My real business in this neighbourhood is to see the Devil's Bridge and the scenery about it.""Very good, sir," said the landlord; "I thought so at first. Agreat many English go to see the Devil's Bridge and the scenery near it, though I really don't know why, for there is nothing so very particular in either. We have a bridge here too, quite as good as the Devil's Bridge; and as for scenery, I'll back the scenery about this house against anything of the kind in the neighbourhood of the Devil's Bridge. Yet everybody goes to the Devil's Bridge and nobody comes here!""You might easily bring everybody here," said I, "if you would but employ your talent. You should celebrate the wonders of your neighbourhood in cowydds, and you would soon have plenty of visitors; but you don't want them, you know, and prefer to be without them."The landlord looked at me for a moment, then taking sip of his whiskey and water he turned to the man with whom he had previously been talking and recommenced the discourse about sheep. I make no doubt, however, that I was a restraint upon them; they frequently glanced at me, and soon fell to whispering. At last both got up and left the room, the landlord finishing his glass of whiskey and water before he went away.
"So you are going to the Devil's Bridge, sir!" said an elderly man, dressed in a grey coat, with a broad-brimmed hat, who sat on the settle smoking a pipe in company with another elderly man with a leather hat, with whom I had heard him discourse sometimes in Welsh, sometimes in English, the Welsh which he spoke being rather broken.
"Yes," said I, "I am going to have a sight of the bridge and the neighbouring scenery.""Well, sir, I don't think you will be disappointed, for both are wonderful.""Are you a Welshman?" said I.
"No, sir, I am not; I am an Englishman from Durham, which is the best county in England.""So it is," said I - "for some things at any rate. For example, where do you find such beef as in Durham?""Ah, where indeed, sir? I have always said that neither the Devonshire nor the Lincolnshire beef is to be named in the same day with that of Durham.""Well," said I, "what business do you follow in these parts? Isuppose you farm?"
"No, sir, I do not; I am what they call a mining captain.""I suppose that gentleman," said I, motioning to the man in the leather hat, "is not from Durham?""No, sir, he is not; he is from this neighbourhood.""And does he follow mining?"
"No, sir, he does not; he carries about the letters.""Is your mine near this place?"