200 CORWEN TO BALA. 



have met with no hiftorical data whatever refpecliiig 

 this fortre's. 



In my return I obferved an eminence on the v^eft 

 fide of the head of th.^ pool, which the guide in- 

 formed me was called Caer Gai. There was on 

 this fpot a fort that belonged to Cai Hir ap Cynyr, 

 or, as Spencer has called him, Tinion : he was the 

 fofler-father of king Arthur, who during his youth 

 refided here. The Romans are fuppofed to have 

 had a fortrefs on this fpot ; and m.any of their coins 

 have been dug up in the neighbourhood *. This 

 place of defence was doubtlefs conftrucled to guard 

 the pafs through the mountains. Of its hiftory X 

 am altogether ignorant. 



The River. Dee. 



The fource of the Dee is under one fide of Ar- 

 ran Benllyn, the high mountain at the head of Bala 

 pool. — Its name is thought to have been derived 

 from the Welfh word Dv/y, which fignifies fome- 

 thing div'me. Some centuries ago it was held in 

 fuperflitious veneration by the inhabitants of the 

 country, from what were then believed the miracu- 

 lous overflovv'ing of its banks at times v/heii there 

 had been no preceding heavy rain : and from its 

 being believed to have foretold fome remarkable 

 events by changing its channel tt Hiftory informs 



* See Spencer's Faerie Queene, book i. canto i-%., and Camb, 

 Rcf^. i. 191. 



f Giraldus Cambrenfis, lib- ii. c. iL 



US, 



