ON THE ITHON 27 



up the stream towards and beyond "Shaky 

 Bridge," where the scenery is very lovely and 

 compensates in some degree for a lack of fish. 

 My present excursion took me downwards as far 

 as Newbridge Church, where I had not been 

 before. 



It was not the attraction of fishing that drew 

 me for a few days to Llandrindod Wells on this 

 occasion; nor was it to drink its invigorating 

 waters that I went there; but being there I took 

 up my quarters at the Rock House Hotel. I 

 went to that well-known hostelry because I had 

 observed that amongst other good things it pos- 

 sessed seven miles of excellent fishing. I, how- 

 ever, seemed to be almost the only guest among 

 the crowd of over a hundred who possessed a 

 fishing rod, or who knew a trout from a chub, or 

 a salmon from a pike. 



The hotel I found to be good and most 

 pleasantly situated, surrounded by its own ro- 

 mantic grounds, which include a bosky dell or 

 ravine, full of every variety of trees and shrubs 

 of every tint of foliage, alive with the songs or 

 twitterings of many birds, and many a winding 

 path, cosy nook and corner, and rustic seat, on 

 which old folks may rest and ponder on this and 

 that "as they take tobacco," and young folks 

 chatter and laugh, and make love and talk non- 

 sense. These grounds overlook a fine sweep of 

 the Ithon and the hotel meadows which form 



