Wales.

The text was pronounced both in Welsh and English Tour to -The sound of the Welsh, in a continued discourse, is not unpleasant-Вpwσis oλyn-kad. a. p.'—The letter of Chrysostom, against transubstantiation--Erasmus to the Nuns full of mystic notions and allegories.

Monday, 15th August.-Ka-Imbecillitas genuum non sine aliquantulo doloris inter ambulandum, quem a prandio magis sensi 2.

Tuesday, 16th August.-[On this day he wrote to Mr. Levett.]

"TO MR. ROBERT LEVETT.

Lleweney, in Denbighshire, 16th Aug. 1774. "DEAR SIR,-Mr. Thrale's affairs have kept him here a great while, nor do I know exactly when we shall come hence. I have sent you a bill upon Mr. Strahan.

"I have made nothing of the ipecacuanha, but have taken abundance of pills, and hope that they have done me good.

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Wales, so far as I have yet seen of it, is a very beautiful and rich country, all enclosed and planted. Denbigh is not a mean town. Make my compliments to all my friends, and tell Frank I hope he remembers my advice. When his money is out, let him have more. I am, sir, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

[Thursday, 18th August.]—We left Lleweney, and went forwards on our journey-We came to Abergeley, a mean town, in which little but Welsh is spoken, and divine service is seldom performed in English-Our way then lay to the seaside, at the foot of a mountain, called Penmaen Rhôs— Here the way was so steep, that we walked on the lower edge of the hill, to meet the coach, that went upon a road higher on the hill-Our walk was not long, nor unpleasant: the longer I walk, the less I feel its in

1

[Sic, probably for xadaçois apeλns. See ante, 17th July, and 6th August. -ED.]

2

["A weakness of the knees, not without some pain in walking, which I feel increased after I have dined."-Duppa.]

3 [In Mr. Duppa's edition, the departure from Lleweney is erroneously (as appears from what follows) dated the 16th.-ED.]

VOL. III.

L

Tour to convenience-As I grow warm, my breath mends, and I think my limbs grow pliable.

Wales.

We then came to Conway Ferry, and passed in small boats, with some passengers from the stage coach, among whom were an Irish gentlewoman, with two maids, and three little children, of which, the youngest was only a few months old. The tide did not serve the large ferry-boat, and therefore our coach could not very soon follow us-We were, therefore, to stay at the inn. It is now the day of the race at Conway, and the town was so full of company, that no money could purchase lodgings. We were not very readily supplied with cold dinner. We would have staid at Conway if we could have found entertainment, for we were afraid of passing Penmaen Mawr, over which lay our way to Bangor, but by bright daylight, and the delay of our coach made our departure necessarily late. There was,

however, no stay on any other terms, than of sitting up all night. The poor Irish lady was still more distressed-Her children wanted rest-She would have been contented with one bed, but, for a time, none could be had-Mrs. Thrale gave her what help she could-At last two gentlemen were persuaded to yield up their room, with two beds, for which she gave half a guinea.

Our coach was at last brought, and we set out with some anxiety, but we came to Penmaen Mawr by daylight; and found a way, lately made, very easy, and very safe-It was cut smooth, and enclosed between parallel walls; the outer of which secures the passenger from the precipice, which is deep and

[Penmaen Mawr is a huge rocky promontory, rising nearly 1550 feet perpendicular above the sea. Along a shelf of this precipice is formed an excellent road, well guarded, toward the sea, by a strong wall, supported in many parts by arches turned underneath it. Before this wall was built, travellers sometimes fell down the precipices.DUPPA.]

Wales.

dreadful—This wall is here and there broken by Tour to mischievous wantonness-The inner wall preserves the road from the loose stones, which the shattered steep above it would pour down-That side of the mountain seems to have a surface of loose stones, which every accident may crumble-The old road was higher, and must have been very formidableThe sea beats at the bottom of the way.

At evening the moon shone eminently bright; and our thoughts of danger being now past, the rest of our journey was very pleasant. At an hour, somewhat late, we came to Bangor, where we found a very mean inn, and had some difficulty to obtain lodgingI lay in a room, where the other bed had two men.

Friday, 19th August.-We obtained boats to convey us to Anglesey, and saw Lord Bulkeley's house, and Beaumaris Castle.

