about nine o'clock
But -- much as they are maligned because they will not have strangers to work with them -- we found them a thoroughly civil , obliging , and rather intelligent set of men ; most of them also of a respectable and religious turn of mind ; and they scarcely ever poach , except on Saturdays and Mondays . On September 25 , as we sat at breakfast in the little sanded parlour of the Cross-Pipes public house , our bedroom being overhead , my dear friend complained to me that he was tired of fishing so long up and down one valley , and asked me to come with him further up , into wilder and rockier districts , where the water ran deeper -LRB- as he had been told -RRB- and the trout were less worried by quarrymen , because it was such a savage place , deserted by all except evil spirits , that even the Aber-Aydyr slaters could not enjoy the fishing there . I promised him gladly to come , only keeping the old understanding between us , that each should attend to his own pursuits and his own opportunities mainly ; so that George might stir most when the trout rose well , and I when the shadows fell properly . And thus we set forth about nine o'clock of a bright and cheerful morning , while the sun , like a courtly perruquier of the reign of George II. , was lifting , and shifting , and setting in order the vapoury curls of the mountains . We trudged along thus at a merry swing , for the freshness of autumnal dew was sparkling in the valley , until we came to a rocky pass , where walking turned to clambering . After an hour of sharpish work among slaty shelves and threatening crags , we got into one of those troughlike hollows hung on each side with precipices , which look as if the earth had sunk for the sake of letting the water through . On our left hand , cliff towered over cliff to the grand height of Pen y Cader , the steepest and most formidable aspect of the mountain .