The history of the parishes of Whiteford, and Holywell:

HISTORY OF HOLYWELL PARISH.

AT Avon-marsh Siambr, (see p. 52.) we quit the parish of Whiteford, and enter the township of Greenfield, in the parish of Holywell, along a most excellent road. On the left is a continuation of the marsh. Above which is a low cliff, of the same nature as those which front the shore of the parish of Whiteford.

LET me preface this little history with saying that Avon Marsh Siambr is six miles distant from the rill which divides Holywell parish from that of Flint; that its greatest breadth is three miles from the turnpike road in Greenfield, to the borders of the parish of Skyviog;* 1.1 and that the parish consists of the town|ships of Holywell, Greenfield, Bagillt Vawr and Vechan, Whel|ston, Coleshill Vawr and Vechan, Brynfordd, and Calcoed. Its

boundaries on the east are Flint, and part of Northop parishes; on the east Halkin; on the south-east Skyviog; on the west Whiteford; and on the north the estuary of the river Dee.

* 1.2ABOVE Avon-marsh Siambr, on the rising ground, stands S••cky••, a small house, which, with the estate belonging to it, has been of late years purchased by James Potts, publican in Holywell, and the house much improved. It originally belonged to a Mostyn, a younger branch of the Mostyns of Trelacre; T. M. signi|fying the name of Thomas Mostyn, cut above the arms on the mo|nument. A daughter of this gentleman, or one of his descendants, and heiress of the place, transferred the estate into the very antient family of the Blounts, of Orlton, in the county of Hereford, and with them it remained till the purchase by the present possessor.

* 1.3THE rights of the freeholders over the marsh extend a certain way to the east. These were settled by commissioners, in the year 1787, and a plan made, asserting the clames, as well of the freeholders, as of the River Dee Company. These were founded on acts of parlement, originating in the years 1732 and the fol|lowing, from that of the 11th and 12th of William III. entitled,

An act to enable the mayor and citizens of Chester to recover and preserve the navigation of the river Dee.

It is possible that Mr. Andrew Yarrenton might be the primary cause of the improvements, by a survey he had made, in the year 1674, of the river Dee and its estuary.—I refer my reader to the account I have given, at p. 200 of my Welsh Tour, vol. i. for farther particulars.

THE other acts were passed in the years 1740, 1742, and 1752, and the works were begun with vigor. The project was carried on by subscription; and the adventurers were to be

rewarded by the lands they were empowered to gain on both sides, from the White Sands, or the sea from Chester; and between the county of Cheshire, on the north side, and the county of Flint on the south side; being sands, soil, and ground not bearing grass. The tract, as appears by the chart attending the award made in 1787, and preserved among the records by the clerk of the peace for the county of Flint, terminate on our side at the Point of Air, in the parish of Llanasaph: on the Cheshire side at the Little Meels, at the extremity of the hundred of Wiral.

THE adventurers in the River Dee Company have gained a considerable quantity of land from the ravages of the sea, be|ginning from the walls of the city of Chester, and extending above five miles, even beyond the lower ferry.

THE report of the quantity of embanked land made from the beginning, by the River Dee Company and others (according as it is made to me by Mr. Wedge, agent to the company) is as follows:

Acres inclosed by the company,	3,500
On Blacon-marsh, belonging to John Crewe, of Crewe, esquire, about	300
On the south side of the river, belonging to the free-holders of Hawarden, as Mr. Wedge believes, about	2,200
Total statute acres	6,000
Marshes uninclosed, August 13th, 1795, about	2,000

MR. WEDGE informs me that the grass which is found to an|swer best in these sandy inclosures is medicago sativa, Lucerne.* 1.4 It

will not however grow to any perfection on land where there is not a depth of at lest two feet of dry sand or soil beneath the surface, and succeeds (like most other grass••) in proportion to the quality of the soil. All kinds of stock are 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of it; it is of a very feeding nature, and is both grazed 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ••rvested. Close grazing will destroy it; but if properly attended to, and assisted with manure about every f•• ye••r, the plants will continue strong for upwards of thirty years. It may be grazed (sparingly) with safety in the spring, until the first week in May, and also in autumn, in the months of October and November, after the second crop is out. The hay, being of a dying nature, seems to be much better adapted for feeding stock, than either for horses or milking cows. I know no kind of hay that stock will feed faster upon than Lucerne, if it is well har|vested; as grass, it will answer best for soiling stock, when housed.

* 1.5NO attempts to embank were made farther to the west, till the summer of 1794, when about forty statute acres were inclosed by the same company, on the white sands bordering on Green|field marsh. Early in the next winter a fierce tide destroyed part of the embankment: but it now seems to be restored in the most effectual manner * 1.6.

* 1.7NEAR the extremity of this marsh the turnpike gates cross the roads leading to Flint and Holywell. A grand and beneficial

project was some years ago formed, of making two canals. The one to be carried over the marsh (assisted by the Holywell stream) down to or near the perch or anchoring-ground; with a lock ca|pable of receiving vessels of a hundred tons burden.

ANOTHER canal was designed to have branched from this eastward as far as Pentre r••k, near Flint-castle, for the purpose of carrying the coal which was or may be discovered on that tract, either to the various mineral works, or into the lock for exportation. I trust, if ever the plan is resumed, that it may ex|tend a little farther, to the collieries belonging to Sir Roger Mostyn and myself, and others which may be discovered here|after. Nor see we any reason for our exclusion by so impolitic a partiality! The more choice of shops, the cheaper the goods. Both of the plans were taken by the able engineer, Mr. William Jessop, in the year 1785, and declared to be practicable. The expence indeed would have been very great; but alas! the aspect of the times forbids us to flatter ourselves with the resumption of the great design.

THE Mark, or place where the vessels lie to receive or discharge their lading, is about two miles from the turnpike gate.* 1.8 The channel of the Holywell river is to be seen at low water meandring to it, and might prove a useful means of improving the commerce of the country. At present the vessels must, on the recess of the tide, lie dry, and in hard gales, before they get afloat, are subject to much danger. The sands also shift, and make the Mark or an|choring-ground often precarious.

THE River Dee Company have power to inclose as far as the channel of the Dee, which in Holywell parish is supposed to extend

as far as three miles from the turnpike road. In a late act of parlement for ascertaining the rights of the parish, and those of the company, in the spring of 1791, the agents for the company, after the act to confirm a line of boundary between the property of the company and the part of the marsh which was common, had been twice read, introduced clauses to render their pro|perty extra-parochial, and consequently to exempt the occu|piers from contributing to the church and poor, and other parochial rates of Holywell, Whiteford, or any parishes concerned; and also to exempt future householders from being liable to execute any offices within those parishes; and at the expence of others, artfully attempting to exonerate their tenants from bearing any part of the burdens. But the design was discovered, and the offensive clause omitted.

THE company have obtained a grant of all their lands from the parish of Hawarden to that of Whiteford, under the follow|ing circumstances:

Lands derelict by the sea belong to his prerogative; and being consequently extra-parochial, the tythes are due to the king; and if he grants them, his patentee shall have them.

Such is the opinion of Sir John Comyns, as conveyed to me by the favor of Edward Jones, esquire, of Wepre hall.

* 1.9ON passing the turnpike gate, a small walk brings us to the site of the abby and castle of Basingwerk, a place of importance in the wars between the English and Welsh. The land towards the sea is steeply sloped. The west side was protected by a deep gully, formed by the river. The south east by the vast ditch, which had hitherto been mistaken for that made by Ossa, king

of the Mercians. I owe the detection of the error to Mr. John Evans, of Llwyn y Groes, who proves it to b•• one termination of another stupendous work of the same kind, called Wat's Dike, which appears by his ma••nificent map of NORTH WALES, pub|lished this year, to have first become visible near Maesbury mill, in Oswestry parish, where it is lost in morassy ground; from thence it takes a northern direction to Hên ddinas, and by Pentre'r Clawdd, to Gobowen, the site of a small sort, called Bryn y Castell, in the parish of Whittington: then crosses Prys Henlle Common, in the parish of St. Martin; goes over the Ceir••g, between Brynkinallt and Pont y Blew forge, and the Dee below Nant y Bela; from whence it passes through Wynnstay Park, by another Pentre 'r Clawdd, or township on the ditch, to ERDDIG, the seat of Philip Yorke, esq where there was another strong fort on its course: from Erddig it goes above Wrexham, near Melin Puleston, by Dolydd, Maesgwyn, Rhôs ddu, Croes oneiras, Mr. Shakerley's Gwersyllt; crosses the Alun, and through the township of Llai, to Rhydin, in the county of Flint; above which is Caerestyn, a British post: from hence it runs by Hope church, along the side of Molesdale, which it quits towards the lower part, and turns to Mynydd Lychdyn, Monachlog near Northop, by Northop mills, Bryn-moel, Coed y llys, Nant y Flint, Cefn y Coed, through the Strand fields near Holywell, to its ter|mination below the abby of Basingwerk. I have been thus mi|nute in giving its course, because it is so often confounded with Offa's ditch, which attends the former at unequal distances, from five hundred yards to three miles, till the latter is totally lost.

IT is observable, that there are numbers of small artificial mounts, the sites of small forts, in many places along its course,

as well as that of Offa's. These were garrisoned, and seem in|tended for the same purposes as the towers in the famous Chinese wall, to watch the motions of neighbors, and to repel any hostile incursions.

IT is remarkable that Wat's dike should have been overlooked, or confounded with that of Offa, by all writers except by Thomas Churchyard the poet, who assigns the object of the work: that the space intervening between the two was free ground, where the Britons and Saxons might meet with safety for all commercial purposes.

* 1.10VESTICES of the fortress appear in the foundation of a wall on the edge of the ditch, and on the road side, near the turnpike gate, opposite to the ruins of the abby. Lord Lytteiton * 1.11 says, that the founder was an earl of Chester. I imagine that it must have been Richard, son of Hugh Lupus, and second earl of Chester, and that the abby was fortified by reason of a danger he had incurred near the abby: for even religious ••tutions had no exemption, tempore necessitatis, l••lli ••citum est, hospitari et in castellari in ecclesia † 1.12.

THE first notice I find of it is in the life of St. Werburg, by Bra••s••aw; who informs us, that Richard, on his return out of Normandy, where he had been educated, began his reign with an act of piety. He attempted, in 1119, a pilgrimage to the well of St. Wene••rede; but, either in going or returning, was attacked by the Welsh, and obliged to take shelter in Basingwerk. He applied to St. W••burg for relief; who miraculously raised certain sands between Flintshire and Wiral, and thus gave means

to his constable to pass to his assistance: which sands, from that time, were called the Constable's Sands. Bradshaw styles the place of his retreat an abby; a proof that here had been a re|ligious community before the time usually assigned for the foun|dation of this house. I must also draw from Lord Lyttelton's au|thority (for I can find no other) that this castle was demolished by the Welsh in the reign of Stephen * 1.13.

HENRY II. in 1157, after his escape from the ambuscade of Eulo, left Basingwerk restored, well fortified, and manned † 1.14, in order to secure a retreat on any future disaster. He did the same by the castle of Ruddlan. In his days the inland parts of our county were a dangerous wild of forest. After his defeat he never trusted himself among our woods; but made his marches along the open shores.

THE same monarch left another species of garrison ‡ 1.15; for he established here a house of knights templars, a military order introduced into England in the preceding reign. They were first instituted in the Holy Land for the protection of pilgrims; and possibly Henry might have the same in view in fixing them here, to secure the English devotees in performing their vows to our neighboring saint, who seems about this time to have come into reputation. It is singular, that these religious knights were allowed at their institution only one horse between two; yet so greatly did they flourish, that about the year 1240, or a hundred and fifty years after their institution, the order had acquired, in different parts of Christendom, nineteen thousand manors.

THIS castle was but of very short duration; for in 1165, the gallant prince Owen Gwynedd laid siege to it, took ‖ 1.16 and levelled

it to the ground; after which the name occurs no more as a fortress. I think at this period it belonged to Hugh de Bello Campo, or Beauchamp, on whom this and Ruddlan castle had been bestowed by the English monarch * 1.17.

* 1.18THE abby † 1.19, of which there are some considerable remains, was founded in 1131 (according to the opinion of Bishop Tanner) by Randal the second earl of Chester: according to Bishop Fleet|wood, by Henry II. For my part, I believe it to be of greater antiquity; but do not pretend to derive its origin. No light into the matter can be collected from the charters preserved by Sir William Dugdale. There are three of them, either serving to confirm the antient donations, or confer new: in each is mention of the earl as a benefactor; but there is not the lest hint of his having been the founder. I must attribute that honor to one of the princes of Wales; for both Lhewelyn ap Jor|werth, and his son David, in their respective charters recite, that they give and confirm the several donations to GOD, St. Mary, the monastery of Basingwerk, and the monks, which had been bestowed on them by their predecessors for the salvation of their souls.

RANDAL was certainly a great benefactor; for it appears, that before his days the monks had only a chapel here. From that period it became considerable; and about that time part of the present buildings were erected, for the conveniency of its inhabi|tants, who were of the Cistercian order.

GIRALDUS calls it cellula de Basingwerk * 1.20. He lodged here a night in the train of Archbishop Baldwyn, on his progress through Wales to preach the crusade. He took with him our eloquent countryman, on account of his skill in the Welsh lan|guage.

THE architecture is mixed. Here appears what is called Saxon; having the round arches and short columns in some parts; and the Gothic narrow slips of high-pointed win lows in others. The first species had not fallen out of use, and the last was coming into fashion, in the days of the first great benefactor.

THE church lay on the east side; but is now almost destroyed. The refectory is pretty entire; and on one side has a great recess, with two round arches. The pillars which support them are very curious, formed of circular stones of the form of cheeses, set close one upon the other.

ABOVE were the cells for the lodgings of the monks, with a small window to each.

THE chapel of the knights templars is a spacious building. The windows are long, narrow, and pointed; the pilasters be|tween them on the inside slender and elegant.

WHATEVER monuments or inscriptions might have been in the church, are totally destroyed, unless that which may be found in one of the out-houses. It preserves the memory of a pious emigrant of the last century, George, youngest and eighth son of William second Lord Petre, who, plagued with the fanatical per|secutions in the reign of Charles I. quitted his country, died at

Wexford, and was brought to Basingwerk for interment. The following is the inscription:

IESUS *

[figure]

* MARIA. HERE . LYETH . TH . Y . BODY . OF . GEORGE . PE|TRE . LATE . OF . GREENFIELD . IN . FLINT SHIRE, Esq. . SONE TO . W . LORD . PETRE BARON . OF . INGLESTON . IN . ESSEX . & MARRIED ANE . YE . RELICT . OF . IOHN MOSTOIN . Esq. . BEING . YE DAUGHTER OF . HENRY . FOX, . Esq, WHO . FOR . YE . RO|MANE . CATHOLIQUE . FAITH . & . LOYAL|TY . TO . HIS . MATIE . LEFT . HIS . COUNTRY . & . SPENDING . HIS . TIME . WT . GREAT . EDIFICATION . OF . HIS . NEIGHBOVRS . DIED . AT . WEXFORD YE 26 DAY OF SEP. AN . DU. 1647 AGED 34.

THERE are some remains of offices, used at present by a tanner. Within less than fifty years, much of the habitable part was standing; and sometimes used by the worthy family, the

Mostyns of Trelacre. A lady of the family now living was born within these walls.

GREENFIELD HOUSE,* 1.21 which was built by that worthy friend of mine, the late relict of Sir George Mostyn, baronet, of Tre|lacre, was built as a dower-house for her, and the widows of the family. It is a neat brick house on the west side of the turnpike road, opposite to the ruins of the abby, commanding a fine view of the estuary, and the Cheshire shore. It is at present in the hands of the great copper companies, being leased to them with part of the stream on which their works stand.

DURING the preparations for the conquest of Wales by Ed|ward I. the abby was under the protection of the English. There are extant two orders for the purpose, providing that they had no commerce with what are styled the Welsh rebels * 1.22. I imagine that the convent was firmly attached to the victor; for I have been informed that there are, among the lists of summons in the Tower, writs for calling the abbot to parlement, in the 23d, 24th, 28th, 32d, and 34th of Edward I.

ACCORDING to the valuation of its revenues in 1534, the gross sum at the dissolution was, according to Dugdale, 150 l. 7 s. 3 d.; to Speed, 157 l. 15 s. 2 d. In 1553, there remained in charge 4 l. in annuities † 1.23.

THE particular endowments, as I collect from Dugdale ‡ 1.24, were these: Henry III. by charter, grants and confirms ten librates in Longenedale in Derbyshire, with the church of Glossope,

and all its appertenances, to be held by them as freely as William Peverel held the same in the time of Henry his grand|father. The same charter confirms the donations of Ranulph earl of Chester, and other barons, viz. Holywell, Fulbrook, the chapel of Basingwerk, the antient residence of the monks, with the mills and their appertenances; likewise Holes, and a moiety of Leeche, and one hundred shillings of the revenues of Chester, the gift of the said earl. Calders with its inhabitants, and finally, Kethlenedei, the gift of Robert Banastre.

LHEWELYN AP JORWERTH, prince of Wales, and cotemporary with Henry III. confirms all the donations of his ancestors; particularly the site of their house, the mill before their gate, and the land before their doors; which last was granted to them by Ranulphus, and his brother Aeneas. The same grant gives them also the land of Meredeth Wawor, in Holywell; Ful|brook; a community of pasturage on the mountains; Hanot de le Wecch, and Creicgraft, with all their appertenances. His son and successor, David ap Lhewelyn, by another charter, confirms the donations of his father, and adds the lands of Huttred, brother to Meredeth Wawor of Holywell; the church of Holywell, and the chapel of Colsul; and the land and pasturage of Gelli, before granted by his father. He likewise empowers them to buy and sell every thing toll-free in all his territories, for the use of their house. Also, the fifth pan of the fish taken in his fisheries at Ruddlan; and the tenth of the fish belonging to him in other parts. He confirms to them all the village of Wenhewm, with all its inhabitants and appertenances, being the gift of Howen de Porkenton, and confirmed by Helyso. He at the same

time confirms the lands and pasturage in Penthlin, the gift of his father.

