1822.] 
tires appear peculiarly applicable to the 
author of this singular production. 
“ Another scorns the home-spun thread of 
rhymes, 
Match’d with the lofty feet of elder times: 
Give him the numbper’d verse that Virgil 
suug, 
And Virgil’s self shall speak the English 
tongue ; 
Manhood and garboiles shallie chant with 
chaunged feet, 
And headstrong dacty!s makiug music 
meet ! 
The nimble dacty!s striving to outgo 
The drawling spondeeg, pacing it below! 
The ling’ring spondees, labouring to delay 
The breathless dactyls with a sudden stay. 
Whoever saw a colt, wanton and wild, 
Yok’d with a slow foot ox on fallow field, 
Can right areed how handsomely besets 
Dull spondees with the English dactylets. 
Fie on the forged mint that did create 
New coin of words never articulate !’’* 
These lines, observes a commentator 
ou the foregoing passage, allude to an 
absurd fashion, which was prevalent in 
the time of Queen Elizabeth, of pub- 
lishing what were called English verses 
composed according to Latin rules. 
There seems no reason to alter the opi- 
nion entertained of this practice, at an 
zera of our national literature far less 
improved and polished than the pre- 
sent. N. 
+ 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
EXCURSION through NORTH WALES 
in 1819. 
(Concluded from our last.) 
T will be long ere we forget the pros- 
pect which opened before us as we 
stopped to look at thelake. The gran- 
deur and beauty of the surrounding 
scenery seen, too, soadvantageously by 
the beams of a bright moon—the dif- 
ferent forms of the shore, the lake be- 
ing in some parts edged with steep 
rocks, in others with woods rising 
smoothly from the water, the cottages 
seatfered along its banks, and the green 
woods waving in the moon-light, com- 
pleted a scene we have seldom seen ex- 
celled, and which we quitted with no 
little reluctance. But the “ waning 
night was growing old,” the night-air 
was chill and comfortless, and we had 
been riding over fifteen miles of road 
not very smooth. Resuming our jour- 
ney, therefore, we quickly reached Ba- 
Ja, where a comfortable supper and bed 
at the Bull,a most respectable cabaret, 
formed no unworthy conclusion to an 
evening so delightfully spent. 
* Book I. Sat. Vi. Edition of 1597. 
Excursion through North Wales 
207 
Bala* is a very neat town, about the 
same size as Dolgelley, and containing 
nearly the same number of inhabitants, 
It is supposed, and not unreasonably, 
to have been built by the Romans, as 
it is of a very regular form, the streets 
falling into the principal square (which 
is very spacious) at right angles. It 
carries on a considerable trade in wool 
and yarn stockings, the women of the 
lower orders in and near the place be- 
ing everlasting knitters, and may be 
seen in the lanes and walks about the 
town “ visibly employed”? with their 
needles. It is, moreover, the residence 
of several genteel families, and the 
spring assizes are helden here: it has 
not, however, attained such importance 
as Dolgeiley, which is considered the 
capital of the county. With regard to 
ils history, we are informed that it was 
once dependent on Harlech Castle, and 
that Einion de Standon, coustable of 
that castle in the reign of Edward II. 
was appointed governor of Bala by that 
monarch: and that a few years after- 
wards Edward I1l. rewarded General 
Walter de Mauney with the fee farm of 
Bala, creating him, at the same time, 
Sheriff of Merionethshire for life. At 
the south end of the town there is a 
large artificial mount, called Tommen 
y Bala, which is supposed to have been 
the keep of a fortress, and placed here 
with a castalet on its summit, by the 
Romans, as a guard upon the moun- 
taineers, and for the purpose of secur- 
ing the pass leading in this direction 
towards the sea. Opposite this barrow 
or tumulus, on the west side of the 
town stood another not so high as 
Tommen y Bala, but of greater extent. 
There is now a read formed through its 
centre, but vestiges of it are still ex- 
tremely apparent. There are several 
other tumuli near the town, but the two 
we have mentioned are the most con- 
siderable. May not the existence of 
these barrows tend to prove the Romish 
origin of the place,—or, at all events, 
that it was once in the possession of the 
Romans ? 
We returned to Dolgelley on the fol- 
lowing morning, and in three days af- 
terwards, having visited all the most 
remarkable places in Merionethshire, 
bade adieu to the wild mountains of the 
principality.—but not; with that ready 
gladness which the prospect of a speedy 
* Bala takes its name from its vicinity 
to a place where a river discharges itself 
into a lake. Balloch in the Erse language 
signifies the same. 
meeting 
