September 18, 1873. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 



210 



asETired me that its qnalities for the table are first-elass, and 

 as he intends selling seeds of it next season, its worth will 

 soon be tested bv the horticultural world. — W. G. Smith. 



PLAS NEWTDD. 



Besidekci: of the Dowager Lady WiLLOtraHBy de Broke, 



Anglesea. 



No. 1. 



In the time of the Druids, two miles from where now is the 

 Llanfair station of the Chester and Holyhead Railway, in the 

 Isle of Anglesea. stood Llwyn Moel (the Grove on the Hill), 

 the dwelling-place of Gwenllian, celebrated in the Welsh 

 annals. On the site of that a more modern mansion was 

 greeted, and was the seat of Sir Nicholas Bayley, but that was 

 pulled down when the estate passed into the possession of his 

 relative, the first Marquis of Anglesey, who erected the present 

 noble mansion. Since his death it has had other tenants, and 

 Thomas Assheton Smith, Esq., was the one who occupied it 

 immediately before Lady WiUoughby de Broke. Mr. Potter, 



dently a square Roman stronghold, and there are the remains 

 of a Roman road leading to it. Close by are, or were, the re- 

 mains of the Trer Dryw (Druid's House), supposed to be the 

 Arch-Drnid"s residence, and near it his Bryn Gwyu (the 

 Blessed Hill), on which is a circular hollow ISO feet in diameter, 

 and surrounded by a bank of stones. Mr. Rowlands con- 

 sidered it " the grand consistory of the Druidical administra- 

 tion." 



In addition we might particularise numerous other crom- 

 lechs and circles of stones, but we have enumerated enough to 

 establish the ancient sacred character of the vicinity, and we 

 felt more readily we were on Druidic ground from the noble 

 trees around, jlr. Wright, the head gardener, told us that 

 until not long since the oldest Oak on the estate was standing 

 near the largest cromlech represented in our engraving ; and 

 as those still standing and in fuU vigour must be of four 

 centuries' growth, that ancient of these ancients must have 

 lived from years nearly midway between the present and 

 Druidic times. We measured the trunk of one Oak and 

 found it more than 19 feet in circumference at i feet from the 



CROMLECH, I'LAS NEWYDD. 



of Lichfield, was the architect, and the entire mansion and 

 outbuildings are constructed of the grey marble from the 

 Moelfra (juarries near Redwharf Bay, on the north-west coast 

 of the island. 



Without room for doubt this must be recognised as a chief 

 rendezvous of the Druids ; the cromlechs, tumuU, traditions, 

 and history hero bear concurrent testimony. .Just to the 

 eonth of Plas Newydd, we learn from Tacitus, that Agricola 

 crossed from the Caernarvon shore, defeated the Druid-incited 

 liritons, cut down the sacred groves, and extirpated the cruel 

 snrerstitiona. The place of the battle is still known as Bryn 

 Beddau (the Hill of Graves). Not far away is a carnedd (a 

 tnmalus, or heap of stones), overgrown with grass, but opened 

 on one side some years since, and the opening remains. It 

 leads to a low chamber, in which human bones were found, 

 the remains, as some antiquaries beheve, of victims confined 

 there ready for sacrifice on the neighbouring cromlech. When 

 we saw it sheep had sought shelter in it, and as they scampered 

 out were suggestive of an escape of the victims. 



Then, there is Caer clawd (the Moated Intrenchment), evi- 



surface, and a neighbouring Ash is 16J feet in circumference, 

 and straight as a javelin for 50 feet, where it separates into 

 branches. 



The lodge-entrance of Plas Newydd is about two miles from 

 the Llanfair station of the Holyhead Railway, and passing 

 through the gate you at once enter a wood, through which the 

 road winds, that forcibly reminded us of the forest of Soigncs 

 between Brussels and the field of Waterloo. The trees are 

 large and lofty, and the bare white trunks of the Birch, and 

 of the still larger Elms, all without order, and the soil beneath 

 uncultivated, and productive only of Mosses, Ferns, and wild 

 flowers — form a fitting preface to the place of the Druids. The 

 road passes by various groups of noble trees for a full mile 

 before the house is reached. 



GAEDENING AT CHELTENHAM. 

 You have been lately giving in the papers on " Gardening 

 in the West " glowing accounts of some of those palatial resi- 

 dences, such as Bowood, Tortworth, &c., which are among the 



