From  hence,  through  the  silent  shadowy  park  of
Wynnstay — past  the  foaming  rocky  rapids  of
Llangollen — along  the  course  of  that  beautiful
valley,  from  the  darkness  of  whose  overhanging
cliffs  has  been  derived  the  name  of  the  river-''^ —
up  to  the  very  lake  Tegid,  from  which  it  issues,
and  through  whose  broad  expanse  of  waters,  by
a  fabled  license,  it  is  supposed  to  find  its  way
unmingled, — the  *^ Sacred  Dee"  presents  a  series
of  beauties  and  charms,  such  as  the  ardent  lover
and  frequenter  of  romantic  scenery  may  well
imagine ;  which  would  indeed  delight  the  artist
for  months,  but  which  wholly  set  at  defiance  the
pen  of  the  writer.
The  fly-fisher,  if  he  were  with  us  in  reality,
instead  of  accompanying  us  imagination,  would
we  suspect  be  apt  to  run  restive,  and  putting  his
four  joint  rod  together,  would  tell  us  very  politely

*  Dhu  (pronounced  Dee)  black :  Glyn-dwf-dhu,  the
valley  of  black  water."


66  THE    ADVENTURES

to  go  to, — hem ! — to  visit  our  weirs  and  cages,  &c.,
by  ourselves,  as  he  found  the  streams  here  at
Overton  far  more  attractive.  In  fact  we  ourselves
should  perhaps  find  the  temptation  too  powerful  to
be  easily  resisted.  But  as  this  is  only  in  imagina-
tion— and  our  reader  is  probably  seated  in  a
railway  carriage,  on  his  way  to  the  "  Hand  "  at
Llangollen ;  or  better  still,  reclining  in  an  easy
chair  at  the  said  "Hand,"  his  heavy  wading
boots  thrown  aside  for  slippers,  luxuriating  over
a  cigar,  after  a  long  day  spent  in  the  river — he
may  not  object  to  take  a  look  at  the  two  or  three
other  parts  of  the  river  to  which  we  have  alluded.
