EXCURSION PROM WREXHArvI TO HOLT. I4I 



appellation CamJen conjeftures to have been de- 

 jived from the Roman twentieth legion having been 

 flationed at a little diilance higher up, and on the 

 other hde of the river. 



The two villa<2;es of Holt and Farndon are divided 

 only by the Dee, and have a communication by a 

 very ancient bridge of ten arches. — All the fcenery 

 of this neighbourhood is flat and unpleafant The 

 Dee flows through meadows, without any of tha 

 beauty or grandeur of rocks, or foliage, that adorn 

 its banks in the more mountainous parts of the 

 country. 



Holt Castle 



Was fituated clofe to the river, and defended on 

 three fides by a moat forty or fifty yards wide, cut 

 out of the folid rock ; the prefent remains confiil 

 of little elfe than rock, for this originally feenis to 

 have formed the firfl: eight or ten yards of the 

 callle. The flone ufed in the building appears to 

 have been that obtained in making the moat. — The 

 fortrefs confifl:ed of five baftions, of which four 

 were round, and the remaining one, facing the 

 river, fquare. The entrance was by a drawbridge 

 on the weft fide. So little of the mafonr)' is left, 

 that in the prefent ftate it is impoffible to form any 

 idea of its ancient ftrength. The fite is by no means 

 extenfive ; and as it fl:ood on a piece of ground level 

 with the town, it muft have had its principal firength 

 in the de?p and perpendicular fides of its moat. 



The 



