Tuesday 20th July 1819
Tuesday July 20th To our great disappointment this morning we found no ?***? for amusement in the weather
but determining to lose no time we started for Capel Curig at 11 o’clock. The ride to this Inn considered the best in North Wales is the most beautiful we have yet seen. the river Conway is always in sight and at the Pont y Pair formed a cascade made excessively fine by the quantity of rain which has fell lately we then visited the Rhiader y Wynol which the rain had made prodigiously fine. Capel Curig is situated in a lovely spot. The Inn is very large but to our surprise we were not able to procure accommodation we therefore only dined there and returned to Llanwyst the same road we had come before. ..
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Curig takes its name from the little Saint Julitta's Church in the ancient graveyard by the river bridge on the Llanberis road. Tradition claims this chapel to be the 6th century foundation of St. Curig, a Celtic bishop. Centuries later, probably when the present ancient church was built, the name appears to have been Latinised as Cyricus, which is the name of a 4th-century child martyr whose mother was Julitta. They are usually named together as Saints Quiricus and Julietta. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capel_Curig
1794: Snowdon from Capel Curig. Engraving by S. Alken after J. Smith. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/SETheLakesCC17.jpg
1811: Capel Cerig, Caernarvonshire. Engraving by S. Rawle for the 'European Magazine" from an original drawing by J. Nixon. Esq. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/SECapelCurig15.jpg
Lucy’s sketch of Capel Curig (below) may well have been drawn further in from the viewpoint of Nixon’s view, above.
2005: St Julitta's Church by Noel Walley at the English language Wikipedia, the copyright holder of this work, and published it under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Capel-PA052376.JPG
Pont y Pair became an important piece of infrastructure in 1808, when the London to Holyhead coaches were diverted this way following completion of Pont yr Afanc, over the Conwy south of Betws-y-coed in response to the loss of life in a ferry accident at Conwy in 1806. Now coach passengers could avoid the ferry by crossing the river Conwy much further south and using the road through Trefriw to reach the town of Conwy.
1810: Pont Y Pair, North Wales Engraved by Richard Sass, 1774-1849. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/SEPontYPairRS13.jpg
With the two arches bearing such a similarity, it is likely that Lucy’s sketch (below) of the bridge she entitles: Bridge near Capel Curig July 20th 1819 Caernarvonshire is of Pont Y Pair.
The coaches stopped using Pont y Pair when they were diverted via Thomas Telford’s new road in the 1820s. http://historypoints.org/index.php?page=pont-y-pair-betws-y-coed There is a delightful video of salmon leaping at Pont y Pair Falls on YouTube by Alan Jones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EXoG704AKY
Rhaeadr Ewynnol: Swallow Falls is a name coined by early tourists for the Rhaeadr Ewynnol (English: Foaming Waterfall), a multiple waterfall system in Wales, located on the Afon Llugwy near Betws-y-Coed, in Conwy County Borough. It is thought that the English name arose from a mis-hearing of the Welsh word ewynnol (foaming) as the similar-sounding y wennol (swallow). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swallow_Falls
Circa 1840: The Swallow Fall by William Crane (–1843) in the collection of the National Library of Wales, Accession number 1132366. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Swallow_Fall.jpeg
2004: Swallow Falls near Betws-y-Coed. Photo by Brian Joyce. The image was taken from the Geograph project collection. The copyright on this image is owned by Brian Joyce and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Swallow_falls.jpg
Capel Curig Inn built by Lord Penrhyn in 1800 as the first fashionable hotel in the area. The site was chosen some way off the high road to take advantage of the well-known view over the twin lakes of Llynnau Mymbyr towards the Snowdon horseshoe. A stable block to the left accommodated the carriages and horses of guests whilst the original hotel building with its pump room is nearest to the lake. The hotels popularity led to expansion in the village. In 1808 the Shrewsbury to Holyhead mail coach (named the Ancient Briton) was re-routed away from the North Wales coastal route to run via Capel Curig. Queen Victoria and Kings Edward VII, George V and Edward VIII all stayed at the inn which changed its name to the Royal Hotel in 1870.
The Print below is the view of Snowdon from the Capel Curig Inn published around 20 or so years after the Coplands stayed at the Inn.
Circa 1840: Snowdon from the Inn at Capel Curig, North Wales. Engraving by W.R. Smith after T.C. Hofland. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/SESnowdonWRS13.jpg
Two other hotels existed in Capel Curig at the time of the Coplands visit. The Tyn-y-Coed Inn, which dates from over 300 years ago, was used as a pub by quarrymen walking from Trefriw on their way to and from the Siabod quarry. Nowadays it is a spacious old multi-roomed pub with a residential hotel extension. To mark its historic past on the coaching route the Tyn-y-Coed has a majestic stagecoach opposite the entrance on the A5. ( see https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/famous-capel-curig-stagecoach-gets-11184027 for details of the restored stagecoach and accompanying video).
The Yorkshire Rose is an old Coaching Inn which came into its heyday from 1808 when the new Holyhead Mail Started to run along the "Great Irish Road" but, with the Capel Curig Inn full, the Copland’s probably did not want to avail themselves of the Tyn-y-Coed or the Yorkshire Rose and probably on the recommendation of the Capel Curig Inn chose to go further afield.
SEE: http://www.heartofsnowdonia.co.uk/history.htm and https://whatpub.com/pubs/ABC/9510/tyn-y-coed-inn-capel-curig
The Holyhead Road: In 1810 Thomas Telford was commissioned to plan improvements to the Holyhead Road. A report by the Commissioners on Holyhead Road and Harbour stated: “Many parts are extremely dangerous for a coach to travel upon”. He made a survey in 1811 but it was not until 1815 that the Government finally adopted his and the Commissioners’ reports and the Treasury found the money for the work. It was then decided that improvements should be made along the whole length of road between London and Holyhead but that the Shrewsbury to Holyhead portion, being incomparably the worst, should have the first attention. In the course of five years this first part of the work was completed. http://shropshirehistory.com/comms/stage.htm
Can you help us?
Transcription problems: As untrained transcribers we sometimes experience problems interpreting some of Lucy’s writing.
morning we found no ?***? for amusement in the weather
Perhaps it should read we found nothing for amusement in the weather , but there is no crossed “t” and no “g” at the end of the word. We would really appreciate help from a trained eye!
Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?