Wales

When the Ancient Britons found they could not resist the onslaught of the invading Anglo-Saxons they withdrew to the mountain fastnesses of Wales, where to this day they keep alive their ancient language and many of their customs.

One should perhaps note the words 'Welsh' and 'Wales' are in fact of Anglo-Saxon origin and mean something like "strangers" - that is to say, people who are not English; whereas the Welsh refer to themselves as Cymry - "our people" - and to their country as Cymru - "our land". (Curiously the northern English county of Cumbria, one of the Raven King's great strongholds, takes its name from the very same root, since in times remote before the English settled there it too was a part of "Cymru").

Wales is allowed by all to be a very lovely place, with more variety of scenery - especially scenery that is noble and wild in its character - than may generally be found in England. Sadly the difficulties of farming among hills and mountains have led to its being poorer, and in some ways more backward, than its neighbour; though the Welsh would say that the character of its peasantry has at least been spared that degradation which has too often attended the greater wealth and sophistication of England.

Shropshire, the natal county of Jonathan and Arabella Strange, lies alongside the hills and valleys of Wales, divided from them only by the boundary known as Offa's Dyke. One may very soon know however that one is passing from Shropshire into Wales, as the directions on the signposts give way from workaday names such as 'Hopton Heath' to the Romantic likes of Rhos-y-Meirch, Bleddfa and Llanfihangel Rhydithon. Sadly the pronunciation of these lovely names generally baffles the English.