It is not easy in that much summer-resorted region to get at the country
in other than its wilder moods; it is either town or mountain; but now
and then one found one’s self among harvest-fields, where the yield of
wheat and oats was far heavier than with us, either because the soil was
richer or the tilth thorougher. The farms indeed looked very fertile,
and the farmhouses very alluringly clean and neat, at least on the
outside. They were not gray, as in the West of England, or brick as
in the Southeast, but were of stone whitewashed, and the roofs were of
slate, and not thatch or tile. As I have noted, they were not so much
gathered into villages as in England, and again, as I have noted, it
is out of such houses that the farmers’ boys and girls go to the
co-educational colleges of the Welsh University. It is still the
preference of the farmers that their sons should be educated for the
ministry, which in that country of multiplied dissents has pulpits for
every color of contrary-mindedness, as well as livings of the not yet
disestablished English Church. It is not indeed the English Church in
speech. The Welsh will have their service and their sermon in their own
tongue, and when an Oxford or Cambridge man is given a Welsh living, he
must do what he can to conform to the popular demand. It is said that
in one case, where the incumbent long held out against the parish,
he compromised by reading the service in Welsh with the English
pronunciation. But the Welsh churches are now supplied with
Welsh-speaking clergy, though whether it is well for the Welsh to cling
so strongly to their ancient speech is doubted by many Welshmen. These
hold that it cramps and dwarfs the national genius; but in the mean time
in Ireland the national genius, long enlarged to our universal English,
offers the strange spectacle of an endeavor to climb back into its
Gaelic shell.
[Illustration: PLAS MAWR]
I do not know whether an incident of my experience in coming from
Chester to Llandudno is to be offered as an illustration of Welsh
manners or of English manners. A woman of the middle rank, certainly
below gentlewoman, but very personable and well dressed, got into our
carriage where there was no seat for her. She was no longer young, but
she was not so old as the American who offered her his seat. She refused
it, but consented to sit on the hand-bag and rug which he arranged for
her, and so remained till she left the train, while a half-grown boy
and several young men kept their countenances and their places, not
apparently dreaming of offering her a seat, or if they thought of her
at all, thought she was well punished for letting the guard crowd her
in upon us. By her stature and complexion she was undoubtedly Welsh, and
these youth from theirs were as undoubtedly English. Perhaps, then, the
incident had better be offered as an illustration of Welsh and English
manners combined.
* * * * *