her
children.

"Loving her husband, loving peace, and loving God.

"Happy the man," adds the Triad, "who possesses such a wife." Very true,
O Triad, always provided he is in some degree worthy of her; but many a
man leaves an innocent wife at home for an impure Jezebel abroad, even as
many a one prefers a pint of hog's wash abroad to a tankard of generous
liquor at home.

CHAPTER LXIII

Preparations for Departure--Cat provided for--A Pleasant Party--Last
Night at Llangollen.

I was awakened early on the Sunday morning by the howling of wind. There
was a considerable storm throughout the day, but unaccompanied by rain.
I went to church both in the morning and the evening. The next day there
was a great deal of rain. It was now the latter end of October; winter
was coming on, and my wife and daughter were anxious to return home.
After some consultation it was agreed that they should depart for London,
and that I should join them there after making a pedestrian tour in South
Wales.

I should have been loth to quit Wales without visiting the Deheubarth or
Southern Region, a land differing widely, as I had heard, both in
language and customs from Gwynedd or the Northern, a land which had given
birth to the illustrious Ab Gwilym, and where the great Ryce family had
flourished, which very much distinguished itself in the Wars of the
Roses--a member of which Ryce ap Thomas placed Henry the Seventh on the
throne of Britain--a family of royal extraction, and which after the
death of Roderic the Great for a long time enjoyed the sovereignty of the
south.

We set about making the necessary preparations for our respective
journeys. Those for mine were soon made. I bought a small leather
satchel with a lock and key, in which I placed a white linen shirt, a
pair of worsted stockings, a razor and a prayer-book. Along with it I
bought a leather strap with which to sling it over my shoulder: I got my
boots new soled, my umbrella, which was rather dilapidated, mended; put
twenty sovereigns into my purse, and then said I am all right for the
Deheubarth.

As my wife and daughter required much more time in making preparations
for their journey than I for mine, and as I should only be in their way
whilst they were employed, it was determined that I should depart on my
expedition on Thursday, and that they should remain at Llangollen till
the Saturday.

We were at first in some perplexity with respect to the dispos