A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES. 55 



fquare court ; under this arch the catholics 

 ufed to fwim as an acl: of penance. 



The legendary ftory of the origin of this 

 well is fingular and curious. Wenefride* 

 (in Welfh Gwenvrewi j Tudur Aled, a 

 Welfh Bard, who flourished about A. D. 

 1450, has celebrated this Virgin and the re- 

 puted miracles of her well, in a poem flill 

 extant), who is faid to have lived in the 

 early part of the ' feventh century, was a 

 beautiful and devout virgin, of noble paren- 

 tage. She was niece to St. Beuno, who, 

 having obtained from her father leave to 

 found a church upon his pofTerTions here, 

 took her under his protection, in order to 

 affift her in her religious exercifes. Cra- 

 docus, the fon of King Alen, whofe refi- 

 dence appears to have been not far diftant, 



* The following account is taken principally 

 from Bifhop Fleetwood's edition of the Life of St. 

 Wenefrede, 8vo. Lond. 1713. 



E 4 admired 



