FOOTNOTES:
[398] The Devil's Bridge in North Wales is at Hafod, near Aberystwyth, in Cardiganshire. Like the Teufelsbrücke, on the road from Göschenen to Airola, over the St. Gotthard in Switzerland, which spans the Reuss, the Devil's Bridge in Wales is double; i.e. an upper and an under bridge span the river Mynach. This Pont-y-Mynach was built either by the monks of Strata Florida, or by the Knights Hospitallers.
In the letter to Sir George Beaumont, referred to in a previous note, Wordsworth writes: "We went up the Rhydiol to the Devil's Bridge, where we passed the following day in exploring these two rivers, and Hafod in the neighbourhood. I had seen these things long ago, but either my memory or my powers of observation had not done them justice. It rained heavily in the night, and we saw the waterfalls in perfection. While Dora was attempting to make a sketch from the chasm in the rain, I composed by her side the following address to the torrent,
How art thou named? etc."—Ed.
[399] There are several consecutive falls on the river Mynach, at the Devil's Bridge, the longest being one of 114 feet, and the whole taken together amounting to 314 feet.—Ed.
[400] The lofty ridge of mountains in northern Greece between Thessaly and Epirus, which, like the Apennines in Italy, form the back-bone of the country.—Ed.
[401] The Rhine. The Via Mala is the gorge between Thusis and Zillis, near the source of the Rhine. Compare Descriptive Sketches (vol. i. p. 46)—
Or, led where Via Mala's chasms confine
The indignant waters of the infant Rhine.—Ed.