LLANDUDNO
Is built at the foot of a huge mass of rock which projects into the sea, called the Great Orme’s Head. The old church is dedicated to St. Tudno, who lived in the beginning of the sixth century. There is a curious old screen in the church of great antiquity: it is made of wood, and supposed to have been brought from the chapel at Gogarth.
On an eminence above the village is Dinas, which, as its name implies, was a fortified post of the Ancient Britons. A wall of great thickness encircles the summit of the hill, and within the area are great numbers of hollow circles, edged with stones about twelve feet in diameter. This fortification is exactly similar to that on Conwy town mountain, on Penmaen Mawr, and in many other places; and it answered the same purpose: not for a constant residence, but only as a place of refuge on the approach of an enemy.
Near this place is a maen sigl, or rocking stone, called Cryd Tudno, or St. Tudno’s Cradle. It is an immense stone, which is so equally poised that a very slight degree of pressure will enable a person to put it in motion.
The greater part of the inhabitants of Llandudno derive their livelihood from the copper mines, which have been carried on in every direction. The discovery of rude implements in old closed up shafts, such as hammers of stone, and chisels of bones thoroughly impregnated with copper, is an evidence of their having been worked at a very remote period.
This village has become, within the last few years, a favourite resort for sea-bathing, and is rapidly increasing in population and importance.
We arrived at the Castle, in Conwy, greatly fatigued, and equally delighted with our day’s journey. The following morning we proceeded by railway to Bangor.
CHAPTER IX.
Bangor.—Inns.—The Cathedral.—Penrhyn Castle.—The Britannia and Menai Bridges.—Carnarvon.—The Castle.—Rhyl.—Holywell.—St. Winefred’s Well.—Basingwerk.—Flint.—Chester.—Conclusion.
“When the heathen trumpet’s clang
Round beleaguer’d Chester rang,
Veiled nun and friar grey
March’d from Bangor’s fair Abbaye;
High their holy Anthem sounds,
Cestria’s vale the hymn rebounds,
Floating down the silver Dee,
O Miserere Domine!”Sir Walter Scott.