Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

few years previously to this, several broken vases, dishes, and other culinary utensils of earthen ware, though none of them entire, were taken up here; some of them stamped with devices of men in armour, others with dogs in chace of the stag; some of them were of a fine sky blue colour, others red, and one in particular, the most perfect of them all, was a sort of hollow dish, with its surface beautifully glazed, and of a lively red colour, bearing the letters PATRICI very visibly stamped in its centre. Its diameter was about six inches. The most curious piece of antiquity found at this time was a brazen shield of circular form, curiously embossed circle within circle, with small brass studs, from the circumference nearly to the centre, where a sharp piece of wrought iron, about four inches and a half in length, was fixed. This shield, which was somewhat more than a foot in diameter, had on its under side, when discovered, a covering of leather stuffed with hair.-Mr. Griffith thought there were good grounds to contradict the generally received opinion, of a bath and hypocaust having been discovered here.

CATARACT.

From the road, near the bridge called Pont Porthlwyd, not quite seven miles from Conwy, I observed, high up the mountain, at some distance from the road, a waterfall of very considerable height, called by the country people Rhaiadr Mawr, The Great Waterfall.

I

ascended along a winding path, which, after about a quarter of an hour's walk, conducted me to the bed of the river, near the station from whence it was to be seen to the greatest advantage. The water, from the late dry weather, was very inconsiderable, still, however, the scene was highly picturesque. From the upper part two streams descended at some distance from each other. The range of rock down which the water was thrown was very wide and extremely rude, being formed, in horizontal ledges, into deep clefts and enormous chasms. On the various lodgments of the rocks, were numerous pendant shrubs.

The dark shades of the clefts, and the irregular brilliancy of the prominent features of the scene, from the reflected rays of the sun, contrasted, again, with the foaming of the water, were truly grand. The colours of the rock, which were every where also very dark, were rich and highly varied. The streams united a little above the middle of the fall: they rushed from thence in foam over the rocks, and from the deep shelvings, in many places the water was entirely hidden from me below. In addition to this, nearly every different stratum of rock threw it into a fresh direction. In the whole scene there was the utmost irregularity. On the right of the cataract the inclosing rocks were nearly perpendicular, very lofty, and crowned with pendant foliage. Those on the left were very high and towering, adorned on the lodgements with grass and ferns. I should have made a drawing of this cataract, had it been possible to have expressed it, with any justice, on an octavo plate: this, however, was

altogether impossible. The above description is expressed in terms infinitely too feeble to give any correct idea of the scene:-this waterfall appeared to me by much the most grand and picturesque of any that I have seen in North Wales.

In descending to the road I had an extensive view along the whole vale of Conwy. It appeared from this eminence to be much varied, and on the whole very beautiful.

CHAP. X.

CONWY TO BANGOR.

Sychnant.-Penmaen Mawr.- Various Accidents there.Ascent to the Summit of Penmaen Mawr.-Pren Lemwn, or Welsh Lemon-Tree.-Ancient Fort.-View.-Aber: Ferry from thence into Anglesea.-Mountain HollowBeautiful Scene. Waterfall. Llandygai. - Llandygai Mills.-Penryhn Castle and Grounds.-Fine Prospect.— Fishery.-Bangor.-Bangor Ferry.-Battle at Portha

ethwy

IN

my route from Conwy to Bangor, I began to find myself in a country that was truly mountainous and romantic: the hills of Flintshire and Denbighshire, which I had just passed, bear no comparison in picturesque beauty with the stupendous scenery of Caernarvonshire. The mountains here, instead of being, as those were, gentle in ascent, and frequently covered with grass and verdure to their summits, began to wear the savage and majestic face of nature,-they were precipitous, rugged, and gloomy.

SYCHNANT,

The dry hollow, which commences about two miles from Conwy, is the first scene of moun

tain horror that the traveller in this direction is presented with. The road descends along a steep betwixt the rocks. Immediately below it on one side is this deep and narrow vale: from the bottom arises Penmaen bach, the lesser Penmaen, whose head is raised several hundred feet above, and whose broad and sombre front constitutes all the boundary on the right. The ledges of many of the rocks were covered with the flowers of the different species of heaths, which gave a purple tint to the scene. The opening of the rocks towards the bottom, and the gradual unfolding of a distant view of the bay of Beaumaris, the island of Anglesea, and the verdure of the intervening country, was extremely beautiful. The contrast heightened the elegance, and added to it a singularity of character that does not often occur even in mountain-scenery.

PENMAEN MAWR.

Near the fifth mile-stone from Conwy is the celebrated mountain called Penmaen Mawr, The Great Penmaen, a huge rock that rises nearly 1550 feet in perpendicular height above the sea. Along a shelf of this tremendous precipice is formed part of the great Irish road. This is well guarded towards the sea by a strong wall, and supported in many parts by arches turned beneath it, a method, in point of expence, found far preferable to that of hewing it out of the solid rock. Before the wall was built, accidents were continually happening by people falling down the precipices; but, since

« НазадПродовжити »