised, and which 
 shall repose amidst the green pastures and beside 
 the still waters, through an endless, undeclining 
 
day.* We might incur, and perhaps deservedly, 
 the charge of presumption, if we were to call such 
 sentiments unmanly, childish, and weak ; but we 
 shall be safe in saying that it is a subject upon 
 which we are not ashamed to confess our igno- 
 rance. The Gospel, and the Gospel alone, has 
 brought life and immortality to light; and in the 
 volume of inspiration we find enough to justify 
 us in concluding that, as it has been admirably 
 expressed, " man is ordained to live, though the 
 beast may be left to perish ."f 
 
 It will not be improper to add to the remarks 
 which have been offered on the Snowdonian 
 sheep, that they are much admired for the deli- 
 cacy and fine flavour of their flesh, while their 
 wool is both of an indifferent quality and trifling 
 in amount. 
 
 The sheep dogs perform their work in perfect 
 silence, and often with a skill that adapts itself to 
 the exigencies of the moment, and bespeaks no 
 
 * See a pleasing sermon by the Rev. Henry Woodward, 
 A.M., in the." Irish Pulpit;" a Collection of Original 
 Sermons, p. 21. 
 
 t Dr. Lindsay's Sermons, p. 5. 
 
35 
 
 small share of the reasoning faculty ; gathering 
 sheep from the heights and turning them as they 
 are commanded, this way and that way, as far as 
 they can catch the sound of their master's voice, 
 or observe the motion of his hand. 
 
 At the foot of Snowdon, about six miles from 
 Beddgelert, and on the left of the road to Carnar- 
 von, is Llyn C welly n — Cwellyn Lake^ — famous 
 for a variety of the char, torgoch, or red bellied, the 
 Salmo Alpinus of Linnaeus. This fish, which is 
 much esteemed for its delicate flavour, inhabits 
 some of the lakes of Cumberland, and is abundant 
 in those of Switzerland. The angler well knows 
 that it is not to be taken with the rod, 
 
 In the back ground of the lake, the barren 
 heights and shelving sides of Mynydd Mawr — 
 The Great Mountain, — display a most wild and 
 romantic sublimity, and invest the scene with ex- 
 traordinary interest. On a rock that appears 
 inaccessible but by a labour that would scarcely 
 be repaid, was in very early times, a fortress, 
 where the Britons could secure themselves and 
 prevent the enemy from penetrating into the 
 northern division of their country, to them, 
 
36 
 
 notvvithsanding its ruggedness, the loveliest and 
 the dearest land of all. 
 
 A tale has been transmitted among the pea- 
 sants from age to age, and is still repeated, that in 
 the fourth century of the Christian era, Cidwm, a 
 monster in human shape, had his residence on 
 Mynydd Mawr, where, like a remorseless wolf, he 
 was accustomed to wage a war of surprise and 
 plunder against the unsuspecting and defenceless. 
 It is said that as the son of Constantine the Great 
 was passing, with his army, along the road, by the 
 edge of Lake Cwellyn, to welcome his mother 
 Helena, then on her way from the South to Segon- 
 tium, Cidwm shot him in the back with an arrow, 
 saying at the same time, "Thou shalt have thy 
 dinner before thou goest to the next halting place." 
 The youth instantly fell and expired. One of the 
 soldiers was dispatched to communicate the sad 
 intelligence to Helena. When he had travelled 
 between ten and eleven miles towards Tan-y- 
 bwlch, he met her, and as soon as she heard of the 
 catastrophe, she exclaimed in agony " Croes awr i 
 mi!" — Oh, unlucky hour for me! Although the 
 story does not rest upon the authority of history 
 
37 
 
 and is found in no other record than popular tra- 
 dition, there is little room to doubt its truth. The 
 spot on which Helena expressed her grief is de- 
 signated to this day "Croesawr." 
 
 The topographical nomenclature of Wales 
 abounds in images. It often describes external 
 nature, and often involves a reference to some 
 great event, some high deed of war, or some heart- 
 rending tragedy* Thus we have Moel y don, The 
 hill of the wave; — Moel y cynghorion, The hill 
 of counsel; Maen y mellt, The stone of lightning; — 
 Ffynon Waedog, The bloody welL — Pant y gwae, 
 The hollow of woe ;— Maen y cwynfan, The stone 
 of lamentation ; — Llysiau gwaed gwyr, The plants 
 of the blood of men. 
 
 Hence, one might almost imagine that constant 
 familiarity with objects of infinite magnitude and 
 splendour had given an habitual colouring of 
 poetry to the mind. To the same magic power 
 we may perhaps in no considerable degree as- 
 cribe it that Wales is the region of romance. It 
 is surprising that such materials of deep and per- 
 manent interest should not more frequently have 
 been incorporated into works of fiction. To say 
 
38 
 
 uothing of legendary tales which the shepherds 
 relate, or of still remoter relics of mythology, 
 there are stories of personal adventure connected 
 with chieftains, legislators, and heroes in the 
 darkest and in the most brilliant periods of au- 
 thentic British history, that would form an ample 
 foundation for any superstructure which genius 
 might raise upon them. They would have gratified 
 the fancy, and been fitting subjects for the pencil 
 of ths mighty enchanter of the North, at whose 
 touch a charm spread itself over every scene which 
 he undertook to delineate. Many of them are so 
 wild and so mysterious in their nature, so extra- 
 ordinary iu their incidents, so calculated to awaken 
 the most awful sympathies, and at the same time 
 so well known in the principality and so utterly 
 unknown out of it, that the writer who should 
 pourtray them with feeling, taste, and judgement 
 would be during good service to the public. 
 Strange as it may appear, in this department of 
 literature, Wales is unbroken ground;— the field 
 has scarcely been entered. 
 
 Half a mile from Llyn Cwellyn, to the right 
 hand of the road, is a picturesque cottage, Pla» y 
 
39 
 
 Nant, a seat of the late Sir Robert Williams, who 
 was, during many years, the representative of the 
 county in parliament. All, of all ranks, respected 
 the worthy baronet for his high and noble genero- 
 sity. It was his ambition to convince his tenants, 
 both in the vallies and on the hills, that they 
 were neither serfs nor slaves. The cottage has a 
 pleasing aspect of seclusion and repose : it looks 
 tranquillity. 
 
 A little beyond, on the opposite side, is Nant 
 Mill, which forms, with its trembling waters, its 
 cascade, its bridge, and its amphitheatre of moun- 
 tains, a picture singularly rich. Seldom has the 
 imagination shaped for itself a sweeter, a more 
 enchanting spot of earth. It would have been 
 the delight of Claude or of Rembrandt. The 
 attempt to transfer it to canvas has often been 
 made, and that by our most distinguished artists ; 
 but not always with success* 
 
 Half a mile further on is the village of Bettws 
 Garmon, so called because its romantic little 
 church is dedicated to St. Germanus, bishop of 
 
 * The point from which it should be viewed is the bridge 
 at the back of the mill, a few yards from the public road. 
 
40 
 
 Auxerre. About the middle of the fifth century, 
 disputes arose in the western churches respecting 
 the nature of original sin and divine grace. The 
 British Christians were vehemently accused of 
 favouring the heretical side of the question. So 
 high did this controversy run, that the British 
 prelates asked their neighbours, the bishops of 
 Gaul, to interpose. Germanus came over : having 
 succeeded in putting down the obnoxious doc- 
 trines, he remained for some time in Britain, 
 preaching to the people. On oue occasion, he 
 resumed a character in which he had signalized 
 himself in his youth. A party of Picts and Scots 
 were plundering the country in the neighbourhood 
 of Mold. Germanus placed himself at the head 
 of the Britons, and led them into a defile, where 
 they lay in concealment, waiting for the approach 
 of the invaders. Just before the engagement, the 
 bishop desired his men to remember the word 
 which he would give them, and to repeat it at the 
 proper time. Accordingly, as soon as the forces 
 drew near, he pronounced, "Hallelujah!" and 
 immediately there was a shout of " Hallelujah !" 
 throughout the army. The sound was reverbe- 
 
41 
 
 rated from hill to hill; the enemy fled in amaze- 
 ment ; and numbers perished in an adjoining- 
 river. By our ancient chroniclers this action is 
 celebrated under the name of " Victoria Alle- 
 luiatica ;" and the spot on which it occurred, 
 is still known as Maes Garmon — The Plain of 
 Gannon or Germanas.* 
 
 When the traveller has reached the brow of a 
 wearisome hill, four miles from Bettws, the castle 
 of Carnarvon presents itself immediately before 
 him ; and apprizes him of the more than ordinary 
 importance of the region into which he is entering 
 Although the grandeur of this memorial of past 
 times is softened by .the distance at which it meets 
 his eye, he soon perceives that it is of vast dimen- 
 sions. Its huge and massive walls, frowning over 
 the town that has grown up at its base, give an 
 air of antiquity and sublimity to the scene, which 
 scarcely any thing else is capable of producing 
 The works of nature, long as they have stood, are 
 unchanged and unchangeable : they are the works 
 of man alone that tell us of age and decay. 
 
 Carnarvon constitutes a division of the parish 
 * Constan. Vit. S. German. C. 1. 2S. Bed. Hist. i. 17. 
 
42 
 
 of Llanbeblig ; and within less than half a mile 
 of the town, on the right of the road, is the parish 
 church, a fabric of no considerable magnitude or 
 splendour. The style of architecture proves that 
 it was built centuries ago. It is dedicated to St. 
 Publicius. The only curiosity in it, is the tomb 
 of William GryfTydd, Esq., — son of Sir William 
 Gryffydd, of Penrhyn — who died in 1587, and 
 Margaret his wife, — daughter of John Wynn ap 
 Meredydd, Esq. Their recumbent effigies are of 
 the purest white marble, the heads resting upon a 
 mat, exquisitely sculptured. He is in a suit of 
 armour ; she, in a frilled and ruffled dress, after 
 the fashion of the Elizabethan age. On the sides 
 of the monument are several small figures, in 
 basso relievo, " carved with cunning imagery,"* 
 spirited, easy, and life-like ; the workmanship, in 
 all probability, of an Italian artist. 
 
 The spacious churchyard is crowded with tomb- 
 stones and with little hallowed mounds, that mark 
 the last earthly resting places of the old and the 
 young, the proud and the humble, the rich and 
 the poor. Such a spot is dear to the feelings 
 * Spenser. 
 
43 
 
 of the pensive heart ; there are hundreds who love 
 its secluded silence. Indeed, the cemeteries of 
 Wales are generally beautiful. They may be 
 called the gardens of the dead. It is the custom 
 for mourners, in the simplicity of their sorrow, to 
 plant evergreens upon the graves of their departed 
 friends, and to bedeck them, at certain seasons of 
 the year, with flowers and flowering shrubs, with 
 rosemary, pansies, daffodils, and eglantine.* The 
 usage had its origin in remote times, being fre- 
 quently mentioned by the writers of Greece and 
 Rome. It is still common throughout Switzer- 
 land ; and as late as the reign of Charles the 
 Second, it was not altogether extinct in the retired 
 villages of England, " We adorn their graves," 
 says Evelyn, " with flowers and redolent plants 
 just emblems of the life of man, which has been 
 compared in Holy Scripture to those fading beau- 
 ties, whose roots being buried in dishonour, rise 
 
 * Thus, thus, and thus, we compass round 
 Thy harmlesse and unhaunted ground, 
 And as we sing thy dirge, we will 
 The Daffodill, 
 And other flowers lay upon 
 The altar of oui love, thy stone. 
 
 Herrick, 1648. 
 
44 
 
 again in glory."* This fond solicitude is a natural 
 and pleasing tribute of affection ; it indicates the 
 spirit of the people; and is eminently creditable 
 to the principality. 
 
 Not far from Llanbeblig church, the road pas- 
 ses through the remains of Segontium, or Caer- 
 yn-arfon, an ancient Roman citadel, mentioned in 
 the Itinerary of Antoninus, as having been esta- 
 blished about the 63rd year of the Christian era.f 
 No sooner had the Romans settled in Britain, than 
 the prefects showed a determination to crush every 
 attempt at forcible resistance to their authority ; 
 and this was one of a series of fortresses which 
 were ranged at convenient distances, and provided 
 with vigilant and experienced troops. It was 
 large enough to contain an entire cohort of six 
 hundred men, and inscriptions have been found 
 which are thought to indicate the number and de- 
 signation of the Roman legion from which it was 
 garrisoned. Without the walls, was a town, as 
 
 * Evelyn's Sylva, 1664. 
 
 t History affords little evidence that is satisfactory, 
 as to the precise year. It seems to have been the work 
 of Suetonius Paulinus. " Presidium posthac imposuit 
 vicis."— Tacit. An. xiv. 19. 
 
45 
 
 it may be called, inhabited by labourers, artificers, 
 and traders, both Roman and British. Ssgontiurn 
 bore what appear to have been the characteristics 
 of almost all the Roman settlements in Britain : 
 it was placed on a gentle declivity ; it was close 
 to a river; and it faced the mid-day sun. 
 
 A few yards to the west, were outworks of an 
 oblong shape, comprehending about an acre of 
 ground. On two sides, the walls are still nearly 
 entire. They are eleven or twelve feet high, and 
 six feet thick. Where the facing has been re- 
 moved, they exhibit the peculiarities of Roman 
 masonry. At one corner is a heap of stones, 
 which once formed a circular tower: the foun- 
 dations of a similar tower are visible at each of 
 the other corners. 
 
 A raised military road, paved with stone, in 
 the smooth and accurate manner which distin- 
 guishes Roman workmanship, and always kept 
 in perfect repair, enabled the garrison at Segon- 
 tium and that at Dinas Dinorwic, a few miles to 
 the east, to communicate easily with each other. 
 The Roman garrisons in the district also held 
 mutual intercourse by means of beacons or fire- 
 
46 
 
 signals, by which intelligence of the existence or 
 the apprehension of danger could be conveyed 
 with incredible rapidity. 
 
