Penrhyn Castle. 413 



fore cockcrow, and visit the massive Anglo-Norman 

 keep, which his descendants have reared. For up- 

 wards of fifteen years did the Anglesea quarrymen 

 patiently hew out block after block of grey limestone, 

 to embody Mr. Hopper's designs. 



A continuous ride of fifteen miles from its lodge- 

 gate through Caernarvonshire scarcely brings us to 

 the limits of the Penrhyn property, which comprises 

 other estates in the same county, and extends in the 

 shape of sheep farms to the top of the snow-peaked 

 mountains which join the Snowdon range. His lord- 

 ship has been most diligent in draining, and succeeded 

 most effectually in ruining his snipe-shooting. One 

 field of 34 acres involved an outlay of 8 SO/, for blast- 

 ing, draining, and trenching with the spade, and the 

 rough morass at the foot of the mountains required 

 10 cwt. per acre of half-inch bones, in addition to the 

 two latter processes, before it could be made suitable 

 for sheep. The mountains, however, pay something 

 more than a tribute for their surface wealth in the 

 shape of tons of slate, which are being daily raised by 

 2700 workmen in the quarries near the village of 

 Bethesda. The blocks are blasted out, and then split 

 up and cut by hand or machine, ready for transport 

 down the five or six miles of tram-road, which carries 

 them to the railway and the Bangor pier. Slates 

 haunt you everywhere. You find them fixed up 

 lengthways and bound together with iron for fences ; 

 they start up as corn-chest panels, chimney-pieces, and 

 water cisterns in the cow-houses ; they bristle on wall 

 tops as chevaux defrise ; they form the narrow passage 

 by which his attendant slipped craftily up to Marma- 

 duke whenever he required " hooking ;" and, cut into 

 countless shapes, they bear the last living tribute of 

 many a simple heart, " Er cof am" in the beautiful 

 churchyard of Llandegai. 



The park wall of Penrhyn, which measures about 

 seven miles round, commences in the immediate out- 



