X] KINGTON AND RADNORSHIRE 145 



of the lateral valley. It must be a fine fall when the stream is 

 full, as it then probably shoots out clear of the rock. But 

 when I saw it there was only a film of water covering the 

 surface of the rock from top to bottom. This surface is 

 formed by the regular weathering of slaty beds in fine layers ; 

 the upper part curves downward but the lower half is very 

 nearly or quite vertical and of considerable width, and the 

 whole fall, as seen from near the foot of it, is perhaps sixty 

 feet high. In the valley above this fall is another somewhat 

 more irregular, but I had not time to see this, as it was getting 

 dark when I turned homewards. 



The little inn at which I stayed was very quiet and com- 

 fortable. The landlord and his wife were both quiet and 

 refined-looking people, not the least like the ordinary type 

 of innkeepers. In the evening I sat with them in a parlour 

 where friends and a superior class of visitors only were 

 admitted ; and while I was there the district exciseman 

 lodged in the house while making his rounds among the 

 surrounding villages. He was a brisk and intelligent man, 

 and was in no way treated as an enemy, but rather as a 

 confidential friend. One evening when he and the host with 

 myself were alone together, something brought up the names 

 of Heloise and Abelard, whereupon the exciseman told us 

 the whole story of these unfortunate lovers in a way that 

 showed he was well acquainted with their correspondence, 

 from which he quoted some of the more interesting passages, 

 apparently verbatim, and with sympathetic intonation. This 

 is the only occasion on which I have heard the subject dealt 

 with in conversation, or, in fact, any similar subject in a 

 village inn and between landlord and exciseman. 



Early the next year, I think about February, my brother 

 and I went to do some surveying at Rhaidr-Gwy (now 

 more commonly called Rhayader), a small town in Radnor- 

 shire on the Upper Wye, and only fifteen miles from its 

 source in the Plynlymmon range. A young man from 

 Carmarthenshire came to us here to learn surveying. He 



VOL. I. L 



