light one. Our engagement with the lessee of the hotel had provided for
a renewal of the contract at will; but there remained the owners of some
thirty houses, large and small, with whom we should have to reckon. They
would have us in their hands, and might, if so minded, "turn our
necessity to glorious gain." Then, too, many of the lodging-houses,
excellent as airy summer pavilions, did not promise much comfort in
winter time, to those who remembered how in the spring weeks the curtains
and everything movable within doors

Fluttered in the besieging wind's uproar,
And the long carpets rose along the gusty floor.

Moreover, natives who knew, threatened us with rain all day and every
day, from the beginning of September till the end of October, after which
it would be dry. Others, who also knew, promised us fine weather till
the latter date, and then wet till Christmas. Putting the two assurances
together, one inferred that weather at Borth would be like weather in
general. However, in prospect of winds and wet, the open porch of the
hotel was walled up with planks so as to put another door between the
sou'-wester and the diners in the corridor. Also a long lean-to shed,
like a cloister without windows, was run along two sides of the bowling-
green wall. The outlay on the latter yielded no adequate return. It
afforded some shelter for chapel roll-call, and for the few minutes'
lounge before evening prayers, except when it rained hard enough, and
then the water poured through the contractor's felt roof. It was too
narrow to be used, as was hoped, for games; unless, indeed, we had turned
it into a skittle-alley. But then skittles is a game of low connections.
Finally, well-wishers were solemn in their warnings that the drainage of
the spot was defective (which, indeed, was no otherwise than true, till
we brought about a reform), and that our settlement by the sea was