Part 11 (2/2)
after a transient victory at the foot of Snowdon, led his troops to this position, where they were unexpectedly attacked and defeated by the English forces, while Llewelyn, unarmed, was employed in a conference with some chieftains in a valley not far distant. The prince was informed of the event by the cries of his flying army; and all that prompt intrepidity could effect he exerted to rejoin his men; but in vain; the spear of his enemy pierced his side, and happily spared him the anguish of witnessing the irretrievable ruin of his country's liberties.
Edward's conduct to the body of this prince, royal like himself, of a lineage still more ancient and n.o.ble, and who boldly fell a.s.serting the rights of his country and inheritance, has affixed a blot on his memory, which not all his well-regulated ambition, not all the splendour of his victories, can gloss over, or efface from the page of history. The prince's head was received in London with such demonstrations of joy by the citizens, as might have suited a conquest over a predatory invader; it was carried on the point of a lance through Cheapside; and, after having been fixed in the pillory, was placed on the highest part of the tower of London, to glut the eyes of the mult.i.tude. So easy is it to impose on the natural feelings of a people once cajoled into an approval of military despotism and cruelty.
On leaving Bualt, and crossing its bridge, the tourist enters RADNORs.h.i.+RE, where the road, traced upon heights impendent over the Wye, commands one of the most beautifully romantic vallies in the princ.i.p.ality. The river, which we have before seen majestically flowing, rapid but unopposed, among flowery lawns, here, approaching its native source in the bosom of Plinlimmon, appears eddying, foaming, and roaring in a narrow channel, amid shelving rocks and disjointed craigs, a mere mountain torrent. With the accompaniments of towering precipices, naked rocks, and impendent cliffs, finely softened by overhanging branchy trees, or partially concealed by deep shadowy woods, and frequently enlivened by a stripe of verdant meadow, the river presents a succession of picturesque _morceaus_, the most striking imaginable; and fully compensates the bad state of the road in this part. A considerable range of prospect also presents itself on the right, from some favoured eminences, where a long series of moorish lumpy hills extend over the greater part of Radnors.h.i.+re, which shews but an indifferent mixture of cultivation with numerous heaths and forests.
An extensive mountainous dreary region,
”Where woods, and wilds, and th.o.r.n.y ways appear,”
occupies part of the counties of Brecon, Cardigan, and Radnor, westward of the Wye. Among these deep solitudes, Camden informs us, king Vortigern sought a refuge from the persecutions that his crimes and follies raised against him. His ultimate fate is wrapped in uncertainty; but his vileness needed not a more agonizing torture than his wounded conscience, whether recurring to his incestuous intercourse with his own offspring, or to his miserable policy in resting the defence of Britain upon the a.s.sistance of foreign troops.
RHAYDER-GOWY, wildly situated at the foot of the mountainous barrier between South and North Wales, consists of two streets of neatly whitened houses, and is graced with the vicinity of two churches. A castle also added to the consequence of the town in the time of the Welch princes; but none of its remains now appear, except a deep trench cut in the rock of the town, and three or four barrows, which are, no doubt, connected with its history. The market-house is a neat little building, though of rough stones; and the Red Lion inn is no less remarkable for its neatness and accommodation, useful though unimposing, than for the obliging a.s.siduities of its landlord.
The scenery of the Wye, close to this town, acquires an uncommon degree of grandeur. Raging in its rocky bed, the river is seen through the light foliage of impendent trees, and almost beneath a bold arch which bestrides the river, bounding over a ledge of rock in a fall of some depth; whence it tears its way among protruding craigs in a sheet of glistening foam, but is almost immediately concealed by the embowering ornaments of its banks.
Above the town of Rhayder, a bold hilly region, overspread with treacherous bogs, or broken into precipices of fearful depth, mixes with the magnificent forms of the North Wales mountains. Here nature wears her wildest garb; no stripe of cultivation controls the dreary majesty of the scene; the mountain sheep browse on the dizzy heights unmindful of danger; the hardy ponies here sport away their early years, unconscious of restraint; and, no less free, the bold mountaineer looks round his stormy world, nor hapless mourns the gayer spheres below:
”But calm, and bred in ignorance and toil, Each wish contracting, fits him to the soil.
Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose, Breathes the keen air, and carols as he goes; At night returning, every labour sped, He sits him down the monarch of a shed; Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys His children's looks, that brighten at the blaze; While his lov'd partner, boastful of her h.o.a.rd, Displays her cleanly platter on the board:”
”Such are the charms to barren states a.s.sign'd, Their wants but few, their wishes all confin'd.”
This district is, however, rich in mineral treasure; and several lead-mines, and one or two copper-mines, are worked with considerable spirit.
Here my observations upon South-Wales draw to a close: they have been very brief upon Radnors.h.i.+re; and yet the excursion on the banks of the Wye describes almost its only attraction. Indeed, this county is remarkably barren in subjects of picturesque beauty, memorials of antique grandeur, and remarkable towns and villas. I find but one religious house in this s.h.i.+re described in Dugdale's Monasticon, or Tanner's Not.i.tia Monastica, which is Abbey Cwm Hir, situated about six miles east of Rhayder; but I understand that no part of the building remains. It was founded for Cistercian monks by Cadwathelan ap Madoc in the year 1143, and must have been a very inconsiderable foundation, as its revenues at the suppression of monasteries were only valued at 28_l._ 14_s._ 4_d._
The castles that occur in this county are neither remarkable in their history nor venerable in decay. Yet frequent and memorable are the earthen works that characterize almost every hill in the county, which either wear the marks of cairns {343} or ancient encampments.
”'Twas on those downs, by Roman hosts annoy'd, Fought our bold fathers, rustic, unrefin'd!
Freedom's fair sons, in martial cares employ'd, They ting'd their bodies but unmask'd their mind.”
On a hill near Knighton, at the eastern limit of the county, is still shewn the CAMP OF CARACTACUS; and an encampment on another hill separated from the first by a deep valley, is said to be that of the Roman general Ostorius. The Britons waited the attack of the enemy's legions in their advantageous position, and fought like men who valued life no longer than as it was connected with freedom; but their courage availed nothing before the skill and discipline of the Roman army; after an immense slaughter they gave way, and Caractacus's wife, daughter, and brothers, were taken prisoners. The king escaped, but was soon after betrayed into the hands of his enemies. His n.o.ble speech and deportment when brought before the Roman emperor, as transmitted to us by the pen of Tacitus, must ever excite admiration, and evince the immutable dignity of manly virtue, however bereft of the fact.i.tious splendour of power.
OFFA'S d.y.k.e also pa.s.ses near Knighton; the boundary established by Offa king of the Mercians between his dominions and Wales, after a decisive victory over the Britons. It formerly extended from the Dee to the mouth of the Wye; and it was enacted, that any Welchman found in arms on the English side of the boundary should have his right hand cut off.
KNIGHTON itself I find described to be an ordinary town, built on a steep bank of the Teme. Seven miles southward of it is PRESTEIGN, a better built and paved town than the former, and graced with a beautiful little eminence (the site of its castle), laid out in public walks. This town is considered as the modern capital of the county: in it are held the a.s.sizes; and, having the jail, it is farther distinguished with all the apprehended rogues in Radnors.h.i.+re. OLD RADNOR, three or four miles farther southward, Camden supposes to have been the Magoth of Antoninus, garrisoned by the Paciensian regiment in the reign of Theodosius the younger; but, whatever it may have been formerly, it now appears an insignificant village. NEW RADNOR, though nominally the capital of the s.h.i.+re, is little better; yet a few vestiges of an encompa.s.sing wall and a castle give it more unequivocal marks of former importance than the parent town. Its decline is dated from the rebellion of Owen Glendower, who destroyed the castle and ravaged all the surrounding district. In a rocky glen, in the vicinity of this town, is a fine cascade, though of inconsiderable volume, called WATER BREAKS ITS NECK.
Crossing Radnor forest, an extensive tract of sheep down and coppice, about twelve miles from New Radnor, and seven from Bualt, is LLANDRINDOD WELLS. This place, consisting only of one house of public entertainment and a few cottages, appears to be justly distinguished for the efficacy of its springs, which are chalybeate, sulphureous, and cathartic. But though the medicinal virtues of these waters be undoubted, and considered even more potent than those of Harrowgate; yet the place, being dreary, remote, and void of elegant accommodation, is only visited by a very few real invalids: none of that gay tribe is here to be met with which forms the princ.i.p.al company at watering-places in general.
Having thus executed my design of a general description of South-Wales and Monmouths.h.i.+re, I shall return to the narrative of my tour.
<script>