At 6 o’clock we left Chester for Llangollen. We walked up through the town to the Hand Hotel.... As we came near the Hand we heard the strains of a Welsh harp, the first I ever heard. The harper was playing in the hall the air ‘Jenny Jones’. I would have come all the way to Llangollen on purpose to hear the Welsh harp. This is the only hotel in Wales where a Welsh harper can be heard. I stood by him entranced while he played Llwyn-on and the Roaring of the Valley, and several of the other guests in the house gathered round the harp in the corner of the hall. The harper was a cripple and his crutch rested by his side against a chair. He was a beautiful performer and he was playing on a handsome harp of sycamore and ash, which he had won as a prize at an Eisteddfod. I had a good deal of talk with him after he had done playing. He told me there were very few people now who could play the Welsh harp, and the instrument was fast going out of use. The young people learn the English harp which is much easier being double stringed instead of treble stringed. The Welsh harp has no silver string and it is played from the left shoulder while the English harp is played from the right shoulder.... Presently the harper covered his harp and limped away to his own house in the town, saying he should come and play again at 9 o’clock. He plays in the hall at several stated hours every day. He gets nothing from the Hotel and subsists entirely on what visitors give him. At 9 o’clock he came again and played while we were at supper. It was a great and strange delight to listen to the music of this Welsh harp. The house was full of the melody of the beautiful Welsh airs. No wonder when the evil spirit was upon Saul and when David played upon the harp, that Saul was refreshed and was well and that the evil spirit departed from him. << less