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fenfual paffions; the fine arts, like fo many handmaids, should ever be ready to attend, but not to command; to foften manners, but not to render them luxurious.-From Wrexham our road became lefs interesting; and for ten or twelve miles, prefented nothing to recompence the fatigue of a long and tedious walk, until we had afcended a very high hill, when the vale of Clwyd, in all its beauty, unfolded upon the fight it appeared like a moving picture, upon which nature had been prodigal of its colours. Hamlets, villages, towns, and caftles, rofe like enchantment upon this rich carpet, that seemed covered with wood and enclosures; in the midst of it, at the distance of about five miles, the town of Ruthin, partially appeared from the bofom of a most beautiful grove of trees; the vale on each fide being bounded by a chain of lofty mountains, and far off,

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on a bold and rugged promontory, stood Denbigh, with its strong fortrefs, the undif puted mistress of this extended scene. The great defect of the vale, is its want of water; the little river Clwyd, which winds through it, not being perceptible at any distance, and in dry feafons quite choaked up; though on the contrary, in wet and rainy weather, it foon overflows the whole country, fwelled by the torrents from the furrounding hills*. The land in the vale lying low, and confequently swampy, is, upon a nearer examination, rather coarse. We dined at Ruthin, where there are some remains of a caftle, and reached Denbigh yesterday evening. This town is well built,

This delightful vale is of an oval shape, twenty-fix miles in length, and about eight wide in the broadest part; it is wholly bounded with high hills, excepting towards the Irish fea, where it ends in a marsh at Rydland.

Gentleman's Tour through Wales, &c.

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and the principal street which is on the flope of the hill, is broad and clean, but there are very indifferent accommodations to be met with. After tea we took a walk to view the castle, whofe venerable walls, rifing high above the town, command a magnificent view of the whole vale.

The fituation of this castle is admirably defcribed by Churchyard, who lived in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and wrote his travels through North Wales in familiar verfe.

"This caftle ftands on top of rocke most hye,
A mightie cragge, as hard as flint or fteele;
A maffie mount, whofe ftones fo deepe doth lye,
That no device may well the bottome feele.
The rocke descends beneath the auntient towne,
About the which a stately wall goes downe,
With buyldings great, and pofternes to the same,
That goes thro' rocke to give it greater fame."

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It was built in the reign of Edward the

First,

First, and garrifoned, in the time of Charles the First, by the royalists; but was obliged to furrender to the parliament army, after a gallant and vigorous defence; the breaches in the walls are vast, and serve to shew the ftrength and thickness of their conftruction. The royal and unfortunate fugitive, Charles the First, after his retreat from Chester, took up his abode for one night in this castle. But it was deftined that he should be the first facrifice to freedom; and neither armies nor caftles, walls nor cannon, could protect him from the hands of justice; or prevent an oppreffed people from avenging upon him not only his own, but the fœdal defpotifm, and worse than papal tyranny, of five preceding reigns. Wretched muft be that government, and the people that live under it, when it be comes neceffary to reftrain the encroachments of arbitrary power, at the point of the

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the fword; or to exact obedience to the will of the fovereign from the cannon's mouth. Denbigh is more of a venerable, than a magnificent ruin, and would, of itself, have amply repaid me for all the fatigue I had undergone; I would not willingly exaggerate the accounts of what I have seen, or endeavour to paint things otherwise, than as they really are; for I am fenfible, that the reader too often acquires falfe ideas of places and things, from the pompous defcription of the traveller, who thinks himself obliged to relate. fomething of the marvellous, in order that the world may not ridicule him, for croffing feas or traverfing defarts, in fearch of what he might have eafily feen at home; and yet it often happens, that scenes, though too highly coloured, may have had that appearance, to the eye of the fpectator, at the time he defcribes them; and that what

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