written in our editions of Homer, to diftance, frown the threatening Snow. imply "ept," and that confequently don and his circle of pon lerous trithere must be an inconfiftency in the butaries, like the fabled monarch of paffage. Your correfpondent has ha- the giants furrounded by his peers, or zarded an alteration of this word, or the chief defcribed by Offian," whose rather a fubftitution of it for the pre- fpear refembled the blafted fir; his ceding one zapad, whereby the fenfe hield the rifing moon; his dark hoft of the expreflion is materially changed, rolling, as clou's, around him," In and appears more harmonious with the other direction, the currents of the following lines. But, how far the Menai, and the waters of the this alteration might bear a critical Irith Sea, unite to form the tranquil furvey, I fhall not prefume to deter- waves of the picturefque bay; while mine; however, it is evident that fuch the little city, protected by nature on could never have been the order of every fide, emits the peaceful volumes the words as originally written, or of her fmoke in the repofe of humiwe muft fuppofe a moft unaccountable, lity. perversion: we, thould rather cherish Bangor, though now fo confined in the idea, that the error lies in the its extent, was once a place of confiword aabad, as being wrongly fubfti- derable zote, and fortified with a caftured for fome other fimilar word. tle by one of the Earls of Chester. Were I to propofè any alteration in Of this ftructure (which tradition this paffage, it thould be to change fays was feated at the very entrance the word nafsuds for 'mali, which of the traits of Menai, where Edwould immediately clear every obfeu- ward I attempted in vain to build a rity, as the word xa fignifies fedeo, bridge, that his troops might pafs or recumbo. Should thefe remarks meet your approbation, the infertion of them will oblige Your's, &c. Mold, Jan. 6, 1805. ORDEVEX. A TOUR THROUGH THE MOST IN- with fecurity to the ifle of Mona) Camden, however, could not in his time find the leaft remains. Its period of profperity was of a very remote date, and various calamities have lent their aid to defolate every relic of its former confequence. Even in the early troubles of the island [Continued from page 504, Vol. II.] Bangor participated; for we find in THE little city of Bangor is built Tacitus, that the conquering Romans in a recefs of the bay of Beaumaris, were here, on their way to Anglefea, which lies fpread at its feet in all the which ifland they attained, the horfe foftness and variety of an Italian har- by a ford, the foot by flat-bottomed bour. The eye accustomed to the boats. In the year 1212, King John, view of metropolitan fplendor may, after patling the river Conway, enpoffibly, look with contempt on the camped on its banks, and fent a delow buildings of this remote city; tachment,under the conduct of guides but the more general obferver will of the country, to confume the neighfurvey in them the happy mean be- bouring city of Bangor. This comtween comfortless magnificence and mand was but too punctually executfqualid poverty. As a prepoffeffion of ed. The city was deftroyed by fire, one kind or other will steal on the and Rotpart, the bishop, taken primoft candid mind from the effect of foner, who was afterwards ranfomed a first glance, Bangor is fortunate in for two hundred hawks. At this juncprefenting a molt attractive face to ture,-Bangor in flames, and the rethe traveller, as he gains a cafual gal incendiary clofe at hand-it is view of her unaffuming buildings from fuppofed Llewelyn-ap-Iorwerth, the his elevated but fecure road. Sul- Cambrian Chief, was encamped on kenly withdrawn to fome confiderable the adjacent mountains. As a def In perate refource, he fent his princefs wharf-the spot poffeffing the natural (Joan, the daughter of the English advantage of a harbour capable of monarch) to her father with propo- admitting and fheltering veffels of fals of peace. "She being," fays three hundred tons burthen. It is Powell," a difcreet woman, fucceed- faid that his lordship has it in contemed." It is furprising that we have plation to cut a canal from the flate never feen the pencil of a native artist quarry to this port. Indeed, few uncelebrate this very important event. dertakings can appear too vast for the The diftant conflagration, the piercing public fpirit of this nobleman, when it fupplications of the daughter, and is recollected that he has rendered acthe unwilling fubmiffion to the im- ceffible the very centre of Eryri, by pulfe of nature exhibited by the pa- continuing the road through Nant rent-thefe, joined to the remon- Francon to Capel Curig, where he has rances of the haughty barons, who built a neat and agreeable inn. might be fuppofed loath to curtail the this latter refpect Bangor has likewife extenfion of conqueft, would certainly to acknowledge an obligation to his form a picture of the highest local in- lordship. Its hotel (the Penrhyn tereft. Owen Glendower, anxious to Arms), kept by the attentive and obdeftroy every city in Wales, rather liging Mr. Hughes, is poffeffed of than fee it fubject to the fway of more elegance of defign than any buildEngland, once more burnt the cathe- ing of the kind that I ever faw, and dral and chief buildings of Bangor. is not the lefs pleafing for containing The cathedral was not completely re- feveral fpecimens of flate highly poftored till 1532; when it was perfect- lifhed, and wrought into flabs, ed, as it now ftands, by Bishop Skeffington. It is a plain and respectable pile, decorated internally with neatnefs and propriety, and preferved with fcrupulous exactness. pa nels, &c. Adjoining the bowlinggreen of this