Jan Morris's House in Wales

A collection of Welsh tidbits from Jan Morris' A Writer's House in Wales.

I was once talking to our local roadman, in the days when there were such folk, and happened to mention that some of our stones must have come from the Cwm Pennant quarries. At once he launched dreamily into the classic lyric of the valley, by the local poet Eifion Wyn:

Pam, Arglwydd, y gwneuthost Cwm Pennant mor dlws,
A bywyd hen bugail mor fyr?

O Lord, why has thou made Cwm Pennant so beautiful,
And the life of the shepherd so short?