THE pass of Aberglaslyn {119} is one of the most romantic mountain scenes
in Wales. It is a subject of inexpressible grandeur, and quite unique in
character. Those who have crossed the mountains of St. Gothard may form
an idea of its sublime character by calling to mind the passage of the
_Pont du Diable_. The mountains embracing the little valley of
Beddgelert, approaching still nearer to each other at the south of the
vale, contract the space below so much, as to afford room for nothing
more than the river and a narrow road, while the rocks on each side rise
with such perpendicularity, that the interval between their summits
scarce exceeds the distance of their bases. Here the traveller finds
himself immured within a chasm of rifted rocks for a length of about a
mile, the waters of the Glaslyn tumbling and foaming over ledges of
broken rock, and forming a succession of cascades which make a final
plunge beneath the Devil’s Bridge, and swell the waters of the great dark
pool beyond it. This is just a landscape suited to the pencil of
Salvator, it is incomplete without a group of banditti, and the
imagination of the spectator can scarce avoid conjuring up, in the mind’s
eye, a band of robbers lurking under shelter of some projecting rock, or
concealed in one of the dark caverns that yawn over the roadway. It is a
scene adapted to the perpetration of some great or desperate deed, just
such a pass as our Wellington would choose to display his Spartan
bravery. Here the few could obstruct the many; here, in the language of
the Wellington, of ancient Rome, “Mons altissimus impendebat, ut facilè
perpauci transitum prohibere possent.” Pont Aberglaslyn has been
confounded with another Devil’s Bridge in Cardiganshire. This connects
the counties of Caernarvon and Merioneth, and is thrown from rock to
rock, over a narrow passage of the river, and from its battlements enjoys
a majestic view of the dark and broken cliffs that tower over the pass,
as well as of the waters falling in numerous cataracts, the nearest to
the bridge being of such a height as to cause a temporary obstruction to
the passage of the salmon. There was anciently a royal wear, in the
reign of Henry the Fourth, erected here by Robert ap Meredydd. Near the
Bridge is shown a stone, called “the chair of Rhys gôch o Eryri,” a
celebrated bard, in which he is believed to have sat while composing some
of his national poems.