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However, I did escape that danger, though a load were taken off my mind, and then, to cut the matter short--for I by thus unbosoming myself to a trusfear that I am wearying you— I resol. ty old friend. I don't know when I ved to marry again, and marry I did, have passed a half hour so agreeably." and have now a son and heir ; and, Here a servant entered and au. between ourselves, it is more than nounced that tea was ready, and probable that there may be a farther thereby caused no small alteration in increase in our family. I allow Jane the worthy squire's countenance. He so much a-year, in quarterly payments, bit his lips for a second or two in si. and have taken care that the same lence—then a flush o'erspread his shall be continued after my death. I cheeks—and then, as though consci. know that she is not what she was, ous that his appearance was someand have great reason to suspect that what ludicrous, and it behoved him I don't know all. Be that as it may, to assert his independence, he sumI shall never forget that I am her fa- moned resolution, just as the man had ther, though, thank God! she is no reached the door, to say, in an autho. longer my only child. No, no. There's ritative tone, “ Tell your mistress !" a pretty fair chance now that the There he stopped, and the footman Hartwells will hold the property for stopped likewise. It was an awkward another generation or two, at least. pause; but presently the squire reSo I can look round me with comfort; sumed the same tone, and said, " Tell and, though of course it's fancy, I can -tell Jones to bring us a bottle of the really imagine, at this moment, that old old. He'll know what I mean.yonder grim old cavalier in the cor- What do you stand gaping there for? ner has got his eye upon us, and looks Do as I tell you, sirl" as though he would like to step down “ That's always the way whenever from his frame and join us in a cheer- I have any visiters," he continued, ful glass. Well, here's a bumper to when the man was gone ; " but, now! your memory, old gallant heart and with so old a friend! when we have strong i'th'arm! He was at the battle not met for so many years! Hang me, of Worcester, and- -but I won't get if I will submit! It's hard indeed, if, into family stories. I've tired your in my own house, I may not be allowed patience already, I fear; but I feel as to enjoy myself for once !" .

NO. CCLXXXY, VOL. XLVI

AN EXCURSION OVER THE MOUNTAINS TO ABERYSTWITH.

There are two sorts of exhibitions sketcher, and, perhaps, none to ad. now open for the improvement and mire the scenery, varied in its chadelight of the eye of taste-Nature racter from the stupendous to the simand Art. Are they rivals? They ply beautiful.

Our excursion was are not unfrequently in undue opposi- short in extent and in time. Our tion. At this season we prefer taking chief objects were the Devil's Bridge, the former first, and then, though late, and Aberystwith. The first night pay respect to the latter; and visit the

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we slept at Rhayader, a very poor exhibitions of art in our picture-teem- place, but where there is said to be ing metropolis. Having just seen the good fishing. Our friend and compatrees put on their glorious apparel nion, another Piscator, hoped to have (with the exception of some few late had some sport, but the river was too risers), we took to the mountains, low; and we proceeded the following leaving all thoughts of magillup and morning, without making any attack varnish, we had in exchange the purest upon the innocent fish. Let us here air. We have seen

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note a very silly habit of some traveltiful scenery, and, strange to say, we lers, or pretended travellers, who, in did not meet with one artist. Artists their idleness, manufacture tales of are either confined to town at this sea- horror as actual events; giving them son by professional engagements, or “ local habitation and a name," to they prefer the autumn. If the latter the annoyance of harmless inhabitants. be the case, we think them decidedly We read, in the Magnet newspaper, a wrong; they lose Nature in her vigour horrid murder in the neighbourhood and freshest hue. There is more of Rhayader, most romantically silly; colour, they say, in autumnal tints. in which a lady was stabbed to the That may be denied, however, unless heart, by her lover, at the source of they mean variety of colours, which the Wye. The writer professes himare in autumn more positive; but it self to have been one of the discovere may be doubted if the indescribable ers of the murdered lady. But the colours, and for which there are no whole is a wanton and foolish -fabrinames, are not at this season the most cation. Rhayader is not very distant beautiful the bloom of woods from Llanidloes, celebrated for the nay, the bloom of earth, however Chartists' doings. The next stage covered—for all is now of youth and from Rhayader, as we baited, we met freshness. The setting sun, with all with the landlord of the inn of Lla. his gorgeous clouds, is not now a dis- nidloes, who showed us his coat pier. tant glory; it now, even when it be ced with a pike ; and it appeared that less splendid, has a more pervading the cowardly villain purposed to stab beauty, suffusing all to the admirer's the unoffending man in the back. The feet. This may be one reason why landlord told us that one of the Chartartists do not reach the true pastoral; ists snapped a pistol at his (the landfor that is to be seen and to be enjoy. lord's) sister. What savages are the ed, not in the brown horrors of a offspring of Democratic principles ! coming winter, but in the time of the It is to be feared, agitation, having green year.

