106 
containing a single person more. Drink- 
ing parties, as happy as Welsh ale and 
music could make them, were dispersed 
over the market-place, and before the 
door. of the only inn belonging to the 
town; their mirth was prolonged till 
late in the evening, and yet we did net 
observe a single person, intoxicated ; nor 
were we witnesses to one quarrel. 
We engaged the miner, who had been 
our conductor this day, to guide us aeross 
the island to Moel-y-Don ferry; om the 
Menai; and, , 
~ July 4,, by five in the morning; we 
commenced our journey, taking the 
copper mine in our way; and without 
much respeét for the few hedges that 
crossed our line of march, arrived by 
breakfast-time at Llangefni, one of the 
rettiest villages’ that we saw in the 
whole island. The country still con- 
tinued very open and uninteresting, till: 
within a mile of Moel-y Don ferry, 
whence we had’a fine view of the rocky 
and woody shores of the Menai, and the 
clustered ridge:of. the Snowdon moun- 
tains, bounding the horizon. We crossed 
the’ strait,. at that, place, about a 
quarter of a mile wide, much struck with 
the .extremely clear green tint. of the 
water ; and, landing on the opposite side, 
proceeded along a fine road just above 
the Menai, and in many parts embow- 
ered in wood, to Caernarvon. On our 
arrival, we were not a little disappointed 
to find all the inns so full, that it was 
with difficulty we procured a dinner, 
and were then under the necessity of 
going nine or ten miles further, to 
Bangor, to pass the night. Being thus 
straitened for time, we were able to 
take only a very cursory view of the 
castle, and were obliged entirely to omit 
a yisit to the site of the old Roman 
town of Segontium, which is within a 
mile of the present town. The castle is 
a very lofty extensive building, inferior 
in, situation, though a good deal re- 
sembling that at Conway. Its oétagonal 
towers are perhaps more beautiful than 
the more massy round ones of Conway 
castle ; but as a picturesque objeét, being 
still inhabited and kept in repair, it 1s 
of little value; the sharp, angles of its, 
battlements, and watch towers, are not 
yet worn off; none of the towers are 
fractured, or taken possession of by the 
ivy ; the walls reflect one uniform harsh 
tint, instead of the softened and varying 
hues arising from weather-stains and 
lvchens. In two or three centuries more, 
when Conway castle shall be fass falling 
Pedeftrian Tour in North Wales: 
(March 
to ruin, Caernarvor will probably be 
then, what Conway is now, the pride 
of North=Wales. © ' 
It was a most lovely afternoon, when 
we set out for Bangore Retracing our 
steps to Moel-y-Don ferry, we then 
struck out of the high road, and pro- 
ceeded along the woody shores of the 
Menai, which, at every turn, presented 
us with new beauties. Sometimes the 
land sloped gently down into a broad 
calm reach of the strait; at other 
times, especially in the neighbourhood of 
Bangor ferry, the channel was narrowed 
to one third of its usual dimensions, by 
the projeétion of steep crags, scantily 
furnished vith trees, while the sunken 
recks, covered with sea=weed in scat- 
tered groupes, shewed us, the tide being 
out, the dangers, in stormy weather, of 
the passage of. the Menat. The re- 
mainder vof the evening we spent in 
wandering about the outskists of Bangor, 
which enjoys a fine view of the entrance 
from the sea into the Menai with Beau- 
maris on the left, and Penmgenmaur on 
the right: at high water, the opening of 
the channel is from three to five miles’ 
wide; and at ebb tide, the view is en- 
livened by numerous parties on horse- 
back or on foot, and large droves of 
cattle crossing the ferry at Beaumaris, 
and striking off, mm various direétions, 
across the sands, towards the villages of 
Aber and Penmaen. : 
After breakfast, the next morning, 
July 5, having engaged a guide, we set 
off across ._the mountains towards 
Llanberris, a petty village, at the foot of 
Snowdon, where we arrived about noon, 
very much pleased with our walk. We 
saw, indeed, no tumbling cascades, and 
scarecly a single tree ;—twenty miles of 
such country would have been tire- 
some. ‘Fhe ground. over which we 
passed, was rock, overlaid with a thin 
covering of rust coloured peat ; but. this 
peat, in the dryer places, was adorned 
with heath in full flower, and in moister 
situations was glowing with innumerable 
orchises and asphodels. ‘The only living 
animals that we-saw, were a few sheep, 
almost wild, brouzing, half concealed, 
among the heath; not a single cottage or 
spot of cultivated land, was’in sight; but 
the sun was shining in full splendor, 
while a light breeze was flitting over the 
hills just enough to relieve the heat 
which would otherwise have been op- 
pressive: the air was perfumed with 
that indescribable wild scent, which is 
found alone in those places that yet re- 
man 
