^ WANDERINGS AND PONDERINGS 



Art. VI. — A recently discovered Chapter of the Wanderijigs and 

 Ponderings of an Insect-Hunter. 



Man, in the plenitude of his wisdom, has hit on a contrivance 

 by which one horse may be made to draw two gigs, and the 

 happy combination is yclept a four-wheeled chaise. It was a 

 bright sunny morning in August,when a carriage of this descrip- 

 tion issued from that hostelry in the little town of Rhaiadr-y- 

 Gowy, which is usually known as the Lion, and is decorated 

 with a painting, purporting to be a portraiture of some san- 

 guinary individual of that species. The animal which gave 

 progressive motion to the vehicle in question was a sleek, well- 

 fed, brown mare : she received, with a playful laying back of 

 the ears, a graceful arching of the neck, and a quiet smile of 

 acknowledgment, two or three smart sounding stripes, which 

 were intended to give eifect to the start, at the same time putting 

 herself into a somewhat imposing trotting attitude, and stepping 

 out in good earnest ; while the agitated double body emitted a 

 series of croaking sounds in rapid succession, for all the world 

 like a steam-engine with the croup. These sounds proceeded 

 from a swivel, on which the fore part of the vehicle turned, and 

 they kept time with admirable precision to the regular step of 

 the sleek brown mare. The anterior gig was furnished with a 

 leathern apron ; this appendage was neatly furled, and secured 

 to the dashing-board by two ornamental perpendicular leathern 

 straps. From between the apron so furled, and the dashing- 

 board, rose a forest of the fronds of various species of ferns, 

 the roots of which were concealed by the furled apron aforesaid. 



The vehicle contained three passengers, two in the anterior, 

 one in the posterior gig, three carpet-bags, three Mackintoshes, 

 a dog-stick, a trowel, and an insect-net. There was visible 

 on the physiognomies of the three passengers, the traces of that 

 dauntless and invincible energy which loudly proclaimed that 

 the enterprise in which three such individuals were associated 

 was one of no ordinary interest. 



As the inhabitants of Rhaiadr-y-Gowy gazed in speechless 

 admiration, the vehicle turned briskly up the road towards 

 Llangurig, until surmounting the easy ascent from the town, the 

 driver sharply reined in the sleek brown mare, and an individual 

 might then be seen descending from the anterior, and another 