This is the season for re. been planted in England by men in pose in the shade, the “santa pace" authority, and protected by them when in the deep glens-where the flicker- young, has taken a deep root, and ing sunbeam, softened through young will scarcely be eradicated. There is foliage, just comes to play its hour but a step from the speeches of Minisupon the waters of a sheltered stream ters and their emissaries, during the or mountain river, then leaves many Reform mania, to the doings of the a sweet blossom it has called into ex- Chartists. We doubt not that all the istence, to unobtrusive shade and quiet; Chartist principles, and the recomand so it goes round the earth like Na- mendation of their proceedings, may ture's finger of light, partially touching be gathered from the speeches of init, and beauty gladdens the very skies, fluential and Government men of the that look with wonder on the new Reform day. The one party were creation.

only not traitors because they sucYet we did not meet with one ceeded—the other will only be traitors until they do succeed. But, we are throw-off nature's sweetest ‘music. among the mountains; and let us not But wooded ravines in these regions pollute the pure air with politics. If are rare, and it was not until we apevil days come, they will come ; and proached the Devil's Bridge, that we so let us see what refuge, what solace, met with any of much beauty. There may be found among these wild and were, however, some very beautiful lonely fastnesses.

scenes before we were perfectly with. The road, made with great skill in the area, or inner range of mounand judgment, lay entirely among tains. Wooded and low hills, with the mountains; we were for miles their deep shade and grassy openings, threading the high passes – every with little more than indication of a turn of the road opening into some habitation among the trees, whose tops new course, some gorge, deep, and broke, not into the sky, but upon the close and then some wild vale in loveliest blue of distant mountains ; the amphitheatre of mountains against which the whole low hill is with grand and sweeping lines folding dark, and of sheltered green repose, within and about each other. Some with a placid or gently interrupted times not a tree, not a shrub, to be seen stream at its base, that is lost to the in the whole, and somewhat wide, ex- eye as it winds round the base of the tent. It has been not unaptly said, hill: and then lower down is a valley, that to enjoy solitude one must be if it may be called a valley which is more or less than human. The heart but the descending land of higher tersinks under the oppressive desolation; ritory, apparently, too, uncultivated the immediate effects of which are not a mark or division to be seen ; languor, apathy, a prostration of taste. but all of the loveliest colour-warm It is long before we can admire the as gold beneath, yet veiled in the sweeping or precipitous lines before finest azure; and the sky, towards us, and not till the coming and reced- evening, so deep, so cool, yet so warm, ing shadows have relieved the mind, so indescribable in colour! by offering, at least, this variety in the Oh, the charm of these homes wilderness. It is in scenes where the among the hills! Here might be disgust of unsociable and uninhabit- trod the fallentis semita vitæ. Here able places is not at once overpower, is the poetry of pastoral life, seed by an awful grandeur, that this questered, uninterrupted, safe, and disinclination to admire is so strong. happy. The very sky looks large Actual sublimity will find something and bountiful, and protecting all congenial with it in almost every beneath it. We have now and then mind, and its terror is even sought- admired such scenes in Italy, and very courted. The desolate scenes short of similarin colour; but we have bere the sublimity, we hate. We do not, on advantage of the refreshing green. this account, think such scenery is fit Our friend, after his first burst of ad. for the artist's pencil. We are often miration, would talk of his hackles, surprised to find them chosen, and re- and cast a longing eye to the stream presented under their worst effects stealing its way among the trees. But, -a hot sun, under which the eye is as we may not stay, a mile or so is forced to scrutinize dismal detail, and gladdened by social talk and fishing find no one object to rest upon ; while adventure, and sketching of advenat the same time, the gusty wind is ture, all arising out of that home blowing the coarse rushes, and whiten- scene, till our attention is called off to ing and making obtrusive the marshy admire some new wonder of nature's