Brynkinallt, as well as Chirk, is on the English side of Offa’s Dyke, to
which I shall now return on my way to the Berwyn Mountains; observing by
the bye, that although this part of the country is called Wales, yet that
Offa’s Dyke, made in the year 776, cut it off from the Principality, and
John of Salisbury, in his Polycraticon, writeth thus:—“Harold ordained a
law, that what Welchman soever should be found with a weapon on this side
the limit which he had set them (that is to say, Offa’s Dyke,) he should
have his right hand cut off by the King’s officers.” {24} So, as Harold
II. reigned nearly three hundred years after the Dyke was cut, it is
plain, by this law, that it continued to be considered the line of
demarcation at that time; and even to this day the bell of vassalage, the
curfew, is rung every night at Chirk, that is, on the English side the
Dyke; but is never heard at Llangollen, which is on the Welch side. This
goes far to prove that William’s English law reached Chirk, and no
farther. Leaving the Dyke, I now return to the Berwyn Mountains.