NOTICED IN NORTH WALES. 33 
forming a background, never failed to afford genuine pleasure. 
Endow a man with a sturdy pair of legs, a well-equipped mar- 
row-bone stage, an unencumbered mind, a clear conscience, a few 
pounds and half-crowns or shillings in his purse and pocket, for 
the sake of avoiding trouble in seeking change, and if he is not 
pleased, that is, provided he loves the country, he is what we do not 
like to say, but the first of April may help our readers to our mean- 
ing. Near Pont Aberglaslyn the scenery improves wonderfully. 
At this bridge and river, the boundary between Merionethshire 
and Carnarvonshire, the aspect of the whole is wild and terrific. 
There is just room for the road and the stream, which tumbles 
over huge fragments of rock which have been detached from the 
overhanging rocks above. Bingley conjectures that this is the 
part of Wales described by Giraldus Cambrensis as the most 
dreary place in the kingdom, where the mountains are so high, 
steep, and narrow, that the shepherds talked or quarrelled on the 
tops, and were a day’s journey apart; and Drayton seems to have 
followed him in his opinion, as we learn from his unpolished 
lines :— . 
“Of all the Cambrian shires their heads that beare so hie, 
And farth’st survay their soyles with an ambitious eye, 
Mervinia for her hills, as for their matchless crowds, 
The nearest that are said to kisse the wandering clouds, 
Especial audience craves.” 
We offer another conjecture, just as plausible as Mr. Bingley’s, 
for we do not find that Drayton ventures a conjecture as to the 
meeting of the shepherds, but the poet is rather to be understood 
as telling us of the meeting of the hills. The adage says,— 
“Men may meet, but mountains never.” 
We quote Drayton again, where hg is reporting the confabulation 
of the hills. Montes loquuntur { 
“We talk howe we are stored, or what we greatly need, 
Or howe our flocks doe fare, or howe our heards doe feed, 
When else the hanging rocks and vallyes darke and deepe, 
The sommer’s longest day would us from meeting keepe.” 
Our conjecture is, that Merionethshire and Carnarvonshire have 
been much changed since the times of Giraldus. Shepherds imply 
sheep, and sheep imply something to eat—some pasture, but at 
_Aberglaslyn there is hardly enough to keep a field-mouse alive. 
There is barely standing-room for a sheep; nothing to feed it. 
Nes. VOL. I. F 
