the honour to boast of my origin from thence; and as the name and exploits of my ancestors continually occur through the wild heroic pages of Welfh fable or hiftory." Here again Mr. Cradock might have mended his motto, by borrowing another line or two from Shakespeare's Othello; who, like himself, could boast his defcent from "men of royal fiege;" but that the more modeft Moor did not know that boafting was an honour. Admitting, however, our traveller's plea both for beafting and writing, furely he might have favoured his readers. in printing and publishing with more than feventy words in a page! At this rate printed tours will foon be as dear as officecopies of bills and anfwers in Chancery. We cannot quite fpare room, nor, if we could, is the matter worth it; we fhould otherwife be tempted to print the whole of this petty (we had almost faid catch-penny) publication, in a few pages of our Review. But fhorter fpecimens will fuffice.-After duly afcertaining (prudently no doubt to prevent difputes among pofterity) the date of this important tour, undertaken in the autumn Anno Domini, 1776, our author acquaints us that, he fet out from Shrewsbury for Welfh Poole, where, tho' fo near the Severn, Salmon is never under twelve-pence a pound! From Welsh Poole, he orders a carriage to convey him to Llanvair, his laft ftage on known ground. Here, fays he, "the road was perfectly good, the people fpoke English, and their civility was fo remarkable, that the very turnpike-man was grateful for the toll."-It is well our traveller gives this hint, or we might otherwife have fufpected, from his quitting the last ftage on known ground, that he was going to ferry it over the Styx, to that unknown bourne from which no traveller returns: but Charon is a furly old dog, and never thanks any halfpenny paffenger for paying him toll.-But to proceed with our traveller on his unkown ground: of which he gives fo curious and enigmatical a delcription, that it may remain ftill unknown for any thing we can make of it.

"I was here (viz. at quitting known ground,) moft ftrongly recommended to a good houfe, about twelve miles diftant, but found it only a miferable hut; I therefore prefied onwards as faft as poffible, and after fome difficulties arrived at Dynys-Mouthy.

"This City (for Dynys is Welth for City) is poffeffed of many and great advantages; there is no body-corporate to divide it into faction, there is not a fingle Office that can poffibly be contended forthe rent of houfes will be the fame at all feafons, and even in August you are never incommoded by the fun. The river is not large, but it will never be encroached upon by the inhabitants; their fequeftered walks will never be injured by any fresh Dealers in Tafte,-indeed they have only one tree to cut down, an oak planted in the reign of

Charles

Charles the Second; and I believe they have never heard of any King fince."

If our readers can decypher this conundrum defcription of Dynys-Mouthy, it is more than we can. It might, for us, have been full as well written in Welsh-Thefe DynysMouthians, it feems, have never heard of a King, fince Charles the fecond! To be fure, none of our Kings have made much noife fince!-There have, indeed, been a royal abdication, a revolution, and two rebellions fince; but no matter, the Dynys-Mouthians have got one royal-oak; and as that stands, the King, in whofe reign it was planted, must live for ever. And yet we are told, these fame antiquated DynysMouthyans are no ftrangers to the novel bon ton: they drefs in the top of the mode; for," as to the fashions, they are fimilar to those in town-the head-drefs of the females is very high, and in a morning they generally wear the Half-Polonefe."-We can no more reconcile this inconfiftency in the natives, than we can relifh the quaint turns and affected obfcurity of defcription in the writer. As to provifions, fays he, "the people do not attempt to make what nature has not beftowed upon them. They gave me whatever they had, bread, uncontaminated with fpurious mixtures, and milk, that was abfolutely from the cow." Abfolutely this is wonderful! They neither make cheese, butter, custards, milk-porridge, puddings, nor pancakes, at Dynys-Mouthy; and bread-fruit grows in North-Wales juft as naturally as the Banana at Otaheite!There are other ftrange things alfo in this country, it seems, that nobody before ever dreamt on: fome that our traveller did fee, and fome that he did not fee.

"I did not fee a Cathedral, nor heard of either bifhop or palace; probably he might refide at a great distance, and have configned his flock over to a chapel of ease.

"There is no court of judicature open here. This city is as free from attornies as ancient Thebes; indeed the two never-failing fources of litigation, the Poor laws and the Game laws, are entirely unknown. There is not even a Quack; fo thofe whom liquor fpares, generally die at a very advanced age.

