MEMORIES OF SNOWDON 257 



sending against him three expeditions, the last num- 

 bering a hundred thousand men. Owain Glendower 

 certainly stood where we stand, or perhaps a foot 

 higher than we can stand to-day. His mother and 

 his family lived with him in the mountains, and his 

 daughter was married to his prisoner Mortimer on 

 Snowdon. These rocks echoed the wild minstrelsy 

 of lolo Goch, said to have been worth many hundred 

 spears to Owain and his cause. We cannot help 

 thinking, however, that lolo's best theme was the 

 hospitality at Sycarth and Glyndyvrdwy, of which 

 Owain somehow retained possession until Henry's 

 third expedition. 



We can think only of a few of the great events of 

 which Snowdon has been not only the centre, but the 

 only means. But for this jumble of hills, close- 

 packed with such names as Beddgelert, Aberglaslyn, 

 Bethesda, Carnedd Llewelyn, Wales would not have 

 been the thorn or spur in the side of England that 

 she has been. Nor would there have been quite so 

 much valour, in all our battles from Cre"cy onwards, 

 where Welsh blood has been mingled with English 

 and Scottish and Irish as the price of victory. 



To sing that glorious roll would be impossible. 

 After all, mountains are mainly the endowment of 

 their own people for their defence. They are endeared 

 to us as ramparts of defence against the invader, and 

 as sanctuaries in the more heroic wars, known as 

 rebellions, that succeed political conquest. Perhaps 

 they are in the most settled of times some sort of 

 ultimate guarantee for political justice, just as infantry 

 and artillery are the ultimate sanction for the pay- 

 ment of a civil debt. When the question is discussed 

 17 



