Читать книгу The Pedestrian's Guide through North Wales. A tour performed in 1837 онлайн

55 страница из 66

The walls of the castle are eighteen feet in thickness; but sleeping and other apartments have been cut into them, for the accommodation of the family.

The celebrated picture of Pystil Rhaidar, in the dining-room, shows that noble waterfall tumbling into the sea, where several ships are quietly riding at anchor. “Pystil Rhaidar,” i.e. “The spout of the Cataract,” is considered the largest fall in Wales. In the valley of Mochnant, about four miles from the village, the river falls over an almost perpendicular rock, 240 feet high; thence rushing furiously under a natural arch towards the bottom, it plunges into a deep black pool, overhung with impervious shaggy wood.

The story of the artist’s introducing the ocean with ships, is rather curious. He was a foreigner, and but little acquainted with the English language; and when he had completed the picture, one of the persons to whom it was first shown observed, that “a few sheep placed near the foot of the fall would be a great improvement.” Misunderstanding sheep for ship, his amazement was extreme. He, however, took the picture to his easel, and introduced ships with the necessary element to float them! A mistake so humorous determined the purchaser to allow of no further alteration.