part of the mountain called Mynydd Moel. The path in this direction is fufficiently floping to allow a person to ride even to the fummit. A gentleman, mounted on a little Welsh poney, had done this a few days before I was here.

At the bottom of a hill on the right of the road leading to Machynlleth, and about half a mile from the Blue Lion, I faw another small cataract, which, although scarcely more than seven or eight yards high, was by no means deftitute of beauty. The rock is five or fix times as wide at the top as it is below, which gives to the fcene a very fingular effect. In dry weather I fhould think this would be in want of water: after a heavy shower of rain it may, however, be always feen in perfection.

The road from Jones's cottage to Machynlleth is very level and good; but as I had rain nearly the whole way, and as it lies along a narrow hollow, between a series of wooded mountains, without much variety of character, even this fhort journey was rendered very unpleasant. The murmuring of the rivulet, which accompanied me for fome miles, and here and there a picturesque cottage, feated in the woods, chiefly occupied my attention, till I had arrived within two miles of Machynlleth. Towards evening the rain ceafed, the clouds dispersed, and the fine vale in which the town ftands appeared exceedingly beautiful. Machynlleth is hidden from

the

the obferver in this direction, by intervening mountains, till he is arrived within about a mile of it; and it is first feen on a fudden turn of the road at a little distance from the river.

MACHYNLLETH *.

I croffed the Dovey, and fhortly afterwards arrived at Machynlleth, a neat, and a much more regularly built town than most in Wales. The town-hall is a plain unadorned ftructure; and the church (a common fault in this country) is whitewashed. From the church-yard there is a pretty view along a green and meadowy vale.-Machynlleth is a place of fome trade, and it has an air of greater opulence than most of the Welsh towns.

An ancient building, conftructed of the thin fhaly stone of this country, and now converted into stables, was pointed out to me as that in which Owen Glyndwr fummoned the chieftains of Wales in the year 1402. He was here acknowledged their prince, and as fuch proclaimed and crowned t.

It is highly probable that this town was the site of Maglona, the principal Roman ftation in Montgomeryshire. Near Penallt, about two miles diftant, there is a place called Cefyn Caer, The Ridge of the City, where Roman coins have frequently been

This word implies the place near the river Cynllaeth, which was the ancient name for the Dovey.

Wynne's Hiftory of Wales, 321. Carte, ii. 655.

found, and where there has once been a small circular fort *.

When on the point of setting out from Machynlleth to Llanydloes, I was informed of a lofty cataract, near a pool called Llyn Pen Rhaiadr, The Pool at the Head of the Cataract, about fix miles distant ; but, as the road lay entirely over the mountains, and I was defirous to reach Llanydloes as foon as poffible, I did not take the trouble of vifiting it.

If I had not (that I might confine my attention altogether to North Wales, and give to it all the time I had to fpare) entered into a refolution not even to fet my foot in the fouthern divifion of the principality, I fhould have gone from Machynlleth to

ABERYSTWYTH,

The Conflux of the Iftwyth, diftant about nineteent miles. This is now a celebrated fea-bathing place, frequented by much company.-It has the remains of a castle, founded at the commencement of the twelfth century by Gilbert Strongbow, but about two centuries afterwards rebuilt by king Edward I.

From hence I fhould have proceeded to an inn, about twelve miles off, called the Havod Arms, not

Camden. Vaughan's Merionethfhire, in Cam. Reg. i. 189.

far

far from which is the celebrated bridge called Pont ar Monach, The Bridge over the Monach, and by the English, The Devil's Bridge; and from this place I fhould have returned into North Wales near Llanydloes.-The excurfion altogether would not have been more than fifty miles, and the twenty miles of unpleasant road betwixt Machynlleth and Llanydloes I fhould by this means have avoided.

THE DEVIL'S BRIDGE.

As, however, it may be useful to fome future traveller in this country, I fhall tranfcribe the short description of the Devil's Bridge, and the deep glen over which it is built, from an interefting journey through North Wales by Mr. Aikin. It is the only account on whofe accuracy I could rely *.

"After a long, and rather tedious walk (from Aberystwyth), we came fuddenly to a moft fingularly striking spot. The valley of the Rhydol contracts into a deep glen, the rocky banks of which are clothed with plantations, and at the bottom runs a rapid torrent. This leads foon to the fpot that we were in search of, which is full of horrid fublimity. It is formed by a deep chafm, or cleft, between two rocks, which juft receives light enough to discover at the bottom, through the tangled thickets, an impétuous torrent, which is foon loft

* Journal of a Tour through North Wales, and part of Shropshire. Crown 8vo. Lond. 1797.

under a lofty bridge. By defcending an hundred feet, we had a clearer view of this romantic fcene. Juft above our heads was a double bridge, which has been thrown over the gulph-; the inferior bridge was built by a monaftery, and hence called Pont ar Monach; this growing to decay, and being thought infecure, another arch was thrown directly above, and refting on the ancient one, and which now fupports a good road across the precipice. The water below has scooped out feveral deep chasms in the rock, through which it flows before it dives under the bridge. A large beech has flung its boughs horizontally over the torrent, as if to hide it from the spectator; and the whole banks of this wild fpot are rough with fern, mofs, and native thickets, except on one fide, where a perpendicular naked flate-rock lets in the light to the inmost receffes. Having fufficiently admired this tremendous fcene, we walked along the cliffs overhanging the deep glen, which receives the mingled waters of the Rhydol and Monach, whose luxuriant woods almoft concealed the numerous rapids and falls occafioned by the ruggedness of its rocky bottom. After a troublesome, and rather a hazardous descent, forcing our way through the trees, and across two or three headlong little ftreams, we arrived at a rocky bank, a few feet above the river, commanding a fine view of the junction of the Rhydol and Monach, which feem to vie with each other in the turbulence of their waters, and the frequency of their