“[August] 27th, Thursday.—Burning day as usual. Breakfasted on tea, eggs, and soup. Went up to the Castle. St. Mary’s Church—river—bridge—toll—The two bridge keepers—River Dun Cledi [{270d}]—runs into Milford Haven—exceedingly deep in some parts—would swallow up the largest ship ever built [{270e}]—people in general dislike and despise the Welsh.
“Started for St. David’s. Course S.W. [{270f}]After walking
about 2 m. crossed Pelkham Bridge [{271a}]—it separates St. Martin’s from Camrwyn [{271b}] parish, as a woman told me who was carrying a pipkin in which were some potatoes in water but not boiled. In her other hand she had a dried herring. She said she had lived in the parish all her life and could speak no Welsh, but that there were some people within it who could speak it. Rested against a shady bank, [{271c}] very thirsty and my hurt foot very sore. She told me that the mountains to the N. were called by various names. One the [Clo---?] mountain. [{271d}]
“The old inn [{271e}]—the blind woman. [{271f}] Arrival of the odd-looking man and the two women I had passed on the road. The collier [on] [{271g}] the ass gives me the real history of Bosvile. Written in Roche Castle, a kind of oblong tower built on the rock—there is a rock within it, a huge crag standing towards the East in what was perhaps once a door. It turned out to be a chapel. [{271h}]
“The castle is call’d in Welsh Castel y Garn, a translation of Roche. The girl and water—B---? (Nanny)
Dallas. [{272a}] Dialogue with the Baptist [{272b}] who was mending the roads.
“Splendid view of sea—isolated rocks to the South. Sir las [{272c}] headlands stretching S. Descent to the shore. New Gall Bridge. [{272d}] The collier’s wife. Jemmy Remaunt [{272e}] was the name of man on the ass. Her own husband goes to work by the shore. The ascent round the hill. Distant view of Roche Castle. The Welshers, the little village [{272f}]—all looking down on the valley appropriately called Y Cwm. Dialogue with tall man Merddyn? [{272g}]—The Dim o Clywed.”
Not much of this second tour can be shown to have been used in “Wild Wales,” where he alludes to it in the ninety-third chapter, saying that he “long subsequently” found some of the wildest solitudes and most romantic scenery among the mountains about Tregaron; but the collier may have given him the suggestion for the encounter with Bosvile in the ninety-eighth chapter. The spelling points to Borrow’s ignorance of the relation of pronunciation and orthography.
In 1858 Borrow’s mother died at Oulton and was buried in Oulton churchyard. During October and November in that year, partly to take his mind from his bereavement, he was walking in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. His
note-book contains “nothing of general interest,” says Knapp, except an imperfect outline of the journey, showing that he was at Oban, Tobermory, the Mull of Cantire, Glasgow, Perth, Aberdeen, Inverness, Dingwall, Tain, Dornoch, Helmsdale, Wick, John o’Groats, Thurso, Stromness, Kirkwall, and Lerwick.