BOOK I.
"Noch in meines Lebens Lenze War ich and ich wandert' aus, Und der Jugend frohe Tanze Liess ich in des Vaters Haus." SCHILLER, Der Pilgrim.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
"Now rests our vicar.

They who knew him best, Proclaim his life to have been entirely rest; Not one so old has left this world of sin, More like the being that he entered in."-- CRABBE.
In one of the Welsh counties is a small village called A----.

It is somewhat removed from the high road, and is, therefore, but little known to those luxurious amateurs of the picturesque, who view nature through the windows of a carriage and four.

Nor, indeed, is there anything, whether of scenery or association, in the place itself, sufficient to allure the more sturdy enthusiast from the beaten tracks which tourists and guide-books prescribe to those who search the Sublime and Beautiful amidst the mountain homes of the ancient Britons.

Still, on the whole, the village is not without its attractions.