Near the spot where the London road branches off from the Chester, is the grand entrance to Penrhyn Castle, the property of G. H. D. Pennant Esq. The lodge is a beautiful specimen of substantial architecture; it is protected by a corresponding gateway, massive and imposing. The park wall extends circularly seven miles, and is thirteen feet high. To describe the magnificence of the interior of the castle I feel would prove a vain effort, and I earnestly recommend all tourists who take this route not to quit the neighbourhood without seeing it, or they will be reproached for slighting one of the grandest treats old Cambria can afford them.
BANGOR.
This town derives its name from Ban Cor, which means the high choir.
We stopped at the Penrhyn Arms, a most commodious inn, which is capable, it is said, of making up one hundred beds nightly. It occupies a commanding situation, and from the back premises embraces a noble prospect—the straights, the shore of Anglesea, the bay of Beaumauris, Penrhyn Castle, Puffin Island, Paenman Mawr, and the Great Orme’s Head, with the ocean in the distance.
There are other excellent inns in the town, namely the Castle, the Liverpool arms, and the Albion: the latter, kept by Hughs, is extremely comfortable, and the landlord civil and obliging, as I most willingly testify from experience. There is no place in Wales so well calculated for a tourist to make his head quarters as Bangor. The various spots he may visit by appropriating a day to each, would supply him with gratification for a month at least.
THE CATHEDRAL
was founded by Maelgwn Gwynedd, King of Wales, of whom I have had occasion to speak before, as the patron of Taliesin, the celebrated Welsh bard.
The original edifice, which was erected in 525, was destroyed in 1071, and rebuilt shortly after, but was again reduced to ruins by Owen Glyndwr, and for ninety years was neglected, until Bishop Dean restored the choir, and the body of the tower was rebuilt by Bishop Skeffington, in 1532, which still remains in a perfect state of preservation. The free school was founded in 1557, by Dr. Jeffry Glynn, upon the site of an ancient parish church, built by King Edgar, within about 400 yards of the present cathedral, and is considered an excellent preparatory seminary for Oxford and Cambridge.
The remains of an ancient castle, built by Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, in the reign of Henry II, are still visible upon a rock opposite to the free school, and some pieces of scoria, found on the spot, lead us to suppose arrows were manufactured there. At the back of the friar’s school is another hill, and on the top of it are the remains of a British encampment.
The town, within the last twenty years, has been extended to nearly four times its original magnitude, and possesses an appearance of cleanliness particularly gratifying. The London mail passes to and fro every day, as does the Chester and Liverpool; and two daily coaches also start for London, one to Chester and Liverpool, two to Caernarvon, and a mail to Pwllheli. The great lion of Bangor is