BETTWS Y COED,
which, being translated, is the Station in the Wood; and a most delightful station it is. The Shrewsbury and Holyhead road runs through it, and the junction of the Llugwy and the Conwy rivers is at no great distance. The church is a venerable structure, and contains an old monument, erected to the memory of Gruffydd, the son of David Gôch, who was a natural son of David, the brother of Llewelyn, the last Prince of Wales. He died in the fourteenth century, and a stone statue of him is in a recess on the north side of the church, with this inscription: “Hic jacet Gruffydd ap Davyd Gôch, agnus Dei miserere mei.”
At about a mile from Bettws is an iron bridge of one arch, which carries the Holyhead road over the river Conwy. Its span is 105 feet, and it is called the Waterloo Bridge, from its having been erected in the year that tremendous battle was fought. But the principal object is
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 Carreg 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. It is blocked up by a piece of rock.
CHAPTER VIII.
Gwydir Castle.—Llanrwst Shaking Bridge.—Inn.—Town Hall.—Free Schools.—Alms Houses.—Rhaiadr y Parc Mawr.—Llyn Geirionydd.—Taliesin.—Trevriw.—Slate Quarries.—Conway.—The Suspension Bridge.—The Castle.—Local Customs.—Excursion to the Orme’s Head.
“On a rock whose haughty brow
Frowned o’er old Conway’s foaming flood,
Rob’d in a sable garb of woe,
With haggard eye, the poet stood.”Gray.
Within half a mile from the town of Llanrwst is