HAVOD or HAFOD,
the celebrated seat of the late Mr. Johnes. The former part of the road
is barren and uninteresting; but, on our first entrance into the grounds,
all our past complaints were lost in expressions of admiration. “A
Philosopher has said,” says a modern Tourist, “that the man, who makes
two blades of grass grow, where only one grew before, is greater than the
greatest hero. If this be true, Mr. Johnes must rank before all the
conquerors of the world, as he has made the barren wilderness around him
to smile, and converted the worthless heath into waving woods, luxuriant
corn-fields, and pastures.” From October 1795, to April 1801, Mr. Johnes
planted more than 2,065,000 trees; besides a great number of acres, that
he sowed with acorns. Since this period the plantations have been
extended on the same scale with equal spirit; from one to two hundred
thousand trees being planted every year. The Mansion is a very elegant
piece of architecture, built of Portland stone, and the plan entirely
novel, being a mixture of the Moorish and Gothic, with turrets and
painted windows. The whole of it indeed does great credit to the
architect, Mr. Baldwyn of Bath. It is situated near the banks of the
river Ystwith, and beautifully environed by lofty hills, clothed with
oak. The interior of the house corresponds in elegance with the
exterior.
From the hall we were conducted through a suite of elegant apartments,
very judiciously fitted up with paintings, statues, and antiques; but the
Library more particularly engaged our notice, containing a choice and
valuable collection of books: this octagonal room is built in the form of
a dome with a gallery round it, supported by a colonnade of variegated
marble pillars of the ancient Doric order, with a circular window at top
for the admission of light. We entered through a handsome door, inlaid
with a large reflecting mirror: immediately opposite is another door of
transparent plate-glass, leading to the conservatory, three hundred feet
in length, and containing a number of curious and rare exotics, with a
walk down the centre of the building. In fine, the effect of the _tout
ensemble_ can better be imagined than described.
Amongst the other things worthy of admiration, a handsome statue, in the
library, of Thetis dipping Achilles in the River Styx, more particularly
detains attention. We next passed through the Billiard-room, and were
conducted to the top of the staircase, to admire two elegant paintings,
the subjects taken from Captain Cook’s Voyages: the painter is unknown.
Many of the rooms are beautifully furnished with rich Gobelin tapestry.
To give my readers a just conception of the beauties of Havod, I shall
beg leave to borrow the elegant description of it, drawn by the pen of
Mr. Cumberland.
“Havod is a place in itself so pre-eminently beautiful, that it
highly merits a particular description. It stands surrounded with so
many noble scenes, diversified with elegance, as well as with
grandeur; the country on the approach to it is so very wild and
uncommon, and the place itself is now so embellished by art, that it
will be difficult, I believe, to point out a spot that can be put in
competition with it, considered either as the object of the painter’s
eye, the poet’s mind, or as a desirable residence for those who,
admirers of the beautiful wildness of Nature, love also to inhale the
pure air of aspiring mountains, and enjoy that _santo pacé_, as the
Italians expressively term it, which arises from solitudes made
social by a family circle.
“From the portico it commands a woody, narrow, winding vale; the
undulating forms of whose ascending, shaggy sides, are richly clothed
with various foliage, broken with silver waterfalls, and crowned with
climbing sheep-walks, reaching to the clouds.
“Neither are the luxuries of life absent; for on the margin of the
Ystwith, where it flows broadest through this delicious vale, we see
hot-houses and a conservatory: beneath the rocks a bath; amid the
recesses of the woods a flower garden; and, within the building,
whose decorations, though rich, are pure and simple, we find a mass
of rare and valuable literature, whose pages here seem doubly
precious, where meditation finds scope to range unmolested.
“In a word, so many are the delights afforded by the scenery of this
place and its vicinity, to a mind imbued with any taste, that the
impression on mine was increased, after an interval of ten years from
the first visit, employed chiefly in travelling among the Alps, the
Apennines, the Sabine Hills, and the Tyrollese; along the shores of
the Adriatic, over the Glaciers of Switzerland, and up the Rhine;
where, though in search of beauty, I never, I feel, saw any thing so
fine—never so many pictures concentred in one spot; so that, warned
by the renewal of my acquaintance with them, I am irresistibly urged
to attempt a description of the hitherto almost virgin haunts of
these obscure mountains.
