Returning to Llanedwyn church we proceeded in company with Mr. Hughes of Plâs Goch towards Bryn Gwiderin. In our way thither he engaged a young man well acquainted with the country to conduct us to those places we had marked out in our list for the day. Bryn Gwiderin [22a] is a natural ledge of rock resembling what we before noticed at Plâs Goch running for upwards of two miles towards Bryn Shenkin [22b] the (fol. 43) Beaumaris road being formed on the summit. The Romans are supposed to have fixed upon this spot as their principal station in the Island though the shape of the fortress [23] differs from their usual form being a semicircle ninety yards across defended by a triple trench to the southward and to the north by the natural barrier above mentioned. I was anxious to see whether the walls had been constructed with cement as in the more finished works of the Romans but could gain no information on the subject having nothing with us to clear away the rubbish from the surface. On asking the guide whether they had ever discovered any copper coins, he said oh yes he had some in his possession and off he ran like a dart to his cottage nearly half a mile distant. We waited his return hoping at length our wishes would be gratified in this respect when lo! instead of coins bearing the effigies of the Cæsars he produced a handful of (fol. 43a) rough copper ore, on explaining to him what we wanted saying they resembled a piece of money he said he had one of that kind also of silver which he picked up a short time since in a field near home whither he returned with equal alacrity to procure it and shortly made his appearance with a shilling of Elizabeth’s!!! So much for coins. There seems to be a fatality against my collecting any. In my excursion along the Roman Wall I heard of many but could obtain none. Those I procured at Caerwent are unfortunately lost many have certainly been dug up in these parts but either lost or disposed of. We continued our progress from Bryn Gwyderin in a northerly direction towards Mafyrian the distance of two miles over heaths & bogs. At this place we expected to meet with some Druidical remains noticed by Mr. Rowlands but they have all been cleared (fol. 45) away since his time. At Bodlew we experienced a similar disappointment. We therefore proceeded towards Llanddeiniol church in expectation of seeing some painted glass said to have been presented by the notorious Judge Jeffries whose family formerly resided here but nothing of the kind was to be seen or indeed anything else for never was I in so dark or dismal a place. But in this parish we were fully recompensed for all our former disappointments by the sight of the Carnedd at Bryn Celli.
Accompanied by a young farmer who procured a lanthorn for the purpose we walked nearly a mile to the south east of the church to the spot where in Mr. Rowlands’ time there were two carnedds remaining having two rude stone pillars placed between them but these stones have been employed for the purpose of building a wall near this place as well as a great part (fol. 45a) of the western carnedd which is nearly destroyed for the same purpose about twenty years ago when the labourers when digging towards the center discovered a flat pan about ten inches overturned bottom upwards and under it a wedge of gold as they pretend the size of the heater of an iron with a piece of wire passing through the smaller end of it. The father of the young man who was with us happened to be one of the workmen employed at the time, but as what they found was immediately taken by Colonel Peacock the proprietor of the ground the man could give no further account of the circumstance. I should imagine that what they called the wedge of gold was no other than one of the brazen celts or sacrificial instruments used in former times which have been discovered in great numbers in Cornwall and (fol. 46) other parts of the kingdom. Whilst a farmer was removing some of the stones from the north east side of the larger carnedd to employ them in his repairs he came to the mouth of a passage covered with a square stone similar to that at Plâs Newydd, anxious to reap the fruits of his discovery he procured a light and crept forward on his hands and knees along the dreary vault, when lo! in a chamber at the further end a figure in white seemed to forbid his approach. The poor man had scarcely power sufficient to crawl backwards out of this den of spirits as he imagined however in the course of a few days instigated by the hopes of riches and the presence of many assistants he made his second entré into the cavern and finding the white gentleman did not offer to stir he boldly went (fol. 46a) forward and discovered the object of his apprehensions was no other than a stone pillar about six feet in height standing in the centre of the chamber. His former consternation could now only be exceeded by his eagerness to see what was contained beneath the stone which he shortly overturned but treasure there was none, some large human bones lying near the pillar sufficiently testifying the purpose for which the structure was intended. This is the substance of the account we received from the young man whose father was one of Colonel Peacock’s labourers and on the premises at the time of the discovery. The superstition of the common people still suppose this to be the habitation of spirits.
