UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 223 



From the mill we drove to the Port of 

 Penrhyn, which is just behind this house, and 

 where all the slates are shipped. A prettier 

 spot cannot be seen the sea to the north- 

 ward the Strait of Menai the blue hills of 

 Wales the town of Beaumaris, on the opposite 

 coast of Anglesea and the quay or pier em- 

 bosomed by the surrounding high banks, with a 

 few patches of trees on their summits. The 

 whole harbour was full of vessels waiting their 

 turn for loading, and the busy appearance of 

 waggons, horses, and drivers, ships, boats, and 

 sailors, all in motion, presented a most interesting 

 scene. 



Before I go to bed, I must add a curious co- 

 incidence that occurred this evening. My uncle 

 had brought with him, as his travelling book, the 

 Life of the Lord Keeper Guilford ; and, after he 

 had been explaining to me the history and the 

 importance of rail roads, he opened his book, 

 and I sat down to my journal. But he had 

 scarcely begun to read, when he came to a pas- 

 sage describing a road, nicely levelled, and laid 

 with long boards to all intents a railway : 

 and this was used for conveying coals from one 

 of the pits at Newcastle, so long ago as the year 

 1670. Yet it was not, my uncle remarked, till 

 1767, that iron railways were invented. Mr. W. 

 Reynolds of Coalbrook-dale first adopted them ; 

 and his example was quickly followed in all parts 

 of Great Britain, and indeed all over the world. 



