A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES. 67 



fortrefs was found to be a difagreeable check 

 upon the Welfh, therefore in 1165 Owen 

 Gwynedd, after many unfuccefsful attempts 

 at laft took it by ftorm, and immediately le- 

 velled it with the ground.* From this 

 time I have feen nothing more of it as a 

 fortrefs. 



The great dike asd fb&, called Wat's 

 Dike, which begins at Maelbury near Of- 

 weftry, and pafles by Ofweftry through 

 Sir Watkin Williams Wynne's grounds at 

 Wynnftay, near Wrexham, Hope and 

 Northop, had it's, termination in the Dee 

 near this place. Churchyard the poet is 

 almoft the only writer who has not con- 

 founded this with Offa's Dike. He afiigns 

 as the object of the work that the fpace 

 between the two was to be free ground, 

 where the Britons and Saxons might meet 

 with fafety for all commercial purpofes. 



* Powel's Hiftory of Wales, 223. 



F 2 There 



