the remains of circular habitations within, now in ruins. Mr. Pennant supposes this to have been one of those strong holds where the Welsh placed their women, children, cattle, &c. as a safe-guard, and considers it one of those chains of posts that began at Diserth and ended at Canwyd; but, from this place having no supply of water, I should rather suppose it to be one of the temporary entrenched camps, where they halted for a night or two till they were able to regain strength, to recommence their depredatory warfare.

Owen Gwynedd is supposed, by Lyttelton, to have occupied this post while Henry II. was encamped on the opposite side of the vale; the king had assembled all his choice forces on the Berwyn, and strongly entrenched them by felling the woods and taking every possible precaution against ambush and surprise. Both armies, for a considerable time, lay in sight of each other; but the Welsh, well acquainted with the country by their light troops, cut off the king's supplies of forage and ammunition, and so harassed them by skirmishing, that the king was glad to withdraw to England in chagrin and disgrace, without having struck a single blow. (Vid. Powel, p. 190.) The place of encampment may still be traced by a rampart of earth between the church of Corwen and the village of Conwyd.

ر

This was afterwards the retreat of the celebrated Owen Glyndwr, whose memory is highly revered in

this neighbourhood, long the scene of his exploits and

his hospitality. The family name of this extraordinary character was Vychen; he was styled Glyndwr, or Glyndwrdwy, from his possessions lying principally in the vale of the Dee, (Dwrdwy) commonly called the vale of Llangollen: some remains of his private palace are still visible at a place called Sychnant, about three miles from Corwen. He was fourth in descent from Gryffydd Vychan, the surviving son of Gryffydd ap Madoc, Lord of Bromfield and Yale, whose residence was at Castell Dinas Bran. By his mother's side he was allied to the North-Wallian Princes, from which descent he afterwards derived his claim to the throne of Wales.* Writers vary about the precise time of his birth; it must have been some time between the years 1349 and 1354.. It is a common idea that extraordinary characters have their births ushered in by extraordinary events or uncommon appearances; his father's horses were said to have been found standing in the stable up to their bellies in blood the night previous to his nativity. Holinshed relates this as a presage of this arch-rebel's future cruelties: while the Welsh considered it as an omen of the just retaliations he would make upon their cruel oppressors; Owen encouraged this idea, as a mean of securing the enthusiasm of the people in his favour: and, it is not unlikely, in endeavouring to persuade others, he had persuaded

* Leland thus reckons his genealogy: "Lluelin ap Jorworth Droyndan, Prince of al Wales, had Grifith; Grifith had Lluelin; Lluelin had Caterine; Caterine had Eleanor; Eleanor had Helene, mother to O. Glindoure,”

himself into a belief of its reality. Shakspeare finely delineates this mixture of superstition and vanity, when he puts the description of his birth into the hero's own mouth.

"At my birth

The front of Heaven was full of fiery shapes;
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
Were strangely clamorous in the frighted fields;
These signs have marked me extraordinary;
And all the courses of my life do show,
I am not in the roll of common men.

i

Endued with great military genius, a spirit impati ent of controul or provocation, with the late disgrace of his country strong upon his mind, he was prepared for those arduous scenes of difficulty and danger which the circumstances of the times unavoidably laid before him. In the reign of Richard he had been a favourite at the English Court; and evidently, from principle, was attached to the person and interests of that monarch; for he followed the fallen fortunes of his royal master; and, after the king's death retired to his patrimony, full of indignation at his Sovereign's wrongs, and with an ardent desire to revenge them. His resentment against the usurper, Henry, Duke of Lancaster, was exasperated by private grievances as well as by public wrongs; as might naturally be expected, he incurred the frowns of the new court; and, it was not probable, that any prior or present grievances, belonging to partizans

of the late king, should be redressed; it was more probable that new ones would be added; and every engine of deceit and malice be put into action to entangle, in the mazes of the law, so powerful an antagonist to the new government. A portion of Owen's lands were seized by Lord Grey, and, shortly after, by designedly omitting to summon Owen, as a baron, to attend the King, insult was added to injury, and a pretence of forfeiture, as weak as it was wicked, was set up, to alienate the remainder of his patrimony.*

>

In the very unsettled state of the public mind, especially among the Welsh, and the just plea they might have to throw off the English yoke, from the late unjustifiable usurpation, the danger might have been foreseen by the most shallow politician, of urging a person of such abilities and interest as Owen into desperate measures; it might have been expected, that the ambition of Owen, fired by revenge, would induce him to throw off allegiance from a power he considered unlawful; and which, hitherto, had only been exercised to rob him and his friends, and oppress his country. It required little penetration to discover that this would be a signal for a general revolt and insurrection through the principality. The prognostications of Trevor, who advised temperate proceedings, but in vain, were

2

On the attainder being issued against Owen, Henry IVth sold the lordship of Glyndwrdwy to Robert Salisbury, of Rûg, in which family it still remains.

quickly verified; the Welsh, instigated by their bards and minstrels, who recited their accumulated wrongs, the virtues of their princes, and their present hero, in alternate song, rallied round the standard of their new leader, and, calling to mind the prophecies of their ancient bards, looked up to him with all the confidence of enthusiasm, as a miraculous personage from Heaven, who should revenge the blood of their country, and restore to it, once again, its lost independence. Surrounded by a people ardently breathing for liberty, and at the head of a formidable army, his first act was that of just retaliation. He seized upon the lands and person of his chief enemy, Lord Grey, and, on the 20th of September, 1400, he was publicly proclaimed Prince of North Wales. The insurrection now became general, and the Welsh, except within the influence of the royal garrisons, entirely threw off the English yoke. So formidable indeed was the rebellion now

* They awakened the people to the recollection of the feats per formed by their ancient Princes; represented Glyndwr as a de scendant from them, and now their rightful Prince; expounded the hitherto mysterious prophecies; and asserted, that in this extraordinary man was to be expected the completion of every prediction of the oracular Merlin.

+ Reginald was kept a close prisoner, and probably severely handled by Owen. The king, wished to obtain the liberty of his fa vourite: Owen demanded ten thousand marks for his ransom, and the king's son, with other nobles, as hostages for the payment; the king, at length, complied with the extravagant terms of redempzion, and Reginald was set at liberty.