parts of the immenfe landscape. We had around us fuch a numerous variety of mountains, valleys, lakes, and fireams, each receding behind the other, and bounded only by the far diftant horizon, that the eye almoft ftrained itself with looking upon them. These majestic profpects were foon fhut from our fight by the gathering clouds, which now began to close in much heavier than they had done before, and it was in vain that we waited near an hour for another opening; we were therefore at length obliged to descend, in defpair of being gratified any more with thefe fublime views.

We again patled Clawdd Coch, and foon afterwards, turning to the left, defcended into the mountain vale, called Cwm Llân, and followed the courfe of a ftream which runs from hence into Liyn y Dinas in Gwynant. This little rivulet en ertained us much in its defcent, by being frequently thrown over low rocks, and forming fmall, but fometimes elegant cafcades..

After two hours walking, we came into Gwynant, the vale I had with fo much pleasure traverfed a day or two before, and paffing Llyn y Dinas and Dinas Enrys, we foon reached Beddgelert, fomewhat fatigued with our long mountain walk.

'I obferved near a cottage in Cwm Llan, feveral children employed in gathering the berries of forbus aucuparia, the mountain afh. I was informed that they were getting them to make a liquor, which the Welsh call diod-griafol. This is faid to tafte fomewhat like perry, and is made by merely crufhing the berries, and putting water to them, which, after they have remained about a fortnight, is ftrained off for ufe.' Vol. i. p. 375.

Quitting Caernarvonshire, Mr. Bingley entered Merionethfhire, and vifited the towns of Harlech and Dolgelle. His next refting place was Machynlleth, through which town he paffed on his way to Montgomery; from whence he proceeded to Welch Pool and Ofweftry. Deviating a little from the road which leads from Ofweftry to Ruabon, he visited Chirk caftle. Leaving Ruabou, he next directed his courfe to Wrexham, Mold, Ruthin, Denbigh, and Llangollen The beauties of the celebrated vale of Llangollen he delineates with the hand of a mafter. Reluctantly quitting this enchanting fpot, he paffed through Corwen to Bala. From Bala he journeyed to Shrewsbury. Of this ancient town he gives an abridged history, for the materials of which he is indebted to Mr. Pennant..

We doubt not that our readers will be gratified by the perufal of the following extract from the twelfth chapter of the fecond volume, in which Mr. Bingley defcribes the manners and cuftoms of the Welch.

From ancient, I will now descend to modern times, from that bardy race of warlike characters, which were with so much difficulty

fubdued by the English monarchs, to their prefeut peaceful ftate, in which they enjoy happiness, that, in feudal times, they never experienced.

• In those mountainous or fecluded parts of the country, that are fcarcely known to the English tourist, where their manners ftill retain the greatest degree of originality, the lower clafs of the inhabitants appear to poffefs an innocence and fimplicity of character, unknown in the populous parts of our own country; and amongst thefe it is that we are to fearch for that native hospitality, so much boafted of by the Welsh writers: but, wherever the Englith have had frequent communication, from their being in general fo profufe of their money, and from the temptation that this has afforded to practise impofitions on them, I have found the people but little dif fering from the like clafs amongst us. On the great roads, they feem to take a pride in over-reaching, in moft of their little bargains, their Saxon neighbours, as they denominate the English. A Welsh gentleman informed me, (and in many inftances I have experienced its truth) that it is a common practice amongst them, to afk nearly as much more for an article as they mean to take, and, with those who know them, it is always ufual to offer them lefs. This is the cafe, in fome measure, in our own country, but certainly not fo frequently as in Wales.

The Welt people have in general a ruftic bashfulness and referve, which by ftrangers unufed to their manners has been often mistaken for fullennefs. They are generally faid to be very irafcible. This may be fo; but I am inclined to think, that the natural rapidity of their expreflion, in a language not understood, has alone been frequently conftrued into paflion, when there has been nothing of the kind. Perfons who form ideas from the opinions of others, without taking the paius to make obfervations for themselves, are very often milled, and fuch I am confident has been the cafe a thousand times, in the judgements that have been formed of this circumftance.

