1 The lines were first published by Edward Parry in his Royal Visits and Progresses to Wales (1850), pp. 416-17, as being by Mrs Piozzi (formerly Mrs Thrale). The attribution was not implausible, as her house, Brynbella, lay on the western slopes of Moel Famau, and she subscribed 5 guineas towards the Tower. However, the MS survives in the National Library of Wales (MS 9020), and is signed ‘Temple, Nov. 14 1810J.H.P.’. The initials are identified in Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, Part xv p. 102. E. Parry (and others) quote the poem in a truncated and mangled form. J. H. Parry was not the only poet inspired by the Tower: verses by the Revd R. Williams of Fron were published in the Gentleman’s Magazine (see n. 8), and R. J. Edwards wrote a long poem in 1887 (published in the Denbighshire Free Press, and transcribed in NLW MS 2108). The etymology and orthography of the mountain’s name have long been disputed: ‘Famau’ is the currently favoured version.

2 Pedestres and Woodcnpeg, Sir Clavileno A Pedestrian Tour of 1,347 Miles through Wales and England (1836), pp. 256-57.Google Scholar The author states: ‘This anecdote is a literal fact’.

3 Hopkins, G. M. Further Letters, ed. Abbott, C. C. (1956), p. 137 Google ScholarPubMed (2 March 1876).

4 The letter is quoted in The Prince of Wales Countryside Award: Moel Fammau Project. A History of the Jubilee Tower on Moel Fammau in North Wales, by R.J. Edwards [18S3], reproduced from an original copy and amplified from contemporary papers with an Account of its Rehabilitation for European Conservation Year 1970, by the present Lord Kenyon. All unidentified quotations are from this booklet. The author is indebted to Lord Kenyon for his generous assistance. No inscription was ever set up on the Tower.

5 Quarter Sessions Minutes (Clwyd County Record Office, Hawarden).

6 On Harrison, see Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects. In 1810-15 Lord Kenyon’s own House, Gredington, was rebuilt to Harrison’s designs.

7 Among the other members were Sir Foster Cunliffe, Bt, of Acton Park, Wrexham, for which Harrison designed a Greek Doric entrance screen, and SirWatkin Williams-Wynn, Bt, for whom he may have done some work ( Howell, P. and Pritchard, T. W. ‘Wynnstay, Denbighshire’, Country Life, 6 April 1972, p. 852).Google Scholar

8 They were fully described (by ‘a descendant of deH, Sir D.. ’) in Gentleman’s Magazine, lxxxi (February 1811), pp. 124-27.Google Scholar Edwards, R.J. (p. 28)Google Scholar pointed out that the principal celebrations of the Jubilee took place in 1809, when the King began the fiftieth year of his reign.

9 As the extra verses appear (with slight differences) in the account of the laying of the foundation stone printed in Poems on Various Subjects by the Hughes, Revd D. (1865)Google Scholar, Edwards, R.J. concluded that they were written by Hughes (see Edwards’s own copy of his pamphlet, with MS additions — NLW MS 2108 p. 51).Google Scholar

10 The one reproduced here was shown at the Whitworth Art Gallery exhibition The Order of the Day in 1981 (Catalogue Gi 1, illustrated p. 22). The other is Weaver Hall L/21.

11 Country Life, 6 April 1972, pp. 852-53. A watercolour by Peter deWint in the Victoria and Albert Museum shows the tower, but with no smoke coming from it.

12 Pevsner, N. and Lang, S. ‘The Egyptian Revival’, Architectural Review, cxix (1956), 242-54 Google Scholar, reprinted in Pevsner, N. Studies in Art, Architecture and Design (1968) 1, 213—35.Google Scholar See also Carrott, Richard G. The Egyptian Revival: its Sources, Monuments and Meaning, 1808-1838 (1978)Google Scholar; Clayton, Peter The Rediscovery of Egypt (1982)Google Scholar; Curl, James Stevens The Egyptian Revival: An introductory study of a recurring theme in the history of taste (1982)Google Scholar; Patrick Conner (ed.), The Inspiration of Egypt: Its Influence on British Artists, Travellers and Designers 1700— igoo, exhibition catalogue, Brighton (1983).

13 According to Canon Blomfield, Builder, xxi (1863), 204.

14 Hope, T. Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1807), p. 27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar On Hope’s Egyptian tastes see Watkin, D. Thomas Hope and the Neo-Classical Idea (1968).Google Scholar

15 The Gillow Mausoleum at Thurnham, Lancashire, designed by Gillow, Robert has been dated c. 1800 (P. Conner (ed.), The Inspiration of Egypt (1983), p. 52)Google Scholar, but in fact probably dates from between 1824 and 1838 (information from Mr David Beevers).

