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pleasant-looking house, that to all fresh comers seems " sole occupant of the 

 plain," for the little station itself is almost hidden in a cutting. The Rock Hotel 

 you may discover lower down, in a picturesque dingle, near, but high above the 

 Ithon, cosy but comfortable-looking, clean and neat as paint and fresh railings 

 can make it ; with a newly-made croquet ground below, and with an air about 

 the place altogether, that denotes rapid improvement and tells you plainly 

 enough, that the pretty approach to it by the Blacksmith's dingle, will soon be 

 planted : that an elegant light wooden bridge will lead from the croquet ground 

 to a broad walk that will be cut through the opposite bank of fir trees next 

 spring ; and that this walk will be carried on, if it may be possible, along the 

 high wooded bank above the river, round the beautiful bend it makes there, to 

 the commanding and secluded position of the " lover's leap," and the pleasant 

 shade of the overhanging oak trees. Seats, too, which have begun to appear, 

 will then be more frequent. 



The Pump House Hotel is situated at the upper side of the common, 

 at least half-a-mile from the Rock-house, and is quite invisible until you reach 

 the groves of firs, and alder, and oak trees that surround and conceal it. 

 This is the original house, the chief hotel, with the overpowering advantage 

 of the possession of the renowned Saline Springs. If Llandrindod must be fixed 

 at a single definite spot, the Pump House Hotel unquestionably represents it. 

 Here all the life and spirit of the place concentrates itself. Here every morning, 

 from six to nine o'clock, all the visitors in the district congregate to drink the 

 waters at the new Pump-hotise, and parade in the shady walks. Here, too, are 

 the same signs of improvement, an additional dining-room and several new bed- 

 rooms have been added to the house since last season. Here a double service 

 is provided for visitors, a public table at 1 o'clock and 3 o'clock— the houses of 

 Lords and Commons— as the phrase goes there. Here under the shade of its 

 trees, the four-in-hand stage coach stands side by side with the new omnibus of 

 progress, that hourly, to and fro, visits the railway station. Here too, doubtless 

 next year, a piece of the adjoining wheat field, or the field below the garden, or 

 both, will be added as croquet ground to the attractions of the place. Shelves 

 in this pretty new Pump-house will soon have a stock of fancy tumblers, in 

 coloured, or Bohemian glass, for sale, so that visitors may drink from their own 

 private glasses and carry off with them a souvenir of Llandrindod. This and such 

 other improvements will be effected as its spirited proprietor and its active 

 manager seem bent on carrying out. 



Besides these three hotels, sign-posts here and there tell you there are 

 fairm-houses that take in boarders, and, doubtless, there are, but they follow 

 the prevailing misanthropical tendency of the habitations, and carefully seclude 

 themselves from sight. The chtuch on the hill-side is hidden by trees ; if 

 there are cottages there, where they are, is a mystery beyond the power of 

 casual visitors to solve. And so it happens that as you stroll on the heathery 

 common in the very centre of Llandrindod, you seem almost in the solitude of 

 a mountain district. 



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