They have every appearance of being most miferably poor. Their cottages are frequently conftructed of ftones, whofe interftices are filled up with peat or mud; and fo careful are they of glafs, that their windows are fcarcely large enough to light around their wretched fheds.

Their general food is bread, cheefe, and milk; and fometimes, what they call Alummery, which is made of oatmeal and milk mixed together, and then boiled. Animal food, or ale, are not among their ufual fare.

The women in the mountainous parts are generally about the middle fize, though more frequently below, than above it; and though their features are often very pretty, their complexions are for the most part fomewhat fallow. They wear long blue cloaks that defcend almoft to their feet; thefe they are feldom to be seen without, even in the very hotteft weather, owing moft probably to

the fudden fhowers, which the attraction of the mountains renders them liable to be taken in. In North Wales they have all hats, fimilar to thofe of the men, and they wear blue ftockings without any feet to them, which they keep down by a kind of loop that is put round one of their toes. In the most unfrequented parts they feldom wear any fhoes, except on a Sunday, or the market day, and even then they often carry them in their hands, as they go along the roads; I have feen them by fix or eight together, feated on the bank of a rivulet, after their journies from the neighbouring villages, washing their feet before they entered the towns. In these journies, if their hands are not otherwife employed, they generally occupy their time in kuitting, and I have fometimes feen that even a heavy fall of rain would not compel them to give it up. Their employment within doors is chiefly in fpinning wool.

"The Welsh people are naturally inquifitive and curious, but this is by no means a circumstance peculiar to this country. In all wild and unfrequented parts of the world it is the fame, and it is only in fuch parts of Wales that this difpofition is the most obfervable. Dr. Franklin has told us that this curiofity prevailed fo much in America, that when he travelled in that country, if he only wished to ask the road, he found it expedient to fave time by prefacing his question with "My name is Benjamin Franklin-by trade a printer-am come from fuch a place—and going to fuch a place; and now-which is my road?" In all travels through un frequented countries, we find it very common; and from the inqui fitive difpofitions of men in general, where novelty lays fuch hold upon their attention, it would even feem ftrange were we not to find it fo.

• They are much inclined to fuperftition. But in all countries there are weak and foolish people; in England many of our peafantry are ready to fwallow, with the moft credulous avidity, any ridiculous ftories of ghofts, hobgoblins, or fairies. In Wales it is more general, and the people are certainly more credulous than the generality of the English. There are very few of the mountaineers who have not by heart a whole ftring of legendary tales of thofe difembodied beings.

The Roman cavern, in Llanymynech hill, called Ogo, has been long noted as the refidence of a clan of the fairy tribe, of whom the villagers relate many furprifing and mifchievous tricks. They have liftened at the mouth of the cave, and have fometimes even heard them in converfation, but always in fuch low whispers that their words have been never diftinguishable. The ftream that runs acrofs it, is celebrated as being the place in which they have been heard to wash their clothes, and do feveral other kinds of work.

Thefe bufy little folk feem to be fomewhat allied to what are called knockers, which by the Welfh are believed to be a fpecies of aerial beings, that are heard underground in or near mines, who by their noifes direct the miners where to find a rich vein. The

following extraordinary account of them is from a letter of Mr. Lewis Morris, to his brother, Mr. William Morris, comptroller of the customs at Holyhead, dated October the 14th, 1754. I will make no comment upon it, and only preface it by obferving, that Mr. Morris was a very learned and fenfible man, and a perfon whofe judgment is esteemed of great weight, by every one who has been either acquainted with him or his writings. People who

know very little of arts or fciences, or the powers of nature, (which in other words, are the powers of the author of nature) will laugh at us Cardiganfhire miners, who maintain the exiftence of knockers in mines, a kind of good-natured impalpable people, not to be feen, but heard, and who seem to us to work in the mines; that is to say, they are types or forerunners of working in the mines, as dreams are of fome accidents which happen to us. The barometer falls before rain or storms. If we did not know the conftruction of it we fhould call it a kind of dream, that foretells rain; but we know it is natural, and produced by natural means comprehended by us. Now how are we fure, or any body fure, but that our dreams are produced by the fame natural means? There is fome faint refemblance of this in the fenfe of hearing; the bird is killed before we hear the report of the gun. However this is, I must speak well of thefe knockers, for they have actually ftood my very good friends, whether they are aërial beings, called fpirits, or whether they are a people made of matter, not to be felt by our grofs bodies, as air and fire, and the like.

