the deadly foe of these islanders; for, passing the straits of the Menai by a bridge of boats, at a place called Moel-y-don, he attacked the Welsh army under Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, which made a brave resistance. Notwithstanding this repulse, the English afterwards gained complete possession of the island. Anglesea is surrounded by the Irish sea, except on the side of the Menai Straits. On this strait were established four ferries; i. e. Abermenai, the most s.; 3 m. to the N. of which is that of Tal-y-Foel, near Carnarvon ; 4 m. further, Moel-y-don; (3 m. beyond which is that stupendous monument of human ingenuity, the Menai Bridge, over the narrowest part of the straits, the breadth there not exceeding half a mile ;) and the fourth and longest at high water is between the village of ABER, and the town of BEAUMARIS. [See BANGOR.] The form of the island is irregular, being indented with numerous small bays and creeks. The average length from N.w. to s.E. is about 20 m.; the breadth, from N.E. to s.w. about 16; and the circumference 76; comprising about 173,000 acres of land. The commons or waste lands amount to between 12,000 and 13,000 acres, of which about 9000 are level and highly improveable. At present they yield very little profit, having their surface continually pared by the poor for fuel. The Anglesea Agricultural Society is conducted with great spirit under the patronage of T. Williams, Esq., of Beaumaris, and T. P. Williams, of Craig-y-Don, M.P. A Shipwreck Society extends its beneficent aid throughout the island. It contains four market towns; i. e. NewBOROUGH, BEAUMARIS, LLANERCHYMEDD, and HOLYHEAD. By returns made under the population act, in 1801, the island contained 6680 houses and 33,806 inhabitants. In 1811 the returns were 7185 inhabited houses; 72 were building; 5376 families were chiefly employed in agriculture, and 1413 in trade; 17,444 were males, and 19,601 females. Anglesea is in the diocese of Bangor and province of Canterbury; and sends one knight to parliament for the shire and one representative for the boroughs. Assizes and sessions are held at Beaumaris, where there are a county gaol and house of correction. The climate is mild and more temperate than the adjoining counties of North Wales, arising from the sea breezes ; but, owing to the same circumstance, is incommoded with frequent mists in the autumn, which occasion a damp atmosphere, subjecting the inhabitants to intermittents. The face of the country produces no lofty mountains nor deep valleys, neither is it greatly diversified with hills and dales. The interior parts being devoid of wood, the greater part of the land is uninclosed, and, having few hedges, the country assumes a very dreary aspect, suggesting the idea of sterility; yet this is not the real state of the case, for the SOIL is in general very good, and, under proper management, highly productive. It is generally a fine loamy sand. The substance used as manure is lime or marine sand. Corn and cattle constitutes the chief products. In favourable seasons large quantities of barley and oats are exported either to Liverpool or across the Menai; and many thousand cattle, besides sheep and hogs pass over the ferries for the English markets. The island possesses great capabilities; for a considerable portion of land remains in a swampy state for want of draining; many of the flat lands near the sea are covered with sand, which might easily be converted into grazing land or other purposes. Anglesea possesses no inland navigation. It is well watered by twelve rivulets; the principal of which are the Cevenny, Alaun, Fraw, and Dulas. From Harrison's "Description of Britain," b. i. c. 10., Anglesea appears to have been a place of great trade, and the names of ports and havens yet remaining confirm the account. These harbours are numerous, and capable of great improvement and benefit. Beaumaris is still a good harbour, and with its two creeks may be considered a member of the port of Chester. To the N. is Red Wharf Bay; Dulas Bay; Almwch Port; Cemlyn, or Crooked-Pool Bay; Holyhead; Aberfraw: Maltreath, at the mouth of the river Cevenny, might be greatly improved. Dinas Lwyd and Bodorgan are places mentioned as excellent situations for erecting piers. (See "Observations on the Sea-coasts and Harbours of Wales," by Lewis Morris, Esq.) Anglesea was formerly well wooded; but an exterminating system has left it so naked that, in the interior, the few trees which have been planted have shrunk under the force of the s.w. winds. Even fences are difficult to raise. The general scenery of this district is uninteresting to the traveller; yet, when he has advanced a few miles in a N.w. direction, splendid views may be obtained of the immense alpine chain of Carnarvonshire mountains, extending across that county from Penmaen to Traethmawr in one continued line. The contour is varied, at irregular intervals, by the numerous diversified peaks towering above the rest, till they gradually advance to the summit of Snowdon; and then, uniformly declining, they terminate in the N. horn of Cardigan Bay. As the traveller recedes from the position he first took, the connecting links of this noble chain are lost to the sight, the insulated summits appearing like so many pyramids in the distant horizon. Anglesea has frequently been represented as raising great quantities of corn. Mon Mam-gymru, i. e. "Mona, the Mother of Wales," is an epithet anciently applied to the island by some of her own fond sons; and Giraldus Cambrensis, in the 12th century, gave this term the interpretation of "The Nursery of