"The Theatre is held in great repute. I had the pleasure to be prefent at one play, which is here called an Anterlute, probably a corruption from our term Interlude. The piece was faid to have been written by a celebrated Mr. Evan Something, who lived at Bala; but, from the actions, geftures, and emblems, I conceived it to have been mo. delled from before Shakespeare's time. The plot was in part fimilar to a burletta, which has frequently been exhibited in London, called La Serva Padrona, but the mufic was certainly not Pergolefi's. The orchestra, to be fure, was exceedingly contracted; but we must reflect that fome of our beft, as well as earliest dramas, were only accompa

nied

nied by a Harp. The price of admittance to this elegant entertainment would have been termed by the Romans, Denarius."

The mere English reader will certainly be puzzled here to know, what Mr. Cradock means; and how much the price of admittance to this Welsh theatre was; if he have the bonour to boost Welsh extraction, he will probably be apt also to put himself in a paffion at being fo purposely puzzlęd; but don't let him be angry. Mr. Cradock, we fee, fets up for a Scholar and a Wit; and, as your Scholars cannot exprefs themselves in a plain way, familiar to common capacities, fo your Wits have allowedly a cramp, roundabout, way to make themselves understood at all. It is well for the world that there are fuch mediátorial beings as Critics and Reviewers to ferve as interpreters between them. Our Scholar, and Wit, is unluckily, however, a little out in his reckoning here, if we, ourfelves, are not deceived in our computation.-He fays, the price of admittance would have been termed by the Romans, Denarius. Now, as we conceive it, he means to fay the price was, what the English term a penny. A pitiful price, indeed, for the entertainment of fo reputable a theatre *. But tho' an Englishman, fpeaking Latin, might term it Denarius, the Romans would not have fet fo little value on fuch an entertainment. The Denarius of the Romans, according to Tillemont, was of fufficient value for a man's fubfiftence per diem; equivalent, according to other writers, to the keep of a man handsomely for twenty-four hours: according to others, equal to twelve French Sols, or eleven pence EnglishNow, was this the price Mr. Cradock paid? If not, he is in this inftance no Scholar, but only a Wit; and this inftance of his wit is not worth the fubje&t of it, a modern penny.-Nor feems our traveller more ambitious to difplay his wit and learning, than to appear a politician and moralift.

"The road from Dynys-Mouthy afforded very little amusement, and the first caft of Cader Idris greatly difappointed me; but I foon recollected, that as I was then on very high ground, it must have been from fome other point of view that this mountain had rendered itself so remarkable. In the course of this reflection, I was on à fudden delighted with the country round Dolgelly,-woods, rocks, a rich vale, a fine river, and, at that distance, the appearance of rather a decent town, furrounded with many gentlemen's feats,-these, contrafted with the barrennefs I had juft travelled through, all joined to

We hope, therefore, for its emolument, Mr. Cradock difplayed fome of that generofity, he formerly fhewed to our London Theatres, by giving, the Mrs. Yates of the Welth company, a copy of his incomparable Zobeide. No difparagement to Mr. Evan Something's drama, it would, without the aid of Pergolefi's mufic, make full as good an Anterlute as ever was accompanied by the Welsh harp!

Vol. VI.

K

render

render the profpect truly delicious. But how was I difgufted on my arrival at the interior parts of this miferable place! there is no street in it; you pass from dungeon to dungeon, through a multiplicity of hogyards;-before I reached the inn, I heard a cracked trumpet founding every where about, and immediately concluded that I might fee, in the evening, another farce or anterlute; but was informed it was only intended to call the Juftices to the quarter-feffions. At the inn there was nothing to be obtained; fo that as foon as poffible I fe..t out for a Guide, that I might retire to the mountains ;whilft I was in waiting, I enquired about the only tolerable building I then faw, and was told it was for cock-matches, fuch as we had in England;-that they were just over, but that I might go immediately and fee a famous man from London fhew tricks of flight of hand. I chiefly wished for fome refreshment, having greatly fuffered from fatigue and illnefs the preceding day; but as I was a ftranger, the people fhewed me little or no civility, and on my enquiring for horfes, took every advantage of my diftrels. I was now almost inclined to have bestowed upon them fcme rather ungracious epithers; but 1 confidered, that as we feemed to be teaching them nothing from England but cruelty and fraud, I ought rather to lament the cause than infult the effect of their brutality."

