I thanked him, and proceeded on my way. I passed through a deep dingle, and shortly afterwards came to the termination of the road;remembering, however, the directions of the old man,, I bore away to the right, ****** for the distant mountain. My course lay now over very broken ground where there was no path, at least that Icould perceive. I wandered on for some time; at length on turning round a bluff I saw a lad tending a small herd of bullocks. "Am Iin the road," said I, "to the Pont y Gwr Drwg?""Nis gwn! I don't know," said he sullenly. "I am a hired servant, and have only been here a little time.""Where's the house," said I, "where you serve?"But as he made no answer I left him. Some way farther on I saw a house on my left, a little way down the side of a deep dingle which was partly overhung with trees, and at the bottom of which a brook murmured. Descending a steep path, I knocked at the door. After a little time it was opened, and two women appeared, one behind the other. The first was about sixty; she was very powerfully made, had stern grey eyes and harsh features, and was dressed in the ancient Welsh female fashion, having a kind of riding-habit of blue and a high conical hat like that of the Tyrol. The other seemed about twenty years younger; she had dark features, was dressed like the other, but had no hat. I saluted the first in English, and asked her the way to the Bridge, whereupon she uttered a deep guttural "augh" and turned away her head, seemingly in abhorrence.
I then spoke to her in Welsh, saying I was a foreign man - I did not say a Saxon - was bound to the Devil's Bridge, and wanted to know the way. The old woman surveyed me sternly for some time, then turned to the other and said something, and the two began to talk to each other, but in a low, buzzing tone, so that I could not distinguish a word. In about half a minute the eldest turned to me, and extending her arm and spreading out her five fingers wide, motioned to the side of the hill in the direction which I had been following.
"If I go that way shall I get to the bridge of the evil man?" said I, but got no other answer than a furious grimace and violent agitations of the arm and fingers in the same direction. I turned away, and scarcely had I done so when the door was slammed to behind me with great force, and I heard two "aughs," one not quite so deep and abhorrent as the other, probably proceeding from the throat of the younger female.
"Two regular Saxon-hating Welsh women," said I, philosophically;"just of the same sort no doubt as those who played such pranks on the slain bodies of the English soldiers, after the victory achieved by Glendower over Mortimer on the Severn's side."I proceeded in the direction indicated, winding round the side of the hill, the same mountain which the old man had pointed out to me some time before. At length, on ****** a turn I saw a very lofty mountain in the far distance to the south-west, a hill right before me to the south, and, on my left, a meadow overhung by the southern hill, in the middle of which stood a house from which proceeded a violent barking of dogs. I would fain have made immediately up to it for the purpose of inquiring my way, but saw no means of doing so, a high precipitous bank lying between it and me. I went forward and ascended the side of the hill before me, and presently came to a path running east and west. I followed it a little way towards the east. I was now just above the house, and saw some children and some dogs standing beside it. Suddenly I found myself close to a man who stood in a hollow part of the road, from which a narrow path led down to the house; a donkey with panniers stood beside him. He was about fifty years of age, with a carbuncled countenance, high but narrow forehead, grey eyebrows, and small, malignant grey eyes. He had a white hat, with narrow eaves and the crown partly knocked out, a torn blue coat, corduroy breeches, long stockings and highlows. He was sucking a cutty pipe, but seemed unable to extract any smoke from it. He had all the appearance of a vagabond, and of a rather dangerous vagabond. I nodded to him, and asked him in Welsh the name of the place. He glared at me malignantly, then, taking the pipe out of his mouth, said that he did not know, that he had been down below to inquire and light his pipe, but could get neither light nor answer from the children. Iasked him where he came from, but he evaded the question by asking where I was going to.
"To the Pont y Gwr Drwg," said I.
He then asked me if I was an Englishman.
"Oh yes," said I, "I am Carn Sais;" whereupon, with a strange mixture in his face of malignity and contempt, he answered in English that he didn't understand me.
"You understood me very well," said I, without changing my language, "till I told you I was an Englishman. Harkee, man with the broken hat, you are one of the bad Welsh who don't like the English to know the language, lest they should discover your lies and rogueries." He evidently understood what I said, for he gnashed his teeth, though he said nothing. "Well," said I, "Ishall go down to those children and inquire the name of the house;"and I forthwith began to descend the path, the fellow uttering a contemptuous "humph" behind me, as much as to say, "Much you'll make out down there." I soon reached the bottom and advanced towards the house. The dogs had all along been barking violently;as I drew near to them, however, they ceased, and two of the largest came forward wagging their tails. "The dogs were not barking at me," said I, "but at that vagabond above." I went up to the children; they were four in number, two boys and two girls, all red-haired, but tolerably good-looking. They had neither shoes nor stockings. "What is the name of this house?" said I to the eldest, a boy about seven years old. He looked at me, but made no answer.