Part 46 (1/2)

The Inn at Bangor-Port Dyn Norwig-Sea Serpent-Thoroughly Welsh Place-Blessing of Health.

I went to the same inn at Bangor at which I had been before. It was Sat.u.r.day night and the house was thronged with people, who had arrived by train from Manchester and Liverpool, with the intention of pa.s.sing the Sunday in the Welsh town. I took tea in an immense dining or ball-room, which was, however, so crowded with guests that its walls literally sweated. Amidst the mult.i.tude I felt quite solitary-my beloved ones had departed for Llangollen, and there was no one with whom I could exchange a thought or a word of kindness. I addressed several individuals, and in every instance repented; from some I got no answers, from others what was worse than no answers at all-in every countenance near me suspicion, brutality, or conceit, was most legibly imprinted-I was not amongst Welsh, but the sc.u.m of manufacturing England.

Every bed in the house was engaged-the people of the house, however, provided me a bed at a place which they called the cottage, on the side of a hill in the outskirts of the town. There I pa.s.sed the night comfortably enough. At about eight in the morning I arose, returned to the inn, breakfasted, and departed for Bethgelert by way of Caernarvon.

It was Sunday, and I had originally intended to pa.s.s the day at Bangor, and to attend divine service twice at the cathedral, but I found myself so very uncomfortable, owing to the crowd of interlopers, that I determined to proceed on my journey without delay; making up my mind, however, to enter the first church I should meet in which service was being performed; for it is really not good to travel on the Sunday without going into a place of wors.h.i.+p.

The day was sunny and fiercely hot, as all the days had lately been. In about an hour I arrived at Port Dyn Norwig: it stood on the right side of the road. The name of this place, which I had heard from the coachman who drove my family and me to Caernarvon and Llanberis a few days before, had excited my curiosity in respect to it, as it signifies the Port of the Norway man, so I now turned aside to examine it. ”No doubt,” said I to myself, ”the place derives its name from the piratical Danes and Norse having resorted to it in the old time.” Port Dyn Norwig seems to consist of a creek, a staithe, and about a hundred houses: a few small vessels were lying at the staithe. I stood about ten minutes upon it staring about, and then feeling rather oppressed by the heat of the sun, I bent my way to a small house which bore a sign, and from which a loud noise of voices proceeded. ”Have you good ale?” said I in English to a good-looking buxom dame, of about forty, whom I saw in the pa.s.sage.

She looked at me but returned no answer.

”Oes genoch cwrw da?” said I.

”Oes!” she replied with a smile, and opening the door of a room on the left-hand bade me walk in.

I entered the room; six or seven men, seemingly sea-faring people, were seated drinking and talking vociferously in Welsh. Their conversation was about the sea-serpent; some believed in the existence of such a thing, others did not-after a little time one said, ”Let us ask this gentleman for his opinion.”

”And what would be the use of asking him?” said another, ”we have only c.u.mraeg, and he has only Saesneg.”

”I have a little broken c.u.mraeg, at the service of this good company,”

said I. ”With respect to the snake of the sea I beg leave to say that I believe in the existence of such a creature; and am surprised that any people in these parts should not believe in it; why, the sea-serpent has been seen in these parts.”

”When was that, Gwr Bonneddig?” said one of the company.

”About fifty years ago,” said I. ”Once in October, in the year 1805, as a small vessel of the Traeth was upon the Menai, sailing very slowly, the weather being very calm, the people on board saw a strange creature like an immense worm swimming after them. It soon overtook them, climbed on board through the tiller-hole, and coiled itself on the deck under the mast-the people at first were dreadfully frightened, but taking courage they attacked it with an oar and drove it overboard; it followed the vessel for some time but a breeze springing up they lost sight of it.”

”And how did you learn this?” said the last who had addressed me.

”I read the story,” said I, ”in a pure Welsh book called the _Greal_.”

”I now remember hearing the same thing,” said an old man, ”when I was a boy; it had slipped out of my memory, but now I remember all about it.

The s.h.i.+p was called the _Robert Ellis_. Are you of these parts, gentleman?”

”No,” said I, ”I am not of these parts.”

”Then you are of South Wales-indeed your Welsh is very different from ours.”

”I am not of South Wales,” said I, ”I am the seed not of the sea-snake but of the coiling serpent, for so one of the old Welsh poets called the Saxons.”

”But how did you learn Welsh?” said the old man.

”I learned it by the grammar,” said I, ”a long time ago.”

”Ah, you learnt it by the grammar,” said the old man; ”that accounts for your Welsh being different from ours. We did not learn our Welsh by the grammar-your Welsh is different from ours, and of course better, being the Welsh of the grammar. Ah, it is a fine thing to be a grammarian.”

”Yes, it is a fine thing to be a grammarian,” cried the rest of the company, and I observed that everybody now regarded me with a kind of respect.