Wild Wales: Its People, Language and Scenery

engwern-The Yew-Tree-Carn-Ll

r that flows past the beautiful town of Clonmel in Ireland. As for the leg of mutton it was truly wonderful; nothing so good had I ever tasted in the shape of a leg of mutton. The leg of mutton of Wales beats the leg of mutton of any other country, and I had n

oury smell

l might tem

dead to lif

eat leg of mutton only. Welsh leg of mutton is superlative; but with the exception of t

then, that with our salmon we drank water, and with our mutton ale, even ale of Llangollen; but not the best ale of Llangollen; it was

ke himself, he should wish to join me. I told him I should be glad of his company, and that I was not ashamed to be seen walking with any person, however poor, who conducted himself with propriety. He replied that I must be very different from my countrymen in general, who were ashamed to be seen walking with any people, who were not, at least, as well-dressed as themselves. I said that my country-folk in general h

sant road it proved: on our right at some distance was the mighty Berwyn; close

replied, "consisting of wood, rock

I knew the mean

ed, "you will find the

it, but I did not know the meaning of it, till

igion he was, he told me he

d round to look at it. Its back was to the road: at its eastern

rn, and a place of stowage. Till lately it belonged to the Mostyn family, but they disposed of it, with the farm on which it stood, together with se

the old building,"

. Formerly it was a place devoted to gorgeous idolatry and obscene lust; now it is a quiet old barn in

his neighbourhood. About three miles from here, in the north-west part of the valley, i

a deal about it. Iolo Goch, the bard of your celebrated h

he had pointed out, and along a path through hazel coppices. After

lieve there are some in Flintshire, at a place called Holywell, where t

n is nothing but a modification. The Indians and sepoys worship stocks and stones, and

ade him laugh heartily by showing him the original identity of nuns and nautch-girls, begging priests and b

inally a cottage, but the proprietors have furbi

y would let it

ied, "they ask eighty

d them to set such a re

e of the grand gentry will take the house for the romance of the yew-tree, but s

a road leading

ction of the west, "leads back to Llangol

inquired if I had ever h

an old Saxon king called Offa, ag

nd to the east of the dyke, and for the Welsh to hang every Englishman whom they found to the west of it. Let us be thankful th

he mountain looked over some extensive forest, even as the nunnery of Pengwern look

al meaning of a word, about which I have thought a good deal, an

y it be?

d: "now, sir, do you know

k I do,

ay it b

at you conceive its m

Now, if I steal a matrass I am a lleidyr, that is a thief of the common sort; but if I carry it to a person,

ng it to be stolen, a carn-lleidyr, seeing that he is worse than the thief who stole it, or in calling a knavish attorney a carn-lleidyr, seeing that he does far more harm than a common pick-pocket; or in calling the Pope so, seeing that he gets huge sums of money out of people by pretending to be able to admit their souls to heaven, or to hurl them to the other place, knowing all the time that he has no such power; perhaps, indeed, at the present day the term carn-lleidyr is more applicable to the Pope than to any one else, for he is certainly the arch thief of the world. So much for Carn-lleidyr. But I must here tell you that the term carn may be applied to any who is particularly bad or disagreeable in any respect, and now I remember, has been applied for centuries both i

Rome I shall in future term carn-lleidyr y byd, or the arch thief of the world. And whenever I see a stupid, brutal Englishman swaggering about Llangollen, and looking down upon us poor Welsh, I sha

name, and aske

ones," he