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here is especially beautiful; there are waterfalls and there are rapids. More than a few of the sweetest pictures of Welsh scenery which find their way to the exhibitions, entitled, A Welsh Stream,'A Quiet Spot,'Scene in Wales,' and such-like titles, which English landscape-painters delight in, have been painted from sketches made here, and in many instances have been painted here. The mountains around are not so grand, nor so fine in form, as those we have left, but they are pleasing and characteristic. Several places within a few miles are worth visiting. Dinas Mowddwy, a couple of miles on the Dolgelley road, is a decayed borough-town of mud cottages, not unpicturesque in itself, and seated in a very picturesque spot. There is capital river-scenery here too. If the Afon Dyfi be ascended for a few miles farther, it will guide the tourist to some remarkable scenery. Such is that of the rocks and craggy heights, and deep hollows, at Llan-y-Mowddwy, and forwards towards the Arran Mowddwy Mountain. Down the Afon Dyfi the tourist might extend his walk to the poor but picturesque village of Cemmaes-where, by the way, is a curious old farm-house; and close by it a noticeable half-timber edifice. The waterfalls about Mallwyd we need not direct attention to, because any one who stays there is sure to stroll over to them.

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very well do, for the mail from Aberystwith and Machynlleth passes through Mallwyd daily, and during the summer there is a tourist's coach' besides. The country between Mallwyd and Shrewsbury is very beautiful, but it is of a tamer kind of beauty than that which we have lately been conversant with, and consequently does not do to loiter over. Many of the villages look very tempting as you whisk through them; many a valley looks right pleasant as you gaze down it from some gentle eminence. But on the whole there will be little cause to regret that the ramble did not include this district. The only town which is passed through on the way is Welshpool-a rather large and evidently flourishing place, with wide clean streets, and a completely English aspect: the Severn is navigable as high as Welshpool. Near this town is Powis Castle-a pile which has a striking appearance at a distance, much more so than close at hand. It stands in a noble park, in the midst of a fine country, and commands very extensive prospects. reminded by the title of this mansion, that this part of Wales was anciently called Powis, and afterwards West Wales, in contradistinction to North and South Wales. The old town of Montgomery lies too much out of the ordinary route of tourists; and though an interesting little place in many respects, and though seated in a beautiful locality, it has hardly attractions sufficient to induce any one to diverge so far from the main road at the end of a long journey.

We are

But we must hasten on. We have left ourselves no time to conduct the tourist through Montgomeryshire; indeed we fancy he will find it the best way to make Mallwyd his last resting-place, and from thence pro- We had intended to look round Shrewsbury, but it ceed direct by coach to Shrewsbury. This he can is now impossible to do so. A pleasanter old town.

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could hardly be desired to stay at for a day or two. It has quaint old streets, bearing quaint old names,* and lined with the quaintest of old houses. There is not such a collection of the old-English half-timber houses to be found in any other town. Something of what the houses are like may be seen from our cut of the market-place: but they abound in every street. (Cut, No. 18.) The chief building there shown is the Market-house, erected in 1595. There are other corporate and public buildings worth looking at, both old and new. There are some fine old churches (whose lofty and graceful spires it is quite a comfort to catch sight of, after having for so long a time seen only the mean and ugly religious buildings in Wales), with admirable monuments, both ancient and modern; and some rich antique painted-glass windows, together with some new ones not unworthy to be placed alongside of them—the work of a townsman; and there is a fine and famous old grammar-school, showing on its boards a long list of honoured names, with that of Sir Philip Sidney at the head. There are inns, too, in the vicinity; some fine old mansions (and the stranger should visit Whitehall, for a good example of the dwellinghouse of a wealthy but not extravagant commoner of the days of the Virgin Queen-and when visiting it, should go round to the back to see a magnificent walnut-tree, old as the house, though not mentioned in the books).

