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Cwm ILwch is of glacial origin, its dam being composed, as he thinks, of glacial débris through which the water always percolates into the valley below. But storm water flows over the dam, and in the course of ages has cut for itself a gully, now about ten feet deep at the deepest point, through the embankment. The story was possibly invented to explain that fact. There is no cave to be seen in the rock, and probably there never was one, as the formation is the Old Red Sandstone; and the island was perhaps equally imaginary.'

That is the substance of Mr. James' letter, in which he, moreover, refers to J. D. Rhys' account of the lake in his Welsh introduction to his Grammar, published in London in 1592, under the title Cambrobrytannica Cymraecave Lingua Institutiones et Rudimenta. There the grammarian, in giving some account of himself, mentions his frequent sojourns at the hospitable residence of a nobleman, named M. Morgan Merêdydh, near y Bugeildy ynn Nyphryn Tabhida o bhywn Swydh Bhaesybhed, that is, 'near the Beguildy in the Valley of the Teme within the county of Radnor.' Then he continues to the following effect:-'But the latter part of this book was thought out under the bushes and green foliage in a bit of a place of my own called y Clun Hîr, at the top of Cwm y ILwch, below the spurs of the mountain of Bannwchdeni, which some call Bann Arthur and others Moel Arthur. Below that moel and in its lap there is a lake of pretty large size, unknown depth, and wondrous nature. For as the stories go, no bird has ever been seen to repair to it or towards it, or to swim on it: it is wholly avoided, and some say that no animals or beasts of any kind are wont to drink of its waters. The peasantry of that country, and especially the shepherds who are wont to frequent these moels and bans, relate many other wonders concerning it and

the exceeding strange things beheld at times in connexion with this loch. This lake or loch is called Lyn Cwm y ILwch '.'

II.

Before dismissing the story of Lyn y Fan Fach I wish to append a similar one from the parish of Ystrad Dyfodwg in Glamorganshire. The following is a translation of a version given in Welsh in Cyfaitt yr Aelwyd a'r Frythones, edited by Elfed and Cadrawd, and published by Messrs. Williams and Son, ILanetty. The version in question is by Cadrawd, and it is to the following effect-see the volume for 1892, p. 59:

'ILyn y Forwyn, "the Damsel's Pool," is in the parish of Ystrad Tyfodwg: the inhabitants call it also Lyn Nelferch. It lies about halfway between the farm house of Rhonda Fechan, "Little Rhonda," and the Vale of Safrwch. The ancient tradition concerning it is somewhat as follows:

'Once on a time a farmer lived at the Rhonda Fechan: he was unmarried, and as he was walking by the lake early one morning in spring he beheld a young woman of beautiful appearance walking on the other side of it. He approached her and spoke to her: she gave him to understand that her home was in the lake, and that she owned a number of milch cows, that lived with her at the bottom of the water. The farmer fancied her so much that he fell in love with her over head and ears: he asked her on the spot for her hand and heart; and he invited her to come and spend her life with him as his wife at the Rhonda Fechan. She declined at first, but as he was importunate she con

Lwch is the Goidelic word loch borrowed, and Lyn Cwm y Lwch literally means the Lake of the Loch Dingle.

sented at last on the following conditions, namely, that she would bring her cattle with her out of the lake, and live with him until he and she had three disputes with one another: then, she said, she and the cattle would return into the lake. He agreed to the conditions, and the marriage took place. They lived very happily and comfortably for long years; but the end was that they fell out with one another, and, when they happened to have quarrelled for the third time, she was heard early in the morning driving the cattle towards the lake with these words:

Prw dre', pro dre', prw'r gwartheg i dre';
Pro Milfach a Malfach, pedair ILualfach,
Alfach ac Ali, pedair Ladi,

Wynebwen drwynog, tro i'r waun lidiog,
Trech yn y waun odyn, tair Pencethin,
Tair caseg du draw yn yr eithin1.

And into the lake they went out of sight, and there they live to this day. And some believed that they had heard the voice and cry of Nelferch in the whisper of the breeze on the top of the mountain hard by -many a time after that-as an old story (weđal) will have it.'

From this it will be seen that the fairy wife's name was supposed to have been Nelferch, and that the piece of water is called after her. But I find that great uncertainty prevails as to the old name of the lake, as I learn from a communication in 1894 from

1 I make no attempt to translate these lines, but I find that Mr. ILewellyn Williams has found a still more obscure version of them, as follows:Prw med, pro med, prw'r gwartheg i dre',

Prw milfach a malfach, pedair tualfach,

ILualfach ac Aeli, pedair lafı,

Lafi a chromwen, pedair nepwen,

Nepwen drwynog, brech yn fyn a gwaun dodyn,

Tair bryncethin, tair cyffredin,

Tair caseg du, draw yn yr eithin;

Dewch i gyd i lys y brenin.

The story of the ILyn Alfach was

Mr. Lewellyn Williams, living at Porth, only some five miles from the spot, that one of his informants assured him that the name in use among former generations was Lyn Alfach. Mr. Williams made inquiries at the Rhonda Fechan about the lake legend. He was told that the water had long since been known as ILyn y Forwyn, from a morwyn, or damsel, with a number of cattle having been drowned in it. man who mentioned the name as similar: the maid belonged to the farm of Penrhys, he said, and the young man to the Rhonda Fechan, and it was in consequence of their third dispute, he added, that she left him and went back to her previous service, and afterwards, while taking the cattle to the water, she sank accidentally or purposely into the lake, so that she was never found any more. Here it will be seen how modern rationalism has been modifying the story into something quite uninteresting but without wholly getting rid of the original features, such as the three disputes between the husband and wife. Lastly, it is worth mentioning that this water appears to form part of a bit of very remarkable scenery, and that its waves strike on one side against a steep rock believed to contain caves, supposed to have been formerly inhabited by men and women. At present the place, I learn, is in the possession of Messrs. Davis and Sons, owners of the Ferndale collieries, who keep a pleasure boat on the lake. I have appealed to them on the question of the name Nelferch or Alfach, in the hope that their books would help to decide as to the old form of it. Replying on their behalf, Mr. J. Probert Evans informs me that the company only got possession of the lake and the adjacent land in 1862, and that 'ILyn y Vorwyn 'is the name of the former in the oldest plan which they have. Inquiries have also been made

in the neighbourhood by my friend, Mr. Reynolds, who found the old tenants of the Rhonda Fechan Farm gone, and the neighbouring farm house of Dyffryn Safrwch supplanted by colliers' cottages. But he calls my attention to the fact, that perhaps the old name was neither Nelferch nor Alfach, as Elfarch, which would fit equally well, was once the name of a petty chieftain of the adjoining Hundred of Senghenyd, for which he refers me to Clark's Glamorgan Genealogies, p. 511. But I have to thank him more especially for a longer version of the fairy wife's call to her cattle, as given in Glanffrwd's Plwyf Lanwyno, 'the Parish of ILanwynno' (Pontyprid, 1888), p. 117, as follows:

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The last lines-slightly mended-may be rendered:

Bull, bull!

Stand thou foremost.

Back! thou wife of the House up Hill:

Never shalt thou milk my cows.

This seems to suggest that the quarrel was about

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