Wild Wales: The People, Language, & Scenery

by George Borrow

But you had only to admit that Welshmen were superior to all others save Englishmen in physical prowess, and Borrow’s championship of the Cymric athlete could be as enthusiastic and even as aggressive as the best and most self-assertive Welshman ever born in Arvon. Consequently I can but regret that he did not live to see the great recrudescence of Cymric energy which we are seeing at the present moment in “Cymru, gwlad y gân,”—an energy which is declaring itself more vigorously every day, and not merely in pure intellectual matters, not merely in political matters, but equally in those same athletics which to Borrow were so important. Sparring has gone out of fashion as much in the Principality as in England and Scotland; but that which has succeeded it, football, has taken a place in athleticism such as would have bewildered Borrow, as it would have bewildered most of his contemporaries. What would he have said, I wonder, had he been told that in this favourite twentieth-century game the Welsh would surpass all others in these islands, and save the honour of Great Britain? No one would have enjoyed witnessing the great contest between the Welsh and the New Zealand athletes at the Cardiff Arms Park on the 16th of last December with more gusto than the admirer of English sparring and of the English pugilistic heroes, from Big Ben Bryan to Tom Spring. No one would have been more exhilarated than he by the song with which it opened—

“Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn anwyl i mi.” [0]

But one wonders what he would have said after the struggle was over—after Wales’s latest triumph over the Saxon record of physical prowess. One can imagine, perhaps, his mixed feelings had he been a witness of that great athletic struggle which is going to be historic—the immortal contest in which after England had succumbed entirely to the Colonials, the honour of the old country was saved by Wales at the eleventh hour. His cheek would have glowed with admiration of the exploits of the only footballers whose names will be historic, and being historic must be mentioned in connection with his own Welsh pages,—I mean the names of Travers, of Bush, of Winfield, of Owen, of Jones, of Llewellyn, of Gabe, of Nicholls, of Morgan, of Williams, of Hodges, of Harding, of Joseph, and the names of the two Pritchards. Whatsoever might have been his after-emotions when provincial patriotism began to assert itself, Borrow would in that great hour of Cymric triumph have frankly admitted, I think, that for once England’s honour was saved by Wales.

The following is a list of the works of George Borrow—

Faustus, His Life, Death [from the German of F. M. von Klinger], 1825; Romantic Ballads [from the Danish of Öhlenschläger, and from the Kiempé Viser], and miscellaneous pieces [from the Danish of Ewald and others], 1826; Targum, or Metrical Translations from Thirty Languages and Dialects, 1835; The Talisman of A. Pushkin, with other pieces [from Russian and Polish], 1835; New Testament (Luke), Embéo e Majaró Lucas . . . El Evangelio segun S. Lucas, traducido al Romani, 1837; The Bible in Spain, 3 vols., 1843; The Zincali (Gypsies in Spain), 2 vols., 1841; Lavengro, 1851; The Romany Rye, 2 vols., 1857; The Sleeping Bard, translated from the Cambrian British, 1860; Wild Wales, 3 vols., 1862; Romano Lavo-Lil: Word-Book of the Romany, 1874; Násr Al-Din, Khwājah, The Turkish Jester [from the Turkish], 1884; Death of Balder [from the Danish of Ewald], 1889.

The Life, Writings, and Correspondence of George Borrow, by Knapp (W. I.), appeared in 1899.

