great-Some buildings which Clough, the founder, intended for warehouses, would make store-chambers and servants' rooms The ground seems to be good-I wish it well. Friday, 29th July.-We were at Llewe-, make an useful house, but it cannot be ney-In the lawn at Lleweney is a spring of fine water, which rises above the surface into a stone basin, from which it runs to waste, in a continual stream, through a pipe-There are very large trees-The hall at Lleweney is forty feet long, and Sunday, 31st July.-We went to church twenty-eight broad-The gallery one hun- at St. Asaph-The cathedral, though not dred and twenty feet long (all paved)-large, has something of dignity and granThe library forty-two feet long, and twen- deur-The cross aisle is very short-It ty-eight broad-The dining-parlours thir- has scarcely any monuments-The quire ty-six feet long, and twenty-six broad-It has, I think, thirty-two stalls of antique is partly sashed, and partly has casements. workmanship-On the backs were CanoniSaturday, 30th July.-We went to cus, Prebend, Cancellarius, Thesaurarius, Bach y Graig, where we found an old Præcentor-The constitution I do not house, built 1567, in an uncommon and know, but it has all the usual titles and incommodious form-My mistress chattered dignities-The service was sung only in about cleaning, but I prevailed on her to the Psalms and Hymns-The bishop was go to the top-The floors have been stolen: very civil 4-We went to his palace, which the windows are stopped-The house was is but mean- -They have a library, and less than I seemed to expect-The river design a room- -There lived Lloyd and Clwyd is a brook with a bridge of one arch, Dodwell 5. about one-third of a mile 3 The woods have many trees, generally young; but some which seem to decay-They have been lopped-The house never had a garden-The addition of another story would gives this description of its situation-"Lleweney lies on a flat, has most pleasing views of the mountains on each side of the vale, and the town and castle of Denbigh form most capital objects at the distance of two miles." It now belongs to Mr. Hughes of Kinmel, who lately purchased it, with the estate, for 150,0007.-DUPPA.][of Lord Kirkwall, who had bought it of Sir Robert Cotton for 96,000l.-Piozzi MS.] [Bach y Graig had been the residence of Mrs. Thrale's ancestors for several generations; Pennant thus describes it. "Not far from Dymerchion lies half buried in woods the singular house of Bach y Graig. It consists of a mansion of three sides, enclosing a square court. The first consists of a vast hall and parlour: the rest of it rises into six wonderful stories, including the cupola; and forms from the second floor the figure of a pyramid: the rooms are small and inconvenient. The bricks are admirable, and appear to have been made in Holland; and the model of the house was probably brought from Flanders, where this kind of building is not unfrequent. It was built by Sir Richard Clough, an eminent merchant, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The initials of his name are in iron on the front, with the date 1567, and on the gateway 1569."DUPPA. This was the mansion-house of the estate which had fallen to Mrs. Thrale, and was the cause of this visit to Wales. Incredible as it may appear, it is certain that this lady imported from Italy a nephew of Piozzi's, and, making him assume her maiden name of Salusbury, bequeathed to this foreigner (if she did not give it in her lifetime) this ancient patrimonial estate, to the exclusion of her own children.-ED.] [Quere, climbing? —ED.] [Meaning perhaps that the bridge is one-third of a mile from the house.-ED.] Monday, 1st August.-We visited Denbigh, and the remains of its castle-The town consists of one main street, and some that cross it, which I have not seen-The chief street ascends with a quick rise for a great length: the houses are built some with rough stone, some with brick, and a few with timber-The castle, with its whole enclosure, has been a prodigious pile; it is now so ruined that the form of the inhabited part cannot easily be traced-There are, as in all old buildings, said to be extensive vaults, which the ruins of the upper works cover and conceal, but into which boys sometimes find a way-To clear all passages, and trace the whole of what remains, would require much labour and expense-We saw a church, which was once the chapel of the castle, but is used by the town: it is dedicated to St. Hilary, and has an income of about [The bishop at this time was Dr. Shipley. Upon another occasion, when Johnson dined in company with Dr. Shipley, he said he was knowing and conversible. Their difference in politicks would hardly admit of more praise from Johnson.DUPPA.] [Lloyd was raised to the see of St. Asaph in 1680. He was one of the seven bishops who were sent to the Tower in 1688, for refusing to permit the publication of the royal declaration for liberty of conscience, and was a zealous promoter of the revolution. He died Bishop of Worcester, August 30, 1717, at ninety-one years of age. Dodwell was a man of extensive learning, and an intimate friend of Lloyd, and, like him, a great friend to the revolution. He also entertained religious opinions which were, for the greater part of his life, inconvenient to him: but when he became an old man, his reason prevailed over those scruples, to which his skill in controversy, in the vigour of his life, had given more impor tance than they deserved.