W. T. Simpson

“ Two principal inns and hotels adorn the town—the Hand inn, which is in the centre, near the church; and the King’s Head, at the west end, near the bridge. The excellent accommodations afforded in both of them are not surpassed; they are under the best regulations, and abound with elegance and convenience. Post carriages and horses are kept at both houses, and the harp resounds in their halls. ”

“ The entrance-door is unique, and a great curiosity, being beautifully ornamented with well polished carved figures; the whole of which are of black oak, and kept particularly bright, giving the retreat a very uncommon appearance. The entrance-hall, stairs, and passages, are chastely in character; and the windows are ornamented with painted glass in the most appropriate manner.
The gardens, in which nature and art are judiciously united, are extensive, and display much taste. ”

“ Had Owen Glyndwr at this juncture pressed forward from Oswestry, where it has been before said he was lying with a fresh army, and as numerous as the English were before they had sustained so severe a loss, he might have changed the aspect of affairs; but at this distance of time a proper judgment cannot be formed. Some historians blame him for his precipitate retreat into Wales, whither he was followed by a part of the English army, under young Henry, who made himself master of the Castle of Aberystwyth, which Owen afterwards recaptured. ”

“ The Castle stands, as hath before been shown, immediately above and on the north side of Llangollen, on a conical mountain, about six hundred yards above the level of the river Dee; [45] and is built on the summit of the hill, which probably was leveled to procure materials, as the building occupies the whole flat. It seems to have been about one hundred yards in length, by fifty yards wide. The present remains are almost without form: they are built of the silicious stone of the mountain, set in a coarse mortar or grout, which is grown as hard as the stone itself. ”

“ From the dining room on the extreme left, to the conservatory on the right, it is about one hundred and sixty feet.
To particularize or to give an adequate idea of the superb and very tasteful decorations of every room in this elegant mansion is far beyond my power of description; and therefore I dare not make the attempt. Suffice it to say, that every nook seems decorated by the hand of taste, guided by the most correct judgment; all is elegantly superb, and chastely grand. ”

“ The promises of men in those days were frequently regarded only so long as it suited their interests or convenience. Such was the case with David Gam, who no sooner found himself among his own friends, and in his own country, than he began to assail and annoy all the favourers and adherents of Glyndwr, who being soon apprised of the practices against him, and of the use Sir David made of his liberty, marched with all expedition at the head of a small body of his retainers, intending to make him prisoner ”

“ I shall now proceed to give some account of Castell Dinas Bran, to which I had before conducted my reader by the ancient road from the Berwyn Mountains, &c.
p. 45CASTELL DINAS BRAN.
“Desolate is the dwelling of Morna: silence is in the house of her fathers. The voice of the people is heard no more. The stream of Cultha is removed from its place by the fall of its walls. Raise the song of mourning, O bards.”
The Castell Dinas Bran, vulgarly called Crow Castle, is one of the primitive Welch Castles. ”

“ These rebellious practices of Glyndwr so exasperated King Henry against the Welch people, that he enacted laws which in effect took away all their liberties. They were rendered incapable of purchasing any lands, or of being elected Members of any county or borough; or of undertaking any office civil or military in any town incorporate. No Englishman could be convicted of any crime against a Welchman, but by an English judge and jury. An Englishman, by marrying a Welch woman, was deprived of all his privileges as an English subject. ”

“ He was Prince of Powis, and was called St. Tysilio. It is a neat little edifice, with a very pleasant church-yard, and contains nothing very ancient in the monumental way; but there are around it many very venerable yew trees, with their, wide spreading sombre foliage. I had the curiosity to measure one, and found it above twenty feet in girth. The inside of the Church is, like its neighbour at Llangollen, indebted for some of its decorations to the Abbey Crucis, which seems after its dissolution to have been considered as lawful plunder ”

“ It is amusing to see them waft themselves where they please, with a little paddle in one hand, and a fly-rod in the other, fishing every corner of the deep pool; and when tired, rowing to land, throwing their boats on their shoulders, and walking with them to another deep pool, where they again commence operations. ”