houfe is a spacious room, chiefly dedicated to the ufe of a bookclub-a fociety that we will fuppofe likely to flourish fo near the abode of The ceffation of domeftic war has epifcopacy. From the bowling-green failed to throw many of the bufy arts is to be contemplated a scene of unri into the lap of this little neighbour- valled imagery;-the whole bay of hood. As a feaport, Beaumaris has Beaumaris, its waves rolling up to the far the preference; and for inland town from whence it borrows a name trade, the fituation of Caernarvon ren- the woody and romantic shores of ders it a fuccessful rival. For beauty Anglefea, oppofed to the bold and of fcenery, and abundant produce of afpiring coaft of Caernarvon, of the comforts of life, Bangor, how- whofe fublimities Penmaen Mawr forms ever, will be found to yield to no com- a part-Conway at one point-the petitor. Its trade, too, is likely to ifland of Priestholm at another-and experience very confiderable benefits the main ocean in the diftance. Now from the patriotic exertions of Lord that this delightful fpot poffefies not Penrhyn, on the fite of whofe man- only the conveniencies but the elefion, in the vicinity of this city, for- gancies of accommodation, there cau merly stood the refidence of Roderic be little doubt but that it will become Molwynog, Prince of Wales, in 720, more generally vifited and efteemed and of feveral of his fucceffors. From by the inhabitants of the contiguous the celebrated fate quarry of Nant inland counties, than many of thofe Francon his lordship has formed a feaports that have only the fanction of road of improved conftruction that notoriety to recommend them. communicates with the fea coaft; on which (at AberCegin, or Port Penrhyn, an inlet formed by the egrefs of the Cegin into the Menai) he has raised a The bishop palace is a pleafing edifice, more to be esteemed for neatnefs than fplendor; and though its fituation is rather too low to afford a full command of the furrounding fcenery, the circumftance of the graves being we could not think Mr. Warner very uniformly covered with tablets of humble in his defires, when he fays, flate, the black and fober hue of “Were I B——p of Bangor, I fhould which is precifely adapted to funereal with no other tranflation than to decorations. It is much to the creheaven." The poverty of the Welfh dit of the Welsh that their burial clergy has become proverbial. We places are generally preferved in neatfaw no inftance of it, and were in- nefs and privacy. You will very felformed that the indifferent ftate of the dom fee a churchyard over-run with inferior clergy has been confiderably noifome weeds, as is but too frequently exaggerated by report. Still it mut the cafe in England; much lefs, fubbe remembered, that of Mr. Stock's ject to the abominable cuttom of afannual donation of 10 each to ten fording pafture for the sheep of the poor curates, a majority generally village butcher, or the cows of the goes to Wales. vicar. The fimplicity of their monumental infcriptions likewife deferves The moft grateful and tender cuftom of ftrewing fimple flowers and notice. The initials of the deceased, ever-greens over the graves of the de- and the day on which he died (fomeparted is fill cherished, with religious times that on which he was buried), obfervance, throughout the more dift- generally form the "fhort annals" of ant counties of North Wales. Mr. moft claffes of ruftic Welfh. It is in Pratt gives an account of a converfa- very fingular inftances alone that you tion, highly poetical, between himfelf find thofe verfes, either fuperftitious and one of thefe harmlefs facrificers. or abfurd, which are the difgrace of I must confefs that I could not difco- our English churches. This appears ver fuch refined and fentimental per- extraordinary in a nation which has fons; but fancy eafily chalked out the been defcribed as fo univerfally poetithoufand little tender links with which cal. It indeed feems probable that the performance of this ceremony the parish minister deems it incumbent muft bind the memory of the deceased on him to infpect any epitaph defignftill clofer to the feelings of the mourn- ed for a parishioner. If fuch be the ing furvivor. One of the firft diftinc- cafe, and the effect fo falutary, how tions, it will be recollected, of the much is it to be regretted that a fimiprimitive Chriftians was a neglect of lar practice does not prevail in this this inoffenfive cuftom, it being confi- country! dered allufive to antient mythology. The Welth are not only peculiar in “Because," faid they," the dead their methods of confecrating the cannot smell, we offer no tribute to afhes of their dead: the mode in them!"-Cold and cheerlefs doctrine! which they inter them will appear As well might we plead their inevita- equally remarkable, though, perhaps, ble infenfibility as a reafon for neg- lefs pleafing. On the night prior to lecting to venerate their memory. the intended ceremony, the friends of But what can be more obvious than the deceafed affemble at the house he that we do both the one and the other lately occupied, accompanied by the for the relief of our own feelings ? priest and his clerk. Prayers for the of those feelings with which every departed are read, and poffibly a part thought of the deceafed is infeparably of the Church Service. The mott blended, and from the exercife of near and afflicted of the relatives then which the living are as much bene- ftrew flowers, attended with tears and fited as the dead honoured.. fighs, on the lid of the coffin: this The cemetery of this church, like done, the mourners, the reverend many others in the northern diftricts clergyman fonetimes not excepted, of the