The Argosy — page 314: what you’re looking at

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

Among the Welsh. 295 pleasantest hotel to stop at is the “George,” at Bangor Ferry, not- withstanding their charge for driving to Beaumaris, which was _ pre- posterous. It is away from the town, overlooking the waters of the Menai Straits, near the Britannia and suspension bridges. From hence you quickly reach Beaumaris. Crossing the Straits over the suspension bridge, once considered an eighth wonder of the world, you are at once in Anglesea, and continue your journey on the road skirting the picturesque Menai banks. ‘There is a good deal of shipping and life upon the water in the way of small craft, including a steamer which plies between Bangor and Beaumaris. The latter is by no means a lively looking town, yet in summer it is said to be popular and much frequented. Perhaps it may be asked what place is not much frequented in these days? But Beaumaris at the mouth of the Menai Straits has a great amount of beach, and if its own shores are flat and uninteresting, the scenery around makes up for that by its extreme beauty. A long line of hills rising from the sea and falling back far inland in endless outlines and undu- lations, stretching round by Aber and Llanfairfechan and Penmen- mawr, ending with Llandudno on the opposite coast, and the fine headlands of Great and Little Orme’s Head. All this under sunshine and blue skies must form a picture whose charms cannot be exaggerated, and here perhaps is the reason why Beaumaris is so much ‘““wooed and won.” It also has its castle. A large ivy-clad ruin, now little more than a shell. Like Conway Castle it dates back to the days of Edward I, but though very much larger it is infinitely less beautiful. The outer wall possesses a gunner’s walk and ten low Moorish towers, and the castle itself stands within the walls, a quadrangular building thickly covered with splendid ivy, where, no doubt, the owls and the bats have a fine time of it. , A woman unlocks the great gates to admit you, asks a modest fee in return, and leaves you to roam at will. From the walls you may listen to the breaking of the waves upon the shore, and watch them rolling in. But to-day it is so deserted and melancholy, the ruin itself is so depressing in its utter abandonment, that you are very soon glad to leave it all and return to the conveyance without the gates, that waits to carry you back to more cheerful scenes. Not that Jehu this morning very much improved the occasion. <A well disposed youth, but hard to be understood, who seemed to go off into trances with eyes wide open, whilst retaining full command over his horse. His reply to any question would come at the end of a minute or two, quite to the point when it did come, but startling. Once or twice on attempting an immediate answer, it was, as the French would say, a tort et a travers, and a repetition of the question brought | no better result. Altogether, he was a psychological study, and would no doubt have been invaluable to a medium. As a companion, even in a humble sense of the word, he was a failure. CoOnniclooolkKs (SO) mn