38 An Anglers Paradise. 
to such roads, is wont to hold on fast to something; but there 
is no need for this. To him I say, sit still, and view the grandeur of 
the scene, enjoy thyself, breathe freely, and reflect upon the treat in 
store for thee, on Vyrnwy’s placid bosom, ’ere the sun goes down. 
Another range of hills is covered, and we are down into the 
next valley, from which, however, we emerge at length. . Before 
we quit this pleasant vale, in which we ourselves are hidden, and 
where the neighbouring mountains are also kept out of view by 
the closeness of the wooded hills that bound it, we get a sight of 
- the embankment, but passing on we turn sharply to the right, and 
winding up a steep ascent, presently find ourselves on level 
ground again. 
Before us bursts suddenly a view, the grandeur of which we 
may travel far to surpass. It comes upon us as if by some magic 
process, like the lifting of an enormous curtain. In reality we 
emerge from a sort of semi-natural shrubbery, and stand upon a 
gravelled plateau. Beneath us lies the lake that we have come to 
see ; to the north the dark and sombre looking Berwyn mountains ; 
above, blue sky and fleecy clouds, which cast their flitting shadows 
on the lake and hills around. Save where these shadows flew 
along, the whole was bathed in sunshine. It also shone upon a 
dark grey pile of structure, made by human hands upon the lake 
itself, looking like some grim watch tower standing there to tell its 
tale of bye-gone days; but no, it is the Vyrnwy Tower, standing 
like a castle on the Rhine, otherwise the straining tower. 
It stands in fifty feet of water, and is reached by a causeway 
on four arches, and in height is upwards of a hundred feet above 
the water. It is used for straining the latter, a most important 
part of the preparation of the liquid for the natural wants of man, 
whose requirements demand that it should be as pure and free 
from sediment, as if for hatching trout ova. The process that is 
adopted is indeed good for both purposes, and is comparatively 
simple: the water being passed through screens, covered with fine 
copper wire gauze, of over 14,000 meshes to the square inch. 
These screens are removed and cleaned, as they become clogged 
with the matter held in suspension in the water, and in this, very 
much resemble, in their mode of working, the screens used in the 
filtering apparatus of some fish hatcheries. 
