CHAP. XX.

EXCURSION FROM CAERNARVON TO THE NANTLLE POOLS.

Nant Lle.-Dreary Mountain Pass.-Beautiful Views.Slate Quarries.

IN

N my visit to the Nantlle Pools, I proceeded along the road from Caernarvon to Beddgelert, till I had passed Llyn Cwellyn, when taking a route westward, between Llyn Cader and Llyn y Dywarchen, I entered a wild mountainous pass, that led me along a series of sheep tracts, into Nant Lle, the Vale of Lle. The mountains rose on each side to an immense height, those towards the north forming a long range of precipices, singularly marked by the innumerable gullies of the mountain storms. The whole

scene was that of savage wildness, of nature in her most dreary attire. It is a narrow pass, encompassed by mountains, uncultivated, destitute altogether of wood, and unsheltered on all sides from the fury of the tempests.-As I proceeded, the scene by degrees began to extend its limits, and the mountains to attain more varied and elegant forms. At length the two Nantile Pools, called by the Welsh Llyniau Nantlle, and the whole range of the vale, with the gradually declining mountains, became visible nearly to the sea. The prospect was ex

ceedingly beautiful; and the number of trees in different parts, and particularly about the foreground, added greatly to the effect.-On turning round, to look towards the road that I had left, now about two miles distant, I observed that Snowdon closed up the end of the pass, and terminated the view in that direction: its upper parts were, however, so enveloped in clouds, as to render them invisible.-I continued my route along a tolerable good horse path, between hedge rows, among meadows and woodland, on the north side of the pools. The trees were chiefly old oaks, that had withstood the fury of probably a hundred winters; the limbs shattered, covered with moss, and bared of leaves. Several of the small farmers' cottages among these trees, presented, with the other objects around, scenes peculiarly picturesque. By an ancient over-shot mill, between the pools, I remarked a scene that exceeded all the rest. The mountain grandeur of the vale was broken by the wooded foreground; and the water of one of the lakes, from the rays of the sun, which shot obliquely upon it, glittered through the dark foliage of the trees. The mill, and its rude wooden aqueduct and wheel, with an adjacent cottage or two, overgrown with moss and lichens, and shattered in the walls and roofs, were the other component parts of the landscape. This was, however, by no means, the last of the elegancies of the vale; in almost every part of my walk, I had something to admire, some new object presented to me, that afforded sources both of reflection and delight. At some distance beyond the farthest lake, the road, which is here wide enough to admit carriages to the neighbouring slate quar

ries, led me to some little height above the vale, I again turned round to look along the vale in the direction I had come, and was surprised by a view so elegantly picturesque, that even my fancy had scarcely ever led me to imagine one equal to it. The dense clouds that had enveloped all the higher regions of Snowdon, were in a great measure driven away, and those that I now saw, floated below the pointed summit of the mountain, which was visible above. It bounded the end of the vale, and I never before observed this mountain in so much grandeur. A dusky haziness about it, threw it to appearance very distant, and added greatly to its effect in height. A gleam of sun-shine, passing the valley by Llyn Cwellyn, that crossed by its foot, and softening upwards, formed a fine light in the middle of the scene. The steep black rocks of Mynydd Mawr, on the left, and the craggy summits of the elegant and varied range of the Drws y Coed mountains, on the right of the vale, on whose side I stood, and appearing even still darker than usual, from the light on the mountain beyond them, formed a truly elegant middle disThe expanse of the water of the two lakes, intersected by a narrow isthmus, appeared in the bosom of the vale. The rude trunks, and weather-beaten limbs of the old oaks around, not only added beauty to the foreground, but varied, by their intervention, the otherwise too uniform appearance of the meadows of the vale, and of some parts of the mountains' sides. This landscape is not exceeded in beauty by any in North Wales.

tance.

As the slate quarries were not far from this

station, I walked up to them, and found a chasm formed in the rocks that, from its peculiar appearance, surprized me almost as much as the excavations in the mountains of Nant Frangon, belonging to lord Penrhyn. This is very narrow, long, and deep, its sides being nearly all perpendicular; and to a stranger, unaccustomed to sights of this nature, it will be found very interesting. The mountain, in which these quarries are formed, is called Cilgwyn, the white retreat : it is in the parish of Llanllyfni.

CHAP. XXI.

EXCURSION FROM CAERNARVON INTO THE PROMONTORY OF LLYN.

The promontory of Llyn.-Account of Dinas Dinlle, and other ancient Forts dependant on it.-Clynog -Church.Beuno's Chapel and Chest.-Superstitions. Llanhaiarn.Nevin-Porthynllyn.-Pwellheli.- Criccieth.-Criccieth. Castle.-Story of Sir Howell y Fwyall, and his Battle-Ax.Penmorfa. Anecdote of Sir John Owen.-Ford at Penmorfa.

THE promontory of Llyn, or that division of Caernarvonshire which juts outs into the Irish sea, affords very little that can be interesting to the tourist. In the more northerly parts a considerable quantity of corn is grown; so much indeed as to supply nearly all the rest of the county. The farther extremity is, in general, bleak, open, and exposed.

DINAS DINLLE,

An ancient fort, about two miles west of Llandwrog, (a village near six miles south of Caernarvon,) was the first place of any consequence that I came to. This is situated on the summit of a green eminence, immediately on the coast. In a stream called Voryd, that runs not far from the place, there are two fords, which, to this day, retains the names of Rhyd equestre, and Rhyd pedestre, (Rhyd being the Welsh word for ford),