Volume 2

A tour in Wales, MDCCLXX [or rather 1773] / [Thomas Pennant].

  • Thomas Pennant
Date:
1778-1783
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A tour in Wales, MDCCLXX [or rather 1773] / [Thomas Pennant]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    or St. Afaph's JVell, in a dingle in the parifh of Cwm, about a mile diflant. The fountain is inclofed with (lone, in a polygonal form, and had formerly its votaries, like that of St. Winefrede. Above Diferth church, on a high rock, fland the remains of its Caflle. We cannot trace the foundation of this fortrefs, which Castli* went by the names of Din-colyn, Caft ell y Ffailon> and Cajiell Gerri *. It probably was Weljh, and the laft of the chain of Britifto polls on the Clwydian hills.. Henry III. in 1241, fortified it f; but its date was but ffiort, for in 1261 Llewelyn apGryffydd rafed both this caflle, and that of Diganwy It was at a fiege of this place that Eineon, the fon of Ririd Vlaidd, was flain §. A crofs was erefted on the fpot, called Croes Eineon, the fhaft of which, ornamented with flrange fculpture, now is fuppofed to form the ftile into the church¬ yard of Diferth \ in which is another crofs, of very curious work- manfhip. The caflle occupied the fummit of the rock, whofe fides are efcarpee, or cut fleep, to render the accefs more difficult. On one part, beneath the top, is a fquare out-work, with foffies cut in part through the foiid lime-flone. The fragments of the caflle fhew, that its ruin was not effedled by time : they lie in vail mafles, overthrown by mining, which was a common method of befieging, very long before the ufe of powder. In a field a little to the fouth of the caflle, is a ruinous build- ing, called Siamber Wen. This is faid to have been the feat of a Sir Robert Pounder ling ||, once conftable of the adjacent caflle, a Sir Robert knight valiant and prudent, who had one of his eyes knocked out I>ounderhng. * Ll-wycPs It in. f Poi^el, 307. % .Same, 326. § Heng'ivrt, MS. |! Llwyct’s It in* MS,
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