As we advanced farther up the valley, the country grew wilder and more broken and for many miles we ran through the towering hills that pass for mountains in Wales.  These were covered with bright-green verdure to their very tops, and the flocks of sheep grazing everywhere lent an additional charm to the picture.  At the foot of the hills the road follows the valleys with gentle curves and easy grades.  The Wye dwindles to the merest brook, and some miles before we reached the coast, we passed the head waters of the river and followed a brook flowing in an opposite direction.

The road over which we had traveled is not favorable for fast time.  Though comparatively level and with splendid surface, it abounds in sharp curves and in many places runs along high embankments.  The Motor Union has recommended that eighteen miles per hour be not exceeded on this road.  The distance from Hereford to Aberyswith is only ninety miles, yet we occupied the greater part of the day in the trip, and had time permitted, we would gladly have broken the journey at one of the quaint towns along the way.  At many points of vantage we stopped to contemplate the beauty of the scene—­one would have to be a speed maniac indeed to “scorch” over the Wye Valley road.

Aberyswith is a seaside resort, somewhat similar to Penzance.  It is situated on the harbor at the foot of a high bluff, and its principal feature is the long row of hotels fronting on the ocean.  Though mostly modern, it is by no means without history, as evidenced by its ruined castle overlooking the sea and vouching for the antiquity of the town.

We left Aberyswith next morning with considerable apprehensions.  Our books and maps showed that we would encounter by odds the worst roads of our entire tour.  A grade of one in five along the edge of an almost precipitous hill was not an alluring prospect, for we were little inclined toward hill-climbing demonstrations.  Shortly after leaving the town we were involved in poorly kept country byways without sign-boards and slippery with heavy rains of the night before.  After meandering among the hills and inquiring of the natives for towns the names of which they could not understand when we asked and we could not understand when they answered, we came to Dinas Mowddwy, where there was little else than a handsome hotel.  This reminded us that in our wanderings the hour for luncheon had passed.  We stopped at the hotel, but found difficulty in locating anybody to minister to our wants; and so deliberate were the movements of the party who finally admitted responsibility that an hour was consumed in obtaining a very unpretentious repast.