-DUPPA.] At a small distance is the ruin of a church | Mr. Salusbury was buried in it: Bàch y said to have been begun by the great Earl Graig has fourteen seats in it. As we rode of Leicester, and left unfinished at his by, I looked at the house 9 again-We saw death-One side, and I think the east end, Llannerch, a house not mean, with a small are yet standing-There was a stone in the park very well watered-There was an wall over the doorway, which it was said avenue of oaks, which, in a foolish comwould fall and crush the best scholar in the pliance with the present mode, has been diocese 2-One Price would not pass under cut down-A few are yet standing: the it-They have taken it down-We then owner's name is Davies 10-The way lay saw the chapel of Lleweney, founded by through pleasant lanes, and overlooked a one of the Salusburies: it is very complete: region beautifully diversified with trees and the monumental stones lie in the ground- grass. At Dymerchion church there is A chimney has been added to it, but it is English service only once a month-this is otherwise not much injured, and might be about twenty miles from the English boreasily repaired 3. der-The old clerk had great appearance of joy at the sight of his mistress, and foolishly said, that he was now willing to dieHe had only 11 a crown given him by my mistress-At Dymerchion church the texts on the walls are in Welsh. We went to the parish church of Denbigh, which, being near a mile from the town, is only used when the parish officers are chosen-In the chapel, on Sundays, the service is read thrice, the second time only in English, the first and third in Welsh-The bishop came to survey the castle, and visited likewise St. Hilary's chapel, which is that which the town uses -The hay-barn, built with brick pillars from space to space, and covered with a roof-A more elegant and lofty hovelThe rivers here are mere torrents, which are suddenly swelled by the rain to great breadth and great violence, but have very little constant stream; such are the Clwyd and the Elwy-There are yet no mountains-The ground is beautifully embellished with woods, and diversified with inequalities-In the parish church of Denbigh is a bas-relief of Lloyd the antiquary, who was before Camden-He is kneeling at his prayers 4. Tuesday, 2d August.-We rode to a summer-house of Mr. Cotton, which has a very extensive prospect; it is meanly built, and unskilfully disposed-We went to Dymerchion church 6, where the old clerk acknowledged his mistress-It is the parish church of Bàch y Graig 7—A mean fabric, [By Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in 1579. He died Sept. 4, 1588.-DUPPA.] 2 [See a similar story of a building in Edinburgh, ante, p. 334.-ED.] [The late Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton had no taste for antiquity of any kind; and this chapel was not regarded by him as being in any respect better than a barn, or fit for any other purpose; and the present proprietor applies it to that use.DUPPA.] Wednesday, 3d August. We went in the coach to Holywell-Talk with mistress about flattery 12-Holywell is a market town, neither very small nor mean-The spring called Winifred's Well is very clear, and so copious, that it yields one hundred townships of the parish of Dymerchion.-DUP- 9 [Of Bach y Graig.-Piozzi MS.] 10 [Robert Davies, Esq. At his house there was an extensive library.-DUPPA.] he has first entered in his diary, "The old clerk 11 [In the MS. in Dr. Johnson's handwriting, had great appearance of joy at seeing his mistress, and foolishly said that he was now willing to die." He afterwards wrote in a separate column, on the same leaf, under the head of notes and omissions, "He had a crown;" and then he appears to have read over his diary at a future time, and interlined the paragraph with the words "only" -"given him by my mistress," which is written in ink of a different colour. This shows that he read his diary over after he wrote it, and that where his feelings were not accurately expressed, he amended them.-DUPPA.] 