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                           THE HOLYHEAD ROAD


[Illustration: EARLY DAYS ON THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY.]




            THE HOLYHEAD ROAD: THE MAIL-COACH ROAD TO DUBLIN


                          By CHARLES G. HARPER

 Author of “_The Brighton Road_,” “_The Portsmouth Road_,” “_The Dover
   Road_,” “_The Bath Road_,” “_The Exeter Road_,” “_The Great North
                    Road_,” and “_The Norwich Road_”

[Illustration]

   _Illustrated by the Author, and from Old-Time Prints and Pictures_


                   _Vol. II. BIRMINGHAM TO HOLYHEAD_

 LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL
     LTD. 1902


                        [_All rights reserved_]




                               PRINTED BY
                     HAZELL, WATSON, AND VINEY, LD.
                         LONDON AND AYLESBURY.

------------------------------------------------------------------------




[Illustration]

                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


                            SEPARATE PLATES

                                                                 PAGE

  EARLY DAYS ON THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY.     _Frontispiece_

  BULL RING. (_From a Print after David Cox_)                       5

  OLD BIRMINGHAM COACHING BILL.                                    13

  DUDLEY. (_After J. M. W. Turner, R.A._)                          31

  HIGH GREEN, WOLVERHAMPTON, 1797. (_After
    Rowlandson_)                                                   47

  HIGH GREEN, WOLVERHAMPTON, 1826. (_From an
    Old Print_)                                                    51

  HIGH GREEN, WOLVERHAMPTON, 1860. (_From a
    Contemporary Photograph_)                                      55

  SHIFFNAL.                                                        67

  THE COUNCIL HOUSE.                                              141

  THE HONOURABLE THOMAS KENYON. (_From an Old Print_)             153

  THE VALE OF LLANGOLLEN.                                         177

  LLANGOLLEN.                                                     183

  LLANGOLLEN. (_After J. M. W. Turner, R. A._)                    187

  VALLE CRUCIS ABBEY. (_After J. M. W. Turner, R.A._)             207

  CERNIOGE.                                                       227

  THE SWALLOW FALLS. (_From an Old Print_)                        247

  LLYN OGWEN AND TRIFAEN MOUNTAIN.                                255

  PENMAENMAWR. (_After J. M. W. Turner, R.A._)                    275

  THE OLD LANDING-PLACE ON THE ANGLESEY SHORE.                    283


                         ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT

  Vignette: Prince Rupert                                _Title Page_

  List of Illustrations: The Black Country                        vii

  The Holyhead Road                                                 1

  The “Hen and Chickens,” 1830                                     18

  The “Old Royal”                                                  24

  Wednesbury                                                       37

  Old Hill, Tettenhall                                             59

  The Sabbath-breaking Seamstress                                  60

  Snedshill Furnaces                                               71

  Haygate Inn                                                      76

  The Wrekin                                                       79

  The “Old Wall”                                                   84

  Wroxeter Church                                                  85

  Atcham Bridge                                                    91

  Lord Hill’s Monument                                             92

  The English Bridge                                               97

  Wyle Cop and the “Lion”                                         107

  The “Lion” Yard                                                 132

  The Market-Place, Shrewsbury                                    138

  Shelton Oak                                                     144

  The Breidden Hills                                              147

  Queen’s Head                                                    156

  Offa’s <DW18>                                                     176

  The Ladies of Llangollen. (_From an Old Print_)                 198

  Plas Newydd                                                     203

  Owain Glyndwr’s Mount                                           211

  Cerrig-y-Druidion                                               224

  The Waterloo Bridge                                             232

  The Old Church, Bettws-y-Coed                                   234

  Sign of the “Royal Oak”                                         238

  Pont-y-Pair                                                     245

  Cyfyng Falls                                                    250

  Capel Curig                                                     252

  The Falls of Ogwen                                              257

  Nant Ffrancon. (_After David Cox_)                              258

  Nant Ffrancon                                                   260

  Penrhyn Castle                                                  263

  Lonisaf Toll-House                                              264

  The Penrhyn Arms                                                266

  Penrhyn Castle and Snowdonia, from Beaumaris.
    (_After David Cox_)                                           278

