Aber-Mcrlyn. 291 



end of their lives. It takes its name from the adjoining hill sacred 

 to Merlyn the prophet, who, it is reported, dwelt upon its summit, 

 and the chair is still lo be seen where he sat and thundered forth to 

 the amazed multitudes his awful denunciations. These are yet ex- 

 tant in manuscript, and are in the possession of the corporation of 

 Caermarthen, but are about to be added, as I was informed, to the 

 treasures of the British Museum. 



Mrs. Molasses was a delightful woman, and a more kind-hearted 

 creature I do not know to be in existence. She pressed us very much 

 to spend a few weeks, which we firmly declined ; but by degrees we 

 found our courage desert us, for we were besieged by the solicitations 

 of his two daughters. I will not enter into a long rhapsody about 

 them, gentle reader ; suffice it, they were pretty, accomplished, 

 elegant, and full of spirits ; in short, charming girls against such 

 powerful assailants we could hold out no longer, and were obliged 

 to cry quarter. 



Under their fair guidance we made excursions into the neigh- 

 bouring' country we visited Carreg Cenner, we explored the 

 caves of Dreslwyn and witnessed the ravages of time upon the 

 castle we lingered over the mouldering fabric of Dynevor, hallowed 

 by the pen of the Scottish minstrel, and shed a tear over his memory. 

 The tower too erected by General Picton in honour of the immortal 

 Nelson was not omitted* by us indeed almost every day, except 

 when the weather proved unfavourable, we drove or walked out to 

 some lovely scenery. 



The captain was a great antiquary, and possessed many rare 

 and valuable specimens of virtu. His rooms were all hung with 

 helmets and shields, and two fine suits of armour of Henry the Eighth 

 graced his library. Rapiers, swords with single and double handles, 

 battle-axes, bilboes, shafts, were without number, and a fine cabinet 

 of the Elizabethan age contained coins and medals in exquisite 

 perfection from the earliest period of British history to the present 

 time. 



Among the helmets, however, I observed one that was brighter 

 than its fellows, but, as I thought, of the age of the Commonwealth. 

 Not being able to satisfy my mind as to the cause, I inquired of the 

 captain. He told me, with tears in his eyes, that when he left home 

 the preceding summer, the housekeeper had taken it down and made 

 it look what she called beautiful. " This was the helmet worn/' said 

 he, " by my ancestor at the battle of Marston Moor. It has been in 

 my family ever since the Restoration, and is more than worth its 

 weight in gold. Here are the marks made by Cromwell himself, and 

 there were drops of blood but, alas ! they are not. Oh, woman ! 

 woman ! " A flood of tears happily came to his relief. 



Of manuscripts too he had a fine collection. The principal por- 

 tion of them were oriental, but some few were English. All this was 

 in harmony with my own taste, for I must plead guilty to a fondness 

 for things of bygone days and relics of antiquity. We afterwards 

 sat together and consumed the midnight oil in deciphering the almost 

 illegible characters, and listened with delight to legends of romance 

 and tales of olden time. 



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