After leaving Swansea, my route will take you six and twenty tame miles to Caermarthen. Not an interesting object the whole way; if you except Pont ar Dulas, and a glen about three miles from Caermarthen. The former need not stop you; the latter might afford some hints, if one could get down. It is deep, overhung with trees, a stream dashing along the bottom.

Yours, &c.

E

LETTER VII.

CAERMARTHENSHIRE* does not rank high as a picturesque county. It is generally hilly, and therefore the landscapes may be bold and striking. The mountains, which occupy a considerable part, are black and dreary, and never sublime. The vales are rich, and those through which the smaller rivers run, in general retired and rural; but their aspect more uniform than those of Glamorgan and Cardigan. The villages near the coast are often beautiful; but in the north of the county their condition, and that of the solitary cottagers, is most wretched, except in that tract

* Caermarthen, or Caer-Merdin, is Merlin's Town;

called from the British prophet, Merlin Ambrose, being found there, when searched for by command of Vortigern. Malkin, p. 558.

which borders on Cardiganshire.* Caermarthen is one of the best built towns, but the mixture of white-washed houses, slated roofs, and brick chimneys, is far from agreeable to a painter's eye. Some modern author (I forget who) says, the vacant glare of whitened buildings, so frequent in Wales, always reminds him of "the eternal grin of a fool.” Caermarthen was formerly walled, and fortified with a castle, the remains of which are now used as a gaol. Being situated on the Tovy, which is navigable up to the town, it commands considerable export trade. My inn was the Old Ivy Bush, not that near the river-the head Inn; though I have on another occasion stopped there, and found the accommodations in every way excellent-good post horses, coach room, &c.

You will probably think the Vale of Tovy worth a ramble. Gilpin, who came down it, speaks highly of the scenery about Dinevawr Castle. He has given three views of it, but I doubt if his stations could be determined from them; nor did I

* Malkin, p. 538.

indeed go so far up the vale. Its particular recommendation in his eye is the inequality of the ground. "I know few places," he observes, "where a painter might study the inequality of a surface with more advantage."* To view the castle in the most favourable point, Sir R. Hoare says, "it is adviseable to go into the meadows on the other side the Tovy, where the hill, castle, and river, form a most enchanting landscape." Grongar Hill, the theme of Dyer's verse, lies in this vale; it is said, near a place called Court Henry, still belonging to his family. I would recommend to your perusal Gilpin's strictures on some passages in that Poem. They are judicious, connected with your pursuit, and advert particularly to Dinevawr Castle.

As Dyer was a Cambrian Worthy, and a brother artist, one of the very few that Wales can boast, you may like to know something of his story. He was born in 1700, the second son of Robert Dyer,

* Observations on the Wye, p. 62.

+ Girald. Cambr. vol. i. p. 164

1

an eminent solicitor at Aberglassney in this county, near Llandilo Vawr. After passing through Westminster School, he was called home, to be instructed in his father's profession; but disliking the law, and having always amused himself with drawing, he resolved to turn painter, and became a pupil to Richardson. Having studied a while under his master, he became, as he himself expresses it, an "itinerant painter," rambling through South Wales, and the parts adjacent. Being unsatisfied probably with his own proficiency, he, like other painters, travelled to Italy; where, besides studying the noblest remains of antiquity, and the best productions of the greatest modern masters, he used to spend whole days in the country about Florence and Rome, composing landscapes. After his return in 1740, we hear no more of him as a painter. Decline of health, and love of study, determined him to the church. He therefore entered into orders, and afterwards married. His preferment was never large. He died July 20, 1758.*

* Johnson's Life of Dyer. Drake's Literary Hours, vol. i. p. 222.