varied banks. This is an unfrequented district by the ordinary tourist, because apparently a little diverging from the usual track, but to me a more inviting one from that circumstance. The Teivy, which is the barrier river between the counties of Pembroke and Cardigan, presents, at every turn in its devious course, the peculiar beauties of both; and is, as Giraldus says, "stoared withe salmon and otter above al the ryvers in Wales." At one time it winds its silent way between the hills, filling the intervening space with its clear deep waters, except, indeed, where sometimes a narrow path is saved, seemingly to entice the foot of the delighted passenger, its high and sloping banks covered with trees of the richest verdure, now gracefully dipping their pendent branches in the stream, or bristling on the summit in the stately forms of the fir and pine,—and then again, as if rejoicing at its escape from such seclusion, sending its laughing tide through many a richly-wooded and romantic dale, in full career to the main.

Unmooring my boat at Cardigan, I pulled into the current of the stream, and soon reached that part where the river becomes contracted, gliding amongst rocky eminences, which rise on either side, occasionally broken into broad and picturesque masses, and as often relieved and insulated by intervening quarries and openings. The passage of the river discloses a continued variety of objects: not a few of the reaches, which its perpetual windings afford, are eminently beautiful. In many parts the course of the stream fades from the eye, and the little vessel glides gently forward as on the bosom of a lake, while its beauty offers a combination of rock and foliage, of quarry, level green, and many-coloured mosses, in constant and gratifying succession, throwing a singular air of loveliness and repose over the whole scene.

CHAPTER XIII.

KILGARRAN-CARMARTHEN-VALE OF THE TOWEY-LLANDILO-KIDWELLY.

"IF thou art worn and hard beset

With sorrows that thou wouldst forget

If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep

Thy heart from fainting, and thy soul from sleep,

Go to the woods and hills!-no tears

Dim the sweet look that Nature wears."

Ar a distance of five miles from Cardigan, immediately following a graceful bend of the river, the noble Castle of Kilgarran bursts suddenly on the view. It was evening when I first saw this stupendous pile of interesting ruins. The moon shone with unequalled beauty and clearness. My bark lay silently upon the tranquil stream, under the shadow of two projecting capes, on one of which, rising perpendicularly from the bed of the river, the castle once stood in commanding majesty; but now in solitude, sadness, and desolation. As I gazed upon it, my mind ran over the stirring events associated with its history, and recalled its localities, with which from description I had become familiar. There were the frowning bastions and curtain walls, built on a line with the foundation-rock, seeming to grow from their base,

as if to defy with it the ravages of time and the enemy. On the east, deep ravines, fretted by the mountain torrents in their headlong course to the Teivy, had insulated it from the surrounding high land. On the west, lay the winding path which connected the peaceful village of Kilgarran with the castle, and its five ample entrances. Within, ward after ward, of various extents, involving the keep and all the state apartments, displayed the massy strength and magnificent dimensions of this once-famous fortress. Its history marks the insecurity and vicissitudes of a state of society in which right is made to yield to the force of arbitrary power. English, Welsh, Norman, and Flemish masters, had successively shared in its possession; and warriors, of all these tribes, poured from its open gates, on expeditions of war and conquest; or had presented their serried and devoted lines in its protracted and obstinate defence. All was now hushed. These busy and tumultuous generations slept with their fathers, and left this scene to be contemplated by a solitary traveller, like myself, under the influence of feelings and reflections such as these sad memorials were peculiarly fitted to inspire. I would say of Kilgarran Castle, to the reader, as the northern Magician has sung of the celebrated abbey in his native land, in these lines:

"If thou would'st view fair Melrose aright,

Go visit it by the pale moonlight."*

Adjoining the little village of Kilgarran was the residence of the learned Dr. Thomas Phayer, the translator of Virgil's Eneid, "a man," as the antiquary, George Owen, says, honoured for his learninge, commended for his governmente,

* It is said that the great painter, Wilson, has introduced the fine eminence, on which Kilgarran stands into his picture of Niobe, and the peculiar beauties of this spot into several of his masterly productions.