extremity of a plain I came to a lone and lustrous Castle, at the
foot of which was a torrent.


We are coaching in Wales, having journeyed by easy stages from
Liverpool through Llanberis, Penygwryd, Bettws-y-Coed, Beddgelert
and Dolgelly on our way to Bristol, where we shall make up our
minds as to the next step; deciding in solemn conclave, with floods
of argument and temperamental differences of opinion, what is best
worth seeing where all is beautiful and inspiring. If I had
possessed a little foresight I should have avoided Wales, for,
having proved apt at itinerary doggerel, I was solemnly created,
immediately on arrival, Mistress of Rhymes and Travelling Laureate
to the party--an office, however honourable, that is no sinecure
since it obliges me to write rhymed eulogies or diatribes on
Dolgelly, Tan-y-Bulch, Gyn-y-Coed, Llanrychwyn, and other Welsh
hamlets whose names offer breakneck fences to the Muse.

I have not wanted for training in this direction, having made a
journey (heavenly in reminiscence) along the Thames, stopping at
all the villages along its green banks. It was Kitty Schuyler and
Jack Copley who insisted that I should rhyme Henley and Streatley
and Wargrave before I should be suffered to eat luncheon, and they
who made me a crown of laurel and hung a pasteboard medal about my
blushing neck when I succeeded better than usual with Datchett!--I
well remember Datchett, where the water-rats crept out of the reeds
in the shallows to watch our repast; and better still do I recall
Medmenham Abbey, which defied all my efforts till I found that it
was pronounced Meddenam with the accent on the first syllable. The
results of my enforced tussles with the Muse stare at me now from