 The citadel of Segontiura was of consequence 
 enough to become the resort of foreigners from 
 various parts of the Roman dominions. Several 
 of the emperors, among them Constantine the 
 Great,* honoured it with their presence ; and the 
 soldiery here was commanded by some of their 
 ablest and most illustrious generals. 
 
 Helen, the daughter of Octavius, duke of Corn- 
 wall, the wife of the first cousin of Constantine, 
 was born at Segontium. Publicius to whom 
 Llanbeblig church is dedicated, was her brother. 
 A well in the immediate vicinity still retains her 
 name. 
 
 Innumerable relics of the genius and industry 
 of the Romans have been found in the ruins of 
 Segontium. A few years ago, a furnace was dis- 
 covered, which appears from the scoria to have 
 been used for the smelting of lead. The spade 
 or the plough has often brought to light, coins, tes- 
 selated floors, hand-mills, golden rings, chains 
 
 * His accession was A. D. 306. 
 
47 
 
 and bracelets worn by the officers, spear-heads 
 and swords, lamps, and other domestic and 
 ornamental vessels, and particularly the Glain 
 Neidr, of snake gem, which the Britons believed 
 to possess some magical quality, and for which 
 they bartered articles, in their estimation of the 
 highest value. But among these relics the rarest 
 curiosity of all, is an attenuated plate of gold, 
 measuring about four inches by one, denominated 
 the Gnostic or Basilidian talisman. It is covered 
 with characters in Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldee, 
 representing for the most part the various names 
 of the Supreme Being. There is also on it, an 
 inscription in astral, or magical characters. The 
 Gnostic or Basilidian doctrines prevailed in Gaul 
 immediately after the apostolic age. Some of 
 them were in unison with the doctrines recorded 
 in the magical treatises of a much later date. The 
 talisman found at Segontium, is supposed from 
 the shape of the letters to be of the second 
 century.* 
 
 Whatever may have been some of the results 
 
 * It is now among the treasures in the Museum of the 
 Natural History Society, at Carnarvon. 
 
48 
 
 attributed to the connection of the Roman power 
 with the entire district, it was so intimate and 
 lasted for so considerable a period, that perhaps 
 we shall do well to glance at the events by which 
 it was brought about. 
 
 Rome, so long mistress of the world, was at 
 first a mud-built village by the water side. In 
 process of time, its inhabitants grew rich, and 
 were inspired with a love of glory. They fear- 
 lessly worked their way over mountains and 
 plains, continents and seas, through hosts of 
 enemies, and brought them all into subjection. 
 This island was the last of their conquests. 
 
 Either from the insatiable love of gain, or from 
 the impulse of an unbounded ambition, Julius 
 Caesar, who had been made prefect of Gaul, re- 
 solved upon invading Britain. He landed at the 
 head of a large army on the south-eastern coast, 
 in the neighbourhood of the present town of Deal. 
 This was 55 years before the Christian era. 
 
 Many and desperate were the conflicts that 
 ensued. The battle often raged with fury; some- 
 times one party appeared to have the advantage, 
 sometimes the other. Eventually, the Britons 
 
49 
 
 retired with precipitation to the woods, and the 
 assailants remained masters of the shore. Winter 
 was approaching; and, after a short campaign of 
 three weeks, Csesar hastened back with his legions 
 to Gaul. 
 
 In the following spring, he made a second de- 
 scent upon Britain, eight hundred gallant ships 
 following in his track, He found the natives 
 posted here and there, in vast bodies, prepared to 
 receive him. But, wherever he showed himself 
 a happy destiny awaited him ; he was uniformly 
 victorious. The British leaders asked for peace, 
 and consented to pay tribute; upon which, he 
 finally left the country, " having/' in the language 
 of a Roman historian, "rather shown Rome the 
 way to Britain than annexed it to her territories/' 
 
 After the interval of a century, a similar enter- 
 prise was undertaken by the fourth emperor Clau- 
 dius. Even at that early period, the zeal of the 
 Britons for their country's independence was en- 
 thusiastic. Under Caractacus, king of the Silures, 
 a tribe inhabiting a portion of what is now South 
 Wales, they maintained for several years a brave 
 defence. Many of them bound themselves by an 
 
50 
 
 oath to conquer or to die; and, impatient of de- 
 lay, they defied the attack of the enemy, with 
 shouts that rent the air. The usual success, how- 
 ever, accompanied the Roman arms. Caractacus 
 fell into the hands of the victors, and was carried 
 in chains to Rome. As he passed through the 
 streets of the imperial city, and gazed calmly 
 round upon the splendour of its palaces and tem- 
 ples, he gave utterance, before the assembled 
 multitude, to a natural expression of surprise that 
 men who possessed such magnificence at home, 
 could envy him his poor hovel in Britain. The 
 defeat of Caractacus took place in the year 51. 
 
 Only a small part of the country had hitherto 
 been bound to the foot of the imperial throne. 
 In the 57th year of the Christian era, during the 
 reign of Nero, Suetonius Paulinus came into Bri- 
 tain. The religion which prevailed amosg the 
 natives was that of the Druids, who principally 
 resided in the Isle of Mona, now Anglesey, which, 
 as Selden describes it, " was at that time well 
 stored with thick woods and religious groves."* 
 
 * Seidell's Works, vol. III., p, 837. Milton, in his Ly- 
 cidas, speaks of " the shaggy top of Mona high." Poems 
 on several Occasions, p. 11. Warton's, Edit. 1785. 
 
51 
 
 The mystical system of the Druids was disgraced 
 by the darkest superstitions and the most revolt- 
 ing enormities; but as the priests had acquired 
 a degree of knowledge which raised them to an 
 immeasurable height above the vulgar, it is not 
 surprising that this monopoly should have given 
 them an absolute controul over the public mind, 
 in an age when the rights and duties of the social 
 state were little understood. From the begin- 
 ning they had fostered a spirit of resistance to the 
 Roman power. One of the first resolutions, there- 
 fore, which Suetonius formed was to invade their 
 retreat and put them to the sword. On approach- 
 ing the island with his soldiers, he saw the Bri- 
 tish army drawn up on the shore. In the midst 
 of them were women running from rank to rank, 
 with lighted torches in their hands, their long hair 
 floating on their shoulders, and their countenances 
 inflamed with rage and madness. The Druids 
 stood by, lifting their hands to heaven, and utter- 
 ing vehement maledictions. At first the Romans 
 were struck with horror at the spectacle ; but their 
 general urged them on ; and the victory was easy 
 and complete. 
 
 r 
 
52 
 
 While Suetonius was thus engaged in Anglesey, 
 a most formidable rebellion broke out among the 
 British tribes, under Boadicea, who was the wi- 
 dowed queen of the Tceni,* and whom the Ro- 
 mans had treated with shocking indignity. This 
 war-like princess may be classed with Semiramis 
 of Assyria, Cleopatra of Egypt, and Zenobia of 
 Arabia; and it has been said of her, that "she 
 performed wonders, more than a man." Her 
 dauntless heart swelled within her; her eyes 
 flashed, like those of a tigress thirsting for blood ; 
 immense crowds of daring and devoted adherents, 
 amounting in all to as many as two hundred and 
 fifty thousand men, fought at her side; and the 
 brave fell before and around her. The proudest 
 castles of the Romans were battered down ; their 
 moat flourishing settlements and colonies were 
 laid waste ; the most splendid and opulent seats 
 of their power were reduced to ashes. Seventy 
 thousand persons, without distinction of sex or 
 age or rank, were swept from the face of the 
 earth. 
 
 * The Iceni inhabited Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridge 
 shire. 
 
53 
 
 In a short time, Suetonius and his army pre- 
 sented themselves to the enemy. The engage- 
 ment was furious, obstinate and decisive. The 
 well-disciplined forces of the Roman commander 
 rushed forward, and overturned everything within 
 heir reach. They pursued their victory with the 
 slaughter of eighty thousand men. The unhappy 
 queen refused to survive such calamities, and 
 poisoned herself in despair. 
 
 It was not, however, till the great general, 
 Agricola, was sent into Britain by the emperor 
 Vespasian, that these convulsions subsided, and 
 the first gleams of tranquillity began to appear. 
 He was in the vigour of life; the character of his 
 mind, too, was lofty, expanded and commanding. 
 He saw how desirable it was to remove the sus- 
 picions, and win the confidence, of those whom 
 he came to govern; and his proceedings were 
 distinguished by that prudence and steadiness 
 that moderation and good sense, which afford 
 the surest indications of wisdom in a ruler. lie 
 passed over into Anglesey, and as no opposition 
 was offered, he added the sacred isle permanently 
 to the empire. His policy, indeed, seems to have 
 
54 
 
 had a talismanic influence ; for a feeling of re- 
 spect, not only towards him but also towards the 
 Roman dominion, pervaded the whole country. 
 
 Henceforward, the Romans were much more 
 desirous of securing, consolidating and perfecting 
 what they possessed, than of making fresh acqui- 
 sitions, or of spreading themselves over a wider 
 space ; and it was with this view, that so many 
 fortifications were raised. 
 
 But the empire at large now exhibited symp- 
 toms of decay; its sun was about to go down. 
 Rome was no longer to be the envy of surround- 
 ing nations; and nothing can be clearer than that 
 she had well earned her recompense. She had 
 drained that cup of intoxication which, if it but 
 touch the lips, is sure to fill the heart with alter- 
 nate foolishness and frenzy. Her recovery became 
 hopeless. The enemy was at the gate, and she 
 was torn by intestine feuds. The people were 
 turbulent and intractable ; her rulers were unprinci- 
 pled and vacillating; the bonds and relations of 
 society were broken. In this desperate state of 
 things, the emperors felt themselves obliged to 
 withdraw the military from the remoter districts. 
 
55 
 
 Time after time, the Roman legions were called 
 from Britain to fight the imperial battles in Gaul; 
 and on each of these occasions they took with 
 them detachments of young British soldiers, whom 
 they had studiously trained to the art of war. 
 Thus the Roman forces in this country gradually 
 decreased; and about the middle of the fifth 
 century, they quitted the island, never to return. 
 
 The Britons were left to the management of 
 their own affairs, to their own councils, and to 
 their own protection and defence. In a few years, 
 every trace of the Roman administration had 
 vanished away; and all the provinces which had 
 belonged to the empire were divided among a 
 multitude of petty princes, chiefly of British, but 
 in part of Roman origin, who, being dignified 
 with the title of kings, were haughty in proportion 
 to their power, and dared to believe themselves 
 great enough to be released from the claims of 
 humanity and justice, 
 
 When the Romans bade adieu to our shores, 
 the forts and fortified cities remained in unim- 
 paired strength ; and it is manifest from the head- 
 ing of grants issued by native princes, — who, 
 
56 
 
 alas ! seem to have used their authority only for 
 spoil and oppression, — that Segontium still con- 
 tinued to be the seat of government. In the year 
 1288, the citadel was dismantled by Edward the 
 First, and the facings of the walls were used for 
 building Carnarvon Castle, a more magnificent 
 fortification, on a more eligible spot. 
 
 An insurrection of the Welsh took place under 
 Madoc, a natural son of Llewelyn, in the year 
 1294. Segontium was one of the first objects of 
 attack. Its inhabitants, after a vigorous resist- 
 ance, were overpowered and obliged to surrender ; 
 many of them were slaughtered, without mercy ; 
 and the citadel was set on fire and utterly de- 
 stroyed. Madoc afterwards obtained a pardon, 
 by the king's authority. The curious document 
 which made it secure, is still in existence. 
 
 The town of Carnarvon, a quarter of a mile 
 from the ancient Segontium stands in a delightful 
 and picturesque situation, at the mouth of the 
 river Seiont, on the south-eastern shore of the 
 Straits of Menai. It has been designated "the 
 boast of the country;" and, doubtless, it is one of 
 the finest towns in North Wales, and one of the 
 
57 
 
 most important, as well from its position as from 
 the flourishing state of its commerce. A great part 
 of it is surrounded by its ancient walls, in which 
 are several semi-circular towers. Of late years, 
 owing to the mildness of its temperature and the 
 variety and magnificence of the scenery around, 
 it has risen to some celebrity as a bathing-place, 
 and has also become the fixed residence of many 
 genteel families. The consequence is, that it has 
 extended itself far beyond its original limits. 
 
 It carries on a considerable coasting trade with 
 Liverpool, Dublin, and London. The principal 
 exports are slates and copper ore. Of the former, 
 large quantities are shipped, throughout the year, 
 to different parts of the kingdom, and occasionally 
 to France and to the United States of America. 
 
 To the honour of Carnarvon, there are in thetown 
 no prejudices or fancies against communicating 
 the blessings of education to the whole body of the 
 people. All denominations of Christians seem to 
 vie wkh each other in a solicitude to discover the 
 best, that is, the surest and most economical 
 method by which it is possible to attain so mo- 
 mentous an object. Much has already been, done ; 
 
58 
 
 and must not every one who bears a human bosom 
 feel pleasure in beholding these victories over ig- 
 norance and superstition, and in looking forward to 
 their influence on the character of society ? Surely, 
 it is the prayer — the deep and solemn prayer— of 
 every Christian, if he deserves the name, that the 
 time may come when it will please the common 
 Father of all to take the veil from the blinded eyes 
 of bigotry, and to give the light of faith and holi- 
 ness, pure, free and universal, to all the sons of 
 men. 
 
 The benefits that have arisen from an infant 
 school established mainly through the kind and 
 judicious liberality of the Duchess of Kent, are 
 encouraging in an eminent degree. 
 
 After all, the chief distinction of Carnarvon is its 
 unrivalled castle. There is something in the sight 
 of so majestic a ruin, in whatever direction we ap- 
 proach it, or from whatever point it is viewed 
 which speaks to the heart and awakens a lively 
 and profound admiration. 
 
