was considered as the chief architectural ornament of the town,
consisting of seven arches, and situated a few yards higher up the stream
than the present structure. Its gates and towers at each end were of the
finest kind of castellated building, being richly decorated with shields
and sculpture; and their demolition is much to be regretted.
Above one of the gates stood the armed statue of a knight, which was
removed in 1791, and placed in a niche on the front of the Market House.
This effigy was an important object of attraction to the Welshmen in
passing through the gate, from a tradition retained by them even to
modern times, that it represented Llewelyn Prince of Wales, or David, the
last of the British Princes, whom Roger Coke facetiously calls “King
Taffy,” but which recent antiquaries have, from its attendant
embellishments, more properly assigned to Richard Duke of York, father of
Edward IV.