CHAPTER VI 



THE ELAN VALLEY AND THE BIRMINGHAM 

 WATERWORKS 



July ii, 1898 



" With high woods the hills were crown'd, 

 With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side ; 

 With borders long the rivers, that earth now seem'd like to 

 Heaven." MILTON. 



S a pleasant diversion from angling, we 

 accepted the advice of everybody that it 

 would be a sin to leave the Principality 

 without paying a visit to this wonderful valley. 

 Accordingly we started on this lovely morning for 

 a fifteen-mile drive up the valley of the Wye and 

 through the town of Rhayader to the Elan Valley 

 Hotel, at the foot of the works ; an enchanting drive 

 it was, through scenery of romantic character. I 

 am not going to say unequalled elsewhere, but I 

 am going to say that it is sufficiently varied and 

 romantic to make one feel that one's sense of the 

 beautiful is satisfied at every turn of the road. 

 Here and there we get glimpses of the Wye* 



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