BUALT--PRINCE LLEWELYN--RHAYDERGOWY--CARACTACUS'S CAMP--OFFA'S
DYKE--KNIGHTON--PRESTEIGN--OLD AND NEW RADNOR--LLANDRINDOD WELLS.
Proceeding northward from Brecon, the road passes over an abrupt
succession of hills and hollows near the impatient Hondy, which is seen
to extend for several miles through a wild romantic valley. On leaving
the lively rivulet's devious course, the road traverses an extensive
hilly tract, from whose summits a grand expansive valley, dignified with
the sinuous Wye, bursts upon the view in a long continuance of varied
scenery. The town of Bualt occupies a spot on the nearmost side of the
vale, overhanging the pride of Welch rivers; and beyond its opposite
hilly boundary, a majestic outline of distant mountains defines the
horizon. A picturesque cascade, rushing through a portal of rocks and
woods to the left of the road, must not be passed unnoticed; it occurs
within a mile of Bualt; and after crossing the road beneath its bridge,
the stream unites with the Wye.
BUALT is a small market-town comprised in two streets rising one over the
other, upon the high shelving bank of the river. Although anciently and
irregularly built, it is much resorted to by the neighbouring gentry, not
less for the beauty of its position, than for the famed salubrity of its
air. Camden supposes it to be the Bullacum Silurum of Ptolemy, and the
Burrium of Antoninus. Horseley, on the other hand, fixes upon Usk in
Monmouthshire as the site of that Roman station; while other antiquaries
contend in favour of Caerphilly. However this may have been, the only
vestige of high antiquity that now marks the place is a mound, the site
of the keep of its castle, which was burnt down in 1690.
It was in the neighbourhood of Bualt, between the Wye and its tributary
stream the Irvon, that the Cambrian warriors made their last stand for
independence. The brave Llewelyn,
"Great patriot hero, ill-requited chief,"
after a transient victory at the foot of Snowdon, led his troops to this
position, where they were unexpectedly attacked and defeated by the
English forces, while Llewelyn, unarmed, was employed in a conference
with some chieftains in a valley not far distant. The prince was
informed of the event by the cries of his flying army; and all that
prompt intrepidity could effect he exerted to rejoin his men; but in
vain; the spear of his enemy pierced his side, and happily spared him the
anguish of witnessing the irretrievable ruin of his country's liberties.
Edward's conduct to the body of this prince, royal like himself, of a
lineage still more ancient and noble, and who boldly fell asserting the
rights of his country and inheritance, has affixed a blot on his memory,
which not all his well-regulated ambition, not all the splendour of his
victories, can gloss over, or efface from the page of history. The
prince's head was received in London with such demonstrations of joy by
the citizens, as might have suited a conquest over a predatory invader;
it was carried on the point of a lance through Cheapside; and, after
having been fixed in the pillory, was placed on the highest part of the
tower of London, to glut the eyes of the multitude. So easy is it to
impose on the natural feelings of a people once cajoled into an approval
of military despotism and cruelty.
On leaving Bualt, and crossing its bridge, the tourist enters
RADNORSHIRE, where the road, traced upon heights impendent over the Wye,
commands one of the most beautifully romantic vallies in the
principality. The river, which we have before seen majestically flowing,
rapid but unopposed, among flowery lawns, here, approaching its native
source in the bosom of Plinlimmon, appears eddying, foaming, and roaring
in a narrow channel, amid shelving rocks and disjointed craigs, a mere
mountain torrent. With the accompaniments of towering precipices, naked
rocks, and impendent cliffs, finely softened by overhanging branchy
trees, or partially concealed by deep shadowy woods, and frequently
enlivened by a stripe of verdant meadow, the river presents a succession
of picturesque _morceaus_, the most striking imaginable; and fully
compensates the bad state of the road in this part. A considerable range
of prospect also presents itself on the right, from some favoured
eminences, where a long series of moorish lumpy hills extend over the
greater part of Radnorshire, which shews but an indifferent mixture of
cultivation with numerous heaths and forests.
An extensive mountainous dreary region,
"Where woods, and wilds, and thorny ways appear,"
occupies part of the counties of Brecon, Cardigan, and Radnor, westward
of the Wye. Among these deep solitudes, Camden informs us, king
Vortigern sought a refuge from the persecutions that his crimes and
follies raised against him. His ultimate fate is wrapped in uncertainty;
but his vileness needed not a more agonizing torture than his wounded
conscience, whether recurring to his incestuous intercourse with his own
offspring, or to his miserable policy in resting the defence of Britain
upon the assistance of foreign troops.
RHAYDER-GOWY, wildly situated at the foot of the mountainous barrier
between South and North Wales, consists of two streets of neatly whitened
houses, and is graced with the vicinity of two churches. A castle also
added to the consequence of the town in the time of the Welch princes;
but none of its remains now appear, except a deep trench cut in the rock
of the town, and three or four barrows, which are, no doubt, connected
with its history. The market-house is a neat little building, though of
rough stones; and the Red Lion inn is no less remarkable for its neatness
and accommodation, useful though unimposing, than for the obliging
assiduities of its landlord.
