1936 On the Continent

XFORD
    Clarendon
    Randolph
    The Mitre
    B ANBURY
    Whateley Hall
    White Lion
    The Crown
    B ROADWAY
    Lygon Arms
    E VESHAM
    Mansion House
    Northwick, by the water side
    S TRATFORD-ON -A VON
    The Welcome
    The Arden
    The Falcon
    The Red Horse
    White Swan
    D ROTTWICH
    The Raven
    The Worcestershire Brine Baths
    W ORCESTER
    Crown Hotel at Wychbold
    L UDLOW
    The Feathers
    Old Black and White Inn (of great beauty)
    S HREWSBURY
    Raven
    Lion
    Mytton and Mermaid (ask for the history of Mytton)
    C HESTER
    Grosvenor
    Blossoms
    W HITTINGTON
    There is a small hotel close to the Castle (Ye Old Boot).
    L LANGOLLEN
    The Hand (is a very old hotel), and there are many others.
    From now onwards, it is unnecessary to mention special hotels, as the Snowdon district is well provided. We have mentioned the small hotel at Peny-Pass and at Lake Ogwen for the convenience of climbers.
    C AERNARVON
    The Royal, opposite the Castle
    A NGLESEY
    There are good hotels at Beaumaris, Rhosneigr, Amlwch, Pentraeth, and Aberffrau.
    H ARLECH
    St. David’s
    The Castle
    A BERYSTWYTH
    Is a seaside place—plenty of hotels.
    R HAYADER
    Lion Royal
    O N K ERRY H ILL
    In Radnor Forest, an isolated inn, The Anchor, where foxhounds are kept.
ROUTE 4—SOUTH WALES
    A DJOINING the North Wales trip, extend your tour south. Come back over the Radnor Forest for those high, wild hills are wonderful scenery, but when you get to H EREFORD have a glass of cider, and then turn west again (after two glasses of cider, you’ll reach Monmouth), but Monmouth Bridge is really there—it isn’t the result of the cider—there’s a genuine castle built in the middle of it. Shakespeare likens the Wye at Monmouth to the Euphrates, and, “Look you, there is salmons in both!”
Brecon Beacon
    Then over the Black Mountains to Llanthony Abbey, that pocket in the hill, and Brecon. Brecon Beacon is a wild wet sheep walk—to be a shepherd of the Beacon amounts to something. You may be up to your waist in snow anytime from November onwards.
    Turn north at Llandovery and cut across the hills to Aberayron, for the sweep of Cardigan Bay, and then make your way cross country to St. David’s—the old cathedral town of Wales—and back through Haverford West, Milford Haven and Pembroke, Carmarthen, Builth Wells, and any of the hill roads to Great Malvern.
    Malvern , land of Piers Plowman, caters for visitors, and you’ll be well looked after.
The Wye Valley
    From Hereford (or from Monmouth) explore the Wye Valley, the wonderful piece of land which lies between Hay, Hereford, Ross and Chepstow. I cannot pretend it is on the road anywhere, but it is a detour worth making.
    As an historic point, there are small churches near Symond’s Yat—in a way, almost more interesting than Tintern Abbey (also close), for they show early Celtic work, where the Irish Pilgrims walked from St. David’s across, along your route, down to Canterbury.
    Anyone going west on Tours 3, 4, 5, or 6 should fit in the land which lies either side of the Bristol Channel—it is little known, therefore quite unspoilt and most typically English.
    Hotels and Road Houses in towns, or near the routes, mentioned.
    H EREFORD
    The Green Dragon
    The City Arms
    M ONMOUTH
    Beauford Arms
    The King’s Head
    B RECON
    Castle of Brecon
    The Wellington
    S T. D AVIDS
    Several hotels near the Cathedral
    The S OUTH C OAST is also well provided.
    M ALVERN
    The Abbey Hotel
    The County
    H AY
    A choice of small country inns
    Ross
    The Royal
    The Swan
    C HEPSTOW
    Sedbury Park
    All the Wye Valley, from Symond’s Yat downwards, is well provided with hotels.
ROUTE 5—THE SOUTH-WEST
    Now for the Great West Road!
    If you want to extend this tour on to your Welsh tour that brought you down the beautiful Wye Valley, you can get a ferry from Chepstow. Beachley ferry service takes cars across the Severn to Aust, thus avoiding Bristol City, and giving you the beautiful undulating country beyond Chipping Sodbury to Malmesbury. M ALMESBURY was the scene of the earliest attempt at gliding in England, about 1170. A monk of Malmesbury made himself wings (probably from parchment) and took off from the high tower of the abbey. He broke his legs in landing, which he attributed to not fitting himself with a tail for steering, but the Superior said it was a judgment on him for defying God, and he wasn’t allowed to try again.
    You can read all about it in the Chronicles.
    Anyway, if you join the Great West Road south of the C OTSWOLDS you will see some beautiful