THE HORSE ME X 21 



more greatly daviui;. crept round by the rocks 

 underiieatli at ebb tide. Swift wrote two couplets 

 for the inn that then stood beside the track on 

 renmaenmawr. As the traveller approached he 

 read, on the swinging sign : — 



Before you venture liei-e to pass, 

 Take a good ivfreshing glass: 



while the returning wayfarer was cheered by : — 



Now this hill you'i-e s;\fely over, 

 Prink, your spirits to recover. 



One personage, greatly daring, did in 1GS5 

 succeed in passing his carriage over this height. 

 This was the Viceroy, Henry, Earl of Clarendon. 

 Avho. ill enough advised to try for Holyhead, 

 embarked liis baggage at Chester, and essayed this 

 perilous undertaking. '* If the Aveather be good," 

 he wrote, before setting out, '* we go under the 

 rocks in our coaches." But it was December, the 

 weather was not good, and so they had to take to 

 the hill-top. His Excellency had ample cause to 

 regret the venture, for he was live hours travelling 

 the fourteen miles between St. Asaph and Conway, 

 and on the crossing of Penmaeumawr the ** great 

 heavy coach " had to be drawn by the horses in 

 single trace, while three oi* four sturdy AVelsli 

 peasants, hii-ed for the job, pushed behind, so that 

 it should not slip back. His Excellency walked 

 all the way across, from Conway to Bangor, and 

 Li\dy Clarendon was c<irried in a litter. How the 

 Menai Straits were crossed does not appear, but 