I was accosted by Mr. Lloyd, the schoolmaster of Beaumaris, who had seen me at University College; and he, with Mr. Roberts, the register of Bangor, whose boat we borrowed, accompanied us. Lord Bulkeley's house is very mean, but his garden is spacious and shady, with large trees and smaller interspersed―The walks are straight, and cross each other, with no variety of plan; but they have a pleasing coolness and solemn gloom, and extend to a great length'. The castle is a mighty pile; the outward wall has fifteen round towers, besides square towers at the angles-There is then a void space between the wall and the castle, which has an area enclosed with a wall, which again has towers, larger

[Baron Hill is the name of Lord Bulkeley's house, which is situated just above the town of Beaumaris, at the distance of three quarters of a mile, commanding so fine a view of the sea, and the coast of Caernarvon, that it has been sometimes compared to Mount Edgecombe, in Devonshire. Lord Lyttelton, speaking of the house and gardens, says, "The house is a bad one, but the gardens are made in a very fine taste."-DUPPA.]

Tour to than those of the outer wall-The towers of the Wales. inner castle are, I think, eight-There is likewise a chapel entire, built upon an arch, as I suppose, and beautifully arched with a stone roof, which is yet unbroken-The entrance into the chapel is about eight or nine feet high, and was, I suppose, higher, when there was no rubbish in the area-This castle corresponds with all the representations of romancing narratives―Here is not wanting the private passage, the dark cavity, the deep dungeon, or the lofty tower -We did not discover the well-This is the most complete view that I have yet had of an old castle -It had a moat-The towers-We went to Bangor.

Saturday, 20th August.-We went by water from Bangor to Caernarvon, where we met Paoli and Sir Thomas Wynne-Meeting by chance with one Troughton, an intelligent and loquacious wanderer, Mr. Thrale invited him to dinner-He attended us to the castle, an edifice of stupendous magnitude and strength; it has in it all that we observed at Beaumaris, and much greater dimensions: many of the smaller rooms floored with stone are entire; of the larger rooms, the beams and planks are all left: this is the state of all buildings left to time-We mounted the eagle tower by one hundred and sixty-nine steps, each of ten inches-We did not find the well; nor did I trace the moat; but moats there were, I believe, to all castles on the plain, which not only hindered access, but prevented mines-We saw but a very small part of this mighty ruin, and in all these old

[Sir Thomas Wynne, created Lord Newborough, July 14th, 1776. Died October 12th, 1807.-DUPPA.]

2 ["Lieutenant Troughton I do recollect, loquacious and intelligent he was. He wore a uniform, and belonged, I think, to a man of war."—Piozzi MS. He was made a lieutenant in 1762, and died in 1786, in that rank; he was on half-pay, and did not belong to any ship when he met Dr. Johnson in 1774. It seems then that, even so late as this, half-pay officers wore their uniforms in the ordinary course of life.—ED.]

Wales.

buildings, the subterraneous works are concealed by Tour to the rubbish-To survey this place would take much time I did not think there had been such buildings; it surpassed my ideas.

Sunday, 21st August—[at Caernarvon].—We were at church; the service in the town is always English; at the parish-church at a small distance, always Welsh -The town has by degrees, I suppose, been brought nearer to the sea-side-We received an invitation to Dr. Worthington-We then went to dinner at Sir Thomas Wynne's, the dinner mean, Sir Thomas civil, his lady nothing'-Paoli civil-We supped with Colonel Wynne's lady, who lives in one of the towers of the castle--I have not been very well.

Monday, 22d August.—We went to visit Bodville, the place where Mrs. Thrale was born, and the churches called Tydweilliog and Llangwinodyl, which she holds by impropriation-We had an invitation to the house of Mr. Griffiths of Bryn o dol, where we found a small neat new-built house, with square rooms: the walls are of unhewn stone, and therefore thick; for the stones not fitting with exactness, are not strong without great thickness-He had planted a great deal of young wood in walks-Fruit trees do not thrive; but having grown a few years, reach some

:

1 [Lady Catharine Perceval, daughter of the second Earl of Egmont: this was, it appears, the lady of whom Mrs. Piozzi relates, that "For a lady of quality, since dead, who received us at her husband's seat in Wales with less attention than he had long been accustomed to, he had a rougher denunciation: That woman,' cried Johnson, is like sour small beer, the beverage of her table, and produce of the wretched country she lives in like that, she could never have been a good thing, and even that bad thing is spoiled."" And it is probably of her too that another anecdote is told: "We had been visiting at a lady's house, whom, as we returned, some of the company ridiculed for her ignorance: 'She is not ignorant,' said he, 'I believe, of any thing she has been taught, or of any thing she is desirous to know; and I suppose if one wanted a little run tea, she might be a proper person enough to apply to."" Mrs. Piozzi says, in her MS. Letters, "that Lady Catharine comes off well in the diary. He said many severe things of her, which he did not commit to paper." She died in 1782.

ED.]

2 ["Situated among the mountains of Caernarvonshire."--Piozzi MS.]