“ A large brick mansion, presents itself. It is situated on a rising ground, on the north side of the Wrexham road; and was once the residence of John Trevor, Bishop of St. Asaph, who in the year 1346, caused a stone bridge to be built over the Dee, at Llangollen, which is accounted one of the wonders of Wales. ”

“ The following year, Llewellyn the Prince, returning from an expedition into South Wales, met the Earl, and forced him to retreat with great precipitation, leaving the possessions of his unnatural allies at the mercy of the conqueror, who now resolved to be revenged on that ungrateful fugitive, the Lord of Dinas Bran. ”

“ Gryffydd Ap Madog, like his father, partook of the character of the times, and was fickle and turbulent. His father, Madog Ap Gryffydd Maelor, had generally resided at Wattstay, now Wynnstay; but Gryffydd Ap Madog made the Castell Dinas Bran his chief residence, and it is probable that his confidence in this almost inaccessible retreat might strengthen and encourage him in his waywardness. ”

“ The mazy windings of the Dee, embellished as its banks are with the fresh green shrubs and plants, which flourish there in great luxuriance, afford a very delightful walk, independent of the great amusement to anglers for which this river has ever been so famous. The trout p. 74are as fine as any in the kingdom, and are very plentiful. Many men obtain a livelihood during the season, by fishing in this beautiful river, which they contrive to manage in their little coracles; a large kind of round basket, covered with skins or tarpawling, and with a board across the centre for a seat. ”

“ The Church is built in different styles of architecture. The east end seems the most ancient, and the three lancet-like arched windows have a very peculiar effect. It is situated at the foot of a lofty hill, called Fron Fawr, and a little stream runs at the back of the Abbey, skirting p. 61its gardens, and turning a corn-mill in its passage to the Dee. The view from the high bank beyond the rivulet (which is crossed by a rustic plank bridge) of the east end of the Church and Abbey, is particularly beautiful.
On its front or west side rise the Berwyn Mountains ”

“ In the year 1209, Madog, forgetting his duty to his country and to his prince, led his vassals and adherents to join the English army under King John, then lying at Oswestry [50c] (Wynne says at Chester [50d] ) ; where he had assembled a great force, and with his usual violence and passion had resolved to execute the severest vengeance on the inhabitants of North Wales, and not to suffer a person to remain alive in the country. But such resolves are sooner made than executed ”

“ The town consists of one long badly paved street, and a short cross one, together with some courts and alleys, called squares, but which at present ill deserve an appellation generally conveying to the mind an idea of neatness, if not of superiority, as they are for the most part formed with obscure mean-looking houses, built of the dark-coloured silicious stone procured from the rocky bed of the river, and from the surrounding hills. ”

“ Brynkinallt, as well as Chirk, is on the English side of Offa’s Dyke, to which I shall now return on my way to the Berwyn Mountains; observing by the bye, that although this part of the country is called Wales, yet that Offa’s Dyke, made in the year 776, cut it off from the Principality, and John of Salisbury, in his Polycraticon, writeth thus:—“Harold ordained a law, that what Welchman soever should be found with a weapon on this side the limit which he had set them (that is to p. 25say, Offa’s Dyke,) he should have his right hand cut off by the King’s officers.” ”

“ Lord of Bromfield, and of Dinas Bran, near Llangollen. It was then called Wattstay, p. 9from another old dyke still visible, named Watt’s Dyke; and the space between that and Offa’s Dyke was a sort of neutral territory, on which the Welch and Saxons used to traffic with each other. [8b] When the noble family of the Wynns became its possessors, the original name was changed to Wynnstay. The house is replete with elegance and convenience, and is the seat of hospitality as unbounded as the benevolence of its owner’s heart. ”

“ After this time Owen’s fortunes appeared to decline, [86] and the fatal battle of Husk, fought on the 15th of March, in which Glyndwr’s son was taken, and more than fifteen hundred of his men slain, seems to have sealed his doom. p. 87But Glyndwr, although reduced, was not subdued, and he continued a predatory and harassing warfare, most annoying and destructive; sometimes making a sudden eruption into the marches, and sometimes into the heart of the country; for now, the Welch having submitted to the King, and being reconciled, Glyndwr considered his countrymen his enemies. ”

