i6o BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 



ing to the traction-engine, we endeavoured to 

 explain ourselves ; but the chilly calm with which 

 the Tommies regarded it, as it lumbered past the 

 gate, was so painfully at variance with our repre- 

 sentations, that it seemed better to retire, waving 

 hysterical apologies. The old lady stirred neither 

 hand nor foot throughout the occurrence, and for 

 all we know may have been a rustic detail added, 

 in wax, by a proprietor of a realistic turn. 



After this the road was quiet in the balmy 

 quietness of summer, that is so living a thing 

 compared with the soulless grip of the air in 

 winter silences. By the dignified gradients of 

 the coach-road we mounted slowly through woods 

 and glens, and then, with no less dignity and 

 almost equal slowness, downwards into open 

 country, clear and kindly, with pasture, and level 

 roads, and a wide eastward horizon melting in- 

 to blue. Behind us the Snowdon range stood 

 mightily on the high pedestal of Carnarvonshire : 

 it had never showed itself so great as now, viewed 

 from these Denbi^-h meadow-lands, while we rode 



