a place called Ffair Rhos, or something similar,
a miserable village consisting of a few half-ruined cottages,
situated on the top of a hill. From the hill you look down on a wide
valley of a russet colour, along which a river runs towards the
south. The whole scene is cheerless; sullen hills are all around.
Descending the hill you enter a large village divided into two by the
river, which here runs from east to west, but presently takes a turn.
There is much mire in the street; immense swine lie in the mire, who
turn up their snouts at you as you pass. Women in Welsh hats stand
in the mire, along with men without any hats at all, but with short
pipes in their mouths. They are talking together; as you pass,
however, they hold their tongues, the women leering contemptuously at
you, the men glaring sullenly at you, and causing tobacco-smoke to
curl in your face. On your taking off your hat, however, and
inquiring the way to the Monachlog, everybody is civil enough, and
twenty voices tell you the way to the monastery. You ask the name of
the river: "The Teivi, Sir, the Teivi." The name of the bridge:
"Pont y Rhyd Fendigaid--the Bridge of the Blessed Ford, Sir!" You
cross the bridge of the Blessed Ford, and presently leaving the main
road you turn to the east, by a dunghill, up a narrow lane, parallel
with the river. After proceeding a mile up the lane amidst trees and
copses, and crossing a little brook which runs into the Teivi, out of
which you drink, you see before you in the midst of a field, in which
are tombstones and broken ruins, a rustic-looking church; a farmhouse
is near it, in the garden of which stands the framework of a large
gateway. You cross over into the churchyard, stand on a green mound
and look about you. You are now in the very midst of the Monachlog
Ystrad Flur, the celebrated monastery of Strata Florida, to which in
old times popish pilgrims from all parts of the world repaired. The
scene is solemn and impressive. On the north side of the river a
large bulky hill, called Bunk Pen Bannedd, looks down upon the ruins
and the church; and on the south side, some way behind the farmhouse,
is another hill which does the same. Rugged mountains form the
background of the valley to the east, down from which comes murmuring
the fleet but shallow Teivi. Such is the