Days in the OpenCrandall, Lathan A. (Lathan Augustus)
General
Days in the Open
Crandall, Lathan A. (Lathan Augustus)
Fishing
It was because the writer was his brother’s friend that one of these
strong-faced Welshmen extended a cordial invitation to be his guest
when, later on, Dr. W. should visit his native town. So it came to pass
that after the great meetings in London were over, we started for the
little village of Garndolbenmaen where Dr. W. was born and had spent his
earlier years.
We had counted not a little on making the ascent of Snowdon, and in
spite of the cloudy, threatening weather, ascend it we did. Boarding the
toylike car on the little narrow-gauge road, we were slowly hauled up
the mountain side. We had hardly begun the ascent when the country
about began to unroll like a panorama below us. Yonder is a thread-like
stream, and beyond it the mines with their piles of slack marking
each opening. Higher up, the clouds were all about us, shutting out
everything but the immediate vicinity, and before we reached the summit,
rain had begun to fall. The only relief to our disappointment was when,
for a moment, the clouds broke and we looked far over mountains and
valleys. Down at our feet and leading away towards the east was a white
road on either side of which were little squares of cultivated fields.
Towards the south loomed the tops of high hills, the sides of which were
hidden by the clouds, while towards the west we caught just a glimpse of
the Straits of Menna.
A little later we were riding along the shores of the Straits and
looking across to Anglesea. To those familiar with religious work in
Great Britain, one figure stands out, giant-like, whenever the name of
that island is heard. Here Christmas Evans prayed and preached, turning
many hundreds from sin to righteousness under the sway of his matchless
eloquence. Farther on we passed Carnarvon Castle where, according to a
tradition now generally discredited, Edward II, first Prince of Wales,
was born.
Night had fallen when we reached the Garn station, a mile or more from
the village which straggles up the side of one of the foot-hills of the
Snowdon range. A cheerful fire was blazing in the open fire-place when
we entered the house, and it seemed a symbol of the warm and generous
hospitality extended to the American stranger. There is something
indescribably attractive about one of these Welsh homes. Perhaps
“hominess” describes it best. The absence of ceremony and the presence
of a spirit of kindliness and cordiality put the stranger at his ease
from the first. The days spent under that roof passed all too swiftly,
and, as we look back upon them, they set the heart to glowing. Since
then the master of the house has passed into the great silence, but
no change that time works can efface the memory of his gracious and
considerate hospitality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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