l6 EXCURSION PROM HARLECrf 



the middle ftone. This kind of circle was called 

 Cylch Cyngrair, or the circle of congrefs. At thefe 

 meetings, candidates were admitted to the different 

 degrees of bardifm, and on thefe occafions it was 

 that all the oral bardic poems and traditions were 

 recited, and their laws fettled. During thefe cere- 

 monies all the bards Hood within the circle, with 

 their heads and feet bare, and clad in their uni- 

 Colom*ed robes. 



CwM Bychan 



Is a graify dell, about half a mile in length, fur- 

 rounded by fcenery as black and dreary as imagina- 

 tion can draw. On the right of its entrance there 

 is a fmall pool called Llyn y Cwm Bychan, from 

 whofe edge, Carreg y Saeth, The Rock of the Ar- 

 row, (from its being the ftation where the ancient 

 Britifh fportfmen watched and Idlled the paiTmg 

 deer,) towers the blacked of all the vale. — I refted 

 myfelf for a w^hile on a rock above the pool, in a 

 fituation whence I could at eafe obferve the rugged 

 beauties of this romantic hollow. From hence the 

 landfcape extended in all its magnificence : the vale 

 was feen embofomed in ftupendous rocks, black and 

 barren, and enlivened only by the patches of meagre 

 vegetation lodged on their ilielving precipices. 



We defcended into the hollow, and pafTmg there 

 an ancient manfion, afcended on the other fide till 

 we came to a deep mountain hollow called 



BWLCH 



