Note 32 — Chapter II · JOURNEY THROUGH HAY AND BRECHEINIA

The lake of Brecheinoc bears the several names of Llyn Savaddan, Brecinau-mere, Llangorse, and Talyllyn Pool, the two latter of which are derived from the names of parishes on its banks. It is a large, though by no means a beautiful, piece of water, its banks being low and flat, and covered with rushes and other aquatic plants to a considerable distance from the shore. Pike, perch, and eels are the common fish of this water; tench and trout are rarely, I believe, (if ever), taken in it. The notion of its having swallowed up an ancient city is not yet quite exploded by the natives; and some will even attribute the name of Loventium to it; which is with much greater certainty fixed at Llanio-isau, between Lampeter and Tregaron, in Cardiganshire, on the northern banks of the river Teivi, where there are very considerable and undoubted remains of a large Roman city. The legend of the town at the bottom of the lake is at the same time very old.