236 Wild Life in Wales 



haunts the churchyard there, in the form of a lady in white. 

 Owing to the excessive heat, I was glad to do as much of my 

 walking in the cool hours as possible, and it wanted still an 

 hour or so of dawn when I reached Mallwyd. Wishing to 

 see the fine old church here, I seated myself beneath an 

 ancient yew tree to wait for light, and my pipe having gone 

 out, I was just dozing, when startled by a most blood- 

 curdling cry, half hiss, half shriek, close above my head. 

 The ghost was, of course, at once suspected, and as I 

 remained still, the owl continued for some minutes to hiss 

 out her complaints at the untimely intrusion on her secret 

 bower, till finding her efforts to dislodge the intruder un- 

 availing, she flitted off, a silent, shadowy form, in the grey 

 light. The accumulation of castings beneath the tree 

 showed it to be a favourite roosting place. There are 

 several fine Yews in the churchyard ; this, the largest, now 

 split up into three or four divisions, measuring round the 

 base of the trunk about twenty-eight feet, and carrying a 

 wide spread of branches. 



The church bears the date "1641. H." on the oak beams 

 above the porch, and there are some very old, curiously 

 perforated, boards round the top of the tower above. Built 

 into the wall of the edifice is a slate slab, i foot 4 inches 

 high, by an inch less in width, on which is cut, in rough 



capitals, "HERE LYETH Y BODY OF ROBERT 

 VUCHAN OF GWM-GLAN MYNOCH WHO DIED 



FEB. Y 7. 1693. AND MARY HIS WIFE WHO 



V E 



DIED NO Y 30. 1732." The Vaughans are an ancient 

 family here, one of their curious mottoes being " Na 

 werth y nef er benthyg byd " (" Sell not heaven for the loan 

 of earth "). Another more ambiguously asks : " Wilt thou 

 stake a fleeting present against an obscure future, or hold 

 the memory of yesterday above the hope of to-morrow ? " 



The Nuthatch, a bird I never saw in the Llanuwchllyn 

 neighbourhood, was rather common here, and as entertaining 

 as it always is. Near Dinas, it was noticed carrying off the 

 cones of a Cupressus lawsoniana, so that it probably finds the 

 seeds attainable, and to its liking, though their bulk would 