 This splendid pile was erected by Edward the 
 First, whose reign was one continued effort to 
 bring the whole island of Great Britain beneath 
 
59 
 
 his sway. The building was begun in the year 
 1283, immediately after the subjugation of Wales; 
 and, according to some ancient manuscripts, it 
 was completed in the course of the following year. 
 We have good reason, however, to believe that the 
 work occupied, from its commencement to its ter- 
 mination, the space of at least twelve years. 
 
 It is said to have been raised at the expense of 
 the Cambrian chieftains, those very persons whom 
 the fortification was inteaded to overawe. Be 
 that as it may, the fabric itself furnishes an un- 
 deniable proof that Edward attached great value 
 and importance to his conquest, and that the 
 Welsh had too much magnanimity either to claim 
 the compassion of their victorious enemy, or 
 willingly to lie prostrate at his feet. 
 
 Regarded as a whole, this is the noblest struc- 
 ture of the kind in the principality, the master- 
 piece and triumph of the architect's skill. Its 
 foundations rest upon a rock, which projects into 
 the Menai Straits. Its walls are of vast height 
 and generally not less than ten feet thick; they 
 present a mass of compact solidity which appears 
 
60 
 
 almost to have defied the ravages of time.* Ori- 
 ginally there was within them, gained out of their 
 thickness, a gallery of communication which ran 
 round the entire fortress, and of which, on the side 
 that looks towards the river, more than seventy 
 yards are still nearly perfect. From the embattled 
 parapet rise several towers of singular magnifi- 
 cence, and of various figures, some six-sided, some 
 eight-sided, and others having ten sides. 
 
 In front of the principal, and now indeed the 
 only entrance, is a mutilated statue of Edward. 
 He is in a menacing attitude, with his right hand 
 upon die hilt of his sword, apparently drawing it 
 from its scabbard. The gateway, which is lofty 
 and of impregnable strength, was defended by four 
 portcullises. 
 
 The area enclosed by the walls is in shape an 
 irregular oblong, and is of considerable extent. 
 It was formerly divided into two courts. The 
 masonry in the interior is greatly dilapidated; in 
 some places it is a mere heap of ruins. In the 
 
 * How silent and how beautiful they stand, 
 Like things of nature! The eternal rocks 
 Themselves not firmer. 
 
 Sodthey. 
 
61 
 
 state-rooms were spacious windows, profusely 
 adorned with rich compartments and delicate tra- 
 cery, of which few relics are to be seen. 
 
 Perhaps no portion of the castle is more in- 
 teresting than the Eagle Tower, a massy structure, 
 surmounted by three angular turrets, which have 
 a lightness and a grace peculiarly their own. In 
 this tower that weak and unhappy prince, Edward 
 the Second, was born, on St. Mark's day, the 25th 
 of April, 1 284. The view from the summit of the 
 Eagle Tower, which may be reached by a close 
 winding staircase, comprehends Carnarvon Bay, 
 the Menai Straits, and the Isle of Anglesey on the 
 one side; and the Snowdonian mountains on the 
 other. All who have ever seen it, bear testimony 
 to its loveliness. 
 
 The written history of Carnarvon Castle is 
 scarcely marked by any memorable events. Dur- 
 ing the Parliamentary wars, in the seventeenth 
 century, it often changed masters. 
 
 Here it was that the haughty Edward and his 
 gentle Eleanor held their court. No guest or 
 way-worn pilgrim now knocks at the gate; the 
 halls are forsaken; no music strikes upon the dis- 
 
62 
 
 tant ear; the tournament, the dance, and the revel 
 are over; desolation breathes from all around. 
 Yes, lonely ruin ! thy morning pride has passed 
 away, like a dream that flies and is forgotten ; 
 but thou art beautiful — oh, how beautiful — in thy 
 wreck of glory ! 
 
 If the traveller turns to the left, at the distance 
 of four miles on the road from Beddgelert to 
 Carnarvon, he will soon arrive at Drws-y-coed — 
 The Door of the Wood — a most romantic pass 
 which is not much visited, although it possesses 
 many attractions for the antiquary and the man 
 of science, and its beauties so wild and so savage 
 would supply the landscape painter with the 
 finest subjects for his pencil. 
 
 It was at the very entrance of the pass, and 
 just where it is narrowest and most shut in, that 
 about the year 1832, as a husbandman was turn- 
 ing the soil of a little plot of ground, his spade 
 struck agains a cistfaen or stone chest, which, on 
 being taken out of the earth and examined, was 
 found to contain ashes and burnt human bones. 
 Soon afterwards, four or five more of these chests 
 were discovered, all of them near the same spot 
 
63 
 
 and at the depth of not more than a foot and a 
 half from the surface. They probably enclosed 
 the remains of some warlike chiefs who fell cen- 
 turies and centuries ago, in the bloody crush of 
 battle : for, doubtless, this has often been the 
 scene ot desperate strife ; here have often been 
 heard the "the warrior's measured tread" the 
 clang of arms, the shriek of agony, and the groan 
 of death. As the cist faen is too small to have 
 admitted a body at full length, it is reasonable to 
 suppose that the body was first burnt and that 
 the ashes were then deposited in the cist faen. 
 The bones were burnt so much as to be most of 
 them white on the exterior, but some of them 
 were still black and carbonaceous on the outside, 
 and many were so within, Csesar informs us 
 that it was the custom of the Gauls to burn their 
 dead. It had also become a practice with the 
 Romans, in imitation of the Greeks, towards the 
 end of the republic, and it was almost universal 
 under the emperors. The sepulchral mound and 
 the funeral urn, at the time of Caesar's invasion, 
 were common both to the Romans and to the 
 Britons ; and because they were so, it is often 
 
64 
 
 not easy, when our barrows are opened, to dis- 
 tinguish the sepultures of the two nations. In 
 the presnt instance, the rude form of the cist 
 feini and their locality seem to justify the pre- 
 sumption that the relics are of a very early date 
 and that they are purely British. They all bear 
 so exact a resemblance to each other, that they 
 may safely be ascribed to the same age. Future 
 researches will perhaps throw more light on this 
 very interesting spot. 
 
 In an oblique direction towards Carnarvon, are 
 the vestiges of a Roman road, called by the 
 Welsh, Ffordd Pawl— The Road of Paulinus. 
 This was the celebrated road which passed along 
 the edge of Cwellyn* Lake, by Pen y stryd, and 
 through Merionethshire. 
 
 On the south s ; de of Drws y coed, may be 
 distinctly seen the traces of a still more ancient 
 road, Mignedd — The trodden Way — which forms 
 a passage to a spacious ledge of table ground in 
 the mountains, called Cwm Marchnad — The 
 
 * Cwellyn, pronounced Quelthlin. Hence, conjectures 
 Sir William Beetham, Watting ;— the great Watling street 
 road. 
 
65 
 
 Market Hollow — where, according to tradition the 
 Britons were accustomed at stated seasons to hold 
 a market or fair. In the rude pastoral districts 
 of the island, before it could boast of many 
 flourishing towns, commodities of every kind 
 were brought periodically to fairs, to which the 
 people resorted that they might make provision 
 for the ensuing year. The display of merchan- 
 dize and the concourse of buyers and sellers at 
 these principal and almost only marts of domestic 
 trading were prodigious^ For that reason they 
 were often kept upon open and extensive plains. 
 They continued for several days, important pri- 
 vileges were attached to them, and that they 
 might possess a greater degree of solemnity, they 
 were associated with religious festivals. Although 
 their utility is now diminished, our history will 
 show that they have been among the best means 
 not only of promoting commerce, but also of 
 making us acquainted with the products, the aris, 
 and the institutions of other countries, and of 
 extending our benevolence with our knowledge. 
 
 At Drws y coed is a large and valuable Copper 
 Mine, which the proprietors are working upon 
 
66 
 
 scientific principles, with much practical know- 
 ledge, and, it is said, to great advantage. 
 
 The first discovery of this hidden wealth was 
 owing, we are told, to a singular circumstance. 
 The story is, that a hundred years ago, on a fine 
 summer's day, a pedlar, fatigued with travelling 
 over acclivities and precipices, lay down by the 
 path side, at Drws y coed, to rest himself. When 
 he was dozing, he heard a loud report like a 
 thunder-clap, which astonished him. The sound 
 was sharp and soon over. On going to the spot 
 from which it appeared to issue, he found that a 
 metalliferous substance, with a powerful, sulphur- 
 ous smell, had been forced from the heart of the 
 mountain, leaving behind its course a hole several 
 inches in diameter. He afterwards mentioned 
 the fact to some intrepid adventurers, and, from 
 that time to this, miners have been employed in 
 slowly tracing out, through all its windings and 
 irregularities, the course of the vein of ore, and in 
 extracting the precious masses which have con- 
 stituted the objects of their search. In the result 
 we have an example of what zeal and labour, 
 under the guidance of intellect, are able to ac- 
 
67 
 
 ^complish : and if ihis be not a land for the odours 
 of the spicy East, or for the vine and the olive, 
 the myrtle and the orange, we may affirm, and 
 affirm with truth, that there are few parts of the 
 globe which present a succession of sublimer and 
 more interesting objects to the eye, and that there 
 are few in which the earth is likely to afford a 
 more adequate recompense to the industry of man. 
 
 The noise that raised the pedlar's curiosity, 
 we have reason to believe, was occasioned by 
 the liberation of some unknown kinds of gas which 
 chemical agency had produced in the deep and 
 dark recesses of the rock, and which after passing 
 from crevice to crevice, had come into contact 
 with atmospheric air, and exploded.* 
 
 Here, there is little doubt, we perceive at once 
 the origin of both those tremendous visitations, 
 earthquakes and volcanoes. It is in countries 
 remote from active volcanoes that the effects are 
 most widely and powerfully felt. In such, the 
 efforts to escape, made by the imprisoned elements 
 
 * ■ nunc hinc, nunc ilatibus illinc 
 
 Eruere inter se certant ; it stridor. 
 
 Virc. JEn. iv. 441. 
 
 G 
 
68 
 
 sometimes convulse the ground for thousands of 
 of square leagues, bringing destruction to the ha- 
 bitations of man, and crushing him under the ruin 
 of his own frail abode; and when the overwhelm- 
 ing force exerted by the subterranean matter rends 
 the surface of the earth, chasms are opened which 
 in a few seconds often swallow up whole cities, 
 with their devoted inhabitants ; and a dreary plain, 
 a dismal lake, or a yawniDg gulph remains to point 
 out the spot where, but a few hours before, stood 
 a flourishing town, swarming with thousands of 
 human beings.* 
 
 The occurrence of volcanic phenomena upon a 
 smaller scale, is more frequent than has been sus- 
 pected. Hence, the will o'the wisps, the corpse 
 candles, the "tomb fire's livid gleams," and the 
 knockers, which are so common in Wales, Corn- 
 wall, and other mining countries, and which the 
 great and little vulgar attribute to supernatural 
 influence. These and many similar visionary and 
 
 * Scathes not Earth sometimes 
 Her children with Tartarean fires, or shakes 
 Their shrieking cities, and with one last clang 
 Of bells for their own ruin, strews them fiat 
 As riddled ashes— silent as the grave 1 ? 
 
 Campbell. 
 
69 
 
 childish errors, seem to be of Runic origin. Through 
 the whole of Europe they have, from the remotest 
 ages, assumed a substantial form, and been em- 
 ployed with much solemnity, and with much 
 effect, as the instruments of imposture. Happily, 
 they are now yielding to the progress of a better 
 day. 
 
 A singularly curious mineral, the carbonate of 
 manganese, has lately been discovered in great 
 abundance, and of an excellent quality, in the 
 Drws y coed mines. One of the forms in which 
 it presents itself is that of beautiful crystals with 
 a pink tinge. It had previously been found no 
 where but in Transylvania. 
 
 The ore of strontian is another mineral which 
 has been obtained here. 
 
 About three quarters of a mile beyond Drws y 
 coed, is the Vale of Nantlle, which also combines 
 in rare association some of the grandest objects 
 in nature with marks of the constant and unremit- 
 ting efforts of human industry. 
 
 Two fine lakes, at a very small distance from 
 each other, give an indescribable richness and 
 beauty to the scene. 
 
70 
 
 Edward the First spent some days near these 
 lakes, during the summer of 1284. The place at 
 which he resided was called Bala-deulyn — The 
 Embouchure of the two Lakes. It is said to 
 have been in the possession of the Welsh princes, 
 from the time of Owen Gwynedd, who succeeded 
 his father in the principality of North Wales' 
 A.D. 1137, and was always foremost in the race 
 of glory.* Edward issued several edicts from 
 Bala-deulyn. 
 
 The Vale of Nantlle abounds with extensive 
 slate quarries ; and it would be difficult to esti- 
 mate the value of the benefits which they confer 
 upon the labouring portion of the community. 
 The slates are carried by a rail-road to Carnarvon, 
 where they are shipped. 
 
 Somewhat further on, towards the picturesque 
 little village of Llanllyfni, is the spot from which 
 Wilson took his fine view of Snowdon. Owing 
 to the indiscriminate rage for the works of the old 
 masters, the poetical loveliness of Wilson's com- 
 
 * Owen's praise demands my song, 
 Owen swift and Owen strong. 
 
 Gray. 
 See also a Welsh poem in Jones's Relics, Vol. iii. p. 6» 
 
71 
 
 positions was not felt, until he was far beyond the 
 reach of human praise. His whole life was spent 
 in poverty, and he died of a broken heart. He 
 has been called "the most accomplished land- 
 scape painter that this country ever produced." 
 lie was a native of the principality. 
 
 Kind too late, 
 Relenting Fortune weeps o'er Wilson's fate ; 
 Remorseful owns her blindness ; and to fame 
 Consigns with sorrow his illustrious name.* 
 
 To the north-east of Beddgelert, Nant Gwy- 
 nant — The Vale of Waters — extends for about six 
 miles, and may claim to be the most romantic 
 of the vallies in this romantic tract of country 
 An excellent carriage-road now passes through 
 its whole length, forming a communication with 
 Capel Curig and the great London and Holyhead 
 road on the one hand, and with Llanberis and 
 Carnarvon on the other. Slowly will the traveller 
 proceed, if he possesses any degree of poetical 
 susceptibility, and many will be the pauses that 
 he makes ; for at every step there is some object 
 calculated to arrest his attention and to inspire 
 him with delight., A charm is on the rocks. 
 * Shee's Rhymes of Art. 
 
