00
In Anglessey. Redwharf Bay (Treath Coch), and 212
the Country of Gronwy Owen
The Wondrous Valley of Gelert 312
Cascade on the Moor between Festiniog and Balla 328
Balla Lake in the Fifties, showing the Aran 346
Mountain and Cader Idris. (_Drawn from an old
print_)
Chirk (Castell y Waen) 366
Twilight after a Storm. Dinas Mawddwy 494
Eastern Street, Machynlleth, showing part of 512
Owen Glendower's Parliament House
The Devil's Bridge 558
The Remains of Strata Florida Abbey from the 596
Churchyard
"Pump Saint" 632

Map of Wales showing Borrow's Route _to face page_ 1

INTRODUCTORY

Wales is a country interesting in many respects, and deserving of more
attention than it has hitherto met with. Though not very extensive, it
is one of the most picturesque countries in the world, a country in which
Nature displays herself in her wildest, boldest, and occasionally
loveliest forms. The inhabitants, who speak an ancient and peculiar
language, do not call this region Wales, nor themselves Welsh. They call
themselves Cymry or Cumry, and their country Cymru, or the land of the
Cumry. Wales or Wallia, however, is the true, proper, and without doubt
original name, as it relates not to any particular race, which at present
inhabits it, or may have sojourned in it at any long bygone period, but
to the country itself. Wales signifies a land of mountains, of vales, of
dingles, chasms, and springs. It is connected with the Cumbric bal, a
protuberance, a springing forth; with the Celtic beul or beal, a mouth;
with the old English welle, a fountain; with the original name of Italy,
still called by the Germans Welschland; with Balkan and Vulcan, both of
which signify a casting out, an eruption; with Welint or Wayland, the
name of the Anglo-Saxon god of the forge; with the Chaldee val, a forest,
and the German wald; with the English bluff, and the Sanscrit
palava--startling assertions, no doubt, at least to some; which are,
however, quite true, and which at some future time will be universally
acknowledged so to be.

But it is not for its scenery alone that Wales is deserving of being
visited; s