Bala and it fine lake (says Mr. Roscoe in his “Wanderings through North Wales,”) have attractions peculiar to themselves. To appreciate them as they deserve, the traveller should first ascend the craggy summit of the neighbouring mountain, and gaze upon the rude glens beyond, through which the boisterous Twrch rushes in a succession of resounding falls. It is by contrasting the wilder and fiercer tracts of the landscape, with its milder features round the quiet hamlet and lake, that we add fresh zest to the interchange of feelings ever open to the Cambrian traveller. Bala lake is the most extensive in Wales, being nearly four miles in length, and three quarters of one in breadth, its banks consequently embracing a circuit of about nine miles. Its greatest depth is forty feet; and the water is said to be so pure, that the nicest chemical tests can detect scarcely any foreign admixture.
Be this as it may, the lake has abundance of pike, perch, trout, eels, and roach, with shoals of a fish called gwyniad, so named from the extreme whiteness of its scales. It is a gregarious fish, often found in the Alpine lakes, more especially those of Switzerland, and dies soon after it is taken. Its weight rarely exceeds four pounds, and its flavour is by many persons considered rather insipid; a circumstance that by no means recommends the gallantry of the late Lord Lyttelton, when he assures his friends that it is so exquisitely delicate as to more than rival in flavour the lips of the fair maids of Bala themselves. But, being so very good, and like the ladies of Bala, perhaps, sensible of their attractions, these fish have the shrewdness to keep out of harm’s way, as we are told, by remaining at the bottom of the water, where they feed on small shells and aquatic plants, from which scarcely any bait will induce them to emerge; they are, therefore, principally taken by nets. The angler may always be certain that, while a cloud rests on Aran, he may save himself the trouble of fishing in the lake. In former times the fishery is stated to have formed part of the possessions attached to Basingwerk Abbey, but has since fallen into the hands of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, who has pitched his tent, in the shape of a neat sporting-box, quite according to the Irish rule, ‘convanient to the spot.’
Though now so calm and beautiful,—reflecting all the quiet and clearness of the heavens upon its breast, as the swallow skimmed its glassy surface, and the wild-fowl sought their home in its little bays and creeks,—the aspect of Bala Lake, when the storm is up, and ‘the winter wild’ puts on his terrors, can assume a very different kind of beauty. To see it when the autumnal winds ruffle its broad expanse with billows, or the clouds discharge their contents as fiercely as the torrent from the hills,—when the drifting rack and snow-storm mingle the last leaves of the year with the scattered beauty of the meads and gardens, the observer can no longer recognise the least resemblance in the characteristics of the two landscapes, the Bala of the opposite seasons.
Upon the north-east side, the water sometimes rises many feet above its usual level. When the winds and the rains, as I was informed, ‘meet and combine the whole of their forces,’ it is a grand sight to see the lake overshoot its banks, and rush beyond into the valley of old Edeirnion. Once, in the month of June, 1781, a part of the vicinity is believed to have been inundated by one of those singular occurrences, the bursting of an overcharged cloud, called a water-spout, which, however frequently beheld at sea, seldom visits the land. It was attended by terrific lightning and continuous rain, which caused the Twrch—fed by torrents from the Bwlch-y-Groes hills—to overflow and sweep every thing before it. The spoils of fields and villages, and even human life, marked the progress of the flood; and as far as Corwen the rising of the rivers suddenly burst on the ear of the affrighted people. The scene round Bala is recorded by the old inhabitants as heart-rending and terrific. The deep and dismal chasm, spanned by the one-arched bridge through which the stream of the llyn pours its flood down the wildest rocky falls, exhibited a magnificent sight, swelled by the mountain rains into one immense volume of foaming cataract, which again bursting from its black and caverned bed through the wooded glens beyond, rolled its unusual mass of burdened torrents to join the waters of the Twrch. Along the course of the Dee, huge branches, and some of the large forest-trees themselves, which threw a gloomier shadow over the stormy scene, were uprooted by the maddening storm and launched into the yawning flood. The lake rose with the impulse of the storm, till it assumed the aspect of a wild and restless sea, keeping stern music with the crashing of the neighbouring woods and the whistling of the blast, while, drowning the roar of the torrent, the thunder, ever and anon, startled the ear, and occasional flashes illuminating the sky exhibited for a moment the lurid and dreadful scene to view.
Bala is an excellent station for anglers, who are sure of good sport, and a delightful ramble on the banks of the lake.
The River Dee.
The name of the wizard stream is thought to have been derived from the Welsh word Dwfr-Dwy, that is, the waters of the two rivers. Some centuries ago the Dee was held in superstitious veneration by the inhabitants of the country, from what were then believed the miraculous overflowing of its banks at times when there had been no preceding heavy rains: and from its being believed to have foretold some remarkable events by changing its channel. History informs us, that when the Britons, drawn up in battle-array on its banks, had been prepared to engage with their Saxon foes, it was their custom first to kiss the earth, and then for every soldier to drink a small quantity of the water. The name is certainly not derived, as many have supposed, from dû, black; for, except when tinged by the torrents from the mountain morasses, its waters are perfectly bright and transparent. In Spenser’s description of Caer Gai, the dwelling of old Timon, foster-father of Arthur, the colour of the Dee is considered very different from black:
“Lowe in a valley green.
Under the foot of Rawran mossie o’er,
From whence the river Dee, as silver clene.
His tempting billows roll with gentle roar.”
That lover of the marvellous, Giraldus Cambrensis, informs as very gravely, that the river Dee runs through Bala lake, and is discharged at the bridge near the town without their waters becoming mixed. He, doubtless, means to say, that the river might be traced by its appearance from one end of the lake to the other. Giraldus has the reputation of being very credulous.
The Dee, descending from Bala lake, passes under a small bridge, at the opposite end of which it enters, and from which the channel of the river is formed. It then winds along the beautiful vale of Corwen, about four miles below which it washes the eastern side of Denbighshire, and passing the bridge at Llangollen, it very soon forms the boundary division between England and Wales. Its chief tributaries are the Alwen, which has its rise in one of the lakes on the western part of the county; the Ceiriog, which descends from the slate mountains near Chirk; the Clywedog, which it receives below Bangor Is-y-coed; and the Alun, which rises in the mountains about Llandegla. It flows northward to Chester, Flintshire, and the Irish sea.