16 It is worth noting that, according to the Architectural Publication Society’s Dictionary, Harrison designed a ‘house for General Abercrombie’. This might have been the famous General Sir Ralph Abercromby (1734-1801), of Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, who died of wounds after defeating the French at Alexandria, and who was married to a Dundas, of the family who had been Harrison’s earliest patrons. Alternatively, it could have been Sir Ralph’s brother, General Sir Robert Abercromby, or his son, General Sir John Abercromby (on all three, see DNB).

17 Reproduced by Crook, j. M. ‘A Neo-Classical Visionary’, Country Life, cxlix (6 May 1971), 1091 Google Scholar; also in The Modest Genius, catalogue of an exhibition at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester (1977), p. 25; The Order of the Day (see n. 10), p. 21. This drawing is at Weaver Hall Museum (catalogue no. 2857). Another drawing in the same collection (L/n) shows the pyramid in a mountainous setting. Two other perspectives at Weaver Hall (2863, and one unnumbered) show a tall obelisk standing on a square base pierced by Egyptian doorways on a mountain top. This design may well be connected with the Moel Famau project, as may be another drawing showing a rotunda on a square base, also on a mountain top (2855), shown in The Order of the Day (Catalogue G 12). Various other drawings have been associated with the project, including designs for triumphal arches (e.g. that illustrated by Crook, p. 1091, and in The Order of the Day, p. 23)Google Scholar, but there is no good reason for doing so. One other drawing (Weaver Hall 2860) may be mentioned: it shows a pyramid (small, compared with that described above) with a Doric portico on each side, in a landscape setting. For the combination of pyramid and portico one may compare Adam’s gateway at Nostell Priory (c. 1776-77), and also his design of 1779 for a monument to Garrick at Wynnstay (Country Life, 6 April 1972, p. 8S2). An ‘Egyptian’ version was included in Soane’s Designs in Architecture (1778), pi. xxv. The author is grateful to Moira Rudolf, who has been studying the various collections of Harrison drawings, for information and advice. None of the drawings referred to can be precisely dated. It may be noted that Whitehall Davies had already referred to a design for a pyramid in his letter of 8January (see above), and a similar suggestion was made by ‘Britannicus’ in a letter in the Chester Chronicle of 5 October 1810 (his monument would have consisted of a base 50 ft square, supporting a pyramid 72 ft high, the whole being over 100 ft high).

18 Cockerell, C. R. MS Diaries, 9 November 1823.Google Scholar Whether any of the drawings mentioned in the previous note relate to this project is uncertain.

19 The Inventory number of the drawing is 18935. A very similar perspective, from a different viewpoint, is at Weaver Hall (with a duplicate in Chester Public Library). It is reproduced by Crook, j. M. Country Life, 6 May 1971, p. 1091 Google Scholar, and in The Order of the Day p. 22. The letter is in the Royal Library (RA 18181).

20 The conveyance from the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, dated 23 March 1811, has recently come to light. The land remained in the family until it was sold in 1858.

21 Letter from William Wynne, Clerk of the Peace for the County of Flint, to Lord Kenyon, 27 August 1812, quoted by Lord Kenyon (see n. 4), p. 13.

22 For the Penson family, see Colvin Dictionary. The author is indebted to Mr R. C. B. Oliver for further biographical information.

23 The story of Overton Bridge has been pieced together from the Minutes of the Flintshire Quarter Sessions and the Minutes of the Bridge Committee, held at the Clwyd Record Office at Hawarden. The author is grateful to Mr Edward Hubbard for help with these.

24 The old bridge was probably rebuilt in 1666, and stood 50 yds upstream of the new one: see Pratt, D. and Veysey, A. G. A Handlist of the Topographical Prints of Clwyd (1977), p. 19.Google Scholar

25 For William Hazeldine, see DNB.

26 For John Carline (1761-1835), see Colvin Dictionary. His father had moved to Shrewsbury as foreman of the masons who built the English Bridge to the designs ofjohn Gwynn.

27 The younger Penson’s security was the Wrexham ironmaster Richard Kirk (or Kyrke), whose daughter Frances he had married at Overton on 18 August 1814. It is interesting to note that the younger Penson was already living at Bridge Cottage, Overton, in 1814, and remained there until about 1822. He had a distinguished career: he was County Surveyor of Montgomeryshire and Denbighshire for over thirty years, and built many bridges, both in stone and in iron, and also a railway viaduct.

28 The letter is quoted by Simpson, F. in Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society, xxvm (1928-29), 123-24.Google Scholar On William Cole, see Ibid. pp. n6f., and Colvin Dictionary. Cole’s description ofPenson as ‘of Oswestry’ must be due to confusion with his son, who had offices in Oswestry and Wrexham.