72 
 
 the woods, and the meadows, on the haunted 
 streams and the peaceful lakes. Here Beauty 
 pitches her tents before us : here she finds her 
 sweetest and happiest shelter. 
 
 A mile up the valley is a steep and lofty rock 
 called Dinas Emrys, — The Fort of Ambrosius or 
 of Merlin Emrys, — a spot with which are con- 
 nected some of the most singular traditions of a 
 remote age. 
 
 The history of Britain for two centuries after 
 the departure of the Romans is acknowledged on 
 all hands to be involved in much obscurity. 
 Our ancient writers, however, agree in stating 
 that, about the 449th year of the Christian era * 
 the Saxons, a warlike, hardy race from the 
 north of Germany, came over in great numbers, 
 and made their first settlement in the Isle of 
 Thanet, which is now separated from the rest of 
 Kent by the narrow Stour and another still 
 narrower river, but which was then divided from 
 the land of Cantwara by a channel in some places 
 nearly a mile broad. They were commanded by 
 
 * Carte's Hi«t. of Eng. Vol. I. p. 192. 
 
73 
 
 liengist and Horsa, both of them sons of a cele- 
 brated Saxon chieftain, who- traced his descent 
 from Woden, the principal deity of his country. 
 
 Britain was torn asunder by two leading par- 
 ties, at the head of one of which was Vortigern, 
 a weak, luxurious prince. No sooner had the 
 Saxons obtained a firm footing, than they resolved 
 to establish themselves in the country, not as de- 
 pendant and willing allies, but as absolute masters. 
 In a short time, they procured a reinforcement 
 of their own tribes, and spread themselves over 
 South Britain ; when, under pretence of amicably 
 adjusting all points in dispute, Hengist invited 
 Vortigern with three hundred and sixty nobles to 
 a superb banquet. The scene of this festivity 
 was on Salisbury Plaiu, not far from Stonehenge, 
 the most magnificent relic of the early worship of 
 our ancestors. A temporary wooden building 
 was erected for the purpose. The tables were 
 spread with all the splendour and profusion that 
 Saxon taste was capable of displaying; and the 
 guests took their seats in unsuspecting confidence, 
 with warmth of heart, full of enthusiasm, full of 
 enjoyment, full of gaiety ; but alas ! they were to 
 
74 
 
 return to their homes no more. The Saxons, who 
 had been artfully distributed among them, waited 
 for the appointed signal; and at the words, 
 " Nimed eure seaxes"* uttered by Hengist, each 
 drew the short sword which he had conceal- 
 ed under his garments, and plunged it to the 
 hilt in the bosom of his neighbour. All the 
 British w ? ere slain, except Vortigern, who was 
 dragged ignominiously to prison. In its ulterior 
 consequences, the massacre led to what is known 
 by the somewhat incorrect appellation of the 
 Saxon Heptarchy, 
 
 On that part of Salisbury Plain is a succession 
 of barrows, many of which have been opened, and 
 found to contain entire human skeletons, and 
 burnt bones, mixed with fragments of helmets, 
 swords and spears. Some writers maintain that 
 it was a regular cemetery of the early Britons, 
 while others are of opinion that it is only the 
 place in which the victims of this merciless act of 
 dissimulation and cruelty were buried. 
 
 Vortigern was looked upon by his countrymen 
 with the most implacable and deadly hatred, as 
 * Take your seaxes, or short swords." 
 
15 
 
 <Iie author of all their wrongs. They told him 
 that although he had been fortunate enough 
 in one instance to escape, his hours were num- 
 bered, — that as he moved along, his hopes would 
 be ever and anon rising and setting in the horizon, 
 that he would wear out the remainder of his 
 fleeting span in perplexity, and at length sink 
 beneath his fate in the blackest dishonour. There 
 are some annalists who would persuade us that the 
 earth swallowed him up, and some that he was 
 consumed by a sulphurous flame from heaven, 
 amidst the indignation, the yells, and the shrieks 
 of thousands and thousands of spectators. This 
 severity, they will have it, was the bitter, and not 
 undeserved retribution of his crimes. 
 
 His own dreams and visions imparted glimpses 
 of a happier lot ; but he scarcely knew whether 
 he was or was not in a waking world. He feared 
 that he was played upon by an evil demon, or 
 that all might be the working of his own fantastic 
 and distorted passions. The received tradition 
 is, that instead of giving way to immediate and 
 total despondency, he retired to Nant Gwynant, 
 at the foot of Snowdon, and sent for Merlin, a 
 
76 
 
 potent magician, whom he employed to cast his 
 horoscope, and who became his bard and coun- 
 sellor. After much deliberation Vortigern built a 
 fortress, which he vainly deemed to be impreg- 
 nable, and which he at last bestowed on the 
 soothsayer. 
 
 Many a tale has been told, and is still prevalent, 
 about the exploits of Merlin, and did we but 
 reflect for a moment on the ignorance of the 
 period in which he lived, and on the slender 
 materials required by Superstition as the ground- 
 work of her dark and mysterious stories, we should 
 cease to wonder. Even in that early stage of 
 society, the Britons possessed a glowing and 
 fervent imagination. They peopled the subter- 
 ranean caverns, the woods, the rivers, and the 
 mountains, with spirits, elves, giants, and dragons, 
 and took an enthusiastic delight in song and 
 poetry. Merlin is said to have devoted himself 
 to the sciences from his youth, and to have been 
 an alchemist, a mathematician, an astrologer, and 
 a minstrel of the highest order. The apparatus 
 of his laboratory, his rude but curious philoso- 
 phical instruments, if philosophical we may term 
 
77 
 
 them, his wizard wand, his complicated diagrams, 
 his lonely lamp, the eastern costume worn by 
 persons of his profession, and the appearance of 
 the venerable sage as he sate, night by night, on 
 the roof of his house, gazing at the firmament, 
 watching the clouds and conversing with the 
 stars, were all amply sufficient to impress the 
 vulgar with awe, and to procure him eager atten- 
 tion, and a name that went, like that of a divinity, 
 to the ends of the earth. 
 
 There is a British legend which represents him 
 as constructing a splendid magical grotto upon 
 the summit of a mountain, for his mistress, whom 
 the was accustomed to call the White Serpent, 
 and who treacherously converted it into his tomb- 
 Spenser in his " Faery Queen " — a poem in which 
 "the heaven and earth do make one imagery" — 
 gives a fine description of it, confirmed by Cam- 
 den in its essential features. According to him, 
 it was formed at the ancient Maridunum:* 
 
 " that is by chaunge of name 
 
 Cayr-Merddin called." 
 " There the wise Merlin whylome wont they say 
 To make his wonne, low underneath the ground, 
 By a deep delve, far from the view of day, 
 That of no living wight he might be found 
 When so he counsell'd with his sprights encompast 
 round - " 
 
 * Carmarthen. 
 
In the manuscripts of the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries, the place of Merlin's sepulture is spoken 
 of as a dungeon, rather than as a tomb, where he 
 still remains, and where his voice is still heard. 
 Spenser also mentions the exquisitely mournful 
 sounds which appear to issue from the cave. 
 This coincides with the account in the old ver- 
 sion of "La Morte Arthur," by Sir Thomas 
 Maleor: — "And so, upon a time it happened, that 
 Merlin shewed to be in a rocke, where was a 
 great wonder, and wrought by enchantment, which 
 went under a stone, so by her craft and working, 
 she made Merlin go under that stone, to let him 
 wit of the marvailes there. But she wrought so 
 for him, that he never came out for all the craft 
 that he could doe." 
 
 It is impossible to arrive at any certainty, in 
 reference to the particular events of a period, the 
 only accounts of which are vague, shadowy, and 
 confused. Beyond all doubt, the history of Mer- 
 in has been enveloped in wild traditions, which 
 have scarcely any foundation in truth; but they 
 have taken such a firm hold on the popular mind, 
 and have been identified with so much poetry, 
 that it is neither an easy nor a pleasant task to 
 
79 
 
 dissipate the fanciful illusion. Notwithstanding 
 this, of late years, learned commentators on the 
 arts of sorcery and divination, have even raised a 
 suspicion as to Merlin's individuality. They have 
 been heartless enough to talk and write of him as 
 if he were not a real personage, but a hero belong- 
 ing to the beautiful world of romance. 
 
 With respect to Vortigem, it is probable that 
 after finding a temporary asylum at Dinas Emrys, 
 he betook himself to Nant y Gwytheryn — Vorti- 
 gerns Valley, — as it is now called, a dark cavity 
 in the mountains, near Nevin, at the southern 
 extremity of the Snowdonian range, where he 
 spent the last days of his chequered and fearful 
 life. 
 
 In the immediate neighbourhood of Dinas 
 Emrys, is Llyn Dinas, — The Pool of the Fort, — 
 a large and beautiful sheet of water, stored with 
 abundance of excellent trout. 
 
 Two miles beyond, Cwm Llan, a most deli- 
 cious glen, a fairy wilderness, suddenly opens to 
 the left, where Snowdon, the great monarch o 
 the scene, flings his broad shadow across tl 
 vale. He is surrounded by hills on hills, whk 
 
80 
 
 rise to a stupendous height, and are only less 
 mighty and less glorious than himself. 
 
 Within a short distance, there is another very 
 magnificent lake, Llyn Gwynant, beyond which 
 the valley changes its name into Cwm Dyli. 
 
 To the left of the valley is a cataract, Rhaidr 
 Cwm Dyli, formed by a stream which issues from 
 Llyn Llydaw. It consists of five distinct and 
 successive cascades, dashing and tumbling down 
 over the rocks, at least two hundred and fifty 
 feet. In some parts of its descent a sight of the 
 water is caught only by glimpses through the 
 trees that shade it and the underwood that fringes 
 its margin; — a circumstance which contributes 
 much to the picturesque and pleasing effect of the 
 scene. It deserves to be visited oftener than it is. 
 
 About a mile and a half to the west of Cwm 
 Dyli is Llyn Llydaw, an elevated mountain lake 
 that expands itself amidst a turbulent chaos of 
 rugged and cloud-capt precipices. 
 
 A little more than a mile of uninterrupted 
 sublimity and interest brings the traveller to Pen 
 y Gwrhyd, — The Top of the Ascent, — which is 
 crossed by the Carnarvon and Capel Curig road. 
 
On shaping his course to the left, he ap- 
 proaches a new wonder; and assuredly it is 
 impossible for him to behold it without a strange 
 delight, — without a feeling similar to that which 
 orced from the astonished Romans their well 
 known exclamation, "Ecce Tiber ! Ecce Campus 
 Martius !" or which led one of the most accom- 
 plished of our living poets to ask himself, 
 
 Am I in Italy 1 Is this the Mincius 1 
 Are these the distant turrets of Verona 1* 
 
 The pass of Llanberis, winds down a chasm 
 of between three and four miles in length. It is 
 extremely steep and at some points not more than 
 a hundred and sixty feet in breadth. On entering 
 it, we find our attention at first wholly engaged 
 by the grandeur of those vast, unchanged and 
 unchangeable heights, and next by the dreariness 
 and desolation which surround us* and which are 
 almost too much for our faculties to bear. It is 
 not until we have advanced a little distance that 
 we feel in its complete power the enchantment 
 
 * Rogers. 
 
 f Here nature seems to sit alone 
 Majestic on a craggy throne. 
 
 Warton's Ode to Fancy, 
 
82 
 
 thrown over a scene so awful. We behold rocks 
 towering above rocks in capricious groups, higher 
 and yet higher, as if it were impossible to pene- 
 trate beyond ; most of them black and terrific ; 
 others of a somewhat less savage aspect; but 
 none exhibiting the slightest vestiges of human 
 industry. The ruggedness of the dark grey pre- 
 cipices is scarcely covered by a single shrub or a 
 single blade of herbage; only here and thereat 
 their base has the plough left any trace of its 
 furrows. Whilst all is majestic, all, all is soli- 
 tary. A perpetual unbroken sabbath stillness 
 reigns through the vast profound, except that 
 at intervals, the piercing cry of the kite or the 
 hawk, the hoarse and discordant note of the raver 
 or the wild minstrelsy of the stream is heard. In 
 this lonely region, a sudden burst of thunder, as 
 it echoes and re-echoes, again and again, and 
 again, amidst the countless multitude of hills has 
 a magnificent and fine effect : nothing can b( 
 more solemn or more impressive* 
 
 The valley is watered by numerous rills whicl 
 
 * The rocks and hills 
 Take up the awful sound, and o'er the lake 
 Roll its slow echoes.— Southey. 
 
83 
 
 sparkle from the mountain tops and down the 
 mountain sides, like threads of silver; and huge 
 uncouth masses of stone dislodged from the cliffs 
 lie either heaped one upon another, or scattered 
 upon the ground far and wide in every direction. 
 Before the opening of the new line of road from 
 Capel Curig to Carnarvon, the traveller had to 
 pick his steps as he could, with difficulty and 
 suspicion, the path being irregular and rough and 
 full of quagmires. There cannot be a doubt that 
 the whole region has been, at some period or 
 other, violently shaken by one of those great 
 catastrophes of nature, the memorials of which are 
 so strongly imprinted on the surface of the globe ; 
 and it is easy for the observer to follow the lines 
 which connected the opposite mountains with 
 each other, and to convince himself that they 
 formed but one uninterrupted country. 
 
 Not far from the termination of this extraordi- 
 nary defile, is the church of Llanberis, a small 
 cruciform structure, destitute of external orna- 
 ment and in perfect accordance with the deep 
 quietness of the spot on which it stands. It is 
 dedicated to St. Peris, a cardinal of Rome, and 
 
84 
 
 was probably built in the sixth or seventh cen- 
 tury. 
 