DAVID also bestowed on the monks of Basingwerk, Folebroc, Feilebroc, or as it is now called Fulbrock, seated near the western extremity of the parish; which is mentioned in the confirmation of the grant to that convent by Henry II. and again in the confirma|tion of the charters renewed to it by Llewellyn ap Jorwerth and his son. The monks had a grainge on these lands, and right of pasturage on the mountain, in common with the neighboring in|habitants * 1.25. The Grange is at present a farm-house, the property of Sir Pyers Mostyn, and still retains its antient name.

THIS charter is dated from Coleshill in 1240, and witnessed by Hugh bishop of St. Asaph, and his chancellor, the famous Ednyfed Vychan, and others.

TANNER † 1.26 mentions the tithes of Blackbrook, and the wood of Langdon; lands in Chanclesworth; the manor of West Kirkby in Cheshire; the silver mine near Basingwerk; free warren in Gethli, Menegrange, Ouregrange, Beggerburgh, and Holywell.

THE abby also was possessed of the hospital or chapel of Sponne near Coventry, which had been originally founded by Hugh Cevei|lioc earl of Chester, who probably bestowed it on these monks ‡ 1.27.

THE revenues of the abbot amounted in the whole, reck|oning those arising from the mills, lands, cows, and sheep, to 46 l. 11 s.

IN the grant to the abby of Basingwerk, of the lands in the Peak of Derbyshire, there is a clause reserving the venison to the

king, with the consent of the abbot and convent; for the pre|servation of which two foresters were appointed by the king: but the grantees were allowed to kill hares, ••e, and wolves * 1.28.

IN 1540, the house and lands in the neighborhood were granted to Henry ap Harry, of the tribe of Ednowain Bendew; whose only daughter Anne, by her marriage with William Mostyn, esquire, of Trelacre, conveyed it into that family, in which it now remains.

I CANNOT recover the names of any more than two of the abbots. Thomas ap Dafydd Pennant presided over the house in the time of Guttun Owain, a bard who flourished in the year 1480. Beside that, and another eulogist mentioned in p. 34, I may add a third, viz. Thomas ap Rhys ap Howel, of Stokyn, who pub|lished an awdl or ode in his praise. It is to be found in the Se|bright Collection, vol. i. p. 37. among a collection of poems and prophecies delivered by the bard when the awen, or furor poeticus, had full possession of him.

I SHALL not here repeat what I have said of this celebrated abbot, in pp. 33, 34, but refer to them for his history. I shall only add here, that the ruins of a noble oak, still to be seen near the remains of the abby, is supposed to have been his co|temporary.

I HAVE spoken of his son and successor Nicholas, at pp. 24, 34; and shall again, in the article Bagillt, resume the subject.

THE whole road from the abby to St. Wenefrede's well, is most remarkably picturesque, along a narrow but deep valley, bounded

on one side by hanging woods. In former times the sacred stream hurried to the sea unconfined by the busy manufactures. During the reign of pilgrimages nothing but the corn-mills, the property of the monks, found employ for its waters.

BEFORE I advance up the valley, let me observe, that notwith|standing it has the common causes of health, a rapid stream, and the greatest part of the year a brisk wind (usually from west to east) yet it is visited with the usual diseases of the country, in a degree even greater than other parts; nor has the angina maligna, hereafter to be spoken of, spared the children of this little tract.

COMMERCE found its way to the valley about fifty years ago.* 1.29 I can remember the building of the works of white and of red lead under the conduct of Messrs. Smedley. But prior to these, a little above, was a tilting-mill, and an iron-wire mill.* 1.30 The first lessees were Hart and Co. from Yorkshire. They were suc|ceeded by Mr. Barker and Sir James Creed, who erected a new one on the lower part of the stream. On Mr. Barker's death the remainder of the term was purchased by Mr. John Norman and Mr. Rouben Chambers. Under a new leafe Mr. John Chambers converted the old mill into a steel-wire-mill; before which his mo|ther used it for a warehouse for a coarse-paper-mill.* 1.31 The Parys mine company succeeded to both the premises, and covered them with their important edifices.

IT must be observed, that the antient corn-mills, belonging to the abby, stood where the paper-mill was, the molendina quae juxta portam abbatiae habent * 1.32.

* 1.33ON this stream had been three snuff-mills; the oldest was occu|pied by Mr. Edward Jones, tobacconist, now living. It joined the old and uppermost corn-mill. It was taken down by the cotton company, who on the site built part of the new corn-mill, near the Holywell spring.

PETER PARRY, tobacconist, had two snuff-mills, one on the land of John Pierce, joiner, deceased, a little below the crescent cotton-mill. It was purchased by the brass battering-mill com|pany, for the sake of giving their pool a little greater depth of water, which built another for Peter Parry, below their brass-works.

* 1.34AN antient smelting-work stood in my memory on the site of the old cotton-mill, and part of the garden. They were erected before the year 1733, by lease from Roger Pennant, esq of Bagillt. I do not recollect the names of the lessees, but the com|pany was known by that of Madam Kaye and Co. The smoke did such injury to the fine woods belonging to Sir George Mostyn, of Trelacre, bart. as to occasion many law-suits between Sir George and the company; so that there ensued a total cessation of the smelting-trade in these works. Whether the suit came to a decision, does not appear. The suit must have commenced before March 26th, 1733, from which day all proceedings, which used before to be in Latin, were to be carried on in the Eng|lish tongue. Just before that period poor Sir George suffered a nonsuit, for using the word propè instead of juxta; and was foiled a second time, by using in the proceeding the title of Sir George Mostyn, instead of George Mostyn, esq his elder brother being liv|ing, and at that time an ecclesiastic in the church of Rome: and it

is said that he suffered a third repulse, by stating that the works were in the township of Greenfield, instead of Holywell, or vice versa.

HOW the affair ended I cannot learn. The building reverted into the hands of the heirs of the lessors. Edward Pennant, esq granted a lease of it, in 1758, to Mr. Champion, partner and agent in the Wormley company, near Bristol, who there calcined black-jack. He was the first who engaged in such a concern in this country, and probably in Great Britain, which he carried on under the protection of a patent.

A PIN-MILL was built in 1764, for the use of James Eden,* 1.35 pin-maker, who occupied it about two years, and then failed. The next occupier was Mrs. Chambers, who converted it into a coarse-paper mill, and continued the use of it till 1783, when it fell into the hands of the cotton-company, which turned it into a smithy: and, finally, three corn-mills,* 1.36 formed with the above the sum of the works upon the stream, in my early days. The lower of these two, reckoning from the well, was pulled down.

IN the year 1766 began the memorable epoch in the annals of our famous stream, when the late Mr. Patten of Warrington,* 1.37 and Co. built the first battering-mill for copper and brass. In about ten years from that time, Mr. John Smalley, now deceased, introduced the first manufacture of cotton. By his successors, and by the great copper-companies, those behemoths of commerce, our little Jordan was soon drunk up. By their skill and industry they succeeded, to the benefit of the state, and to their private emolument. Tho.

Williams, esquire * 1.38, that useful and active character, with unparal|leled speed, covered the lower part of the stream, or that next to the sea, with buildings stupendous in expence, extent, and ingenuity of contrivance. These great works are under the firm of the PARYS MINE COMPANY.* 1.39 The buildings were completed in the year 1780, and held under lease from Sir Pyers Mostyn, bart. owner of the whole stream, excepting a small part. To Mr. Samuel Williamson, chief agent of this part of the works, I am indebted for the account of the works carried on here. These are entirely confined to the manufacture of copper.

IN this department is a great forge for heating the cakes of copper, previously to their being beat into pans, or rolled into sheathings, &c. &c. The wheels and machinery are set in motion by the water from a large pool, parallel to the road, which is filled from the stream, and let out by another channel to effect its purposes.

THESE may be called the great magazines for the supply of the royal navy with the various necessaries in copper, such as sheath|ings, bolts, and nails. Some of the bolts are twenty feet long, and so hardened by rolling and battering, as to be capable of being driven almost to their heads, in the entrance forward, and run abaft of the ships where the beds of timber are the thickest; which work is facilitated by boring with an anger two-thirds of the length.

SOME of the nails are a foot in length, and from that size to that of a sadler's cack.

RUDDER bands and braces are here made of an enormous

size; some, designed for the largest first-rates, weighed one ton fourteen hundred.

THE number of men employed in these works is ninety-three. This is intended when they are in full employ: the same must be understood of all the rest.

THE head of water to this mill is about twenty-one feet and a half, and the superficial surface of the pool about 112,028 feet.

THE trade of these works is not confined to the royal navy. The merchant ships are from hence supplied with considerable quantities of sheathing, bolts, and nails, as are many of the ships in the service of the East India Company.

FROM hence braziers are furnished with copper vessels of all kinds, and the materials for all the copper branches of their business.

THE works on this river are supplied with their copper from the Parys mine and Mona mine companies; the ore of which is smelted chiefly at Ravenhead, and Stanley, in Lancashire.

THE Cornish ores are smelted at Swansey, Neath, Bristol, and in Cornwal.

THE Duke of Devonshire's ores, at Whiston, in Derbyshire.

THE number of vessels immediately employed by the copper-companies on this river, to convey the several manufactures, or the materials to and from Leverpool, and the other places con|nected with them, amount to between thirty and forty, from thirty to fifty tons burden.

MR. WILLIAMS has, besides the works on the Holywell stream, two near Marlow, in Buckinghamshire, upon as large a scale as those in Greenfield. There are also in this kingdom others be|longing

to different proprietors, at Congleton and Macclesfield, in Cheshire, at Swansey, and Bris••, and in Cornwel, and a number in the vicinity of London.

* 1.40I MUST not be silent on the subject of the most beautiful coin or token in use by this great company, as it exceeds in elegance any which has been yet emitted. On one side is the head of a Druid, emblematic of the isle of Mona, the antient seat of the ve|nerable order, and which now produces the material of the coin. On the reverse is the cypher of Parys mountain, with a promis|sory legend to pay one penny, or one half-penny, as it happens to be, in London, Anglesey, or Leverpool, to bearer on demand.

VAST quantities of these coins are counterfeited at Birmingham, and may be had by public order in any number.

* 1.41ABOVE these works is a great cluster of vast square chimnies, the discharge of the tremendous volumes of thick black smoke, rising from the making of brass. These are the brass melting-houses belonging to the Greenfield copper and brass company, under the direction of Mr. Donbavand, where they have six large melting houses with twenty-four fires, each fire contains nine pots, with metal, fluxes, &c. Here they make plate-brass for the purpose of being manufactured at their battery-mills, plate-brass for wire for the pin-manufacturers, and ingot-brass for the va|rious founders, &c. At this place they have a mill, places to calcine, buddle, and grind the lapis calaminaris, &c. for the pur|pose of making brass; also a copper forge, not used at present: the head of water is about 21½ feet, superficial surface of the pool about 23,664 feet. The number of the men employed in these works, is about fifty. The materials for the making of

brass are all at hand. The copper shot and clippings are from the adjacent works, the calamine from our own mines, and the charcoal from our woods. The art of making brass in early times, is mentioned before at pp. 123, 124. The first patent for the calamine stone, and the use thereof, was granted to William Humsrey, and Christopher Shutz, dated the 17th of September, 1565, at which time the long lost art in these kingdoms began to revive.

IN digging the foundation for the brass melting-houses,* 1.42 Mr. Donbavand discovered an antient Roman hypocaust, furnished with various flues, with the superincumbent tiles of a fine red color. These artificial hot baths and sweating-rooms were the greatest luxuries of the Romans. This proves that they had a stationary settlement in this place, probably of merchants concerned in the mineral works, which they certainly had on the adjacent moun|tains, of which I have given an account in p. 122 of this book.

NOT far from this work, on the east-side of the river,* 1.43 is the great manufactory of brass wire of every denomination. Also here are drawn the square materials for making copper nails, which are formed by the common process of beating and heading. This work has a head of twenty-three feet, which is capable, by means of an extensive pool, that may be formed above, of having a very large work built on the now vacant spot.

AT a small distance to the south,* 1.44 a most magnificent cotton-work soars, like the tower of Babel, above all the lower buildings. I shall here only say, that about ten weeks before its completion, nothing but a void appeared before me: at the expiration of that space, in another ride I took, I cannot express my astonishment at seeing the enormous mass risen, as if by magic, out of the

ground. It was erected in the summer of 1785: is thirty-six yards long, ten yards wide, and six stories high, and is worked with a water-wheel eighteen feet high, and seven feet wide, with a fall of water of sixteen feet.

* 1.45AT some distance beyond this is the NEW ROLLING MILL, erected in 1787 * 1.46. The largest and most commodious build|ing, for the purpose it is applied to, of any in the kingdom. Its area within the walls measures eighty-six feet in length, by sixty-nine in breadth, floored with iron flags. Its height in the center is twenty-eight feet and an half. The roof is single, and covered with copper, supported in the center by two pillars, eleven feet and a half distant from each other; on their tops are transverse timbers supporting one end of each beam which more immediately sustains the roof, the other end resting on the wall.

THE water-wheels are of cast-iron, upon a curious construction. They are three in number, each of which receives its supply of water, at a height of about forty-five degrees, from an iron-pipe fixed in the bottom of the penstock, and so fitted to the buckets of the wheel, that scarce any water is wasted (of which we are studiously careful.) Wheels so receiving their water are called breast-wheels, of which kind I believe all the wheels on this stream are, excepting that belonging to the corn-mill, and another at this company's brass-works, which is used for grinding calamine; the water by that mode of delivery communicating the most powerful impulse, and the most steady motion. The iron-wheels here are twenty feet diameter, and they will, when unclogged with

heavy weights, perform twenty revolutions in a minute. Now if we suppose a wheel of that diameter moving upon a plane with the same rapidity with which it revolves on its axis, it will, in a year, describe a line nearly equal in length to five circles of our globe at the equator. The yard and reservoir of water pertain|ing to this noble manufactory are suitable to its magnitude, and by much the most spacious on the Holywell stream.

THE number of men employed here are about forty-six.

REMARKS.

1st. IT is a certain fact that the people constantly employed in the copper-manufactories are as healthy, and arrive to as great an age, as the generality of people employed in other occupations not connected with fire or metal; but they are scrupulous ob|servers of the antient law, which forbade to eat with unwashen hands; and they find it highly necessary to perform a careful ab|lution of the whole body at lest once a week, to rub off the cop|per dust, which adheres to their bodies, and occasions violent eruptions of a green color, evincing, by the tinge, their origin. The pain and symptoms are easily removed by washing with clean water; but if that is neglected, the consequences become se|rious, and even to require chirurgical assistance.

2d. YOUNG dogs, which have acquired a habit of licking cop|per sheets or bars, have never been known to survive long. The metallic virus by that means conveyed into the intestines soon destroys the animal by violent purging.

3d, YET it may deserve notice, that the writer of these hints having formerly kept a great number of poultry running about the yard, he observed that the fowls preferred drinking the water from a shallow copper pan that lay out of doors, and was generally full of rain-water, tinged of a deep green color, to fresh clear water, of which there was abundance. No ill effect was ever known to have happened to them from the green water, though a succession of poultry resorted to it for years.

THE writer of this having been employed on the spot, from the first opening of the ground for the foundations of the mill and other buildings, found frequent proofs that the surface of the land had formerly been about fourteen or sixteen feet lower than at the time the buildings were erected. His inducements to form that opinion were,

1st. THAT though the soil contained many large pebbles throughout its whole depth, yet at the depth of twelve to sixteeen or eighteen feet, grey pebbles of large size were every where found in great abundance, and mixed with sand or gravel, just as they appear on the shelving shores of many rivers.

2d. AT the depth of fifteen feet, under the wood where the warehouse now stands, the head of a battle-axe was picked up. The writer not chancing to be on the spot when it was taken up, could gather no information whether any part of the handle re|mained, but supposes not. He was shewn the spot where it lay, and measured fifteen feet to the surface.

3d. AND the most decisive proof is, that, after cutting down an oak-tree of pretty large girth, and afterwards clearing away the root, in digging still deeper, for the foundation of the present

warehouse, the workmen found a lime-kiln, of very small dimen|sion, perhaps it would contain half a ton of lime-stone, but perfect, and having calcined lime in its bason. It was constructed of the same kind of red sand-stone as that now below Wepre. The bottom of that kiln now forms the lowest foundation of the north-east corner of the warehouse, which is nea••ly level with the surface of the cotton-mill-pool below it.

IMMEDIATELY above the last are the works under the super-intendency of Mr. Daniel Donbavand,* 1.47 who with great civility informed me of their origin, and consequent improvements. These are on the site of the brass-battery-mills, built in the year 1765, and set to work 20th Sept. 1766. The first brass made at Greenfield, was on the 20th August, 1766, then held by Mess. Patten and Co. Since January 1786 they have been in the hands of Thomas Williams, esq and Co. under the firm of The Greenfield Copper and Brass Company, who have very much improved them by various erections, so as to enable them to finish goods for Africa, America, and most other markets, viz. brass Neptunes, or large pans, in which the negroes make salt; pans for getting the gold out of their rivers, and for various other purposes; kettles; brass and copper rods; bright and black manillas—the first are rings for ornaments to the arms and legs, the last for the current money of the country. The last are not unlike the golden bracelets of the antient Britons, the ends turned up and flatted; and add to these various sorts of latten, brass, &c. for mathema|tical instruments, &c. &c.

