LLANDUDNO PARISH. 171 



retained the simplicity and innocence more fre- 

 quently the characteristics of the country. La- 

 bour, of the severest kind, in a noxious at- 

 mosphere, alternating with hours of sluggish 

 idleness or sottish dissipation, is not the most 

 favourable soil for the growth of virtue or the 

 useful sciences. But miners are not shut out 

 from the Elysian fields of knowledge, beyond 

 all other men who are destined to a life of la- 

 bour. A happy example of the contrary is 

 afforded in a similarly situated district in Scot- 

 land. The miners of Leadhills, hke those of 

 Llandudno, were once a poor, dissipated, and 

 ignorant colony. Allan Ramsay, the poet, esta- 

 blished among them a little library, as a memo- 

 rial of affection for his native village; — and a 

 moral change commenced. The library was in- 

 creased, and is now considerable ; the miners 

 became scientific in their own and other pursuits ; 

 and a well-informed, moral, and happy commu- 

 nity, has ever since tenanted that dreary district. 



The contiguity of this parish to the island of 

 Anglesea, and its retired position, have probably 

 made it a retreat of the Druids, in the latest of 

 their times. Near Gloddaeth, is a considerable 

 barrow, and, on Pen Mawr, more than one circle 

 may be distinctly traced. The most interesting 

 remnants of antiquity in the place, are, the rock- 



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