 There is a porch at the entrance, as is the case 
 with almost every ancient country church in 
 Great Britain. Formerly a part of the offices of 
 baptism and of marriage was pei formed in these 
 porches : their use now is to afford a resting place 
 and a shelter to the villagers who assemble in the 
 church-yard, awaiting the time for divine service 
 to begin. 
 
 The font is large enough to admit of an infant's 
 being completely immersed, according to early 
 usage in the established church, whenever it was 
 certified that the child " might well endure it." 
 
 That this sanctuary should have been erected 
 at so dark a 'period of our history, in a lonely 
 ravine, between mountains that appear like walls, 
 is a circumstance eminently calculated to inspire 
 the mind with a solemn and grateful recognition 
 of the unostentatious triumphs of the gospel. 
 Yes, it is the gospel, and the gospel alone which 
 supplies to the anxious way worn pilgrim, a 
 guiding light far steadier and brighter than philo- 
 sophy with all its boastings can give, and which 
 
85 
 
 while it assures us that the grave is not the last 
 home of man, teaches us to build up our hap- 
 piness by a preparation for eternity. 
 
 May the writer hope to be excused if he offers 
 a passing tribute to the memory of the very 
 worthy and excellent individual, the Rev, Peter 
 Bayley Williams, who led the worship of the 
 congregation in this simple edifice during the 
 long term of forty four years, trudging for miles, 
 through dirty roads* to the scene of his labours, 
 penetrating the wildest recesses of the vallies and 
 mountains, going from house to house, from bed- 
 side to bed-side, comforting, strengthening, en- 
 lightening the people of his charge, loving them 
 all, and by all beloved. Those who were best 
 acquainted with him concur in saying that they 
 have seldom known or pictured to themselves a 
 man more single hearted, more confiding, open 
 and upright, a pastor more conscientiously faithful, 
 more actively benevolent, more truly kind. He 
 was the friend, the compassionate, generous 
 friend, not only of all who were good, but of all 
 
 * This is particularly true of the earlier part of Mr. 
 Williams's ministry at Llanberis, before the turnpike- 
 road was opened. 
 

 86 
 
 who were in poverty, and of all whom the hand 
 of God had touched. His task is now accom- 
 plished, his work is finished, and his pure spirit 
 is gone to its reward in the everlasting world of 
 bliss. Such a character of humility and watch- 
 fulness reminds us of the Herberts and the Gil- 
 pins of a former day.* 
 
 The vale of Llanberis is from one end to the 
 other, exceedingly picturesque and striking. It 
 is renowned for it&two lakes, which are very beau- 
 tiful. In truth, they are of a higher nature than 
 beautiful; inasmuch as they lie in an amphitheatre 
 of stupendous mountains and precipices, that have 
 ever been the dwellings of the tempest and that 
 were for ages the empire of the eagle. 
 
 The upper lake is about a mile in length, and 
 rather less than half a mile in breadth. Some 
 parts of it are no less than a hundred and forty 
 yards in depth. The lower lake is considerably 
 longer, but it is not so broad or so deep. Between 
 
 * Mr. Williamsrclosed his eyes in peace at Llanrug, 
 near Carnarvon, on the l'2th of November, 1836, in the 
 72nd year of his age. He was the younger son of the 
 Rev. Peter Williams, author of Annotations on the Bible, 
 a work which still maintains a very high degree of popu- 
 larity, among all classes in Wales. 
 
87 
 
 them is a narrow slip of land, through which a 
 stream runs from one into the other. The 
 mountains at the eastern extremity of the upper 
 lake are the most elevated, as well as the most 
 fantastic in their outline. Snowdon, as if in the 
 pride of conscious grandeur, towers majestically 
 above all the rest. 
 
 Persons who have been much in this country 
 need not to be informed that the appearance of 
 the lakes is variable, greatly dependent on the 
 atmosphere and the sunshine. It is by no means 
 easy to convey to a stranger an adequate idea of 
 the different impressions, which, as circumstances 
 change, they are calculated to make. To behold 
 them under the influence of a storm, in the most 
 dreadful agitation, their surface covered with 
 foam, and their billows resembling the swellings 
 of the ocean,* may be desired by those who are 
 fond of looking on nature in all the variety of 
 sublime disorder ; but it is only during a perfect 
 calm, when the orb of day showers its radiance 
 
 * Anne lacus tantos? te, Lari maxime ; teque 
 Fluctibus et fremitu assurgens, Benace, marino? 
 
 Virg. Georg. ii. 159. 
 
88 
 
 upon them, that their full glory is displayed* 
 The colouring of the clouds, the deep shadows of 
 the mountains, and the images of the overhanging 
 rocks are then distinctly reflected on the bright and 
 glassy waters. The poet's description appears 
 to be realized, though all the objects are not exactly 
 the same : — 
 
 " The weather-tinted rock or tower, 
 Each drooping tree, each fairy flower; 
 So pure, so fair, the mirror gave, 
 As if there lay beneath the wave, 
 Secure from trouble, toil, and care, 
 A world, than earthly world more fair." 
 
 On an insulated rocky point, at the junction of 
 the two lakes, stands the old tower cf Dolbadarn 
 Castle, which is seen along the valley for a great 
 distance. Its inner diameter is twenty-six feet ; 
 its height seventy-seven. It derived its name, 
 Castell Dolbadarn — The Castle of Padarn's Mea- 
 dow, — from the circumstance of its being situated 
 near the spot to which Padarn, a holy anchorite, 
 withdrew, that he might spend his last days in 
 penitence and prayer. The early history of the 
 
 innubilus aether 
 
 lntegit, et large diffuso lumine ridet. 
 
 Lucretius, Lib. III. 
 * "A thousand shadows of a thousand hues." 
 
89 
 
 castle is involved in doubt. It is not even ascer- 
 tained at what time, or by whom it was erected. 
 There is reason to believe that it is of British 
 origin, and that it was built to command the prin- 
 cipal entrance into the interior of the Snowdonian 
 territory .* Occasionally too it was used as a state 
 prison. Now, it has little interest, except for its 
 picturesque beauty, and as reminding us but too 
 plainly of the despotism which the ancient British 
 chieftains were accustomed to exercise over their 
 vassals. Loose stones and rank weeds fill its 
 court, and its walls are crumbling to the earth 
 and mingling dust with dust. It has long been 
 in ruins. Leland says, that in his time it was " a 
 piece of a tovver."f The wonder is, that although 
 the breath of the tempest and the rage of the 
 battle have so frequently passed over it, the ma- 
 sonry should have been compact enough to hold 
 together during so many ages. Towards the close 
 of the thirteenth century, it was esteemed the 
 
 * Rowlands's Mona Antiqua, p. 149. 
 
 t " Dolbadarn is on a rock betwixt two linnys. There 
 is yet a pece of a toure, where Owen Gough, brother to 
 Lluelin, last prince, was yn prison."— Leland's Itin. 
 "' : V. t>. 44. 
 
90 
 
 most important fortress in all North Wales. Carte 
 describes it, as " seated in the midst of an im- 
 passable morass, inaccessible but by a single 
 causeway, and to be approached only through the 
 steep and rugged defile of the mountains."* 
 
 In the tower of Dolbadarn Castle, Owen Goch, 
 was confined by his brother Llewelyn ap Griffith, 
 the last of the Welsh princes, on a charge of having 
 attempted to incite the people to revolt; and here 
 his life lingered on for upwards of twenty-three 
 years. 
 
 ■He was acquainted with sad misery 
 
 As the tamed galley-slave is with his oar."t 
 
 From the chinks which admitted the light into his 
 prison, his gloomy and narrow world, his living 
 grave, the poor captive could look out upon the all 
 majestic face of nature, upon the mountains that rose 
 in their endless variety of beautiful forms before 
 him, and upon the joyous and smiling lakes that lay 
 extended at his feet ; and as he beheld them, what 
 must have been his meditations, what his feelings ! 
 He was more or less than man, if the spectacle 
 
 * Carte's History of England, Vol. 11. p. 191. 
 t Webster's Duchess of Malfy. 
 
91 
 
 did not create a desire of liberty, while he felt 
 the utter hopelessness of attaining it. But the 
 sufferings that he underwent appear to have nei- 
 ther broken nor subdued his spirit. Though fallen 
 never to rise again, he wore his bonds with a 
 calm and cheerful brow. Yes, it is surprising 
 to think how the mind can shape itself to its own 
 circumstances, and how much habit is concerned 
 in making us what we are. There are still extant 
 some pathetic Welsh poems, which were ad- 
 dressed to this victim of oppression, during his 
 imprisonment, and in which he is spoken of as 
 *' the mild, the brave, the lion-hearted Owen, the 
 pride, the delight, the idol of his countrymen."* 
 
 On some parts of the lower lake, and in the 
 adjacent inundated meadows by the side of the 
 road to Carnarvon, is to be seen in great profusion 
 the white water lily, the nymphaa alba of Linnaeus, 
 which has been justly called the most magnificent 
 of our native flowers. It expands its blossoms 
 in the sunshine and in the middle of the day, 
 and closes them towards the evening, when it either 
 
 * A Welsh Ode— Awdl— on his imprisonment, composed 
 by Howel Voel ap Griffri ap Pwyll Gwyddel, may be 
 found in the Myvyrian Archaiology. 
 
92 
 
 reclines on the surface of the water or sinks beneath 
 it.* Sir James Smith says, that as the sinking of 
 the flower under water had been denied or doubted, 
 he was careful to verify it. The same circum- 
 stance has been recorded of the Egyptian lotus 
 from the remotest antiquity. 
 
 The slate quarry belonging to Thomas Assheton 
 Smith, Esq., of Vaynol, is one of the greatest 
 curiosities in the neighbourhood. The principal 
 portion of it bears the name of Clogwyn y Gig- 
 fran — The Eaven Rock. It is situated in the 
 declivity of a mountain, on the north side of the 
 upper lake. 
 
 The solid masses of slate which are taken from 
 this quarry are sometimes eighty, and sometimes 
 ninety, or even a hundred feet high. Each mass 
 is split into lamina, varying in thickness according 
 to the purposes to which they are to be applied. 
 Some of them are prepared for grave stones, chim- 
 
 * " The water-lily, in the midst of waters, lifts tip its 
 broad leaves and expands its petals at the first pattering 
 of the shower, and rejoices in the rain with a quicker 
 sympathy than the parched shrub in the sandy desert." — 
 Coleridge. 
 
 " The water-lily to the light 
 
 Her chalice rears of silver bright." 
 
 Sir Walter Scott. 
 
93 
 
 ney-pieees, cisterns, floors, and writing slates; 
 but by far the greater part for the covering of 
 houses. The rude slates are reduced to shape 
 and size by a small-edged tool ; the slate being 
 first laid upon the edge of an iron plate fixed in 
 an upright position. They are arranged by the 
 dresser, as they pass from his hand, according to 
 their respective sizes — queens, duchesses, coun- 
 tesses, and ladies. These dignified titles were 
 conferred upon them by the late Judge Leicester, 
 of the North Wales Circuit. 
 
 The quarryman's employment requires much 
 caution, and the idea of the dangers that attend 
 it, especially in so wild and majestic a region, pro- 
 duces an extraordinary effect, and imparts to the 
 scene a character of indescribable interest. The 
 process that appears to be the most hazardous, 
 and that is calculated beyond all others to alarm 
 the looker-on — "half pleased and half afraid" — is 
 the frequent blasting of the slate rock. Sheltering 
 huts are erected here and there throughout the 
 quarry, though, strange as it may seem, they are 
 but little used by the workmen. 
 
 Formerly the slates were conveyed to Port 
 
94 
 
 Dinorwic on the Menai Straits, a distance of 
 eight miles, at an enormous expense, in carts 
 drawn by horses. Some years ago, a railway was 
 laid down ; and they are now carried in wag- 
 gons, each holding about a ton. Several of these 
 waggons are fastened to each other., and the whole 
 train is drawn by two or three horses with perfect 
 ease. On an average upwards of a thousand tons 
 are every week sent from the quarry to Port Din- 
 orwic, for the purpose of being shipped. 
 
 It is impossible to visit the quarries without 
 admiring the public spirit of the proprietor, and 
 the well-directed and dauntless activity of the 
 workmen. 
 
 On the mountains have risen up, asunder some 
 mighty magician's wand, a number of neat cot- 
 tages with plots of ground attached to them, from 
 one acre to five acres in extent. For this measure, 
 if for nothing besides, Mr. Smith may be justly 
 termed a philanthropist, and a patriot. It shows 
 that he is not indifferent to the condition of his 
 workmen, that he makes their well being his 
 care ; and at the same time that he has formed 
 them to a relish for the peace and repose of home, 
 
and for domestic and social comforts, which they 
 otherwise might never have known, he has "en- 
 couraged to a luxuriant bounty " the soil, which 
 but for him, would have been barren and pro- 
 fitless. 
 
 There are several other slate quarries and 
 several copper mines at Llanberis. 
 
 About a mile and a half from Dolbadarn Castle, 
 a little to the left of the road to Carnarvon is Ty 
 du — The Black House, — once both the property 
 and the residence of Dr. Godfrey Goodman, who 
 was Bishop of Gloucester, in the reign of Charles 
 the First * 
 
 The prelate's biographers represent him to have 
 been studious and learned; at the same time, it 
 is evident, that great eccentricity marked his cha- 
 racter. During the protectorate, he was stripped 
 of his ecclesiastical preferments by the " long and 
 wicked parliament," as he terms it. Notwith- 
 standing this, he published a warm and fulsome 
 panygeric on Cromwell.f His will is a singular 
 
 * He was consecrated March 6th, 1624. 
 
 t Ardente bello civili, cum fratribus Reverendissimi 
 pariter vexatus et spoliatus, Cromwelli, turn dominant!? 
 misericordiam libello edito frustra blanditiis servilibus 
 petivit.— Godwin de Pr.es ol., p. 554. 
 