THE word latten is applied to works in brass, with which, for certain purposes, is an admixture of any other metal. Some|times

it is made a synonym of brass itself. Watson's Essays, IV. 70. and in the same page: and Stringer, in his Opera Mineralia Ex|plicate, p. 34. gives us the qualities of the said latten, as explain|ed in the patent of 7th Elizabeth to Humphrey and Shutz, above|mentioned, which was granted to Shutz for

his great cunning, knowlege and experience, as well in the finding the calamine stone, called in Latin, lapis calaminaris, and in the right and proper commodity thereof, for the composition of mixed me|tal, commonly called latten, and in reducing it to be soft and malleable, and also in apting, manuring, and working the same for and into all sorts of battery wares, cast-work, and wire, and also in the mollifying and manuring of iron, and drawing and forging of the same into wire and plates for the mak|ing of armor, and also for divers other needful and profitable uses.

THE word latten is also used for a distinct metal, as appears by two patents, one of the 30th Henry VI. to his chaplain and con|troller of all his mines of gold, &c. in Devon and Cornwal, (see Stringer, p. 20.); the other in the patent of 10th Elizabeth, (see Watson, iv. 70.) both which mention mines of latten. But, as the Bishop observes, whatever the name did mean, it is now lost. I can only say, that calamine does appear in so many, and so dif|ferent forms, that the application might have been to one of them, since the qualities seem to have been the same.

THE head of water to these mills is about 21½ feet; and the superficial surface of the pool or reservoir, about 70,696 feet.

[figure]

〈…〉〈…〉 BRA•• WORKES 〈…〉〈…〉

ALL the pools belonging to the several works are well stocked with trout brought from the river Wheeler, which flows beneath Caerwis. They grow to a vast size: I have heard of one which had been taken in the brass mill-pool, which weighed between eleven pounds and twelve pounds, but those over-grown fish do not equal in flavor those of an inferior size. The three-spined stickle-back, (Br. Zool. iii. N^o 229.) a little fish, seldom of the length of two inches, abound in this stream, but especially in the stiller parts, where the water has been confined for the use of the works. Eels are the only fish, besides these, found in these waters.

THOSE beautiful birds, the kingfishers, are very frequent about these waters, and almost dazzle the eye in their frequent transi|tions from place to place.

THIS work was erected in the spring of 179••,* 1.48 is twenty-six yards by ten wide, and is six stories high. It is worked by a water-wheel, fifteen feet high, and ten feet wide, with a fall of water of thirteen feet and a half. This work makes a noble figure on the stream, is ornamented with a handsome cupola, with a fine gilden crescent on the top, from which it receives its name.

A CORN-MILL stood on part of the site of this mill.* 1.49 On the stream had been, within these few years, a tilting-mill, under the direction of Mr. William Smalley, which has since been removed to Avon Wen, below Caerwis; and a wire-mill on an extensive scale has been erected on the Wheeler, at a small distance from the tilting-mill, in the beautiful vale of Maes Mynnan.

* 1.50A LITTLE beyond the crescent-mill, is the Old Cotton Mill, or that which was first known on the stream. It was erected in the spring of the year 1777, by Mr. John Smalley, of Preston, in Lan|cashire. He died January 28th, 1782, aged 53, and was interred in Whiteford church-yard. On his tomb mention is made of his having at Holywell established the cotton-works. This mill is small and low, is 33 yards long, 8 yards wide, and only three stories high, and is worked by a water-wheel 15 feet high, and 5 feet wide, with a fall of water of 11 feet 6 inches.

MR. John Smalley, senior, had long been engaged in a cotton-work at Cromford, near Mat••••ck, in Derbyshire, unhappily with|in the baleful influence of a tyrant rival, which forced him to seek the protection of St. Wenefrede, under which he pro|spered, and his children still prosper, blessing the benefit of the change made by their injured parent.

* 1.51A LITTLE way above this mill is the largest and most magnifi|cent of any on the water. It was erected in the autumn of the year 1783, in the space of six weeks from laying the foundation-stone. It is 40 yards long, 10 yards wide, and 6 stories high, and is lighted by a hundred and ninety-eight sash windows, which nightly exhibit a most glorious illumination. It is worked by a water-wheel 20 feet high, and 7 feet wide, with a fall of water of 20 feet.

ALL the cotton-mills on the river go under the name of the Cotton Twist Company. It is to Mr. Christopher Smalley, one of the partners, and eldest son to the founder of these great manufactories, I am obliged for the account of what relates to them.

[figure]

〈…〉〈…〉

THE cotton-twist company have between three and four hun|dred apprentices, which they clothe and feed themselves,* 1.52 in com|modious houses built for that purpose, the boys and girls in sepa|rate houses. These houses are white-washed twice every year, are fumigated three times a week through every apartment, with smoak of tobacco; besides this the sleeping-rooms are washed twice a week, and the bed-stocks are frequently sprinkled with rectified oil of tar. All the windows in the sleeping-rooms open at the tops, by which a thorough draft of air is admitted during the whole time the children are at work. To these and other precau|tions the good state of health of so many children may be justly attributed; for though the number of apprentices have not been less than 3••0 for these seven years past, they have only buried seven. Their food for dinner is beef or pork and potatoes three or four times a week, the other days herrings and potatoes, or soup and bread and cheese, as much as they please to eat. Their break|fasts and suppers in summer is milk and bread; in the winter, when milk cannot be had, they drink porridge or broth, with bread and cheese. A surgeon is appointed to superintend their health; and a Sunday school is regularly attended by a master at each house.

OUR little children sleep three in a bed,* 1.53 the larger sizes only two; and those who work in the night are so far from succeeding each other in the same beds, that they do not even sleep in the same rooms.

The number of men employed at Greenfield, are	above 100
women and children,	above 500
At Northop,	49
At Denhigh,	140
At Sky••g,	36
At Newmarket,	above 100
Apprentices,	above 300
Total	1225

COTTON wool is produced in the East and West Indies, and also in many other places. The Isle of Bowbon, in the East Indies, fur|nishes the best; the next to this in quality, grows in the Portuguese settlements in South America, from whence it is exported to Lisbon, and imported from thence to England in British bottoms, duty-free. If in foreign bottoms, a penny per pound is paid. About fifteen years ago, not more than five hundred bags were culti|vated in the Brazils; but of late years, on an average, fifty thou|sand. The Dutch settlements, say Berbice and Surinam, supply a considerable quantity of good cotton, and comes to this country better cleaned than any other.

THE cotton-plant grows naturally in China and India. The cultivation travelled westward into Arabia, Persia, and the Levant. It is also cultivated in the province of Valencia, in Spain, with vast success. On the plains of that rich province, in good years, about four hundred and fifty thousand arrobas (of 26 lb. each) are har|vested. I suppose all this to be manufactured in Spain, at lest I do not hear of any being imported into our kingdoms.

COTTON twist is spun here of 130 hanks to the pound. Each hank is 840 yards long, so that one pound of cotton thread thus fine will be 62 miles 80 yards long. The new principle (for it is not yet 30 years old) by which cotton wool is made so perfect a thread, is by the use of iron-rollers moving horizontally; their speed is governed by brass wheels of different sizes and numbers, calculated to produce what fineness is wanted; the twist required is given by the flier and spindle. The cotton-twist made here is sent chiefly into England and Scotland, to be woven into ginghams, muslins, muslinets, dimities, nankeens, fine callicoes, fustians, &c. &c. which goods, when finished, are either admitted or smuggled into every part of the known world. It is introduced into every part of the Russian dominions, and even into the distant Kamt|schatka.

A NUMBER of machines called Mules are also used here with success:* 1.54 this machine is a compound of the water-engine and the spinning-jenny, and being of a mixed breed, was, I presume, the reason of its being so named. It is a machine particularly adapted to the spinning of fine yarns, and far exceeds every other yet dis|covered for that purpose.

THE last mill on the river is a corn-mill:* 1.55 a large building erected by the cotton-twist company, instead of the old one; and of another which stood a little lower down, on the site of which stands part of the great cotton-mill.

THE length of the stream, from the fountain to the marsh,* 1.56 is one mile and two hundred and thirty-four yards. The following are the number of falls, from the level of the marsh to the spring-head:

	Heads.	Surface of Pools.
	Feet.	Feet.
Parys Mine Company, Copper forge,	10¾	54,842
Old Copper forge Greenfield, Copper & Brass Co,	21½	23,664
Parys Mine Company, Copper rolling-mill,	21¾	40,068
Parys Mine Company, Copper wire-mill,	23
Lower cotton-mill, Cotton & twist Co	28	131,670
Greenfield Copper & Brass Co Copper rolling-mill,	21½	112,028
Greenfield Copper & Brass Co Brass battery mills,	23	70,696
Cotton Twist Company, Crescent cotton-mills	13½
D' Old cotton-mill,	11½
Do Upper cotton-mill,	20
D' Corn-mill to spring|head,	7½
Total feet	202¾

LET me conclude with remarking the vast population these companies have brought to the townships of Holywell and Green|field. In respect to the first, there is no great increase of building; but the latter has of late years received such an addition in works and in houses, that almost the whole is a continued series of edifices of different kinds, from the upper corn-mill quite to the sea-side. Among them are a hundred and seventy-seven houses for workmen of different occupations, of which few in|deed have been erected beyond my memory.

THE origin of this useful stream is discovered at the foot of the steep hill, beneath the town of Holywell, or Treffynnon,* 1.57 to which it gave the name. The spring boils with vast impetuosity out of a rock, and is confined in a beautiful polygonal well, co|vered with a rich arch, supported by pillars * 1.58. The roof is most exquisitely carved in stone. Immediately over the fountain is the legend of St. Wenefrede, on a pendent projection, with the arms of England at the bottom. Numbers of fine ribs secure the arch, whose intersections are coupled with a sculpture.

SOME are mere works of fancy; grotesque figures of animals: but the rest allude chiefly to the Stanley family. This building, and the chapel over it, rose from the piety of that great house, which left these memorials of its benefactions: there are besides some marks of the illustrious donors; for example, the profile of Margaret, mother to Henry VII. and that of her husband the earl of Derby, cut on the same stone.

THE compliments to the Stanleys, are very frequent. The wolf's head is the arms of the earls of Chester: it is inclosed in a garter, in respect to Sir William Stanley, knight of that order, who had been chamberlain of that city, and justiciary of North Wales. The tun with a plant issuing out of it, is a rebus, the arms of his wife Elizabeth Hopton, allusive to her name. This proves, that the building was erected before 1495, in which year Sir William lost his head. The other badges of the same house are, the stag's head; the eagle's leg; and the three legs, the arms of the isle of Man.

WE also find, that Catherine of Arragon, widow to prince Arthur, and afterwards the unfortunate wife of his brother Henry VIII. was a benefactress to this building; at left her arms appear here: three pomegranates in a shield, surmounted with a crown; the badge of the house of Granada, in memory of the expulsion of the Moors, by her father Ferdinand * 1.59. The eagle seems also to belong to her, being one of the supporters of the arms of her family.

OVER one of the lesser arches, on each side of the well, are the dragon and gre-hound, the supporters of the arms of England during the reign of Henry VII. and part of that of Henry VIII. The first was born by Henry VII. as a badge of the house of Tudor, which derived itself from Cadwalader, last king of Britain, who bore on his ensign a red dragon. Henry, in imitation of him, at the battle of Bosworth carried on his standard a red dragon, paint|ed on white and green silk; which afterwards gave rise to the office of Rouge-dragon among the heralds.

ON one side of a wall that supports the roof, was painted the tale of the tutelar saint; at present almost defaced: over it is in|scribed, in honorem Sanctae Wenefredae, V. & M.

IN another wall is an elegant nich, in which stood a statue of the Virgin Mary; pulled down, as I have been informed, in the year 1635.

I HAVE also heard, that there had been another of St. Wene|frede. To grace the image on high festivals, it is probable, that Isabel, countess of Warwick, widow to the great Richard

Beauchamp, left to St. Wenefrede, in 1439, her gown of russet velvet * 1.60.

OVER this spring is a chapel,* 1.61 of the same date with the other building: a neat piece of gothic architecture; but in a very ruinous state. The east end is a pentagon, and had five windows with elegant tracery. The top arched, and crossed with neat slender ribs. It had been open to the body of the chapel; but the fine arch which formed the division, has been bricked up a great number of years ago. On one side of the body is an oblong recess, divided from it by three arches, supported by pillars; and within is a window impending over the well. Under the centre window must have stood the altar. The whole length of the chapel is fifty-two feet: the breadth is twenty. The re|cess is twenty-six feet long, and eight broad. The roof is neat wood-work. This had been a free chapel, in the gift of the bishop, with the reserve of a stipend to the chapter; but the rest of the offerings were to be expended on the chapel. In Richard III.'s time, the abbot and convent had from the crown ten marks yerely, for the sustentacione and salarie of a prieste, at the chapelle of St. Wynefride † 1.62. The chapel is the property of Daniel Leo, esquire, in right of his wife Laetitia, sister to the late John Davies, esquire, of Llanerch.

THE following order, for putting the chapel over the well into possession of a clergyman of the church of Rome,

was addressed to Sir Roger Mostyn, baronet, by the queen of James II.

Sir ROGER MOSTYN.

IT having pleased the king, by his royall grant, to bestow upon me y•• antient chappell adjoining to St. Winifride's well; these are to desire you to give present possession, in my name, of the said chappell, to Mr. Thomas Roberts, who will deliver this let|ter into y•• hands. It being also my intention to have the place decently repaired, and put to a good use, I further desire, that you will affoard him your favour and protection, that he may not be disturbed in the performance thereof. You may rest assured, that what you do herein, according to my desire, shall be very kindly remembered by

MAY y^e 8th, 1687. WHITEHALL.

Your good frind, MARY: REGINA.

* 2.1IN this chapel is kept the free-school for sixteen boys, with a settled salary, from money laid out at interest, of 10l. per annum. The vicar appoints the master, which, as far as I recollect, has been a clergyman, excepting in one instance.

* 2.2BESIDES the Sunday school, where the cotton-company's ap|prentices are instructed, there is another parochial one kept in the chapel over the well. This is supported by a general sub|scription through the parish; and about seventy poor children are instructed by proper masters, in reading, writing and arithmetick. The copper and brass companies are handsome subscribers, but

they send only a few adults, to be instructed in matters, their more advanced years make them capable of learning.

THIS room has been used as the hall for holding both the great and the quarter sessions. I remember Matthew Skinner, esquire, chief justice of Chester, holding the assizes there; and I also recollect a quarter sessions: the hall having been properly fitted up for the purpose. But the distance from the center of the county was found so inconvenient, that after these instances they were removed to Flint, and finally to Mold, where they still continue.

THE window in this chapel impends a vast height over the bathing well.* 2.3 Several persons (not in their sober senses) have leaped into the water, without receiving any other damage than the smart caused by the dashing on the surface from their exalted station. Within my memory, one John Blackwall, of Llanasaph, took a far more desperate leap into the same water, from the church-yard wall, almost adjoining to the chapel. The leap would have been great, had it been on level ground. Here, had he not reached the water, the consequence would have been, that of being dashed to pieces on the flags.

THE bathing-well is an oblong, 38 feet by 16, with steps for the descent of the fair-sex, or of invalids. Near the steps, two feet beneath the water, is a large stone, called the wishing-stone. It receives many a kiss from the faithful, who are supposed never to fail in experiencing the completion of their desires, provided the wish is delivered with full devotion and confidence.

ON the outside of the great well, close to the road,* 2.4 is a small spring, once famed for the cure of weak eyes. The patient made an offering to the nymph of the spring, of a crooked pin, and

sent up at the same time a certain ejaculation, by way of charm: but the charm is forgotten, and the efficacy of the waters lost.

THE well is common; for I find by a decision of the court of chancery, on a law-suit respecting the lordship of Holywell, be|tween Sir John Egerton, knight, and John Eldred; chancellor Ellesmere decrees,

That on calling to mind, that within the said manor there is a fountain or well of antient and worthy memory, he doth not think fit that the petitioner, or any other, should have the property thereof, notwithstanding the general words of the grant of the manor: and therefore his lordship doth order, that notwithstanding the said grant, that the well shall-continue as now it is, or heretofore hath been; saving to the petitioner, and his heirs and assigns, the benefit of the stream and watercourse, with the appertainances.

THERE are two different opinions about the origin of this stream. One party makes it miraculous: the other asserts it to be owing only to natural causes. The advocates for the first, deliver their tale thus:

* 2.5IN the seventh century lived a virgin of the name of Wenefrede, of noble parents; her father's name was Thewith, a potent lord in the parts where Holywell now stands; her mother's Wenlo, de|scended from an antient family in Montgomeryshire, and sister to St. Beuno. Beuno assumed the monastic habit, retired to Clynnog, in Caernarvonshire, where he built a church and founded a con|vent. After completing this work of piety, he visited his rela|tions in Flintshire; and obtaining from his brother-in-law a little spot at the foot of the hill on which he resided, erected on it a church, and took under his care his niece Wenefrede. It is pro|bable

that the saint used occasionally to make some residence in this country; for near the entrance of the dingle, opposite to the great cotton-work, are two small fields, called to this day Gerddi Saint Beuno, or the gardens of St. Beuno.

A NEIGHBORING prince of the name of Cradocus, son of king Alen, was struck with her beauty, and at all events determined to gratify his desires. He made known his passion to the lady; who, affected with horror, attempted to escape. The wretch, enraged at the disappointment, instantly pursued her, drew out his sabre, and cut off her head. Cradocus instantly received the reward of his crime: he fell down dead, and the earth opening, swallowed his impious corps. Higden, in his Polychronicon, adds, that even the descendants of this monster were visited with hor|rible judgments, to be expiated only by a visit to this well, or to the bones of the saint at Salop.

