the elegant seat of Lord Dungannon. It is delightfully situated on an
elevation, and surrounded by extensive and beautiful plantations.
CLYNOG,
(_Caernarvonshire_.)
Caernarvon 10
Llanllyfni 6
Pwllheli 10
This beautiful village is situated on the turnpike-road, about
equidistant between Caernarvon and Pwllheli. It has a remarkably fine
gothic church, the tower of which rises very beautifully from among a
verdant cluster of noble trees.
St. Beuno, the reputed uncle of St. Winifred, erected the church and a
grand mausoleum, now called St. Beuno’s chapel, which communicates with
the church through a dark vaulted passage of six yards. In this chapel
the remains of the pious founder, who lived in the seventh century, were
deposited, and here also was his saintly niece interred. Her effigy in
stone, mutilated like an Egyptian mummy, is still to be seen at this
sacred edifice.
About a hundred yards from the church, adjoining the turnpike-road, is
St. Beuno’s well, eight feet square, inclosed by a wall eight feet high.
This well was much famed for healing the sick, and particularly for
curing the rickets in children. Within the last fifty years, however,
the well has ceased to attract so many devotees, though no doubt can
exist as to the sanative virtues of its waters.
In the south-east corner of the church, near the altar-table there is an
old wooden chest, belted with iron, and fastened to the floor, called
“Cŷff Beuno” (Beuno’s chest), which was originally placed there to
receive the offerings of money from the devotees of the saint, who
repaired there for comfort and healing.
Between Clynog and Caernarvon is Glynllifon, the seat of Lord Newborough.
It was recently destroyed by fire, and is now rebuilt.—Near the coast is
Dinas Dinlle, a Roman station, 30 acres in extent, supposed to have been
artificially raised by the soldiers of Agricola.
Rhaiadr Dibyn Mawr is a waterfall among the mountains, distant about two
miles from Clynog.
CONWAY,
(_Caernarvonshire_.)
Aber 9
Abergele 12
Bangor 14½
Caernarvon 24
Llandulas 9
Llanrwst 12
London 236
Penmaen Mawr 6
This is one of the most interesting and picturesque towns in North Wales.
The approach to the town from the Denbighshire side of the river is
remarkably interesting, and presents a fine view of the noble castle and
the beautiful suspension bridge, with the adjacent mountain scenery,
forming a glorious panorama of surpassing loveliness and sublimity. The
pearl fishery of the Conway, which even yet, though shorn of its former
importance, affords employment to several poor families, was celebrated
in the time of the Romans. Pliny says that Julius Cæsar dedicated in one
of the temples of Rome a breastplate set with British pearls, probably
from this fishery. And in comparatively modern days, one of these
pearls, presented to the Queen of Charles the Second by Sir R. Wynne, was
honoured with a place in the royal crown, where probably it yet shines,
in testimony of the loyalty of the Welshman. The British pearls are
found in a shell-fish, called by Linnæus _myd margaritefera_, the pearl
muscle, peculiar to stony and rapid rivers.
The port of Conway is a dry harbour, frequented by a few coasting
vessels; and the river is navigable up to the village of Trefriw, which
is about twelve miles from its mouth. A quay extends along the east side
of the town wall. The principal inns are the Castle and the Newborough
Arms.
The castle, built in 1284, under the eye of Edward the First, by the
architect, it is supposed, whom he employed in the erection of
Caernarvon, is very justly regarded as one of the most beautiful
fortresses in a country distinguished for the splendour and magnificence
of its military structures. Though more extensive and better preserved,
it somewhat resembles the castle of Falaise, in Normandy. Its base,
however, is less wooded, and there is no brawling streamlet leaping, as
there, from rock to rock, at its foot; but instead, a broad, majestic
river, and a creek full at high water, swoop round two of its sides. The
other two face the town. Within the walls are two spacious courts; and
the external line of the fortifications contains eight lofty towers, each
with a slender turret, singularly graceful and elegant in form, springing
from its summit.
The great hall on the right measures 130 feet long and 30 broad, and is
lighted by six lancet-shaped windows, opening out upon the creek, and
three pointed windows, of exquisite tracery, looking towards the ample
court. Eight Gothic arches, four of which remain entire, supported the
roof of this magnificent apartment. A lofty Norman arched window at each
end, and two broad carved fire-places, completed the architectural
decorations and appearances of the hall. The spacious hall was the scene
of the Christmas revelries to which Edward and his queen invited the
English nobility and their high-spirited dames, while the monarch was
forging the chain that was for ever to enslave the prostrate
Principality. The walls, on all sides, are covered with a green drapery
of luxuriant ivy, and a meadow of grass lies in the open area of the
courts. The warder’s duty is supplied by a whole tribe of crows, whose
solemn parley is heard the instant a stranger’s foot approaches the
domain they have usurped; and the ivied walls are nearly alive with
blackbirds, and birds of all colour, whose notes resound for the
live-long day throughout these otherwise deserted ruins. Two entrances,
both contrived for security, led into the fortress; one by winding narrow
stairs, up a steep rock, from the Conway, and terminating in a small
advanced work before one of the castle-gates, covered by two round
towers—the other towards the town, protected by similar works, with the
addition of a drawbridge over a broad moat.