principality, acquires an effect, fet in very cordially to fmoking and at once folemn and gratifying, from drinking! "thou! whofe fmiles upon the teeming earth In the morning, the proceffion, led among the numerous friends he de by the divine, moves toward the fcribes his work to have created church, a perfon ftill ftrewing before may not neglect to tranfplant an the corfe flowers, the affecting fym- afpiring genius to the foil for which it bols of time and death! When the was evidently intended. Through laft duty is performed, the clergyman, fome few parts of his poem it may not ftanding at the communion table, pre- be unpleafing to attend this felf infents a plate, into which each mourn- ftructed author. He fuppofes a reer drops an offering, proportioned view of the bay, and its adjacent obnot only to the state of his finances, jects, to occupy one fummer's day; but the degree of refpect in which he and thus implores the favour of a held the defunct. As the funerals are friendly and ferene one commonly attended by great numbers, thefe little fees of ceremony form a material branch of the rural clergy's revenue. A gentleman at Bangor told me, that he had lately attended the obfequies of a friend, at which were prefent from four to five hundred perfons, from whom the collection must have been confiderable. When the business of the day was concluded, the whole party adjourned to different public houses; the minifter and the nearer relatives fhortly adjourned: thofe who remained, indulged in all the feftivities of a wake, with as much indifference as if it were the wedding of their neighbour, inftead of his bufided, in the fixth century, St. Seiriol; from which circumftance Mr. Lloyd thinks the name of the ifle in fome part derived, the word holm being added to Prieft by our northern invaders: rial. Refil the rifing herb with healing powers, Proceeding on his tour, he paufes thus to addrefs the dreary recefles of Priestholm, a small ifland divided by the narrow channel called the Sound, from the eastern extremity of Anglefea. On this melancholy ifland re with prayer, While Britons hail'd him heaven's peculiar care. 'Twas his to grant the bleffing, or withhold, The fcenery of Bangor, fo favourable to infpiration, has called forth the talents of a poet of no mean capacity. This kindred fpirit of Taliefin, Mr. Lloyd, of Beaumaris, has «When Superftition wove her wizard fpell, produced a loco-defcriptive poem, un- Here Seiriol rais'd the infulated cell; der the title of "Beaumaris Bay;"Here ftill importun'd, wearied, heaven a work duly appreciated in Wales, though little known in this country. To Mr. Lloyd I obtained an introduction, from which I derived much pleafure and information. He was, to ufe his own expreffion, "born on the ground," and is folely indebted to his own exertions for his very confiderable attainments. In the liberal mind, it mutt raife a fentiment in his favour to be informed that he once moved in the humble and unfriendly fphere of a menial fervitude. Contented with a trifle, he now lives in the independence, if not on the luxuries, of nature; and every reader of fenfibility muft join in the fincere with, that some pen, Here, ftill fequefter'd, Penmon's facred dome call fall," Prieftholm is more generally known by the name of Puffin Island; an appellation it has obtained from the immenfe numbers of that bird that thelter in its hores. The Puffin makes its appearance in the beginning of April, and lays one egg, nearly the lize of a duck's, fometimes on the bare rock, but oftener in burrows abandoned by the rabbits with which this ifland literally fwarms. While in a helpless state, the young of this bird are taken; and, when pickled in a peculiar manner, form a moft delicious article of food. They are enclofed in fmall casks, and, together with the large Penmon oyfter, partially difperfed as an article of traffic throughout many parts of the kingdom. I cannot help thinking, that, if they were more generally known in our fashionable circles, they would be in no less requeft than Caviare, or any fimilar delicacy of celebrity. In Auguft they remigrate, quitting their retreat, as they took poffeffion of it, in the night. Galls, razorbills, guillemots, corvorants, &c. are likewife tenants of every part of thefe craggy fhores; and, when disturbed, rife in fuch flights, and with fo horrible a mixture of difcordant outcries, as to confound the wondering ftranger who prefumes to vifit their lonely haunts. From Priestholm, the poet, after contemplating various intervening objects, productive of reflections " gay, now grave," thus exults over the ruins of Beaumaris Cattle, the laft of the three mighty fortifications erected by Edward I*. now "Here, earth is loaded with a mafs of wall, Attracts the thoughtless ftare and vacant hour, If ev'ry bard with indignation burns, For thee th' hiftoric pen, the rolls of fame, The Isle of Anglefea did not come within the fcope of my rambles. The inquifitive traveller, however, will find it well worth his while to dedicate a portion of his time to a furvey of its natural fingularities. The Paris Mountain prefents an inexhauftible subject of research and speculation; while the circumstance of this ifland having once been the chief refidence of the Druids, and the theatre of fo many fuperftitious ceremonies, cannot fail to gratify the more contemplative and poetical stranger. As to the manners of the inhabitants, he will find one trait, the fimplicity of which will furprife and intereft him.-Thofe poets * Camden fays that this caftle, from its appearance on his furvey of Anglefea, was proba bly never completed. † Prince Llewelyn is supposed to have fallen through treachery. |