The Montgomery County Times and Shropshire and Mid-Wales Advertiser

ABERYSTWYTH INFORMATION. HOTELS. The Belle Vue, the Gogerddan Arms (or Lion Royal), the Wateiloo, Blue Bell, White Horse, Lisbume Arms, Prince Albert, &c., &c. BANKS. The North and South Wales Bank, Pier Street; the National Provincial Bank, Pier Street; the London and Provincial Bank, Terrace Road. POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS. Post Office, Terrace Road. Despatches Week-days, 7.15 a.m., 12 noon, 2.10 p.m., 5.15 p.m. Sundays, 5.15 p.m.—Deliveries Week-days, 8.15 a.m., 12.30 p.m., 2.30 p.m., 6.30 p.m. Sundays, 11.0 a.m.—Money Order Business; 9.0 a.m. to 6.0 p.m. Saturdays, 9.0 a m., to 8.0 p.m.- Telegraph Business: 7.0 a.m. to 8.0 p.m 7.0 a.m. to 9.0 p.m.. during the months of July, August, and September. bund-ys, 8.0 to 10.0 a.m., 5.0 to 6.0 p.m. —Parcel Despatches and Deliveries arc the same as other despatches and deliveries or. Week-days. There is no parcel depatch or delivery on Sunday. CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. Aberystwyth is well supplied with places of wor- ship, especially—like othc- places in Wales—with chapels. Services in Welsh are ordinarily held at 9.30 a.m. and 6 p.m., and in English at 11 a.m. and (i p.m. There are three churches the parish church of at. Michael, near the Castie, erecled in 1830, Holy Trinity, near the Station, build in 1886-7, and a Welsh church, built in 1865. English Chapels: Baptist, Alfred Place: Inde- pendent, Portland Street: Prestbyteiian, Newfound- land ctreet; Weslevan, Newfoundland Stieet. Welsh Chapels: Baptist, Baker Street: Calvanistic, Powell Street and North Parade; Independent, Baker Street: Wesleyan, Moore Street and Darkgaie Street, and Queen's Road. Catholic Church Queen's Road. THE MARKETS. The market for butcher's meat is in Church Street, and the markets for farm and garden produce are in Market Street and Pier Street. The corn market is held in Market street. THE TOWN HALL. Here are held the County Court and Petty Sessions. It is at the lower end of Portland Street, and passing this you soon reach THE INFIRMARY, which is built upon an elevated site on the outskirts of the town. It has an excellent staff, and nothing has been neglected which can contribute to its prac- tical usefulness. The funds for its support are de- rived partly from voluntary subscriptions and partly from endowments. Its cost is reported to have been between six and seven thousand pounds. THE LIBRARIES. Ours is essentially a reading age, and it is hardly possible for us in these times to picture to ourselves, or in any way to realise the condition of things of, say, not more than a hundred years since, when read- ing was the accomplishment of a few, instead of being, as now-a-days, the necessity of the many. If we are only spending a week at the seaside, for pure change and recreation, it is scarcely passible for us to get along without books. The gayest even of sea- side resorts is fully alive to this fact, and Aberyst- wyth is no exception to the rule. There are various private circulating libraries in the town, and there is, besides, a Free Public Library and Reading Room in the Assembly Rooms. THUNDER HOLE, or the "Monk's Cave," is a favourite place with visitors for a short and pleasant excursion. It is a picturesque cave on the sea-shore about five miles from the town. PWLL CARADOC, the Pool of Caractacus," about eight or nine miles from Aberystwyth, is a waterfall of considerable beauty, less known to visitors in general than it de- serves to be. The falls of the Llyfnant Valley, near Glandovey also should be seen, one of them being two or three hundred feet in height. ABERYSTWYTH. The beantiful situation of Aberystwyth and its bracing air gives it advantages as a place of higher study, which are shared by few other collegiate centres. Moreover, the position of the College, practically on the dividing lines be- tween North and South Wales, results in the bringing together of students from each of the two great sections of the Principality to an extent not at- tained in any other institution, and gives the College a prominent place in the life of the Principality as a. whole. David Cox painted its beautiful bay, Sir Astley Cooper and other fashionable physicians sounded abroad the virtues of its health-giving air, and in the days of stage coaches it already attracted numbers of Enylisli visitors. Lodging- houses abound on the charming parade and in the streets of the town, nor is there any scarcity of hotels. For sea bathing, we need hardly say every facility is pro- vided, and the local authorities have spent money freely to increase the attractions of Aberystwyth for people in search of health. The water supply for the town is now brought all the way from Llyn Llygady liheidol, near the summit of Plynlimon, and visitors may have the satisfaction of knowing that what they drink is pure and ABERYSTWYTH. (From a Photograyh by Gycle). unadulterated. The Corporation has spent £ 20,000 on the water supply, and many thousands more on paving and sanitary works and other public im- provements. THE CASTLE. The first attraction of Aberystwyth next to the beach is the Castle. The ruins stand above the sea, westward of the town, upon a little rocky promontory, reached by a gentle walk. The view, from Pembrokeshire south, to Carnarvonshire, north, which bound Cardigan Bay, is seen to perfection on this spot, for we stand about midway between the extreme points, and have the curving-shore in view a good part of the distance. Of course the look-out north is the most charming, for it includes the hills which rise round the Dovey, and far beyond, with Snowdon itself on clear days. UNIV-RSITY