A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES. 53 



a perfon, hired by the inhabitants, has a 

 leathern ftrap fattened round his neck at 

 the end of which is fufpended a bell of a 

 tolerable weight, and over one of his knees 

 is buckled a cufhion ; thus accoutred he 

 fets out juft before the hour of prayers, and 

 walks round the principal parts of the 

 town jingling the bell every time his cu- 

 fhioned knee comes forward. 



Giraldus Carnbrenfis fays, that there was 

 formerly near this place a rich mine of 

 lilver.* 



Wenefride's Well, from which the name 

 of Holywell was given to this place, fprings 

 with vaft impetuoiity from a rock at the 

 foot of a fteep hill at the bottom of the 

 town. This well is covered by a fmall 

 Gothic building, faid to have been creeled 

 by Margaret the mother of Henry VII. but 



* Itinerarium Cambria? au6lore Syl. Giraldo 

 Cambrenfr, Lib. II. Cap. X. p. 872. 



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