s for railway traffic had been achieved, it
was necessary to provide improved harbour accommodation, and other
works, both for convenience and safety, at Holyhead. These works
included a spacious harbour, and a breakwater securing the additional
space of a sheltered roadstead. The length of the North Breakwater is
nearly 8000 feet. The harbour and deep-water sheltered roadstead are
together between six and seven hundred acres in extent. It took
twenty-five years to carry out the design, at a cost of about
L1,500,000. This outlay included the works and buildings for Government
use in the postal service. The engineer-in-chief was Mr. James Rennel,
and on his death, in 1856, Mr. afterwards Sir John Hawkshaw.

To celebrate the completion of the works, the Prince of Wales visited
Holyhead on the 19th of August, 1873, when he declared the Breakwater
complete and the Harbour of Refuge open. The Duke of Edinburgh, Master
of the Trinity House, Sir Frederick Arrow, Deputy Master, and many
distinguished representatives of various departments of the public
service assisted at the ceremony. Near the Lighthouse a gun-metal plate
records the fact that the Breakwater, "commenced in 1845, was on August
19th, 1873, declared complete, by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales," in
whose public life the proceedings of the day form a memorable event.

But there was yet much to be done for the Anglo-Irish route, via
Holyhead. The communication had so increased that the North Western
Railway Company found enlarged harbour accommodation a necessity for the
benefit of their own traffic.

It is not often that Royal sanction is given to the undertakings of
shareholding companies; but the new harbour at Holyhead, while it was
constructed at the cost and for the benefit of the London and North
Western Railway Company, has so much importance for commerce and
traffic, as to make it a national object. The Prince of Wales was
accordingly asked to inaugurate the new harbour, and a large number of
distinguished and official persons were invited by the Directors to be
present on the occasion. At the luncheon, the Chairman of the Company
proposed the usual loyal toasts, and the Prince of Wales responded in
the following terms:--

"Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen,--I am deeply flattered by
the kind manner in which this toast has been proposed and
received in this large and distinguished assemblage. I feel it a
matter of the greatest pleasure