England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign TravelCook, Joel
History
England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign Travel
Cook, Joel
England -- Description and travel
Across the strait is Bangor, a rather straggling town, with a cathedral
that is not very old. We are told that its bishop once sold its peal of
bells, and, going down to the shore to see them shipped away, was
stricken blind as a punishment for the sacrilege. Of Bangor Castle, as
it originally stood, but insignificant traces remain, but Lord Penrhyn
has recently erected in the neighborhood the imposing castle of Penryhn,
a massive pile of dark limestone, in which the endeavor is made to
combine a Norman feudal castle with a modern dwelling, though with only
indifferent success, excepting in the expenditure involved. The roads
from the great suspension-bridge across the strait lead on either hand
to Bangor and Beaumaris, although the route is rather circuitous. This
bridge, crossing at the narrowest and most beautiful part of the strait,
was long regarded as the greatest triumph of bridge-engineering. It
carried the Holyhead high-road across the strait, and was built by
Telford. The bridge is five hundred and seventy-nine feet long, and
stands one hundred feet above high-water mark; it cost $600,000. Above
the bridge the strait widens, and here, amid the swift-flowing currents,
the famous whitebait are caught for the London epicures. Three-quarters
of a mile below, at another narrow place, the railway crosses the strait
through Stephenson's Britannia tubular bridge, which is more useful than
ornamental, the railway passing through two long rectangular iron tubes,
supported on plain massive pillars. From a rock in the strait the
central tower rises to a height of two hundred and thirty feet, and
other towers are built on each shore at a distance of four hundred and
sixty feet from the central one. Couchant lions carved in stone guard
the bridge-portals at each end, and this famous viaduct cost over
$2,500,000. A short distance below the Anglesea Column towers above a
dark rock on the northern shore of the strait. It was erected in honor
of the first Marquis of Anglesea, the gallant commander of the British
light cavalry at Waterloo, where his leg was carried away by one of the
last French cannon-shots. For many years after the great victory he
lived here, literally with "one foot in the grave." Plas Newydd, one and
a half miles below, the Anglesea family residence, where the marquis
lived, is a large and unattractive mansion, beautifully situated on the
sloping shore. It has in the park two ancient sepulchral monuments of
great interest to the antiquarian.
CAERNARVON AND CONWAY.
[Illustration: CAERNARVON CASTLE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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