Sir Watkin Wynn's. 75 



unless tie has happened to have been born on the moun- 

 tain-side^ and knows every sheepwalk and hillpath. It 

 is said that one of Charles Payne's (the veteran hunts- 

 man) earliest experiences, in this direction when ho 

 first came to Denbighshire, was to find himself beyond 

 the pale of English-speaking humanity. For a time his 

 hounds were lost, so was his way and so was all power 

 of inquiry (for as yet his tongue was guileless of 

 Welsh liquid and double consonant). At length by 

 a happy chance he hit upon a shepherd who had seen 

 the world, and who could speak something of the 

 barbarous language of the lowlands. Delighted at 

 the lucky meeting, the lost huntsman eagerly inquired 

 his whereabouts — only to learn that here was ^^ The 

 Land's End," the last English-named place in the 

 mountains, and that all beyond was a black void of 

 Welsh Highland, in which he might as well inquire 

 after his hounds as search for them in the dark abyss 

 of Styx. 



But it is the plain below — the valley of the Dee, 

 and the level sweep beyond — that constitute the 

 pleasant hunting grounds of Sir Watkin Williams 

 Wynn, and for which be formed his pack some eight- 

 and- thirty years ago. Some of it is under the 

 plough; but a great deal is beautiful grass — and 

 where the plough has been at work the soil is light 

 and firm rather than heavy and deep. In fact, the 

 Cheshire vale (up the Dee- side to Chester) is exactly 

 of the same character as the Cheshire Country over 

 the border, while the Shrewsbury (or Beschurch) and 

 Whitchurch ground are altogether of Shropshire 

 type — gently undulating grass and plough inter- 



