their hats. But these things, in comparison with that which followed, were the mere commonplaces of ordinary life. We were no more out of the way in Clere valley than, say, a circus. But as I was mopping up sugar with my last strawberry (and I sat just outside the Stones), I perceived that the mother of the two children who were with us was draping her progeny in ample veils of gauze—the lad in green, the girl in white, and close beside them stood a tall and lovely lady who wrapped blue muslin about her head and shoulders. And it was suddenly borne in upon my understanding that I was to be the witness of amazing occurrences. Hardly had I arrived at this conclusion when a respected member of His Majesty's Government sprang upon a recumbent stone and emitted several piercing cries which, I have since been told, gave those present (or such of them as understood him) to know that the Gorsedd was opened.
Now a Gorsedd is a competition for Bardic honours.
At this there arose, swathed in green muslin and crowned with oak, the Druid Derwen, aged ten, who stood stoutly on a Stone and gave forth a Welsh Ode, composed by himself in honour of the Great Circle. And we all stood by and shouted "Clywch! Clywch!" in the manner of the