29 Lewis, S. Topographical Dictionary of Wales (4th edition, 1849), 1, 490.Google Scholar The 1863 estimate for rebuilding the Tower (see n. 39) gives the total height then proposed as 120 ft. Some writers (e.g. Hicklin, Parry, and Davies) wrongly give the height as 150 ft. Hughes gives 126 ft. The date when work on the Tower ceased is unknown. Hughes, H. in Beauties of Cambria (1823)Google Scholar, stated that ‘the tower is not yet finished (May 1819)’, but Edwards (p. 22) took this to mean that the tower was incomplete, not that work was still proceeding.

30 Wrexham Advertiser, 1 November 1862. In 1885 it was reported that no-one could ascertain the cost of the original structure (Bye-Gones October 1885, pp. 308-09). A subscription list of February 1811 is printed as an appendix to Lord Kenyon’s pamphlet (from the North Wales Gazette 28 February 1811). At that date Flintshire subscriptions totalled £801 17s. 6d., and Denbighshire ones £328 13s. od. Another subscription list (from the papers of the Griffith family of Greenfield, Trefnant) is in the Clwyd Record Office at Ruthin (DD/GR/333). This is difficult to interpret, but includes further subscriptions totalling an additional £342 17s. od., and records that by 15 August 1814 Penson had been paid £1,750. It appears that the balance was made up by Lord Kenyon. Yet another subscription list (‘from the original in the possession of Colonel Walker of Liverpool’) is transcribed in NLW MS 2108.

31 E.g. Lancaster Gazette, ioNovember 1810; Chester Chronicle, 2November 1810; also an unidentified newspaper in NLW MS 20094 f. 66. The letterpress accompanying the engraving of Moel Famau in Hugh Hughes’s The Beauties of Cambria (1823) includes the words ‘Under the direction of Thomas Penson, Architect’ at the end of the inscription, but goes on to state that the monument was erected ‘after the design of Mr Harrison’. The Chester Chronicle of 1 November 1862 stated that the architect was ‘Mr Penson, grandfather of T. M. Penson, architect, of Chester, and surveyor of the County of Flint’.

32 The Caernarfon Gaol has long since disappeared, but there is a drawing of it made in 1824 by Robertjones in the Gwynedd Record Office at Caernarfon.?

33 A printed request for a subscription is in the Clwyd Record Office at Hawarden (D/GW/494): it mentions ‘the operations for repairing the Tower having been long since commenced and carried on’. See also Hicklin, John Excursions in North Wales (1851), p. 175 Google Scholar, who mentions that Lord Kenyon was a liberal contributor, also that the road had been repaired, and a room for visitors, with a shed for horses, erected on the summit.

34 Parry, E. Royal Visits and Progresses to Wales (1850), p. 416.Google Scholar

35 Davis, W. Handbook for the Vale of Clwyd (1856), pp. 165-69.Google Scholar

36 Chester Chronicle, 1 November 1862. The date of the collapse is given differently by different authors, but R.J. Edwards proved conclusively that it was 28 October (letter to Denbighshire Free Press January 1887 — see NLW MS 2108).

37 Cutting from the Carnarvon Herald in NLW MS 2108. See also Bye-Gones 27 September 1911 for a reminiscence by one of the harriers. He claimed that the day was quite calm, with neither storm nor earthquake (the latter no doubt a denial of the theory that there had been a repetition of the supposed volcanic eruption of Moel Famau in 1773 — see Annual Register, 1773, p. 76).

38 North Wales Chronicle, 1 November 1862.

39 Clwyd Record Office, Hawarden, D/KK/1026.

40 Letter of 27 March 1863 from Thomas Edgworth to Messrs Lee, and Brookes, quoted by Lord Kenyon, p. 19.Google Scholar

41 Simpson, F. Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society, xxviii (1928-29), 123-24.Google Scholar

42 On the various restoration projects see Castledine, D. C. Annual Report of the Clwyd County Archivist (1980), pp. 25-27.Google Scholar The idea of restoring the Tower seems to have been first raised at a meeting of the Ruthin Town Council (Bye-Gones, October 1885, p. 304).

43 Lyster succeeded John Bernard Hartley (died 1869; son ofjesse Hartley, who died in i860) as Chief Engineer. His most celebrated work is the Waterloo Dock Warehouse of 1867 ( Pevsner, N. Buildings of England: South Lancashire (1969), p. 166 Google Scholar; Bureau, Liverpool Heritage Buildings of Liverpool (1978), pp. 8, 11-12).Google Scholar

44 In the Merseyside County Archives. The author is grateful to Mr Robert Lamb of the Department of Architecture, Liverpool Polytechnic, for information about the project.

45 The Free Press, 9 March 1895.

46 See Castledine, D. C. op. cit., n. 33.Google Scholar

47 Lloyd, G. Country Quest, Autumn 1965.Google Scholar

48 See the booklet cited in n. 4, pp. 51-53.