"I suppose they were hardly here together?" said I.
"No, no, sir," said the woman, "they were bloody enemies, and could
never set their horses together."
"Are these long houses," said I, "inhabited by different families?"
"Only by one, sir, they make now one farm-house."
"Are you the mistress of it," said I.
"I am, sir, and my husband is the master. Can I bring you
anything, sir?"
"Some water," said I, "for I am thirsty, though I drank under the
old bridge."
The good woman brought me a basin of delicious milk and water.
"What are the names of the two bridges," said I, "a little way from
here?"
"They are called, sir, the old and new bridge of Tai Hirion; at
least we call them so."
"And what do you call the ffrwd that runs beneath them?"
"I believe, sir, it is called the river Twerin."
"Do you know a lake far up there amidst the moors?"
"I have seen it, sir; they call it Llyn Twerin."
"Does the river Twerin flow from it?"
"I believe it does, sir, but I do not know."
"Is the lake deep?"
"I have heard that it is very deep, sir, so much so that nobody
knows it's depth."
"Are there fish in it?"
"Digon, sir, digon iawn, and some very large. I once saw a Pen-
hwyad from that lake which weighed fifty pounds."
After a little farther conversation I got up, and thanking the kind
woman departed. I soon left the moors behind me and continued
walking till I came to a few houses on the margin of a meadow or
fen in a valley through which the way trended to the east. They
were almost overshadowed by an enormous mountain which rose beyond
the fen on the south. Seeing a house which bore a sign, and at the
door of which a horse stood tied, I went in, and a woman coming to
meet me in a kind of passage, I asked her if I could have some ale.
"Of the best, sir," she replied, and conducted me down the passage
into a neat room, partly kitchen, partly parlour, the window of
which looked out upon the fen. A rustic-looking man sat smoking at
a table with a jug of ale before him. I sat down near him, and the
good woman brought me a similar jug of ale, which on tasting I
found excellent. My spirits which had been for some time very
flagging presently revived, and I entered into conversation with my
companion at the table. From him I learned that he was a farmer of
the neighbourhood, that the horse tied before the door belonged to
him, that the present times were very bad for the producers of
grain, with very slight likelihood of improvement; that the place
at which we were was called Rhyd y fen, or the ford across the fen;
that it was just half way between Festiniog and Bala, that the
clergyman of the parish was called Mr Pughe, a good kind of man,
but very purblind in a spiritual sense; and finally that there was
no safe religion in the world, save that of the Calvinistic-
Methodists, to which my companion belonged.