ITINERARY

CHAPTER		PAGE
I.	Proposed Excursion	[5]
II.	The Start, Peterborough, Birmingham	[10]
III.	Chester	[14]
IV.	Chester, Camp-meeting	[19]
V.	Chester, Book-Stall, Wrexham	[24]
VI.	Llangollen, the Dee	[30]
VII.	Llangollen, Lodgings	[34]
VIII.	The Robber’s Leap	[37]
IX.	Llangollen, Pengwern	[43]
X.	The Berwyn	[48]
XI.	Pont Fadog	[50]
XII.	Pont y Cysswllt	[58]
XIII.	Llangollen, the Abbey of the Vale of the Cross	[64]
XIV.	Expedition to Ruthyn, the Column	[69]
XV.	The Turf Tavern, Ruthyn	[74]
XVI.	Return from Ruthyn, Agricola’s Hill	[80]
XVII.	Llangollen, Plas Newydd, Llyn Ceiriog	[84]
XVIII.	Llangollen, the Parish Clerk	[92]
XIX.	Llangollen, the Vicar, the Pool of Catherine Lingo,Robber’s Leap	[100]
XX.	The Valley of Ceiriog, Huw Morris’s Chair, Pont yMeibion	[107]
XXI.	Pandy Teirw	[116]
XXII.	Llangollen Fair	[124]
XXIII.	Pont y Pandy, Glendower’s Mount, Corwen	[125]
XXIV.	The Rock of Heroes, the Italian at the Inn	[134]
XXV.	On the way to Bangor, the Irishman	[142]
XXVI.	Pentre Voelas, the Conway, Swallow Falls, Capel Curig	[149]
XXVII.	Bangor	[159]
XXVIII.	Menai bridges	[165]
XXIX.	Snowdon, the Wyddfa	[172]
XXX.	Gronwy Owen	[179]
XXXI.	Anglesea, Pentraeth Coch	[181]
XXXII.	Llanfair Mathafarn Eithaf, the Birthplace of GronwyOwen	[186]
XXXIII.	The Inn at Pentraeth Coch	[199]
XXXIV.	Conversation at the Inn	[203]
XXXV.	A Brilliant Morning	[206]
XXXVI.	Leaving Pentraeth Coch, Penmynnydd, Tomb of Owen Tudor	[209]
XXXVII.	Dyffryn Gaint	[213]
XXXVIII.	The Inn at L—	[225]
XXXIX.	Bound for Holy Head	[231]
XL.	Caer Gybi	[237]
XLI.	The Pier	[240]
XLII.	Town of Holy Head, Pen Caer Gybi	[244]
XLIII.	Bangor, Port Dyn Norwig, Caernarvon	[251]
XLIV.	Pont Bettws, Llyn Cwellyn	[255]
XLV.	Inn at Bethgelert	[265]
XLVI.	The Valley of Gelert	[267]
XLVII.	Tan y Bwlch, Festiniog	[273]
XLVIII.	Mynydd Mawr and Mynydd Bach, Tref y Talcot	[279]
XLIX.	Bala	[288]
L.	The Tomen Bala	[298]
LI.	Back at Llangollen	[300]
LII.	Llangollen, Attempted Murder	[304]
LIII.	Pen y Coed	[308]
LIV.	Chirk	[310]
LV.	Llangollen, Some of the Inhabitants	[320]
LVI.	Llangollen, News of the Fall of Sebastopol	[324]
LVII.	Pentré y Dwr	[329]
LVIII.	Sunday at Llangollen	[334]
LIX.	Llangollen, History of Twm O’r Nant	[338]
LX.	Twm O’r Nant, his Interludes	[348]
LXI.	Walk to Wrexham, Methodistical Volume	[354]
LXII.	Rhiwabon Road	[360]
LXIII.	Last Night at Llangollen	[364]
LXIV.	Departure for South Wales	[367]
LXV.	Inn at Llan Rhyadr	[373]
LXVI.	Sycharth	[378]
LXVII.	Llan Silin	[384]
LXVIII.	Llan Silin Church, Tomb of Huw Morris	[388]
LXIX.	Church of Llan Rhyadr	[393]
LXX.	Rhyadr, Mountain Scenery	[395]
LXXI.	Wild Moors, Arrival at Bala	[398]
LXXII.	Bala, The White Lion	[403]
LXXIII.	Llyn Tegid	[409]
LXXIV.	Bala to Dinas Mawddwy	[414]
LXXV.	Inn at Mallwydd	[423]
LXXVI.	Mallwydd and its Church, Cemmaes	[424]
LXXVII.	The Vale of Dyfi	[428]
LXXVIII.	Machynlleth	[432]
LXXIX.	Machynlleth, Historic Events	[438]
LXXX.	Machynlleth to Esgyrn Hirion	[442]
LXXXI.	The Mining Compting Room	[450]
LXXXII.	Inn at Pont Erwyd	[457]
LXXXIII.	Conversation at the inn and on the way to theDevil’s Bridge	[465]
LXXXIV.	The Devil’s Bridge	[474]
LXXXV.	Dinner at the Hospice	[477]
LXXXVI.	Dafydd Ab Gwilym	[481]
LXXXVII.	Start for Plynlimmon	[489]
LXXXVIII.	Plynlimmon, and back to the Devil’s Bridge	[491]
LXXXIX.	Hafod	[499]
XC.	Spytty Ystwyth	[503]
XCI.	Strata Florida, burial-place of Dafydd Ab Gwilym	[507]
XCII.	Rhyd Fendigaid to Tregaron	[512]
XCIII.	Tregaron Church	[523]
XCIV.	Llan Ddewi Brefi	[527]
XCV.	Lampeter to the Bridge of Twrch	[532]
XCVI.	Llandovery	[539]
XCVII.	Llandovery Church	[544]
XCVIII.	Llandovery to Gutter Vawr	[553]
XCIX.	Inn at Gutter Vawr	[561]
C.	Gutter Vawr to Swansea	[568]
CI.	Swansea	[579]
CII.	Swansea to Neath	[581]
CIII.	Town of Neath, the Glowing Mountain	[583]
CIV.	Merthyr Tydvil	[586]
CV.	Start for Caerfili	[589]
CVI.	Pen y Glas to Caerfili	[599]
CVII.	Caerfili	[602]
CVIII.	Town of Newport	[606]
CIX.	Arrival at Chepstow	[616]

CHAPTER I

Proposed Excursion—Knowledge of Welsh—Singular Groom—Harmonious Distich—Welsh Pronunciation—Dafydd Ab Gwilym.