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v N 



MEMOIR OF PENNANT! 29 



X^UF 



tent, and to assist bis friends with his advice and ex- 

 perience. He visited the Isle of Man, Northamp- 

 tonshire, and made the first notes of his tour from 

 Chester to London. The most important incident 

 which occurred during the latter, took place at Buck- 

 ingham, where he narrowly escaped a death suited 

 to an antiquary. "I visited the old church at eight 

 o'clock in the morning ; it fell hefore six in the after- 

 noon, and I escaped being buried in its ruins." 



He also made several excursions into North Wales, 

 which supplied the materials for the first volume of 

 his tour in that country, published in 1778, and there- 

 fore the next of his works which we have to examine. 

 It forms one thick 4to volume, and commences as 

 usual from Downing, upon the same plan as his 

 Scotch tours. It, however, contains less of the na- 

 tural history of the districts, and is mostly occupied 

 with ancient history and antiquities, and is a valuable 

 record of the state of the county at the period when 

 it was written. The most important portions of the 

 work are, a description of the ancient and curious 

 city of Chester, which occupies nearly a hundred 

 pages, and must be interesting to every reader ; and 

 the history of the career of Owen Glyndwr, who so 

 long disputed the supremacy of Wales with Henry 

 IV., one whom Shakspeare tells was not " in the 

 roll of common men," and at whose nativity 



" The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, 

 Of burning cressets ; and at my birth, 

 The frame and huqre foundation of the earth 

 Shak'd like a coward." 



