With pleasure mixed with reverential awe, we trod Rhuddlan Marsh, so
celebrated in the annals of history. Here the ill-fated Richard II. was
betrayed into the hands of Bolingbroke, and taken prisoner to Flint:
here, Offa, king of Mercia, met his untimely death: here the Welsh, under
the command of Caradoc, in the year 795, were defeated in a conflict with
the Saxons, and their leader slain in the action. This memorable and
tragic event is handed down to posterity by an ancient celebrated and
affecting ballad, called Morva Rhuddlan, or the Marsh of Rhuddlan,
composed by the bards on the death of Prince Caradoc.
The ground we trod, connected with so many events, revived in our minds
the memory of past ages; a series of historical events came to our
recollection: events, that are now so distant, as almost to be
obliterated from the page of history. Passing over a bridge of two
arches, thrown over the river Clwyd, we entered