Folk-Lore of West and Mid-WalesDavies, Jonathan Ceredig
History
Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales
Davies, Jonathan Ceredig
Folklore -- Wales; Wales -- Social life and customs
"By this, the poor man was thoroughly frightened, and many and truly
sincere were his regrets that he had broken the Sabbath; but on he
went. He passed through the village of Llanilar without any further
fright. He had now gone about three miles from Llanfihangel along the
road that goes to Aberystwyth, and he had begun to dispel the fear
that had seized him, but to his horror he saw something approach him
that made his hair stand on end. He could not at first make it out,
but he soon clearly saw that it was a horse that was madly dashing
towards him. He had only just time to step on to the ditch, when,
horrible to relate, a headless white horse rushed passed him.
"His limbs shook and the perspiration stood out like beads on bis
forehead. This terrible spectre he saw when close to Tan'rallt, but
he dared not turn into the house, as he was travelling on Sunday,
so on he went again, and heartily did he wish himself at home. In
fear and dread he proceeded on his journey towards Penrhiw. The most
direct way from Tan'rallt to Penrhiw was a pathway through the fields,
and Davies took this pathway, and now he was in sight of his home,
and he hastened towards the boundary fence between Tan'rallt and
Penrhiw. He knew that there was a gap in the hedge that he could get
through, and for this gap he aimed; he reached it, but further progress
was impossible, for in the gap was a lady lying at full length, and
immovable, and stopping up the gap entirely. Poor Davies was now more
terrified than ever. He sprang aside, he screamed and then fainted
right away. As soon as he recovered consciousness, he, on his knees,
and in a loud supplicating voice, prayed for pardon. His mother and
father-in-law heard him, and the mother knew the voice and said, "It
is my Will! some mishap has overtaken him." They went to him and found
he was so weak that he could not move, and they were obliged to carry
him home, where he recounted to them his marvellous experience. The
late Rector of Llangynog, who was intimately acquainted with William
Davies, had many conversations with him about his Sunday journey,
and he argued the matter with him, and tried to persuade him that he
had seen nothing, but that it was his imagination working on a nervous
temperament that had created all his fantasies. He, however, failed
to convince him, for Davies affirmed that it was no hallucination,
but that what he had seen that Sunday was a punishment for his having
broken the Fourth Commandment.
"Davies ever afterwards was a strict observer of the Sabbath."
THE DEVIL AND LLANARTH CHURCH.
A writer in the Arch. Cam., 1850, page 73, says:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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