born in public incest, though supported by their own wealth and by
that of others, leaving them nothing but what the liberality of his
own mind and the counsel of good men from pity suggested: a proof
that adulterous and incestuous persons are displeasing to God.



CHAPTER IX



Of the mountains of Eryri


I must not pass over in silence the mountains called by the Welsh
Eryri, but by the English Snowdon, or Mountains of Snow, which
gradually increasing from the land of the sons of Conan, and
extending themselves northwards near Deganwy, seem to rear their
lofty summits even to the clouds, when viewed from the opposite
coast of Anglesey. They are said to be of so great an extent, that
according to an ancient proverb, "As Mona could supply corn for all
the inhabitants of Wales, so could the Eryri mountains afford
sufficient pasture for all the herds, if collected together." Hence
these lines of Virgil may be applied to them:-


"Et quantum longis carpent armenta diebus,
Exigua tautum gelidus ros nocte reponet."

"And what is cropt by day the night renews,