  Deserted Stables, Menai Village                                 290

  The Menai Bridge and the Isle of Benglas                        291

  The Anglesey Column                                             296

  The Britannia Bridge                                            299

  Near Mona Inn                                                   303

  Llangristiolus                                                  304

  Caer Ceiliog                                                    306

  The South Stack. (_After T. Creswick, R.A._)                    323

  Holyhead Mountain                                               325




                           THE HOLYHEAD ROAD


                         BIRMINGHAM TO HOLYHEAD

                                                            MILES
      Birmingham (General Post Office)                      109¼
      Hockley                                               110½
      Soho                                                  111¼
      Handsworth                                            111¾
      West Bromwich                                         114½
      Hilltop                                               116
      Wednesbury                                            117¼
      Moxley                                                118½
      Bilston                                               119½
      Wolverhampton                                         122¼
      Chapel Ash                                            122¾
      Tettenhall                                            124
      The Wergs                                             125¼
      Boningale                                             129½
      Whiston Cross                                         130¼
      Shiffnal                                              134¼
      Prior’s Lee                                           137½
      Ketley                                                139
      Ketley Railway Station                                139½
           (Junction of Watling Street with Holyhead Road.)
      Wellington (“Cock”)                                   140½
      Haygate                                               141½
      Burcot Toll-House                                     143
      Norton                                                146½
      Tern Bridge                                           147½
                          (Cross River Tern.)
      Atcham                                                148¼
                         (Cross River Severn.)
      Shrewsbury (Abbey Foregate)                           151¼
                         (Cross River Severn.)
      Shrewsbury (Market House)                             152
      Shrewsbury (Welsh Bridge and Frankwell)               152¼
                         (Cross River Severn.)
      Shelton Oak                                           154
      Bicton                                                154½
      Montford Bridge                                       156¾
                         (Cross River Severn.)
      Nesscliff                                             160½
      West Felton                                           165¼
      Queen’s Head                                          166¼
      Oswestry                                              170
      Gobowen                                               172¾
      Chirk                                                 175
                        (Cross River Ceiriog.)
      Whitehurst Toll-House                                 177
      Vron Cysylltan                                        179¾
      Llangollen                                            182½
      Berwyn Railway Station                                184¼
      Glyndyfrdwy                                           188
      Carrog                                                189
      Corwen                                                192½
                          (Cross River Dee.)
      Maerdy Post Office                                    196
      Pont-y-Glyn                                           197¾
      Tynant                                                198¼
      Cerrig-y-Druidion                                     202
      Glasfryn                                              204½
      Cernioge                                              205¾
      Pentre Voelas                                         207¾
      Bettws-y-Coed                                         214½
                         (Cross River Conway)
      Swallow Falls                                         216
      Cyfyng Falls                                          218½
      Tan-y-Bwlch                                           219
      Capel Curig                                           220
      Llyn Ogwen                                            224
      Ogwen Falls}                                          225
      Pass of Nant Ffrancon}
      Tyn-y-Maes                                            228
      Bethesda                                              229¼
      Llandegai                                             232¾
      Bangor (Cathedral)                                    234½
      Upper Bangor                                          236
      Menai Bridge                                          237
                         (Cross Menai Straits)
      Menai Village                                         237¼
      Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerchwyrndrobwlltysiliogogogoch 239¼
      Gaerwen                                               242½
      Pentre Berw (Holland Arms)                            243
      Llangristiolus                                        245½
      Mona                                                  247½
      Gwalchmai                                             249¾
      Bryngwran                                             252½
      Caer Ceiliog                                          255
      Valley                                                256
      Stanley Sands                                         256¼
             (Cross Stanley Sands Viaduct to Holy Island)
      Holyhead (Admiralty Pier)                             260½


              THE OLD ROAD FROM MENAI VILLAGE TO HOLYHEAD

                                               MILES
                   Menai Village               237¼
                   Braint                      239½
                   Ceint                       242½
                   Llangefni                   244¾
                   Bodffordd                   247
                   Gwyndû and Glanyrafon       249¾
                   Llynfaes                    250¼
                   Trefor                      251¼
                   Bodedern                    254
                   Llanyngenedl                255¼
                   Valley and Four-Mile Bridge 258¼
                   Trearddur Bay               261½
                    (Cross Causeway over Straits to
                             Holy Island)
                   Holyhead                    263½




[Illustration: The Holyhead Road]




                         BIRMINGHAM TO HOLYHEAD




                                   I


There are said to be no fewer than a hundred and forty different ways of
spelling the name of Birmingham, all duly vouched for by old usage; but
it is not proposed in these pages to recount them, or to follow the
arguments of those who have contended for its derivation from
“Bromwicham.” It is singular that in the first mention we have of the
place, in Domesday Book, it is spelt “Bermingham,” almost exactly as it
is to-day, and this lends much authority to the view that we get the
place-name from an ancient Saxon tribe or family of Beormingas.

When the original Beormingas, the Sons of Beorm (whoever he may have
been), settled here, in the dim Saxon past, they founded better than
they knew; but they chose a hill-top, a place where no river runs,
unless we choose thus to dignify the little stream called the Rea. This
lack of watercourses mattered nothing at all to mediæval Birmingham, but
when, in spite of all disabilities, the place rose into commercial
importance, the want began to be severely felt, and herculean have been
the efforts in modern times to effect a proper water-supply.

Little but scattered mention is heard of Birmingham and its smiths
before the Civil War, but when that struggle broke out, they were heard
of to some purpose. Its 4000 inhabitants in 1643 were Puritans to a man,
and warlike. They furnished 15,000 sword-blades for Cromwell’s troops,
and at a convenient opportunity waylaid the King’s carriage and seized
it, his furniture, and his plate. For these enormities Prince Rupert
came later from Daventry and punished them severely in a battle on Camp
Hill, overlooking the town. Many Birmingham men were slain that day, and
eighty houses burnt; the whole affair piteously related in a tract of
that time called “The Bloody Prince; or, a Declaration of the Most
Cruell Practises of Prince Rupert and the rest of the Cavaliers, in
fighting against God and the true Ministers of his Church.” A woodcut
intended to portray that sanguinary Prince appears on the cover, with
Birmingham flaming furiously in the background; Daventry in the rear.
The rest of the Cavaliers appear to be manœuvring somewhere else; at any
rate, Rupert is alone, on horseback, with a mild expression of
countenance and a big pistol.

