Taliessin is supposed to have lived in the time of Maelgwn Gwynedd, in the first half of the sixth century, and is credited with a satire on the king’s bards; but the poem was actually composed in the thirteenth century, and satirises the bards of the writer’s own day:-- “Minstrels persevere in their false custom, Immoral ditties are their delight; Vain and tasteless praises theirs. At all times falsehood they utter. Innocent people they turn to jest, Married women’s character they take away And destroy the innocence of maids. They drink all night; they sleep all day, The Church they hate, and the tavern they haunt. Tithes and offerings to God they do not pay, Nor worship Him Sunday or Holyday. Everything travails to obtain its food, Save the minstrel and the lazy thief.” It was the degradation of the minstrel that led to such severe Acts being passed to put him down. But the harper and minstrel remained attached to the household of a gentleman as a matter of course in Wales till the eighteenth century, and, as we have seen, so late as in the first half of the nineteenth century an Anglesey parson had his harper as one of his household. [Illustration: CADER IDRIS] CHAPTER XII DOLGELLEY The Lake of Bala--Estuary of the Mawddach--Barmouth--Cader Idris--The Torrent and Precipice Walks--“Welsh web”--Numerous lakes--Fishing in Wales--Treachery of David ab Llewelyn--Gruffydd’s attempt to escape--“The Spirit’s Blasted Tree”--John Thomas--Characteristics of the Welsh people--Intelligence great--None of the coarseness characterising the Anglo-Saxon bumpkin--Long-heads and short-heads--A Welsh courtship--Untruthfulness a product of servitude--Religiousness of the Welsh--The theatre discountenanced--Old Interludes--Richard Malvine--Twm o’r Nant--Poetry in Wales--Welsh Nonconformity--The squirearchy--The Seiet--The old Welsh preachers--Embellishments--The Hwyl--Reviving the spirit--How the Church was treated--The Methodist Revival--The Church in Wales. ONLY as one reaches the head of the Bala Lake, coming from Ruabon, does the beauty of form of the Welsh mountains begin to impress one. Then ensues the rapid descent of the valley of the Wnion, down which the train gallops, and as Dolgelley is approached, Cader Idris breaks on the sight. Beyond Dolgelley expands the estuary of the Mawddach, and when the tide is in it is hard to match it for loveliness in the British Isles, especially when the heather is in bloom. Then the flush is on the mountains above that mirror, and it is like the glow of glad surprise on the young girl’s cheek when she contemplates herself in a glass and for the first time realises how beautiful she is. Dolgelley and Barmouth are two delightful places at which to halt and whence to explore the glorious surrounding scenery. To the former belongs Cader Idris, and to the latter Llawllech and Diphwys. To the first the vale of the Mawddach, and to the second that of the Arthog.