Ad Basingwerk sons oritur Qui satis vulgo dicitur. Et tantis bullis scaturit Quod mox, injecta, rejicit. Tam magnum flumen procreat Ut Cambriae sufficiat. Aegri qui dant rogamina Reportant medicamina. Rubro guttatos lapides In scatebris reperies In signum sacri sanguinis, Quem VENEFREDE virginis Guttur truncatum fuderat. Qui scelus hoc patraverat, Ac nati, ac nepotuli Latrant ut canum catuli Donec sanctae suffragium Poscant ad hunc fonticulum: Vel ad urbem Salopiae Ubi quiescit hodie * 2.6.

THE severed head took its way down the hill, and stopt near the church. The valley, which, from its uncommon dryness,

was heretofore called Sych••nant, now lost its name. A spring of uncommon size burst from the place where the head rested. The moss on its sides diffused a fragrant smell * 2.7. Her blood spotted the stones, which, like the flowers of Adonis, annually commemorate the fact, by assuming colors unknown to them at other times.

Luctus monumenta manebim Semper A••ioni, mei: repetitaque mortis imago Annua plangoris pe••get simila ••i•• nostri.

For thee, blest maid, my tears, my endless pain Shall in immortal monuments remain. The image of thy death each year renew; And prove my grief, to distant ages, true.

ST. BEUNO took up the head, carried it to the corps, and, offering up his devotions, joined it nicely to the body, which instantly reunited. The place was visible only by a slender white line encircling her neck, in memory of a miracle, which surpassed far that worked by St. Dionysius, who marched in triumph after decapitation, with his head in his hands, from Mont martre to St. Dennis's † 2.8; or that of St. Adelbertus, who, in like circumstances, swam across the Vistula.

To conclude: St. Wenefrede survived her decollation fifteen years. She died at Gwytherin in Denbighshire, where her bones

rested till the reign of king Stephen, when, after divine admo|nition, they were surrendered to the abby of St. Peter and St. Paul at Shrewsbury. The memory of the two great events, that of her first death is celebrated on the 22d of June: that of her translation the 3d of November.

THE first Sunday after St. James's day is also kept in honor of certain saints;* 2.9 (probably St. Wenefrede and St. Beuno) not with prayers or with holy masses, but in every species of frolick and excess. It originated in the Romish church: but I clear that congregation from being concerned in any part of the orgies; which are, I fear, celebrated by persons of our own religion only, who flock here on that day for most unsaintly ends. The day is called Dydd sul y Saint, or the Sunday of the Saints. I wish I could trace the primaeval ceremonies, and whether one might not have been the Druidical custom, the Deiseal, or Deisol, or turning from the east to the west, according to the course of the sun. In some of the western isles the custom is still preserved with great devotion. Deas signifies the right hand, and sul the sun, from the ceremony being performed with the right hand always next to the circle, cairn, or whatsoever they surround * 2.10. It is possible that this custom might have been applied to our saint, and the words Deiseil, or Deisol, corrupted for that purpose for Dydd-sol, for giving particular sanction to the Sunday in question.

A FRATERNITY and gild was established in honor of our saint at Shrewsbury. It had its common seal, which,* 2.11 through the

kindness of my friend, Mr. Henry Levingston, is now in my pos|session. It is of copper, of the form expressed in plate VI. of Vol. I. of my Tour in Wales. In the center is a representation of the martyrdom; above is a cross in form of a T, placed be|tween the letters T. m. which mark the time when the fraternity was instituted, during the abbacy of Thomas Mynde; who was elected in 1459, and died in 1499, a period in which these reli|gious societies were much in fashion. The T or cross refers to the church of St. Cross within this monastery. Beneath are probably the arms of the house, a sword and a key, symbols of its tutelar apostles; and round the margin is this inscription:

Sigillū cōe Ffraternitat beate Wenefride virginis ī eccia sc̄e cruc ī: fra monaster. sc̄i Petri Salopie.

A bell belonging to the church was also christened in honor of her. I cannot learn the names of the gossips, who, as usual, were doubtlessly rich persons. On the ceremony, they all laid hold of the rope; bestowed a name on the bell; and the priest sprinkling it with holy water, baptized it in the name of the Father, &c. &c * 2.12. He then clothed it with a fine garment: after this the gossips gave a grand feast, and made great pre|sents, which the priest received in behalf of the bell. Thus blessed, it was endowed with great powers; allayed (on being rung) all storms; diverted the thunder-bolt; drove away evil spi|rits.

These consecrated bells were always inscribed. The in|scription on that in question ran thus:

Sancta Wenefreda, Deo hoc commendare memento, Ut pietate sua, nos servet ab hoste cruento.

And a little lower was another address:

Protege l'rece pia, quos convoco, virgo Marta.

AFTER her death, her sanctity, says her historian, was proved by numberless miracles. The waters were almost as sanative as those of the pool of Bethesda: all infirmities incident to the human body met with relief; the votive crutches, the barrows, and other proofs of cures, to this moment remain as evidences pendent over the well. The saint is equally propitious to Pro|testants and Catholics; for among the offerings are to be found these grateful testimonies from the patients of each religion.

THE Holy Father gave all encouragement to the piety of pil|grims to frequent this fountain. Pope Martin V. * 2.13 in the reign of Henry V. furnished the abby of Basingwerk with pardons and indulgences, to sell to the devotees. These were renewed again in the reign of queen Mary, by the interest of Thomas Goldwell bishop of St. Asaph † 2.14, who fled into Italy on the accession of Eliza|beth. Multitudes of offerings flowed in; marks of gratitude from such who had received benefit by intercession of the virgin.

THE resort of pilgrims of late years to these Fontanalia has considerably decreased; the greatest number are from Lancashire. In the summer, still a few are to be seen in the water in deep devotion up to their chins for hours, sending up their prayers, or performing a number of evolutions round the polygonal well; or threading the arch between well and well a prescribed number of times. I am sorry to say that this excess of piety has cost several devotees their lives. Few people of rank at present honor the fountain with their presence. A crowned head in the last age dignified the place with a visit. The prince who lost three kingdoms for a mass, payed his respects, on August 29th 1686, to our saint; and received as a reward a present of the very shift in which his great-grand-mother Mary Stuart lost her head * 2.15. This prince gave, in the course of his progress, as marks of his favor, golden rings, with his hair platted beneath a crystal. I have seen one, which he had bestowed on a Roman Catholic priest of a nighboring family. The majority of devotees are of the fair sex, attracted hither to commemorate the martyrdom of St. Wenefrede, as those of the East did the death of the Cyprian favorite,

Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur'd The Syrian damsels to deplore his fate In woeful ditties all the summer's day: While smooth Ada••s from his native rock Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood Of Tha•• yearly wounded.

WE, whose ancestors, between two and three centuries ago, abridged our faith to the mere contents of the Old and New Testament, and to the creed called the Apostles, do not think the belief in the above, and other legends, requisite. I refer the reader to the arguments used by the antiquary Doctor Powel, in his notes on the Itinerary of Giraldus Cambrensis, and to Bishop Fleetwood's annotations on the life of the saint, for proofs against the truth of the tale: but with Protestants, and temperate Catho|lics, it carries with it self-confutation.

THE waters are indisputably endowed with every good quality attendant on cold baths; and multitudes have here experienced the good effects that thus result from natural qualities, implanted in the several parts of matter by the divine Providence, in order to fulfil his will. Heaven for a short period deigned to convince a dark and obdurate age with a series of miracles; which were de|livered down to succeeding times, as incontestible proofs of the reality of the divine mission. Without them, a sufficient ground of trust and reliance upon the Supreme Being has long since been established. Second causes innumerable are dispersed throughout the universe, subordinate to the FIRST. Every element proves to us a medicine or a bane, as suits His unerring dispensa|tion. We cannot want, we cannot have the mediation of poor departed mortals. The supposition would be bestow|ing on them the attributes of the Deity; omnipresence and omniscience.

SOME eminent botanists of my acquaintance have reduced the sweet moss, and the bloody stains, to mere vegetable produc|tions, far from being peculiar to our fountain. The first is

that kind of moss called Jungermannia Asplenioides, Fl. Angl. 509, Tour in Wales, vol. i. tab. 6. imperfectly described and fi|gured by Dillenius, in his history of mosses; which induced us to give a new engraving of it. This species is also found in another holy well in Caernarvonshire, called Ffynnon Llanddeiniolen, in a parish of the same name.

THE other is a Byssus, likewise odoriferous: common to Lap|land, and to other countries besides our own. It adheres to stones in form of fine velvet. Linnaeus calls it Byssus Jolithus * 2.16, or the violet-smelling. He says, the stone to which it adheres easily betrays itself by the color, being as if smeared with blood; and if rubbed, yields a smell like violets. Micheli, in his Genera of plants, mentions the same † 2.17; and Schwenckfelt discovered it among the vegetables of Silesia. He calls it a muscus subrubeus, and informs us, that the smell is grateful to the heart; and that if put among clothes, it gives them a good scent, and serves to drive away moths ‡ 2.18. Linnaeus says ‖ 2.19, that it is of use in eruptive disorders. The Conferva Gelatinosa, Syst. Pl. iv. 591. Fl. Scot. ii. 986, is found in the same well.

* 2.20A SPECIES of moss is apt to vegetate on the oaken wheels of se|veral of the mills of this stream. These give shelter to multitudes of animal••ae. These, it is probable, eat into the timber, and occasion the ill same our river has obtained of having a corro|sive quality. Mr. William Chambers, of Holywell, has assured me that he has seen the penstock and contiguous parts, which lie

always under water, in some parts pierced with a few holes, in others eaten quite thorough; and that the planks appeared, after the moss was separated, as if consuming by the wet rot. He adds, that the moss first adheres to the oaken planks, and then it is that the small grubs eat into them; and in some parts quite penetrate, so that the moss becomes seemingly the nursery or receptacle of the grubs. The method used to preserve the wheels, was by scraping the moss off annually.

THIS account is corroborated by Mr. Robert Tart, a very in|telligent master-carpenter, who says, that the wheels made of the best oak are destroyed remarkably soon by the Holywell stream. A wheel which ought to have lasted thirty years, has here been known to become unfit for use in about twelve. Mr. Tart recommends wheels made of pine or red deal, and that the surface of the wheels be paid with pitch, tar, and ruddle; but even this has proved ineffectual, for the water occasions the mixture soon to peel away. Mr. Donbavand was so sensible of the evil, as to sub|stitute, instead of timber, wheels of cast-iron in the works which he superintends.

EDWARD DAVIES, an experienced wheel-wright, aged seventy-five, confirms the above; and adds that red deal perishes in the same manner, but in a much slower degree, by reason of its resinous qua|lity. There have been formerly instances of oaken planks, which had laid long under water, being found as full of holes as if they had been eaten through by Norway rats; and were kept as curiosities by the late Messrs. Barker, of Brynmadin, or Gadlys.

ON examination of the animalcula which occasion this da|mage, we found them to be the erucae or caterpillars of a certain

insect, which deposite its eggs in the moss, the Hyp••um riparium, Flora ••cot. ii. 760. we found them in the state of erucae, about a third of an inch long, and of a whitish color.

WE found others arrived to the state of pupae or chrysalides, of the same length as the caterpillar, and of a deep brown color. Whether these destructive insects are ephemerae, or phryganeae, of the class of insects which, by a wonderful direction of nature, de|posite their eggs in waters of different depths, I cannot ascertain. It is certain that these genera, before they assume the insect form, remain under the water. They from the egg become cater|pillars; these caterpillars rest a certain time in shape of pupae, then burst out into flies or insects, after that instantly quit the watery element. In a still day they may be observed to make their appearance, preceded by a bubble: the insect immediately follows, and either takes to the air, or runs along the surface of the water, before it rises into its new habitation.

* 2.21ABOVE the well stands the church, dedicated to St. Wenefrede. The parish wakes are celebrated in November, the time of her translation. The living, before the dissolution, belonged to the abby of Basingwerk; and is a vicarage in the gift of Jesus College, Oxford, which nominates; and Daniel Leo, esquire, the lay-rector, presents. It was given away by Robert Davies, to the college, by deed dated 1626, expressing, that as often as it became vacant, the said Robert Davies and his heirs shall freely, and charitatis in|tuitu, et absque aliqua morosa cunctatione, present a native of Wales, rightfully and canonically nominated by the college.

IN a letter, dated 26th October, 1676, Mutton Davies, grand|son of the donor, earnestly recommends to the college Mr.

J. Humphreys; adding,

That by this I do not take upon me in the lest to detract from the gift my grandfather made the col|lege, but I glory in the honor to be descended from one who had the happiness to pay such respect to the society.

In ano|ther letter, dated January following, after thanking the society for consenting to his request, he adds,

I should be as ungrate|ful as disingenuous should I convert your condescension herein to the disadvantage of your society, by attempting hereafter to insinuate a right, when I ought to commemorate a free obliga|tion, which induces me (out of some congruity to my appre|hension) to send my eldest son to deliver this unto your hands, and to gain him the honor of being known unto you, which my ill-fortune hath denied me hitherto, though I covet it very much.

THE list of the vicars of Holywell, from the year 1537 to the present time, was communicated to me by my most worthy friend, Lewis lord bishop of St. Asaph. It is entitled, vicars of Holywell, Tre-fynnon, or Ffynnon Gwen-frewi.

• Maurice ap David, 1537, d.
• Howel ap David, Feb. 1542.
• Hugh ap Day, Feb. 15th, 1555.1560.
• Owen Hughes, succeeded 23d March, 1593.1604.
• Robert Price, 1608. On his death,
• Evan Lloyd, A. M. July 1635, on the presentation of JESUS College.
• John Humphreys, 1677. On his resignation,
• William Ball, A. M. May, 1682, on being removed, was

• succeeded by,
• Edward Parry, Aug. 1692. On his death,
• Eliseus Price, A. M. Feb. 1711. Collated to Skyviog July 4th, 1704.—Ellis Price was recommended to the college by Sir Roger Mostyn, baronet, and, excepting John Humphreys, was the only incumbent who was not a fellow of Jesus College.
• Benjamin Havard, B. D. 21st Sept. 1763.
• John Lloyd, B. D. 22d March, 1773. Collated by the bishop to Kilken, 21st Aug. 1782.

AN account of the tythes will be given in the Appendix, with those of Whiteford parish.

THIS vicarage even wants a globe, unless we call the garden to the house by that name. Neither has it any other endowment, unless the share of tithes mentioned in the Appendix, and an ac|quisition of Queen Anne's bounty of two hundred pounds. This, in the time of the Rev. Ellis Price, vicar, received the ad|dition of two hundred more, which lay at interest till the last year, when, on the donation of a hundred and fifty pounds from Jesus College, the whole was laid out in the purchase of a portion of the waste lands in the parish of Kilken. An act had been passed in the year 1793, for the purpose of inclosing the common, di|viding it among the freeholders, and selling certain portions to defray the expences of the act, &c &c. &c. One part was bought with the above sums, and settled on the minister of Holywell and his successors, in addition to their income; and say the activity of the present vicar, the ground has already been inclosed, drained, ploughed and sown! The other support of the vicars is the an|tient one,

oblationes altaris, among which are reckoned the of|ferings

at burials for the pious use of the priest, and the good estate of the soul of the deceased.

(See Kennet's Parochial An|tiquities. Glossary.) Those of Holywell parish amount, communibus annis, to eighty pounds.

THE vicarage house, about the middle of this century, became so ruinous as to be uninhabitable. In a few years it was rebuilt by the piety of two brothers, Thomas and John Barker, of Bryn|madyn, agents to the great smelting-company at Gadlys, who be|queathed to the vicar of Holywell 400l. for the purpose of build|ing a new glebe house at Holywell, for him and his successors, on the same spot as that on which the old one stood. It was finished in the year 1760, and, with the adjacent premises, has been con|siderably improved by the present vicar, the Reverend John Lloyd, and made a most comfortable residence.

NOT far distant, at the very foot of the hill, above the well,* 2.22 stands the parish church, placed in that inconvenient situation, out of respect to the guardian saint. It has only one bell, and that not to be heard at any distance; so that the congregation is assem|bled by a walking steeple, a man with a small bell, who sounds the notice through every street.

THE present church was rebuilt in 1769, on the site of the old, and of the same length and breadth, viz. the length sixty-eight feet, the breadth fifty-six. It is difficult to ascertain the antient archi|tecture of this church. Near the entrance, at the west-end, is a door-way, with an obtuse gothic arch. The pillars, plain them|selves, and with plain capitals, which support the gallery on each side of the nave, are original; and by the specimens given by Dr. Ducarel, in his Norman Antiquities, tab. xiii. appear to have

been in use among the Saxons and the Normans. The arches, which might have confirmed my suspicion that the church was built in the Norman reign, are taken away, but the style con|tinued till about the year 1200. The church has a nave and two ailes, over which are two handsome galleries; and the whole is supposed to contain three thousand people. It is plain, neat, and calculated for use.

SHOULD it be ever thought necessary to commemorate the re|pair of the church by an inscription, I would venture to recom|mend the energetic lines inscribed, on a similar occasion, on a church at Bristol, adapting the date and third line to the circum|stances of that of Holywell.

Haec compta DEI domus modo collapsura, Jam quatu••r novis columnis suffulta et decorata, Stabilimen et ornamentum recepit, A. D. 1731. Firmiùs stabiliatur precibus sacramentis, evangelis, et puritate morum; Clariùs ornetur quotidiano coetu Christianorum.

