sold, and in which a person resides through the year,
though there are few or no visitors to the hill's top, except during the
months of summer. Below on all sides are frightful precipices except on
the side of the west. Towards the east it looks perpendicularly into the
dyffrin or vale, nearly a mile below, from which to the gazer it is at
all times an object of admiration, of wonder and almost of fear.

There we stood on the Wyddfa, in a cold bracing atmosphere, though the
day was almost stiflingly hot in the regions from which we had ascended.
There we stood enjoying a scene inexpressibly grand, comprehending a
considerable part of the mainland of Wales, the whole of Anglesey, a
faint glimpse of part of Cumberland; the Irish Channel, and what might be
either a misty creation or the shadowy outline of the hills of Ireland.
Peaks and pinnacles and huge moels stood up here and there, about us and
below us, partly in glorious light, partly in deep shade. Manifold were
the objects which we saw from the brow of Snowdon, but of all the objects
which we saw, those which filled us with delight and admiration, were
numerous lakes and lagoons, which, like sheets of ice or polished silver,
lay reflecting the rays of the sun in the deep valleys at his feet.

"Here," said I to Henrietta, "you are on the top crag of Snowdon, which
the Welsh consider, and perhaps with justice, to be the most remarkable
crag in the world; which is mentioned in many of their old wild romantic
tales, and some of the noblest of their poems, amongst others in the 'Day
of Judgment,' by the illustrious Goronwy Owen, where it is brought
forward in the following manner:

"'Ail i'r ar ael Eryri,
Cyfartal hoewal a hi.'

"'The brow of Snowdon shall be levelled with the ground, and the
eddying waters shall murmur round it.'

"You are now on the top crag of Snowdon, generally termed Y Wyddfa, {6}
which means a conspicuous place or tumulus, and which is generally in
winter covered with snow; about which snow there are in the Welsh
language two curious englynion or stanzas consisting entirely of vowels
with the exception of one consonant, namely the letter R.

"'Oer yw'r Eira ar Eryri,--o'ryw
Ar awyr i rewi;
Oer yw'r ia ar riw 'r ri,
A'r Eira oer yw 'Ryri.

"'O Ri y'Ryri yw'r oera,--o'r ar,
Ar oror wir arwa;
O'r awyr a yr Eira,
O'i ryw i roi rew a'r ia.'

"'Cold is the snow on Snowdon's brow
I