There are many interesting expeditions to be made round this pretty seaside town. Near by is Llanbadarn, the Church of St. Paternus, a Breton monk, who, in the sixth century, brought the Christian faith to this region. This church developed into a monastery in later days, and became a refuge in the twelfth century for an unusually studious Bishop of those days, who was driven from St. David’s by the rough Norman barons and their favourite priests, and who found at Llanbadarn leisure and peace to write his record of the Welsh saints in older times, and to keep a valuable “chronicle,” or history, of his own day. Along the coast is Borth, and on the beach there, “between the Dovey and Aberystwith,” may have been that Weir of Gwyddno, of which we read in the first chapter. There, you will remember, the unfortunate youth Elphin found a leathern bag with a child inside, who told him that he would be to him “in the days of his distress better than any three hundred salmon.” And you shall hear now how, on one occasion alone, Taliesin, the child-bard, was as good as his word. [Illustration: OLD ROMAN BRIDGE NEAR SWANSEA. _Page 4._] Elphin had been made prisoner by the cruel King Maelgwn, who cast him into a dungeon, barred by thirteen locked doors. After some attempts had been made in vain to win his freedom, Taliesin bade Elphin wager the King that he had a horse both better and swifter than the King’s horses. The King accepted the challenge, promised him his freedom if he should win the race, and fixed day, and time, and place for the trial of the steeds. When all was ready, the King went thither with all his Court and four and twenty of his swiftest horses; while Elphin could only muster a sorry nag ridden by a barefoot boy. The course was marked out and the horses placed ready, when Taliesin came running with twenty-four sprigs of holly, burnt black, in his hand, and he bade the barefoot boy place the twigs in his belt. Then, as he did so, he whispered and bade him let all the King’s horses get before him, and as each overtook him, to strike the horse with a holly-twig over the crupper, and then let that twig fall, and then to take another twig and do the same to every one of the horses as he was overtaken by each. He also told the boy to watch carefully when his own horse should stumble, and to throw down his cap on the spot. All this was done, and every one of the King’s horses, when he was struck by the holly-twig, began to lag behind, so that the horse of Elphin, ridden by the barelegged boy, won the race with ease. So the King was forced to release Elphin, and when this was done, Taliesin took his master to the spot where his horse had stumbled, and bade workmen dig a hole there, and when they had dug deep enough they found a cauldron full of gold. Then said Taliesin: “Elphin, take thou this as a reward for having taken me out of the weir, and reared me from that time until now.” So Elphin went home a rich man to his father.