WEST OF LLANFAIR P.O. 



THE first station on the Chester and Holyhead line 

 after it has crossed the Straits and entered Angle- 

 sey is called, by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway 

 Company, Llanfair P.O. Popular tradition affirms that 

 the village of Llanfair possesses the longest name in 

 existence, and a jargon of letters, inches long, is sold for 

 a penny in Bangor and elsewhere, professing to be this 

 Welsh word; the juvenile Celt earns coppers by reeling 

 off the name to the " Sassenach " tripper. The real 

 name is Llanf airpwllgwyngyll, surely long enough without 

 adding a jaw-breaking termination, which is merely a 

 description of the place converted into a single word. 

 Llanfair is the station for Plas Newydd, the seat of the 

 Marquis of Anglesey, and for the Anglesey Column, a 

 monument overlooking the Straits, from the summit of 

 which a magnificent view can be obtained. 



Twenty years ago I visited this little-known part, of 

 Wales. I have been many times since, but though a 

 steam-ferry has replaced the old sailing-boat from Car- 

 narvon, and motor transport passes through the one small 

 town, there has been little change in these years. I shall 

 never forget my first impressions of a part of Anglesey 

 which the tourist had hardly ventured to invade. 



We cycled west from Llanfair, past the fine beeches of 

 Plas Newydd ; everywhere wood-pigeons were busy in the 

 tops, gorging on the fresh young buds, flying off with a 

 noisy clatter of wings, as if conscious of guilt and possible 

 retribution. Pheasants attacked the sprouting wheat, 

 raiding the fields from their stronghold beyond the wall; 



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