. In
two or three hours I came to a glen, the sides of which were beautifully
wooded. On my left was a river, which came roaring down from a range of
lofty mountains right before me to the south-east. The river, as I was
told by a lad, was the Sawdde or Southey, the lofty range the Black
Mountains. Passed a pretty village on my right standing something in the
shape of a semicircle, and in about half-an-hour came to a bridge over a
river which I supposed to be the Sawdde which I had already seen, but
which I subsequently learned was an altogether different stream. It was
running from the south, a wild, fierce flood, amidst rocks and stones,
the waves all roaring and foaming.

After some time I reached another bridge near the foot of a very lofty
ascent. On my left to the east upon a bank was a small house, on one
side of which was a wheel turned round by a flush of water running in a
little artificial canal; close by it were two small cascades, the waters
of which, and also those of the canal, passed under the bridge in the
direction of the west. Seeing a decent-looking man engaged in sawing a
piece of wood by the roadside, I asked him in Welsh whether the house
with the wheel was a flour mill.

"Nage," said he, "it is a pandy, fulling mill."

"Can you tell me the name of a river," said I, "which I have left about a
mile behind me. Is it the Sawdde?'

"Nage," said he, "it is the Lleidach."

Then looking at me with great curiosity, he asked if I came from the
north country.

"Yes," said I, "I certainly come from there."

"I am glad to hear it," said he, "for I have long wished to see a man
from the north country."

"Did you never see one before?" said I.

"Never in my life," he replied; "men from the north country seldom show
themselves in these parts."

"Well," said I; "I am not ashamed to say that I come from the north."

"Ain't you? Well, I don't know that you have any particular reason to be
ashamed, for it is rather your misfortune than your fault; but the idea
of any one coming from the north--ho, ho!"

"Perhaps in the north," said I, "they laugh at a man from the south."

"Laugh at a man from the south! No, no; they can't do that."

"Why not?" said I; "why shouldn't the north laugh at the south as well as
the south at the north?"

"Why shouldn't it? why, you talk like a fool. How could the north laugh
at the south as long as the south remains the south and the north the
north? Laugh a