pools. Yet here we need not stay- panorama. How different is the scene, pass we on. The scene is either more when, unexpectedly and suddenly, sublime, or changing into a lofty we come to the very edge of a ravine, beauty. The rocky sides of the rocky, without any foliage, where mountains are in larger masses, the meeting rivers, and not far, perhaps, foldings grander; or some wooded ra- from their sources, have scooped their vine bursts upon the sight, and the courses, and torn away the cliffs above sound of water comes upon the sense and, we might almost say, chiselled with its fabulous mystery. Then we out ledges and masses of rock below, see, as we proceed, deeper and darker that, seen under water, look like steps masses, and, at the bottom, deep and down into black unfathomable pits of black pools, edged with white streaks terrifying water, that not even “magior threads the silver chords that cian damned" could look at without awe! And above, what have we?-a few stray sheep on the very steep hill habitation upon the very edge, over- above us ; he called to his dog in looking the abyss, from which it is Welsh, and as he varied his words, so protected by its massy stone founda- did the dog vary his course, ascending tioni' Around, all is wild and barren; a very steep and disagreeable place. and grand are the forms of the high In one spot there were two holes, in hills around, that, receding in two dic which he told us the dog often fell ; rections, fall below the horizon into as he approached these we observed he lower valleys, and there, by their dis- used more caution. There was a line tance, intimating interminable regi- or track hardly distinguishable in the ons of mountain range. But this ha- rough ground, which, though he came bitation-is it desolate ?-It is large, frequently upon it, he would never though simple in its form. Why pass. This was the boundary of the built here?. Not a human being to owner's land-the dog effected the purbe seen ;. no mark of human foot. pose for which he was sent, and drove the The windows above, broken-below, sheep up, ascending higher and higher closed, barricaded, boarded. The until he was wellnigh out of sight-a winds have come, like us, to make en- word or two from his master brought him quiry, and swept around it, and find- to a particular spot, and there he stood ing none to reply have made forcible waiting for further orders. Sometimes entry, and torn some dozen feet or at a word he would, while at great more off the roof. Never was more speed, suddenly change his course. lonely spot. Is it magician's dwelling Now the extraordinary thing is, this -or hold they here their nightly meet- poor faithful creature was and is stune ings the mountain spirits--their con- blind. We thought it wise ; for it unvocation of demons that hide them from derstood Welsh and we did not, and the light of heaven by day, under bog we should probably take a much longer in the cloudy fell? Such are the ques. time in learning it. tions the imagination puts, and is sa. But as we are at Dufflyn or Dyf. tisfied for the time to receive no an- flyn Castle, before we turn off to

The illusion is best. We af. wards Hafod and the Devil's Bridge, terwards learnt that it was built for an let us take a sketch of the scene inn, the stage from place to place before us. We have been long with being long ; but the scheme had failed, out seeing human faces; and here and it is now uninhabited. It is a

are some, not the worst in the world, lonely, dismal spot yet with much before us. Here are, at least, a dozen grandeur, and the sketcher may find women and half as many children, with much about the rocks and black rivers their blue cloaks and round black for his portfolio of wilder pature. This hats, and what a world of baggage is near another lonely place—an inn they have in that half-waggon halftoo-that has perhaps been the ruin of cart.looking conveyance; and, alas, the other; for it is built where the road we find but one poor horse! Let us not turns off to the Devil's Bridge, leaving cast eyes on him, lest his ghost, and if the course of the poor dwindled Wye he be one of the country, he must be to the left, making its apparently un- at least half a ghost, haunt us. They comfortable way from its source in are bound for a great distance to join Plinlimmon, and not very far from this their husbands at some iron-works, a spot. The inn is Dufflyn Castle. The world of a way off. The poor beast ! poor cattle in these regions look 6 A merciful man is merciful to his wretched, and starved the sheep the beast.” In Welsh, this conveys no most melancholy things; and wherever injunction to merciless women.

