362 HOURS AMONG ROCKS AND CLOUDS. 



various disjected masses seemed poised as if ready to fall on the slope of the 

 mountain. An eminence called the Gyess, evidently Trappean, rises about two 

 miles beyond and mounts to the height of about 800 feet perpendicular with a 

 sublime effect. As I returned in the twilight, I thought this scene, where the 

 sprightly Severn foams among the rocky fragments, and dashes on as if thus 

 early to attest her " swift" career, approaching even to grandeur. It is certainly 

 the best between Llanidloes and Plinlimmon. 



The road now winds at the foot of a hill which appears a natural Oak-forest, 

 and, contrasted with the purple Heath peering out at every ^interval, and the bare 

 or golden Gorsy hills beyond, although very dwarf, presents a verdant and 

 extremely refreshing appearance to the eye, intermixed as it is with glowing 

 wild flowers of several species, and the bright ruby berries of the Alpine 

 Bramble. 



We now enter upon a series of barren uplands, interspersed with spots of bog 

 and marsh, here and there crossing a rocky cwm whose Rushy prill splashes down 

 among the Ferns and underwood, and occasionally passing patches of road little 

 better than quagmires. The pleasing view, however, repays the trouble of the 

 ride, for Plinlimmon, sullen, black, and surly, with his long array of frowning, 

 bleak, barren and cloud- wreathed promontories, now appears full in front, while 

 the Severn, reduced to a mountain torrent, is seen chafing the stones in the deep 

 hollow below ; and here and there she timidly pauses in a deep silent pool with 

 ferruginous-tinged rocks about her, as if considering her future destnvy, or anxious 

 to retrace her steps to the Heathy turbaries waving with downy Cotton-grass. 



Having ridden more than nine miles, we approached close to the margin of the 

 river, here extremely shallow among masses of stones, and a low dismal shealing, 

 called Blaen Hafren, presented itself to view. At this farm it was necessary to 

 leave our Horses, for here Plinlimmon actually commenced, and no vestige of 

 shelter in any other form or shape is to be met with on this side of his kingdom 

 of bog and mist. We therefore braced up our nerves for the ascent. Just above 

 Blaen Hafren the infant Severn passes a barrier of Schistose rock penetrated with 

 Trappean veins, about thirty feet high, in a picturesque manner which deserves 

 to be delineated, as it might make a very pretty sketch. The stream, concen- 

 trated almost to a spout by continued attrition, has w r orn a deep gully in the 

 rock, down which it falls for some feet, and then plunges into a singular black 

 and deep circular hollow, caused by the incessant whirling and agitation of the 

 water. From this hollow, which seems like the track left by some monstrous 

 Leviathan in the stone, the waters gently emerge, and in a silver stream roll 

 dulcetly over the lower ledge of the rock, forming a small cascade, which breaks 

 upon and curls round gigantic masses of Trappean rock hurled from the steeps 

 above at some ancient period, and now lying mementoes of the furious water- 



