The Argosy — page 145: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

130 : Among the Welsh. charges, need have no visions of closed eyes and pale faces and dripping forms. ‘The hundred eyes of Argus, if they have them, may sleep, and they may calmly read their novels or do their crewel work, and feel that all is safe with the rising generation. Rhyl, too, has the rare privilege of facing the north, and consequently is, or ought to be, the most healthy place in W ales. Only three places in “all England and Wales do possess this advantage: Margate, Cromer, and Rhyl. ‘The air of the two former is matchless. If Margate only possessed beauty of country it would be perfect. Un- fortunately, it has nothing to recommend it but its grand sea and’ air, yet these have proved sufficient for its popularity ; the popularity of the multitude if not of the few, the applause of numbers if not of senates. Cromer, as yet, is small, and being more remote than Margate is less “‘ advanced ”—to use a term the Ritualists delight in. Notso very long ago, the streets of Cromer were lighted by oil lamps swung across the road and suspended in mid air by a rope. Now all that old-fashioned quaintness has disappeared ; but they have not been able to widen the narrow streets or straighten those that are crooked, expand small rooms or heighten low ceilings. If Cromer widens it must be without the town ; the small cluster of houses forming what was once an insig- nificant village perched upon a cliff, must always remain primitive and picturesque. To live in Cromer itself must feel very much like living in a bandbox or a lantern, for you may look into your opposite ‘neighbours’ windows, and, if they come forward to resent your curiosity, ‘you have only to open your own window and shake hands with them by way of apology. Rhyl is ike Margate and Cromer only in so far as that it faces the north. ‘The two former possess high cliffs, but Rhyl is on a level with the sea—an advantage in some ways, in others not so. The sea is infinitely finer and more majestic when you look down upon it from a height. Nevertheless the sea is very fine at Rhyl, and the air certainly felt very pure and bracing. And in the neighbourhood of Rhyl there are lovely drives, especially through the Vale of Clwyd, which many think one of the prettiest valleys in Wales. ‘This adjective indeed, expresses what it really is: a valley without strong points in the form of mountains or rushing tor- rents or any wildness of aspect. It is a smiling valley, with wooded _ slopes and gentle undulations and fair pastures, and a great deal of garden-like ground. Every now and then you come to great gates and ivy-covered lodges, admitting you to quiet retreats. In the midst of yonder cluster of elms and oaks a house lies hidden. Every now and then, in driving, you catch a glimpse of it, and feel what a different life is this from the hubble bubble of towns, where repose ds not, and the windows of all the surrounding houses stare at you like so many great, blank, pitiless eyes that never sleep or rest or cease their watch. In driving from Rhyl to the Vale of Clwyd, one of the first objects CORNICE OOKS eC)