were not very interesting, till ascending Thorn Hill, the beauties of the
vale below, with Flat and Steep Holmes rising in the distant prospect,
the ruins of Cardiff Castle, and the ivy-mantled walls of Landaff
Cathedral, amply compensated for the trouble of climbing this eminence.
A little farther on, Caerphily Castle burst upon our sight, and
—“seem’d to frown,
In awful majesty on all around.”
The founder, and the time of its erection are very uncertain; but I refer
my readers to the first volume of the _Archæologia_; to an ingenious
Dissertation, by Daines Barrington, where it is satisfactorily proved to
have been the work of Edward I. This Castle is one of the noblest ruins
of ancient architecture now remaining in the kingdom, and exceeds all in
bigness, except that of Windsor. The Hall and the Chapel may still be
traced; the former measures about seventy feet in length, thirty-four in
breadth, and seventeen in height. The roof is vaulted about eight feet
high, and supported by twenty arches. On the North side is a chimney,
ten feet wide, with two windows on each side, extending down to the
floor, and carried above the supposed height of this room. At each angle
was originally a round tower of four stories, communicating with each
other by a gallery. On the West side of the Hall stairs, is a low round
tower, of one story, called the Mint-house, with three painted arches on
the South side, and a square well on the West. The leaning tower,
towards the East end, more particularly engaged our notice: it is divided
into two separate parts, by a large fissure, which runs from the top down
almost to the middle. Its lineal projection is supposed to be on the
outer side, about eleven feet and a half. On the West and North are
visible vestiges of a draw-bridge. The East wall, on the South side of
the principal entrance, is fluted between the buttresses, with
battlements on their tops, to protect the intermediate walls.
At Caerphily we perceived a great change in the manners of the people; in
the whole village, scarcely one person was capable of speaking English.
We now came to the celebrated vale of Glamorganshire, so justly styled
the _Garden of South-Wales_; the rapid Taafe forms an almost continued
uproar for many miles; on the opposite side the mountains rose almost
perpendicularly in a massy wall, and sometimes to the water’s edge,
finely clothed with wood. Every circumstance conspired to heighten the
solitary grandeur of the scene, and to prolong the luxurious melancholy,
which the views inspired. In this celebrated vale is found the famous
Pont y Pridd, or New Bridge, about three quarters of a mile from the Duke
of Bridgewater’s Arms, a comfortable inn, and far surpassing our
miserable quarters at Caerphily. This wonderful bridge, of one arch, is
the segment of a circle; the chord of it is one hundred and forty feet,
and the heighth of the key-stone, from the spring of the arch, thirty-two
feet and a half. It was erected, in the year 1750, by William Edwards, a
country mason, who failed in his attempt three times, till, by lightening
the abutments, it has resisted, for many years, the torrents of the
Taafe.
The intrusion of art in this romantic valley, where nature has been so
lavish of her beauties, is much to be lamented: a canal, for the purpose
of conveying the iron from the Myther Works to Cardiff, renders it a
place of frequent business and confusion; a place originally so well
adapted to retirement and reflection.