UNDER the chancel are the vaults of the Mostyns of Trelacre, the Pennants of Bagillt, and the Pantons of Bagillt. The late Edward Pennant, esquire, on the purchase made by me of part of his estate, promised to me his share of these eternae domus. He died, and the posthumous gift was in the handsomest manner

transferred to me by Roger Barnston, esquire, who afterwards possessed the remainder of his fortunes.

IN the chancel is a neat caenotoph, in memory of Mary,* 2.23 mother to the late Edward Pennant, esquire. The inscription does this lady no more than justice:

She was prudent, pious, and charitable; in the midst of misfortunes shewed a great example of meekness and humility, of patience and resignation to the will of GOD.

With the best and most affectionate intent to improve the affairs of her son, she engaged in a partnership with a smelting-company in the neighborhood. The company failed; and the creditors, in an unrelenting manner, pursued the good lady till she was obliged to take shelter in the isle of Man; where she died, on the 28th of February, 1750, aged forty, and was interred in the church at Douglas.

ON the wall of the south aile is a small monument in memory of the Reverend Robert Edwards, a younger son of Brynford, rector of Halkin, who died May 13th, 1694. Above the inscription are the arms of the house, viz. field vert, a cheveron between three wolves heads argent, erased, with the lion, the arms of Tudor Trevor, empaled. The first denotes the descent of the family of Brynford from Ririd Vlaidd, lord of Penllyn, &c. killed in battle at the latter end of the reign of Henry II.

ON the wall at the end of the same aile, is a flat stone, with twelve quarterings, all faithfully copied from those over the chimney-piece in the dining-parlor at Mostyn. This belonged

to the Mostyns of Calcoed, who, by virtue of their descent (of which more in another place) have a right to the first coat. The rest appertain only to Sir Roger Mostyn, especially those of Edwyn, gained by the marriage of Jevan with the heiress of Mostyn; those of Gloddaeth, gained by the heiress of Gloddaeth; and those of Tregarnedd, gained by the heiress of Ednefydd Vychan: to each of which none could have a right but the Mostyns of Mostyn, and their heirs. On one side is a shield argent, with four bars azure; in the first, three shieldrakes; in the second and third, two; and in the fourth one: these evidently variations of the coat, (see p. 30.) Beneath is Hodie mi, cras tibi. On the other side, be|neath the arms of Philip Phycdan, is Virtus semper vivit.

THE same errors reign in the arms of Thomas Mostyn, of Stokyn. They are almost the same with the preceding: the date is 1658. I shall not repeat here what I have said at p. 186, of the possessors of Stokyn.

ON a pillar in the north aile are the very same arms over the seat of the Williams's of Trellynian, with this motto:

H XPE M Labe meâ morior, sanguine vivo tuo.

THE arms of Trellynian are those of Idnerth, lord of Maes|••rook, a boar's head in chief, on the arms of Edwyn, lord of Te|gengl. Probably the pillar and the seat had been transferred to the Williams's by some descendant from the house of Tudor Trevor; perhaps a Mostyn of Hen-Blâs, in Brynford, now the pro|perty of Sir Roger Mostyn.

A FOURTH flat stone, smaller than the preceding, is placed in the wall of the north aile: on it is inscribed the following epitaph:

Resurrectio mea XTUS. Hic jacet corpus Johannis Pennant, de Holywell, Arn••ge••; que obiit xxx. die Augusti, 1623.

JOHN PENNANT was second in descent from Nicholas Pennant, last abbot of Basingwerk; and was married to Margaret, daughter of Hugh Mostyn, younger son of Pyers Mostyn, of Trelacre. His arms are the three shieldrakes quarterly with those of Sir Robert Pounderling, constable of Desert castle, and of Sir Griffith Llwyd, mentioned before at p. 31. He was great-grand-father to Mary Pennant, who conveyed into our house the Holywell and Merton Abbot estates, by her marriage with David Pennant of Bychton.

IN rebuilding the church was found the headless figure of a priest, in his sacerdotal habit, and with a chalice in his hand. He is supposed to have been Thomas, second son of Thomas ap David, abbot of Basingwerk; whom I find in the Bagillt pedegree to have been vicar of Holywell.

THE steeple is plain and square, very strongly built, but without any mark to denote the time of its being built.

THE church-yard is the worst in the whole diocese.* 2.24 A small part is a gentle slope, but the greater almost precipitous; so that after any continuance of wet weather, a fall may happen pro|ductive of the most indecent and horrible spectacles.

THE number of inhabitants in this parish may be from 7 to 8000. There are about 1000 houses in the whole parish,* 2.25 of

which upwards of 400 are in the town. Greenfield contains about 1•••• houses. This is the township which has received the great|est increase, by reason of the sudden and vast accession of inhabi|tants, by reason of the manufactures which settled here nearly at the same time. In these evil days about twenty of the houses are empty.

* 2.26THE increase of inhabitants may be collected from the follow|ing abstract from the Holywell registers. Let it be observed, that the number allowed to each house is greater than common, from the consideration that in manufacturing places the number of poor employed in them are crowded into far less space than in any other towns.

Year	1670.	17••••.	1760.	1770.	1780.	1787.	1790.	1794.
Baptisms,	29	72	88	122	1••2	164	198	193
Burials,	27	52	76	90	111	122	151	156

IN bishop Tanner's MS. notes on the diocese of St. Asaph, pre|sented to me by my respected friend the late Reverend Doctor William Wynne, I find that in the year 1686 the number of fami|lies was 274, of which 41 were recusants.

* 2.27IN respect to the poors rate, I have a very curious memoran|dum, extracted out of the old vestry-book of the parish, by Mr. Samuel Small, who, with his usual friendship, communicated it to me; and every thing else which he thought would promote my design.

* 2.281722, May.—Vestry ordered the church and poors ley to be assessed separately, and that £. 14 be raised for the church, and £. 24 for the poor, both for the year 1721.

(till then the leys

were promiscuous, and denominated a church rate). That book began in 1715, and ended in 1763.

ANOTHER memorandum.—1723, June 4. Ordered,* 2.29

that church and poors leys be assessed separately; and that £. 14 be raised for the church, and £. 21 for the poor, both for 1723.

IN the present year the rates,* 2.30 equalized according to the actual rents, amount to fifteen hundred pounds!!!

IN this parish are three clubs, or friendly societies,* 2.31 instituted on the same plan as those in Whiteford parish (see p. 101.) The first, or the Old Club, was formed on March 7th, 1751: so that it is prior to our's by fifteen years. It consists at present of 214 members.

CLUB the second consists of 170 members, and was formed January 27th, 1759.

CLUB the third is composed of 160 members, and commenced on January 21st, 1775. Each of these clubs have their rules, but so similar to those of Whiteford parish, that I shall not repeat them. I shall only remark, ne quid detrimenti ecclesia capiat, that there is an article which excludes every one who is not of the true church of England by law established, unless with the approbation of the majority.

THE UNION CLUB was established in April, 1789.* 2.32It is com|posed of forty-two members, in general the most respectable in|habitants of the parish, untainted with despotic or jacobinical prin|ciples. Every Christmas they shew exemplary charity to their poor neighbors; and under their influence above 160l. was raised the late season of scarcity, and distributed among the objects most

worthy of relief. My son and I are proud of being members of this society, as well as all the preceding.

* 2.33LET me here mention (from the principle Haec olim me|••nisse ••ava••is) a society long extinct, which consisted of the gentlemen of the neighborhood, and the most respectable men of business, tradesmen, or mine adventurers, who met, dur|ing summer, once a week, to dine at the house of Bryn Celyn, and after dinner descended to the bowling-green just beneath, to amuse themselves with the innocent recreation. Adjoining, in a room of retreat, in the intervals of play, the persons out, took their pipe and ale, or perhaps a small bowl of punch: for in those plain days wine was seldom called for, unless by the few with whom other liquors might disagree * 2.34.

IN the town are three places of worship besides the church, two for the Roman Catholics, and one for dissenters. The last was built on my ground, by lease dated April 16, 1788, and is maintained by voluntary contributions. Of the former, one supports a secular or parish priest. The other a gentleman of the late order of Jesuits. Both of their cures are endowed with lands vested in trustees. Each of their houses had been a species of hotel, probably de|signed for the reception of pilgrims of better rank. One was called the Cross-keys, the other the Star. I remember at one or other of them Edward duke of Norfolk, and other visitants of distinction.

* 2.35ABOVE the church is a hill called Bryn y Castell, narrow and very steep on the sides, projecting at the end over the little valley.

On this might have stood the castle of Treffynnon, or St. Wenefrede, built by Randle III. earl of Chester, in the year 1210 * 2.36. There are not at present any vestiges left.

IT is singular that no mention is made in the Doomsday-Book of either chapel, church, or well; yet townships now of less note are named; such as Brunford, Caldecote, and others. Notwith|standing bishop Fleetwood's opinion, I think the legend of St. Wenefrede was known previous to that survey; for the very name of Holywell is Saxon, probably bestowed on it before the Conquest, on account of the imputed sanctity of the well.

THE spring is certainly one of the finest in these kingdoms; and, by the two different trials and calculations lately made for my information, is found to fling out about twenty-one tons of water in a minute. It never freezes. In respect to the equality of the water in droughts, or after the greatest rains, I find I must place it among the vulgar errors. From the authority of Mr. Christopher Smalley, and other respectable manufacturers on the stream, I discover that the variation is extremely great, and that there is a decrease in summer of more than one-third, and in great droughts of still more, and after violent rains the increase is in like proportion: some even say it is one-half. As long as I remember, the fountain, after heavy falls of wet, became of a wheyey color. This is increased to a great degree, grows more turbid, and even deposits a mud upon the stones.

THE town was also very inconsiderable till the beginning of this century; the houses few, and those for the most part

that••; the streets unpaved; and the place destitute of a mar|ket. The flourishing mines, that for some time were discovered 〈…〉〈…〉, made a great change in the appearance, and introduced the effects of wealth. The effects of the manufacto|•• make less appearance in the town than in the valley beneath, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 from the well to the sea-side, is a continued succession of ••s.

* 2.37THE monks of Basingwerk obtained for it the grant of a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 a market. The first has been dropt beyond the memory of 〈◊〉〈◊〉. The market was also lost, till it was renewed by letter ••ent, dated Jan. 20th, 1703, granted to Sir John Eger•• 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ••et. The patent also contains a grant of three fairs, viz. on the 23d of April, the Tuesday in Easter week, and the 2d of ••er. The market has been the most flourishing in North Wales, but the fairs never could be established.

THE market is the best in the county for butcher's meat. That for corn is now much reduced, by reason of the greater farmers, or the badgers or purchasers for exportation, lessening the great stock which used to supply the markets at reasonable rates. Every great farmer seems now to have taken the early part of his education in Change-Alley, and is as expert in prices of corn, as any academy of that noted place is in those of stocks. That there never can be a deficiency for the use of the natives of Flintshire, either from their own lands, or the vale of Clwyd, is evident from the following table of exportation, from September 1, 1794, to August 5th, 1795; communicated to me by the friendship of the gentlemen of the custom-house in Ches|ter, from which appear the following truths:

	Wheat. Qrs. B.	Wheat Flour Q••. B.	Rye. Qrs. B.	Barley. Qrs. B.	Malt. Qrs. B.	Oats. Qrs. B.	Oat|meal. Qrs. B.	Beans. Q••s. B.	Bean Flour. Qrs. B.
From Rudland	1,064 1	1 0	0 0	3 2	0 0	930 0	0 0	29 2	0 0
From Weppra	78 0	0 0	17 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0
From Bagillt	30 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0
From Chester	4••0 2	469 6	9 3	123 6	612 4	2 4	646 4	0 0	11 0
Total	1,652 3	470 6	26 3	127 0	612 4	932 4	646 4	29 2	11 0

THIS is the sum of the corn exported from Flintshire or Chester; for I find that none had for several years past been sent from Rudland to any place westward of that port.

THE following table will shew the particular places to which the above is exported, and the quantity delivered at each place.

	Wheat. Qrs. B.	Wheat Flour. Q••s. B.	Rye. Qrs. B.	Barley. Qrs. B.	Malt. Qrs. B.	Oats. Qrs. B.	Oat|meal. Q••s. B.	Beans. Q••. B.	Bean Flour. Q•• B
P••r••th	10 0	22 6	9 3	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0
••tis	0 0	157 4	0 0	3 6	270 4	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0
••von	0 0	154 0	0 0	5 0	269 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0
••erpool	1,642 3	94 4	17 0	115 0	63 0	0 0	646 4	0 0	11 0
P••llhely	0 0	41 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0
C••ester	0 0	0 0	0 0	3 2	0 0	030 0	0 0	29 2	0 0
Holyland	0 0	0 1	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0
••ay	0 0	0 0	0 0	0 0	10 0	2 4	0 0	0 0	0 0
Total	1,652 3	469 7	26 3	12•• ••	612 ••	952 2	6••6 4	29 2	11 0

* 2.38TO conclude, I shall give the prices of the different kinds of corn during this noted year of scarcity, famine it cannot be called, for the evil has been very remote from that dreadful judgment, by reason of the innumerable resources Britain has within itself, both from the vegetable and animal kingdoms.

	Cheapest.	Middle.	Dearest.	41 Q•• per Me••re.
	£.	s.	d.	£.	s.	d.	£.	s.	d.
Wheat	0	8	0	0	13	6	1	0	0	per Measure.
Barley	0	5	0	0	7	0	0	9	0	Do
Oats	0	2	4½	0	3	0	0	4	3	Do
Beans	0	7	3	0	9	0	0	10	6	Do

THE situation of the town is pleasant and healthy. On the back is a lofty hill, at times extremely productive of lead-ore. Towards the sea is a pretty valley, bounded by woods: the end finishes on one side with the venerable abby. To such who require the use of a cold-bath, few places are more proper; for, besides the excellence of the waters, exceeding good medical assistance, and comfortable accommodations, may be found here; and the mind entertained, and the body exercised in a variety of beautiful rides and walks.

* 2.39THERE are seven roads out of Holywell, leading to different places. The first, or that from the lower part of the town to the sea-side,* 2.40 I have already mentioned.

* 2.41THE second passes through Whiteford street, and is that to Rudland, St. Asaph, Conwy, and Holyhead, and also is the coach-road to Denhigh. Its extent in this parish is only one mile,

ending at the late Mr. Henry Steeple's wall, where the parish of Whiteford begins. Above the west end stands the Grange, which was called Feilebrock (and also Fulibrock.) The Grange still re|mains a farm-house in a most ruinous condition. It is the pro|perty of Sir Pyers Mostyn, but formerly belonged to the abby of Basingwerk, having been granted to them by Meredeth Wawor, of which Dugdale, (i. 721) gives the following account, in the charter of David ap Llewelyn, prince of North Wales:

Terram etiam quam Meredit Wawor in villa de Haliwell et extra villam habuit et terram quam Huttredus frater ejus secum excambiavit in ipsa villa pro sua parte terrae in Quitfordia et grangiam illo|rum quae appellatur Feilebroc cum omnibus pertinentiis et asia|mentis suis et communitatem pasturae montium cum caeteris.

THE Holywell level was begun in 1774,* 2.42 under leases granted by Sir Pyers Mostyn, baronet, myself, Peter Parry, esquire, Ed|ward Jones, esquire, and Mrs. Mary Williams, of Trelunniau. I and my two sons made the voyage of this important venture on September 21st, 1795, and took boat, or rather punt, at the en|trance into the work in Coed Cae Dentir, a field belonging to Sir Pyers, on the north side of a small dingle opening into the road opposite to the great cotton factory. Under the pilotage of the honest Thomas Edwards, agent to the mine, we entered the mouth, lighted by candles, stuck on each side of our vessel. The first forty yards of our way was arched with stone, and so low as to oblige us to stoop. When the arch ceased, the roof was the natural rock, of that species called shale.* 2.43 The height begins now to be six feet; the breadth four; the depth of the water, included in the height, is two and a half. After passing in the shaley stratum about two hundred and twenty-six yards, we find it is succeeded

by that of ch••rt,* 2.44 at which spot the level enters my ground, in the field called Coed Cae porfa. There the height to the surface is eighteen yards. Several shafts have been sunk for air between this place and the mouth of the level. In a field of mine, called C••dlas ••r, was early discovered, at the depth of thirty-one yards, a strong string of ore, which raised the hopes of the adventurers to the highest degree; and the mineral stock rose in proportion. But alas! in a little time, both spirits and stock fell; for the pro|mising prospect suddenly vanished, an accident too frequent with miners to occasion surprize. The chert continues to a little beyond the turnpike-road, when we again enter the land of Sir Pyers Mostyn, in a field called Brocknallt, where it stops. Hitherto the level has preserved a strait course:* 2.45 but in this field (where the lime-stone stratum begins, and is continued to the end of the present work|ing, above five hundred yards) it takes a bend parallel to the road, and so continues as far as Brocknallt-pella, and then makes another curvature, and near a small but pretty cave crosses obliquely the turnpike-road.* 2.46 The cave is furnished with a table and benches, at which the visitants never fail experiencing the hospitality of their worthy conductor. Out of this cave is a passage, or sump, or short shaft, sunk for the purpose both of searching for ore, and also for conveying of air, which began to be wanted, into the level. This sump communicates with seve|ral others, till it reaches a shaft. The action of the air is various, sometimes it descends through the shaft;* 2.47 at other times rushes up the mouth of the level; but in each case passes into the mouth of a square wooden conductor, which enters the lower part of the sump, and is continued on one side of the level, al|most to the end of the present working.

