of the estuary contract with the undulations of its rocky banks, which in some places are covered with brush wood to the water's edge; and in others foam in sullen grandeur against impending cliffs. A sprinkling of cultivation, and plantations of trees as a security from the spray of the ocean, mark the hand of industry. The openings of the surrounding woods display the opposite mountains, bowing with modest submission to the heights of Cader; which, with its bifid summit, now assumed the appearane of a volcano. The rolling clouds smoked over the mountain, and the sudden bursts of light, occasioned by the contending sun, had a grand and aweful effect,

The road follows the inequalities of the shore, till it occupies a narrow shelf of the perpendicular rock of Barmouth. Here we obtained a fine view of the waters of the river, discharging themselves into the beautiful bay of Cardigan,

The delight we felt during this pleasing ride, was nearly terminating in a disastrous conclusion. The road near Barmouth is on the shelf of the rocky mountain, on which part of the town is built; which from the constant washings of the tide, had of late experienced considerable inroads. A spirit of necessary improvement induced the commissioners to devise means to widen it. The most eligible plan was deemed, blowing up the rock. This was now executing by means of gunpowder and the men were busily employed in the work.We had scarcely passed the spot before our horses started at an explosion unexpected by the workmen

1

gave way of

themselves; and a portion of the rock many thousand tons weight, which completely blocked up the road fortunately no lives were lost; but had we been a few seconds later, we must have been inevitably crushed to atoms.

To express gratitude for deliverance to Him, who permitteth not a sparrow to fall to the ground without his paternal notice, may seem like enthusiasm to the eye of impiety; but to us, who consider the acknowledgment of our dependence upon the Deity, and his superintending Providence over our beings and concerns, as a reasonable service, this event has often on recollection been a source of pleasurable sensations; much more calculated to excite the envy, than the contempt of the votaries of irreligion : If smallest beings claim his guardian care,

His noblest creature cannot fail to share,

Entering BARMOUTH, we met with good accommodations at the Corsy gedal Arms, the only inn in the place. This little town is seated close on the sea shore, at the mouth of the Maw; hence called Aber Maw. It is principally built upon a high rock, rows of houses standing upon the shelves one above another, like part of the city of Edinburgh: and said to resemble the town of Gibraltar. A street is formed by a few mariners' and fishermen's houses, built on the strand, which are completely overlooked by the buildings of their wiser neighbours, that are founded on the rock. The former are defended from stormy tides, by large hillocks of sand, which threaten to overwhelm them; and certainly would,

were it not for the friendly assistance of two, otherwise despised vegetables, the ARUNDO ARENARIA and ELYMUS ARENARIUS; which, by their long creeping roots intertwining together, stop the sand, and by causing it to aggregate, change it from a nuisance to a friendly barrier.

To those who conceive that a place of fashionable resort must be handsome in appearance, Barmouth will occasion disappointment. The Coup d'ail is by no means striking. The bathing is certainly as efficacious as any can be: the rough tides so frequent in St. George's Channel, and the rocky shores of the surrounding coast, must greatly tend to change and render salutary the waters of the bay.

The beach is a fine sand, extending from the Traeth Artro to the harbour. The accommodations for bathing, at present, are but indifferent: neither with horses, as at Weymouth and Brighton; nor with a winch and inclined plane, as at Cowes; but fixed on the sand at a certain distance within the reach of the tide, which renders it very inconvenient to the bathers being confined for time.

The company, though not numerous, was genteel. Through the wetness of the season, few of the Shropshire and Hereford beauties had yet arrived; yet the place was expected soon to fill: this being the resort of the indolent and afflicted from the midland part of the kingdom, as Weymouth is for the western part.

Adjoining to the inn is a large boarding-house, capable of containing a number of families. Here

at one common table, which is well served, the company sit down to dinner and supper together, as at Matlock; an admirable harper is kept in pay. An assembly twice a week affords exercise and amusement for the evening; and the surrounding country furnishes objects for both, during the day.

From the friendly footing on which strangers meet here, they resemble one great family, united for the purpose of social intercourse and mutual pleasure. The lodgings are good and the expences very moderate; and, when the price of provisions is taken into the account, it would be extortion, were it otherwise. Mutton three-pence per pound; kid by the quarter the same; fowls ten-pence to one shilling per couple: most kinds of fish from one penny to two pence per pound.

Every consideration is heightened, by the most pleasing attention from the hostess and her servants; so that he who cannot spend two or three months under the roof of Lowii Lewis, without experiencing ennui, must be possessed of a spirit not easily pleased; and has yet one of the most essential of all human sciences to learn,

The harbour is formed by a small island, at the mouth of the river, that serves to secure a safe anchorage for the shipping. It formerly afforded pas. turage for numerous flocks and herds; but, from a late inundation of the sea, it is the greater part laid

* "At the mouth of Maw River lyeth a little islet, scant a bow shot over, without habitation. At ebbe it is fresh water, and at Bludde salt." Lel. V. 42.

under water; and the shifting sands threaten to destroy the harbour.

They are now busily employed in carrying stone to repair the damages; but without greater support, this work, essential to Barmouth as a port, must soon necessarily cease.

Some have been sanguine enough to suppose, that this might be made a place of extensive trade; but a bar of sand, over which the tide rises only a few feet, prevents vessels getting out and in, except at high spring tides; and forms an insurmountable obstacle to Barmouth ever becoming a port of great consequence in the commercial world. In conjunction with this, another obstacle presents itself; a long range of sand and gravel runs out in this part of the bay of Cardigan for more than twenty miles, called Sarn Bardrig, or the Ship-breaking Causeway; from the number of vessels that have been wrecked upon its horrible breakers; which mark its course when the tide flows; and at low spring ebb the shoal is dry.

Tradition says, that all this part of the sea was once an habitable spot, under the name of Cantre'r Gwalod,* or the Lowe Land Hundred; and that in the time of Gwyddno Goronhîr, A. D. 500, it was wholly inundated by the sea.

From the observation of Taliesin, that it was oc

* Wher now the wilde Se is, at the mouth of Deuy and further into the Se, were ons 2 commotes of good, plentiful, but low grounde, caullid Cantre Gwaylode: i. e. terra demissa, vel subsidens planitie; now cleene eatin away. Vid. Lel. Iter. Vol. V. p. 41.