Twenty-two years later the Plague depopulated the town, but in another
twenty-three years it had grown to double its former size, and by 1791
numbered between 70,000 and 80,000. Yet it had no Parliamentary
representation until 1832.

That Birmingham is seated on a hill is not so evident to railway
travellers, but he who comes to it by road is well advised of the fact
at Bull Ring, where the hilly entrance confronts him. Bull Ring is old
Birmingham of a hundred years and more ago; the nucleus of the town, and
little altered since David Cox drew his picture of the market there. The
market remains, but there has come about since his day an extraordinary
popular appreciation of the beauty of flowers, so that, instead of the
fowls pictured largely in his view, the crowded stalls are radiant with
blooms of every sort; cut flowers, and growing plants.

Here stands, as ever, St. Martin’s, the mother-church of Birmingham,
where the ancient manorial lords of the place lie; those de Berminghams
whose last representative was choused out of his rights in 1545. Here is
that statue of Nelson for whose proper cleansing a patriotic tradesman
left by will sixpence a week; and here occurred the Wesley riots of 1742
and the Chartist Riot of 1839. When Charles Wesley sought to preach, the
people set the church bells a-ringing to drown his voice, and then began
to pelt him with dirt and turnips; but the political riot was a much
more serious affair, resulting in the pillaging of shops and houses, and
immense damage.




                                   II


In Birmingham, close upon four hundred years ago, Leland found but one
street, yet that street was full of smiths, making knives and “all
manner of cuttinge tooles, and many loriners that make bittes, and a
great many naylors. Soe that a great part of the towne is maintained by
smithes, who have their iron and sea-cole out of Staffordshire.”

Not only has Birmingham grown out of all knowledge since that time, but
it has largely changed its trades. Sheffield has taken away the pick of
the cutlery trade, and that of the loriners has its chief seat at
Walsall; but Birmingham now makes everything, from a monster engine to a
pin’s head, and in the murderous art of manufacturing fire-arms is
pre-eminent.

“She is,” observed an enthusiastic writer, “in the truest sense the
benefactress of the universal man, from the crowned head to the savage
of the wilderness.” To the crowned heads, for example—or to their
governments—Birmingham supplies stands of arms and ammunition; and to
the savage, guns warranted to hurt no one but he who uses them.
Civilisation is thus heavily indebted to Birmingham, and religion too;
for if the heathen, who “in his blindness bows down to wood and stone,”
is no longer restricted to those two materials, by reason of Birmingham
industriously supplying little tin and brass gods by wholesale, and at
extremely low prices, to Africa or India, yet on Sundays the godly folks
of her hundred churches and chapels liberally subscribe to missionary
funds for spreading Christianity in strange lands, and thus help to
discredit the heathen Vishnus, Sivas, Hanumans, and assorted
Mumbo-Jumbos they export.

[Illustration: BULL RING.       _From a Print after David Cox._]

“Birmingham,” said Burke, a hundred years ago, “is the toyshop of
Europe.” Fancy articles in steel and paste; buckles, sword-hilts,
buttons, and a thousand other trifles were made, for home or export;
among them the sham, or “Brummagem” jewellery, and the base coin that
long cast a slur upon the town. Things coming from Birmingham were in
those times rightly suspect. One of its industries was the making of
“silver” buckles of a villainous kind of cheap white metal, called from
its nature “soft tommy.” A tale is told of the owner of the factory
where this precious stuff was made up, going through one of the
workshops and hearing a workman cursing the man who would chance to wear
the pair of buckles he was making.

“Why,” asked the astonished employer, “do you do that?”

“Well,” replied the workman, “whoever wears these buckles is bound to
curse the man that made them, and so I thought I would be the first.”

Those were the days when it was said that if you gave a guinea and a
copper kettle to a Birmingham manufacturing jeweller he would turn you
out a hundred guineas’ worth of jewellery!

Things are very different now. The trades of Birmingham seem almost
countless in their number; many of them conducted on a scale large
enough for each one to suffice a small township of workers.
Brass-founding, tube-making, gun-smithing, pin-making, wire-drawing,
screw-turning, gold-smithing, electro-plating, tinplate working, coining
(in the legitimate kind), steel pen-making—these are but a few of the
countless industries to whose skirts clings for livelihood a population
of half a million.

When Mr. Pickwick visited Birmingham, he repaired to the “Old Royal”
hotel. Where is the “Old Royal” now? Ask of the winds—nay, consult the
histories of Birmingham, and you shall learn. But if the old hotel and
many of its fellows be gone, at least the description of the entrance to
the town holds good, and “the dingy hue of every object visible, the
murky atmosphere, the paths of cinders and brick-dust” are phrases that
awake echoes of recollection in the breasts of those who know the town
of old: but “the dense smoke issuing heavily forth from high toppling
chimneys, blackening and obscuring everything around,”