Several respectable houses and a commodious hotel (the Corbet Arms) have of late years been erected for the accommodation of visitors; and a chapel of ease has also been lately built by subscription, which affords great convenience to the inhabitants, who are four miles distant from the parish church. Service is performed every Sunday morning in English, and in the afternoon in the Welsh language.
The river Dovey is here one mile in width, and is crossed by a ferry, which leads by a road along the sea shore to Borth, whence is a communication with the Aberystwyth road. During the spring tides the ferry can only be crossed at low water, on account of the sands being flooded, and so rendered impassable. The river is navigable nine miles up a most picturesque country, and affords good trout fishing.
ABERFFRAW,
(Anglesea.)
| Caernarvon Ferry | 3 |
| Mona Inn | 8 |
| Newborough | 7 |
Aberffraw, once a princely residence, is now reduced to a few small houses; it is situated on the river Ffraw, near a small bay. Not a vestige is to be seen of its former importance, except the rude wall of an old barn, and Gardd y Llys, at the west end of the town. It was a chief seat of the native princes, and one of the three courts of justice for the Principality. Here was always kept one of the three copies of the ancient code of laws. This place is of great antiquity, being one of three selected by Roderic the Great, about 870, for the residence of his successors. In 962 it was ravaged by the Irish. An extent was made of Aberffraw in the 13th Edward III, from which may be learned some of the ancient revenues of the Welsh princes. It appeared that part arose from the rents of lands, from the profits of mills and fisheries, and often from things taken in kind; but the last more frequently commuted for their value in money. There is a good inn called the Prince Llywelyn.
Near to Aberffraw is Bodorgan, the seat of Owen Augustus Fuller Meyrick, Esq., which is pleasantly situated, and overlooks Caernarvon bay. The mansion, gardens, and conservatories are worth a visit from the tourist
ABERGELE,
(Denbighshire.)
| Bangor | 27 |
| Chester | 35 |
| Conway | 12 |
| London | 225 |
| Rhuddlan | 5 |
| Rhyl | 7 |
| St. Asaph | 8 |
Abergele, [8] a market town, is pleasantly situated on the great Chester and Holyhead road, on the edge of Rhuddlan marsh, and about a mile from the sea shore. The church is ancient, with a plain uninteresting tower, which the white-washing hand of modern “improvement” has deprived of all pretensions to the picturesque. The town consists only of one long street; and in 1841, its population, with the parish, was returned at 2661.
The coast is composed of firm hard sands, affording delightful drives for many miles. Tradition says, the sea has in old time overflowed a vast tract of inhabited country, once extending at least three miles northward; as an evidence of which, a dateless epitaph, in Welsh, on the church-yard wall, is cited, which is thus translated: “In this church yard lies a man who lived three miles to the north of it.” There is, however, much stronger proof in the fact, that at low water may be seen, at a distance from the clayey bank, a long tract of hard loam, in which are imbedded numerous bodies of oak trees, tolerably entire, but so soft as to cut with a knife as easily as wax: the wood is collected by the poorer people, and, after being brought to dry upon the beach, is used as fuel.