near the entrance-tower, which had
been walled up, a large amount of gunpowder was found. At Holywell, now
the second town in North Wales, is the shrine to which pilgrims have
been going for many centuries. At the foot of a steep hill, from an
aperture in the rock, there rushes forth a torrent of water at the rate
of eighty-four hogsheads a minute; whether the season be wet or be dry,
the sacred stream gushing forth from St. Winifrede's Well varies but
little, and around it grows the fragrant moss known as St. Winifrede's
Hair. The spring has valuable medicinal virtues, and an elegant dome
covering it supports a chapel. The little building is an exquisite
Gothic structure built by Henry VII. A second basin is provided, into
which bathers may descend. The pilgrims to this holy well have of late
years decreased in numbers; James II., who, we are told, "lost three
kingdoms for a mass," visited this well in 1686, and "received as a
reward the undergarment worn by his great-grandmother, Mary Queen of
Scots, on the day of her execution." This miraculous spring gets its
name from the pious virgin Winifrede. She having been seen by the Prince
of Wales, Caradoc, he was struck by her great beauty and attempted to
carry her off; she fled to the church, the prince pursuing, and,
overtaking her, he in rage drew his sword and struck off her head; the
severed head bounded through the church-door and rolled to the foot of
the altar. On the spot where it rested a spring of uncommon size burst
forth. The pious priest took up the head, and at his prayer it was
united to the body, and the virgin, restored to life, lived in sanctity
for fifteen years afterwards: miracles were wrought at her tomb; the
spring proved another Pool of Bethesda, and to this day we are told that
the votive crutches and chairs left by the cured remain hanging over St.
Winifrede's Well.

South of Denbigh, in Montgomeryshire, are the ruins of Montgomery
Castle, long a frontier fortress of Wales, around which many hot
contests have raged: a fragment of a tower and portions of the walls are
all that remain. Powys Castle is at Welsh Pool, and is still
preserved--a red sandstone structure on a rocky elevation in a spacious
and well-wooded park; Sir Robert Smirke has restored it.

THE MENAI STRAIT.

Still journeying westward, we come to Caernarvonshire, and reach the
remarkable estuary dividing the mainland from the island of Anglesea,
and known as the Menai Strait.