Long Names 1 1 



it is a nondescript sort of sheep, neither quite " hogg " 

 nor " ewe," and there is, in consequence, nothing of the 

 sorting of the fleeces into those grades, as is customary 

 elsewhere. 



Another survival of a barbarous custom still to be met 

 with here and there is that of hoppling the rams and allow- 

 ing them to run with the flock upon the hill in that state 

 until the season, and their owner's judgment, shall free 

 them from an almost intolerable bondage. A sheep, if it 

 cannot be kept in an inclosure, is sometimes, also, tethered 

 like a goat, with a long rope. 



When speaking of the marketing of sheep, there was one 

 incident worth recalling which has, I see, been omitted. 

 That was a poster announcing a sheep sale at a not very far 

 distant village, that boasted in the name of Llanrhaiddryn- 

 mochant. The name so tickled me that I carried off the 

 bill, but alas ! when I got back to Llanuwchllyn I could not 

 find anybody who was able to pronounce it ! Of course, 

 this is very far behind the record in names, which is, I 

 fancy, carried off unchallenged by the little station on the 

 Menai Straits Llanfairpwllgyngyligogerychwyrndrobwll- 

 Llandisiliogogogoch the whole length of whose platform 

 is taken up with an abridgment of the name, which so 

 little satisfied the inhabitants that they petitioned the 

 London and North- Western Railway Company to extend 

 the platform so that it might carry the name in its full 

 and proper dignity ! Translated literally, the name tells 

 of a Lady of the fair hazel pool, and Saint Tisilio of the 

 red cave, but the story breaks off" before any incident 

 worth recording is reached, and one rather sympathises 

 with the Directors who refused a further blandishment of 

 empty titles. 



Having reflected so much upon the management of his 

 flocks, it behoves me, ere quitting the subject of agriculture, 

 to glance briefly at another side of the picture in the life of 

 my friend, the Welsh farmer. Friend I must be permitted 

 to call him, since at his hands I experienced nothing but the 

 most unvarying courtesy. He is still as patriotic as of yore, 

 and, in his love of his native mountains, their wet flats, and 



