436 THE WELSH ROADS. PART VIII. 



doubtful whether the service could be conducted in 

 safety. Attempts were made to enforce the law with 

 reference to their repairs, and no less than twenty-one 

 townships were indicted by the Postmaster-General. 

 The route was found too perilous even for a riding 

 post, the legs of three horses having been broken in one 

 week. 1 The road across Anglesea was quite as bad. 

 Sir Henry Parnell mentioned, in 1819, that the coach 

 had been overturned beyond Gwynder, going down one 

 of the hills, when a friend of his was thrown a consi- 

 derable distance from the roof into a pool of water. 

 Near the post-office of Gwynder, the coachman had 

 been thrown from his seat by a violent jolt, and broken 

 his leg. The post-coach, and also the mail, had been 

 overturned at the bottom of Penmyndd Hill ; and the 

 route was so dangerous that the London coachmen, who 

 had been brought down to " work " the country, refused 

 to continue the duty because of its excessive dangers. 

 Of course, anything like a regular mail-service through 

 such a district was altogether impracticable. 



The indictments of the townships proved of no 

 use ; the localities were too poor to provide the means 

 required to construct a line of road sufficient for the con- 

 veyance of mails and passengers between England and 

 Ireland. The work was really a national one, to be 

 carried out at the national cost. How was this best 

 to be done ? Telford recommended that the old road 

 between Shrewsbury and Holy head (109 miles long) 

 should be shortened by about four miles, and made as 

 nearly as possible on a level ; the new line proceeding 

 from Shrewsbury by. Llangollen, Corwen, Bettws-y- 

 Coed, Capel-Curig, and Bangor, to Holyhead. Mr. 

 Telford also proposed to cross the Menai Strait by 

 means of a cast iron bridge, hereafter to be described. 



1 ' Second Report from Committee on Holyhead Roads and Harbours,' 1810. 

 (Parliamentary paper.) 



