I turned
to the left, and walking briskly in about half an hour reached our
cottage in the northern suburb, where I found my family and dinner
awaiting me.

CHAPTER IX

The Dinner--English Foibles--Pengwern--The
Yew-Tree--Carn-Lleidyr--Applications of a Term.

For dinner we had salmon and leg of mutton; the salmon from the Dee, the
leg from the neighbouring Berwyn. The salmon was good enough, but I had
eaten better; and here it will not be amiss to say, that the best salmon
in the world is caught in the Suir, a river that flows past the beautiful
town of Clonmel in Ireland. As for the leg of mutton it was truly
wonderful; nothing so good had I ever tasted in the shape of a leg of
mutton. The leg of mutton of Wales beats the leg of mutton of any other
country, and I had never tasted a Welsh leg of mutton before. Certainly
I shall never forget that first Welsh leg of mutton which I tasted, rich
but delicate, replete with juices derived from the aromatic herbs of the
noble Berwyn, cooked to a turn, and weighing just four pounds.

"O its savoury smell was great,
Such as well might tempt, I trow,
One that's dead to lift his brow."

Let any one who wishes to eat leg of mutton in perfection go to Wales,
but mind you to eat leg of mutton only. Welsh leg of mutton is
superlative; but with the exception of the leg, the mutton of Wales is
decidedly inferior to that of many other parts of Britain.

Here, perhaps, as I have told the reader what we ate for dinner, it will
be as well to tell him what we drank at dinner. Let him know then, that
with our salmon we drank water, and with our mutton ale, even ale of
Llangollen; but not the best ale of Llangollen; it was very fair; but I
subsequently drank far better Llangollen ale than that which I drank at
our first dinner in our cottage at Llangollen.

In the evening I went across the bridge and strolled along in a
south-east direction. Just as I had cleared the suburb a man joined me
from a cottage, on the top of a high bank, whom I recognised as the mower
with whom I had held discourse in the morning. He saluted me and asked
me if I were taking a walk, I told him I was, whereupon he said that if I
were not too proud to wish to be seen walking with a poor man like
himself, he should wish to join me. I told him I should be glad of his
company, and that I was not ashamed to be seen walking with any person,
however poor, who conducted himself with pro