The goats in the present day seem to have met the fate of the wolves and beavers of past eras, it being a most rare event to see one of these animals in a wild state, even among the mountain retreats of Cambria; a fate I very much regret, both for their beauty, nationality, and usefulness to the peasantry. But the poor goats offend the owners of newly springing plantations, by their penchant for nice young sprouts and leaves of trees, as a little variety in their diet of whin and heather, and their native haunts are now occupied by the far less picturesque but more harmless sheep, which so far emulate the athletic accomplishments of their predecessors, that they leap from crag to crag, with their dirty, torn, neglected fleeces dangling in strange and ludicrous disorder about them, with as much agility as their bearded relatives. I have frequently seen the mountain sheep trailing after them their ragged coats in a train of a yard or two in length, and heartily abused the careless indolence of their owners, while I pitied the miserable plight of the poor bramble-shorn animals.

On a mountain, two miles north-east of Strata Florida, are five lakes, of which Llyn Teivy is the principal. It is said to be unfathomable, and is encompassed by a high and perpendicular ridge, which at once feeds and confines its everlasting waters. It has been by some travellers supposed to be a crater, but the stones around bear no marks of volcanic action. Leland, in his quaint way, says "of al the pools, none stondeth in so rokky and stony soile as Tyve doth, that hath withyn hym many stonis. The ground al about Tyve, and a great mile of towards Stratfler, is horrible, with the sight of bare stonis, as cregeryri mountaines be. Llin Tyve is fed fro hyer places with a little broket, and issueth out again by a smaulle gut. Ther is in it veri good troutes and elys, and no other fisch."*

*The Teivy is the small stream which issues from the lake, afterwards swelling to an important river.

LLYN VATHEY CRINGLAS.

35

This group of lakes forms one of the chief natural curiosities of this dreary district. On leaving Llyn Teivy, a few minutes' walk attains the summit of the mountain, and a view of four more lakes, each within a few yards of the other. The largest cannot be much less in circumference than Llyn Teivy, and is of a different form, being narrow in the middle. The smallest is circular, occupying the highest ground, and in appearance much like a crater; its circumference is about three quarters of a mile. These lakes are all said to be fathomless, and their extraordinary effect is much heightened by the strong degree of agitation to which they are subjected by their exposure;-the scene, though totally desolate, is very grand.

This is the highest ground in Cardiganshire, and the prospect most extensive; but the cluster of mountains, on the most elevated of which are the lakes, reaches so far, as entirely to obscure the vales between the near and distant hills: all is wild and rugged, with Plinlimmon and Cader Idris rearing their lofty heads in the north. The prospect on the south-west extends to the high grounds about Cardigan, which appear distinctly, and beyond those to the sea, which is less clearly defined.

Between Pont Rhyvendigaid and Castle Inon, is Llyn Vathey Cringlâs, about a mile in circumference, of a beautiful oblong form; this lake is said to occupy the site of the ancient city of Tregaron,* which is popularly believed to have been "swallowed up" in some convulsion of Nature. That such catastrophes have occured, we have ample proofs; but, according to Welsh tradition, almost every pool has a

* The presant village of Tregaron is about three miles distant from the lake, and contains but little that is interesting, except its old church, and some ancient inscriptions in the churchyard, especially one to Mailyr, the son of Rhywallan ab Gwyn, who fell in the battle of Caruo, in 1010.

ruined city beneath its waters. Llyn Savaddan, or Brecknock-mere, in the county of Brecon, is by some antiquaries imagined to cover the ancient city of Loventium; and the circumstance of the old high roads all tending to that spot seems to render probable the supposition: but, granting this to be the case, it appears more than likely that the tradition of an ingulphed city has become associated with other places in which no ground for the belief ever existed, in the same manner that we find some of our old English legends related, in precisely the same terms, in celebration of places wide apart.

The chain of hills in this neighbourhood runs without a single break from Llanbeder to Bishop's Castle, in Shropshire, a space of about sixty miles. It might be traversed on horseback almost without the interruption of a single gate or fence, and probably without seeing a human being.

On the high lands in this neighbourhood are numerous tumuli and cist-vaens. In the parish of Cellan is a large circular moated tumulus, on the summit of which is an immense stone, or rather rock, eleven yards in diameter, called Llêch Cynon. On the mountain to the north of the river Frwd are two cist-vaens called "beddau," or graves, and on the mountain on the south are two more, one of which is called Bedd y vorwyn, or the Virgin's grave. Sir S. Meyrick had these opened; their form was oblong, consisting of four stones, and in the centre a little tumulus of earth and stones. After clearing this away, there appeared a stratum of gravel, then a layer of sand, and under that burnt ashes of bones and wood lying on a bed of clay, which had been placed upon the rock. The depth of each was about three feet, and from two to four feet long. A very great number of the carnau or carneddau may be seen on the mountains in this parish; but two extremely large ones, upon a very high mountain near the road leading from Llanvair to Llanycrwys are most con

spicuous. These, and another called Fair Carnau, consist of heaps of large stones, in all probability the graves of warlike chiefs who fell near the spot. Other great stones, placed on adjacent mountains, have most likely been erected in commemoration of a victory. Near the road leading to Llanycrwys are the remains of a Druidical structure, several of the huge stones formerly belonging to it lie scattered around. Two ancient intrenchments, one circular, the other oval, lie in the vicinity, with numerous carneddau. Few districts present more of interest for the research and reflection of the antiquary than the now dreary and almost untrodden wilds of South Cardigan; formerly-as the gigantic remains of other days fully attest-the scenes of priestly power, royal magnificence, and all the "pomp and circumstance" of dazzling, desolating war.

CHAPTER III.

WELSH COTTAGES-WEDDINGS-SUPERSTITIONS-MINES.

THOUGH poor the peasant's hut, his feasts though small,
He finds his little lot the lot of all;

Sees no contiguous palace rear its head,

To shame the meanness of his humble shed;
No costly lord the sumptuous banquet deal,
To make him loathe his vegetable meal.

Goldsmith.

Ir this were an age of black-art and gramoury instead of enlightenment and steam, and the wandering traveller likely to be whisked from place to place by the powers of enchantment instead of the more straight-forward aid of railroads and stage coaches, we might well imagine the amazement of some economical, orderly English farmer, on being suddenly introduced to the scenes of wild, uncultivated mountain-land, which the rambler in Wales is ever familiar with. But not even the change in the general aspect of the country would astonish him so much, as the squalid misery and dirt of the cottages, or rather cabins, of the peasantry. They may be placed on an equality with the worst specimens of Irish habitations, at least very many of them.

In the districts of Cardiganshire, the dark slate rock of the mountains furnishes a good material for the walls of these