Notwithstanding its grandeur and importance, this castle makes no great
figure in history. Soon after its erection, the royal founder was
besieged in it by the Welsh, and the garrison nearly reduced to an
unconditional surrender by famine. Finally, however, they were
extricated from their perilous situation by the arrival of a fleet with
reinforcements and provisions. In 1399, Richard the Second, then in
Ireland, commanded the troops, raised in his behalf against the haughty
Bolingbroke, to assemble at Conway, and their numbers were considerable;
but the vacillation and feebleness of purpose of that monarch induced
many of them to abandon him on his arrival; yet the remainder was still
sufficient to have made head against the usurper, had not the king, who
feared to fight his own battles, basely abandoned his followers, and
rushed blindly into the snare laid for him by his enemies. During the
civil wars, Conway Castle was at first held by Archbishop Williams for
the king; but the warlike churchman, being superseded by the fiery Rupert
in the command of North Wales, went over in dudgeon to the republican
party, and personally assisted the gallant General Mytton in the
reduction of the castle. While the republic flourished, this noble
fortress was suffered to retain all its ancient grandeur undiminished;
but on the restoration, a grant having been made of it, by the Stuart, to
the Earl of Conway, its new possessor ordered his agent to remove the
timber, iron, lead, and other valuable materials, and send them to
Ireland, ostensibly for his master’s service, though it is generally
supposed they were intended for his own use. A suitable fate attended
this desecration of one of the finest structures of antiquity, the
vessels which conveyed the materials being wrecked, and the whole of the
property entirely lost.
This ancient castle is the fictitious scene of the drama of the _Castle
Spectre_, and of _The Bard_ of Gray.
The suspension bridge, by Mr. Telford, is constructed on the same
principle as that of the Menai, though on a smaller scale, and presents
an appearance singularly elegant, lying at the foot of the antique
castle, and surrounded by scenery of the most picturesque description.
It is 320 feet in length between the supporting towers, and 18 feet above
high-water mark. The chains on the western side pass upwards of 50 feet
under the castle, and are fastened in the granite foundations on which it
is built. On the farther side they are bolted into an insular rock,
which rises in the bed of the river, and forms the strait through which
the gushing waters pass on their way to the sea.
The piers of the bridge, and the toll-house at the western extremity, are
built in strict keeping with the architecture of the castle. An
embankment, formed of hard clay, faced with solid masonry of stone, and
stretching from the insular rock to the western shore of the county of
Denbigh, a length of 671 yards, with a breadth of 30 feet, and an extreme
elevation of 54 feet, exhibits one of the finest and firmest _chaussées_
in the world.
The church, though ancient, contains scarcely anything worthy of notice,
except the following inscription, engraved on a stone in the nave of the
building, which, though found in Pennant and other tourists, is so
curious as to deserve repetition: “Here lyeth the body of Nicholas
Hookes, of Convey, gentleman, (who was the forty-first child of his
father, Wm. Hookes Esq. by Alice, his wife,) the father of twenty-seven
children, who died the 27th day of March, 1637.” In the market-place is
an old building called Plâs Mawr, which was erected more than two
centuries ago. It is deserving the notice of the antiquarian. The town
is surrounded by a very thick wall, strengthened by twenty-four towers,
most of which remain in tolerable preservation.
Miss Costello seems to have been thoroughly enraptured with Conway, of
which she says, “I think no description, however enthusiastic, can do
justice to one of the most romantic and interesting spots that exists
perhaps in Europe. Although the modern bridge, which carries the road
across the river to the castle walls, looks, as it is of course, of a
very different date from the antique structure, yet there is something so
singular, so beautiful, and so aërial in a suspension bridge, that it can
scarcely be thought out of character with the Moorish-looking towers and
turrets to which it leads, which are as light and graceful as itself, in
spite of their immense strength and power. With all the legends of
supernatural buildings with which Wales abounds, it would not be
difficult for the imagination to conceive that the Genii threw these
delicate chains over the wide space that divides the castle from the
opposite rocks, and thus obtained a triumph over the giant who kept the
fortress. Both near and at a distance it has a beautiful effect, and is
even more graceful than the surprising work over the Menai Straits.
“The castle, although on the shore of the broad river, which is here, at
high water, half a mile wide, stands on a lofty rock, which forms the
strong foundation of the fabric, and defends the town, which must however
have been well capable of defence in itself, to judge by the huge walls
which surround it, and which are still entire, and the enormous towers
placed from distance to distance along their whole extent. The shape of
the town is fancifully said to resemble a Welsh harp, to the form of
which it really has much affinity; and as there are no suburbs nor a
single straggling house beyond the allotted precincts, it is plainly
defined and has a peculiarly striking aspect, quite unlike that of any
other town I ever saw.
“In all lights and from all points the castle looks well: but the best
view of it is perhaps from the opposite shore, where all its towers, and
battlements, and minaret turrets, come out in great relief, particularly
with a sunset sky behind them, when they stand forth most gorgeously.
With the river full of water, and the sun going down red and glowing, as
we saw it the first evening we arrived, nothing can be conceived more
magnificent than the scene:
“‘Seem’d all on fire that castle proud,’
“with crimson and golden flames issuing from the lofty, dark walls. But
when we beheld it in the morning, shining white, with the blue sky for
its background, we could not decide at which hour it was most admirable;
and again, whether by the light of a brilliant moon the mighty fortress,
whose rents and defacements the favouring shade concealed, did not appear
after all to the greatest advantage. * * *
“We were so delighted with the extreme beauty of the castle, and the
quiet of this simple place, that we remained there ten days, in order to
enjoy frequent strolls amongst the ruins, and visit some of the most
interesting places near.”
We fully concur in the glowing encomiums which have been passed by the
most intelligent tourists on the locality of Conway, which is doubtless
one of the most attractive and interesting spots in the Principality.