OF AN INSECT HUNTER. 71 



wondrous forms by the constant and violent action of the 

 water. 



In the midst of this scenery is the Parson's Bridge, so called 

 from a drunken parson having fallen in and been drowned 

 there : the country people still show an indentation on the rock, 

 which they assert he made in falling ; the indentation, however, 

 exhibits no symptom of such an origin, and perhaps the whole 

 story is as fabulous as this portion of it. The bridge is 

 composed of two very shaky timbers, and is accompanied 

 by an equally shaky hand-rail. To a timorous person it 

 would be dangerous in the extreme, as the rail would be 

 no support in case of giddiness. The river below appears 

 excessively deep, and its rocky sides are perfectly smooth and 

 perpendicular. 



A hundred yards or so below the Parson's Bridge, a beautiful 

 mountain stream comes tumbling down the bank of the chasm 

 from the very top, a distance of not less than two hundred feet. 

 The scenery continues the same to the fall of Rheidiol. We 

 passed in single file over the Parson's Bridge, and ascended 

 the wooded bank of the chasm by a winding, but very steep 

 path. Crossing a field, we entered a little churchyard, in which 

 a huge Druidical-looking stone stands bolt upright : I believe 

 the tourists have made out something marvellous about this, 

 but I know not what. This church and churchyard are in 

 the main road leading to the Devil's Bridge. 



efje 5fall^ of Hapnaclj. 



The Cynophobist, the occupant of the posterior gig, an 

 accidental fellow-traveller, the companion of a day, and fourthly 

 and lastly, the Insect-Hunter, have turned into the coppice to 

 the right of the road, have followed the well-beaten and stony 

 track, and have reached that point which overlooks the falls of 

 Mynach. These falls have been hackneyed by tourists ; the 

 subject is threadbare : every bombastic word in the English 

 language has been used in describing them. Every wealthy 

 and overfed invalid, ordered by his physician to Aberystwith 

 to take in a fresh cargo of health, has raised his languid eyes 

 to behold them. The road leading to them is so exquisitely 

 macadamized that his Grace of Newcastle need not awake as 

 he rolls by them on his way to the princely Hafod. The 



