was confined to calling upon the landing-place
for a red-headed female, who, when she did come, which was seldom, was
terrible to look upon, and could only be conversed with by pantomime.
To do Mrs. Jenkins and "Gwenny" justice, they were scrupulously clean in
every thing but their own persons, which, the latter's especially,
seemed to have monopolised the dirt of the whole establishment. College
bedrooms are not luxurious affairs, so we were not inclined to be
captious on that head; and we slept soundly, and awoke with a
determination to make out first voyage of discovery in a charitable
spirit.
The result of our morning's stroll was the unanimous conclusion, that
Glyndewi was a rising place. It did not seem inclined to rise at all at
once though; but in patches here and there, with a quarter of a mile or
so between, like what we read of the great sea-serpent. (I fear this
individual is no more; this matter-of-fact age has been the death of
him.) There were two long streets--one parallel to the quay, (or, as the
more refined called it, "the terrace,") and the other at right angles to
it. The first was Herring Street--the second Goose Street. At least such
were the ancient names, which I give for the benefit of antiquarian
readers. Since the then Princess Victoria visited B----, the loyalty of
the Glyndewi people had changed "Herring" into "Victoria;" and her royal
consort has since had the equivocal compliment paid him of transmuting
"Goose Street" into "Albert Buildings." I trust it will not be
considered disloyal to say, that the original sponsors--the geese and
the herrings--seen to me to have been somewhat hardly used; having done
more for their namesakes, than, as far as I can learn, their royal
successors even promised.
Glyndewi was rising, however, in more respects than in the matter of
taste in nomenclature. Tall houses, all front and windows, were stuck up
here and there; sometimes with a low fisherman's cottage between then,
whose sinking roof and bulging walls looked as if, like the frog in the
fable, it had burst in the vain attempt to rival its majestic neighbour.
At one end stood a large hotel with a small business, and an empty
billiard-room: at the other, a wall some six inches high marked the spot
where subscription-rooms were to be built for the accommodation of
visitors and the public generally, as set forth in the prospectus, as
soon as the visitors and the public chose to find the money. Near
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