Wales," or, according to others, "The Nursing Mother of Wales," because it supplied the other Welsh counties with grain in times of scarcity. There may be more imagination than truth in Giraldus's interpretation, for Mr. Rowlands did not think his native island worthy of the appellation in the 17th century. (See his "Ideæ Agriculture," p. 189.) Anglesea is said to have formerly supplied the King of Man with timber. (See Sir John Price's "Description of Wales.") At present the oaks are confined to a narrow slip of land along the Menai, extending from Baron Hill to Llannidan. Reduced as this island is nearly to nakedness, plantations on a small scale do not thrive. Most of the exposed trees bend from the w. and s.w. winds. Those exposed fully to the N. sea air bend to meet it, shunning the s.w. Instances of the last assertion may be seen near Dulas Bay. At Bodafon near Penrhôs, the Rev. Richard Williams had a plantation of about forty years' growth, consisting chiefly of Scotch pines, some elm, ash, and sycamore. Some of the firs were 3 feet in circumference, all of them bending, even to an angle, to the N.E. At Trefterworth are some plantations well protected and flourishing. Were plantations, says the rector of Manafon, conducted upon a large scale upon the w. coasts of Anglesea, quickset fences would soon flourish under their protection; and both would administer their joint benign influence to the sheltered fields of corn and pasture. The island would then surpass in beauty even Tempé: it would become the most delightful spot in Britain. The most proper shapes for plantations would be parallelograms, with their shorter sides to the w. The plane, black and abele poplar, sycamore, larch, and hop-willow, owing to the rapidity of their growth; mountain-ash and birch, from being thriving natives of exposed situations; and most evergreens, seem to be the hardiest, and, consequently, best calculated to protect the interior of plantations. (Rev. Walter Davies's " View of North Wales," p. 232. 472.) The remains of antiquity are numerous and of great interest. Mr. Rowland laboured to prove that Anglesea was the metropolitan seat of Druidism, which Mr. W. Owen disputed with apparent success: he placed it at Avebury, in Wiltshire. A rural pipe, used by the shepherds for their amusement, called the Pibgorn, in some measure resembling a hautboy, is said to be almost peculiar to the Isle of Anglesea. This name is given to it from having its extremities tipped with horn. It has seven holes besides the aperture in which a reed is concealed. Its tone is between the flute and clarionet. From this instrument the obsolete dance, called "hornpipe," originated. The natural productions of Anglesea are multifarious. Among the subterraneous productions are found various kinds of ochre, potter's clay, fuller's earth, breccia for millstones, grey and white marble; the asbestine marble was found in Llanfair-in-hornwy parish; lead and copper in Parys' mountain. The sea produces seaweed for kelp; herring, cod, whiting, turbot, sole, plaice, crabs, lobsters, oysters (those found near Penmaen are highly esteemed.) Leland says, "There is a good commodity for fishing about all Tir Môn; but there lacketh cunning and diligence." This island is celebrated for the variety of its SHELL FISH. The following is a list of the principal of these productions, from Bingley: Actinia sulcata, sulcated actinia. C. longicornis, long-horned crab. C. platycheles, great clawed crab. Cardium echinatum, echinated cockle. C. edule, common cockle. Doris electrina, amber doris. M. umbilicatus, umbilicated muscle. Sabella alveolata, honey-comb sabella. The following is a list of the PLANTS of Anglesea not referable to particular places: Agrostis minima; sandy pastures, s.w. coast. Apium graveolens; sides of ditches. S. w. coast. Bunias Cakile; coast near Abermenai ferry. Butomus umbellatus; in several rivulets. Cheiranthus sinuatus; banks of the Menai. Cochlearia danica; shore near Llanbadric church, on the N. coast. Convolvulus Soldanella; on the s. w. Comarum palustre; muddy putrid marshes. Crithmum maritimum; on the coast. Epipactis palustris; marshy meadows. scarce. Hippuris vulgaris; in ditches. Hydrocotyle inundatum; in rivulets, common. Hypericum elodes; swampy places. Lysimachia vulgaris; about the sides of Neottia spiralis; old pastures. Osmunda Lunaria; old pastures. O. regalis; pond sides. Sisymbrium monense; in sandy soil near Sium angustifolium; in rivulets. Veronica vulgaris; in marshy ground. Anglesea Horticultural Society affords to the votaries of Flora and Pomona an annual display of its most cultivated productions. This institution has given a great stimulus to cottage-husbandry in this neighbourhood. There are no manufactures carried on in this island of any considerable importance. The few linen and woollen cloths made may be considered as specimens rather of private industry than sources of public emolument. The roads are generally good, direction-posts frequent, and the cultivation of the land much more attended to than formerly. The obtaining of coals at a moderate price is a great desideratum in Anglesea. Even while the exuberant mines in the mountainous ridge of Trysclwyn were in full work, by far the greatest part of the ore was shipped to other places productive of coal. The enormous high price of coals in the island operates as a prohibition of their use, among the low classes of the inhabitants. Much time must necessarily be employed in seeking fuel. Peat and turf must be dug, dried, carried home, and stacked or housed. Many cannot obtain a sufficient quantity of this