The market-days at this place are Wednesdays and Saturdays: its
population is rated at about thirteen hundred. The beach here is
excellent; and so much resorted to in the summer season that it appears
probable it will grow into notice as a sea bathing-place. Several
hundred acres of land in the vicinity of the town, which used to be
overflowed by high tides, have been reclaimed by embankments on both
sides of the town. It is governed by a mayor, two bailiffs, and a
recorder.
Returning from Pwllheli, towards Criccaeth, the country wears the most
beautiful aspect. The richly wooded scenery is relieved by shaggy rocks
and partial views of the sea, being caught through the opening glades
passing Llanstundwy, situate on the river Dwyfor, which after heavy rains
overflows its banks and greatly incommodes it. I left the road, and
proceeded by Trefan Hall, the handsome mansion of Mr. Roberts, to a
cromlech, about a mile distant, called Coeten Arthur, or Arthur’s Quoit,
which the said Arthur, as report says, threw from a mountain near
Beddgelert. It is handsome and in high preservation: the top stone is
nearly three feet in thickness. But a still finer cromlech is about a
mile from this, at a farm called Ystim Cegid; the flat stone of this is
about eighteen inches in thickness, and is about thirty-six feet in
circumference: its form is triangular, and its supporters of that height,
that will allow a man on horseback to go under it; this also is called
Arthur’s Quoit. From hence to Criccaeth the road is dull and
uninteresting: near the ruins of the small chapel of Bettws, is Chewilog,
an old mansion, formerly belonging to the ancestors of Sir Howel,
surnamed y-Fwyall, from his remarkable dexterity in the use of the
battle-axe, which weapon he used with such effect in the battle of
Poictiers, that the capture of the French monarch is, by many, ascribed
to him; at all events, his conduct on that day drew down upon him the
regards of the Black Prince to such extent, that he not only bestowed
upon him the constableship of Criccaeth castle, but likewise knighted
him; and, in perpetual memorial of his good services, it was directed
that a mess of meat should, at the expence of the crown, be every day
served up before the axe with which he had performed such good service.
After the mess had been brought before the knight, it was taken and
distributed among the poor. Eight yeomen attendants were constituted to
guard the mess, who received each eight-pence a day pay, and were termed
yeomen of the crown: these were continued on the establishment till the
reign of Queen Elizabeth; and it is by many conceived, and by no means
improbable, that the yeomen of the crown, which we do not read of in
history till the reign of Henry the VIIth, are indebted to these for
their origin. After the death of Sir Howel, the mess was still carried
before the axe, and bestowed on the poor for the repose of his soul.
Besides the above honours conferred upon him, he was constable of Chester
castle; had Dwyfor, and others, the king’s mills, to farm; with a grant
of the wiers and fisheries on the coast, and many other offices of great
trust and profit.
Between Criccaeth and Penmorva, you pass Stumllyn, formerly the seat of
the Wynnes, now the seat of — Jones, Esq. of Machynlleth. Near
Clenenney, on Bwlch Craig Wenn, is a fine Druidical circle, consisting at
present of thirty-eight stones; and about a mile from this, above
Penmorva, is another. On Llysdin farm some small urns, containing human
bones and ashes, have lately been discovered. At a small distance is
Brynkir, which Lord Lyttleton took up his residence at when he visited
this part of the principality. This part of the country was formerly the
seat of dreadful feuds, and appears to have been inhabited by a most
ferocious and irascible set of beings. They were of two clans, one
descended from Owen Gwynedd, prince of North Wales; the other was derived
from Collwyn ap Tangno. The history of Evionedd, or Eifionydd, is during
that period one of revenge, perfidy, and slaughter; and to such extent
was it carried, that Meredith ap Jevan preferred taking up his residence
in Dolwyddelan castle, at that time surrounded by robbers and
freebooters, to residing in this district, giving to his friends the
following decisive reason: “If, (said he), I live in my own house in
Evionedd, I must either kill my own kinsmen, or submit to be murdered by
them.” He, therefore, rather chose to fight with thieves and outlaws
than with his own immediate relatives.
“They would quarrel,” says Sir John Wynne, “if it was but for the mastery
of the country, and the first good morrow. John Owen, ap John, ap
Meredydd, and Howel ap Madoc Vychan, fell out for no other reason. Howel
and his people fought valiantly: when he fell, his mother placed her hand
on his head, to prevent the fatal blow, and had half her hand and three
of her fingers cut off, by some of her nearest kindred. An attempt was
made to kill Howel ap Rhys, in his own house, by the sons of John ap
Meredith, for no other reason than that their servants had quarelled
about a fishery. The first set fire to the mansion with great bundles of
straw:—the besieged, terrified with the flames, sheltered themselves
under forms and benches, while Rhys, the old hero, stood sword in hand,
reproaching his men with cowardice, and telling them he had often seen a
greater smoke in that hall on Christmas even.
“These flagitious deeds seldom met with any other punishment than what
resulted from private revenge, and too often composition was made for the
most horrible murders. There was a _gwerth_, or price of blood, from the
slaughter of a king, to the cutting off one of his subject’s little
fingers.” _Williams’s Caernarvon_.