12 ["He said that I flattered the people to whose houses we went: I was saucy, and said I was obliged to be civil for two-meaning himself and me. He replied, nobody would thank me for compliments they did not understand. At Gwaynynog (Mr. Myddleton's), however, he was flattered, and was happy of course."-Piozzi MS. Johnson had no dislike to those commendations which are commonly imputed to flattery. Upon one occasion, he said to Mrs. Thrale, "What signifies protesting so against flattery! when a person speaks well of one, it must be either true or false, you know: if true, let us rejoice in his good opinion; if he lies, it is a 5 [This summer-house is in the grounds belong-proof at least that he loves more to please me, ing to Lleweney, and their ride to it was to see the prospect the situation commands a very beautiful view.-DUPPA.] [Humphry Lloyd was a native of Denbigh, and practised there as a physician, and also represented the town in parliament. He died 1568, aged forty-one.-Duppa.] [Dymerchion is three miles from St. Asaph.DUPPA.] [Bachy Graig is the name of one of three than to sit silent when he need say nothing."- area. Stapylton's house is pretty 4; there are pleasing shades about it, with a constant spring that supplies a cold bath-We then went to see a cascade-I trudged unwillingly, and was not sorry to find it dry 5-The water was, however, turned on, and produced a very striking cataract-They are paid a hundred pounds a year for permission to divert the stream to the minesThe river, for such it may be termed, rises from a single spring, which, like that of Winifred's, is covered with a building. We called then at another house belong ing to Mr. Lloyd, which made a hand some appearance-This country seems full of very splendid houses. Mrs. Thrale lost her purse-She expressed so much uneasiness, that I concluded the sum to be very great; but when I heard of only seven guineas, I was glad to find that she had so much sensibility of money. tuns of water in a minute-It is all at once | The garrison had, perhaps, tents in the a very great stream, which, within perhaps thirty yards of its irruption, turns a mill, and in a course of two miles, eighteen mills more-In descent, it is very quick-It then falls into the sea-The well is covered by a lofty circular arch, supported by pillars; and over this arch is an old chapel, now a school-The chancel is separated by a wall-The bath is completely and indecently open-A woman bathed while we all looked on-In the church, which makes a good appearance, and is surrounded by galleries to receive a numerous congregation, we were present while a child was christened in Welsh-We went down by the stream to see a prospect, in which I had no part-We then saw a brass work, where the lapis calaminaris is gathered, broken, washed from the earth and the lead, though how the lead was separated I did not see; then calcined, afterwards ground fine, and then mixed by fire with copper-We saw several strong fires with melting pots, but the construction of the fireplaces I did not learn-At a copper-work, which receives its pigs of copper, I think, from Warrington, we saw a plate of copper put hot between steel rollers, and spread thin: I know not whether the upper roller was set to a certain distance, as I suppose, or acted only by its weight-At an iron-work I saw round bars formed by a notched hammer and anvil-There I saw a bar of about half an inch or more square, cut with shears worked by water, and then beaten hot into a thinner bar-The hammers all worked, as they were, by water, acting upon small bodies, moved very quick, as quick as by the hand-I then saw wire drawn, and gave a shilling-I have enlarged my notions, though not been able to see the movements; and having not time to peep closely, I knew less than I might—I was less weary, and had better breath, as I walked farther. Thursday, 4th August.-Rhudlan1 Castle is still a very noble ruin; all the walls still remain, so that a complete platform, and elevations, not very imperfect, may be taken 2—It encloses a square of about thirty yards-The middle space was always open-The wall is, I believe, about thirty feet high, very thick, flanked with six round towers, each about eighteen feet, or less, in diameter-Only one tower had a chimney, so that there was 3 commodity of living--It was only a place of strength [In the first edition this name was by mistake printed Ruthin.-ED.] 2 [Meaning, probably, could be drawn on paper. ED.] 3 ["No," or " little," is probably here omitted.