sides of
an acorn' be correct, but from the north and north-west sides of
Glaslyn this answers with quite curious exactness to the appearance
of the mountain. We must suppose the action of the story to have
taken place before the revival of the copper-mining industry on
Snowdon.

With regard, however, to the question here raised, I can save myself
all trouble by simply quoting the admirable remarks of _Sion o
Ddyli_ in the same number of _Notes and Queries:_--

None of us are very likely to succeed in placing this llyn, because
the author of _Aylwin_, taking a privilege of romance often
taken by Sir Walter Scott before him, probably changed the
landmarks in idealising the scene and adapting it to his story. It
may be, indeed, that the Welsh name given to the llyn in the book
is merely a rough translation of the gipsies' name for it, the
'Knockers' being gnomes or goblins of the mine; hence 'Coblynau'
equals goblins. If so, the name itself can give us no clue unless
we are lucky enough to secure the last of the Welsh gipsies for a
guide. In any case, the only point from which to explore Snowdon
for the small llyn, or perhaps llyns (of which Llyn Coblynau is a
kind of composite ideal picture), is no doubt, as E. W. has
suggested, Capel Curig; and I imagine the actual scene lies about a
mile south from Glaslyn, while it owes something at least of its
colouring in the book to that strange lake. The 'Knockers,' it must
be remembered, usually depend upon the existence of a mine near by,
with old partly fallen mine-workings where the dropping of water or
other subterranean noises produce the curious phenomenon which is
turned to such imaginative account in the Snowdon chapters of
_Aylwin_.

There is another question--a question of a very different
kind--raised by several correspondents of _Notes and Queries_,
upon which I should like to say a word--a question as to _The
Veiled Queen_ and the use therein of the phrase 'The Renascence of
Wonder'--a phrase which has been said to 'express the artistic motif
of the book.' The _motif_ of the book, however, is one of
emotion primarily, or it would not have been written.

There is yet another subject upon which I feel tempted to say a few
words. D'Arcy in referring to Aylwin's conduct in regard to the cross
says:--

You were simply doing what Hamlet would have done in such
circumstances--what Macbeth would have done, and w