BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. y] 



steeps, and stone walls replaced the hedges. The 

 road rose to higher levels, winding parapeted 

 above the ravines, and we began to meet people 

 again — people of a politeness incredible, almost 

 unnerving, to those whose belief in their own ap- 

 pearance has been sapped by various adversities, 

 especially the insecurity of hairpins. Voices were 

 on the hillsides, and once from the bottom of a 

 ravine came up most freshly the lilt of a woman's 

 song. The words were Welsh, the tune unknown, 

 but all clean and homely romance was borne on 

 the notes of that careless, yet half- melancholy, 

 peasant voice. 



Following on this the rattle of a mowing- 

 machine grated upon the farthest edge of silence, 

 and going on towards it we came on an inn, 

 the only one boasted of by the village of Mall- 

 wydd. 



Thrice we rode to and fro before that humble 

 hostelry, and, but for a weird, pig-styish smell 

 which pervaded the village, had committed our- 

 selves to it. We escaped from the expectant 



