its fine ruin on its brow above
which a little cloud hovered! It put me in mind of some old king,
unfortunate and melancholy but a king still, with the look of a king, and
the ancestral crown still on his furrowed forehead. I proceeded on my
way, all was wild and solitary, and the yellow leaves were falling from
the trees of the groves. I passed by the farmyard, where I had held
discourse with the farmer on the preceding Saturday, and soon entered the
glen, the appearance of which had so much attracted my curiosity. A
torrent, rushing down from the north, was on my right. It soon began to
drizzle, and mist so filled the glen that I could only distinguish
objects a short way before me, and on either side. I wandered on a
considerable way, crossing the torrent several times by rustic bridges.
I passed two lone farm-houses and at last saw another on my left hand.
The mist had now cleared up, but it still slightly rained--the scenery
was wild to a degree--a little way before me was a tremendous pass, near
it an enormous crag of a strange form rising to the very heavens, the
upper part of it of a dull white colour. Seeing a respectable-looking
man near the house I went up to him.

"Am I in the right way to Wrexham?" said I, addressing him in English.

"You can get to Wrexham this way, sir," he replied.

"Can you tell me the name of that crag?" said I, pointing to the large
one.

"That crag, sir, is called Craig y Forwyn."

"The maiden's crag," said I; "why is it called so?"

"I do not know sir; some people say that it is called so because its head
is like that of a woman, others because a young girl in love leaped from
the top of it and was killed."

"And what is the name of this house?" said I.

"This house, sir, is called Plas Uchaf."

"Is it called Plas Uchaf," said I, "because it is the highest house in
the valley?"

"It is, sir; it is the highest of three homesteads; the next below it is
Plas Canol--and the one below that Plas Isaf."

"Middle place and lower place," said I. "It is very odd that I know in
England three people who derive their names from places so situated. One
is Houghton, another Middleton, and the third Lowdon; in modern English,
Hightown, Middletown, and Lowtown."

"You appear to be a person of great intelligence, sir."

"No, I am not--but I am rather fond of analysing words, particularly the
names of persons and places. Is the road to Wrexham hard to find?"

"Not very, sir;