Penrhyn Arms, Bangor.
20th.—Our whole journey through Wales has enchanted me; the mountains, rocky streams, and wooded banks, have more than realized all I had heard and read of its wild and impressive scenery.
My uncle took us to see the celebrated aqueduct of Pontcysylte, near Llangollen, which conducts the Ellesmere canal across the valley of the river Dee, at a great height from the bottom; and therefore saves the immense expense and loss of time that would have been occasioned by a series of locks on each side of the valley. It is one thousand feet long, and supported on twenty stone piers, which rise to one hundred and thirty feet above the bed of the river; and he shewed us that the water-course, which in general is built of stone and made tight with clay, is, in this aqueduct, composed of plates of cast-iron, that rest on great iron ribs; the sides and bottom being screwed together, and the joinings filled with cement.
Having arrived in good time at Llangollen, we all went out to walk, and by some accident, my uncle entered into conversation with a very intelligent Scotchman, who was erecting some power looms. Machinery was, of course, the subject, and I think you will be amused by his description of an improved method of singeing off the small fibres of patent lace, so as to give it the proper wiry appearance. He was so good as first to explain to us the common mode of destroying the rough knap upon calico.
There is a smooth iron cylinder set horizontally over a furnace, the heat of which can be nicely regulated. A reel is so placed on each side of it, that the cloth which is rolled round the one, when wound off on the other, is lightly drawn over the cylinder, and comes in contact with its red-hot surface, with just sufficient velocity to allow the loose woolly filaments to be burned without injuring the cloth. The finest muslins are made to go through this operation, and with such precision as to be very seldom damaged. But in lace it is not enough to remove the projecting fibres, all those that are inside the texture must also be destroyed, as the beauty of the lace is greatly increased by the hard crisp look of the main thread; and to effect this, the lace is usually drawn over a line of gas flame, so as to pass a current of heat through the open spaces. It has been found, however, that even the combustible net-work of lace stops the ascent of the flame, in the same manner that the wire-gauze in Sir Humphry Davy’s beautiful lamp prevents it from communicating with the inflammable gas in a mine. In the new method, to overcome this difficulty, a horizontal tube is placed a little above the lace, with a narrow slit just over the line or sheet of flame; and an air-pump being applied to the tube and rapidly worked, a strong draft is produced into the slit to replace the exhausted air. This draft draws up the flame along with it, in spite of the intervening meshes of the lace, and thus singes away the useless fibres within, as well as without.
In the course of our journey from Llangollen to this place, my uncle frequently made us observe the judgment with which the new road has been laid out by Mr. Telford, the same engineer who constructed the Llangollen aqueduct. In such a mountainous country it was impossible to avoid all hills; but by gradually winding up their sides, or by cutting the road out of the face of almost perpendicular cliffs, he has preserved one uniform and easy slope to the top of the highest ground, over which it passes; and yet at the same time he has shortened it by several miles. And besides all this, he has shown so much taste in the line he adopted, that my aunt says, one would think his only object had been to display the romantic scenery of North Wales to the best advantage.
We often went out of the carriage, and strolled about to look at the pretty water-falls and rocky passes; and we stopped for some time at the iron-bridge of Bettws. It is a single arch of more than one hundred feet span. The iron work that supports the road-way, consists of the emblems of the three kingdoms and Wales; the rose, thistle, shamrock, and leek; and along the lower rib of the whole arch, there is the following inscription in open iron letters, each of which is about two feet high:—
“This bridge was constructed the same year the battle of Waterloo was fought.”
All this road was new to my aunt; she admired some of the views exceedingly, and was, I think, particularly struck by a very wild spot where Ogwen Lake is pent up by a circle of dark, rugged, misty hills. In approaching this town we were amused by the various uses to which slate is applied—palings, stiles, gate-posts, tables, benches, troughs, milk-bowls, and many others; and as the famous Penrhyn slate quarries are within a few miles, my uncle proposes to remain here to-morrow, in order to visit them.
Penrhyn Arms, Bangor.