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STORIES OF
retiring to rest, the hearth is made clean, the floor swept, and the pails left full of water, the fairies will come at midnight, continue their revels till daybreak, sing the well-known strain of ' Toriad y Dydd,' leave a piece of money upon the hob, and disappear."
Everybody is acquainted with that very old Welsh air " Ar Hyd y Nos," for did not Mrs. Opie in the long ago familiarize us with the words beginning:
" Here beneath a willow weepeth Poor Mary Ann."
It will be found in most collections under the title of "All through the Night" It has served as the basis of many a drawing room song. Of the ancient melody " Codiad yr Hedydd," to which Professor Rowlands has written English words under the title of " The Rising of the Lark," the following incident is told. It is said to be about two hundred years old. " The composer, David Owen, is stated to have gone to a noson-* lawen (a merry night) at Plas-y-Borth, Port-madoc, and according to the custom in those times, he had lingered at the feast until two or three o'clock in the morning. The clocks, no doubt, were to blame for the fact! The 4 Newport Clock' was not in existence then,
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