rown soil neglected and unnoticed. These trees had a ghastly appearance, with their white trunks, seen by the dim light which struggled through the thick boughs above. Nearer to the sea, the valley assumed a more open, though hardly a more cheerful character; it looked dark and overhung by sea-fog through the greater part of the year, and even a farm- house, which usually imparts something of cheerfulness to a landscape, failed to do so here. This valley formed the greater part of the estate to which Owen Griffiths became entitled by right of his wife. In the higher part of the valley was situated the family mansion, or rather dwelling-house, for "mansion" is too grand a word to apply to the clumsy, but substantially-built Bodowen. It was square and heavy-looking, with just that much pretension to ornament necessary to distinguish it from the mere farm-house.
In this dwelling Mrs. Owen Griffiths bore her husband two sons-- Llewellyn, the future Squire, and Robert, who was early destined for the Church
Mrs. Gaskell in a conversational mode, like "Cranford," though gloomier. The tale follows the descendants of Rhys ap Gryfydd, cursed unto the ninth generation by the mighty Welsh hero Owen Glendower. It reads more like the retelling of a legend or fairy tale -- complete with wicked stepmother -- than a short story.
