![The Cambrian Directory [1800]; Or, Cursory Sketches of the Welsh Territories - Anonymous](/cover_903610.jpg "The Cambrian Directory [1800]; Or, Cursory Sketches of the Welsh Territories - Anonymous")
Dahl.
This Castle belongs to a grandson of the Marquis of Bute.
In this place, Robert Earl of Gloucester founded a Priory of White-friars, and another of Black, which continued till the reign of Henry VIII. Only the shell of the White-friars is now extant, and the ruins of the Black-friars are inhabited by fishermen.
From hence we walked to inspect the remains of that once celebrated city
LANDAFF;
the ruins of the old Cathedral are very beautiful, the door cases are all Norman architecture elegantly moulded; two of which, on the North and South sides, are fine specimens of that æra. All the other parts are Gothic: the nave is unroofed. Within these ruins we entered the Cathedral, which carries with it more the appearance of a modern theatre, than a place of divine worship, so erroneous was the taste of the architect, in combining with the sacred Gothic, a fantastical work of his own. Among several ancient monuments, are two very elegant ones of the Mathews family, [18a] whose descendants own the scite of the Bishop’s Castle, of which only the gate remains: the rest, with the Archdeacon’s house, was destroyed by Owen Glendour. [18b] There are likewise the monuments of two bishops, with another, and the figure of Lady Godiva, full length, carved in marble on it.
Landaff stands on a small eminence, commanding a view of Cardiff, and the surrounding country.—We returned again to Cardiff: and the first six miles of our road to
CAERPHILY
were not very interesting, till ascending Thorn Hill, the beauties of the vale below, with Flat and Steep Holmes rising in the distant prospect, the ruins of Cardiff Castle, and the ivy-mantled walls of Landaff Cathedral, amply compensated for the trouble of climbing this eminence. A little farther on, Caerphily Castle burst upon our sight, and
—“seem’d to frown,
In awful majesty on all around.”
The founder, and the time of its erection are very uncertain; but I refer my readers to the first volume of the Archæologia; to an ingenious Dissertation, by Daines Barrington, where it is satisfactorily proved to have been the work of Edward I. This Castle is one of the noblest ruins of ancient architecture now remaining in the kingdom, and exceeds all in bigness, except that of Windsor. The Hall and the Chapel may still be traced; the former measures about seventy feet in length, thirty-four in breadth, and seventeen in height. The roof is vaulted about eight feet high, and supported by twenty arches. On the North side is a chimney, ten feet wide, with two windows on each side, extending down to the floor, and carried above the supposed height of this room. At each angle was originally a round tower of four stories, communicating with each other by a gallery. On the West side of the Hall stairs, is a low round tower, of one story, called the Mint-house, with three painted arches on the South side, and a square well on the West. The leaning tower, towards the East end, more particularly engaged our notice: it is divided into two separate parts, by a large fissure, which runs from the top down almost to the middle. Its lineal projection is supposed to be on the outer side, about eleven feet and a half. On the West and North are visible vestiges of a draw-bridge. The East wall, on the South side of the principal entrance, is fluted between the buttresses, with battlements on their tops, to protect the intermediate walls.
At Caerphily we perceived a great change in the manners of the people; in the whole village, scarcely one person was capable of speaking English.
We now came to the celebrated vale of Glamorganshire, so justly styled the Garden of South-Wales; the rapid Taafe forms an almost continued uproar for many miles; on the opposite side the mountains rose almost perpendicularly in a massy wall, and sometimes to the water’s edge, finely clothed with wood. Every circumstance conspired to heighten the solitary grandeur of the scene, and to prolong the luxurious melancholy, which the views inspired. In this celebrated vale is found the famous Pont y Pridd, or New Bridge, about three quarters of a mile from the Duke of Bridgewater’s Arms, a comfortable inn, and far surpassing our miserable quarters at Caerphily. This wonderful bridge, of one arch, is the segment of a circle; the chord of it is one hundred and forty feet, and the heighth of the key-stone, from the spring of the arch, thirty-two feet and a half. It was erected, in the year 1750, by William Edwards, a country mason, who failed in his attempt three times, till, by lightening the abutments, it has resisted, for many years, the torrents of the Taafe.
The intrusion of art in this romantic valley, where nature has been so lavish of her beauties, is much to be lamented: a canal, for the purpose of conveying the iron from the Myther Works to Cardiff, renders it a place of frequent business and confusion; a place originally so well adapted to retirement and reflection.
MYTHER TIDVIL,
is a most miserable dirty place; the soil and the inhabitants both partook of a dark dingy colour: the women destitute of shoes and stockings, the men and boys the slaves of Vulcan. The Iron-works, under the direction of Mr. Cramshaw, are the largest in the kingdom; not less than one thousand hands are employed by this gentleman, who allows the person who inspects the machinery one-eighth of the profits, to keep them in repair. Four large blast furnaces, with a number of a smaller size, besides a row of forges, are continually in use. An enormous wheel has lately been constructed, with several inferior ones, acting in contrary directions, which pumps the air into a large space, from whence it is distributed, through various tubes, to each separate furnace. This wheel is fifty feet one inch in diameter, and six feet eight inches in width. The whole weight rests on gudgeons, of one hundred tons. The gudgeons of all the wheels, and of such parts of the machine where there is any friction, have water continually running over them, to prevent their taking fire. It is the particular office of one man to grease every part of the machine, whilst in motion; to accomplish which, he is frequently obliged to ride on an iron bar, similar to the lever of a pump when in motion, a considerable way from the ground. The whole of this machinery is worked by water, not more than a foot deep, which is conveyed by a long spout to the top of the wheel, where it discharges itself. The ore, flux, [23] and coals, which they use to promote the fusion of the ore, are all found on the spot. The ore, previous to its being thrown into the furnace, is burnt in a common lime-pit, the goodness of it afterwards proved, by its adhesion to the tongue; the coal is all charked, and continually put in the furnace, with certain proportions of ore. From the pigs, the iron is rolled into flat plates by a cylinder; this is performed with the greatest dispatch. The gaunt figures of the workmen excite both pity and terror, and the sallow countenances and miserable air of the people, prove it is a labour very prejudicial to their health. From hence we travelled the road to
PONT NEATH VECHAN,
inaccessible for carriages, indifferent for pedestrians, and affording nothing worthy our attention. It lay over a barren heath, with mountains on one side, and a dreary waste of land before us. About a mile and a half from Vechan, we unexpectedly descended
