About fifteen miles to the westward of Crickaeth there is a lofty hill, called Carn Madryn, which is noted for having been a strong hold of Roderick and Maelgwyn, the sons of Owen Gwyneth.
There are many remains of fortifications upon it, from which may be ascertained what was the state of architecture at an early period among the Welsh. “the bottom, sides, and top are filled with cells, oblong, oval, or circular, once thatched, or covered from the inclemency of the weather: many of them are pretty entire. The chieftains resided on the top; the people of the country, with their cattle, in times of invasion, occupied the sides and bottom.” (Pennant).
The stones of the walls are not connected by cement, but are thrown roughly together, and with infinitely less attention to neatness and arrangement than would be observed by a Briton of the present day in the construction of a pig-sty.
A pig-sty? a bit harsh, it is thousands of years old. It’s hard to know from this if the Owain Gwynedd (a prince of North Wales) connection is a folk story or something dreamt up by historian types.
From “A voyage round Great Britain, undertaken in the summer of the year 1813..” by Richard Ayton and William Daniell.
Sounds like a bit of 'Taffy is a Welshman' propaganda to me .... assume the 'gentlemen' were none too familiar with the slums of their own era?
Well maybe that's a bit unfair, they talk so often about the ordinary people they meet. So I think they were shocked by the conditions people were working in, like at the Parys mine for one, and living in, and did want it to be in the book so others could read it. And they don't really adopt the 'we met a rustic' tone that you often get. And they don't fuss about their accommodation too much though it could hardly have been what they were used to. They're quite humorous sometimes, i guess the pigsty remark is supposed to be amusing! I'm rather enjoying looking at the book really.