ffic, and eventually to continue,
through Pwllheli to that wonderful prospective harbour, upon which the
eyes of railway promoters had already been turned without avail,
Porthdynlleyn, near Nevin. {63} Its close connection with the other
local undertakings is shown by the agreement under which the Oswestry and
Newtown was to subscribe 75,000 pounds, and the Newtown and Llanidloes
25,000 pounds by the creation of 5 per cent. preference stock, a sum
ultimately increased in the case of the former Company by another 100,000
pounds.

Borne on the wings of Mr. Whalley's eloquence, Aberystwyth, assembled in
public meeting, led by the Mayor, Mr. Robert Edwards, gave its
enthusiastic support to the scheme. This was followed by another
meeting, at which Mr. Piercy, as engineer, outlined the plan and bade the
inhabitants look forward to the day when the railway was to enable them
to compete with successful rivals on the North Wales Coast, and once more
justify for them the proud name of "the Brighton of Wales." Other
railway companies were inclined to be obstructive, but their opposition
was not altogether formidable, and when Mr. Abraham Howell appeared in
the role of mediator between conflicting interests, the way was soon
prepared for proceeding apace with the scheme. So harmonious, indeed,
had the atmosphere become that within less than two months of this
meeting the Company's Bill had received Royal Assent, almost a record,
surely, in those days of interminable controversy! Mr. Savin's project
was to begin by carrying the line, whence it linked up with the Newtown
and Machynlleth at the latter place, as far as Ynyslas. Here, at the
nearest point on the seaboard, the mists which hang over the great bogs
that stretch from the sand-dunes up to the foothills of Plynlimmon, took
fantastic shape in the eye of the ambitious contractor. He may,
perchance, have heard the story told of a man who owned a barren piece of
land bordering the seashore. A friend advised him to convert it to some
use. The owner replied that it would not grow grass, or produce corn,
was unfit for fruit trees, and could not even be converted into an
ornamental lake as the soil was too sandy to retain the water. "Then,"
said the friend, "why not make it a first-class watering place?" This,
at any rate, was the project on which Mr. Savin set his heart. But not
even first-class watering places can be built in a day, and the
contractor made a modest beg