“This hour we dedicate to joy; Then fill the Hirlas horn, my boy, That shineth like the sea! Whose azure handles, tipt with gold, Invite the grasp of Britons bold, The Sons of Liberty.” The scene is the night after the battle, and the prince passes the horn round to each of his chiefs, and reckons up their gallant deeds. Then, turning to the empty seats of those who have fallen, the princely bard, who does not fail to blow his own trumpet, drinks to the memory of the dead:-- “Pour out the horn, tho’ he desire it not, And heave a sigh o’er Morgan’s early grave; Doomed in his clay-cold tenement to rot, While we revere the memory of the brave.” From Bethesda a road leads across the mountains to Bettws-y-Coed (the Bead-house in the Wood) by the pretty lake Ogwen. There are a number of picturesque tarns in the neighbourhood--the wildly beautiful Llyn Idwal, Llyn Bochlwyd, Marchlyn Mawr (the Great Lake of the Horse), Ffynnon Llugwy, Llyn Cowlyd, Llyn Eigiau--and several days may well be spent in exploring the beauties of this mountain region, but the explorer must be prepared for vast solitudes and for steep scrambles, and he must take refreshments with him. A word of caution to anyone visiting Marchlyn. Should he see a horse, however quiet and staid, browsing near, let him not venture to mount it, although the beast seems to invite the weary traveller through the heather to take a seat on its back. No sooner is he in his seat than all its want of spirit is at an end. It flies away with its rider towards the lake, plunges in, and will never be seen again. It is the Ceffyl y Dwfr, the Water-horse, a spirit that lives in the depths, with a special taste for human flesh, which it will munch below when it has its victim at the bottom of the blue water. CHAPTER VI SNOWDON Beauty of shape of Snowdon--Vortigern retreated to it--Story of his castle--Merlin--S. Germanus--The last Llewelyn--Dolbadarn--Owen and David--Treachery--David Gam--Topography of the Snowdon district--Glacial action--The great red sea--Llanberis--Church rights a family matter--Married clergy--Beddgelert--The legend of the hound--Whence it came and how it grew--Capel Curig--Curig visits Brittany. SNOWDON is a topic to be approached with hesitation and reluctance, because it has been so much and so well written about that it is not easy to describe the mountain without a sense of falling behind others who have done the work superlatively well. It is therefore advisable to touch only on such topics as have been passed over by other writers, or not dealt with fully by them.