near Pandy Mill

DAVID COX
Birmingham 1783-1859 Birmingham

Near Pandy Mill, North Wales

Inscribed verso in another hand: N.r Pandy Mill by D. Cox Sept.r 52
Watercolour over black chalk heightened with stopping out on oatmeal paper
278 x 373 mm., 10 ¾ x 14 ½ in.

Pandy Mill is situated on the river Machno near its junction with the river Conway, two miles south-east of Bettws-y-Coed. Cox visited Bettws in 1844 and returned there almost every summer afterwards. The present drawing dates from his visit there in September 1852 according to an inscription on the reverse. The scenery in the surrounding area is especially dramatic. Solly in his biography of Cox described it as follows: `It is surrounded by rocky glens and deep wooded valleys..... Through these the mountain streams, the Machno, the Lledr, and the Llugwy, flow on towards their junction with the Conway.... All these streams are spanned by old and picturesque bridges, well known to lovers of art and Welsh scenery, and their banks also adorned by several ancient water-mills; of these, Pandy Mill, on the Machno, is the chief, on account of its romantic situation and the fine old oaks which surround it' (see N. Neal Solly, Memoir of the Life of David Cox, reprinted 1973, p.158-9).