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CHAPTER XIX. 



WALES AND THE ISLANDS. 



HERE finishes our tour of England, the sovereign por- 

 tion of the three kingdoms the sceptred isle, as Shake- 

 speare calls it : 



" This royal throne of kings, this sceptred Isle, 

 This precious stone set iu the silver sea." 



Before proceeding to Scotland and Ireland, I shall say 

 only a few words upon the dependencies of England 

 the Principality of Wales and the Islands. Wales con- 

 sists of that peninsula bristling with mountains which 

 extends from the mouth of the Severn to that of the 

 Mersey, containing about five millions of acres, and 

 which, in many respects similar to Cumberland and 

 Westmoreland, in some parts even recalls to mind the 

 most inaccessible mountains of the Highlands of Scot- 

 land. Elsewhere such a country would be almost 

 deserted by man ; but, like most mountainous coun- 

 tries, it abounds with minerals, and the working of its 

 mines and quarries with English capital has caused a 

 proportionate agricultural development. 



In an agricultural point of view, Wales may be divided 

 into three distinct regions : the good, which includes the 

 counties of Flint, Anglesea, Denbigh, and Pembroke ; 

 the middling, Glamorgan, Caermarthen, Montgomery, 

 and Caernarvon ; and the inferior Cardigan, Radnor, 



