o be the noblest business in the 'versal world.'
Whereupon his Grace laughed, and said he dare say I was right, and never
mentioned the subject again."

"Was his Grace very fond of farming and improving?"

"Oh yes, your honour. Like all the great gentry, especially the north
country gentry, his Grace was wonderfully fond of farming and improving;
and a wonderful deal of good he did, reclaiming thousands of acres of
land which was before good for nothing, and building capital farm-houses
and offices for his tenants. His grand feat, however, was bringing the
Durham bull into this country, which formed a capital cross with the
Welsh cows. Pity that he wasn't equally fortunate with the north country
sheep."

"Did he try to introduce them into Wales?"

"Yes, but they didn't answer, as I knew they wouldn't. Says I to the
Duke: 'It won't do, your Grace, to bring the north country sheep here:
because why? the hills are too wet and cold for their constitutions'; but
his Grace, who had sometimes a will of his own, persisted and brought the
north country sheep to these parts, and it turned out as I said--the
sheep caught the disease, and the wool parted and--"

"But," said I, "you should have told him about the salve made of bran,
butter and oil; you should have done that."

"Well, so I did, your honour. I told him about the salve, and the Duke
listened to me, and the salve was made by these very hands; but when it
was made, what do you think? the foolish Welsh wouldn't put it on, saying
that it was against their laws and statties and religion to use it, and
talked about Devil's salves and the Witch of Endor, and the sin against
the Holy Ghost, and such like nonsense. So to prevent a regular
rebellion, the Duke gave up the salve, and the poor sheep pined away and
died, till at last there was not one left."

"Who holds the estate at present?" said I.

"Why, a great gentleman from Lancashire, your honour, who bought it when
the Duke died; but he doesn't take the same pleasure in it which the Duke
did, nor spend so much money about it, the consequence being that
everything looks very different from what it looked in the Duke's time.
The inn at the Devil's Bridge and the grounds look very different from
what they looked in the Duke's time, for you must know that the inn and
the grounds form part of the Hafod estate, and are hired from the
proprietor."

By this time we had arrived at a small village, with a toll-bar and