scarcely cut in any shape: at sight of us they fled to certain distances, where, considering themselves safe, they set up a kind of laughing noise, accompanied with ridiculous gestures; which brought to our recollection, the first reception of the Spaniards by the transatlantic Indians. Consulting time, it appeared we had taken twice as much as was necessary, for the number of miles we had to go; and examining our compass, we found we had wandered several miles out of our way to the Northward. To inquire was useless; for many of these people have never heard of the places a few miles from them. Knowing that the station lay due West, we formed an angle for this point, and soon regaining the road, reached Mallwyd. This small village is placed between the salient angles of three abrupt mountains, Arran, Camlin, and Moel Dyfi, in a small vale, through which runs the river Dyfi or Dovey. Surrounded by lofty mountains, with its neat small church, and a few straggling white-washed cottages, a more peaceful retreat cannot be imagined. Secluded from the world, it might be supposed almost deprived of the benefit of society; yet, even here, we found post-chaises and respectable accommodations; a considerable posting business being done between this place and the towns of Dolgelly and Machynlleth. We met with the most pleasing behaviour from Lloyd and his wife, and two daughters of the most engaging manners were anxious which should be most forward in attention. The genteel address and polished manners of the lasses appeared remarkable in this sequestered situation. My curiosity was awake to inquiry. Lloyd committed the business of the inn to the female part of the family, while he occupied himself in a large farm; a custom general with inn-keepers through Wales. He had, in his younger years, lived in England; and his daughters, agreeably to his wish that they should adopt the manners of a country he so much admired, had received their education at Shrewsbury; which, though an English town, may properly be called the capital of North Wales: for there the inhabitants of the interior parts go to be supplied with those articles of convenience or necessity, they cannot otherwise procure, and thither the nymphs of the mountains are sent to finish their education. The church is an humble gothic structure, the floor covered with rushes,* and remarkable for having the Communion-table in the centre of the building. It is literally an altar-piece formed of stone, like a sacrificiary of the ancients. This, in former times, had been placed at the East end of the building; but during the noise of popish usages being introduced, and the Protestant religion in danger, in the time of Laud, Dr. Davis, the Rector of the Parish, and the learned author of the Welsh and Latin Dictionary, in defiance of Archidocesan * This is a practice almost universal through Wales. The floors are without pavement, and as straw is scarce, quantities of dried rushes are laid thick over the floor, for the sake of warmth and cleanliness. 1 injunction, had it removed from its supposed superstitious scite. This act, unworthy of so great a man, is a striking instance of the minutiae of zeal that savours more of passionate warmth, than solidity of judgment; and discovers to us that the violence of opposition, so frequently manifested under professions of real or pretended reformation, did not always arise solely from a regard to the peculiar and pure doctrines of the gospel. But when we consider the imperfections of our present state, and that even a Hooper and a Latimer were not totally free from this littleness of contention; we must not be surprised, if the most perfect characters here are not without alloy for it is only in the unseen regions of purity, that we must look for the perfection of our nature, the fruition of peace, and the exercise of love. In the church-yard are several large yews, whose branches furnish a canopy for the village politicians : one is more remarkable than the rest; it consists of six large arms issuing from the parent trunk, each of which might be deemed a noble tree, but thus united they are highly magnificent in appearance. The girth of the trunk, three feet from the ground, is twenty-two feet six inches, and the average radius of the branches thirty-nine feet; forming an extent of shade two hundred and forty feet in circumference! Various have been the conjectures of Antiquaries respecting this ancient and general custom of planting yews in these sacred places. The reason assigued by Trusler in his Chronology, as being planted for the use of Archers, as a place well known and fenced from cattle, is almost too idle for refutation. Are not all valuable plantations fenced from cattle? And why is there, for the most part, but one planted? Horses and cows refuse it-sheep and goats are not fond of it; and if driven by necessity they generally fall victims to its baleful properties. Add to this, nature has with no sparing hand scattered these trees over all the woods of North Wales. Thousands grow out of the fissures of rocks; and more are frequently seen together than the sum total of all the church-yards in Wales.* Mr. Pennant says, "It was a custom in old times upon Palm Sunday, to make this the substitute of the tree, from which that Sunday took its name, to bless on that day the boughs; also to burn some of them to ashes; and with these the priest, on the following Ash Wednesday, signed the people in the forehead, saying, Memento, homo ! quod pul * The TAXUS BACCATA, of the class Dioccia, (i. e. having only male flowers on one tree and female on the other) has been generally supposed to be an exotic plant: but if those who have doubted of its aboriginality, would visit the mountains of Wales or Scotland, where it is seen growing in inaccessible heights, which the hand of the planter never can have reached; they must be con vinced of the contrary. Added to this strong indication of its being an indigenous plant, the fact authenticated by M. de la Boyne, in the Philosophical Transactions, dissipates every shadow of a doubt: "That yew trees with their roots situated in the manner in which they had grown, have been found in several parts of England beneath the surface of the earth." Motte's Abridgment, Vol. II. . 263. vis es, & in pulverem reverteris! And of the branches, so blessed, it was customary to stick some in the fields, in rogation week, or at the time of processions." That this was a use sometimes made of these trees, is very probable; but it does not satisfactorily account for their being planted here. Most of those in church-yards are the male plant, which may easily be distinguished by the deeper green of its foliage; an accurate idea of which is given by Parnel, in his mournful description of it : "Yon black and funeral Yew, "That bathes the charnel house with dew!" See also White's History of Selborne, p. 324.` And probably for this darker appearance they were selected. The use of emblems in funeral rites, borrowed from the Jews, was adopted by the different heathen nations. The Greeks and Romans carried branches of cypress before the corpse, which being once cut is said never to revive again: as an emblematic representation of the miserable doctrine of annihilation. You know the elegant lines in the Idyllium of Bion, by Moschus; and while you admire the beautiful turn of the Poet, you will lament with me, that he who could so sweetly sing, should have had such darksome thoughts! σε "Α Αν τα μαλαχαι επαν κατα καπον ολωνται. "Alas! the meanest flowers the gardens yield, |