As we came to habitations we were sure we are in the neighbourhood of Llato find lambs without mothers, show. nidloes, perhaps this migration may be ing it had been a bad season among the one of the happy effects of the late

There had been a great lack Chartist disturbances. We spoke of of rain, and vegetation was very scant. their baggage. The Welsh, in these A man who kept a little inn by the parts at least, and as far as we went, roadside, told us that, three years ago, . to Aberystwith, are all well and comhe had lost nearly five hundred sheep. fortably and cleanly clad, especially He spoke in great admiration of the the women ; nor is there any appearsagacity of his dogs; and of their rea- ance of poverty among them, exceptdiness to do their duty, he gave us ing in some very few hovels among an interesting proof. There were a the wilds. And how very pleasing is

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their native politeness, urbanity-a the real scene upon our minds as we strange term to use and apply to po- may hereafter turn over our sketches ; pulation far from city !-but not so far but we shall come to find a somefrom polity, and rule, and order, and thing in it that may be useful, and may moral and religious feeling, or rather be true, though it was not our particular religious principle, which sweetly and object in the drawing. Some figures simply directs this civil and intelligent that made their appearance while we people. What new systems of educa- were sketching, were injurious to the tion may do for them, who knows? effect; this perhaps determined the Not those who set them on foot; yet poetry of its character. It was a scene perhaps some of them do. Legislators for angelic agency, and above the reas take the whole world, with all its won- gions of " low-thoughted care. drously differing population, to be but As we proceeded, the ravine became the parish of Marylebone, and enact deeper, and ero long we arrived at the laws accordingly. Education, and poli. Devil's Bridge. Here the waters of tical education-mongers, are at their two ravines meet, and flow in one work among this orderly people; or. narrow channel at the base of very derly, for we look upon your Lla- high hills. The Devil's Bridge Inn nidloes Chartists, if they be Welsh, as is finely situated upon the very edge exceptions. We find they are having of the precipice, and immediately the worst books, of mischievously po- above the falls of the waters rushing litical and irreligious tendency, trans from the mountains on the right, in lated for their benefit, and amongst the direction of Hafod. It is situated them, “ the Black Book.” This we very near the bridge that takes its saw in a paper of advertisements. name from that celebrated architect, But our horse and tiger are refreshed, the great Pontifex. 6 Give a dog a so we must be off for the Devil's Bridge, bad name and hang him," and so they ill-omened name ! but we dare say that have hung old Sootie's Bridge, as not the road thither is easy enough, “ sed wishing to be upon any footing with revocare gradum.” The distance must the builder ; not liking much to medbe under five miles-the first two of dle with him, they have built another which are dismal and dreary--after above him, so there they are, which the road suddenly makes a turn, over another.

After all, it may be and we are on the summit of a hill, said—“ The devil a monk was he.” and look over a very extensive scene, There is nothing like a good mysteriall mountainous even to the extreme ous legend, in a wild country. It distance. Range after range descends, makes the woods, the waters, the hills yet we see not the depth; and above fabulous. It is delightful at Killarare other mountains running off from ney to hear of O‘Donnoghue and his the eye, showing their forms and fold- white horses under the lake. The leings in perspective. Immediately be- gend here is a sadly mean affair. It fore us is a ravine, whose sides are co- is of old Sootie and an old woman, vered with coppice, one side in shade, who seems, whenever they are brought excepting the tops, which recline back into contact, to be a match for him. ward and catch the sun's gleam; the The old lady lost her cow; and at other side, somewhat more than half- length found her, or rather saw her, way up, is of a dusky coppice colour, for there was an awful chasm between but suffused with the gold of the eve- them. Upon this, the old gentleman ning sun. The depth, undiscovered appeared on the opposite side, and ofhow deep, lies in that obscure haze, fered his services to make a bridge, that, by making forms uncertain, adds upon condition that he should have the sublimity. The alternate azure and first that put foot over it. The cungolden hues of the lights and shadows, ning old jade thought a moment, and and their occasional blending one in. agreed to it; whereupon the bridge to the other, and all receding and soft- arose, when the old crone took a cake ening into a vast distance of mountain out of her pocket, whistled to range, make the whole scene particu- her dog, and threw the cake over larly beautiful. We remained some before him. After it he went, the time and attempted it in colour ; but devil bit his lips; but took his the materials were wanting for proper- perquisite, and was laughed off the ly attempting the view, and we failed. field. The superstitious may think he Still we keep the attempt; this we al. was very near taking his revenge upon .ways do, for not only will it impress the sex a few years ago, by playing a

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