HENRY SKRINE
1798

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Returning through the dismal village of Llanerchymedd to Gwyndu, we soon left the island of Anglesea, and repassed the Menai straits at Bangor ferry, from whence an excellent road, commanding a variety of fine prospects on the coast, led us to Caernarvon. - The wooded bank of the Anglesey shore stretched far before us on our right, decorated with a noble old seat of the Earl of Uxbridge, while below it the great channel of the Menai straits perpetually varied its form, presenting in one point of view a large navigable river, and in others the basin of a fine lake encompassed by an amphitheatre of thick groves. The country immediately surrounding us was extremely pleasant, being interspersed with various gentle acclivities which formed the entrance to as many wooded valleys, and penetrated in sight into the hollows of those high impending mountains which hid Snowdon from our view. At length all the attendant scenery became expanded, and as we approached Caernarvon, the towers of its mighty castle stood boldly forward before its embattled walls, just where the sea, emerging from its straits and assuming its proper form, mixed with St. George's Channel, and washed the rocky shore on the south-west of Anglesey near Newburgh. The neatness and regularity of this town, its delightful situation, and the pleasant walk on its quay, with its accommodation for sea bathing, have induced several English families to make it their summer residence, for the purpose of avoiding the crowded inconvenience of the more polished, but less simple, public places in the south of England; hence has Caernarvon, like Swansea and Tenby in south Wales, acquired much improvement and a superior display of elegance from the resort of strangers, still preserving its original features.

Caernarvon, like Conway, is walled round, and its walls and gates are entire; it was made a free borough by Edward I, the royal founder of its castle. That magnificent fortress was finished in 1284, and was wonderfully situated for strength before the introduction of artillery, standing on an isolated neck of land, almost surrounded by the sea and the river Seiont. This rival of Conway in its splendour, now languishes in a similar state of decay, and threatens by a speedy downfall to deprive the country of one of its principal ornaments. A grand gateway, with a statue of its founder over it, guarded by four portcullisses beneath a lofty tower, introduced us to the great oblong court of the castle. The towers of this court are high and angular, with turrets of the same kind rising from their tops, three of which decorate the great Eagle tower, in which we were shewn the apartment famous for the birth of Edward II, the first English Prince of Wales. The noble prospect however which its summit affords is much more satisfactory to a traveller than the display of a small dark room, celebrated only for having produced the most weak and degenerate of our monarchs. - There are some remains of the antient Segontium near this town, and a summer-house on the opposite hill occupies the site of a Roman fort. The walk to this eminence is pleasant, and it commands an extensive view over the sea, the Straits, Anglesea, and the mountains, but it has lately been unmercifully stript of the fine wood with which the whole hill was clothed.

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Henry Skrine - Two successive tours throughout the whole of Wales, with several of the adjacent English counties; so as to form a comprehensive view..... London. 1798.

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