THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
No. 401.] 
OCTOBER 1, 1824. 
[Price 2s. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ApveNntuRES iz WALEs. 
N wandering through the village of 
Llandilo Vauhr, which the natives 
dignify by the name of a town, it was 
our good fortune to espy a small tent 
exposed to sale. We could not resist 
the temptation of purchasing it, and 
with the dexterity of jugglers, lightened 
the well-stocked purse of our travelling 
companion, Shenkin ap Morgan. Well, 
the tent was bought, and luckily paid 
for, What next was to be done? A 
council of war was held at our cottage; 
and over a bottle of Welch* ale, in the 
evening, we agreed, with one accord, to 
turn it to immediate advantage in our 
next excursion, No sooner said than 
done. There are some folks who de- 
liberate before they act: we act before 
we deliberate; and in most cases of 
exhortation or strife, it is with us, as 
with the irritable, the word and the 
blow, and the blow first. ” 
After much dispute, the 12th July 
was appointed for our excursion to 
Clynn y Van, or the pool among the 
Black Mountains. The previous time 
was spent in necessary preparations. 
Shenkin wrought wonders in the way 
of tackle-mending, and more than once 
extorted our praise by his mode of 
manufacturing a fly. After all, Welch- 
men can do something! The kitchen, 
meanwhile, kept pace with the general 
activity. The pot bellowed with the in- 
dignant hisses of incarcerated chickens, 
the oven seemed pleased with its con- 
tents, the shelves in the larder bent in 
. 
~ graceful acknowledgment of their load, 
and the womankind were up to their 
ancles in the blood of massacred 
poultry. 
The day at length arrived —“ the 
great, the important day, big with the 
fate of’—us and of the trout. We 
rose, as agreed on, by peep of dawn, 
and even now blush while we remember 
the difficulty. Morgan’s unfortunate 
propensity to sleep compelled us to call 
in the assistance of cold water; and the 
snore of Robert Rapid announced the 
intensity of his devotion to Morpheus. 
Our procession was at last arranged, 
ontuty Mac. No. 401. 
and the Welchman was the most hu- 
morous part of it. He was dressed in 
a pair of picturesque brogues, “ par 
nobile fratrum,’ that reached only to 
his knees, and after the fashion of his 
ancestors who, as he informed us, had 
worn wigs for thousands of years, ar- 
rayed himself in a caxon of episcopal 
dimensions. Robert was rigged out 
pretty much in the usual way, and your 
humble servant, with the exception of 
a fishing-jacket, looked somewhat like 
an author on short commons, a servant 
on board-wages, or an officer on half- 
pay. The tent was carried on the 
shoulders of an alternate couple of 
the party, and a Welch poney brought 
up the rear with a hamper of pro- 
visions. 
At aslight distance from the cottage 
we commenced our ascent of the first 
range of hills, and on gaining the sum- 
mit, round which the path winds to 
Clynn y Van, stopped for an instant to 
survey the rising sun. But while we 
were wrapt in extacy at the sight, Mor- 
gan was pulling hard at the brandy flask, 
insensible to the spirit of the universe, 
and alive only to the spirit of the 
brandy. _We reprimanded him for his 
want of taste, but he assured us that it 
was in order to improve his taste that 
he fortified his stomach with a cordial. 
After a toilsome march of three hours, 
“ over mountain, over moor, over flood, 
and over fell,” we contrived to have a 
peep at Clynn y Van, with the clouds 
resting on its bosom. The sight re- 
newed our strength, and we were at 
last rewarded for our exertions by 
gaining the loftiest peak. A most mag- 
nificent landscape presented itself be- 
low us. On every side rose a huge 
chaos of mountains, with vallies repos- 
ing between them. At the base of 
Clynn y Van the spire of the village 
church peeped forth from its coverlid 
of wood, surrounded with the white 
cottages of the turf-cutters. Rushing 
in cataracts from the mountains, nu- 
merous brooks took their way into a 
lake about a mile distant from the vil- 
lage, and flashed forth a thousand co- 
lours in the sun-beam. Higher up on 
2C y the 
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