t on more than one celebration. The day was
also to mark the opening of the hotel which Mr. Savin had built at Borth,
and when the train finally arrived at Aberystwyth at a quarter past three
it was accorded a civic welcome; the Mayor, Mr. Morgan, and Corporation
tendering to Messrs. Thomas and John Savin an address, in which thanks
were poured out upon these "benefactors" to the locality. A move was
then made to the promenade, where Mrs. Edwards drove the first pile in
the new pier, and, after much processioning, the great assembly sat down
at the Belle Vue Hotel for a banquet of which, surely, the like has never
been seen in the town since! Here his Worship, supported by Earl Vane,
Capt. E. L. Pryse, M.P., Mr. Thomas Barnes, M.P., Capt. R. D. Pryce, the
Contractors, Engineers, and many other ardent workers for or well-wishers
of the undertaking, presided over a flow of oratory, the report of which
occupied over five columns of the newspapers, and visions of a new
Aberystwyth swam before the eyes of the guests, wonderful and beatific!
Such, indeed, was the sumptuousness of the repast, and the wealth of
oratory, that it was eleven at night before the company could be
persuaded to take their places in the return train, and at three o'clock
the next morning a jovial party arrived home at Oswestry, tired and
sleepy, though happy and glorious.

But the "Crimean campaign" of girdling the coast of Merionethshire and
penetrating onward to the distant peninsula of Lleyn, which was part of
the Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast scheme, was yet only in its earlier
stages, and already the difficulties of the undertaking had had their
sobering effects. The original idea of Mr. Piercy was to build a huge
bridge from Ynyslas across the estuary of the Dovey to Aberdovey, whence
it was proposed to run a service of steam boats to Ireland. Work was
begun with seeking a foundation in the shifting sands. Men were engaged
with the boring rods, but they could only labour at low tide, and in the
long intervals when the water was high, adjacent hostelries afforded a
too attractive method of spending enforced leisure, so that often, it is
said, when the waters had receded enough to renew operations, some of the
borers were too bemused to know whether they were on the solid earth or
not. At any rate, no sure foundation could be found, either by Philip
drunk or by Philip sober, and it was reluctantly concluded that another
means of bridging the gu