96 
 
 document. " I here profess," says he, " that as I 
 have lived, so I die, most constant in all the 
 articles of the Christian faith, and in all the 
 doctrines of God's holy Catholic and Apostolic 
 Church, whereof I do acknowledge the Church 
 of Rome to be the mother church; and [ do 
 verily believe that no other church hath any 
 salvation in it, but only as far as it concurs with 
 the faith of the Church of Rome." He left the 
 rents of Ty du, and of another estate in Carnar- 
 vonshire, amounting together to forty pounds per 
 annum, to feoffees in trust for the following pur- 
 poses : five pounds to be spent at their meeting 
 upon some day of the Michaelmas Assizes; 
 fifteen pounds to be employed in placing out two 
 boys as apprentices, provided they were not 
 bound within the principality of Wales, where 
 there was no trade in full perfection; and the re- 
 maining fifteen pounds to be given to two gentle- 
 men who should undertake to travel and to live 
 within the compass of two years, two months in 
 Germany, two months in Italy, two months in 
 France, and two month s in Spain. This whim- 
 sical appropriation was set aside several years 
 
97 
 
 ago by the Court of Chancery, and the rents, 
 which have considerably improved, are now de- 
 voted to charitable uses in Ruthin, 
 
 Dr. Goodman died January the 19th, 1655, 
 and was buried according to his own request near 
 the font in St. Margaret's church, Westminster. 
 " Humbly thanking God for his baptism," he 
 desired that his executors should give the sum of 
 forty shillings towards the adorning of the font, 
 either by way of painting or otherwise, as the 
 churchwardens should think fit. 
 
 Haifa mile to the south of Dolbadarn castle, 
 at the end of a deep glen, is a cataract, Ceunant 
 Mawr, — The Fall of the great Chasm. The 
 water, where it is first seen, gushes out of a fissure 
 in the rock. From its agitation among the crags, 
 during its course of about sixty feet, it is con- 
 verted into a sheet of white and brilliant foam, 
 which, after losing itself, as it were, for a moment, 
 in the abyss, hurries on through a rocky channel 
 into the lake. This cascade, so remote from the 
 busy, bustling scenes of life, has excited general 
 admiration. 
 
98 
 
 Such are the features of these vast realms of 
 magnificence and splendour. And surely a 
 spectacle so sublime is calculated to make the 
 most giddy thoughtful. Whilst it completely 
 absorbs the imagination, it recalls the mind to its 
 proper tone, and brings home to our bosoms a 
 sense of our own littleness, a deep and affecting 
 conviction that we are but worms. We are dis- 
 posed to wonder that we are not overlooked and 
 neglected amidst the grandeur and variety that 
 are on every side of us ; and passing upward 
 from the majesty of nature to the majesty of 
 nature's Architect, we exclaim, almost with a 
 feeling of despondency, " Lord ! what is man 
 that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man 
 that thou shouldest deign to visit him !" 
 
NOTES 
 
 Page 1, line 5 : "It can boast of an inn." 
 
 The inn has its album, the contents of which are, 
 
 as might be expected, very miscellaneous. A specimen 
 
 may amuse the reader. 
 
 GOAT HOTEL, BEDDGELERT. 
 " Patria mea petra." 
 
 MOTTO OF THE INN. 
 
 The rock thy country, GoaT ! —Why then thy fare 
 (I mean thine own) is scant, methinks, and bare! 
 Still, hospitable Goat ! not so the guest 
 Thou treatest, but to him dost give the best. 
 Choice beds, fair charge, kind welcome and good cheer, 
 Who are content with these, may find them here. 
 Friend Goat ! I like thy pasture MUCH ; and when 
 The fates permit, shall gladly come again. 
 
 Phil^egus, August 1839. 
 I 
 
100 
 
 "Fool that I was to leave a delightful home, polished 
 friends, and a cultivated country, to travel many hun- 
 dred miles to see a rude people, Darren rocks, and wild 
 wastes.— July, 1838." 
 
 " Yes, friend, a fool you were in Wales to roam, 
 Nor less a fool before you left your home. 
 Him who was born a fool, whom all despise 
 Not Cambria's self can please or render wise," 
 
 " But to the cultivated eye of taste, 
 
 No rock is barren, and no wild is waste." 
 
 DISTANCES FROM BEDDGELERT. 
 
 MILES. 
 
 ToTre'Madoc 7 
 
 To Tan-y-bwlch 10 
 
 To Capel Curig 12 
 
 To Festiniog 13 
 
 To Carnarvon 13 
 
 To Llauberis 14 
 
 To Harlech 20 
 
 To Dolgelley 28 
 
 To Barmouth 30 
 
 The mail coach, running every day between Car- 
 narvon and Barmouth, passes through Beddgelert. 
 
 There is a post-office at the inn. 
 
101 
 
 Page 5, line 21 : "A hearth that is sanctified by 
 religion." 
 
 The Calvinistic Methodists constitute the prevailing 
 sect in North Wales. Their zeal in religious duties 
 and in the religious instruction of their children at- 
 tracts attention every where, and entitles them to great 
 respect. The following letter will give the reader 
 some idea of their habits as a body of Christian pro- 
 fessors. 
 
 Carnarvon, September 13, 1833. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 On Tuesday, Wednesday, and 
 Thursday, and particularly on Thursday, in this week, 
 the streets of Carnarvon were, at intervals, completely 
 thronged with men and women of respectable appear- 
 ance, who visited the town from all quarters, and 
 many of them from a distance of ten, twenty, thirty 
 and forty miles, to be present at the Annual Associa- 
 tion of Calvinistic Methodists, by far the largest and 
 most flourishing sect in the northern counties of Wales. 
 For several days before, the wind had been boisterous, 
 and the rain had come down in torrents ; but during 
 Wednesday and Thursday, the sky was cloudless and 
 serene : and this circumstance must have contributed 
 not a little to the pleasure of those who attended the 
 meeting. In the afternoon of Wednesday, and 
 throughout the whole of Thursday, with short inter- 
 missions, there were religious services in a spacious 
 
102 
 
 field, on a beautiful acclivity, at the foot of Twt- 
 
 hiii.* 
 
 Nearly all the ministers in the connexion were 
 present. It was easy to discern among them their 
 aged but still laborious " father in the gospel," the 
 Rev. John Elias. This worthy man, possessing great 
 natural strength of mind, has made himself familiarly 
 acquainted with the wiudings and intricacies of the 
 human heart, and is able to exhibit what he conceives 
 to be the doctrines and requirements of religion with 
 a clearness an 1 an energy that are all his own. Who- 
 ever has once seen him in the pulpit, though he may 
 not have comprehended the meaning of a single word 
 that fell from his lips, will not soon forget him. His 
 manner is distinguished by a rare union of artlessness, 
 dignity and grace : and his addresses are always heard 
 with ati anxiety as deep and as untiring as if he spoke 
 under the influence of a prophet's or an apostle's in- 
 spiration. So popular is he throughout Wales, that 
 were it announced in any considerable town, even at 
 midnight, that he was about to preach, he would, 
 within half and hour, have a thousand hearers. It is 
 u o uncommon thing, when he preaches on a week-day 
 whether in the morning, at noon, or in the evening, 
 for the shutters and doors of shops to be closed, the 
 masters, and their wives, children and servants, 
 having all left their ordinary occupations, and betaken 
 
 * A commanding eminence, at the North-eastern ap- 
 proach to Carnarvon. 
 
103 
 
 themselves to chapel. Mr. Elias's whole soul is in his 
 work ; and he is said to have heen the honoured in- 
 strument of " turning many to righteousness." But 
 I must remember that I sat down to furnish you with 
 brief notices of a public meeting, and not to sketch 
 the character of an individual. 
 
 The congregations in the open air, on Wednesday, 
 and Thursday, frequently consisted of from twelve to 
 thirteen thousand persons, all conducting themselves 
 with perfect decorum, and apparently joining in the 
 worship, and listening to the discourses of the several 
 preachers with the most solemn interest. The pulpit, 
 if such it must be called, was a caravan, having a 
 raised covering of sail-cloth and an opening in front, 
 where a quarto Bible and a hymn-book were placed 
 upon a neat little desk. Its situation was such, to- 
 wards the lower side of the field, that the speaker was 
 distinctly visible from nearly every point. A sabbath- 
 stillness pervaded the amazing crowd ; for all seemed 
 to feel that they had a personal concern in the occasion 
 which had brought them together. Here and there 
 might be observed an attentive auditor, more technical 
 and precise, perhaps, but not more earnest, than those 
 around him, with a small Bible in his hand, the leaves 
 of which he occasionally turned over, to search out 
 and verify the quotations of the minister. The natural 
 scenery that presents itself from the field embraces the 
 mighty Snowdonian range of mountains, "so shadowy, 
 so sublime ;" and there was in this and in al>~ 
 every other eoncomitant a charm that gave t' 
 
104 
 
 of the solemnity, and to the psalmody above all the 
 rest, an indescribable effect. On such a spot, verse 
 after verse, as sung out by such a multitude of voices, 
 now soft and plaintive, now louder and louder yet, and 
 at last dying away in distant echoes, — 
 
 " The strain returning, and still, still returning, 
 Oh, it was sad as sweet, and, ere it closed, 
 Came like a dirge. "t 
 
 No man, I think, who is not lost to the nobler emo- 
 tions of the heart, could stand amidst the vast 
 assembly, and contemplate what was passing, without 
 a religious awe. Even to minds ignorant of the 
 language in which the services were conducted, the 
 thrilling truth could not fail to occur, that in a few 
 short years every one present, the best, the happiest, 
 the youngest, will have vanished from the earth, and 
 that " as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all 
 be made alive." Indeed, there is nothing in language 
 that can convey to those who were not eye-witnesses 
 of the spectacle an adequate conception of its grandeur 
 
 At night, there were crowded meetings for prayer 
 and exhortation, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thurs- 
 day, at the houses of the leading members of the 
 society in different parts of the town. 
 
 Many, there cannot be a doubt, returned from this 
 anniversary to their respective homes with improved 
 resolutions and with brighter hopes ; and oh ! that the 
 day may be drawing near when the God of love shall 
 shew them, all the glorious wonders of his name, and 
 
 t Rogers's Italy. 
 
105 
 
 open their believing hearts to the full influences of the 
 pure truth as it is in Jesus ! 
 
 The following is the order of the public services. 
 It may well surprise the reader who has never visited 
 the Principality, especially when he is told that not a 
 single discourse occupied less than an hour, and that 
 the length of the prayers was in proportion. 
 
 WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, FOUR O'CLOCK. 
 
 Prayer. — Rev. D. Davies, Tregolwyn. 
 Sermons. — Revs. J. Jones, Ruthin, Heb. x. 12. 
 
 D. Roberts, Swansea, Ezek. xi. 19, 20. 
 
 THURDAY MORNING, SIX O'COCK. 
 
 Prayer. — Rev. F. Evans, Machynlleth. 
 Sermons. — Revs. D. Williams, Trevecca, Isa. liu. 10. 
 D. Hughes, Nantgaredig, Acts xxvi. 20 . 
 
 TEN O'CLOCK. 
 
 Preyer. — Rev. R. Humphreys, Dyffryn. 
 Sermons. — Revs. E. Richard, Tregaron, Isa xxviii. 16. 
 J. Elias, Llangefni, James i. 21. 
 
 AFTERNOON, TWO O'CLOCK. 
 
 Prayer. — Rev. J. Edwards, Berthengron. 
 Sermons. — Revs. E. Harries, Brecon, Isa. xl. 6— 8. 
 
 W. Morris, South Wales, Psa. cvii. 7. 
 
 SIX O'CLOCK. 
 
 Prayer, — Rev. E. Richards, Tregaron. 
 
106 
 
 Sermons. — Revs. R. Havard, Brecon, Eph. i. 5. 
 R. Jones, Bala, Sam. iii. 24. 
 
 FRIDAY MORNING, SIX O'CLOCK. 
 
 Prayer. — Rev. E. Price, Oswestry. 
 Sermons. — Revs. E. Griffith, Montgomery, Luke xiii. 6. 
 R. Roberts, Denbigh, Acts iii. 19. 
 
 Private meetings were holden in the spacious Pen- 
 yi-allt chapel, on Wednesday, at ten o'clock in the 
 morning, and at two o'clock in the afternoon, and on 
 Thursday at nine o'clock in the morning. These 
 meetings were numerously attended by ministers and 
 elders. Several topics of great importance to the 
 Society were brought under consideration, and treated 
 it is said, with ability, and in a truly Christian spirit. 
 All who were present received comfort and edification, 
 and it was their fervent prayer that the same happy 
 influence might diffuse itself through all the churches 
 in the connexion. 
 
 I received an obliging note from one of the elders, 
 of course a Welshman, whom I had requested to 
 favour me with a list of the preachers, It contains a 
 paragraph which I shall transcribe word for word, and 
 which is extremely national and characteristic : — 
 
 " The inhabitants of Carnarvon, the different deno- 
 minations of Christians without exceptions, have been 
 kind indeed on this momentous and interesting oc- 
 casion. The public houses were conducted with such 
 consistency and regularity that a stranger could not 
 
107 
 
 distinguish them from private ones, except because 
 they had signs. Setting aside religious considerations 
 it adds much to the character of our countrymen, that 
 when such dense multitudes of them meet together, they 
 behave themselves with such order and propriety. 
 May the gospel of a truth be the power of God with 
 them!" J. H. B. 
 
 Page 7, line 1 : " The grave of Kelert." 
 
 The classical reader will call to mind the dog of 
 Ulysses, which crawled to meet his long-lost master, 
 looked up, and died at his feet. 
 
 The attachment of Lord Byron to his dog Boat- 
 swain, was not the least extraordinary characteristic 
 of that dark-bosomed child of genius. The poor 
 animal died in a state of madness ; and at the com- 
 mencement of the disorder, so little aware was Lord 
 Byron of its nature, that he more than once with his 
 bare hand wiped away the slaver from the dog's lips. 
 The monument over his grave is still a conspicuous 
 object in the gardens of Nevvstead. 
 