IN proceeding farther we were alarmed with the awful sound of a cataract. On arriving at the spot from whence it issued, the noise seemed to have derived its greatest force from the confined arch of the level;* 2.48 for we discovered it to proceed from a small but elegant cascade, which, in our sight, tumbled down a small hollow, and served to augment the water of the level, which was also increased by several strong springs rising from the sides and bottom with strong ebullitions.* 2.49 Similar noises are said to have been heard in Coetiau'r Odyn. It is possible that this subterraneous water may be one of the feeds of St. Wenefrede's well, as the field is nearly in a descending line with it. I have also heard, on good authority, of another large stream of water running through a great subterraneous cavern, in working Portaway mine, in Pantasa, in the parish of Whiteford, but its discharge has never been yet discovered.—But to return. After passing this fall, we reached the end of our voyage, at the length of 1167 yards from the mouth, and at the place where two miners were pursuing the working of the level, and had got within ten yards of the shaft in which the miners are working in the rich vein, beneath the field called Coed Cae Plwm, or the wood or field of lead. The height from the sole of the level to the surface at this place is ninety-three yards and a half; the depth of the shaft, which is now so flattering to our hopes, is fifty yards; so that there are forty-three yards and a half from its sole to that of the level, which all the way is found to be filled with ore!!!

BUT we have more than one string to our bow.* 2.50 Coetiau'r Odyn vein runs entirely from Coe••iau-maur fields through my ground, as does Maes Whiteford, giving Mr. Jones of Wepre a small

chance in our mineral lottery. Then comes True Blue, which is shared between Sir ••yers Mostyn and myself; and the once rich vein of Brocknallt is entirely his. All these run north and south, and have in general been very productive, but especially those be|longing to the house of Tre••a••re.

* 2.51LET me observe that in the depth of the level we saw the descend|ing course of all these veins (excepting Coe•• ••dyn) some of them which were tried at that depth proved bar••. How far lower the veins descended, may probably ever remai•• ••cret, unless some bold adventures should have the spirit to attempt a level from the marsh, which we (at p. 218) proved to have, from the we••, a fail of 2••2 feet.

* 2.52THE whole tract below the east side of this road, is a most fer|tile and well cultivated bottom, sloping on each side. Its rural oeconomy may vie in excellen••e with the most boasted of our island. The prospect is charming, of the whole length of the Chester channel, bounded on the opposite by Wiral, and a distant view of part of Lancashire.

FROM the other side of the road the ground rises steeply; on the summit is a tract of inclosed land, backed by the mountain or common.

* 2.53I RETURN into the town, and at the end of Whiteford-street ascend the steep road called Pen-y-Bal, of very laborious ascent. I remember it the only coach approach on this side. The pre|sent fine road, then with great propriety called Holloway, was too narrow for any carriage beyond the then wretched carts of the country. I well remember that whenever our family wanted to visit Holywell, it was obliged to be dragged up to Pen-y-fordd-waen,

to cross the mountain, and with locked wheel, and with great peril, go down the almost precipitous way.

FROM the summit of Pen y-Bal, to the west,* 2.54 is a narrow tract of common. A little beyond, in a small wood, stands Calcot or Calcoed, in the township of the same name. In the Doomsd••y Book, it is called Caldecote, and is there united with Meretone and ••rtia parte de W••dford. The founder of this house was Henry Moston, doctor of civil law, second son of Pyers Moston, of Tre|lacre. He purchased Ca••lcot, as it was then spelt, of George and Thomas Manley, of Chester, in the year 1595, for the sum of 467 l. After four generations, the succession ended in the male line in Samuel Mostyn, esquire, who died May 16th, 1760, aged 79, and was buried at Northop on the 19th: who settled his estate on his nephew Mr. John Ellis, who assumed the surname of Mostyn.

ON the mountain to the east of the common way to Calcoed,* 2.55 are two stones, about three feet high, and about twenty-two feet distant from each other. They are called Naid-y-March, or the horse's leap, from a vulgar notion of the derivation of the name. They are of the very antient British origin, and probably the place of interment of some hero whose body was deposited between stone and stone. The distance might be intended to give an idea of his mighty size; as Alexander is supposed, on his return out of India, to have buried various suits of armor, of gigantic dimen|sions, to impose on future times an exalted notion of the troops he had led to this distant country.

I DESCEND again into Holywell,* 2.56 and at the south end of the High Street turn to the right, up the road which leads to Halkin and Brynford; the latter branches from that to Halkin on the right.

Above the road is the old house of Brynford,* 2.57 at present the pro|perty of Richard Garnons, esquire. It had been that of the Ed|wards's. Their descent is given at p. 239. I remember it in|habited by Thomas Edwards, esquire, a most respectable old gen|tleman, blind with age, of great charity and benevolence; and who, most grateful to Providence, increased his charities in pro|portion to the increase of his abilities, in obedience to the direc|tion of Heaven, to observe its frequent injunctions to the per|formance of that virtue.

* 2.58OPPOSITE to the house, on the other side of the road, was for|merly a profitable lead-mine, called Pen y Bryn, belonging to lord Kilmorey.* 2.59 It was remarkable for the quantity of refracting spar, spatum Islandicum, of great purity and trasparency; and often ele|gantly infected with marcasite finely disposed in lines.

THIS road ends on the mountain on the borders of Skyviog parish, the boundary of Holywell parish on this side.

* 2.60I RETURN to the turnpike road, and continuing my way, pass on the right by Pistill, a neat small house, the property of Peter Parry, esquire, of Twissog, in the county of Denbigh.

IN order to proceed towards the rich mineral country I am entering on, I shall continue the enumeration of veins from C••etiau'r Odyn (see p. 241.)

* 2.61THE next to that, eastward, is Caleb Bell, a north and south vein, which is traced from the east side of Pen-y-Bal, descends from the mountain, towards the late John Denman's, but as yet has not been traced to the road. This has in old times been very rich in several places.

THE old vein, or Pant Ithel, is another rich vein, which first

appeared in Pantasa, and yielded great quantities of ore and ca|lamine. From thence crosses Butler's fields, and Pen-y-Bal, and then to Coetia fawr; from thence to Pant Ithel, where it de|scends near ••ynford house, and crosses the road into Highgate te|nement, the property of Mr. Williams of Trelunnian. It then enters into my tenement called Meilwr, and was the first place in which ore was found in the level; the lease of which was granted by my father, on December the 20th, 1754.

THE next is the Highgate vein, which about Pistill had branch|ed into many strings. As they advance from Pistill eastward, they enter Highgate tenement, and become very productive, both in Mrs. Williams's land, and also my own, which for many years poured on me in great abundance its mineral wealth. I never considered this species of riches but of the most precarious nature, liable instantly to fail: I therefore secured them on the best of tenures, and purchased with them the moiety of the Bagillt-Hall estate, which has turned out to me uncommonly fortunate. I also was enabled by another part to improve my house at Downing to what it now is.

EVERY thing has its end. The vein or veins at length grew poorer. A great fire-engine was erected a few years ago, in hopes of clearing the water, and getting at the ore which was supposed to have been left in the soles.

THE level begins at the bottom of the north side of Nant|hill-brwc, and runs south-west. How uncertain is mineral know|lege, even among the most knowing! The object of the lessees was the working up to a certain rich vein, named the hard shaft, in the lands belonging to Brynfordd. An object that never

yet has been obtained. But in pursuit of that object they most unexpectedly met with the veins which produced so much wealth to Mr. Williams and myself. Perhaps I fall short in my estimate if I say, that to lessors and lessees, the total amount must have exceeded a hundred thousand pounds.

THE next vein to the high-gate, is a string within five yards of the high gate, which his been very productive. Into the field called Coetia Yscubor, the hard shaft vein is expected to enter, and cross the whole breadth, into the ground of Pen y pylle. And at the very corner of the same field, another vein crosses into the same land, and has been tolerably rich.

I NOW quit my mineral territories in this part of the country; and cross over the road to Pen y pylle, the seat of Hugh Hum|phreys, esquire, descended from Edwyn, prince of Tegengl. That gentleman has had large share of the mineral wealth. The vein Rest y cegin passes under his very house and garden. The mine-hillocks fill the land: but by his judicious walks and plantations, which now cover them, he has turned them into beauties. The vein continues to his grounds, below his house, and may probably be a source of new wealth.

THE Lucky Venture, is the last vein I can mention in this pa|rish, which ranges from the mountain, and crosses the road into a corner of a field of Mr. Humphreys, and immediately from thence into the land belonging to Edward Jones, esquire, of Wepre, in which abundance of ore has been got. Much has also been got in the very road, in a pit sunk by earl Grosvenor, a privilege clamed by his lordship, in virtue of his great mineral grant?

THIS township ends at about a mile distance from Pen y pylle, where it is separated by Rh••d 〈◊〉〈◊〉, a little ••ll, from the parish of Halkin.

I RETURN again into the town,* 2.62 and after crossing the east end of the High Street, take the road leading toward Gadlys. On the right I see a trifling monument of my respect to a town which has for a long series of years shewn every mark of esteem for the landlord of many, and the friend of all. In an adjacent field of mine, called Roft T••b, was a valuable spring, which running to waste, occasioned a great loss of time, to rich and poor, in pro|curing water. I (by the assistance of Mr. Denbavand) caused, in the year 1794, a pillar to be erected, into which the water was collected, and raised to a height convenient to be received into vessels placed there, to supply, with ease and expedition, the wants of the inhabitants.

AT the bottom of the descent from Holywell is a beautiful din|gle, named Nant-hil-brwe, which winds on the right to Meilwr tenement, and on the left quite to the marsh, the greater part of the way ornamented with hanging woods. On crossing a bridge near a large mill, the property of Paul Panton, esquire,* 2.63 enter the township of Bagillt; and in less than half a mile pass by the house of that worthy friend of mine. Our intimacy began in early youth,* 2.64 and has been ever since retained. With joy I see his eldest son rising with progressive goodness, and rare abilities. I see with pleasure my eldest son, with true judgment, cultivating with him a friendship. May it continue through a long life of human felicity, pleasant to themselves, and useful to their neighbors and country!

TO Mr. Panton senior I hold myself greatly obliged for the account of his family, maternal and paternal.

* 2.65THE house and estate of Bagillt was conveyed into Mr. Pan|ton's family, by the marriage of his father with Mary, daughter of Edward Griffiths, esquire, descended from the Griffiths of Caerwis-hall, who derived themselves from Ednowen Bendew, one of the fifteen tribes of North Wales. His ancestors had long been settled at this place, and have as antient deeds to shew for their lands as any in Wales, as will appear by the following will:

* 2.66IN the name of God, Amen.—The 11th day of November, in the year of our Lord God 1331, I, John ab Griffith ap Cona, being of good and whole mind and memory, and sick in body, make, ordain, and declare my last will and testament in manner and form following:—First, I bequeath my soul to Almighty God, and his mother St. Mary, and my body to be buried in the parish church of Holywell: also I bequeath to the said parish church, to buy a banner withall 4s.: also I bequeath to the Fryers of Rudland, 20 d. and to the friars of Denbigh, 12 d.: also I bequeath to the Rhode work of the Mold, 2s.: also I will that a trental be given to pray for my father's soul, my mo|ther's soul, my brethren's souls, and all Christian souls. Also I will that a man be hired to go to St. David's on pilgrimage for my soul. Also I bequeath to Sir Rys, my curate, 2 s. Farther, I bequeath to my son Thomas, a young heifers, of 3 years old: also I bequeath to my son Richard, 16 s. 8 d. which is in the hands of Harry Vaughan. Moreover, I will that Anne my wife shall occupy, with my children, my house, and all the lands thereto belonging, as long as she shall be unmarried, and keep herself a good woman, and no longer. Also, my will is, that a close, called Gwern Onnen, be restored to Jonet wch Rhys, or her son, they paying to my heirs 6 l. of lawful money of Eng|land.

—Furthermor I will that Sir Robert ap Meredith, chap|lain, and Morris ap Llewelyn, my feoffees of trust of and in all my lands and tenements, shall stand and be feoffees of the same, to the use and behoof of my children, and thereof to make them an estate when they shall come to their lawful age, and at their lawful desire. And all the residue of my goods, not bequeathed in this my last will and testament, I give and bequeath to my children, whom I make and ordain, my sons Thomas and Richard, my full and lawful executors.—In witness whereof all and singular the premises Sir Richard my curate, Rynallt ap Griffith ap Cona my brother, and Morris ap Llewelyn, and divers others.—And further my will is, that John ab Harry ab Kenrick, Sir Robert ap Mered••th, Edward Pennant ap Rys ap Llewelyn, and Ellys ap John ab Ithel, be over|seers, as well of my children, as of this my last will and testa|ment, till they come to lawful age, and all this at the oversight of my lord abbot.

THE close distinguished in this will by the name of Gwern Onnen, still retains the name, and runs from Roft Tob towards the woods that lead to Meilwr.

THE licence for Mr. Panton's great-grandfather's marriage (by his mother's side) in Cromwell's time, is a curiosity worthy of the reader's perusal. I think that the same form is introduced into France, since the abolition of religion in that kingdom. It pro|bably was taken from the model left by our fanatical rulers in the last century. I have another of a similar marriage in our family, attested by — Evans, a justice in Northop parish.

KNOW all men, that upon the eleventh day of February,* 3.1 in the year of our Lord God one thousand six hundred and

fifty-five, Richard Griffith, sonne and heire app••̄nt of John C••ff••, late of Bagilt, in the county of ••lint, esq^r, deceased, and Martha Pennant, the daughter of Edward Pennant, esq^r, of Bagillt aforesaid, came before me Ralf Hughes, esq^•, one of the justices of the peace of the county of ••int, and desired to be joyned together in matrimony; and being sufficiently satisfied that the said intended marriage was published on three several Lords dayes, at the tyme of morning exercise, within the pa|rish church of Holywell, within which parish the said parties reside, and that noe •• son gaynesayed or •• tended any cause why the said parties might not be joyned togeather in matrimonie, both of them being of full age and discretion, and the parents of both parties consenting thereunto;—and after both parties had pronounced before me, in the presence of divers credible wit|nesses, the words of solemnization mentioned in an act of parlia|ment, intitled, an act touching marriages, and dated the xx•••• day of August 165••, I did pronounce and declare the said Richard Griffith and Martha Pennant to be lawful hus|band and wife. In witness whereof I have hereunto put my hand and sale, the day and yeare first above written, 1655,

RA. HUGHES.

[figure]

L. S

Witnesses hereunto,

• ...Thomas Griffith,
• ...Roger Jones,
• ...John Mostyn.

THE antient smelting-house of Gadlys stood a full mile distant from this house, about a mile distant from the shore, and on the land of Robert Hughes, esquire, of Halkin. The lease expired

in 1786, and the works were pulled entirely down, after standing the term of the agreement, which was forty-four years.

THE respectable company, long known by the name of the Governor and Company for smelting down Lead with Pit Coale and Sea Coale, by the royal charter, granted in the 4th of William and Mary, began business in this county about the year 1700. They flourished with a most fair reputation for a great number of years, till their decline, either through want of ore, or other in|evitable causes, induced them to remove their antient furnaces to some works, built by the late Messrs. Smedley, on the bank above Bagillt. Those they purchased; and continued smelting, un|der the direction of their agent, Mr. William Smith * 3.2, till they sold them to Messrs. Griffith and Astet, of London. This company was often called the Quakers Company, from the number of per|sons of that mild persuasion being of it.

DURING the prosperity of the works (which was very long) they produced vast quantities of lead and bullion; of the latter they extracted from the lead, between the year 1704 and 1744, not less than 430,604 ounces. Queen Anne and her successor commanded that all specie coined from the silver should be struck on the reverse with the plume of feathers, as a mark of its having been the production of the principality † 3.3. James I. gave the same directions respecting the coin made from the silver of the mines worked by Sir Hugh Middleton, in Cardi|ganshire; and in 1637, Charles I. caused the same marks of Welsh silver to be placed on the coins of the mint at Aberystwith, ob|tained

from the mines of the same county * 3.4. Other coins from the company's works were called quakers money, from the cause above assigned. In an antient map of Denbighshire and Flintshire, by W. Williams, published in 1720, is an engraving of a crown, with the feathers, the insignia of Wales; and also another, of the seal of the corporation, with its crest and arms. The supporters are two miners; and the motto the apt one, Spectatur in igne. And above them is a view of the works, faithfully given, as they appeared before they were reduced to a single chimney.

THE company were for a long series of years the greatest mine-adventurers in North Wales, and had very considerable mines in every part of Flintshire. The company disposed of their remain|ing property in the county, and totally withdrew from it at Mi|chaelma••, 1792; but still they carry on very extensive mines and smelting-works in Cumberland and Northumberland, under the commissioners of Greenwich hospital, on the forfeited estates of the earl of Derwentwater.

GADLYS takes its name from the Welsh, Câd, an army, and Llys, signifying the royal head quarter, or palace. Near the works stood a large mount, on which might have been a castelet, the residence of some of our princes.

BETWEEN this place and Pentre Bagillt is another eminence of antient celebrity, Bryn Dychwelwch, so named from Bryn, a hill, and Dychwelwch, return! being traditionally said to have been the place from which Henry II. gave his order for retreat, when he was engaged with the Welsh, in 1157, with his whole army, in Coleshill, in the same difficulties as he had just

before experienced in the depth of Coed Eulo.* 3.5 In this action his forces were again defeated, and Eustace Fitz John, a baron first in rank, wealth, and abilities among the English; and Robert de Courci, another great baron, with numbers of others, were slain. Henry de Essex, hereditary standard-bearer, and a man of ap|proved valor, was seized with a panic; and flinging down the standard, cried out, that the king was killed! The route would have been general, if the king had not valiantly rallied his forces and repulsed the Welsh; but in the end he thought it prudent to withdraw his army, and encamp in a secure station. He after|wards attempted, by decamping from the shore, and endeavoring to get into the interior part of the country, to cut off Owen's re|treat into the mountains * 3.6. But the wise prince, penetrating into his views, retired to a plain near St. Asaph, still called Cîl Owen, or Owen's Retreat, and from thence to a strong post named Bryn-y-Pin, defended by great ramparts and ditches. This camp lies in the parish of St. George, on a lofty rock above the church, and is now called Pen y Pare.