-ED.] I could not drink this day either coffee or tea after dinner-I know not when I missed before. Friday, 5th August. Last night my sleep was remarkably quiet-I know not whether by fatigue in walking, or by forbearance of tea. I gave [up] the ipecacuanha--Vin. emet. had failed; so had tartar emet. I dined at Mr. Myddleton's, of Gwaynynog-The house was a gentleman's house, below the second rate, perhaps below the third, built of stone roughly cut-The rooms were low, and the passage above stairs gloomy, but the furniture was good-The table was well supplied, except that the fruit was bad-It was truly the dinner of a country gentleman -Two 4 [The name of this house is Bodryddan [pronounced, writes Mrs. Piozzi, Potrothan]; formerly the residence of the Stapyltons, the parents of five co-heiresses, of whom Mrs. Cotton, afterwards Lady Salusbury Cotton, was one. In the year 1774, it was the residence of Mr. Shipley, dean of St. Asaph, who still lives there.-DUPPA. cascade at Dysert rock, that I remember she was 5["He teased Mrs. Cotton so about the dry residence made her, I suppose, partial to the ready to cry: the waterfall being near her maiden place; for she sent us thither to be entertained, and expected much praise at our return."-Piozzi MS.] 6 [Johnson affected to be a man of very nice discernment in the art of cookery (DUPPA); but if we may trust Mrs. Piozzi's enumeration of his favourite dainties, with very little justice. See ante, p. 208. And observing in one of her letters to Mr. Duppa on this passage, she says, "Dr. Johnson loved a fine dinner, but would eat perhaps more heartily of a coarse one-boiled beef or veal pie; fish he seldom passed over, ble. Barker's Bi tables were filled with company, not inele- | Robert Wisedome, 1618. Battologiam ab iteratione, recte distinguit Erasmus. Mod. Orandi Deum, p. 56, 1446. Southwell's Thoughts of his own Death". Saturday, 6th August.-Zad.3 .--I corrected the two sheets-My sleep last night was disturbed-Washing at Chester and here, 5s. 1d.-I did not read-I saw to-day more of the outhouses at Lleweney --It is, in the whole, a very spacious house. Sunday, 7th August.-I was at church at Bodfari. There was a service used for a sick woman, not canonically, but such as I have heard, I think, formerly at Lichfield, taken out of the visitation.-Kα. μTIONS. The church is mean, but has a square tower for the bells, rather too stately for the church. Observations.-Dixit injustus, Ps. 36, has no relation to the English 4. Preserve us, Lord 5, has the name of though he said that he only valued the sauce, and that every body eat the first as a vehicle for the second. When he poured oyster sauce over plum pudding, and the melted butter flowing from the toast into his chocolate, one might surely say that he was nothing less than delicate." -Piozzi MS.-ED.] [The editor suspects that" Washington" is printed by mistake for " Worthington.” General Washington was yet hardly known, and Dr. Worthington, a literary friend of Dr. Johnson's, was resident in a Welsh living not distant, and which the party afterwards visited. See post, 8th Sept.-ED.] 2 [F. G. are the printer's signatures, by which it appears that at this time five sheets had already been printed. The MS. was sent to press 11th June.-DUFPA.] 66 Monday, 8th August.-The bishop and much company dined at Lleweney Talk of Greek and the army-The_Duke of Marlborough's officers useless 10-Read Phothe British Museum, has found among the Hymns which follow the old version of the singing psalms, at the end of Barker's Bible of 1639. It begins, "Preserve us, Lord, by thy dear word, From Turk and Pope, defend us, Lord! Which both would thrust out of his throne Our Lord Jesus Christ, thy deare son."-ED.] 6 [In allusion to our Saviour's censure of vain repetition in prayer (battologia-Matt. c. vi. v. 7). Erasmus, in the passage cited, defends the words "My God! my God!" as an expression of justifiable earnestness.-ED.] 4 7 [This alludes to Southwell's stanzas " Upon the Image of Death," in his Maonia, a collection of spiritual poems. "Before my face the picture hangs, Do think thereon that I must die," &c. 8 [This work, which Johnson was now reading, was, most probably, a little book, entitled Baudi Epistolæ, as, in his Life of Milton, he has made a quotation from it. Speaking of Milton's religious opinions, when he is supposed to have vacillated between Calvinism and Arminianism, he observes, "What Baudius says of Erasmus seems applicable to him, magis habuit qued fugeret quam quod sequeretur."-DUPPA.] 