Sunday 3rd July 1819
it now to say we arrived quite safe at the Devils Bridge at half past nine o’Clock where we met with a comfortable though small Inn and a hospitable hostess. Saturday July 3rd Our first object this morning was to take a survey of the falls of the Mynach and Rhydial we were conducted by
our guide to the edge of a rock where the whole grand scene burst upon us at once the situation of these falls is most romantic & sublime and the falls themselves quite terrific the Mynach is considered the finest, though I think the Rhydial nearly as fine though not near the height but it is
wider, we now considered the rain (which still continued) as an advantage enabling us to see the falls to greater effect; we met with a very agreeable gentleman at the Inn who accompanied us in our exploits; and who was very polite in showing us some sketches he had been making during his
travels; having heard that Hafod five miles from the Devils Bridge was well worth notice we were induced notwithstanding the miserable weather to go there; it is a beautiful seat resembling Piercefield the house is very pretty but not well situated; We returned, took dinner, and proceeded to Aberystwith 12 miles
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
The Devil's Bridge/Pontarfynach village is best known for the bridge that spans the Afon Mynach, a tributary of the Rheidol. The bridge is unusual in that three separate bridges (2 in Lucy’s time) are coexistent, each one built upon the previous bridge. The original bridge is medieval and the second one, a stone structure, built in 1753 and upgraded in 1777 and 1814, was erected when the original bridge was thought to be unstable. The builders of the 1753 structure used the original bridge (circa 1075–1200) to support scaffolding during construction and added a second arch directly upon it. The most recently built, in 1901, is an iron bridge which was erected above the older arches and eliminated the slope in the roadway. In 1971, the steelwork and railings were repaired and the bridge strengthened.
2005 The three stacked bridges at Devil's Bridge by Alex Liivet from geograph.org.uk and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Three_Bridges_of_Devil%27s_Bridge,_Ceredigion.jpg
1781 - A view from the Devils Bridge, in Cardiganshire by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm; W. Walker & W. Angus, lithographer; Collection National Library of Wales Accession number 1128969. 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 100 years or less. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_view_from_the_Devils_Bridge,_in_Cardiganshire.jpeg
The artist J. M. W. Turner sketched the bridge; this work is at the Tate Gallery, London. He also produced two watercolors of the area in 1795. In 1824, William Wordsworth published a poem, To the Torrent at the Devil’s Bridge, North Wales
According to legend, the original bridge was built after an old woman lost her cow and saw it grazing on the other side of the river. The Devil appeared and agreed to build a bridge in return for the soul of the first living thing to cross it. When the bridge was finished, the old woman threw a crust of bread over the river, which her dog crossed the bridge to retrieve, thus becoming the first living thing to cross it. The devil was left with only the soul of the dog. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_Bridge,_Ceredigion
Devil’s Bridge Inn: We know from “Sublime Wales” that in 1815 a new hotel was opened and the old inn used as stables and offices. The innkeeper was a Mr Taylor. Lucy found the hostess "hospitable". A year before the Copland visit a scandal became linked to the hotel when there were rumours of an assignation between Mrs Thynne Gwynne and her husband’s cousin, Mr Sackville Gwynne. According to The Times of 29th March 1819 she arrived at the inn on June 1818 and enquired whether she could stay, but went on to Aberystwyth. The following day, Mr Sackville Gwynne arrived and ordered two bedrooms, one for himself and one for another, not adjoining, but on the same floor for his ‘niece’. She arrived later that day and they stayed two nights, spending the day in the woods. The landlady firmly believed that they spent the nights together. The defendant had to pay damages of £1,000.
A new hotel was built sometime between 1824 and 1835, then improved and reopened in 1839. https://sublimewales.wordpress.com/practicalities/accommodation/inns/hafod-arms-innhotel-devils-bridge/.
Circa 1860 Devil's Bridge and the Hafod Arms Hotel. Print in the National Library of Wales Collection Accession number 1133299. 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:Devil%27s_Bridge_and_the_Hafod_Arms_Hotel.jpeg
A print of about 1860 shows a grander hotel, now known as Hafod Arms Hotel, with the bridge immediately to its left.
Mynach Falls have a cumulative drop of 90 metres. The contributors to World of Waterfalls describe a walk encompassing the falls with photographs at https://www.world-of-waterfalls.com/europe-mynach-falls.html
Rheidol Falls are best viewed from the The Vale of Rheidol Railway which runs from Aberystwith to Devils Bridge. The railway remained the last steam railway owned by British Rail until it was privatised in 1989 and it is now owned by the charitable Phyllis Rampton Narrow Gauge Railway Trust which operates the Vale of Rheidol Railway. Their short YouTube video takes you on a trip through the vale https://youtu.be/IqecN43iAdo. Their stations and halts can be used as bases for walking. Both the Mynach Falls and Rheidol Falls can be visited, and the latter viewed from a Halt. https://www.rheidolrailway.co.uk/valley-walks/ The Rheidol hydropower plant lies in the Rheidol Valley and is the largest of its kind in England and Wales. Since 1962, the scheme has generated renewable energy by using the rainwater that falls on the surrounding mountains. https://www.visitwales.com/attraction-search/attraction-search-results/attraction-search-details?id=1890994
A very agreeable gentleman: Probably Mr Grimes as we find Lucy recording, on Tuesday 6th July, “we again met our new friend Mr Grimes”
Hafod Uchtryd: Mansion and grounds laid out by Colonel Thomas Johnes (1748-1816) who was awarded 5 gold medals for silviculture from the Royal Society of Arts – approximately 3 million trees were planted during his tenancy.
1809 Hafod House, by John Smith and engraved by J C Stadler in the National Library of Wales collection, Accession number 1131119 made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
The Automobile Association classes it as one of the ten most scenic drives in the world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafod_Uchtryd The landscaped gardens were formed by blasting away parts of hills to create vistas. Roadways and bridges were built and hundreds of thousands of trees were planted. The result was a landscape that became famous and attracted many visitors including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and it is believed to have inspired a passage in his poem Kubla Khan. The house was demolished in 1955, but the landscape remains today
Aberystwyth is situated near the confluence of the rivers Ystwyth and Rheidol, on the west coast of Wales. Although the name may seem to suggest otherwise, only the River Rheidol passes through the town. Following the reconstruction of the harbour the River Ystwyth skirts the town. Aberystwyth has a pier and a seafront which stretches from Constitution Hill, at the north end of the Promenade, to the mouth of the harbour at the south, taking in two separate beach stretches divided by the castle.
2006 View of Aberystwyth. Author and license holder Gjt6 at English Wikipedia licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberystwyth#/media/File:Aberystwyth_shore.jpg
The town is the unofficial capital of Mid Wales, and several institutions have regional or national offices there. Public bodies located in the town include the National Library of Wales, which incorporates the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, one of six British regional film archives. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales maintains and curates the National Monuments Record of Wales (NMRW), providing the public with information about the heritage of Wales. Aberystwyth is also the home to the national offices of UCAC and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society), and the site of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research. The Welsh Books Council and the offices of the standard historical dictionary of Welsh, Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, are also located in the town. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberystwyth
Can you help us?
Old Regency Prints, Pictures and Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what Devil’s Bridge, the Mynach and Rheidol Falls, Hafod Uchtryd and Aberystwyth would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will bring our research alive.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?