Welsh Journals

HIS TOURS IN WALES. BOTH by his travels and his works Tennyson is associated with Wales. He appears to have made his first visit in 1839, at a time when he was still labouring under the burden of sorrow which the death of his friend Hallam had imposed upon him. At all times a man who loved quiet and seclusion, Tennyson was then in greater need than ever of peaceful solitude. On this tour he visited Aberystwyth, Barmouth and Llanberis. His account of Aberystwyth is not enthusiastic, though he was interested to see the quaint costume of the women and to hear Welsh spoken about him. He had chanced upon a spell of serene blue skies, golden sunshine, and placid waters. This was not to his taste. He loved the "much-sounding sea", and was disappointed that the bay of Aberystwyth did not show more of the tempestuous spirit for which it was renowned. Nor was he more fortunate with the literature which came into his hands during his stay. He appears to have stumbled upon T. J. L. Prichard's poem, "The Land Beneath the Sea", and was moved to laughter by this uninspired version of the legend of Seithenyn. It is tempting to specu- late what Tennyson might have made of the theme, if it had come to his notice in some more suggestive form. As it was, the inspiration which Welsh tradition was to give Tennyson sprang from a different source-the deeds of Arthur and his knights. Weary of the unchanging, tranquil sea, Tenny- son involuntarily turned his thoughts to Mable- thorpe in Lincolnshire, where he had so often listened to the booming of the waves as they fell on the shore. What he had longed for and lacked at Aberystwyth he found at Barmouth, which rose correspondingly in his esteem. He describes it as "a good deal prettier place than Aber- ystwyth, a flat sand shore, a sea with breakers, looking Mablethorpe-like, and sand hills, and close behind them huge crags and a long estuary with cloud-capt hills running up as far as Doi- gelley, with Cader Idris on one side." But more than anything else that Tennyson saw on this tour Llanberis appealed to him, and remembering the sombre and majestic setting of the mountain- lake, as yet undefiled by unsightly heaps of refuse from the slate quarries, we cannot find this diffi- cult to understand. By the time that Tennyson made his second tour in Wales in 1856 he had acquired some familiarity with Welsh folk-songs and traditions. That summer was spent by the Tennyson family in Wales, and we find Tennyson returning to his old haunts, Barmouth and Dolgelley. The still Tennyson AND WALES by H. G. Wright. pools of the stream in the Torrent Walk at Dol- gelley, the mysterious giant steps of Cwm Bychan, and "the high rejoicing lines of Cader Idris" were all a source of wonder and delight. His wife records in her diary how Tennyson, when climbing Cader Idris, was caught in a sud- den rain-storm, which blotted out everything from the family anxiously waiting below. "I heard the roar of waters, streams and cataracts," she says, "and I never saw anything more awful than that great veil of rain drawn straight over Cader Idris, pale light at the lower edge. It looked as if death were behind it, and made me shudder when I thought he was there." However, Tennyson sent a reassuring message by his guide, and ultim- ately joined his family in safety. Other places visited by the Tennysons were Harlech, Ffestiniog Llanidloes, Builth and Caerleon. The last-named, with its Roman remains and memories of Arthur, made a deep impression on Tennyson. In a letter written amid the quiet of this ruined shrine of former greatness, he says "The Usk murmurs by my windows, and I sit like King Arthur in Caer- leon." From Caerleon excursions were made to Merthyr Tydvil, to Raglan and to Caerphilly, and then the party returned home through Brecon, Gloucester and Salisbury. Twelve years later Tennyson again came to Caerphilly, and also visited Chepstow and Tin- tern. He beheld the ruins of the old abbey and the expanse of the surrounding country at much the same season as Wordsworth did seventy years before. Through the bare windows of the abbey he saw the golden cornfields and, as he climbed an adjacent height, watched the Wye force its way past bluffs crowned with dark woods towards its junction with the Severn. In 1871 Tennyson made another tour in Wales, this time in the north. Leaving home on August 7th, he broke his journey at Wrexham to stay with Mr. Archibald Peel, who had enjoyed his friendship for some twenty years. From here he went on to Llanberis, where he put up at the Hotel Victoria. Tennyson was disturbed by the dancing of a jovial party in the room above his own, and in a letter humorously refers to the incident: Dancing above was heard, heavy feet to the sound of a light air, Light were the feet, no doubt, but floors were misrepresenting. Early the following morning Tennyson set out from Llanberis and walked through Nant Gwyn- ant to Beddgelert. He records his impressions thus: Walked to the Vale Gwynant, Llyn Gwynant shone very distant