BANGOR.
This town derives its name from Ban Cor, which means the high choir.
We stopped at the Penrhyn Arms, a most commodious inn, which is capable, it is said, of making up one hundred beds nightly. It occupies a commanding situation, and from the back premises embraces a noble prospect;—the Straits, the Shore of Anglesey, the Bay of Beaumaris, Penrhyn Castle, Puffin Island, Penmaen Mawr, and the Great Orme’s Head, with the ocean in the distance.
There are other excellent inns in the town, namely the Castle, the Liverpool Arms, and the Albion; the latter is extremely comfortable, and the landlord civil and obliging, as I most willingly testify from experience. There is no place in Wales so well calculated for a tourist to make his head quarters as Bangor. The various spots he may visit by appropriating a day to each, would supply him with gratification for a month at least.
Near the spot where the London road branches off from the Chester, is the grand entrance to Penrhyn Castle, the property of Col. the Hon. D. Pennant, M.P. The lodge is a beautiful specimen of substantial architecture; it is protected by a corresponding gateway, massive and imposing. The park wall extends circularly seven miles, and is thirteen feet high. To describe the magnificence of the interior of the castle I feel would prove a vain effort, and I earnestly recommend all tourists who take this route not to quit the neighbourhood without seeing it, or they will be reproached for slighting one of the grandest treats old Cambria can afford them.