OCTOBEB. 453 



to the very gates of Caernarvon. Yet I bore safely 

 through the storm a splendid panicle of Eulus macro- 

 phyllus the finest I ever saw, which I gathered by 

 the road side near the Lower Lake of Llanberis. Once 

 only, I think, have the clouds favoured my look-outs 

 by overwhelming me in their embraces. I had ram- 

 bled from Barmouth to the romantic falls of Dolmy- 

 lynllyn, near Granllwd, and amidst towering rocks and 

 gleaming pattering waters, resting on beds of heath 

 in lonely wilds, beautified by waving birches and 

 waxen-berried mountain ashes, beneath which where 

 Harebells and purple Wood-vetches (Orobus sylvati- 

 cus,}* adorned the vocal shade, had passed a contem- 

 plative blissful day, when I prepared to return. 

 Scarcely, however, was I two miles on my route back, 

 when dark clouds hurried from the west, and poured 

 upon me in an open space where no shelter was near. 

 I hastened on to an old oak a short distance from the 

 road, and there partially covered, determined to wait 

 till the rain was over. But the storm increased in 

 fury, poured down from the leaves in a hundred chan- 

 nels over me, and at length washed me out. I was 

 compelled to hurry back to the Oakley Arms, which 

 I had contemptuously left behind me an hour before, 

 and there sought shelter. All night the tempest 

 raved, and the streams ran in terrified gushes fright- 

 ening me from my repose with their rushing cries. 

 But morning shone in tranquil beauty, and every 

 stream wild with glee was rattling along in foam and 



* This beautiful Vetch (Vicia Orobus of some authors), grows in grassy 

 spots near Pistill Cayne, and on rocks north of Barmouth. I have also 

 gathered it in Caermarthenshire. It grows in an upright manner with 

 hairy pinnate leaves, without tendrils, bearing many branches with uni- 

 lateral racemes of pale purple flowers. 



