e being the spot where he
first saw the light. He was an excellent poet, and displayed in his
compositions such elegance of language, and such a knowledge of prosody,
that it was customary, long after his death, when any masterpiece of
vocal song or eloquence was produced, to say that it bore the traces of
Lawdden's hatchet. At the request of Griffith ap Nicholas, a powerful
chieftain of South Wales, and a great patron of the Muse, he drew up a
statute relating to poets and poetry, and at the great Eisteddfodd, or
poetical congress, held at Carmarthen in the year 1450, under the
auspices of Griffith, which was attended by the most celebrated bards of
the north and south, he officiated as judge, in conjunction with the
chieftain, upon the compositions of the bards who competed for the
prize--a little silver chair. Not without reason, therefore, do the
inhabitants of Machynlleth consider the residence of such a man within
their walls, though at a far by-gone period, as conferring a lustre on
their town, and Lewis Meredith has probability on his side when, in his
pretty poem on Glen Dyfi, he says:--

"Whilst fair Machynlleth decks thy quiet plain,
Conjoined with it shall Lawdden's name remain."

CHAPTER LXXX

The Old Ostler--Directions--Church of England Man--The Deep Dingle--The
Two Women--The Cutty Pipe--Waen y Bwlch--The Deaf and Dumb--The Glazed
Hat.

I rose on the morning of the 2nd of November intending to proceed to the
Devil's Bridge, where I proposed halting a day or two, in order that I
might have an opportunity of surveying the far-famed scenery of that
locality. After paying my bill I went into the yard to my friend the old
ostler, to make inquiries with respect to the road.

"What kind of road," said I, "is it to the Devil's Bridge?"

"There are two roads, sir, to the Pont y Gwr Drwg; which do you mean to
take?"

"Why do you call the Devil's Bridge the Pont y Gwr Drwg, or the bridge of
the evil man?"

"That we may not bring a certain gentleman upon us, sir, who doesn't like
to have his name taken in vain."

"Is their much difference between the roads?"

"A great deal, sir; one is over the hills, and the other round by the
valleys."

"Which is the shortest?"

"Oh, that over the hills, sir; it is about twenty miles from here to the
Pont y Gwr Drwg over the hills, but more than twice that by the valleys."

"Well, I suppose you would advise me to go by the hills?"

"Certainly