A VILLAGE on the western side of the estuary called the Traeth Mawr, in
the promontory of Llyn and county of Caernarvon. It stands on a surface
three feet lower than the level of the sea, from the invasion of which it
is protected by a substantial embankment. A handsome church ornamented
with a tower and spire, and approached through an arched way of exquisite
workmanship; a spacious market-house, with assembly rooms in the upper
story; a large inn and several good houses, all placed in well chosen and
regular positions, indicate the taste of the founder, and excite a
feeling of regret that his well directed exertions in excluding the sea
were not ultimately better rewarded. The place derives its name from the
late W. A. Madocks, Esq., a man of the most courtly, popular manners, and
possessed of a penetrating and clear discernment. His first design of
enclosing the ground on which the town is built proving successful, led
him on to the greater but less happy attempt, that of embanking some
thousand acres of the Traeth Mawr, by a sea wall from Caernarvon to
Merionethshire. To secure, and place the validity of his title beyond
future question, he obtained a grant from the crown in 1807 of all the
sands from Pont Aberglaslyn to the point of Gêst. Across the sea-end of
this space, and where the breadth was about one mile, he carried an
embankment, in deep water, having a breadth of one hundred feet at the
base and of thirty at the top. The material of which it is formed is
rubble stone, formerly imbedded in loose earth, which was readily
detached by the water and entirely carried away, leaving innumerable
apertures for the ebb and flow of the tide. This unfortunate error might
have been corrected by puddling or some other means; but the breadth of
the embankment is still too trifling for the depth and force of the sea.
The tide pours in rapidly through every part of this expensive work,
presenting a calamitous picture of the projector’s losses, while the dam
that secures the town will probably see generations rise and fall on one
side, like the fluctuation of the waters from which it protects them on
the other.
The idea of rescuing the Traeth Mawr from the sea is as old as the days
of Sir John Wynne, of Gwydyr, A.D. 1625. This busy, pompous, but clever
man, perceived the practicability of reclaiming both traeths, and
solicited the assistance of his ingenious countryman, Sir Hugh Myddleton,
but this eminent person declined the invitation, being then engaged in
the vast scheme of leading the New River to London. What events are
concealed in the arcana of fate! Sir Hugh died nearly broken-hearted, at
the apparent failure of a scheme which subsequently proved eminently
successful. Mr. Madocks’ life was embittered by the termination of a
speculation which was at first apparently successful, then suddenly fell
to hopelessness.