t Heaven is good.

After we had descended the avenue some way John Jones began to look about
him, and getting on the bank on the left side disappeared. We went on,
and in a little time saw him again beckoning to us some way farther down,
but still on the bank. When we drew nigh to him he bade us get on the
bank; we did so and followed him some way, midst furze and lyng. All of
a sudden he exclaimed, "There it is!" We looked and saw a large figure
standing on a pedestal. On going up to it we found it to be a Hercules
leaning on his club, indeed a copy of the Farnese Hercules, as we
gathered from an inscription in Latin partly defaced. We felt rather
disappointed, as we expected that it would have turned out to be the
figure of some huge Welsh champion of old. We, however, said nothing to
our guide. John Jones, in order that we might properly appreciate the
size of the statue by contrasting it with his own body, got upon the
pedestal and stood up beside the figure, to the elbow of which his head
little more than reached.

I told him that in my country, the eastern part of Lloegr, I had seen a
man quite as tall as the statue.

"Indeed, sir," said he; "who is it?"

"Hales the Norfolk giant," I replied, "who has a sister seven inches
shorter than himself, who is yet seven inches taller than any man in the
county when her brother is out of it."

When John Jones got down he asked me who the man was whom the statue was
intended to represent.

"Erchwl," I replied, "a mighty man of old, who with club cleared the
country of thieves, serpents, and monsters."

I now proposed that we should return to Llangollen, whereupon we retraced
our steps, and had nearly reached the farm-house of the castle when John
Jones said that we had better return by the low road, by doing which we
should see the castle-lodge and also its gate which was considered one of
the wonders of Wales. We followed his advice and passing by the front of
the castle northwards soon came to the lodge. The lodge had nothing
remarkable in its appearance, but the gate which was of iron was truly
magnificent.

On the top were two figures of wolves which John Jones supposed to be
those of foxes. The wolf of Chirk is not intended to be expressive of
the northern name of its proprietor, but as the armorial bearing of his
family by the maternal side, and originated in one Ryred, surnamed Blaidd
or Wolf from his ferocity in war, from whom the family, which on