Our two conductors seeming rather to compliment each other about precedence I took the lanthorn and crawling for about twelve feet along (fol. 47) a narrow passage got into a more capacious chamber, my companions followed close at my heels and we assembled to the number of six in this singular sepulchre. The passage by which we entered is about three feet high and a little more in breadth and was formed like that we noticed at Plâs Newydd with flat stones stuck endways and covered with others of still greater magnitude laid across. I have still my doubts that if the former was further explored it might terminate in a similar vault to what we are now speaking of. The height of the chamber is nine feet, its form nearly triangular some of the sides being about three yards long and four or five feet high. The intermediate space up to the roof is filled with stones placed one above the other in the manner they build walls but without any kind of cement. Two prodigious flat stones covered the whole one about three yards in length and two in breadth (fol. 47a) the other not quite so large. These are of a gritty substance not like any stone found in the vicinity. The pillar still lying in the cavern is a kind of freestone and seems to have been rounded by the tool. On examining more minutely this singular structure we were not a little annoyed by a tribe of immense spiders who have reigned here unmolested for ages the cones containing their young ones suspended from different parts of the roof nearly as large as those of silk worms.
I suppose we were in this mansion of the dead half an hour and on regaining the open air found the evening shut in, and the gloom still heightened by a heavy rain which accompanied us the whole way to Moel-don where we arrived very wet to a late dinner and went early to bed.
(Fol. 48) Saturday, Decr. 4
We were up as soon as it was light this morning and having taken leave of our new acquaintance who seems destined to vegetate on sixty pounds per annum with the charge of three churches and a wife into the bargain, we proceeded along the shore of the Menai to Llanidan. In our way observed more particularly Pant y scraffie the meadow where the Romans are supposed to have effected their landing. Mr. Rowland with some probability derives y scraffie from the Latin word scaphae a kind of flat boats or skiffs best adapted for a shallow coast. We stopped a few minutes at Llanidan to look at the inside of the church. Mr. Williams senior, who died last week at Bath is expected to be interred here. Like Sir Benjamin Hamet and Mr. Allen though sprung from a mean origin he (fol. 48a) acquired a princely fortune having been first agent and then afterwards partner in that lucrative concern the Parys mine. I took a drawing of Llanidan church and afterwards copied an inscription in the church yard bearing date 1640 the character differs from most others of the same period. The interior of the building has little to attract notice but Russell copied the following inscription to a Mr. Fitz Gerald who appears to have been resident at the old mansion at Bodowyr in the beginning of the last century. Some arms of a prior date let into the wall near the communion table are I believe the same as those placed over the entrance door of the house. “Here lyeth Price Fitz Gerald of Bodowir Gent. son of Edmund Fitz Gerald Gent. and Mary Price who died April xii MDCCIX being lineally descended from Gerard Oge of Rathrown who was (fol. 51) descended from Mac Thomas a younger son of the Earl of Kildare in Ireland aet xxxiv. iv. M 8 R I P.” The lad who had been our conductor yesterday still accompanied us and I confess I was not a little pleased with his disinterested attention. We took nearly the same route we had done before from Bryn Shenkin to Blochti in order to see a cromlech [28] called Maen Llhwyd, not having been able to procure any intelligence respecting it when here the other day.
The cap stone and its three supporters remain still on the spot but have long since been thrown prostrate on the ground. If I remember right Mr. Rowlands speaks of it as a demolished cromlech in his time. The cap stone is nearly circular measuring about two yards and a half in diameter and a yard in thickness. The two supporters lying near it are about two yards each in length, the third we could not take the dimensions of (fol. 51a) because the cap stone had fallen over it.