BALA.
Both these luxuries were furnished me by the fair hands of Martha Jones, the landlady’s unmarried sister, a lively, black-eyed, pretty lass, who, in being a spinster, proves that the Bala lads are greatly deficient in taste, or that Martha has set her cap at something better than is to be found in Bala.
Two gentlemen were seated in the room when I entered, each of whom were discussing the merits of a glass of brandy and water. One of them (a young man who I afterwards discovered was a captain’s clerk in the East India service, upon leave,) was making himself particularly entertaining to his companion, by relating a number of anecdotes about a relative, a clergyman, whose residence is somewhere in the neighbourhood.
“Ha! ha! ha! you remember the time when the dinner was given at —; well, the old boy as usual, had got too much grog aboard, and without a rudder, began to crowd sail for the stable—my eyes! how he did traverse! but at last, a gale took his topsail right aback, and capsising him into the kennel, he began to roar out for help. ‘What’s the matter?’ cried twenty voices at a time. ‘Oh help! help me up,’ cried the old boy, ‘for I’m the Lord’s servant!’ ‘Ay, ay,’ cried one, ‘and you’re like all the rest of ’em, want a good deal of looking after.’ Ha, ha, ha!”
This anecdote, required another glass of brandy and water to wash it down; which being brought, this irreverend humorist rehearsed a number of other circumstances concerning his eccentric relative, amongst which was a story of his ascending the pulpit, to preach a sermon, “and kneeling down,” said he, “he placed his hand upon the cushion, in the attitude of prayer, closed his port holes, and fell into a—sound sleep! The congregation waited—and waited—until their patience was quite exhausted, and one after another began to heave anchor. The clerk, at last, ventured to awaken his pastor just in time for him to see the last of his parishioners leaving the church.”
I was truly sorry to find, upon inquiry, that this was but too true a tale of the old man, whose years are many, and who must be well aware, that a very short time can elapse, before he will become a tenant of the grave.
Wearied with the conversation, I rang for my bed candle, and retired to rest.
CHAPTER VI.
Bala—The Lake—A Meeting of Magistrates—The Doctor—Rhewlas—Lines written at Rhewlas—Farewell to the Bull’s Head—A Jolter—Llanthyn—Vale of Drwstynrnt—Legend of handsome Hugh and the Fairy—Cader Idris—Dolgelley—Song “Mountain Mary”—The Town Hall—Parliament House—St. Mary’s Church—Inns—Angling Station, Doluwcheogryd—The Cataracts of Rhaiadr Du and Pistyll y Cain—Nannau Park—Anecdote of Owen Glyndwr and Howell Sele—Road to Barmouth—Arrival—Inns—A Walk on the sands.
“I lay on the rock where the storms have their dwelling,
The birth place of phantoms, the home of the cloud,
Around it for ever deep music is swelling—
The voice of the mountain wind, solemn and loud.”Mrs. Hemans.
On the following morning, I found myself unable to walk, from the effect produced by a sprained ancle, and I had the delightful prospect of being confined to the room of an inn in a country town, without a being to converse with, or a book to enliven me; but my kind landlord, a fine portly, rosy-cheeked, round-headed, honest-hearted Boniface, as ever drew spigot, kindly offered me a pony, to take me to the lake, which, he said, contained plenty of perch. This offer, I thankfully accepted, and, by the aid of mine host and his ostler, was soon seated upon the back of a quiet not-to-be-put-out-of-his-way animal, as any clerical gentleman could desire to ride upon, and
“With slow and solemn pace,”
proceeded to catch fish, and view the scenery around