"Before the discovery of Efgair y Mwyn mine, thefe little people, as we call them here, worked hard there day and night; and there are abundance of honest sober people who have heard them, and some perfons who have no notion of them, or of mines either; but, after the discovery of the great ore, they were heard no more.

"When I began to work at Llywn Llwyd, they worked so fresh there for a confiderable time, that they even frightened fome young workmen out of the work. This was when we were driving levels, and before we had got any ore; but when we came to the ore, they then gave over, and I heard no more talk of them.

"Our old miners are no more concerned at hearing them blafting, boring holes, landing deads, &c. than if they were fome of their own people; and a fingle miner will stay in the work, in the dead of the night, without any man near him, and never think of any fear or harm they will do him; for they have notion, that the knockers are of their own tribe and profeffion, and are a harmless people who mean well. Three or four miners together, fhall hear them fometimes, but if the miners ftop to take notice of them, the knockers will also stop; but let the miners go on at their own work, fuppofe it is boring, the knockers will go on as brifk as can be, in landing, blafting, or beating down the loofe; and they are always beard a little from them before they came to the ore.

"These are odd affertions, but they are certainly facts, though CRIT. REV. VOL. XXX. September, 1800.

F

we cannot, and do not pretend to account for them. We have now very good ore at Llwyn Llwyd, where the knockers were heard to work, but have now yielded up the place, and are no more heard. Let who will laugh, we have the greatest reason to rejoice and thank the knockers, or rather God, who fends us thefe notices."

An intelligent friend of mine informs me that these noises of the knockers, as they are called, have very lately been heard in the parish of Llanvihangel Yfgeiviog, in Anglefea, where they continued at different intervals for fome weeks. In accounting for these noifes it has been obferved, that they probably proceeded either from the echo of the miners at work, or from the dropping of water; but thefe feem by no means fufficient, if Mr. Morris's affertion be true, that while the miners are going on with one kind of work they are going on with another, while for inftance, as he fays, the miners are boring, they are blafting, the former certainly cannot be true, and the blasting entirely puts the latter conjecture out of the queftion, for the droppings of water could never produce any effect of that kind. As I am only acquainted with the fubject from report, I am under the neceffity of leaving the elucidation of these extraordinary facts to fome who have better opportunities of inquiring into them. I have only to exprefs a hope that the fubject will not be neglected, and that those who refide in any neighbourhood where they are heard, will inquire into them carefully, and, if possible, give to the world a more accurate account of them, than the prefent.

As foon as it is dark on the evening before Michaelmas-day, the Welth people kindle great fires near their houfes, and generally, where they can have it, on a large ftone upon an eminence. These they call coelcerth, or bonfires; and Rowlands, in his Mona, fuppofes this cuftom to have originated with the druids, and to have been intended by them as an offering of thanksgiving, for the fruits of the harveft. The druids had alfo another at the vernal equinox, to implore a bleffing from the deity on the fruits of the earth. On Michaelinas-eve, feveral hundreds of thefe fires may fometimes be feen at once, round each of which are numbers of the labouring people, dancing hand in hand, "in merry glee," fhouting and finging, in the moft riotous and frantic manner. In many places they retain a cuftom of each throwing ftones or nuts into the flame, by which they pretend to foretell the good or ill luck that will attend them in the enfuing year.

On the eve of St. John the Baptift, they fix fprigs of the plant called St. John's Wort over their doors, and fometimes over their windows, in order to purify their houfes, and by that means drive away all fiends, and evil fpirits, in the fame manner as the druids were accustomed to do with vervain.

They have a firm belief in witches; and, confequently, many old women, merely because they happen to be old and ugly, are forced to bear all the blame of the cows not yielding milk, or of the