UNLUCKY DAYS IN WALES. 237 



This was a holiday not to be forgotten : I did shorten it as 

 soon as the storm abated, and sought shelter in the cottage. 



Throvigh its green glass window panes, long after com- 

 parative serenity had succeeded to our elevation, we could 

 see the pale blue forks cleaving the clouds far down the 

 valley, and every token of a repetition of the commotion 

 which had visited us. The masses of cotton-wool, no longer 

 white, brooded henceforth slate coloured and sullenly over 

 all the hills, and bird and beast had vanished from sight 

 and sound when the homeward walk was, in dampness and 

 shivering, prosecuted. 



The main result of my visit to Llangorst Pool was to 

 induce a deep-rooted scepticism on the subject of water- 

 proof clothing, and sincere pity for two unoffending friends 

 whom I had tempted from the hotel fireside with exciting 

 promises of sport, and positive assurances that the weather 

 would be fine, and the scenery observable under the most 

 favourable auspices. This, to be sure, was a daring thing 

 to do in February, but the weather-glass in the hall, and the 

 weather-glass aloft, to say nothing of the head boots, backed 

 me in my honestly-meant persuasions. And we departed 

 at noon, and took train to Tallybont station. 



Merthyr Tydvil is a metropolis truly, but it is the metro- 

 polis of coal and iron. Even when the grimy workers are 

 contentedly toiling, the town is the reverse of cheerful ot 

 aspect; when they are on strike, when the great blast 

 furnaces are blown out, and trade is stagnant, it cannot be 

 said that additional liveliness has been secured. But down 

 the valley through which the Brecon railway has been laid 

 you very quickly reach fine scenery, which you appreciate 

 all the more, perhaps, because of distant views of chimneys 



