Wild Wales: The People, Language, & SceneryBorrow, George
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Wild Wales: The People, Language, & Scenery
Borrow, George
Borrow, George, 1803-1881 -- Travel -- Wales; Wales -- Description and travel
On reaching the ruined village where the Pandy stood I stopped, and
looked up the gloomy valley to the west, down which the brook which joins
the Ceiriog at this place descends, whereupon John Jones said, that if I
wished to go up it a little way he should have great pleasure in
attending me, and that he would show me a cottage built in the hen ddull,
or old fashion, to which he frequently went to ask for the rent; he being
employed by various individuals in the capacity of rent-gatherer. I said
that I was afraid that if he was a rent-collector, both he and I should
have a sorry welcome. “No fear,” he replied, “the people are very good
people, and pay their rent very regularly,” and without saying another
word he led the way up the valley. At the end of the village, seeing a
woman standing at the door of one of the ruinous cottages, I asked her
the name of the brook, or torrent, which came down the valley. “The
Tarw,” said she, “and this village is called Pandy Teirw.”
“Why is the streamlet called the bull?” said I. “Is it because it comes
in winter weather roaring down the glen and butting at the Ceiriog?”
The woman laughed, and replied that perhaps it was. The valley was wild
and solitary to an extraordinary degree, the brook or torrent running in
the middle of it covered with alder trees. After we had proceeded about
a furlong we reached the house of the old fashion. It was a rude stone
cottage standing a little above the road on a kind of platform on the
right-hand side of the glen; there was a paling before it with a gate, at
which a pig was screaming, as if anxious to get in. “It wants its
dinner,” said John Jones, and opened the gate for me to pass, taking
precautions that the screamer did not enter at the same time. We entered
the cottage, very glad to get into it, a storm of wind and rain having
just come on. Nobody was in the kitchen when we entered. It looked
comfortable enough, however; there was an excellent fire of wood and
coals, and a very snug chimney-corner. John Jones called aloud, but for
some time no one answered; at last a rather good-looking woman, seemingly
about thirty, made her appearance at a door at the farther end of the
kitchen. “Is the mistress at home,” said Jones, “or the master?”
“They are neither at home,” said the woman; “the master is abroad at his
work, and the mistress is at the farm-house of — three miles off, to pick
feathers (trwsio plu).” She asked us to sit down.
“And who are you?” said I.
“I am only a lodger,” said she; “I lodge here with my husband, who is a
clog-maker.”
“Can you speak English?” said I.
“O yes,” said she, “I lived eleven years in England, at a place called
Bolton, where I married my husband, who is an Englishman.”
“Can he speak Welsh?” said I.
“Not a word,” said she. “We always speak English together.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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