The scenery of the Wye, close to this town, acquires an uncommon degree
of grandeur. Raging in its rocky bed, the river is seen through the
light foliage of impendent trees, and almost beneath a bold arch which
bestrides the river, bounding over a ledge of rock in a fall of some
depth; whence it tears its way among protruding craigs in a sheet of
glistening foam, but is almost immediately concealed by the embowering
ornaments of its banks.
Above the town of Rhayder, a bold hilly region, overspread with
treacherous bogs, or broken into precipices of fearful depth, mixes with
the magnificent forms of the North Wales mountains. Here nature wears
her wildest garb; no stripe of cultivation controls the dreary majesty of
the scene; the mountain sheep browse on the dizzy heights unmindful of
danger; the hardy ponies here sport away their early years, unconscious
of restraint; and, no less free, the bold mountaineer looks round his
stormy world, nor hapless mourns the gayer spheres below:
"But calm, and bred in ignorance and toil,
Each wish contracting, fits him to the soil.
Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose,
Breathes the keen air, and carols as he goes;
At night returning, every labour sped,
He sits him down the monarch of a shed;
Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys
His children's looks, that brighten at the blaze;
While his lov'd partner, boastful of her hoard,
Displays her cleanly platter on the board:"
* * * * *
"Such are the charms to barren states assign'd,
Their wants but few, their wishes all confin'd."
This district is, however, rich in mineral treasure; and several
lead-mines, and one or two copper-mines, are worked with considerable
spirit.
Here my observations upon South-Wales draw to a close: they have been
very brief upon Radnorshire; and yet the excursion on the banks of the
Wye describes almost its only attraction. Indeed, this county is
remarkably barren in subjects of picturesque beauty, memorials of antique
grandeur, and remarkable towns and villas. I find but one religious
house in this shire described in Dugdale's Monasticon, or Tanner's
Notitia Monastica, which is Abbey Cwm Hir, situated about six miles east
of Rhayder; but I understand that no part of the building remains. It
was founded for Cistercian monks by Cadwathelan ap Madoc in the year
1143, and must have been a very inconsiderable foundation, as its
revenues at the suppression of monasteries were only valued at 28_l._
14_s._ 4_d._
The castles that occur in this county are neither remarkable in their
history nor venerable in decay. Yet frequent and memorable are the
earthen works that characterize almost every hill in the county, which
either wear the marks of cairns {343} or ancient encampments.
"'Twas on those downs, by Roman hosts annoy'd,
Fought our bold fathers, rustic, unrefin'd!
Freedom's fair sons, in martial cares employ'd,
They ting'd their bodies but unmask'd their mind."
On a hill near Knighton, at the eastern limit of the county, is still
shewn the CAMP OF CARACTACUS; and an encampment on another hill separated
from the first by a deep valley, is said to be that of the Roman general
Ostorius. The Britons waited the attack of the enemy's legions in their
advantageous position, and fought like men who valued life no longer than
as it was connected with freedom; but their courage availed nothing
before the skill and discipline of the Roman army; after an immense
slaughter they gave way, and Caractacus's wife, daughter, and brothers,
were taken prisoners. The king escaped, but was soon after betrayed into
the hands of his enemies. His noble speech and deportment when brought
before the Roman emperor, as transmitted to us by the pen of Tacitus,
must ever excite admiration, and evince the immutable dignity of manly
virtue, however bereft of the factitious splendour of power.
OFFA'S DYKE also passes near Knighton; the boundary established by Offa
king of the Mercians between his dominions and Wales, after a decisive
victory over the Britons. It formerly extended from the Dee to the mouth
of the Wye; and it was enacted, that any Welchman found in arms on the
English side of the boundary should have his right hand cut off.
KNIGHTON itself I find described to be an ordinary town, built on a steep
bank of the Teme. Seven miles southward of it is PRESTEIGN, a better
built and paved town than the former, and graced with a beautiful little
eminence (the site of its castle), laid out in public walks. This town
is considered as the modern capital of the county: in it are held the
assizes; and, having the jail, it is farther distinguished with all the
apprehended rogues in Radnorshire. OLD RADNOR, three or four miles
farther southward, Camden supposes to have been the Magoth of Antoninus,
garrisoned by the Paciensian regiment in the reign of Theodosius the
younger; but, whatever it may have been formerly, it now appears an
insignificant village. NEW RADNOR, though nominally the capital of the
shire, is little better; yet a few vestiges of an encompassing wall and a
castle give it more unequivocal marks of former importance than the
parent town. Its decline is dated from the rebellion of Owen Glendower,
who destroyed the castle and ravaged all the surrounding district. In a
rocky glen, in the vicinity of this town, is a fine cascade, though of
inconsiderable volume, called WATER BREAKS ITS NECK.
Crossing Radnor forest, an extensive tract of sheep down and coppice,
about twelve miles from New Radnor, and seven from Bualt, is LLANDRINDOD
WELLS. This place, consisting only of one house of public entertainment
and a few cottages, appears to be justly distinguished for the efficacy
of its springs, which are chalybeate, sulphureous, and cathartic. But
though the medicinal virtues of these waters be undoubted, and considered
even more potent than those of Harrowgate; yet the place, being dreary,
remote, and void of elegant accommodation, is only visited by a very few
real invalids: none of that gay tribe is here to be met with which forms
the principal company at watering-places in general.
* * * * *
Having thus executed my design of a general description of South-Wales
and Monmouthshire, I shall return to the narrative of my tour.