the good
roads of Wales had disappeared; the habitations which I saw by the way
were miserable hovels into and out of which large sows were stalking,
attended by their farrows.

"Am I far from Llanfair?" said I to a child.

"You are in Llanfair, gentleman," said the child.

A desolate place was Llanfair. The sea in the neighbourhood to the
south, limekilns with their stifling smoke not far from me. I sat down
on a little green knoll on the right-hand side of the road; a small house
was near me, and a desolate-looking mill at about a furlong's distance,
to the south. Hogs came about me grunting and sniffing. I felt quite
melancholy.

"Is this the neighbourhood of the birth-place of Gronwy Owen?" said I to
myself. "No wonder that he was unfortunate through life, springing from
such a region of wretchedness."

Wretched as the region seemed, however, I soon found there were kindly
hearts close by me.

As I sat on the knoll I heard some one slightly cough very near me, and
looking to the left saw a man dressed like a miller looking at me from
the garden of the little house, which I have already mentioned.

I got up and gave him the sele of the day in English. He was a man about
thirty, rather tall than otherwise, with a very prepossessing
countenance. He shook his head at my English.

"What," said I, addressing him in the language of the country, "have you
no English? Perhaps you have Welsh?"

"Plenty," said he, laughing "there is no lack of Welsh amongst any of us
here. Are you a Welshman?"

"No," said I, "an Englishman from the far east of Lloegr."

"And what brings you here?" said the man.

"A strange errand," I replied, "to look at the birth-place of a man who
has long been dead."

"Do you come to seek for an inheritance?" said the man.

"No," said I. "Besides the man whose birth-place I came to see, died
poor, leaving nothing behind him but immortality."

"Who was he?" said the miller.

"Did you ever hear a sound of Gronwy Owen?" said I.

"Frequently," said the miller; "I have frequently heard a sound of him.
He was born close by in a house yonder," pointing to the south.

"Oh yes, gentleman," said a nice-looking woman, who holding a little
child by the hand was come to the house-door, and was eagerly listening,
"we have frequently heard speak of Gronwy Owen; there is much talk of him
in these parts."

"I am glad to hear it," said I, "for I have feared that his name would
not be known