Transcribed from the 1854 E. Pearse edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org PEARSE’S COMMERCIAL DIRECTORY TO SWANSEA AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD, FOR 1854: * * * * * COMPRISING AN ALPHABETICAL AND CLASSIFIED LIST OF PROFESSIONAL, COMMERCIAL, AND PRIVATE RESIDENTS; WITH A COMPLETE LIST OF PUBLIC OFFICERS, POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS, &c., &c. * * * * * SWANSEA: PUBLISHED BY E. PEARSE, PRINTER, BOOKSELLER, AND STATIONER. 1854. SWANSEA. SWANSEA is most delightfully situated in the centre of the Bay to which it gives its name, near the junction of the river Tawe with the sea. The town is protected from the chilling influence of the north-west and north-easterly winds by two hills lying on either side, but freely receives those of the south, where it is open to the sea; and the soil being light and gravelly to a considerable depth, the air is both salubrious and agreeable. Swansea justly claims to be the first and most important town in the Principality. It is the centre of commercial transactions of very great magnitude, and its status is proved by its having been selected for the Meeting of the British Association for the advancement of Science, in 1848. Few commercial towns have so admirable a sea-side available to the inhabitants, as that which extends from Swansea to the Mumbles, round the western margin of the bay.