tter were good enough, but the ale poorish.
Oh, for an Act of Parliament to force people to brew good ale! After
finishing our humble meal, we got up and having paid our reckoning went
back into the park, the gate of which the landlord again unlocked for us.

We strolled towards the north along the base of the hill. The
imagination of man can scarcely conceive a scene more beautiful than the
one which we were now enjoying. Huge oaks studded the lower side of the
hill, towards the top was a belt of forest, above which rose the eastern
walls of the castle; the whole forest, castle and the green bosom of the
hill glorified by the lustre of the sun. As we proceeded we again roused
the deer, and again saw three old black fellows, evidently the patriarchs
of the herds, with their white enormous horns; with these ancient
gentlefolks I very much wished to make acquaintance, and tried to get
near them, but no! they would suffer no such thing; off they glided,
their white antlers, like the barked top boughs of old pollards, glancing
in the sunshine, the smaller dapple creatures following them bounding and
frisking. We had again got very near the castle, when John Jones told me
that if we would follow him he would show us something very remarkable; I
asked him what it was.

"Llun Cawr," he replied. "The figure of a giant."

"What giant?" said I.

But on this point he could give me no information. I told my wife and
daughter what he had said, and finding that they wished to see the
figure, I bade John Jones lead us to it. He led us down an avenue just
below the eastern side of the castle; noble oaks and other trees composed
it, some of them probably near a hundred feet high; John Jones observing
me looking at them with admiration, said:

"They would make fine chests for the dead, sir."

What an observation! how calculated, amidst the most bounding joy and
bliss, to remind man of his doom! A moment before I had felt quite
happy, but now I felt sad and mournful. I looked at my wife and
daughter, who were gazing admiringly on the beauteous scenes around them,
and remembered that in a few short years at most we should all three be
laid in the cold narrow house formed of four elm or oaken boards, our
only garment the flannel shroud, the cold damp earth above us, instead of
the bright glorious sky. Oh, how sad and mournful I became! I soon
comforted myself, however, by reflecting that such is the will of Heaven,
and tha