14 LLANDDWYN 



But the Willow-wren, fragile creature as it is, has in 

 it a strain of wildness, so that it pushes out into the 

 open country, and is at home among the coarse grass 

 and the gorse and the rock-crowned knolls, And 

 here still, an unexpected Robin would start up from 

 some sequestered corner, or a many-acred Wren 

 rattle out its song in praise of isolation. Blackbirds 

 and Song- thrushes, now joined by the Missel, dotted 

 the green slopes, and found their account here in the 

 open quite as well as in the Menai woods. 



But with the barer grass-land a new set of birds 

 appeared Greenfinches in the hedgerows, Linnets 

 on the gorse, Yellowhammers, and above all, Corn- 

 buntings in unusual numbers stuttered and wheezed 

 on all hands in those late June days. Though 

 present, Skylarks were not numerous in what one 

 might have thought to be very suitable ground for 

 them, and only rarely one got up as we rode on, passing 

 now by some rude cromlech, then a breached old 

 round-tower by the way, down through Llangaffo, and 

 so on into Newborough. 



Newborough, as the word indicates, is a borough, 

 a dignity conferred on it by Edward I., when it had 

 lost its own. For Newborough was once Rhos-Fair, 

 itself a seat of princes, princes of Wales when they 

 were Welsh, and able to confer dignities on others, 

 probably as ready to sink an old name in a new title. 

 Rhos-Fair, which may be read Mary of the Moor, is 

 said to have received its name from "the small 

 church, dedicated to St. Mary, that stood at the 

 head of the manor;" or, "according to Mr. Rowlands" 

 (a learned antiquarian who, Mr. Pennant says, left 

 his native place but once in his life), the name is 



