PONT-Y-PAIR,
the Bridge of the Caldron. It has four arches, and the natural rock supplies it with piers, that seem to defy the efforts of time or the fury of the waters. Immediately above the bridge is the fall and salmon leap. The river rolls and plunges into a deep reservoir below. The grandeur of the scene during the floods, I was informed, surpasses imagination, and, unfortunately for me, the heat of the sun had dried them up, when I visited this celebrated spot.
For this bridge the inhabitants are indebted to one Howell, a mason, who resided at Penllyn in the year 1468; and, having occasion to attend the assizes at Conway, he was unexpectedly prevented from passing the Lleder by the fury of the flood. That a similar disappointment might not occur to others, he erected a wooden bridge across that river, and trusted to the generosity of travellers to remunerate him. The success of this attempt encouraged him to erect the bridge at Bettws y Coed, which is now called Pont y Pair, but he died before it was completed.
Upon the right of this bridge is Carrey y Gwalch, or the Rock of the Falcon, well clothed with trees, through which the bald cliffs peep, like a body of sharp shooters from a brush wood, anxious to escape detection. In this rock is a recess called the cave of Shenkin, a celebrated outlaw, who found shelter here from the unremitting efforts of justice during the reign of Edward IV.
The entrance to this spot is blocked up by a large piece of rock, and the following legend is seriously related by the old women of the neighbourhood.