COLLEGE. Near the Castle is the University Col- lege. The promoters were fortunate in secruing for £ 10.000 the abandoned works that were to form the Grand Castle Hotel. The College was opened in 1872. The Uni- versity is open to both men and women, and the number of students has increased every year. The register now contains over 300 names. CLOCK TOWEH, MACHYNLLETH. I hoto by O/ren, Nat-town. MACHYXLLETH) or Maehynllaeth, near which is Plas Machynlleth, means the fortress of Cynllaeth, a district so called. The town is of respectable antiquity, and there are reasons for believing that it is the Maglona of the Romans, where they had a Harrison. Tt has in recent times been repeatedly honoured with the session of the bards, and here was a Very honourable meeting for number and quality, ttinvened under the name of Parliament by the fiimfu]s Owen Glyndwrin the reign of Henry VI. MachVlli]eth is supposed to be the site of an ancient Roman station called Maglona C'Maglocunos' Town"), respecting which both history and tradition are hlike silent. When we re..cb a more historical period we find that it was at .Machynlleth (or to be m0re explicit, at Glandovey —within this parish) that }Jael<rvrn Gwynedd. or Maglocunos, was acelaimecj Kin". of the Island of Britain by the assembled Irtish nobles in the year 542. The curious legend Connected with Maelgwn's election to the British I)eti(Iragotiship is given by Professor John Rhys in his Celtic Britain," and is too well known to need reCital here. From its geo- graphical osition-beingthe spot, where the ancient principalities of North NVale, Powys, and South Wales met — Machynlleth has always held an fcn- portant, position in the atmals of the Cymry, It was here, on September 2tld 1402, that the last of the great national heroes, and the most renowned oioresuiaii LI,at u aies pvpr produced- uweii rionflnvr .r—WTS crowned the Prince of Wales, in the presence of the Parliainrnr which he had convened at Machynlleth for that purv,ose -phe Parliament House is still to be seen in Maengwyn Street. In the days of Welsh independence Machynlleth was the ranital of the commot of (IvfeiW, the mosr inn^riant province heloniriny m r he Princess of Powys and so we find these young Princes eranting favours to the town in many ways. The original charter is supposed to have been granted by Owen de la Pole, dnrimr the later Dart of the thirteenth century. The town retained its municipal privi.eyes for several centuries, but unfortunatelv the^ur^esses did not take any trouble to keep their civic functions alive, and so gradually they were allowed* to drop bit by bit, and at; last becan^ cLin.uished altogether. Upon the political amalgamation of Wale- with England in 1536 Powys-land was add,d ^he chatellany of Montgomery and becan^ was fhnspn (alternate with Montgomery) as the place where the Kinyrht of the shire should be elected, and at the same time it was mafle contributory Parliamentary borough. These privileges the town has retained e%ei since. PLAS MACH^ NLLETH Photo by Olcen, Neivtoun. CAMBRIAN HOTEL, BORTH. Unlike many of our marine watering places, Borth has the constant presence of the sea literally I within a stone's throw. There is a very trifling difference between high and low water and 1Ust below the steeo incline of shingle, which slopes down from the promenade in front of the Hydro, there sweeps a beach of smooth hard sand extenrhng north and south nearly half-a-dozen miles-ending in one direction under the towering cliffs of Craig-y-Mulfrau, and in the other at the estuary of the river Dovey. Enthusiasts in athletics find scope for their energies in the tennis ground of the Hydro with its four excellent courts, and in the neighbouring archery and cricket grounds but the great feature of Borth, which will probably bring to it fame and fortune in the near futur "is its unrivalled ransre of golfing links. These e'xtend over three miles and a half the greater Part of which is short close turf all the year roulld -and follow the trend of the coast northwards, towards Ynvslas. The links" have been carefully laid out umler the most experienced advice and are maintained in complete order by the Management. Probably at no other "links" in the countrv can the game of golfing be carried on throughout the year with so little interruption, as the grass does not grow long in the summer, while the remarkably high winter temperature of Borth (which is on the same isothermal line as Torquay and the Isle of Wight) precludes any interference with play from fallen snow. This latter fact, as yet very insufficiently known to the public and the medi- cal profession, will also have its effect in popu- larising Borth as a plaCe Gf winter resort for invalids and others who find the south coast too relaxing and enervating Devotees of the rod and gun have long been familiar with the excel- lent salmon, sewin, and trout fishing of the Lery and Einion rivers, and the shooting over the 20 square miles of bog lying between Borth and Glandovey, which includes almost every variety of wild fowl (whether of land or sea) in astonishing numbers, bllsides partridge, grouse, hares, rabbits, &c. lowing and sailing boats are obtainable at moderate prices. As a centre for excursions to the numberless points of in- terest in or near Cardigan Bay—Barmouth, Towyn-on-Sea, Dolgelley Cader Idris, Talyllyn, &c., Borth is too well-known to need recom- GLASPWL1.-—LLYFNANT VALLEY. Photo by Maclardy, 0^wc.<try. f • while its ease of access, being served by the through trains from Liverpool, Manchester, Bir- men a lon' London to Aberystwyth (from which it is only a short walk distant) supplies almost the other desideratum of a' popular watering place.