firing; hard necessity urges them, therefore, to collect sticks, wood, gorse, fern, &c.; thus the hedges are destroyed and the land left open and unprotected. From want of industry, and the depredations of poverty, a district consisting of a natural richness of soil, and other advantages, capable of rendering it a luxuriant paradise, wears in many places the appearance of sterility and desertion. Coals at Liverpool sell for 128. or 138. per ton. The expense of freight, land-carriage, and import-duty, enhance the price to 40s. The line of depression between the limestone boundaries of Malldraeth and Traeth-coch, indicates the existence of coal; and on this line coals have been raised, under the patronage of the Marquis of Anglesea, Mr. Meyrick, and others. The works are at Pentre Berew, near Llanfihangel. The geology of this island has received but little illustration. The prevailing rock is clay slate, and granite occurs near its centre. Apparently isolated masses of the latter are discovered in several places among the cliffs of Anglesea. This appearance, however, is usually deceptive, arising from the intersection, in a vertical precipice, of tortuous veins of granite. (Camb. Trans. vol. i.) On the s. E. and N. E. there is much limestone and gritstone, accompanied in some places by a few thin and poor strata of coal. "One of the most interesting examples of alteration in the proximity of a volcanic dike occurs near Plâs Newydd, described by Professor Henslow. The dike is 134 feet wide, and consists of basalt (dolerite of some authors), a compound of felspar and augite. Strata of shale and argillaceous limestone, through which it cuts perpendicularly, are altered to a distance of 30, or even, in some places, to 35 feet from the edge of the dike. The shale, as it approaches the basalt, becomes gradually more compact, and is most indurated where nearest the junction. Here it loses part of its schistose structure, but the separation into parallel layers is still discernible. In several places the shale is converted into hard porcellanous jasper. In the most hardened part of the mass, the fossil shells, principally Productæ, are nearly obliterated; yet even here their impressions may frequently be traced. The argillaceous limestone undergoes analogous mutations, losing its earthly texture as it approaches the dike, and becoming granular and crystalline. But the most extraordinary phenomenon is the appearance in the shale of numerous crystals of analcime and garnet, which are distinctly confined to those portions of the rock affected by the dike. Garnets have been observed, under very analogous circumstances, in High Teesdale, by Professor Sedgwick, where they also occur in shale and limestone, altered by a basaltic dike. This discovery is most interesting, because garnets often abound in mica schist; and we see, in the instance above cited, that they did not previously exist in the shale and limestone, but have evidently been produced by heat or heated gases, in rocks in which the marks of stratification have not been effaced." (Lyell's Geology, iv. 371. 382. 1835.) The same writer observes that, after fully reflecting upon the various causes of change in the composition and structure of rocks, we may be prepared to conjecture that gneiss and mica-schist may be nothing more than altered micaceous and argillaceous sandstones, and that granular quartz may be derived from siliceous sandstone, and compact quartz from the same materials. Clay-slate may be altered shale, and shale appears to be clay which has been subjected to great pressure. Granular marble has probably originated in the form of ordinary limestone, having in many instances been replete with shells and coral now obliterated, while calcareous sands and marls have been changed into impure crystalline limestones. IN AN EXCURSION ROUND THE ISLE OF ANGLESEA, FROM Bangor, an object of considerable attraction is immediately presented in the town of BEAUMARIS, and its concomitants (which see). Bingley, Pugh, and others have made this circuit, finding no difficulty, and no extra attention requisite, except at low water, when passing over sands, which will sometimes prove a hindrance. The stages are as follow:- From Beaumaris over the RedWharf sands to Amlwch, 16 m., Holyhead 22 m.; a fine road all the way; Aber-Ffraw 12 m. Inquire the state of the tide, in order to cross the sands at Rhôs Colyn. To Beaumaris 19 m. These stages allow ample time to the diligent traveller to examine what is interesting on the route. See BEAUMARIS; AMLWCH; HOLYHEAD; CAERNARVON; BANGOR. BALA (the outlet of the lake) is a clean and populous market-town, in the hundred of Pen Llyn, Merionethshire, consisting of one wide principal street, the others crossing it at right angles. The houses are in general very low. In 1831 the population amounted to 2359. Finian de Bala was formerly dependent on the castle of Harlech. Stanedon, being constable of that castle in the time of Edward II., this place was committed to his care. Edward III. rewarded his general, Walter de Mannie, with the fee-farm of Bala and Harlech; and, further, made him sheriff of the county for life. (Dugdale, Baron. ii. 149.) Bala is in the parish of Llan-y-cil," the Church of the Recess," about 1 m. distant. A chapel of ease was erected here in 1811: it is a plain edifice, with a low tower terminating in a spire. At this place is carried on a great trade in woollen gloves and stockings. It is the principal market in North Wales for knit stockings and socks, and the centre of the circuit in which they are made; its boundary extending from Corwen to Bettws, |