Page:Bird Haunts and Nature Memories - Thomas Coward (Warne, 1922).pdf/37



HE first station on the Chester and Holyhead line after it has crossed the Straits and entered Anglesey is called, by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company, Llanfair P.G. Popular tradition affirms that the village of Llanfair possesses the longest name in existence, and a jargon of letters, inches long, is sold for a penny in Bangor and elsewhere, professing to be this Welsh word; the juvenile Celt earns coppers by reeling off the name to the "Sassenach" tripper. The real name is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, surely long enough without adding a jaw-breaking termination, which is merely a description of the place converted into a single word. Llanfair is the station for Plas Newydd, the seat of the Marquis of Anglesey, and for the Anglesey Column, a monument overlooking the Straits, from the summit of which a magnificent view can be obtained.

Twenty years ago I visited this little-known part of Wales. I have been many times since, but though a steam-ferry has replaced the old sailing-boat from Carnarvon, and motor transport passes through the one small town, there has been little change in these years. I shall never forget my first impressions of a part of Anglesey which the tourist had hardly ventured to invade.

We cycled west from Llanfair, past the fine beeches of Plas Newydd; everywhere wood-pigeons were busy in the tops, gorging on the fresh young buds, flying off with a noisy clatter of wings, as if conscious of guilt and possible retribution. Pheasants attacked the sprouting wheat. raiding the fields from their stronghold beyond the wall;