CORWEN TO BALA. 20I 



US, that when the Britons, drawn up In battle array 

 on Its banks, have been prepared to engage with 

 their Saxon foes, it was their cuftom firil to kifs 

 the earth, and then for every foldier to drink a 

 jmail quantity of the water *. — The name is certainly 

 not derived, as many have fuppofed, from Du, 

 ^lack ; for, except when tinged by the torrents from 

 the mountain morafles, its waters are perfe(5tly bright 

 and tranfparent. In Spencer's defcription of Caer 

 Gai, the dwelling of old TImon, the fofler-father of 

 Arthur, the colour of the Dee is confidered very 

 diiferent from black ; 



—Lowe in a valley green. 



Under the foot of Ravvran, moflie o'er, 

 From whence the river Dee, zsjlher dene. 

 His tunibh'ng billows rojls with gentle roar. 



That lover of the marvellous, Giraldus Cambren- 

 fis, informs us very gravely, that the river Dee runs 

 through Bala lake, and is difcharged at the bridge 

 near the town, without their waters becoming mixed. 

 He doubtlefs means to fay that the river might be 

 traced by its appearance from one end of the lake 

 to the other. Giraldus believed every thing that the 

 inhabitants chofe to impofe upon him. 



• Gibfon's Camden, ^^6. 



