the lives of all the beauty and fashion of Caernarvon, Meirionnydd,
and Anglesea, and, like the Greek Olympiads and the Roman consulates,
served as the main pillar of memory, round which all the events of the
year were suspended and entwined. Thus, in recalling to mind any
circumstance imperfectly recollected, the principal point to be
ascertained was, whether it had occurred in the year of the first,
second, third, or fourth ball of Headlong Ap-Breakneck, or Headlong
Ap-Torrent, or Headlong Ap-Hurricane; and, this being satisfactorily
established, the remainder followed of course in the natural order of
its ancient association.

This eventful anniversary being arrived, every chariot, coach,
barouche and barouchette, landau and landaulet, chaise, curricle,
buggy, whiskey, and tilbury, of the three counties, was in motion: not
a horse was left idle within five miles of any gentleman's seat, from
the high-mettled hunter to the heath-cropping galloway. The ferrymen
of the Menai were at their stations before daybreak, taking a double
allowance of rum and _cwrw_ to strengthen them for the fatigues of the
day. The ivied towers of Caernarvon, the romantic woods of
Tan-y-bwlch, the heathy hills of Kernioggau, the sandy shores of
Tremadoc, the mountain recesses of Bedd-Gelert, and the lonely lakes
of Capel-Cerig, re-echoed to the voices of the delighted ostlers and
postillions, who reaped on this happy day their wintry harvest.
Landlords and landladies, waiters, chambermaids, and toll-gate
keepers, roused themselves from the torpidity which the last solitary
tourist, flying with the yellow leaves on the wings of the autumnal
wind, had left them to enjoy till the returning spring: the bustle of
August was renewed on all the mountain roads, and, in the meanwhile,
Squire Headlong and his little fat butler carried most energetically
into effect the lessons of the _savant_ in the Court of