eally don't know why, for there is nothing so very particular in
either. We have a bridge here too, quite as good as the Devil's Bridge;
and as for scenery, I'll back the scenery about this house against
anything of the kind in the neighbourhood of the Devil's Bridge. Yet
everybody goes to the Devil's Bridge and nobody comes here!"

"You might easily bring everybody here," said I, "if you would but employ
your talent. You should celebrate the wonders of your neighbourhood in
cowydds, and you would soon have plenty of visitors; but you don't want
them, you know, and prefer to be without them."

The landlord looked at me for a moment, then taking sip of his whiskey
and water he turned to the man with whom he had previously been talking
and recommenced the discourse about sheep. I make no doubt, however,
that I was a restraint upon them; they frequently glanced at me, and soon
fell to whispering. At last both got up and left the room, the landlord
finishing his glass of whiskey and water before he went away.

"So you are going to the Devil's Bridge, sir!" said an elderly man,
dressed in a grey coat, with a broad-brimmed hat, who sat on the settle
smoking a pipe in company with another elderly man with a leather hat,
with whom I had heard him discourse sometimes in Welsh, sometimes in
English, the Welsh which he spoke being rather broken.

"Yes," said I, "I am going to have a sight of the bridge and the
neighbouring scenery."

"Well, sir, I don't think you will be disappointed, for both are
wonderful."

"Are you a Welshman?" said I.

"No, sir, I am not; I am an Englishman from Durham, which is the best
county in England."

"So it is," said I--"for some things at any rate. For example, where do
you find such beef as in Durham?"

"Ah, where indeed, sir? I have always said that neither the Devonshire
nor the Lincolnshire beef is to be named in the same day with that of
Durham."

"Well," said I, "what business do you follow in these parts? I suppose
you farm?"

"No, sir, I do not; I am what they call a mining captain."

"I suppose that gentleman," said I, motioning to the man in the leather
hat, "is not from Durham?"

"No, sir, he is not; he is from this neighbourhood."

"And does he follow mining?"

"No, sir, he does not; he carries about the letters."

"Is your mine near this place?"

"Not very, sir; it is nearer the Devil's Bridge."

"Why is the bridge called the Devil's Bridge?" said

"Becau