lofty, is built over the river Llugwy, and has with the adjoining scenery a very singular effect. Both above and below it, the bed of the river is covered with such strange masses of rock, as, when the quantity of water is considerable, to exhibit a most pleasing scene. A good view of this bridge and fall may be had by clambering down the left hand bank of the river a very few yards before reaching the turnpike. At the further distance of about 3 miles is another fall of the river Llugwy, called RHAIADR Y WENNOL, The Cataract of the Swallow. The site of this fall is marked by a summer house stationed almost immediately over it, and a gap has been opened in the wall on the road. side for the convenience of visitors. This fall with its attendant scenery is magnificent, the high and wooded banks being enlivened by the various tints of the oaks, birch and hazels which hang from the rocks. Even when there is a want of water in the river, this cataract is fanciful and pleasing: but when, after a heavy fall of rain, the river assumes a more impetuous form, the fall must certainly be very grand, as the bed of the stream is at least twenty yards wide; and the innumerable masses of rock, which have at different times been carried along with it, and lodged here, opposing the fury of the waters, must throw them foaming into all directions. At a little distance below the bridge Pont y Pair, the rivers Llugwy and Conway unite. The latter rises from Llyn Conway, a large pool about three miles beyond the village of Penmachno. Both these streams before their junction are furious and broken torrents, they are each a truly "foaming flood;" but henceforward they assume a placid form, and glide in one tranquil current silently through the vale. RHAIADR Y WENNOL-CAPEL CURIG. 43 Within a few hundred yards of Capel Curig, to the left of the road, is a small but pretty cascade. At the distance of about 14 miles from Cernioge Mawr is the village of CAPEL CURIG, Which consists of a few cottages, a church belonging to Llandygai parish, and a commodious and excellent inn, which was originally erected by Lord Penhryn, but has been much enlarged since. The Holyhead road leaves it to the left. The name of the village is derived from its chapel, dedicated to a Welsh saint called Curig. He is mentioned in an old Welsh poem, which, however, only intimates his order; and nothing more is at this present time known of him. "A certain friar to increase his store, Beneath his cloak, grey Curig's image bore; Near the inn are two small lakes, upon which excursions are frequently made in boats, and from whence is a fine view of Snowdon. To the south of the inn rises Moel Shiabod, a mountain whose height is 2878 feet. Its summit commands a view of the Snowdonian range of mountains, of nine different lakes, and of the sea in the distance. About 3 miles south-east of the inn is DOLWYDDELAN CASTLE, A fortress, some centuries ago, of considerable importance to the Welsh princes. This castle stands on a rocky steep, nearly perpendicular on one side, and in a vale entirely closed round by mountains. The original import of the name seems to have been the castle in the meadow of Helen's wood; for the ancient military road called Sarn Helen, or Helen's road, from Helen the daughter of Octavius, Duke of Cornwall, passed through this part of the country to the sea coast of Merionethshire. It has never been a large building, but it once occupied the entire summit of its mount. It formerly consisted of two square towers, each three stories high, having but one room on a floor, and a court-yard, which was betwixt them. The largest of these towers measures within, no more than twenty-seven feet in length, and eighteen in width, and the walls are about six feet thick. The walls of the court are entirely destroyed, and very little is now left of the other parts of the building.† This place was for many years the residence of the eldest son of Owen Gwynedd, Iorwerth Drwndwn, or Edward with the broken Nose. On the death of his father, Iorwerth claimed the crown of Wales as his hereditary right, but was unanimously rejected, and merely from the blemish in his face; so whimsical and indecisive was, at that time, the mode of succession to the Welsh throne. He had assigned to him, as part of his parental inheritance, the hundreds of Nan Conway and Ardudwy; and he retired to this sequestered spot to spend the rest of his life. It was in Dolwyddelan * Dol Gwydd Elen; or the name may have been Dol Gwydd Elain, the Meadow of the Wood of the Doe. + Who the founder of this fortress was, or what purpose it was originally intended to answer, we have not at this time any document left to inform us. Most probably when the feudal system prevailed in Wales, and petty chieftains were engaged in perpetual war with each other, Dolwyddelan castle, and others similar to it, may have been erected as places of retreat and refuge, where the chieftains could reside in security, attended by their vassals and adherents, in case they should be compelled by superior force to relinquish their plains and the more cultivated parts of the country. These castles also answered the double purpose of guarding the passes and defiles of the mountains. It is a conjecture of Rowland, that this castle was erected prior to the sixth century. What his grounds for this supposition are, he does not state.- Rowland, 149. DOLWYDDELAN CASTLE. 45 castle that his son was born, who afterwards, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, reigned in Wales under the title of Llewelyn the Great. Meredith, the son of Jevan ap Robert, purchased the lease of this castle, and of the inclosures belonging to it, in the reign of Henry VII. About this period the whole of the surrounding country was one entire forest, overrun with thieves and outlaws. The castle itself had been previously possessed by Howell ap Evan, ap Rhys Gethin, one of the most noted of these, against whom David ap Jenkin rose in arms. David, who was likewise an outlaw, contended with him long for the sovereignty of the mountains; and at length, by stratagem, took him in bed, but spared his life on condition that he should immediately seek refuge in Ireland. In that country he scarcely remained a year, but returned in the ensuing summer with some select adherents. He clothed himself and his followers entirely in green, that they might be the less distinguishable among the forests; and in this disguise, appearing abroad only in the night, they committed the most dreadful depredations. The friends of Meredith ap Jevan were greatly surprised that he should think of changing his habitation near Penmorfa for this castle, thus surrounded by multitudes of freebooters. He gave, as a decided reason, that he chose rather to fight with outlaws and thieves than with his own immediate relatives. "If (says he) I live in my own house in Evionedd, I must either kill my own kinsmen or submit to be murdered by them." He had not been here long before he built the house Penanmen, and removed the church from the thicket in which it formerly stood to its present more open situation; the church, his house and the castle thus forming the points of a triangle, each a mile distant from the other. Whenever he went to the church he took with him as a guard twenty stout archers, and he had a sentinel placed on a neighbouring rock called Carreg y Big, (from whence the church, the house, and the castle could be seen,) who had orders to give immediate notice of the approach of banditti. He never mentioned before-hand when he intended to go out, and always went and returned by different routes, through unsuspected parts of the woods. He found it necessary, to his perfect security, to increase the number of his adherents; he therefore established colonies of the most tall and able men he could procure, occupying every tenement, as it became empty, with such tenants only as were able to bear arms. His force, when complete, consisted of 140 archers, ready to assemble whenever the sound of the bugle from the castle echoed through the woods to call for their assistance. These, says Sir John Wynne, were each arrayed in a "jacket or armolet coate, a good steele cap, a short sword and dagger, together with a bow and arrows. Many of them had also horses and chasing slaves, which were ready to answer the crie on all occasions, whereby he grew soe strong that he began to put back and to curb the sanctuary of thieves and robbers, which at times were wont to be above a hundred, well horsed and well appointed."* Such was the state of Wales in these unhappy times, when every one claimed, by a kind of prescriptive right, whatever he had power to seize, and when lives or property were considered of no more value than interest or ambition chose to dictate. Meredîth ap Jevan, to enjoy a quiet life, threw himself into the bosom of a country infested with outlaws and murderers, and, comparatively with the state of society about his former residence near Penmorfa, attained his end. He closed his useful life in the year 1525, leaving to survive him twenty-three legitimate and three natural children. * Wynne, 429. The sanctuary here alluded to was the hospital at Yspytty Evan. |