Martin; and was erected, as I learn from the Oration in the Ellesmere Report, p. 24, to the memory of those ancient Britons who fell in quelling a dangerous rebellion in a neighbouring island, now more closely united to us.  Near this place a boat is kept for the purpose of crossing the river.

From the old house a road is continued on the rampire of Offa’s Dyke for nearly two miles, and bears the whimsical title of Llwybr y Cath, i.e. Cat’s Path, although it is wide enough for two carriages to pass abreast.  The ardent and inquisitive traveller will find in the interesting domain of Wynnstay much to examine, much to amuse, and much to admire.

Returning through the park to the high road, I crossed the Dee over a recently erected iron bridge; and entering the parish of Chirk, I soon regained Offa’s Dyke, the peculiar features of which plainly distinguish it.  The Dyke crosses the road to London about two hundred yards to the west of Whitehurst’s new toll gate, and about four miles and a half from Llangollen.  Pursuing the line of the Dyke towards Chirk Castle, I found in it a number of large and long grey stones, mossed over, and lying confusedly at the bottom.  They are very remarkable, as there are no quarries in the neighbourhood, from which such stones could be procured; and as they all lay in one spot, I conjecture that they have been used to mark the graves of the slain in the year 1165, when Henry II. made his first expedition against North Wales, by way of the Berwyn Mountains:—“He assembled a large army at Oswelt Tree, and detached a number of men to try the passes into Wales.  There was a narrow way through the Dyke, near Castell Crogen, now Chirk Castle; they were set upon by a party of Welchmen, as they would have passed this strait, and many of them were there slain, and buried in that ditch; where (says my Author) their graves are now (i.e. 1697) to be seen.” [20]

The place was called Adwy’r Beddau, i.e. Pass of the Graves.  There is a field or two near the place still called Tir a Beddau, i.e. Land, or Field of the Dead.  I visited this place, and found the field under cultivation; and it is possible that the stones may have been removed out of the way of the plough, to the place where they now lie.  On examining an old survey of Chirk Lordship, I found two or three parcels of land lying contiguous to each other, and on each side of the Dyke, at this place, bearing the same name, Tir y Beddau.

From this field of the dead I bent my way along the Dyke, through bramble, bush, and brier, to the no small disturbance of its numerous inhabitants, the nimble squirrels, the rabbits, and the pheasants, springing before me every thirty or forty yards.  At length I arrived at the brink of a sheet of water called the pool, on which numbers of wild ducks, coots, and other aquatic birds were disporting.  The ditch and rampire continued through the middle of that pool, and the rampire is still traceable from the boat house on the opposite side; and running along the ley in front of Chirk Castle to a wood yard on the west side of it, it again deepens, and assumes its form.  As it approaches the Ceiriog river, which skirts the south side of the park, it appears indeed a barrier.  I took the depth a little from the farm or wood yard, and found it about fifty feet, a little farther on sixty feet, and near its termination at Pont Melin y Castell, or the Castle Mill, it is about eighty feet.  At this point there is a bridge over the river, up whose banks, at about half a mile distance, is a farm still retaining the name of Crogen Isaf, or Lower Crogen.

In the bank of limestone rock below the bridge, and on the side of the river, is a cavern or subterraneous passage, of unknown extent, and which I have not had opportunity to explore.  Above Crogen Isaf, and near a bridge of very capacious span across the Ceiriog, called Pont Madoc, a powder mill was about to be erected; but when the work was nearly completed, the projector became unable to proceed, and it was discontinued.

Thinking it best not to break the narrative of my progress along the ancient Dyke, by which I passed so near to the venerable Castle of Chirk, I have hitherto purposely omitted an account of that celebrated mansion.  I shall now, however, return to it.

Chirk Castle.

This noble and ancient pile was built on the site of Castell Crogen, about the year 1011.  I must here hazard a conjecture concerning this Castle.  I am of opinion that the old Castle of Crogen was then enlarged and repaired, not entirely rebuilt; as John Myddleton, who communicated a paper to the Society of Antiquarians on the subject, says it was begun A.D. 1011, and was finished in 1013, which makes it only about two years, probably too short a period for the total re-erection of so large an edifice.

The building is square, and is flanked by four massive bastions or rounders, one at each corner.  There is a fifth in the centre of the front, of the same dimensions as the others.  The length of the front is about two hundred and fifty feet; the square court or quadrangle within the walls is about one hundred and sixty-five feet, by one hundred.  The grand entrance is under a lofty arched gateway; the side entrance is by a double flight of stone stairs, through a postern and colonnade, into the quadrangle.  I measured the walls of the north-west bastion, and found them more than fourteen feet thick, and all apparently of solid masonry.  The whole of this extensive and ponderous building is of hewn stone.

On the west side of the quadrangle is the door of the dungeon, which in feudal times has been the melancholy abode of many hapless victims, who fell under their Lord’s displeasure.  There is at the entrance a case or hollow in the thickness of the wall, for a portcullis; and there are two places of confinement, one below the other.  The first is not formed so far below the surface of the earth as totally to exclude the light of day; it being admitted obliquely from above.  There is also a fire-place; so that it is probable this might be a prison for less serious crimes, or for delinquents of noble quality.  The deep dungeon is far below the first, the descent to it being by forty-two steps; and is said to be as deep as the walls are high.  It is small and circular, and about twelve or fourteen yards in circumference.  The iron doors are now taken away, and one of oak is substituted, which bears upon it numberless notches, not, like those of Sterne’s captive, made to mark the days of misery, but the number of horns of strong ale drank at one sitting by a party assembled in this place to drink to the health of the Lord of the Castle.  It is a record of the strength of their heads, if not of their attachment to their Lord.  High up in the wall are two iron hooks, fixed to support a large cheese, which was formerly kept here for the entertainment of those who chose to visit this gloomy place.  The sides of the dungeon are partly formed of the rock on which the Castle is founded, as is also the floor.

Returning to the light of the sun, on the adjoining south side of the quadrangle