CARMARTIIEXSIIIRE SIIOOTIXG. 95 



submission. The Welsh are a brave and hospitable people, 

 choleric, but their resentment soon subsides ; they have 

 the character of being litigious, and fond of law, and 

 most people who indulge in this passion find it a very 

 losing game. The old Welsh families are very proud 

 of their genealogies. From what I observed in the 

 character of the lower classes, they appear to have 

 rather a dislike to strangers, looking on them with a 

 suspicious eye. 



On the road we frequently met pretty young Welsh 

 girls on their ponies, daughters of small farmers, going 

 to market ; their head dress was at that time a small 

 black hat, which we thought very becoming. This 

 national part of their dress is, I have heard, now ex- 

 changed for a bonnet — tant pis! as the former was 

 characteristic of the country, and gave the wearer a 

 coquettish look. On our arrival at Caermarthen (the 

 native place of the late gallant G-eneral Sir Thomas 

 Picton, Bart.), my friend left me, steering his course to 

 Flintshire on a visit to Sir Thomas Hanmer, whose two 

 sons had been at Rugby with us : I proceeded to my 

 friend's house in Cardiganshire, who gave me a hearty 

 welcome, and with whom I remained a month which ap- 

 peared to me a week from the kindness I experienced 

 and the delightful rides I took with the young ladies 

 of the family in that beautiful country. The river 

 Tivey produces excellent salmon and a species of white 



Mortimer, Ed-«-ard's general. The former was slain, and 2000 of his 

 followers put to the sword. The character of King Edward the First 

 is thus described by Hume : " that he was the model of a politic and 

 warlike king. He possessed industry, penetration, courage, vigilance 

 and enterprise. He was frugal in all his expenses that were not ne- 

 cessary; he knew how to open the public treasures on a proper occasion." 