 Pope also had a favourite dog. He said with great 
 bitterness, " Histories are more full of examples of 
 the fidelity of dogs than of friends." Hume., in 
 speaking of Rosseau, in his Private Correspondence, 
 observes, " She^ (Therese) governs him as absolutely 
 as a man does a child. In her absence, his dog has 
 acquired that ascendant. His affection for that 
 creature is beyond all expression or conception." 
 Sir Walter Scott's beautiful stag-hound, Maida, his 
 old friend and comrade," -will not soon be forgotten. 
 
108 
 
 —See Moore's Life of Byron, Vol. L p. 223, and 
 Lockhart's Life of Scott, Vol. V. p. 90. 
 
 The following ballad by the Hon. W. R. Spencer , 
 on Llewelyn's rashness, is much admired. 
 
 THE GREYHOUND'S GRAVE. 
 
 The spearman heard the bugle sound, 
 
 And cheerly smiled the morn ; 
 And many a brach, and many a hound, 
 
 Attend Llewelyn's horn. 
 
 And still he blew a louder blast, 
 
 And gave a louder cheer ; 
 " Come, Gelert, why art thou the last 
 
 Llewelyn's horn to hear ? 
 
 " Oh, where does faithful Gelert roam 
 
 The flower of all his race ; 
 So true, so brave : a lamb at home ; 
 
 A lion in the chase." 
 
 'Twas only at Llewelyn's board, 
 
 The faithful Gelert fed ; 
 He watch'd, he serv'd, he cheer'd his lord, 
 
 And centinel'd his bed. 
 
 In sooth, he was a peerless hound, 
 
 The gift of royal John : 
 Bui now no Gelert could be found, 
 
 And all the chase rode on. 
 
109 
 
 And now, as over rocks and dells 
 
 The gallant chidings rise, 
 All Snowdon's craggy chaos yells, 
 
 With many mingled cries. 
 
 That day Llewelyn little loved 
 
 The chase of hart or hare, 
 And scant and small the booty proved, 
 
 For Gelert was not there. 
 
 Unpleased, Llewelyn homeward hied, 
 
 When near the royal seat, 
 His truant Gelert he espied, 
 
 Bounding his lord to greet. 
 
 But when he gain'd his castle door, 
 
 Aghast the chieftain stood ; 
 The hound was smear'd with gouts of gore, 
 
 His lips and fangs ran blood ! 
 
 Llewelyn gazed with wild surprise, 
 
 Unused such looks to meet ; 
 His favourite check'd his joyful guise, 
 
 And crouch'd and lick'd his feet. 
 
 Onward in haste Llewelyn past, 
 
 And on went Gelert too : 
 And still where'er his eyes he cast, 
 
 Fresh blood-gouts shock'd his view. 
 
110 
 
 O'ertum'd his infant's bed he found. 
 The blood -stain'd covert rent ; 
 
 Aud all around the walls and ground, 
 With recent blood besprent. 
 
 He call'd his child ; no voice replied ; 
 
 He search'd with terror wild ; 
 Blood, blood, he found on every side, 
 
 But no where found the child ! 
 
 " Hell-hound, by thee my child's devour'd 
 
 The frantic father cried : 
 And to the hilt the vengeful sword, 
 
 He plunged in Gelert's side. 
 
 His suppliant, as to eanh he fell, 
 
 No pity could impart ; 
 But still his Gelert's dying yell 
 
 Past heavy o'er his heart. 
 
 Aroused by Gelert's dying yell, 
 Some slumberer waken'd nigh : 
 
 What words the parent's joy can tell, 
 To hear his infant cry ! 
 
 Conceal' d between a mingled heap, 
 His hurried search had miss'd ; 
 
 All glowing from his rosy sleep, 
 His cherub boy he kiss'd ! 
 
ui 
 
 Nor scratch had he, nor harm, nor dread, 
 
 But the same couch beneath 
 Lay a great wolf, all torn, and dead, 
 
 Tremendous still in death ! 
 
 Ah ! what was then Llewelyn's pain, 
 For now the truth was clear ; 
 
 The gallant hound the wolf had slain, 
 To save Llewelyn's heir. 
 
 Vain, vain was all Llewelyn's woe ; 
 
 " Best of thy kind, adieu ! 
 The frantic deed which laid thee low, 
 
 This heart shall ever rue '." 
 
 And now a gallant tomb they raise, 
 With costly sculpture deckt ; 
 
 And marbles storied with his praise 
 Poor Gelert's bones protect. 
 
 Here never could the spearman pass, 
 
 Or forester, unmoved ; 
 Here oft the tear besprinkled grass, 
 
 Llewelyn's sorrow proved. 
 
 And here he hung his horn and spear, 
 
 And o p t as evening fell, 
 In fancy's piercing sounds would hear 
 
 Poor Gelert's dying yell ! 
 
12 
 
 And till great Snowdon's rocks grow old, 
 
 And cease the storm to brave, 
 The consecrated spot shall hold 
 
 The name of Gelert's grave. 
 
 Page 5, line 15 : "They speak the language of 
 their forefathers." 
 
 The Welsh language, with scarcely a ningle excep- 
 tion, appears to be the most ancient, the most singularly 
 constructed, and the most true to its original form, of 
 all European tongues. Remarkable co-incidences have 
 been pointed out to show that it bears a close affinity 
 to the Hebrew. It possesses the simplicity of the 
 Hebrew, and the copiousness and harmony of the 
 Greek. 
 
 In Welsh, initial consonants are changed into others 
 of the same organ, either to mark a diversity of gram- 
 matical relation, or exclusively for the sake of euphony; 
 as bara, fara, mara, bread. Substantives, adjectives, 
 and pronouns have no neuter gender. 
 
 The language has no inflexions. Nouns and 
 adjectives have, properly speaking, no cases, the dif- 
 ferent relations of words to each other being denoted 
 by the collocation, by a change of initials, or by the 
 employment of particles. 
 
 Page 7, line 19 : "The Knight and the Greyhound." 
 
 A crest of Richard the Third, now preserved in the 
 
 Herald's College, London, is thus described by M. 
 
113 
 
 Planch^: "On a coronet in a cradle or, a greyhound 
 argent for Wales, (in the original ' Walys ') a curious 
 allusion to the well-known story of Prince Llewelyn 
 and his faithful dog, Gellert ; which has, I believe, 
 escaped the notice of previous writers." — See Twelve 
 Designs for the Costume of Shakspeare' s Richard III. 
 by J. R. PlanchS, Esq. 
 
 Page 9, line 9 : " Except Bardsey." 
 
 Bardsey Island lies at the South-western extremity 
 of the Carnarvonshire coast. Its Abbey, " of great 
 and old renown," but now no more, was dedicated to 
 the Blessed Virgin. The rules of the order were 
 remarkable for their severity. Bardsey was a sanc- 
 tuary, and continued to be such, even down to the 
 dissolution of religious houses. Many a pilgrim and 
 among them nobles, princes and prelates from distant 
 countries, visited its holy shrine. 
 
 Page 11, line 3: " Appreciated upon earth." 
 "Three months after the battle of Agincourt, such 
 was either the generosity of the English monarch 
 (Henry V.) or the virtue of the Welsh chieftain, per- 
 haps such was the effect of both qualities united, that 
 the celebrated captain, Sir Gilbert Talbot, was em- 
 powered to make peace with Owen and his adherents. 
 It is consolatory to all lovers of their own country to 
 see the champion of his people thus preserve his 
 dignity to the last glimpse of his glorious character 
 which history can perceive." 
 
 Mackintosh's Hist, of England, Vol. I. p. 349. 
 
114 
 
 Page 11, line 10: "This extraordinary little insect." 
 "The bees make the tops and bottoms of their cells 
 of three planes meeting in a point ; and the inclinations 
 or angles at which they meet are precisely those found 
 out by the mathematicians to be the best possible 
 for saving wax and work. Who would dream of 
 the bee knowing the highest branch of the mathe- 
 matics—the fruit of Newton's most wonderful dis- 
 covery, of which he was himself ignorant, one of his 
 most celebrated followers having found it out in a later 
 age ? This little insect works with a truth and cor- 
 rectness which are perfect, and according to the prin- 
 ciples at which man has arrived only after ages of slow 
 improvement in the most difficult branch of the most 
 difficult science. But the Mighty and All-wise Crea- 
 tor, who made the insect and the philosopher, bestow- 
 ing reason on the latter, and giving the former to 
 work without it—to Him all truths are known from 
 all eternity, with an intuition that mocks even the 
 conceptions of the sagest of human kind." 
 
 Discourse on the Pleasures of Science, p. 110. 
 
 Page 20, line 3: "Tables of the ancient Greeks 
 and Romans." 
 
 The delicious flavour of the salmon is universally 
 acknowledged. La Fontaine's Glutton, having eaten 
 up a whole salmon, all but the jowl, was taken so ill, 
 that his physicians declared him to be past all hope of 
 recovery. "Well then," says he, "since it is so, 
 bring me t 1 ? rest of my fish." 
 
115 
 
 Piage 13, line 2 : " Have sunk into oblivion." 
 See Dr. Jortin's fine discourse on Religious Retire- 
 ment : Sermons. Vol. III. pp. 238—242, ed, 1787: 
 and Mrs. Barbauld's Essay on Monastic Institutions; 
 As a female writer in whom intellectual power 
 and elegance met together, and who was utterly free 
 from every thing like morbid sentimentality, Mrs. 
 Barbauld stands the very first in the first rank. " The 
 Muses, with their attendant arts ;" says she, "in strange 
 disguise indeed, and uncouth trappings, took refuge 
 in the peaceful gloom of the convent. Statuary 
 carved a madonna or a crucifix ; Painting illuminated 
 a missal ; Eloquence made the panegyric of a saint ; 
 and History composed a legend. Yet still they 
 breathed, and were ready, at any happier period, to 
 emerge from obscurity with all their native charms 
 and undiminished lustre." 
 
 Mrs. Barbauld's Works, Vol. II. p. 201. 
 
 Page 23, line 22 : " Snowdon lifts its majestic 
 head." 
 
 The summit of Snowdon is seldom seen at a great 
 distance, in the warm and dry months of July and 
 August; on the contrary, it is seen at very extra- 
 ordinary distances in the months of October and April, 
 when the sky is slightly covered and immediately 
 after a heavy rain, or a few hours before it falls. It 
 appears that the transparency of the air is prodU 
 giously increased, when a certain quantity of water is 
 uniformly diffused through the atmosphere. 
 
116 
 
 It has been remarked that the Audes themselves are 
 not known with certainty to have been seen at a greater 
 distance than forty seven leagues or a hundred and 
 forty one geographical mile8. 
 
 Page 28, line 14: "Thought by some zoologists to 
 be a distinct race." 
 
 That difference of pasture and of climate makes 
 material alterations in the breed of animals, is univer- 
 sally acknowledged. Nothing is more remarkable than 
 the precisien with which their organs are adapted to 
 their situations and habits. An ingenious but whim- 
 sical theory is brought forward to explain it, by Mr. 
 Lyell, Professor of Geology in King's College, London. 
 According to him, they are not the organs, or, in other 
 words, the nature and form of the parts of an animal 
 which have given him rise to its habits and its particular 
 faculties ; but, on the contrary, its habits, its manner of 
 living, and the habits of its progenitors have, in the 
 Course of time, determined the form of its body, the num- 
 ber and condition of its organs, and the faculties which 
 it enjoys. This conclusion he illustrates and endeavours 
 to establish by a great variety of facts and reasonings. 
 "The antelope and the gazelle," he says, "were not 
 endowed with light, agile forms, in order that they 
 might escape by flight from carnivorous animals; but, 
 having been exposed to the danger of being devoured 
 by lions, tigers, and other beasts of prey, they were 
 compelled to exert themselves in running with great 
 celerity, a habit which, in the course of many genera- 
 
117 
 
 tions, gave rise to the peculiar slentlerness of their legs s 
 and the agility and elegance of their forms." 
 
 Lyell's Geology, Vol. II. p. 9. 
 
 Page 34, line 16: "Trifling in amount." 
 The wool annually shorn in Great Britain produces 
 an amount of upwards of five millions, and, when 
 wrought, an amount of nearly twenty millions, sterling. 
 The sheep of Lincolnshire yield the greatest quantity 
 of wool; but the mutton is coarse and lean. The 
 Dorsetshire breed is celebrated for fecundity. 
 
 Page 43, line 6 : "Graves of their departed friends." 
 
 With fairest flowers 
 I'll sweeten thy sad grave ; thou shalt not lack 
 The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose ; nor 
 The azured hare-bell, like thy veins ; no, nor 
 The leaf of eglantine, which not to slander it 
 Outsweeten'd not thy breath. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 I'll deck her tomb with flowers, 
 
 The rarest ever seen, 
 And with my tears as showers, 
 
 I'll keep them fresh and green. 
 
 Corydon's Dolefiill Knell. 
 
 These to renew with more than annual care, 
 That wakeful love with pensive step will go ; 
 
118 
 
 The hand" that lifts the dibble shakes with fear, 
 Lest haply it disturb the friend below. 
 
 Vain fear ! yet who that boasts a heart to feel 
 An eye to pity, would that fear reprove ! 
 They only who are cursed with breasts of steel, 
 Can mock the^foibles of surviving love. 
 
 Mason. 
 
 Page 43, line 11:" Mentioned by the writers of 
 Greece and Rome." 
 
 AyafjLSfivovog ds rvfifiog ririfiagfievog 
 O'v 7rw7ror£ 6v x°"-S ov kXCjvo. fivpa'ivrjg 
 E\af3e. 
 
 Euripides. 
 
 "With no libations, nor with myrtle boughs, 
 Were my dear father's manes gratify'd. 
 
 Kal 7Tepl<TT£<pr] Kvic\<t> 
 HavT(i)v bg' egrlv avQkuv SrrjKTjv -xaTpbg. 
 
