Accursed be the sea-warden, who, after his carousal, let loose the destroying fountain of the raging deep.
Accursed be the watcher, who, after drunken revelry, let loose the fountain of the desolating sea.
A cry from the sea rises above the ramparts; to heaven does it mount,—after fierce excess comes a long lull.
A cry from the sea arouses me in the night season.
A cry from the sea rises above the winds.
A cry from the sea drives me from my bed at night.”
Llanaber Church, which has been restored, deserves a visit from either Harlech or Barmouth. It was built in the thirteenth century, and is in the pure Early English style. In the east end is a single lancet. The nave has a clerestory. The exterior is plain, and all the enrichment is within. An inscribed stone is inside that was rescued from serving as a footbridge over the Ceilwart. It bears on it, “Cælexti Monedorigi.”
All the district from Barmouth to the Aber Glaslyn comprises Ardudwy, and the mountains are of Cambrian grit, “an immense block of mountains running from Maentwrog to Barmouth, and separating the Harlech country from all the eastern portion of Merionethshire. Although they all constitute the same group without a single break, they are called by different names according to the most prominent points” (Murray). They are strewn with small tarns that are interesting, though not enclosed by craggy walls, and abound in fish.
The story goes that the men of Ardudwy, like the early Romans, finding themselves short of women, made an incursion into the Vale of Clwyd and brought away a number of the fairest damsels, whom they conveyed into their own country. They were pursued and overtaken at a place called Beddau Gwyr Ardudwy, where a fight ensued. Instead of the women acting as did the Sabine damsels, rushing between the combatants and separating them, the maidens, seeing their ravishers get the worst of it, precipitated themselves into the lake that now bears the name of Llyn-y-Morwynion, where they were drowned, rather than return to their homes.
The mountains are traversed by an ancient paved road, called the Roman Steps, that comes from the valley of the Afon Erbu at Pont Grible, and strikes past the Llyn-y-Morwynion to Llyn Cwm Bychan, and thence to Talsarnau (the Head of the Roads), whence passage was made across the Traeth Bach to Mynffordd. It would seem to have been a branch from the Sarn Helen, which followed very nearly the course of the modern road, as straight as an arrow, from Dolgelley to Maentwrog.