Primitive Content 13 



most of his English neighbours, pledge the good old 

 toast : 



" Let the wealthy and great 

 Roll in splendour and state, 



I envy them not, I declare it. 

 I eat my own lamb, 

 My chickens and ham, 



I shear my own fleece, and I wear it. 

 I have lawns, I have bowers, 

 I have fruits, I have flowers, 



The lark is my morning alarmer ; 

 So my jolly boys now, 

 Here's God speed the plough, 



Long life and success to the farmer." 



Sufficient potatoes are always grown for home consump- 

 tion, and a small quantity may sometimes be available for 

 sale. Lime is almost essential for the production of these 

 on this cold land. To meet with turnips, except in the 

 wider valleys, is exceptional. Almost every farmer keeps a 

 certain number of cows, the number varying according to 

 the size of his holding, or the depth of his pocket. These 

 are nearly invariably of the native black, or black-and-white 

 breed, and are kept both for the production of butter, and 

 the rearing of young cattle for market. About one in 

 every three or four farms has a bull running with the cows 

 in the fields or on the hills, and about a similar proportion 

 of these " gentleman cows " will bellow and paw the ground 

 in a manner very disconcerting to a nervous person. Not 

 many of them may be really dangerous, but most of them will 

 follow a retreating intruder on their domains, and probably few 

 strangers will care to tarry to make their closer acquaintance. 

 Fences on the hills are often far between, and sometimes 

 not very serviceable when reached, and to be besieged on 

 the top of a large boulder, with an angry bull pawing and 

 bellowing around, and your only weapon of defence a cane- 

 built fly-rod, is not everyone's ideal way of spending a 

 pleasant afternoon. There were two or three rather nasty 

 cases of goring during my stay at Llanuwchllyn, and I am 

 not ashamed to admit that, on more occasions than one, I 



