rgwessin ponies--it is still ORIGINAL, and will be recognised
all over Wales as wielded by no other hand than that of "Kilsby," by
which designation the Rev. James Rhys Jones is by common consent
distinguished from the ten thousand and one of his compatriots who
rejoice in the same surname. We can scarcely conceive the possibility of
his doing anything and not doing it _earnestly_, but this has evidently
been a labour of love, for is it not a description of that Valley of the
Irvon which he thus apostrophises?--

"'Thou birth-place and resting place of my humble forefathers, wisely and
not too well have I loved thee; when I sojourned in the land of the noble
and generous Saxon thou wert my thought by day and my dream by night; it
was my uppermost wish to close my life in thy bosom; I have loved thee
with a love second only to that of woman, and a passion which sober men
pronounce madness: it matters not, for I can pray with the Westmoreland
Bard, "Thou valley embrace me, and ye mountains shut me in."'

"The remaining portion of the book is chiefly a compilation, but one that
has been well and judiciously performed. Mr. Pryse has succeeded in
getting from a variety of sources pretty nearly every thing that can
possibly interest, inform, or amuse, in connection not only with the
mineral springs, but also with the beautiful district in which they are
situated. For the invalid he has brought together the various analyses
of the waters, made from time to time, with the opinions of medical men
as to the best rules for their administration; for the scientific he has
produced the opinions of geologists as to the causes of the impregnation
of the waters, with their health-giving constituents; for the antiquarian
he has collected all that remains of the annals of the ruined abbeys and
castles within a wide circuit, especially all that is known of the
history of the last hours of the gallant Llewellyn, last native Prince of
Wales, whose sad fate has given such melancholy interest to the vicinity
of Builth; and for the poet and the lover of the marvellous he has
recorded the wondrous legends, which in days gone by, were supposed to
account for the healing powers of the springs without resorting to the
philosophic theories of the Murchisons or Richardsons of those times. In
short, he has produced a "Handbook," the possession of which will doubly
enhance the pleasure of a summer ramble amid the scenes which it
describes."--_The M