I RETURN from this length of road to the skirts of the town of Holywell, and enter the road to Wall-wen,* 3.7 on the borders of the marsh, a branch of the Flint turnpike district, tacked to it by act of parlement in 1771, which had been obtained in that sessions, for enlarging the term and powers of the Mostyn district, and particu|larly adding this road, under the description of

from Wall-wen to the then dwelling-house of Edward Parry.

This act will not terminate till 1812.—After a very short space, pass by a noble malt-kilo and granary, the property of Mr. Richard Sankey,* 3.8 who more than once gave a very seasonable relief to the country

in the late time of scarcity, by large importations of barley, and that with very small profit to himself.* 3.9 Would not repositories of grain, established and filled by parlementary sanction, be stronger prevertatives of that evil than any other? I would have no part of our wastes lie uncultivated. Our wastes have very properly the synonym of commons; for rich and poor, bordering on them, have in them proportionate rights * 3.10. If the poor man is to lose his benefit of feeding a few geese, or a few sheep, ought he not to have recompence by the greniers d'abondance, granaries of plenty, so useful to France before the miseries in which rich and poor have been involved by the chime••as of bram-sick politicians? If our wastes are to be generally inclosed, ought not the produce to be safely lodged in proper houses of reception, and from the boasted plenty which is to ensue, be ready, by the resource at hand, to chase away the daemon rapa|city, which has had too great a power over the dealers in the subsistence of the land. All that human wit could invent, should be practised to prevent their eluding the attempt to reduce grain to a price which might afford an honest profit to the farmer, and yet enable him to supply the poor laborer at a rate which might give him power, not only to feed his family, but to cloath them with decent rayment, an article co-essential to their comfort, and to their health.

AS a house of industry is now in contemplation by the parish of Holywell, is there not a possibility of allotting certain portions of the waste lands for sale, to raise a fund to carry on the work, or to give in mortgage to such persons who may be willing to advance money for so salutary a purpose?

THE town of Shrewsbury, and I may say of every manufactur|ing county, have succeeded to admiration in their attempts, and should be examples to us. This neighborhood is now filled with men of business, capable of the conduct of such works: besides, the cotton and twist company have it in their power to expend annually above £. 1800 in the town, in picking the cotton; but from the dislike of the poor to that employ, are obliged to send the materials to distant places (see p. 216.) whereby the town and neighborhood lose the expenditure of that great sum among them. We squires are less qualified for operations which require vigor and activity, but we can contribute countenance and power, equally essential to the sup|port of the design. I know the poor will be averse to it at first: but when they recollect how long they had starved under the careless care of overseers, and that they will be placed under the immediate attention of visitors consisting of their neighbors, and that they will not be removed beyond the reach of their friends and relations, whom they may see at proper times, I trust they will be satisfied. To banish the poor from the possibility of the occa|sional comfort of their dearest relatives, would be unspeakable cruelty. I, therefore, must ever condemn a county house of in|dustry, in which that essential consolation is made difficult or im|possible, to the inmates from distant parts.

* 3.11ON gaining the summit of this road, appears a vitriol-work, the property of Mr. Donbavand, placed under the care of Mr. John Jones, of Holywell, an able chymist. His operations are di|rected to three articles: blue vitriol, or vitriol of copper, which is made by dissolving copper in oil of vitriol or acid of sulphur. After the solution has taken place, the produce is dissolved in boiling water, evaporated down to a given weight, and put in coolers to evaporate.

THE use of this species of vitriol is in dying cottons of a green or olive color, and hats and woollen cloths black; and also for making green verditer for painting in oil or water-colors,* 3.12 by precipitation with whiting.

* 3.13THE last article is sugar of lead, or saccharum saturni, which is lead dissolved in distilled vinegar. When the vinegar is satu|rated with the lead, it is boiled down to a given weight, and, like the blue vitriol, is put in coolers to crystallize. For the purpose of making the wort for the vinegar, twelve hundred hobbets of barley or malt had been employed in a single year; but in the late season of scarcity the proprietor totally desisted from this branch of business.

SUGAR of lead is used in the cotton printing business, for fixing the colors in the stuff dyed or printed. Such I believe to be the sole application of it from these works; but from others nearer to the capital I fear a most criminal one is frequently in practice, (for it is a most dangerous poison) I mean that of using it in the refining of white wines, or in restoring the sweetness to such which are grown sour: for this drug is the sweetest of all sweet things. It occasions to the drinkers of wines thus restored,

or rather thus endowed with the powers of poison, numbers of maladies they cannot account for, such as colics, obstinate cos|tiveness, and paralytic affections of the limbs. Finally, we may add death itself. The fatal dinner at Salt Hill, on March 27th, 1773, which ended in the destruction of several gentle|men, supposed to have been caused by wine impregnated with this fatal drug, has been much talked of. I believe that not to have been the case. The gentlemen did not sicken till after several days. One (Mr. Pote, who had drank as the rest did) never was infected. It happened that he walked in the garden during the time a most miserable object, a pauper, had been examined, from whom the pestilential miasmata of a fever, probably of the nature of the jail-fever, had diffused themselves among the company present; for all, except Mr. Pote, sickened * 3.14. In this instance the vintners may be cleared; but since it is probable that numbers of people fall victims to their art, I wish legislature would frame a law to condemn them, not to the halter, but to the more apt punishment of swallowing a competent draught of their own Stygian liquor. Nec lex est justior ulla!—Bishop Watson (iii. 369) says, that in Germany such adulteration is punished with death. In Henry VIII.'s time, a cook was boiled to death, (I hope in his own kettle) for poisoning a number of poor at Lambeth, with the broth allotted by a pious prelate for their support.

I MUST not forget that in October last Mr. Hugh Roberts,* 3.15 of Little Moorfields, established on my ground, opposite to the vitriol-works, a colony of ribbon-weavers. Sixteen looms are already employed, and others continually expected.

* 3.16FROM the summit to the shore is a most steep descent. About a quarter of a mile lower, on the right, stands the house of Bagillt-Hall, erroneously so named, it not being possessed of any m••ne|rial rights, nor does it stand even in the township of Bagillt; the whole road from the town of Holywell being in the township of that name, divided from the former by the bottom of the dingle which we crossed by Mr. Panton's mill.

THE house was large, had a great and handsome hall, and a good parlor, the last wainscotted with good oak, much carved about the chimney. The rest of the house consisted of a number of rooms irregularly disposed. Near it stood, as usual with our old seats, a summer-house.

THIS place is beautifully situated, the grounds slope towards the sea, and command a fine view of the Chester channel, and as far as Beeston castle, and its adjacent hills.

A FEW years ago I was obliged to pull down great part of the building. It was very old, and going fast to ruin; and the repairs would have been uselessly expensive, for the thick smoke of a great smelting-mill for lead, and of a great calcining-house for calamine, just beneath, must have ever deterred my descendants from making it their residence.

* 3.17THE founder of the family was Thomas, abbot of Basingwerk, and second son to David ap Tudor, of Bychton, by Anne, daughter of John Done, of Utkinton, in the county of Chester. Our abbot was living in the year 1480, in the reign of Edward IV. and in those of Edward V. and Richard III. The reader will excuse, I hope, the repetition of the few words in which I mentioned

[figure]

〈…〉〈…〉 HALL

that celebrated church-man, who, quitting his profession, became (what the lawyers call) a monk deraigne, and married Angharad, daughter of Guillim ap Gryffydd ap Guillim, of the great house of Penrhyn, in the county of Caernarvon. By this lady he had four sons. Edward, the eldest, succeeded to his fortunes in the parish of Holywell; Thomas, the second, became vicar of Holywell; and Nicholas, the third, succeeded to the abbotship of Basingwerk. Fourth in descent from him was John, who acquired the estate of Merton, in the parish of Whiteford, by his marriage with Mary, daughter and heir of Thomas ap Thomas ap Edward, of that house. Finally, by the marriage of his only daughter Catharine with David Pennant, of Bychton, we not only acquired the Merton estate, but all the possessions in Holywell, belonging to abbot Nicholas.

LET me not forget that Nicholas had also two sisters, one named Agnes, wife of John Griffith ap Twna; the other Margaret, wife of Gruff. Lloyd ap John of Griffith ap David.

THE house of Bagillt was probably built by Henry, second in descent from the abbot, for he is styled in the pedegree,

of Holywell and Bagillt,

whereas his father Edward is designed of Holywell only.

FROM David, fifth brother of Henry,* 3.18 sprang the family of the Pennants of Hendre figillt, in the parish of Kilken. He married Deili, daughter and heir of John ap Deio ap Jevan, of Halghton. In Kilken church-yard are several inscriptions of this branch of the family. The oldest informs us that Angharad Pennant was buried on September 25th, 1588. The last who is mentioned in the pedegree of the house is Peter, who married Barbara, daugh|ter

of John Eyton, of Leefwood, and was cotemporary with David Pennant, of Bychton, who was living in 1664.

* 3.19THERE were other branches of the house of Hendre-figillt, one settled at Pen-y-Garth, in the parish of Mold, but is now extinct. Part of the lands are now in possession of Mr. Thomas Williams, of Dolevechles, a respectable freeholder, in the parish of Kilken, in right of his great-grand-mother, Mary Pennant, a daughter of Pen-y-Garth. She was buried at Kilken, September 1st, 1693. As to the house and estate of Hendre-fig••lt, it has long since passed into the family of Kilken, and is at present possessed by Mostyn Edwards, esquire.

* 3.20MY respected, but remote kinsman, Richard Pennant, baron Penrhyn, sprung from this branch of our family. He is ninth in descent from the abbot, and third from Gifford Pennant, second son of Edward Pennant, of Bagillt, by Catherine, daughter of Edward Kynaston, of Otely, in the county of Salop. He went to Jamaica, in the time of Oliver Cromwel; had a grant of lands there November 5th, 1665; settled in the parish of Clarendon, and died in 1677. His lordship's property in that island is immense, and his addition to it in the county of Caernarvon, in this his native island, is very considerable, by his marriage with Anne Susanna, daughter and heiress of the late general Warburton, of Winnington, in Cheshire. With singular fortune, by this match his lordship pos|sesses Penrhyn, the seat and estate belonging to the family of Angbarad, his distant ancestress; from whom lady Penrhyn is by her grandmother also descended. All these fortunes they enjoy with dignity, and with utility to their numerous tenantry. I particularly allude to those about Penrhyn, where he has made

his vast slate-quarries an object of admiration to travellers, pro|fitable to himself, and the source of opulence to the surrounding country. I had not, at the publication of my Welsh Tour, oppor|tunity of informing myself about these important works; I, there|fore, give a brief sketch of their history.

WHEN his lordship came to possession of his fortunes in part of the island, he found great appearance of neglect and poverty among the tenantry; the slate-quarries, one great staple of the country, in a very low state; and the export of that valuable article did not annually exceed a thousand tons; and there were not four carts on his estate, and only three in all Nant-Frankon, and the roads scarcely passable for a horse. By his judicious management a happy reverse took place. The carriages have encreased to the present time, to rather more than a hundred broad-wheel carts and waggons.

PORT Penrhyn, formerly Aber-cegid, is now highly improved by quays for the reception of vessels; so that those of two hun|dred tons burden can lie close to them, and take in their cargo. Vessels of above three hundred tons can enter the port, but cannot get close to the quays.

BEFORE the country experienced his lordship's improving ta|lents, not above a thousand tons have been exported in the year. In 1794 the export amounted to fifteen thousand. In 1795 there was every reasonable hope that it would have increased to twenty thousand, but the tax on the slates has given it a check; though it is expected that the return of peace, and a modification of the duty, will restore the progress of the trade.

THE state-quarries are a few miles from the port, near the entrance into Na••t-Frankon. From four to five hundred men are employed in them. They live in very elegant cottages, prettily disposed in groups. Here is a butcher and a shoe-maker, but no corrupting ale-house is permitted. His lordship has built a mar|ket house, so that the workmen need not wander for the necessary provisions. Let me not forget that he erected an elegant pa|vilion, called Ogwen Bank, with a kitchen, stables, &c. which lord and lady Penrhyn often visit, either to examine into this creation of theirs, or to amuse their guests.

HIS lordship was elected member for Petersfield, in the first parlement of his present majesty; and in 1767 vacated his seat to be elected for Leverpool. He was returned in 1768, 1774, and again in 1784. In that arduous situation, his lordship dis|charged his trust with zeal, abilities, and fidelity.

EDWARD PENNANT, the last owner of Bagillt, and last of the male line (lord Penrhyn excepted) died at Marseilles, on March 2d, 1••••8; and was there interred. In 1766 he disposed of to me by sale all the estates in the township of Holywell. And soon after he retired into France, he bequeathed the remainder of his for|tunes to his cousin Thomas Cratchley, who dying, left them to Roger Barnston, esquire, of Chester.

* 3.21FROM Bagillt-hall I descended into the township of Bagillt, through the turnpike-gate at Wall-wen. Immediately on the left hand, in Holywell township, is a small house, and small patrimony, the property of the Reverend Thomas Hughes, a curate of twelve years standing, of good morals, decent, and modest. His family,

and two other families not remote from him, had long possessed respectable freeholds of fifty pounds a-year each.

Time and chance happeneth to all men.

Our humble curate is far distanced by the other two. He remains a drudge in his pro|fession, honestâ pauperie, resulting from fraternal affection, in ex|erting every nerve to support two sisters, who rest on him for the poor pittance he can afford to give.

AFTER passing the turnpike-gate, I find myself on the conti|nuance of the turnpike-road from Greenfield to Flint. The dis|tance from the Greenfield gate to Flint is only four miles. Let me add, that within little more than one mile from the fountain of St. Wenefrede, at Holywell, to the gate just mentioned, Britain may be challenged to shew, on an equal space, a similar assemblage of commercial buildings, or of capitals employed in erecting and in carrying on their several objects. I refer the reader back to p. 203, for an account of those upon the Holywell stream. I re|sume the chain of commerce, from the copper-forge, the lowest link, which reaches to the very road.

A LITTLE to the right of the turnpike-gate, the little rill Nant-hil-brwe divides the small township of Whelstone from that of Holywell. This tract, of which I have the tythes, is one of the portions of Bagillt township, which is very large, and subdi|vided into two others, Bagillt-sawr, and Bagillt-fechan.

ON the side of the rill stand the works called the River Bank, established on my land, by lease dated September 22, 1785,* 3.22 granted to Messrs. William Roe and Edward Hawkins. These buildings are employed for the double purposes of calcining ca|lamine for the brass-works at Cheadle and Macclesfield, and for

the smelting lead-ore. It has the advantage of a small stream, which improves the operation of the latter.

IT turns two wheels, one of which is twenty-four feet in dia|meter, and from the size and breadth makes a noble appearance. At each end of these wheels is a balance-wheel; one of them sets the great refining bellows in motion, the other that of the slag|hearth.

HERE is also a curious contrivance for saving the calx of the lead-ore, which would otherwise have gone away in smoke. It besides lessens the bad effects on the grounds above. For this purpose two brick flues have been constructed, one from each furnace; each of them is horizontal, and is supported by three arches, and over each is a channel to contain a small current of water, for the purpose of turning the wheels, and also to con|dense the smoke in its passage. These flues converge, and meet a little beyond the third arch, and terminate in the condensing room, to the walls of which the calx adheres. This room is opened three times a-year: the calx is taken out, and re-smelted with some profit.

THE two flues, in issuing out of the building, are united in one, and are continued, forming a right angle for a very considerable way. Out of the end rises a vertical flue, forty-three feet high, out of which the smoke issues. The length of the horizontal flues which pass over the arches is fifty-seven feet; of the single one which passes from the room which catches the calx, is two hundred and ten feet.

* 3.23ABOUT three quarters of a mile farther on the bank, above the road, stands a large smelting-work, originally built by virtue of a

lease granted, in 1727, by Roger and Edward Pennant, esquires, of Bagillt, to Francis St••l••y and Nicholas Twig. It was after|wards rebuilt, and passed through various hands; the Smed|lies, father and sons; Henry Vigars, of Eaton, whose widow sold it to the Gadlys company. That expiring corporation possessed it only from about Michaelm••s 1783, after descending from their ancient works at Gadlys. In 1792 it again changed masters, and was sold by the company to Mr. John Griffith and Mr. Robert Aslett, of London.

BELOW them, on the road-side,* 3.24 were works of greater anti|quity. Those were in possession of two lessees before the year 1717. The first was Mr. Thomas White; the last was a gen|tleman well known by the name of Major Roberts. He was of the antient house of Plashewydd, near Ruthin. His lease was surrendered, and a new one granted, in 1717, by Roger Pennant, esquire, to Mr. Benjamin Perrin, father to our respectable coun|tryman, Sir Richard Perrin, baron of the exchequer. I remem|ber them standing; but soon after they became a heap of ruins, and at present their place is scarcely known.

A MR. Warren came into this country in 1794, and built,* 3.25 on the land of Roger Barnston, esquire, a smelting-house, on a new construction. But it was scarcely warmed, when it was disposed of to a Mr. Langworthy, mineral agent to earl Grosvenor!

THE collieries near these works have been very considerable.* 3.26 I remember, about forty years ago, there was between twenty and thirty thousand tons of coal upon bank, the greatest quan|tity, perhaps, ever seen together. The pits were then worked by the Gadlys company. The company had imprudently given

their agent, one Lancester, an unlimited order for raising the coal. This he found so profitable to himself, that he never de|sisted till the discovery was made of his selfish views. To ex|pedite the working, he engaged numbers of colliers from New|castle, and was the first in this country who made use of horses under ground. The coal might have lain on the bank to this day, if a dispute had not rose between the city of Dublin and the coal-adventurers at Whitehaven. This occasioned the citi|zens of Dublin to purchase this great stock, which was all carried away before the differences were settled.