9 [During Johnson's stay at this place, Mrs. Thrale gives this trait of his character: "When we went into Wales together, and spent some time at Mr. Cotton's at Lleweny, one day at dinner, I meant to please Mr. Johnson particularly with a dish of very young peas. Are not they [Dr. Johnson meant, that the words of the charming?' said I to him, while he was eating Latin version, " dixit injustus," prefixed to the them. Perhaps they would be so-to a pig.' 36th Psalm (one of those appointed for the day), This is given only as an instance of the peculiarhad no relation to the English version in the Lit-ity of his manner, and which had in it no inurgy: My heart showeth me the wickedness of the ungodly." The biblical version, however, has some accordance with the Latin, "The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart;" and Bishop Lowth renders it "The wicked man, according to the wickedness of his heart, saith." The biblical version of the Psalms was made by the translators of the whole Bible, under James I., from the original Hebrew, and is closer than the version used in the Liturgy, which was made in the reign of Henry VIII. from the Greek.-ED.] [This alludes to "a Prayer by R. W." (evidently Robert Wisedoin), which Mr. Ellis, of tention to offend.-DUPPA. This last observation was suggested by Mrs. Piozzi to Mr. Duppa, and was by her intended as a kind of apology against Boswell's complaint, that she told this kind of stories with the malevolent intention of depreciating Johnson.-ED.] 10 [Dr. Shipley had been a chaplain with the Duke of Cumberland, and probably now entertained Dr. Johnson with some anecdotes collected from his military acquaintance, by which Johnson was led to conclude that the Duke of Marlborough's officers were useless;" that is, that the duke saw and did everything himself; a fact cylidis, distinguished the paragraphs-I looked in Leland: an unpleasant book of mere hints 2-Lichfield school ten pounds, and five pounds from the hospital 3. 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. Wednesday, 10th August.—At Lloyd's, of Maesmynnan; a good house, and a very large walled garden-I road Windus's Account of his Journey to Mequinez, and of Stewart's Embassy 4—I had read in the morning Wasse's Greek Trochaics to Bent- "Wales, so far as I have yet seen of it, ley; they appear inelegant, and made with is a very beautiful and rich country, all difficulty-The Latin elegy contains only enclosed and planted. Denbigh is not a common-place, hastily expressed, so far as mean town. Make my compliments to all I have read, for it is long-They seem to my friends, and tell Frank I hope he rebe the verses of a scholar, who has no prac-members my advice. When his money is tice of writing-The Greek I did not al-out, let him have more. I am, sir, your ways fully understand—I am in doubt about humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." the sixth and last paragraphs; perhaps they are not printed right, for UTOROV perhaps BUGTOXOV. q?-The following days [11th, 12th, and 18th], I read here and thereThe Bibliotheca Literaria was so little supplied with papers that could interest curiosity, that it could not hope for long continuance Wasse, the chief contributor, was an unpolished scholar, who, with much literature, had no art or elegance of diction, at least in English. [Thursday, 18th August.-We left Lleweney 8, 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 EnglishOur way then lay to the seaside, at the foot of a mountain, called Penmaen RhosHere 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 Sunday, 14th August.-At Bodfari I the hill-Our walk was not long, nor unheard the second lesson read, and the ser- pleasant: the longer I walk, the less I feel mon preached in Welsh. The text was its inconvenience-As I grow warm, my pronounced both in Welsh and English-breath mends, and I think my limbs grow The sound of the Welsh, in a continued discourse, is not unpleasant-Bass nig καθ α. 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 7. pliable. 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 Tuesday, 16th August.-[On this dayus-We were, therefore, to stay at the inn. he wrote to Mr. Levett.] which, it is presumed, may be told of all great captains.-ED.] [The title of the poem is Пcíμ TIMO DUPPA.] [Leland's Itinerary, published by Thoma Hearne, in nine very thin octavo volumes, 1710. -DUPPA.] 3 [An extract from Leland.-ED.] [This book is entitled "A Journey to Mequinez, the Residence of the present Emperor of Fez and Morocco, on the Occasion of Commodore Stewart's Embassy thither, for the Redemption of the British Captives, in the year 1721." 8vo.-DUPPA.] 5 [The Bibliotheca Literaria was published in London, 1722-4, in quarto numbers, but only extended to ten numbers.-DUPPA.] See [Sic, probably for Jago apeλns. ante, 17th July, and 6th August.-ED.] 7 ["A weakness of the knees, not without some pain in walking, which I feel increased after I have dined."-Duppa.] It is now the day of the race at Conway, and the town was so full of company, that We money could purchase lodgings. 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 Toom, with two beds, for which she gave half a guinea. [In Mr. Duppa's edition, the departure from Lleweny is erroneously (as appears from what follows) dated the 16th.-ED.] |