or less mars
its loveliness? There is an ugly black bridge or semi-circle of rock,
about two feet in diameter and about twenty feet high, which rises some
little way below it, and under which the water, after reaching the
bottom, passes, which intercepts the sight, and prevents it from taking
in the whole fall at once. This unsightly object has stood where it now
stands since the day of creation, and will probably remain there to the
day of judgment. It would be a desecration of nature to remove it by
art, but no one could regret if nature in one of her floods were to sweep
it away.

As I was standing on the planks a woman plainly but neatly dressed came
from the house. She addressed me in very imperfect English, saying that
she was the mistress of the house and should be happy to show me about.
I thanked her for her offer, and told her that she might speak Welsh,
whereupon she looked glad, and said in that tongue that she could speak
Welsh much better than Saesneg. She took me by a winding path up a steep
bank on the southern side of the fall to a small plateau, and told me
that was the best place to see the Pistyll from. I did not think so, for
we were now so near that we were almost blinded by the spray, though, it
is true, the semicircle of rock no longer impeded the sight; this object
we now saw nearly laterally rising up like a spectral arch, spray and
foam above it, and water rushing below. "That is a bridge rather for
ysprydoedd {9} to pass over than men," said I.

"It is," said the woman; "but I once saw a man pass over it."

"How did he get up?" said I. "The sides are quite steep and slippery."

"He wriggled to the sides like a llysowen, {10} till he got to the top,
when he stood upright for a minute, and then slid down on the other
side."

"Was he any one from these parts?" said I.

"He was not. He was a dyn dieithr, a Russian; one of those with whom we
are now at war."

"Was there as much water tumbling then as now?"

"More, for there had fallen more rain."

"I suppose the torrent is sometimes very dreadful?" said I.

"It is indeed, especially in winter; for it is then like a sea, and roars
like thunder or a mad bull."

After I had seen all I wished of the cataract, the woman asked me to come
to the house and take some refreshment. I followed her to a neat little
room where she made me sit down and handed me a bowl of butter-milk. On
the table was a book in which she told me it was c