There are also choice walks all around, with historical associations, to relate which would take us "a full hour by Shrewsbury clock." And there is outside the town a tall column, erected to commemorate the achievements of the Shropshire hero, Lord Hill; from the summit of which a capital view may be had of the town, and of the beautiful country by which it is surrounded. We like Shrewsbury so much, that we should hardly know how to dismiss it with this hurried notice, if it were not that we can direct the visitor to Mr. John Davies's Guide through the Town of Shrewsbury,' which is almost all that a local guide-book ought to be. The stranger will find in it whatever he can wish to see in the old town pointed out and explained by a really well-informed guide: and the numerous wood-cuts which it contains will serve as sufficient notes by which he may at any time recall the forms of the principal objects. It is the best local guide-book to the architectural antiquities of a town we have seen, except Parker's 'Hand-book of Oxford.'

We hoped to have been able to devote a brief space to some remarks on the people of Wales, but our limits are so nearly exhausted, that we can only just touch one point of the subject. It is impossible for the most heedless person to visit Wales without being struck by the appearance and character of the inhabitants. The dress and language are both so different from those of the

* The Wyle Cop, Murivance, Pride Hill, Dog Pole, and peasantry of England-and if any attention be given so forth.

to their manners, they will be found so different too

that it is impossible to avoid taking some note of the Welsh people. The language is what first and chiefly excites notice. In the guide-books it is commonly said that the English tourist will experience little or no inconvenience from his ignorance of the Welsh tongue. And if he confine himself to the main roads, and address himself almost wholly to inn-keepers and waiters, this is quite true; and many tourists, from doing so, rather hastily conclude that English is pretty generally understood. But let him depart ever so little from the beaten track, and he will at once discover that this is a delusion: only a small proportion of either old or young will he find able to answer him if he address them. The capability of the children to speak English is the real test of the progress of the language. It will be well to notice what a thoroughly well-informed native of the principality, who has devoted considerable attention to the subject, says. In his recent elaborate work, entitled 'Wales, the Language, Social Condition, &c., of the People,' Sir Thomas Phillips observes :

"Nearly six centuries have elapsed since the first Edward crossed the lofty mountains of North Wales, which, before him, no king of England had trodden, and in the citadel of Carnarvon received the submission of the Welsh people; and more than three centuries have passed away since the country was incorporated with and made part of the realm of England; and although for so long a period English laws have been enforced, and the use of the Welsh language discouraged, yet, when the question is now asked, what progress has been made in introducing the English language? the answer may be given from Part II. of the 'Reports of the Education Commissioners,' page 68. In Cardiganshire, 3000 people out of 68,766 speak English. The result may be yet more strikingly shown by saying that double the number of persons now speak Welsh who spoke in that language in the reign of Elizabeth."

This is a great fact: and to our thinking a very sad one. No people can ever be thoroughly one in interest and feeling while they are separated by a difference of language and no man of thoughtful habit will, we imagine, venture to say that it is not in every

way desirable that the people of Great Britain shall be so united. At what a disadvantage every Welshman is placed who can only speak his own tongue is at once apparent whenever any one attempts to raise himself above the condition of his birth; and assuredly, Welshmen do not desire to be for ever confined to their native homes and original condition. In the Welsh language there is no living literature. The early Welsh writings did probably, as has been said by continental as well as British authors, exert a great influence on the literature of Europe. But those works are now only preserved for the antiquary. Antique romances can have no active interest with the people of the nineteenth century. There are some translations into Welsh, but they are of course naught. There are numerous living writers in the language, but their productions are almost wholly religious or political-when not antiquarian. And the religious and political writings are sectarian and partisan. There is no living standard literature: and what it is to be without that, an Englishman can imagine when he reflects on what his language would be worth if Shakspere and all succeeding writers of eminence in every class of letters were erased from the national memory, and their deep soberizing influence lost from the national mind. Is it no misfortune that a large portion of our fellow-countrymen should be, by difference of tongue, prevented from having access to those treasures of knowledge and wisdom? And a similar remark applies to every kind of knowledge as well as literature. What information in science, or the arts, in agriculture, or indeed in anything, can be obtained in Welsh ?-and what cannot be obtained in English? Unless he learns English the Welshman cannot elevate himself-nay, cannot maintain himself on a level with Englishmen of the same grade in society-it is impossible he should do so. He may, indeed, if he have sufficient energy, learn the language when he has come to perceive the need of it; but what a monstrous thing it is that an English subject, living in this island, should have to acquire in after-life the English language as he would a foreign one, and consequently only half acquire it at last. Those who have influence in Wales should consider these things.

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