The Cambrian Tourist, or, Post-Chaise Companion through Wales [1834]: Containing cursory sketches of the Welsh territories, and a description of the manners, customs, and games of the nativesAnonymous
History
The Cambrian Tourist, or, Post-Chaise Companion through Wales [1834]: Containing cursory sketches of the Welsh territories, and a description of the manners, customs, and games of the natives
Anonymous
Wales -- Guidebooks
The tremendous precipice on the west side of the Ormshead is worthy of a
visit. The sea view is very extensive, and generally enlivened by the
passing of Liverpool shipping; you likewise command a view of the Isle of
Man, and occasionally views of the Irish, Lancashire, and the distant
haze of the Scottish coast. The sea birds frequent these cliffs and
shores in great abundance, more particularly gulls, razor-bills,
guillemots, corvorants, herons, and the peregrine falcon; the latter of
which, in the days of falconry, was held in such high estimation, that
the celebrated Lord Burleigh sent a letter of thanks for a present of a
cast of hawks from this place to an ancestor of Sir Thomas Mostyn’s.
Unprotected by any shelter, on the summit of the high promontory, stands
the small church of Llandudno, but little famous for any thing but its
singular situation, and its service as a beacon. Proceeding along the
mail-road, with the sea on our left, and low rocks on our right, nothing
particular attracted our attention, till in descending a hill about two
miles from the neat bathing-town of
ABERGELE,
we observed, on our right, two immense caverns, about half way up the
mountain; they are called Cavern-arogo, and run four or five hundred
yards into the ground; but their real extent has never been ascertained
with accuracy. From these mountains vast quantities of lime are shipped
for Liverpool and many parts of England.
Abergele, situate on the edge of Rhuddlan Marsh, is a small neat town of
one street, resorted to in the summer season for bathing. The sands
afford excellent walking; in the evening we lingered on the beach for a
considerable time, enjoying the calm but cheerful beauty of nature, and
inhaling the pure sea-breeze—for
. . . “The wind was hush’d;
And to the beach each slowly-lifted wave,
Creeping with silver-curl, just kiss’d the shore,
And slept in silence.”
MASON’S GARDEN.
With pleasure mixed with reverential awe, we trod Rhuddlan Marsh, so
celebrated in the annals of history. Here the ill-fated Richard II. was
betrayed into the hands of Bolingbroke, and taken prisoner to Flint: here
Offa, King of Mercia, met his untimely death: here the Welsh, under the
command of Caradoc, in the year 795, were defeated in a conflict with the
Saxons, and their leader slain in the action. This memorable and tragic
event is handed down to posterity by an ancient celebrated and affecting
ballad, called Morva Rhuddlan, or the Marsh of Rhuddlan, composed by the
bards on the death of Prince Caradoc.
The ground we trod, connected with so many events, revived in our minds
the memory of past ages; a series of historical events came to our
recollection; events that are now so distant, as almost to be obliterated
from the page of history. Passing over a bridge of two arches, thrown
over the river Clwyd, we entered
RHUDDLAN,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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