 SoPHOC. Elect. V. 886. 
 
 And flowers of every sort were strewed around. 
 
 Manibus date lilia plenis 
 Purpureosque spargam flores, animamque nepotis- 
 His saltern accumulem d onis. 
 
 VlRG. jEn. VI. 388, 
 
119 
 
 Page 51, line 1: "The mystical system of the 
 Druids." 
 
 Csesar states it to have been the received opinion in 
 Gaul, that Druidism originated in Britain. Pliny 
 considers mankind as greatly indebted to the Romans, 
 for having put an end to such a monstrous and cruel 
 superstition. — Caesar, de Bell. Gall. lib. vi. Plin. 
 lib. xxx. c. 1. 
 
 Mr. Pinkerton observes that " there is no authority 
 at all for druids being known, beyond present North 
 Wales on the north, and the river Garonne, the bound 
 of the Celtse in Gaul, on the south. A line drawn by 
 the Severn in Britain and Seine in Gaul, forms the 
 eastern bound, while the ocean forms the western." — 
 Pinkerton's Enquiry, i. 406. 
 
 Page 56, line 18 : " The town of Carnarvon." 
 It is generally taken for granted that Carnarvon 
 owes its name to Edward the First ; but such cannot 
 be the fact. Carnarvon is mentioned by Giraldus, 
 who travelled through Wales in the year 1 188 : "Tran- 
 sivimus per Carnarvon, id est, Castrum de Arvon. 
 Dicitur autem Arvon, provincia contra Mon, eo quod 
 sita sit contra Monam insulam." — Itin. Camb. p. 190, 
 ed. 1585. 
 
 Page 57, line 19 : "The blessings of education." 
 The prejudice once so prevalent, that education un- 
 fits the working classes for the duties which belong to 
 their station, is now happily dying away. The most 
 
120 
 
 ample experience is, day by day, showing its fallacy. 
 Multitudes are every year sent out of the schools, 
 whose industry and skill in their various occupations 
 seem to he in direct proportion to their success in 
 school. 
 
 It deserves to be mentioned as beyond measure 
 honourable to the Duke of Kent that he deeply felt 
 the great importance of diffusing the blessings of in- 
 struction among the lower orders of the people. The 
 improved system of education enjoyed his steady, 
 warm and unceasing patronage, and that at a time 
 when he had to labour in the sacred cause almost alone 
 and unassisted. He introduced it into the army, having 
 attached a school to his own regiment. The school 
 consisted of the children of the privates and amounted 
 to 220. A young man, a sergeant in the regiment, 
 was trained for the schoolmaster at the Borough Road, 
 and the school was instituted at Maldon in Essex, 
 where the regiment was then quartered. The lieu- 
 tenant colonel and other officers co-operated with their 
 royal commander in his benevolent design. The 
 regiment removed its quarters to Dunbar, where the 
 establishment was carried on. By permission of the 
 Duke a number of the boys went to Edinburgh to il- 
 lustrate the system in a lecture which was delivered on 
 the subject in the city. On joining the Duke's regi- 
 ment, if a recruit was found incapable of reading, he 
 was sent to the school, and, as a powerful stimulus to 
 exertion, those who made a good proficiency in learning 
 were put down as duplicate non-commissioned officers. 
 
121 
 
 Page 59, line 11 : "An infant school." 
 The Infant Schools are calculated te produce the 
 greatest, amount of good in their application to the 
 working classes, in whose character they promise 
 to bring about a total revolution. No one who has 
 witnessed their admirable effect in upholding and 
 disciplining the heaven-born mind, can fail to wish 
 that the same system were practised in the education 
 of every class. Its advantages have indeed awakened 
 the attention of the higher ranks, many of whom, in 
 different parts of the kingdom, are anxious that their 
 children should -share in the benefits conferred on the 
 children of the poor. 
 
 When Her present Most Gracious Majesty ascended 
 
 the throne of her ancestors, the friends of the Infant 
 
 School at Carnarvon, sent the following congratulatory 
 
 address to Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Kent. 
 
 " Madam, 
 
 "While the voice of joy is heard on 
 every side, we, the Managers and Friends of the In- 
 fant School in Carnarvon feel ourselves impelled to 
 present our tribute of congratulation to your Royal 
 Highness, under whose superintendence our beloved 
 Sovereign has been so effectually qualified to shed a 
 grace on the mightiest and most renowned monarchy 
 in the world, to watch, as a guardian angel, over the 
 many blessings of our excellent constitution, and to 
 become the pride and the delight of her subjects. 
 " We cherish a lively remembrance of the visit paid 
 
122 
 
 a few years ago by your Royal Highness and your 
 noble minded Daughter to this romantic district of the 
 Principality. On that occasion, your Royal Highness 
 was pleased to manifest a kind solicitude that the 
 lamp of knowledge should be carried to the peasant's 
 hearth, — that the means of elementary instruction 
 should be placed within reach of the children of the 
 poor, — and especially that they should be taught, as 
 soon as the intellect awakes, what is most important 
 for them to understand as the creatures of God and as 
 candidates for immortality. We cannot forget that 
 to your munificence our humble, unpretending institu- 
 tion is essentially indebted for its establishment; and 
 we are sure your Royal Highness will hear with satis- 
 faction that it excites an interest and is leading to 
 beneficial results in the town and neighbourhood, 
 almost, we believe we may say, altogether, unex- 
 ampled. 
 
 " Our prayer shall often ascend to that almighty 
 and eternal Being who sitteth in the heaven of heavens, 
 that your Royal Highness may long be spared to see 
 the fulfilment of your fondest hopes, and to enjoy 
 beneath the smiles of a nation's gratitude and love, all 
 the happiness which is inseparable from exalted rank, 
 when it is adorned and rendered still more illustrious 
 by condescension, and by sympathy with the destitute, 
 with the widow and the fatherless, and with those who 
 have none to help them. 
 
 "Carnarvon, July 20th, 1837." 
 
123 
 
 Page 63, line 3 : " Remains of some warlike chiefs.'* 
 There can be little doubt that the ashes which have 
 been sealed up for ages in these dark and lonely cells 
 were' those of warlike ehieftains. The remains of their 
 vassals would be deposited in the parent earth without 
 any distinguishing mark.— See a paper by Sir Richard 
 Colt Hoare in the Archaenlogia, Vol. XIX. p. 44. 
 
 Page 65, line 23: "Large and valuable copper 
 mine." 
 
 The copper mines of North Wales occur in either 
 primitive or transition rocks. The ore lies sometimes 
 in masses, more frequently in veins. The working 
 of copper in the principality may be traced to a very 
 remote period. There is reason to believe that the 
 Romans were acquainted with the mine at the Parys 
 mountain in Anglesey ; but it was never worked with 
 much activity until about seventy years ago. 
 
 Page 66, line 9 : "A loud report like a thunde r 
 clap." 
 
 We learn from Dr. Dwight, that a similar explosion 
 was heard, about fifty years ago, by the inhabitants of 
 Kinsdale township, in New England, from West Rive r 
 Mountain, on the Connecticut. Upon repairing to 
 the place, they discovered that a metallic substance 
 had been forced out of the mountain, the hole which it 
 had made being six inches in diameter. A few trees 
 which stood near were almost covered with the sub- 
 
124 
 
 stance which had been ejected, and which consisted 
 chiefly of melted and calcined iron ore, strongly re- 
 sembling the scoria of a blacksmith's forge. The same 
 substance was found upon the rocks and the face of 
 the hill in several places, having evidently been pro- 
 pelled in a liquid or semi-liquid state. — See DwiGHT'S 
 Travels in New England. 
 
 In various parts of the Great Y alley of the Missis- 
 sippi, and more particularly along the line of the 
 Mississipi and lower part of the Missouri, smoke and 
 flame have been observed, sometimes accompanied by 
 a strong sulphurous smell ; and those false fires, 
 usually known by the nam e of will o' the wisp, are 
 stated to be very common, and to play as many tricks 
 upon the back settlers, as they were once thought to 
 do with our own peasants. — See Major Long's Ac count 
 of an Expedition to the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 Page 68, line 15 : "Corpse candles." 
 
 There is a curious little book, entitled, ' A Relation 
 of Apparitions of Spirits in the County of Monmouth, 
 and the Principality of Wales ;' by the late Rev. 
 Edmund Jones, of the Tranch. The worthy divine 
 maintains in the prefatory vindication of his treatise, 
 that "they are chiefly women, and men of weak, 
 womanish understanding, who chiefly speak against 
 the account of spirits and apparitions. In some 
 women it comes from a certain proud fineness, exces- 
 sive delicacy, and a superfine disposition, which can- 
 
125 
 
 not bear to be disturbed with what is strange and 
 disagreeable to a vain mind. But why should the 
 daughters of mother Eve be so averse to hear of the 
 adversary, Satan, with whom she first conversed, and 
 was deceived by him !"_" Some," he says, "have seen 
 the resemblance of a skull carrying the corpse candle, 
 others the shape of the person who is to die carrying 
 the candle between its forefingers, holding the light 
 before its face. Some have said, that they saw th e 
 shape of those who were to be at the burying. I am 
 willing to suspend my belief of this, as seeming to be 
 extravagant, though their foreboding knowledge of 
 mortality appears to be very wonderful and unde- 
 niable." 
 
 Page 68, line 15 : " The will o' the wisp." 
 The ignis fatuus has afforded Milton a subject for 
 one of his most highly wrought similes : — 
 As when a wandering fire 
 Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night 
 Condenses, and the cold environs round 
 Kindled through agitation to a flame, 
 Which oft, they say, some evil spirit attends, 
 Hovering and blazing with delusive light, 
 Misleads th' amazed night-wanderer from his way 
 To bogs and mires, and oft through pond and pool, 
 There swallow'd up and lost, from succour far ; 
 So glister'd the dire snake. 
 
 Par. Lost, ix. 634, 
 
126 
 
 Page 68, Hue 20 : " Attribute to supernatural in. 
 fluence." 
 
 The following lines in Akenside's ' Pleasures of 
 Imagination ' are extremely happy. They would of 
 themselves have gone far to secure him a very high 
 place in his department of English literature. 
 
 " Hence by night 
 The village matron, round the blazing hearth 
 Suspends the infant audience with her tales, 
 Breathing astonishment ! of witching rhymes, 
 And evil spirits ; of the death-bed call 
 Of him who robb'd the widow, and devour'd 
 The orphan's portion ; of unquiet souls 
 Risen from the grave to ease the heavy guilt 
 Of deeds in life conceal'd ; of shapes that walk 
 At dead of night, and clank their chains and wave 
 The torch of hell around the murderer's bed. 
 At every solemn pause the crowd recoil 
 Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd 
 With shivering sighs : till eager for the event, 
 Around the beldame all arrect they hang, 
 Each trembling heart with grateful terrors quell'd." 
 
 Bk. I. 1. 255. 
 
 Page 71, line 3 : " Died of a broken heart." 
 " Wilson is now numbered with the classics of the 
 art, though little more than the fifth part of a century 
 has elapsed since death relieved him from the apathy 
 
127 
 
 of the cognoscenti, the envy of rivals, and the neglect 
 of a tasteless public." — Fuseli. 
 
 Page 73, line 5 : " Vortigern." 
 
 His name in Welsh is " Gwrtheyrn ;" and he is so 
 called in the Annates Menveenses. It signifies Vir 
 princeps or potens — chief or powerful man ; from 
 "Gwr," vir and "Teyrn," princeps, potens. — See Dr. 
 Davies's Diet, in verb. 
 
 Page 73, line 16 : " Stonehenge." 
 
 The fortresses and castle s of the Britons, and this 
 stupendous monument and similar pillared circles and 
 enclosures in various parts of the kingdom, dedicated 
 to the worship of their divinities or to the solemn 
 deliberations of their kings and legislators, are evi- 
 dences of a high degree of architectural skill. 
 
 Page 92, line 2 : " The water lily." 
 " It closes its flowers in the afternoon, and lays them 
 down upon the surface of the water till morning, when 
 it raises and expands them, often in a bright day , to 
 several inches above the water." — Sir J. E. Smith's 
 Introd. to Botany, p. 335. 
 
 calls the lily from her sleep 
 
 Prolong'd beneath the bordering deep. 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 Where silver bright the water lilies blow. 
 
 Rogers. 
 
128 
 
 The cups of water lilies are not stirr'ci 
 By passing eddies, but with countenance 
 Turn'd up to heaven, they lie and let the dark 
 Come down on them, and then they pass beneath 
 Into their watery bed, till the young morn 
 Looks slant upon the surface of the stream. 
 
 ASHFORD. 
 
 Yes, thou art day's own flower— for, when he's fled, 
 Sorrowing thou droop'st beneath the wave thine head ; 
 And watching, weeping through the livelong night, 
 Look'st forth impatient for the dawning light ; 
 And, as it brightens into perfect day, 
 Dost from the inmost fold thy breast display. 
 
 Mrs. SlGOURNEY. 
 
 Page 95, line 11:" Dr. Godfrey Goodman." 
 A short notice of the dean's uncle Dr. Gabriel 
 Goodman, can scarcely be uninteresting. He also 
 was a native of the principality, and for forty years 
 he was dean of Westminster. The bible was trans- 
 lated into Welsh at his cost, and he founded and 
 munificently endowed the Grammar School, which is 
 still in high reputation, at Ruthin. He purchased a 
 mansion at Chiswick, a few miles from London, where 
 he planted with his own hands an avenue of elm trees, 
 to serve as a shady retreat for the master and scholars 
 of Westminster School. It was under the patronage 
 of the dean that Camden, the celebrated antiquary and 
 historian travelled through England • and Wales, to 
 
129 
 
 survey the country and collect materials for his 
 ' Britannia,' which for more than two centuries has 
 been regarded as a standard work. Dr. Goodman 
 died in 1603, bequeathing the greater part of his large 
 property to charitable purposes. He was buried in 
 Westminster Abbey, 
 
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