“ Owen had not collected all his strength, [85b] and the Earl of Northumberland, who was considered generalissimo, being seized with a sudden illness, and confined to his bed at Berwick-upon-Tweed, the King found the rebels under the command of Hotspur at Shrewsbury.
The insurgent chiefs, seeing a battle inevitable, and knowing that Glyndwr, with his hardy Welchmen, was in full march to join them (in fact, he reached Oswestry at the head of 12,000 men on the very day the battle was fought,) to gain time proposed a conference, and drew up a list of grievances to be redressed ”

“ Owen Glyndwr, once Prince of Wales, was now reduced to hide himself in the caves and fastnesses of the country, to avoid the pursuit of his enemies. He was p. 88concealed and supported for some time by Ednyfed Ap Aron, in a cave near the sea-side, at Llangelynin, in Merionethshire, still called Ogof Owain. [88a] The danger past, he again blazed forth in the destruction of a territory he had once aspired to govern; sometimes a fugitive, enduring hunger, thirst, and every privation; at others revelling as a conqueror, on the spoils of his countrymen and former friends. ”

“ Devoutly meditate the moral lay.”
Llangollen Church, which stands in the middle of the town, is a low gothic structure; and the south side appears the most ancient part of the edifice. At the east end, on the outside wall, are two knees, which seem to have been intended as the spring of an arch, for an enlargement of the building. The roof is slated, and there is a tower steeple at the west end, containing four bells and a clock, with quarter chimes. ”

“ The remains of the Abbey Church are the most picturesque and entire part. It was built in the form of a cross, which was contrary to the form in common use before the twelfth century. [60a]
This proves that Madog availed himself of the aid of skilful workmen, and it is probable that the fraternity called Free Masons were employed, as they were incorporated about this time, and were the chief undertakers of such works. Their government was regular, and they were wont to make an encampment of huts. A surveyor governed in chief; every tenth man being called a warden, and overlooking nine. ”

“ A market house once stood where the Hand Gardens now are, and is a convenience much wanted. Besides the London Mail to Holyhead, which passes through Llangollen every afternoon at five o’clock, [3c] ; and leaves the letter bags, which it takes up again about eight o’clock every morning, there are regular stage coaches passing to and from London and Holyhead every day. Light vans, for the conveyance of luggage, &c. pass twice a week from Salop. [3d] There are also waggon conveyances, through Wrexham, to Chester ”

“ Success produced ambition, which proved his overthrow.
Owen was bold, wary, and revengeful: he set no bounds to his resentment. He made a smoking ruin of the dwelling of his countryman, Sir David Gam, and thereby made him an implacable enemy. He was the cause of the loss of one hundred thousand lives, [89] and of the destruction of immense property. Many houses and other buildings were burnt and destroyed by him; among which I find enumerated the Castle of Ruthin, the Cathedral p. 90of St. Asaph, the Cathedral of Bangor, the Bishop’s Palace, &c. ”

“ They are very remarkable, as there are no quarries in the neighbourhood, from which such stones could be procured; and as they all lay in one spot, I conjecture that they have been used to mark the graves of the slain in the year 1165, when Henry II. made his first expedition against North Wales, by way of the Berwyn Mountains:—“He assembled a large army at Oswelt Tree, and detached a number of men to try the passes into Wales. There was a narrow way through the Dyke, near Castell Crogen, now Chirk Castle ”

“ The poor of Llangollen have much reason to pray that period may be far distant; for the benevolence of these retired ladies is extensive and discriminate; and it may justly be said there is not a poor deserving object in this little town, who does not participate in their bounty. I shall conclude with a brief notice of their residence. ”

“ David Gam was the son of Llewellyn Ap Howel Vaughn, a gentleman of Brecknock. His scheme and his purpose were, however, unfortunately for him, discovered and frustrated, and he was immediately secured, and ordered by Owen for execution; [83d] but many of his p. 84greatest friends and adherents pleading for Gam’s life, Owen thought it politic then to stifle his resentment, and to grant him both life and liberty, on his solemnly promising to continue in future true and faithfully loyal to Glyndwr. ”