CHAPTER XXIX 



Walk down Dovey valley to Aberystwith Borth Predatory collies Owls- 

 Witches Yews Vaughans of Mallwyd Nuthatches Wood Lark 

 Red-barked Shrikes Jays. 



July ind. Starting after supper, on a warm still evening, 

 I walked up the vale of Cwm Cynllwyd, over Bwlch-y-groes, 

 and through Llan-y-Mawddwy, thence following the course 

 of the Afon Dyfi past Dinas Mawddwy, Cemmes, and 

 Machynlleth, to Glan Dovey, where 1 breakfasted, or 

 lunched, at a comfortable little wayside house, before resuming 

 my walk by Borth, and Llanfehangel, to Aberystwith. On 

 the following day I retraced my steps by a slightly different 

 route, picking up several places of interest that had been 

 missed on the outward journey. Part of the road was over 

 classic ground, reminiscent of schoolboy days when, in 1876, 

 we had passed a pleasant year of exile at Borth, to avoid the 

 typhoid fever that had broken out at dear old Uppingham : 

 a year of prosperity, and awakening, for Borth, which it was 

 pleasant to see she had not yet forgotten. Yet how changed 

 her aspect ! Thronged golf links, and gay dresses, where 

 formerly the Wheatears used to play hide-and-seek with us 

 amongst the bents, and to look positively grateful for the 

 intrusion on their solitude, and the Lizards tarried to gaze 

 at the unfamiliar human face before wriggling into their 

 sandy burrows sometimes longer than was altogether 

 consistent with their safety. Do those creatures still dwell 

 here, we wonder, and if so, must they not, amidst this 

 merry Saxon concourse, sometimes sigh for the days of their 

 pristine quietude that are no more ? Or is it the privilege 

 of poor mortal only, with his memory for departed scenes 

 and faces, to regret ? 



But it is of thefer<e nature observed in this present year 



234 