The reader fhould confider here that our traveller, being very hungry and of Welfh extraction, was in a humour to be very angry; it is no wonder though that a moody expreffion, or two, fhould in fuch circumftances efcape hiin.-Having thus cautioned our readers, refpecting the ferious attention to be paid to this romantic account of the romantic parts of North Wales; we fhall quote only a p: ffage or two more, for their amufement, and to fhew, the propriety of fuch caution.

"Before we reached Tan y Bwlch, we ftopped to look into a small church, where fome cleanly villagers were aflembled at evening prayers, -the women were by far the handfomeft of any I faw in this country; the clergyman was reading the leflon concerning David and his Concubines, and I could not help reflecting, that if thefe ignorant people fhould any way confound the Old with the New Law, they might here find fome excule for that Gallantry, which facrifices the virtue of fo any temales in this neighbourhood: to prevent fuch a mistake, would it not be proper to have an expofition made of this chapter, and tranflated into Welih? I mean only, provided the learned labour could be confined within the narrow limits of five volumes in folio.

"I was much fruk with the fituation of Mrs. Griffith's house at Tan y Bwich, at firth fight it fomewhat refembled Matlock Bath, but the hills in front are thrown to a fine diftance, and behind the boule they are covered with wood; through a very fpacious valley the river Dryryd runs, and from the tops of the mountains are frequent and not inconfiderable cataracts, indeed most of the romantic prospects of North Wales, taken separately, are infinitely fuperior to thofe of Derbyshire; but where fhall we find, within the fame distance, such amazing contraft as the high polish of Kedleston, opposed to the bleak horrors of the Peak?

Mrs.

"Mrs. Griffith is poffeffed of a confiderable fortune,-he has an only daughter, to whom a fenfible clergyman, who refides in the house, is tutor, and who, though a chaplain, is treated as independent. A lady, it is true, in fuch a country, cannot be every day interrupted with vifitants, but Mrs. Griffith has generally a felect party of friends,thele form a rational fociety, whereas in many places a good neighbourhood means little more than keeping an inn at your own expence."

That is as much as to fay that Mrs. Griffith's friends always confiderately bring their pippins and cheefe, in their packets. Not but that there is a real inn at Tan y Bwlch, the history and prefent fituation of whofe landlady are judged worth recording in this important Tour.

"The mistress of the little inn at Tan y Bwlch, has lived many years fervant in confiderable families, and, from her attentive civility, has received great commendations from the few Englishmen that have hitherto vifited this country.-Her houfe is this year much improved; -Lord Radnor, having flaid a day or two there, has made her a pe fent of the fitting up of her parlour: two fafh-windows add great chearfulness to the room, and each grateful paffenger readily joins with the landlady in celebrating the kindnefs of the public-fpirited young nobleman."

A wonderful inftance of public fpirit indeed! A prefent of two fafh windows, and the fitting up of a dinking-parlour; for we will not fuppofe it ever put to any other ufe.-The rest of the obfervations, contained in this volume, are of pretty much the fame importance; except indeed fuch as are borrowed from other writers; which, by the way, are not few; The Archaeologia of the Antiquarian Society, Whitaker, and other authors, being robbed in a manner very cavalierly, and too much in the file of the Gentleman-highwayman, to fubje&t the author to the imputation of a foot-pad plagiary.

66

We have hinted at the vile quaintnets and affectation in the fentiment and expreffion, made ufe of in the courte of this work; they are indeed frequently very puerile and difgufting. "Ihe Britons," fays Mr. Cradock, were not to totally deftitute of defence as hath been imagined; the island is itself a Shield, and they certainly made ufe of the battle axe, as well as military chariot."-The following far &tched compliment is paid to Mr. Mafon, and to the memory of Mr. Gray."

"I made feveral Excurfions into the Isle of Anglefea, the wellknown Seat of the Druids;-this may now Le confidered as Clattical Ground; for though Mona is destroyed, and her altars abolifted,though Fires have confumed her Groves; and her Priests have perished by the Sword, yet, like the Phoenix, fle rifes more glorious from Decay; her Afhes have given Birth to the Caractacus of Mafon, and the Fate of her Bards to the Infpilation of Gray.”