FOR a considerable time after this glut of coal, the collieries declined greatly, and became very low, till they were revived of late years by the spirit and perseverance of Mr. Roger Ellis, of Cornish, in the parish of Flint, who has erected a powerful fire-engine on the road-side, between Greenfield turnpike-gate and Flint, and raises great quantities of that important re|quisite.

* 3.27QUIT the township of Bagillt, after crossing a little rill, issuing out of Nant-y-moch, or the dingle of the hogs. Here we enter the township of Coleshill-fawr. On the right, on an eminence, are the smelting-works, built by the grandfather of the present Sir Richard Perrin, whose father continued the works, and lived at Farm, till he took up his residence at Flint. About the year 1755, a new company was formed by Paul Panton, esquire, under the firm of himself, the Reverend Thomas Ince, and Charles Pigot, esquire.

* 3.28THE Doomsday-Book informs us, that at the time of the com|pilation of that record, Coleselt was held by Robert de Roelent, or

Ruddlan, a valiant Norman, nephew to Hugh Lupus, earl of Chester. Edwyn held it of Robert, and as a freeman. There was one taxable hide of land, a land of one caruca, or a plough-land. On C••l••silt, was one Radman, four villeyns, and two boors. The Radman was the same with the Rod or Rad-knights, who by the tenure of their land w••re bound to ride with or for their lord, and to guard him 〈…〉〈…〉 lady as often as they were required.

THIS township took its name from the abundance of coal which is produced. At present it gives name to one of the hundreds of the county. In the Doomsday-Book this township is placed in the hundred of Atiscros, a name which would have been lost, was it not retained in a tract called Croes-ati, a certain space round a cross, not remote from Flint, the pedestal of which I remember standing.

BENEATH the smelting-work is a neat building for the purpose of calcining calamine, held by lease granted by Mr. Panton,* 3.29 June 24th, 1794, to Mr. Thomas Davies, of Smethwick, Stafford|shire, and the company known by the name of the Smethwick Brass Company.

Paul Panton, esquire, is lord of the manor of Coleshill, and,* 3.30 till the marriage of his father, the family inhabited the manor-house, which of late years has been considerably enlarged and improved.

THE Pantons were a Denbighshire family,* 3.31 possessed of large property in Llanvair-Talhaiarn, Llanyfydd, Henllan, and other parishes. John Panton quitted Plâs-Panton, the antient resi|dence, a great house, called New Plâs-Panton. (See its unfor|tunate history in the Tour in Wales, ii. p. 52.) He married

Alice, fourth daughter of Sir William B••th, of D••ham-Masse, in Ch••sire. He was secretary to the ••rd chancellor Ellesmere, and represented the borough of Denhigh, in the ••9th and 43d of Elizabeth; and the borough of Harwich, in the 1st of James I. He disinherited his son Thomas, and left his large possessions to his only daughter A••thea, who married the lord ••and ••-de-la-Vine, in Hampshire * 3.32.

Thomas, the disinherited son of this John, by his industry and skill in agriculture, became enabled to purchase this lordship, in 1617, of the first earl of Bridgewater, son of the lord chancellor Egerton. At the time when paper credit was little known, to him was intrusted cash to be conveyed to London, which, by a letter of Pyers Pennant's, I find he did in person. The manor has continued in the family from his time. In 1753, the present gentleman improved it greatly, by an embankment from the sea, which in parts is productive of most excellent wheat, &c. &c.

THE first I find of the line of the Pantons, is Jevan Panton, twelfth in descent from March-weithian, one of the fifteen tribes of North Wales. His wife was daughter and heir of Bennet, fourteenth in descent from Marchudd, another of the fifteen tribes. Their history, and their several descendants, are given in the Appendix to this Work.

ALL the coast of Whiteford and Holywell parishes are more particularly subject than the drier parts to pleurisies,* 3.33 intermittents, and fevers of the putrid kinds. The last chiefly in the places where the poorer people are obliged to crowd into small apart|ments,

by which the air soon becomes soul, and produces this species of fever.

A CRUEL kind of quinzy has of late years infested these pa|rishes, and others adjacent. In 1794 it raged particularly in the township of Greenfield, and parish of Halkin, and made dreadful havock among children from the age of three to that of five. The average loss was four or five in seven. In this visitation the disease did not attack adults; not that instances are wanting in other places of its attacking grown-up persons. In September, 1771, a Mr. Poole, his wife and mother, were buried in one vault in Bunhill-fields. His daughter fell a victim also, and made the sum of the family, who died at the same time, and by the same malignant disorder.

THE name given by the learned to this fatal disease, is angina maligna, and cynanche maligna. Cynanche, because the patients are often observed to protrude their tongue far out of their mouth, like an over-heated dog.

THE symptoms are too terrible for description. They may uselessly affect parents, who may safely trust to the medical peo|ple for the knowlege of them, for they are by no means equivo|cal; but, if any one's curiosity is excited, it may be satisfied by the perusal of the works of the late Dr. Fothergill, p. 198. and Dr. Huxham's Essays, p. 286. It seems to have been one of the Nova Cohors Febrium. It was first observed in Spain, in 1610, from whence it spread into Malta, Sicily, Otr••nto, Apulia, Calabria, and, finally, in 1618, it broke out at Naples. It also appeared in the Archipelago, when Tournefort (see his Travels, i.

p. 132.) was in Milo, in the year 17••0. In Spain it got the name of garrotillo, from the horrible noise made by the patients, like that of persons strangled by a rope.

THIS fatal disorder reached England in 1739. Its first victims were two sons of Mr. Pelham, on the 27th of November of that year. After this it seemed to disappear, but began again in 1742; and with great fatality in 1746, when several of the in|habitants of Brom••y, near Bow, lost most of their children. From Dr. Huxham we learn, that in 1751 it visited C••wall; and from the latter part of that year, to May 1753, carried off numbers of children, and some adults.

IN the year 1743 it appeared in North Wales. From March 5th to March 10th, our late worthy vicar, the Reverend Griffith Griffith, buried three children. It was too much for his paternal feelings, and ever after greatly hurt his mind. And in the year 1744/5 that calamity visited the county of Caernarvon; and from January 28th to February 9th, the late Sir Thomas Mostyn, ba|ronet, at Gloddaeth, in Caernarvonshire, lost four. These were observed to have been the only instances of the disease in their respective neighborhoods.

I CANNOT trace the progress of this disease any farther north|ward than my own country. If it has not made any advances towards the colder climates, it may be deemed a malady of the warm and temperate parts of Europe.

THAT it has found its way to the New World, appears from the following instances. In 1746 it visited many parts of North America, from Philadelphia to New-York and New-England, and

with a rage unknown in Great-Britain; for in New-England it depopulated whole villages. And that it either continues on the continent, or has re-visited it, is evident from its having appeared in New York, in the year 1771.

THE cynanche trachialis, or croup, has appeared here too fre|quently. A few years ago it destroyed not fewer than six chil|dren in the family of a respectable farmer in a neighboring parish.

THE smelting-works at Flint are at a very small distance from the eastern boundary of Holywell.* 3.34 The division of the parish of Flint from that of the latter, is by a rill not far from the town of Flint. The works are of great antiquity. They are here men|tioned as the last link of the chain of metallic operations along the shore. There is no limiting the antiquity of the smelting-works; for we have proofs of very considerable ones having been near the town of Flint, at a place called Croes Ati, which is evident from the quantity of scoria of lead, bits of lead-ore, and frag|ments of melted lead, discovered in several places. I refer the reader, for a full account of them, and of the various antiquities met with on the spot, to p. 52. vol. i. of my Welsh Tour, which evince that they had been Roman works; so that it is probable there had been a succession of smelting-hearths in one part or other of this county, even to the present day.

TO return to the works in question. They are frequently known by the name of the salt-works; which possibly implies that the site had been occupied by works of that nature, prior to the existence of the smelting-works. They have been occu|pied

by several companies: at present by Mr. Richard Ingleby, of Halkin.—May success be his reward, for the seasonable and useful importation of barley in the late time of scarcity; a cri|tical relief to the numerous miners on the adjacent mountains, in which he had no more interest than in the rest of the human race!

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Notes

• * 1.1

  TOWNSHIPS.
• * 1.2

  S••
• * 1.3

  RIVER DEE COMPANY.
• * 1.4

  LUCERNE GRASS.
• * 1.5

  LAST E••BANK|MENT.
• * 1.6

  While this confident paragraph was in the press, on the morning of October 29th, a fiercer tide, assisted by a fiercer wind, has almost ruined the inclosure, and made such breaches as may probably deter the company from any further attempts to restore it.
• * 1.7

  PROJECTS.
• * 1.8

  THE MARK.
• * 1.9

  WAT'S DIKE.
• * 1.10

  B••INGWERK CASTLE.
• * 1.11

  Hist. He••ry II. 3d edit. ii. quoted in 338. Coll. Curious Discourset, i. 202.
• † 1.12

  Innocentius de ••mmu••itate ecclesia.
• * 1.13

  Hist. Henry II.
• † 1.14

  M. Pa•• 129.
• ‡ 1.15

  Pow••l. 208.
• ‖ 1.16

  Powel. 223.
• * 1.17

  Annales Waver••ienses, 159.
• * 1.18

  ABBY.
• † 1.19

  Called also by the Welsh, Maes-glas, or Greenfield.
• * 1.20

  I••in. Camb. lib. ii. c. 10.
• * 1.21

  GREENFIELD HOUSE.
• * 1.22

  Ayloffe's Rotuli Walliae, 68, 82.
• † 1.23

  Willis's Abbies, I. 312.
• ‡ 1.24

  Monasticon, I. 720, &c.
• * 1.25

  Dugdale's Monast. I. 720, 721.
• † 1.26

  Notitia, 711.
• ‡ 1.27

  Dugdale's Warwickshire, I. 197.
• * 1.28

  Sebrig•• MSS.
• * 1.29

  WHITE AND RED LEAD WORKS.
• * 1.30

  IRON-WIRE MILL.
• * 1.31

  PAPER MILLS.
• * 1.32

  Dugdale Monast. I. 721.
• * 1.33

  SNUFF MILLS
• * 1.34

  OLD SMELTING-WORK.
• * 1.35

  PIN-MILL.
• * 1.36

  THREE CORN-MILLS.
• * 1.37

  FAMOUS EPOCH OF COMMERCE.
• * 1.38

  Member for Marlow.
• * 1.39

  PARYS MINE COMPANY.
• * 1.40

  THE COMPANY'S COIN.
• * 1.41

  BRASS MELTING-HOUSES.
• * 1.42

  HYPOCAUST.
• * 1.43

  WIRE-WORK.
• * 1.44

  COTTON-WORK.
• * 1.45

  NE•• POLLING MILL.
• * 1.46

  This is superintended by Mr. Joseph Thomas, to whom I am indebted for the account.
• * 1.47

  GREENFIELD COPPER AND BRASS COMPANY.
• * 1.48

  CRESCENT-MILL.
• * 1.49

  CORN-MILL.
• * 1.50

  OLD COTTON-MILL.
• * 1.51

  GREATEST COT|TON-MILL.
• * 1.52

  MANAGEMENT OF THE CHILDREN.
• * 1.53

  THEIR BED.
• * 1.54

  MULES.
• * 1.55

  CORN-MILL.
• * 1.56

  LENGTH OF THE STREAM.
• * 1.57

  ST. WENEFREDE'S WELL.
• * 1.58

  Mr. John Ingleby has engraven a print of this elegant building, from a drawing by himself, which is sold by Mr. Cairus, bookseller, Holywell.
• * 1.59

  Sandford's Gencal. 475.
• * 1.60

  Dugdale's Warwickshire, I. 414.
• * 1.61

  CHAPEL.
• † 1.62

  Harl••n MSS. N^o 433.338.
• * 2.1

  FREE SCHOOL.
• * 2.2

  SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
• * 2.3

  CHAPEL WINDOW.
• * 2.4

  LITTLE SPRING.
• * 2.5

  OF SAINT WENE|FREDE.
• * 2.6

  Gale's Script. III. 190.
• * 2.7

  Life of St. Wenefrede, from which the materials for this part are mostly taken.
• † 2.8

  Histoire de l'abbaye de St. Denys, 76.
• * 2.9

  DYDD SUL Y SAINT.
• * 2.10

  See more in the learned Porlase's Antiquities of Cornwall, 124 to 126.
• * 2.11

  AN ANTIENT SEAL.
• * 2.12

  Stovely's Hist. Churches, 130.
• * 2.13

  Selden's notes on Michael Drayton, 289.
• † 2.14

  Powel's notes on Gi••ald. Cambr. 874. Mr. Addison says he saw his picture at Ravenna, in the convent of Theatins, among the eminent men of that order.
• * 2.15

  The late Doctor Cooper of Chester's MSS.
• * 2.16

  S••. P•• i••. 3••••.—Fl. Lap. 369. N^o 528.
• † 2.17

  Gen. 210. tab. 89. fig. 3.
• ‡ 2.18

  C••. Su•• &•• S••ae, 3••2.
• ‖ 2.19

  As quoted by Baron Haller, N^o 2090.
• * 2.20

  〈…〉〈…〉 TO THE 〈◊〉〈◊〉 W•• WHEEL.
• * 2.21

  CHURCH.
• * 2.22

  CHURCH.
• * 2.23

  MONUMENTS.
• * 2.24

  CHURCH-YARD.
• * 2.25

  NUMBER OF PEOPLE.
• * 2.26

  INCREASE.
• * 2.27

  POORS RATES.
• * 2.28

  IN 1721.
• * 2.29

  IN 1723
• * 2.30

  IN 1793
• * 2.31

  CLUBS OR FRIEND|LY SOCIETIES.
• * 2.32

  UNION CLUB.
• * 2.33

  OLD 〈◊〉〈◊〉-C••.
• * 2.34

  In these days, alas! our native liquor is banished from most tables! Ah! redeant SATURNIA regna!
• * 2.35

  BRYN Y CASTELL.
• * 2.36

  Powel, 262.
• * 2.37

  〈1 paragraph〉〈1 paragraph〉
• * 2.38

  〈1 paragraph〉〈1 paragraph〉
• * 2.39

  ROADS.
• * 2.40

  TO THE SEA.
• * 2.41

  TO RUDLAND AND ST. ASAPH.
• * 2.42

  〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 2.43

  〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 2.44

  C••.
• * 2.45

  LIME STONE.
• * 2.46

  A CAVE.
• * 2.47

  VE••TILATOR.
• * 2.48

  CASCADE.
• * 2.49

  OTHER SUBTER|RANEOUS WA|TERS.
• * 2.50

  OTHER 〈◊〉〈◊〉
• * 2.51

  CONTINUANCE OF.
• * 2.52

  FERTILE TRAC••.
• * 2.53

  PEN-Y-BAL ROAD.
• * 2.54

  CALCOLD.
• * 2.55

  NAID-Y-MARCH.
• * 2.56

  HALKIN AND BRYNFORD ROADS.
• * 2.57

  ••FORD HOUSE.
• * 2.58

  PEN-Y-BRYN MINE.
• * 2.59

  REFRACTING SPAR.
• * 2.60

  PISTILL.
• * 2.61

  MEI•• AND OTHER MINES.
• * 2.62

  GADLYS ROAD
• * 2.63

  BAGILLT TOWN|SHIP.
• * 2.64

  HOUSE THE PAN|••.
• * 2.65

  THE GRIFFITH O•• BAGILLT
• * 2.66

  CU••IOU•• WILL.
• * 3.1

  CU•• 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 3.2

  To whom I am much indebted for information respecting the Gadly: company.
• † 3.3

  Leake on Coin, 287.
• * 3.4

  Leake on Coins, 302.
• * 3.5

  BATTLE OF COLESHILL.
• * 3.6

  See Powel, p. 207.
• * 3.7

  ROAD TO FLINT.
• * 3.8

  MALT KILN.
• * 3.9

  ••E
• * 3.10

  The legislature, at this very time, seems to have this subject in conside|ration; much care and attention must be paid to it. The poor may, by vari|ous means, be tempted to sell their new acquisitions. There will always be harpies at hand to take advantage of distress, by which means every ease to the parishes will be defeated. Those little possessions should, if possible, be entailed on the parish, or allotted as alleviations of parochial taxes, those growing evils, in a man|ner the wisdom of the legislature may contrive.
• * 3.11

  VITRIOL-WORKS.
• * 3.12

  VERDITER.
• * 3.13

  SUGAR OF LEAD
• * 3.14

  Gent. Mag. 1773. p. 201.
• * 3.15

  RIBBON WEAVERS.
• * 3.16

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 THE 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 3.17

  FOUNDER OF THE FAMILY.
• * 3.18

  PENNANTS OF H••NDRE-FI|GILLT.
• * 3.19

  C•• PEN-Y-GARTH.
• * 3.20

  LORD PENRHYN.
• * 3.21

  M••. H••S OF 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 3.22

  RIVER BANK WORKS.
• * 3.23

  BAGILLT UPPER WORKS.
• * 3.24

  LOWER WORKS.
• * 3.25

  D••E BANK.
• * 3.26

  COLLIERIES.
• * 3.27

  NANT-Y-MOCH.
• * 3.28

  COLESHILL.
• * 3.29

  A CALCINING-WORK.
• * 3.30

  MANOR OF COLESHILL.
• * 3.31

  PANTON FAMILY.
• * 3.32

  Gwill••m's H••aldry, 427. Dugdale•• Baron. ii. 303.
• * 3.33

  DISEASES.
• * 3.34

  FLINT SMELLING-WORKS.