within the walls scarcely then exceeding eighty in number. This decay is supposed to have arisen from the joint inconveniences of the want of water, and the steep situation of the old town. It became gradually abandoned till at length it was wholly deserted, and a new town much more convenient, was formed about the bottom of the rock. The town walls, like those of the castle, appear to have had great strength. There were only two gates, the Exchequer and the Burgess's Gate. In the former (which was on the west side) the lord's courts were holden; and in the other (which was on

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ship on her favourite Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, who raised the rents from two to nine hundred pounds a year, and arbitrarily inclosed much of the common lands. An insurrection was the consequence, and two of the principal insurgents were hanged at Shrewsbury. The disputes arose to so alarming an height, that it at length became necessary to request the interference of the queen, who by granting them a charter, confirmed to the tenants the quiet possession of their lands. A new cause of disturbance arose, in the reign of William III., from the vast grant that had been made to the earl of Portland: the people were, however, hushed by the same means that had been adopted in the former reign.-The castle and lordship belong at present to the crown.

After the retreat of Charles the first, from Chester in September 1645, he came to Denbigh castle, and the tower in which he had apartments still retains the name of the King's Tower. The castle continued till the following year in the hands of the royalists, colonel William Salisbury being the governor; and, in the month of July it was besieged by a party of the parliament's forces under the command of general Mytton. Three months, however, elapsed before the garrison would surrender.-After the restoration of Charles II., it is said to have blown up with gunpowder, and thus rendered altogether untenable by the forces of an enemy.

the north) the burgesses held their courts. Besides these the walls had only four towers*.

This place was endowed with the privileges of a free borough by Richard the Second. Queen Elizabeth formed here a body corporate, consisting of two aldermem, two bailiffs, two coroners, and twenty-five capital burgesses, a recorder, and inferior officers. It returns one member to parliamentt.

WHITE FRIARY.

At the east end of the town there was formerly a house of Carmelite, or white friars, dedicated to St. Mary. This is said by some historians to have been founded by John de Salisbury, who died in 1289; but, according to others, it was the work of John de Sanismore, towards the close of the fourteenth century.

Whitchurch, the parish church to Denbigh, and about a mile distant, is a white-washed structure of no very elegant appearance. It is chiefly celebrated as containing the remains of Sir Richard Middleton, governor of Denbigh castle, under Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, who died in 1576; and of

HUMPHREY LLWYD,

The antiquary, to whose memory there is a mural monument, containing a figure of himself in the attitude of prayer. This person

*Leland's Itin. v. 56.

+ Pennant, ii. 45.

was a native of Denbigh, and a student of Brason-nose college, Oxford. He adopted the profession of physic, and became family physician in the house of the last Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, the chancellor of the university. He represented his native place in parliament, and died there in the forty-first year of his age. He compiled a map of England for his friend Ortelius, to whom he dedicated his "Commentariolum Britannia, and his epistle "De Mona Druidum insula, antiquitati suæ restitutâ.” He left in manuscript, among various other tracts, a Welsh Chronicle from king Cadwaladr, and a History of Cambria. He collected many curious books for lord Lumley, (whose sister he married,) which form at this time a valuable part in the library of the British Museum.

The approach to Denbigh from Whitchurch is much more august and grand than from any other side. The castle, from this road, is seen finely situated on the summit of its rock, which being nearly perpendicular, affords one a good idea of the ancient strength of the place. From hence, also, the accompanying scenery appears more open and varied than from any other part of the immediate neighbourhood of the town.

69

CHAP. VII.

ST. ASAPH TO CONWY.

Abergeley.-Llandulas.-Penmaen Rhôs.-River Conwy.Ferry-Impositions practised there.-Pearl FisheryTown of Conwy.-Castle.-Church-Abbey.-Plás Mawr. -Ancient Privileges.

My next stage was Conwy. The road now became somewhat more hilly, but it was hard and good, and the surrounding country, for the most part very pleasant. After passing Abergeley, the conflux of the concealed water, a small village about seven miles from St. Asaph, I had the sea on the right, and a range of low rocks on the left of the road.-Beyond Llandulas, The Dark Village, the road winds round a huge limestone rock, called Penmaen Rhôs.

It is supposed to have been in some of the deep glens of this neighbourhood, that king Richard the second was surprized by a band of armed ruffians, secreted there by the eart of Northumberland, for the purpose of betraying him into the hands of Bolingbroke, who was waiting the event at Flint.

I had wandered for some time leisurely along this road, my eyes fixed upon the ground in search of plants, when suddenly raising my

head, I was astonished with the magnificence of the landscape before me. The fine old town of Conwy, with its gloomy walls and towers, and its majestic, turretted castle, appeared with the wide river in front, and backed by rising, wooded, and meadowy grounds, and beyond these by the vast mountains of Caernarvonshire.

RIVER CONWY AND FERRY.

The river Conwy runs on this, the east side of the town. It is here about half a mile across, and at present passed by means of ferry-boats. Besides the inconveniences naturally attending so wide a stream, in a place subject to all the variations produced by the flowing and ebbing of tides that run sometimes very high, most of the travellers who have crossed here (except the passengers in the mail-coach, who by order of the post-office, have a boat always waiting for them,) know what it is to experience the wilful delays, and the gross and barefaced ime: positions of the ferry-men. The charges ought to be a penny for every person on foot, except with respect to those who come in the public coaches or in post chaises, who are required, though from what principle I cannot learn, to pay a shilling each; two-pence for a man and horse, and half-a-crown a wheel for gentlemen's carriages. Instead of the latter fare, I have myself known them with the most im pudent assurance possible, charge half-a-guinea for ferrying over a gig, and after receiving that, importune in addition for liquor. These