The river runs over a bed of dark-coloured silicious rock, which is sometimes got by the inhabitants for the use of building. The bed of the river is consequently very uneven, which causes it to foam and rush very impetuously along.
The Bridge
Is a plain gothic structure at the west end of Llangollen, and consists of four irregularly formed pointed arches, with projecting angular buttresses. The bridge was built across the Dee by John Trevor, Bishop of St. Asaph, and Chancellor of Chester, A.D. 1346, and was accounted one of the wonders of Wales. The arches are of various dimensions, but the only wonder I can discover seems to be the foundation, which is laid upon the rock that forms the bed of the river, and is fastened thereto with iron clamps. The bridge is built of hewn stone, and is, like most other old bridges, very narrow and ill-paved.
Many wonderful tales are related of the sudden rise of this river, and it certainly is a very inconstant stream; but I cannot conceive it possible that the water should ever have risen, as reported, so high as the base of the parapet. There is another little bridge called the Chain Bridge, about two miles up the river.
I will now cross the bridge to the south side of the river.
Glyn Dyfrdwy.
“They look’d a manly, generous generation,
Beards, shoulders, eyebrows, broad and square and thick;
Their accents firm, and loud in conversation;
Their eyes and gestures eager, sharp, and quick.”
About five miles west of Llangollen, upon the road to Corwen, and on the south side of the Dee, the way being enriched by such varied and enchanting scenery as will amply repay the traveller of taste for the fatigue of the excursion, is Glyn Dyfrdwy, once the property and residence of that famous chieftain Owen Glyndwr, whose birth Shakspeare says marked him extraordinary. I will, however, here give a short account of his life, which I trust will prove entertaining to many of my readers, and plainly show that “he was not in the roll of common men.”
Owen Ap Gryffydd Fychan, better known by the name of Owen Glyndwr, [146a] was descended from a younger son of Gryffydd Ap Madog, Lord of Powis Bromfeild, and of Dinas Bran. He received his education in one of the inns of court, and became a barrister-at-law.
It seems that about the year of our Lord 1395, he came into great favour with King Richard II. who made him his scutifer, or shield-bearer; [146b] and Owen was with the King when he was surrendered to Henry, Duke of Lancaster, together with the Castle of Flint. [147a]