i8 4 5 BUYS A PONY 75 



were a centaur, and then I could go right across the 

 country, taking all the hedges and ditches just as they 

 come.' On 6th October he tells the same corre- 

 spondent, ' I have been obligated to buy a pony, for 

 this is too wild a country and the distances too great 

 for my legs to stand it. The day before I reached 

 Aberaeron I was fairly knocked up long before I 

 reached home. Ten miles to one's work is rather too 

 much of a good joke, for it makes twenty without 

 including the work at all. I have got a great bargain, 

 having only paid ^7 : ics. for her. She is at present 

 w r ell worth 12 or ^13, and in six months I shall 

 make her worth more than double what I paid. She 

 is a chestnut, with silver mane and tail, and five years 

 old last May.' Four days later he writes to his 

 brother : ' I get a deuce of a drenching every day just 

 now, even to the very sark. However, it does me no 

 harm. My new pony turns out well a little skittish 

 sometimes, but that makes one feel alive in the saddle.' 

 The short November days would sometimes close 

 in upon him while still far from his quarters, as on 

 one occasion, of which he notes, ' Walked up the road 

 to Llanidloes, and so over the shoulder of Plyn- 

 limmon. Benighted on the hills, sans road, and so 

 dark I could not see two yards. By dint of shouting, 

 a man came and found me.' At last, on the I4th 

 November, he is able to chronicle at Pont-rhyd- 

 fendigaid : 'Had a most successful day's work, and 

 finished South Wales, perfectly understanding the 

 same.' Before the end of the year he joined Selwyn 

 at Machynlleth, and the two comrades made some 

 traverses into the rugged country of Cader Idris, 

 from which in later years they were to work out the 

 complicated volcanic geology of North Wales. 



