228 Wild Life in Wales 



experienced in following the active Welshmen in such fast- 

 nesses, or how difficult of attack such places must have 

 been, even though defended by only a handful of half- 

 armed but determined men. A mile or so south-west of 

 Cwmfiynon, ensconced in a fine amphitheatre of nearly 

 precipitous hills, nestles a well-defined circular camp, of 

 considerable dimensions, now known locally as " The Ram's 

 Castle," because it is believed that sheep may have been 

 penned there. From the bed of the stream, near by, I 

 picked up, on subsequent visits, a very good flint arrow-head, 

 and part of another flint implement. Galena, or lead, 

 appears in the rock, accompanied by spots of yellow 

 sulphureous ore, and there are two old drifts into the 

 cliff above the camp. There is a tradition that the 

 Romans worked a gold mine here, and the remains of an 

 old roadway on the hillside is called "The Roman Road." 

 Near the camp are the ruins of some dwellings, of uncertain 

 age, built, like all the walls hereabouts, of blocks of white 

 quartz. 



On a ledge of rock, above the drifts, a Buzzard had her 

 eyrie, and unluckily for her, beside her two newly hatched 

 young ones lay the shoulder of a small lamb. It looked as 

 though it might probably have belonged to a still-born 

 lamb, and in any case would almost certainly be part of an 

 animal which the bird had found dead upon the hill ; but 

 true to Shakespeare's dictum 



" Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest, 

 But may imagine how the bird was dead, 

 Although the kite soar with unblooded beak " 



nothing that I could say to the contrary would persuade 

 the farmer, who accompanied me, that the Buzzard had not 

 been guilty of preying upon his flocks ; and when I passed 

 that way again, a few days later, the two poor young ones 

 lay dead on the top of the cliiF, and a trap, baited with the 

 fatal piece of lamb, was set near by, for the old birds. The 

 trap I took the liberty of pitching into the valley below ; and 

 should the setter thereof chance to read this confession, 

 he will, I trust, forgive my interference, if indeed he still 



