In a letter to Sir George Beaumont from Hindwell, Radnorshire, Wordsworth gives an account of this tour in North Wales.... "We turned from the high-road three or four miles to visit the 'Valley of Meditation' (Glyn Myvyr), where Mr. Jones has, at present, a curacy with a comfortable parsonage. We slept at Corwen, and went down the Dee to Llangollen, which you and dear Lady B. know well. Called upon the celebrated Recluses, who hoped that you and Lady B. had not forgotten them.... Next day I sent them the following sonnet from Ruthin, which was conceived, and in a great measure composed, in their grounds." Compare Sir Walter Scott's account of his visit to these Ladies in 1825 (Lockhart's _Life of Scott_, vol. viii. pp. 48, 49).--ED. [397] Glyn Myvyr.--W. W. The word is misspelt in most of the editions.--ED. TO THE TORRENT AT THE DEVIL'S BRIDGE,[398] NORTH WALES, 1824 Composed 1824.--Published 1827 One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED. How art thou named? In search of what strange land, From what huge height, descending? Can such force Of waters issue from a British source,[399] Or hath not Pindus fed thee,[400] where the band Of Patriots scoop their freedom out, with hand 5 Desperate as thine? Or come the incessant shocks From that young Stream,[401] that smites the throbbing rocks Of Viamala? There I seem to stand, As in life's morn; permitted to behold, From the dread chasm, woods climbing above woods, 10 In pomp that fades not; everlasting snows; And skies that ne'er relinquish their repose; Such power possess the family of floods Over the minds of Poets, young or old! FOOTNOTES: [398] The Devil's Bridge in North Wales is at Hafod, near Aberystwyth, in Cardiganshire. Like the Teufelsbrücke, on the road from Göschenen to Airola, over the St. Gotthard in Switzerland, which spans the Reuss, the Devil's Bridge in Wales is double; _i.e._ an upper and an under bridge span the river Mynach. This _Pont-y-Mynach_ was built either by the monks of Strata Florida, or by the Knights Hospitallers. In the letter to Sir George Beaumont, referred to in a previous note, Wordsworth writes: "We went up the Rhydiol to the Devil's Bridge, where we passed the following day in exploring these two rivers, and Hafod in the neighbourhood. I had seen these things long ago, but either my memory or my powers of observation had not done them justice. It rained heavily in the night, and we saw the waterfalls in perfection. While Dora was attempting to make a sketch from the chasm in the rain, I composed by her side the following address to the torrent, How art thou named? etc."--ED. [399] There are several consecutive falls on the river Mynach, at the Devil's Bridge, the longest being one of 114 feet, and the whole taken together amounting to 314 feet.--ED.