CHAP. XXII.
BUALT—PRINCE LLEWELYN—RHAYDERGOWY—CARACTACUS’S CAMP—OFFA’S DYKE—KNIGHTON—PRESTEIGN—OLD AND NEW RADNOR—LLANDRINDOD WELLS.
Proceeding northward from Brecon, the road passes over an abrupt succession of hills and hollows near the impatient Hondy, which is seen to extend for several miles through a wild romantic valley. On leaving the lively rivulet’s devious course, the road traverses an extensive hilly tract, from whose summits a grand expansive valley, dignified with the sinuous Wye, bursts upon the view in a long continuance of varied scenery. The town of Bualt occupies a spot on the nearmost side of the vale, overhanging the pride of Welch rivers; and beyond its opposite hilly boundary, a majestic outline of distant mountains defines the horizon. A picturesque cascade, rushing through a portal of rocks and woods to the left of the road, must not be passed unnoticed; it occurs within a mile of Bualt; and after crossing the road beneath its bridge, the stream unites with the Wye.
Bualt is a small market-town comprised in two streets rising one over the other, upon the high shelving bank of the river. Although anciently and irregularly built, it is much resorted to by the neighbouring gentry, not less for the beauty of its position, than for the famed salubrity of its air. Camden supposes it to be the Bullacum Silurum of Ptolemy, and the Burrium of Antoninus. Horseley, on the other hand, fixes upon Usk in Monmouthshire as the site of that Roman station; while other antiquaries contend in favour of Caerphilly. However this may have been, the only vestige of high antiquity that now marks the place is a mound, the site of the keep of its castle, which was burnt down in 1690.
It was in the neighbourhood of Bualt, between the Wye and its tributary stream the Irvon, that the Cambrian warriors made their last stand for independence. The brave Llewelyn,
“Great patriot hero, ill-requited chief,”
after a transient victory at the foot of Snowdon, led his troops to this position, where they were unexpectedly attacked and defeated by the English forces, while Llewelyn, unarmed, was employed in a conference with some chieftains in a valley not far distant. The prince was informed of the event by the cries of his flying army; and all that prompt intrepidity could effect he exerted to rejoin his men; but in vain; the spear of his enemy pierced his side, and happily spared him the anguish of witnessing the irretrievable ruin of his country’s liberties.
Edward’s conduct to the body of this prince, royal like himself, of a lineage still more ancient and noble, and who boldly fell asserting the rights of his country and inheritance, has affixed a blot on his memory, which not all his well-regulated ambition, not all the splendour of his victories, can gloss over, or efface from the page of history. The prince’s head was received in London with such demonstrations of joy by the citizens, as might have suited a conquest over a predatory invader; it was carried on the point of a lance through Cheapside; and, after having been fixed in the pillory, was placed on the highest part of the tower of London, to glut the eyes of the multitude. So easy is it to impose on the natural feelings of a people once cajoled into an approval of military despotism and cruelty.
On leaving Bualt, and crossing its bridge, the tourist enters Radnorshire, where the road, traced upon heights impendent over the Wye, commands one of the most beautifully romantic vallies in the principality. The river, which we have before seen majestically flowing, rapid but unopposed, among flowery lawns, here, approaching its native source in the bosom of Plinlimmon, appears eddying, foaming, and roaring in a narrow channel, amid shelving rocks and disjointed craigs, a mere mountain torrent. With the accompaniments of towering precipices, naked rocks, and impendent cliffs, finely softened by overhanging branchy trees, or partially concealed by deep shadowy woods, and frequently enlivened by a stripe of verdant meadow, the river presents a succession of picturesque morçeaus, the most striking imaginable; and fully compensates the bad state of the road in this part. A considerable range of prospect also presents itself on the right, from some favoured eminences, where a long series of moorish lumpy hills extend over the greater part of Radnorshire, which shews but an indifferent mixture of cultivation with numerous heaths and forests.
An extensive mountainous dreary region,