“Wales, and its borders, both North and South, abound, at intervals,
with fine things: Piercefield has grounds of great magnificence, and
wonderfully picturesque beauty. Downton Castle has a delicious woody
vale, most tastefully managed; Llangollen is brilliant; the banks of
the Conway savagely grand; Barmouth romantically rural; the great
Pistill Rhayader is horribly wild; Rhayader Wennol, gay, and
gloriously irregular,—each of which merits a studied description.
“But, at Havod, and its neighbourhood, I find the effects of all in
one circle; united with this peculiarity, that the deep dingles, and
mighty woody slopes, which, from a different source, conduct the
Rhyddol’s never-failing waters from Plynlimmon, and the Fynache, are
of an unique character, as mountainous forests, accompanying gigantic
size with graceful forms; and taken altogether, I see ‘the sweetest
interchange of hill and valley, rivers, woods and plains, and falls,
with forests crowned, rocks, dens, and caves,’ insomuch, that it
requires little enthusiasm there to feel forcibly with Milton,
‘All things that be send up from earth’s great altar
Silent praise!’
“There are four fine walks from the house, chiefly through ways
artificially made by the proprietor; all dry, kept clean, and
composed of materials found on the spot; which is chiefly a coarse
stone, of a greyish cast, friable in many places, and like slate, but
oftener consisting of immense masses, that cost the miner, in making
some parts of these walks, excessive labour; for there are places,
where it was necessary to perforate the rock many yards, in order to
pass a promontory, that, jutting across the way, denied further
access; and to go round which, you must have taken a great tour, and
made a fatiguing descent. As it is, the walks are so conducted, that
few are steep; the transitions easy, the returns commodious, and the
branches distinct. Neither are they too many, for much is left for
future projectors; and if a man be stout enough to range the
underwoods, and fastidious enough to reject all trodden paths, he
may, almost every where, stroll from the studied line, till he be
glad to regain the friendly conduct of the well-known way.
“Yet one must be nice, not to be content at first to visit the best
points of view by the general routine; for all that is here done, has
been to remove obstructions, reduce the materials, and conceal the
art; and we are no where presented with attempts to force the untamed
streams, or indeed to invent any thing where nature, the great
mistress, has left all art behind.”
Such was the just description of Havod; but this magnificent mansion,
with the costly furniture, plate, pictures, and above all to be
regretted, the splendid library of scarce and valuable books, was
consumed by fire, during the absence of the owner, on the 13th of March,
1807.
All that the most indefatigable industry could accomplish was done by Mr.
Johnes, to replace the losses he had sustained; but the Welsh
manuscripts, and many other valuable works and specimens of art here
destroyed, no labour or money could restore. The actual pecuniary loss
suffered by Mr. Johnes, over and above the 20,000_l._ he was insured,
amounted to between 50 and 60,000_l._; but, like the destruction of the
labours of Lord Mansfield and Dr. Priestley, no estimate can be put on
the loss the proprietor and the world experienced, in thus rendering
abortive forty years of study, research, and expenditure on literary
valuables. Prior to the decease of Mr. Johnes, who did not long survive
his loss, the exterior of the building was nearly restored to its former
appearance; but the interior arrangement was considerably altered. He
likewise again established a most sumptuous collection of books, &c. part
of which, the Pesaro library, was on its way from Italy, having been
purchased by Mr. Johnes prior to the conflagration: it comprises many
very valuable books in the Spanish, French, and particularly the Italian
language, rare editions of the classics, and almost all the productions
of the Aldini press.—A minute description of the interior of Havod, prior
to the fire, is given by Mr. Malkin, which is now particularly
interesting. Unfortunately no catalogue of the books and manuscripts was
ever taken, Mr. Johnes not having completed his collection.