sor of
the second sight. He foretold a bridge, but not a railroad bridge; had
he foretold a railroad bridge, or hinted at the marvels of steam, his
claim to the second sight would have been incontestable.

What a triumph for Wales; what a triumph for bardism, if Lleiaf had ever
written an englyn, or couplet, in which not a bridge for common traffic,
but a railroad bridge over the Menai was hinted at, and steam travelling
distinctly foretold! Well, though Lleiaf did not write it, there exists
in the Welsh language an englyn, almost as old as Lleiaf's time, in which
steam travelling in Wales and Anglesea is foretold, and in which, though
the railroad bridge over the Menai is not exactly mentioned, it may be
considered to be included; so that Wales and bardism have equal reason to
be proud. This is the englyn alluded to:--

"Codais, ymolchais yn Mon, cyn naw awr
Ciniewa'n Nghaer Lleon,
Pryd gosber yn y Werddon,
Prydnawn wrth dan mawn yn Mon."

The above englyn was printed in the Greal, 1792, p. 316; the language
shows it to be a production of about the middle of the seventeenth
century. The following is nearly a literal translation:--

"I got up in Mona as soon as 'twas light,
At nine in old Chester my breakfast I took;
In Ireland I dined, and in Mona, ere night,
By the turf fire sat, in my own ingle nook."

Now, as sure as the couplet by Robert Lleiaf foretells that a bridge
would eventually be built over the strait, by which people would pass,
and traffic be carried on, so surely does the above englyn foreshadow the
speed by which people would travel by steam, a speed by which distance is
already all but annihilated. At present it is easy enough to get up at
dawn at Holyhead, the point of Anglesey the most distant from Chester,
and to breakfast at that old town by nine; and though the feat has never
yet been accomplished, it would be quite possible, provided proper
preparations were made, to start from Holyhead at daybreak, breakfast at
Chester at nine, or before, dine in Ireland at two, and get back again to
Holyhead ere the sun of the longest day has set. And as surely as the
couplet about the bridge argues great foresight in the man that wrote it,
so surely does the englyn prove that its author must have been possessed
of the faculty of second sight, as nobody without it could, in the middle
of the seventeenth century, when the powers of steam were unknown, have
written any