e, "there was a castle here in the old time."

"Whereabouts was it?" said I.

"Yonder," said the man, standing still and pointing to the right. "Don't
you see yonder brown spot in the valley? There the castle stood."

"But are there no remains of it?" said I. "I can see nothing but a brown
spot."

"There are none, sir; but there a castle once stood, and from it the
place we came from had its name, and likewise the river that runs down to
Pont Erwyd."

"And who lived there?" said I.

"I don't know, sir," said the man; "but I suppose they were grand people,
or they would not have lived in a castle."

After ascending the hill and passing over its top, we went down its
western side and soon came to a black, frightful bog between two hills.
Beyond the bog and at some distance to the west of the two hills rose a
brown mountain, not abruptly, but gradually, and looking more like what
the Welsh call a rhiw, or slope, than a mynydd, or mountain.

"That, sir," said my guide, "is the grand Plynlimmon."

"It does not look much of a hill," said I.

"We are on very high ground, sir, or it would look much higher. I
question, upon the whole, whether there is a higher hill in the world.
God bless Pumlummon Mawr!" said he, looking with reverence towards the
hill. "I am sure I have a right to say so, for many is the good crown I
have got by showing gentlefolks like yourself to the top of him."

"You talk of Plynlimmon Mawr, or the great Plynlymmon," said I; "where
are the small ones?"

"Yonder they are," said the guide, pointing to two hills towards the
north; "one is Plynlimmon Canol, and the other Plynlimmon Bach--the
middle and the small Plynlimmon."

"Pumlummon," said I, "means five summits. You have pointed out only
three; now, where are the other two?"

"Those two hills which we have just passed make up the five. However, I
will tell your worship that there is a sixth summit. Don't you see that
small hill connected with the big Pumlummon, on the right?"

"I see it very clearly," said I.

"Well, your worship, that's called Bryn y Llo--the Hill of the Calf, or
the Calf Plynlimmon, which makes the sixth summit."

"Very good," said I, "and perfectly satisfactory. Now let us ascend the
Big Pumlummon."

In about a quarter of an hour we reached the summit of the hill, where
stood a large carn or heap of stones. I got upon the top and looked
around me.

A mountainous wilderness extended on every side, a was