once the name Havod sounds on the ear or flits before the eye of memory, a sense of reverence mingled with regretful sadness takes possession of the mind. In this county there is no such spot; in romantic beauty it has scarcely an equal; in the intense interest of its brief history, and the tragic nature of the eclipse under which it passed, it stands absolutely alone in the modern history of the Principality.

Thomas Johnes, of Havod, the translator of Froissart and Monstrelet, the builder and tree-planter, has been more than half a century in his grave; many of the groves he planted have been cut down, and the breath of adverse fortune has passed over the hills he loved so well; but the impress of his genius and the charm of his name rest upon the spot as freshly and sensibly as if he were still alive.

In 1783 this place, though long the property of an old family of the Herberts, was a rugged and dreary waste, when Mr. Johnes, who inherited the estate, conceived the idea of converting the wilderness and the solitary place into a land of pleasantness. In five years he had planted on mountain and hill-side, in dingles and valleys, on crags and precipices, not less than 2,065,000 trees, of which 1,200,000 were larch. In another year he added 300,000 larch, 300,000 birch, and 10,000 spruce firs. He employed a multitude of labourers, built them comfortable cottages, made roads, and enclosed lands. Once a year a reunion of tenants and labourers, with their wives and children, took place at Havod, when the house was literally thrown open, and all who came from far or near were welcomed to the festive board. Schools were built for the young of the tenantry; a surgeon was paid an annual stipend to attend to the ailments of the poor; a printing establishment was set up for the production of costly books,-for with all his building, planting, planning, and attention to public affairs as member of Parliament and Lord Lieutenant, Mr. Johnes found leisure to translate, edit, and print Froissart, Joinville, Monstrelet, Brocquière, and other books which will carry his name down to a distant posterity. All this was done in the space of comparatively few years; all was apparently prosperous and auspicious. It seemed as if the Temple of Knowledge, Peace, and Brotherhood had been opened for perpetual worship in these Cardigan hills. But all came to an almost sudden end; the sumptuous mansion, with its costly statuary, carved work, and paintings, its splendid furniture and choice library, with jewels, wardrobes, and a thousand objects of art and vertu, were on the 13th of March, 1807, consumed by fire! Lamentable as was the burning, some few years ago, of Wynnstay, with its valuable paintings and unique manuscripts, the calamity was small compared with that at Havod. Forty years had Mr. Johnes been employed as a collector of books and MSS., and the treasures he had accumulated were of great value. No catalogue of his library had ever been made, so that" it was consigned not only to destruction, but to oblivion." In three hours the havoc was completed. With the exception of the turrets on the corners, the bare walls only remained standing when Mr. Johnes returned from his parliamentary duties in London. The origin of the fire has continued a mystery. There was a fire-engine on the premises, but, there being none present at the time that could work it, the fearful elenient raged on without interruption, until its force was exhausted by the absence of anything more to consume.

The property being partly insured, about £20,000 was recovered from the offices, which Mr. Johnes spent in restoring the mansion. But a consuming hand had been placed upon his house. He had bent his bow beyond its strength. He fell into pecuniary embarrasshis only child, a daughter, died in 1811, Mr. Johnes himself in 1816, and his widow

in 1833. The estate of Havod was purchased by the then Duke of Newcastle, who carried on the erection of the house and general improvement of the place; but after a short time, in 1845, disposed of the property to Sir Henry Hoghton, of Hoghton Tower, Lancashire, who, after completing a superb mansion at an immense cost, sold the estate to William Chambers, Esq., of Llanelly, who again, in turn, has sold large portions of it to different purchasers, and, it is said, contemplates disposing of the whole. Thus, like many other contrivances of great and benevolent minds, the idea which Mr. Johnes had cherished, with fondness so enthusiastic, of consolidating and decorating an estate of some 14,000 acres in the mountains, and making it the gem and pride of his county, has been totally frustrated. Hundreds of poor have lost employment, and the country a material source of wealth. The mystery of misfortune has another illustration, and the melancholy words of the despondent "Preacher" seem to be verified," The wise man is as the fool; one event happeneth to them all."

The Ystwyth, after leaving the domain of Havod, pursues its rapid and boisterous course. through scenes of great wildness and occasionally of surpassing beauty, until, after travelling some twelve or fourteen miles, it begins to glide in a more level bed through the ancient manor of the Earl of Lisburne, for many hundred years known in Ceredigion as Trawscoed, literally translated and known in English as "Crosswood."

The mansion of Trawscoed, situated in an expanded part of the Vale of Ystwyth, is sheltered on almost all sides by gently rising hills and luxuriant woods. The place wears an air of quietude and aristocratic ease, with the absence of display. The park is spacious, and the farm land, which Lord Lisburne himself cultivates, is kept in the highest state of order and productiveness. The house is an unpretending edifice of some 250 years old, with a spacious entrance hall of the old style, with the massive table spread, and the walls

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all round covered with valuable paintings of past members of the family. Additions have been made to the original structure, among which is a spacious library at the back, elaborately but chastely decorated, and containing a large collection of valuable books, many of them in the Italian and French languages.

