BARBARA IN WALES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2651, 4 January 1905, Page 69

BARBARA IN WALES.

♦ By a New Zealander Abkoad. (Fo-: the Witness.)

We hit upon Llandullas (which, is proncunced Thlandillas) because somebody knew the rector there, and the rector's sisters guaranteed to produce a pattern landlady and a pattern cottage. They did, and- for a month we ate Welsh mutton and Kackberries and rabbits," and enjoyed ourselves, until a malignant imp inspired me with the idea of doing stiJl better and experiencing the joys of a romantic farmhouse. While I* ,was searching for the farmhouse /of my dreams, the discreet and practical landlady had provided herself "with another set of summer boarders. The farmhouses that I saw did not come, up to Mrs Peyser's or fcven Mrs Smith's in the beloved, story of my childhood — "Ministering Children." . They seemed pretty dirty and modern; extremely hard to find, "urid, when found, "not worth finding, so" I went on voyages _ of ; discovery, in _old Caiwyn and Calwyn Bay and Conway, and finally got' beguiled into taking • a whole sanitoriuni and % Welsh servant. . t. - L. did* not discov-er^-what I was let in for until I found "myself the proud but disconsolate possessor of that sanitorium. was" an. undue liumber' of rooms, but this was -balanoeiJrhy there being ri-lamen-table *deartirr«f hlalikets, crockery, and ..spoons.. The"_ Welsh servant was.igoing to' be married soon,-, much to her own surprise, . and she Iwas 1 : evidently laying in a store* of ..provisions beforehand, which unfortunately 'necessitated a_ shortage on our part. This, however, is the .way' of the country: I should strongly recommend strangers not to try house-keeping in" a foreign country. It 'is much better to throw oneself upon the" charity/ of the practised summer landlady. Sbe knows how "much human, nature can - stand. : . ...... . Beside myself there wereßritta and the toy. Britta-, being a native , of England, of course did "not know anything about her own country, and as I, like a good colonial, had read the while thing np, I fatigued myself and bored hjer.wiih a seven, weeks' course of instruction in the geography of Wales. I flatter myself that at the,en<Lof thijt time she knew almost as~ much,,as "vie average Australian .tourist.- - BritfSTwas the governess, but as; she had not, -tried .'the business before, and as I manage^ -my governesses on the democratic colonial~.sys- • tern,' and not on the English, we got? on. excellently well,~ r and after a time almost" forgot which of us was which. ' Llandullas is~ a lonely Welsh village, of grey stone in. a' lovely, vatyey opening, up into a. much larger vale, .and^ all greener,- inaturer, more luxuriant than our civilised parts of -New Zealand,, -but not > grand like our -wild ""parts: •• jft has long avenues of 1 great trees entirely over-arching, leafy beeches and nut trees; sycamores and" oaks. The little stream -of the Dullas winds down below. an embankraemV and a -stone wall, and"~3s lost to" view up tixe valley •under - alder, and beeches ; in. v the other, direction it'runs — or,-- rather, gently walks — down to the sea, and after -playing hide-and-seek under a bank of -grey pebbles, loses, itself- in tha waves. "Wild Wales"is not at all wild to a New Zealander, and the Irish Sea is about as- tame a bit of ocean as "one could get. Down below Beulah avenue there, is a little waterfall — at "least Britta -called it a waterfall, and ■used to gaze on it with rapture, but I did' not- notice il.until she mentioned it. However, it did well enough for England. ' . Llandsullas*-*is -only a row of grey stone cottages lying- on the level of a high embankment on each side of the road, wrfch grey, walled, dirty -back yards, jwhere - ragged children crawl and creep, and untidy mothers with shawls round their shoulders nurse dirty infants or gossip after su*- , sat. - The- centre of it yall is tbe church, v/ith its Gothic arched lychgate of oak, carved, and inscribed in Welsh; It stands away back from the road' in one~ ef those «[uiet, deep green churchyards onennds allover England.' Half the tombs have Welsh ifscriptions, and the visitor feels herself at once amongst an alien, people. J., The picturesque rectory is by the "side of the churchyard, and is set deep in green lawns an<i bowery . treest^and" creepers ; "there is" . a doveco£> on- the lawns, and-vwhite doves flitting" about, a small- .'peif dog^'Jind the rector^. Joaaia^-sis^^/maMh^'.jip a pic-ture;-of -oM-fitehtonedf English f life that miirbt, but -for-tifie Welsh element, have come straight out "of .one oi Miss JlLiisten's ncvel3. /Nearly all the- inhabitants' of -Lland alias make their living either oiiE of jSum-ttm-x boarders or but of the quarries- on -the hill. - There are .at least half a dozen stores — that is, one front room of- the cottage Is green/up to .» -display of groceries, loaves (which are- baked in enormous sizes), tinned provisions^ ,_ and . lollies and - buckets and epades and balls.- - One old lady, ihore enterprising than' 1 the. rest, had ..a bi-weekly li&king- of "gay Sally Lunns" and teacakes, and every Tutf^day and JSaturday some children of. the neighbourhood came with their , pennies crowding round ike door, while the fragrant smell from the " oven proved irresistibly tempting. Up the- hill (they call it a "mountain" here, by /the •way— it looks about "200 ft or 300 ft high) there is another group of new and superior stone cottages, "houses" we New Zealanders ■would call them. These flourish on the summer boarder, who, in Llandnllas, is not a common* tripper, but a select ' family person.- . . The people of this country all talk Welsh, end often_ understand English only imperfectly. AH the church services on Sunday ar\3 double, first in Welsh and afterwards (for visitors, no doubt) in. English. I went to the Welsh service once, and though they did not fallow Ifca Pr&yar Boole, and. thd vhole was consequently unintelligible, it was well worth listening .to.- It is a fine rugged- language, stuck all over with consonants, but with here and there a liquid lapse, like a waterfall among Tocks and hills. It is only on postcards and in china ornaments that the Welsh national costume is worn. However,, I have no

doubt the people would get themselves up in any profitable costume if a sufficient number of tourists desired it. Everybody m Wales is named either Jones or Williams, so that on inquiring abeftit an unknown Welshman you should not ask what his, name, is but which it is. There was a marriage in one of these villages the other day in which everybody present was named Williams except the verger, and he, of course, was named Jones. This is> a fact, for I saw it in a newspaper.