tals of palm-leaves. The inhabitants affert that these were brought, fome time after the diffolution, from Cwm Hir abbey in Radnorfhire. In Llanydloes there is carried on a very confider, able trade for yarn. This is manufactured into flannels, and fent to Welsh Pool for fale. CHAP. VIII. LLANYDLOES TO NEWTOWN. View of the Country.—Anecdote of Edward Herbert, Efq-Newtown.-Catara&.-Cafell Dolforwyn.-Hiftory of this Fortress. -The Story of Sabrina, and the Origin of the Severn. ON my leaving Llanydloes, I foon began to find myself in a kind of country that plainly indicated an approach towards England. The road winds along a vale much flatter, and more highly cultivated, than any in the interior of Wales. I faw here several fields both of rye and wheat, two fpecies of corn feldom grown in mountainous countries: the winds and storms are there fo violent, that they would shake out the grain from the ears before it could ripen. I now wandered On the gentle Severn's fedgy bank. The river was here but a few yards across, and it glided filently and fmoothly along, reflecting brightly the green impending foliage of its banks. Fields, lawns, hills, vallies, paftures, all appear The curling fmoke, from cottages afcends, I paffed I passed Llandinam, a fmall village, about seven miles from Llanydloes, which I mention only for the purpose of relating an anecdote of the valour of Edward Herbert, efq., the grandfather of the celebrated lord Herbert of Chirbury. This gentleman was a strenuous oppofer of the outlaws and thieves of his time, who were in great numbers among the mountains of Montgomeryshire, In order to fupprefs them, he often went with his adherents to the places which they frequented. Some of them having been seen in a public house at Llandinam, Mr. Her. bert, and a few of his fervants, proceeded thither to apprehend them. The principal outlaw aimed an arrow at him, which ftruck his faddle, and ftuck there. Herbert, with his fword in his hand, and with undaunted courage, galloped up to him, and took him prifoner. He pointed to the arrow, re questing the fellow to obferve what he had done, "Ah! (replied the man,) had not my best bow been left behind, I fhould have done a greater deed than fhoot your faddle." He was tried for the crime, found guilty, and hanged *." NEWTOWN. In Newtown, or, as it is called by the Welfh, Tre-Newydd, I found nothing remarkable. It is a clean, and rather neat place, and the furrounding country is fertile and pleafant. The manufcript *Life of lord Herbert, 5. journal journal of my friend, quoted in the laft chapter, contains the following memorandum refpecting the church. "This building has a fcreen, faid to have been brought from fome neighbouring abbey. It may be antique, but its gilded ornaments rendered it very unfightly. There is alfo here a small altar piece, faid to have been painted by Dyer the poet. The fubject is the last fupper, but it is in part a copy from Pouffin, and is bad." A glen about a mile from the town, on the right of the road leading to Builth, was pointed out to me as containing a cataract, and fome beautiful scenery. I was, however, greatly disappointed in finding these fcarcely worth notice. The face of the rock had much the appearance of a shattered wall, thrown aflaunt by one end finking into the ground. The water fcarcely trickled down it, and if I might judge from the muddy pool at the foot, it very feldom defcended in quantity fufficient to entitle the fcene to the appellation of a cataract. Returning to Newtown, I croffed the river, and walked along its banks about three miles and a half to CASTELL DOLFORWYN, The Caftle of the Virgin's Meadow. The remains of this fortress are to be found on a lofty hill, on the north-west bank of the Severn, a fituation that commands the whole of the adjacent country. From hence I had a lovely and extenfive profpect of the vale of Severn, through which the river was feen to glide in elegant curves, blackened by its high and fhady banks. The landscape was enlivened by the luxuriance of woods and meadows; and the towns and villages around lent their aid to decorate the fcene. The caftle has been a four-fided building, of no great ftrength, about fifty yards long, and twentyfive wide; and the exterior walls appear to have been about four feet in thickness. A small A fmall part of the north wall, with fome trifling remains of the interior of the building, are yet left. The south and the east walls are entirely demolished, and the other parts that are yet ftanding are greatly fhattered. There have been various conjectures refpecting the founder of this caftle. Dugdale attributes it to David ap Llewelyn, prince of North Wales, about the middle of the thirteenth century.*. Stowe fays it was the work of Llewelynt; and Mr. Evans, who is now generally thought to be right, that it was indebted for its origin to Bleddyn ap Cynvyn, fome time betwixt the years 1066 and 1073 1. In the fixth year of the reign of Edward I., Bogo de Knovill was made governor; and, in the following year, the caftle was granted to Roger Mortimer, *Dugdale's Monafticon, ii. 223. † Amals, 200. Evans's Differtatio de Bardis, 92. from the Inftitutiones Lingue Cymraece, of John David Rhys. earl |