The Argosy — page 149: what you’re looking at

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

134 Among the Welsh. at the Plough had produced a less exhilarating effect than usual, for: he was buried in profound slumber. As I approached, he rolled: heavily over in the dog-cart, dreaming possibly that he was an embodied earthquake ; his hat forsook him and went spinning down the road, and he woke with a start and a look that seemed to say’ he had gone through the crash of worlds. | Once more on the road, and travelling through this ever sunny, ever fertile vale of Clwyd, we in time reached Denbigh. I had somehow expected a good deal from Denbigh, and was disappointed. It was. dull and somewhat dirty, and beyond the ruined castle on the hill possessed not a single point of attraction. The children in the gutters jabbered in Welsh ; women at the cottage doors looked un- interesting and unkempt, as the women in Wales are rather fond of looking ; doing nothing to relieve the peculiarity of the Welsh cast of countenance, which is not always beautiful. But the type varies wonderfully, considering the smallness of the Principality, and in some places the girls and women were as comely as in other parts. they were the opposite. The view from the ruins was extensive and beautiful, in spite of the grey afternoon shadows which now fell upon the landscape. A flat extensive plain, dotted about with hamlets, and silver streams and white roads, with a large stone building at the foot devoted to lunatics. They certainly are surrounded by pleasant country, if capable of appreciating it. The ruin is well-placed on the summit of the hill, but in itself does not possess very much that is attractive. As for the town of Denbigh, I held myself fortunate that I had not pitched my tent here even for a night. ‘The very inn, of which I wish to forget the name, was an object of gloom and melancholy, and. was remarkable for nothing except a very fashionable charge for a very modest cup of tea. The market place itself was quaint without being at all picturesque, and is only lively on the respective days that the Market or the Cattle and Women fairs are held. Jehu thus briefly expressed himself, and if he placed the fair sex not a little lower than the angels, indeed, but a little higher than the animals, we feel sure: that he spoke only according to his lights, and intended no disrespect to the better half of the world. When asked to explain the hidden meaning of his remark, it proved that he implied nothing more than that once a month—or at still longer intervals—women come here to be hired as servants, and placing themselves in a row, like soldiers at drill, run the gauntlet of the ladies and housekeepers. in search of hand-maidens. In some parts of England this custom is. called a ‘‘ Mop,” but Jehu did not know whether the by no means unappropriate term exists also in Wales. On this day there was neither cattle fair, nor market, nor mop : the place was deserted and melancholy in the extreme, and I turned my back upon Denbigh without one sigh of regret. Twilight was falling, the country was closing in, and by the time we had made a round EGomichbooks.co