On this spot have the Vaughan family resided since the year 1200, through a long series of ages. Like Gogerddan, the same family have continued its owners and occupiers without interruption from the first possession. (For pedigree, see Lisburne, Crosswood.) In the immediate neighbourhood, on the other side of the river, which is here crossed by a skeleton bridge amid overhanging woods, is Birchgrove, the embowered residence of the heir of the estate, Lord Vaughan, and usually appropriated to a cadet of the family.

The valley of the Ystwyth, all the way from Crosswood to its discharge into the sea near Aberystwyth, offers a continued succession of bright and attractive views. The sides of the vale are often broken into ravines and gullies, whose recesses are clothed with the verdure of the larch and the birch, while the more barren sides and uplands are enlivened by trim cottages and homesteads, and every spot admitting of it is cultivated with diligent thrift. In this part of the valley we witness several elegant residences: Llidiarde, the seat of G. W. Parry, Esq.; Castle Hill, the beautifully situated mansion of James Loxdale, Esq.; Abermaide (properly and anciently Abermâd, the junction of the stream Mâd with the

GRIFFITHS & WATSON DEL KO

NANTEOS: THE SEAT OF COL. W. T. R. POWELL.

Ystwyth), where Lewis P. Pugh, Esq., is now (1871) erecting a sumptuous residence from designs by the accomplished architect, J. P. Seddon, Esq. Further on, and to the left of the vale, is Ffosrhyd-galed, the seat of James Davies, Esq.; and near the sea, Tanybwlch, the property of M. L. V. Davies, Esq.

A little over the hills to the right, embosomed in a warm depression, where several

rivulets meet-a place made by nature for a home of elegance-is the mansion of Nanteos surrounded by hills and woodlands, and seen to advantage from the coach road.

Whether the name of this delightful place, which means the "nightingale's dell," is the creation of fancy or the record of fact is not known, but the shy and fastidious songster could scarcely exercise her discretion better than by choosing such a locality for her summer home.

The third river in topographical order, as we survey Cardiganshire from north to south, and by no means the least interesting, is the Acron. This little river, which finds the end. of its travel at Aberaeron-formerly a shipbuilding, now a pretty watering-place,-drains a considerable portion of Central Cardiganshire, having its main watershed on the eastern slopes of Mynyddbach, whence it travels for a time in a direction away from the sea, and then winds round to the right by Llangeitho and Capel Bettws, towards the Vale of Aeron proper, at Llanllyr. At Abermeurig, the residence of J. E. Rogers, Esq., it receives a small contributory, and at a short distance another, both coming down from the uplands and moors dividing these lower parts from the Vale of Teivi to the east. It then, with increased volume, and amid wider and more cultured scenes, passes by Llanllyr, the seat of Col. John Lewes; Brynog, that of Capt. Herbert Vaughan; and all the way to Ciliau Aeron and beyond is environed on either side by a well-wooded and lovely landscape.

To the right, at the village of Ciliau Aeron, the road branches off for Llanbadarn-trer Eglwys, close by the mansion of Tyglyn, the residence of W. J. Davies, Esq., and the Misses Davies. This place is of long antiquity, and by reason of old associations its features are maintained in their integrity, and made permanent in the engraving above, reproduced from a faithful water-colour drawing.

It is not precisely known at what date this house was erected,- a circumstance which of itself testifies to its age; and there are reasons for believing that even in earlier times than its own period the site was occupied by very ancient buildings. The scenery around is

rich and varied in the extreme, the valley, though narrow; being at the same time sufficiently wide to present fertile meads of some extent, garnished on the sides with shaded glades and hanging woods, among which are fine specimens of oak, ash, and elm. The alluvial soil is prolific, and the husbandry generally good; an air of comfort and scrupulous cleanliness prevails among the humbler dwellings of the neighbourhood, giving to the traveller the impression that this valley, on a small scale, is a copy of Utopia. It is certainly true, as a poet has sung,

"There golden treasures swell the plains,

And herds and flocks are there;

And there the god of plenty reigns

Triumphant through the year;"

but his susceptible nature may have yielded too far to the inspiration of the scene when, in a succeeding couplet, he declares against all lands

"Sweet Aeron's beauties must prevail,

For angels dwell in Aeron's vale."

To the north the land rises into a high plateau, on which, towards the east, is planted the eminence of Talsarn Mountain, 1,143 feet above the sea level. The yellow rab and slaty rock of the Silurian system often greets the beholder in these elevated parts, not unaccompanied by their congenial heath and gorse. The farmer has to wage a perpetual war with brambles and thistles, extorting a scanty crop from a reluctant and thankless soil, and

exciting in the mind of the impartial passer by the hope that his rent is low and his landlord kindly hearted. And yet this upland country is not without its features of comeliness. Here and there a diminutive stream has contrived in the progress of many ages to scoop out a defile which the art of man or the spontaneous bounty of nature has decorated with the sweet green of the fir, or the quieter hue of the oak; and frequently on the road fences,