324 Miss Hutton's Tour in North Wales, 



niained no doubt of the genius of our 

 first informer. On nientioniiii^ the cir-» 

 pumstaiice at Abergelen, we discovered 

 that d& meant black, and las blue, in 

 Welsh ; and that our Welshman liad 



[Nov. 1, 



\^^alfs wiiieli I have scon; the \aIo it- 

 self is scantily watoicd, and the lowiis, 

 being built on hills rising out of it, havo 

 no water at all. 



The mountains that inclose the Vale 



been exhibiting his English learning in- of Clwjd arc respectable, though not 



stead of his Cambrian wit. IfLlandftlas sublime. Over the eastern range of 



takes its name from the patron saint, as these, and towards the head of the vale, 



nil the villages beginning with Llan do, lay our road from Ruthin to Jlold, and 



it is reasonable to suppose that Black- such an escalade never before fell to my 



and-blue must have been some disthi- lot. The ascent is two miles, and very 



guished pugilist. steep; the mountain is cultivated high 



At eleven miles from Conwy we came up, and there is even a gentlem.in's house 



to Abergelen, situated in a flat country, and paik in a place where I think no 



Ilillsrisc behind it that are not intitled to wheel once set a-going could be stopped; 



the name of ' mountains. It is fre- \et this is the road on which coal is car- 



(]ucnted by sea-bathers, but the to^^'n is a 

 mile distant from the sea. 'J'he shore is 

 low, but the view is grand. Wc seem in 

 the centre of a capacious bay, formed by 

 Pcnmaen Rhos on one hand, and the 

 farther boundary of the Vale of Clwyd 

 on the otlic r. The town and castle of 

 Jlhyddlan are plainly seen, under the 

 latter, at the distance of four or five 

 miles. At Abergelen wc quilted the 

 coast, and, soon after, entered the Vale 

 of Clwyd. 



The Vale of Clwyd is about twenty- 

 six miles iu length, and six in breadtli. 

 Mountains rise at the njjper end, the sea 

 opens at the lower, and the sides arc in- 

 closed by a chain of hills, with different 

 summits, but not divided at the base. I 

 am told that the whole eastern side has 

 only one narrow outlet, without rising 

 the hills. 



ried to Ruthin, and upon it v\e met two 

 loaded carts. The manner of conducting 

 them is ingenious, but, to me, not very 

 satisfactory; and they approached so 

 nearly to ungovernable, that I was glad 

 when we had passed them. They were 

 small and lightly loaded, drawn by one 

 horse conducted by a boy, and diagged 

 by two horses, fastened behind, forcibly 

 pulled up the hill by a man; and, not- 

 withstanding all their holding back, 

 crossing the road, and dexterity of 

 steerage, I expected every moment that 

 the carts and horses would escape from 

 their pilots, and overwhelm every thing 

 they found in their way. 



I rode lip till I pitied my poor liorse, 

 and was not without some fears of sli- 

 ding diiwn over his tail, 'llie road now 

 overhung a bwlch or chayin, and, with 

 much toil, I reached the top on foot. 



There are four market towns in the The pass is called Rwlch Pen Rarras 



Vale of Clwyd:— Rhyddlar, St. Asaph, 

 Pcnbigh, and Ruthin. Th'; villages I 

 cannot enumerate; gentleinen's houses 

 meet the eye continually ; and the dwel- 

 lings of the farmers look comfortable 

 and convenient. The fields are beau- 

 tiful, the woods arc fine; the surface of 

 the ground is variegated, the soil is a 

 lich dark mould. 



I was informed that land in the Vale 

 of Clwyd lets, on an average, at 21. an 



On the right rises the summit of the 

 mountain. Pen Barras, from which the 

 pass takes its mune, and on the left, be- 

 yond the gulph, that of the still higher 

 mountain, Mod Famma. In the vale 

 the air was warm, but the climate al-^ 

 tered, as we travelled upwards: before 

 we gained the top of the jjays, the air 

 was piercing, and the wind was high. 

 AVhen T hear the roaring blast and beat- 

 ing rain from my sheltered chamber at 



acre ; that one large farm is even let for home, I shall congratulate myself that I 

 31. lOs. and the occupier has made a am not at the top of Bwlch Pen Rarras. 

 fortune; that small pieces are frequently The whole Vale of Chvvd should have 



let as high as 61. an acre; and that, when 

 land of any description is to be let, it is 

 Bought after with aviditj', and obtained 

 with difficulty. 



The inhabitants of the vale are said to 

 consume about a sixteenth part of its 



appeared to us, from tliiseJtvated situa- 

 tion, with the towering mountains of 

 Snowdonia beyond its western hills, but 

 the haziness of an October sky hiel the 

 glorious prospect from our sight. 



On the other side of the pass the de- 



prodiice ; the hills that inclose it are cul- scent was trilling, but we had not only 

 tivated to nearly two-thirds of their another climate, we had another world ; 

 height. In one point only the Vale of we exchanged, in a mosnent, the rich 

 Clwyd is deficient, and that deficiency is landscape of the Vale of Clwyd for 

 tin exuberame iii all other parts of mountains covered with bcalh no longer 



jituple, 



