An annual expedition was to the top of Mount Snowdon, the highest in
England or Wales. It was attempted by land and water. Half of us
tramped overland in forced marches to the beautiful Menai Straits,
crossed the suspension bridge, and were given splendid hospitality and
good beds on the straw of the large stables at the beautiful country
seat of a friend at Treborth. Here the boat section who came around
the island were to meet us, anchoring their craft on the south side of
the Straits. Our second year the naval division did not turn up, and
some had qualms of conscience that evil might have overtaken them. Nor
did they arrive until we by land had conquered the summit, travelling
by Bethesda and the famous slate quarries, and returning for the
second evening at Treborth. We then found that they had been stranded
on the sands in Red Wharf Bay, so far from shore that they could
neither go forward nor back; had thus spent their first night in a
somewhat chilly manner in old bathing machines by the land wash, and
supped off the superfluous hard biscuit which they had been reserving
for the return voyage. They were none the worse, however, our genial
host making it up to them in an extra generous provision and a special
evening entertainment. One of my smartest boys (a Jew by nationality,
for we made no distinctions in election to our class), in recounting
his adventures to me next day, said: "My! Doctor, I did have some fun
kidding that waiter in the white choker. He took a liking to me so I
let him pal up. I told him my name was Lord Shaftesbury when I was
home, but I asked him not to let it out, and the old bloke promised he
wouldn't." The "old bloke" happened to be our host, who was always in
dress-clothes in the evening, the only time we were at his house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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