buried under a large
stone in the river, just below the bridge, near the Llandegla Mills, and
there the Spirit is to remain until a certain tree, which grows by the
bridge, reaches the height of the parapet, and then, when this takes
place, the Spirit shall have power to regain his liberty. To prevent
this tree from growing, the school children, even to this day, nip the
upper branches, and thus retard its upward growth. Mr. Roberts received
the story I have given, from the old Parish Clerk, John Jones the weaver,
who died a few years ago.

_Lady Jeffrey's Spirit_.

This lady could not rest in her grave because of her misdeeds, and she
troubled people dreadfully; at last she was persuaded or enticed to
contract her dimensions, and enter into a bottle. She did so, after
appearing in a good many hideous forms; but when she got into the bottle,
it was corked down securely, and the bottle was cast into the pool
underneath the Short bridge, Llanidloes, and there the lady was to remain
until the ivy that grew up the buttresses should overgrow the sides of
the bridge, and reach the parapet. The ivy was dangerously near the top
of the bridge when the writer was a schoolboy, and often did he and his
companions crop off its tendrils as they neared the prescribed limits for
we were all terribly afraid to release the dreaded lady out of the
bottle. In the year 1848, the old bridge was blown up, and a new one
built instead of it. A schoolfellow, whom we called Ben, was playing by
the aforesaid pool when the bridge was undergoing reconstruction, and he
found by the river's side a small bottle, and in the bottle was a little
black thing, that was never quiet, but it kept bobbing up and down
continually, just as if it wanted to get out. Ben kept the bottle safely
for a while, but ere long he was obliged to throw it into the river, for
his relations and neighbours came to the conclusion that that was the
very bottle that contained Lady Jeffrey's Spirit, and they also surmised
that the little black restless thing was nothing less than the lady
herself. Ben consequently resigned the bottle and its contents to the
pool again, there to undergo a prolonged, but unjust, term of
imprisonment.

_Pentrevoelas_.--_Squire Griffith's Ghost_.

A couple of workmen engaged at Foelas, the seat of the late Squire
Griffiths, thought they would steal a few apples from the orchard for
their children, and for this purpose one evening