n when need there be,
Which never yet was known to lack
A plenteous store of perch and jack.
Of various plumage birds abound;
Herons and peacocks haunt around,
What luxury doth his hall adorn,
Showing of cost a sovereign scorn;
His ale from Shrewsbury town he brings;
His usquebaugh is drink for kings;
Bragget he keeps, bread white of look,
And, bless the mark! a bustling cook.
His mansion is the minstrels' home,
You'll find them there whene'er you come
Of all her sex his wife's the best;
The household through her care is blest
She's scion of a knightly tree,
She's dignified, she's kind and free.
His bairns approach me, pair by pair,
O what a nest of chieftains fair!
Here difficult it is to catch
A sight of either bolt or latch;
The porter's place here none will fill;
Her largess shall be lavish'd still,
And ne'er shall thirst or hunger rude
In Sycharth venture to intrude.
A noble leader, Cambria's knight,
The lake possesses, his by right,
And midst that azure water plac'd,
The castle, by each pleasure grac'd.

And when I had finished repeating these lines I said, "How much more
happy, innocent, and holy, I was in the days of my boyhood when I
translate Iolo's ode than I am at the present time!" Then covering my
face with my hands I wept like a child.

CHAPTER LXVII

Cup of Coffee--Gwen--Bluff old Fellow--A Rabble Rout--All from Wrexham.

After a while I arose from my seat and descending the hill returned to
the house of my honest friends, whom I found sitting by their fire as I
had first seen them.

"Well," said the man, "did you bring back Owen Glendower?"

"Not only him," said I, "but his house, family, and all relating to him."

"By what means?" said the man.

"By means of a song made a long time ago, which describes Sycharth as it
was in his time, and his manner of living there."

Presently Gwen, who had been preparing coffee in expectation of my
return, poured out a cupful, which she presented to me, at the same time
handing me some white sugar in a basin.

I took the coffee, helped myself to some sugar, and returned her thanks
in her own language.

"Ah," said the man, in Welsh, "I see you are a Cumro. Gwen and I have
been wondering whether you were Welsh or English; but I see you are one
of ourselves."

"No," said I in the same language, "I am an Englishman, born in a