On a rock are shown four holes in the shape of a cross, said to mark the spot where the saint was wont to kneel in prayer.
It is possible that it was due to his father’s abusive epistle, which attacked Maelgwn of Gwynedd and Cuneglas or Cynlas of Powys so fiercely, that Tydecho had to leave North Wales. Apparently he retired to the same part of Brittany as his father and his brother Cennydd or Kenneth, and took up his abode in the Isle de Groix, where he is known as S. Tudy, and where he is held to have died.
Some delightful mountain expeditions may be made from Machynlleth, as up the River Castell to the two tarns whence it springs, Glaslyn and Bugeilyn, “The Shepherd’s Pool.” This latter and Llyn Morwynion, “The Fair Maids’ Tarn,” are about the only two in North Wales that produce “trout of an exceptionally fine quality—short, thick, strong fish, that fight hard when you hook them, and cut red as salmon and creamy as curd should you be lucky enough to induce a few to face the cucumber. I would rather waste my time and energies on making the acquaintance of half a dozen from either pool than I would in courting the problematical attentions of a Dovey sewin.”[8]
Moreover, the walk to the sources of the River Castell will amply reward the lover of scenery.
Then there is the ascent of the River Dulas, and the branch from the valley by a good road to Tal-y-Llyn under red crags, Graig Goch.
Another delightful walk of about five miles is to Llyn Penrhaiadr, and one can drive to about two miles from the lake. A little beyond the point where the carriage is quitted, Pistyll-y-Llyn, the waterfall from the lake, is reached. The water shoots over a tremendous shelf of rock and plunges into a dark pool below. It is one of the finest falls in Wales, and only lacks more trees about it to make it most impressive. Waterfalls are liable to pall on one. They are either of the type of the falls of the Rhine, of the Giesbach, or of the Staubbach, and when one has seen these, one does not particularly care for such as are inferior. Waterfalls cease to interest, but, to my mind, lakes never do. They are infinitely more varied, and lend themselves to finer pictures in a way that cascades do not. There are two other tarns near, lying rather higher than Llyn Penrhaiadr. A walker will do well to strike across to the head of the River Hengwm, where is another waterfall, and to follow the stream down under the splendid crags of Bwlch Hyddgen, then turn to the left by the Rhyd Wen, and Machynlleth is reached again.
From Machynlleth a short run by rail takes us to Towyn, a rising watering-place, with a noble Norman cross-church. The central tower fell in 1696, and a western tower was erected in 1736, encroaching on two bays of the nave. This was pulled down in 1884, and the central tower rebuilt, but the nave is short of its two westernmost bays.
In the churchyard are four upright stones enclosing a quadrangular space, within which no burials are made, and in the church is an inscribed stone, that apparently stood originally by these four “marks.” On it is an inscription most puzzling to antiquaries, supposed to be couched in Early Welsh, and to record that this was the burial-place of S. Cadvan, and that his great patron Cyngen, prince of Powys and this portion of Merioneth, lies by him. It has been thus translated by Professor Westwood:—
“Beneath the mound of Cynvael lies Cadvan,