The Beaufort tribune and Port Royal commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1877-1879, 1877-08-30
The Music of the Waters.

And so all I had to do was to go into
the country and enjoy myself for Six
weeks-that is what it came to.
Why, if any one had struck me with a
feather at the moment the doctor uttered
his verdict l should certainly have been
Knocked down; fortunately no such
atrocity was attempted, SO maintained
as erect posture as my enfeebled
health would allow until the eminent
icentiate of the College of Physicians,
whom I was consulting, begged me to
resume my seat.
"You are utterly smoke-dried," he
said.
"London or tobacco?" inquired.
"Both, /" he answered. "No physic ;
fresh air is all you want-mountain air,
if possible perfect rest and quiet alb
ste1nious habits, early hours and no to-
bacco."
"And then ?" I blankly inquired.
"Then2 Oh, then," he answered,
s"get married and settle down"
Tt certainly was fortunate I was not
standing UP at that moment, for it would
not have needed touch of the aforesaid
feather TO have laid me low. AS it was
I sank back in my chair aghast. "Get
. married r. I thought I who was utterly
insensible to female attractions, and who
had been always taught to have an eye
to the main chance, and regard matri-
mony as a.clog, unless associated with a
great heiress. / get married on salary
{ of e300 year? Whew
I left Sayile row with scarce another
word, convinced that for real, downright,
impractical men there were none to COM
pare. with doctors.
Thus I took the plunge, and within
five DAYS found myself at snug little
inn in North Wales, hard by celebrated
SPOT known as the "Devirs Bridge" q
few miles inland from Aberystwith.
The change soon refreshed me. 1
was astonished at feeling neither dull
nor lonely-for the tourist season had
hardly set in, and I had the little inn
wellnigh to myself. So I wandered
about and gazed wonderingly at all I
saw, especially at the deep, craggy,
wooded gorge or mountain river bed
across which his satanic majesty's en-
gineering skill was supposed to have
been displayed
As I stood looking down upon it from
the bridge near the inn, it certainly
seemed to me q wondrously romantic
spot. Steep rock-bound banks, crowned
with trees, hemmed in the rushing foam
ing river, its channel becoming irregu-
larly narrower and more precipitous as
L of %la x,o1ln,, f1,o
depths of which it lay. Here there was
a waterfall, as I then thought, of stu
pendous magnitude, and yet little
higher up, a second, still larger. AS l
made nv way down to the river by a
well-worn path through a wood, the
sound of the descending waters, as,
waited on the soft summer breeze, it
rose and fell in liquid cadence, fascinated
me from the very first.
The weather hitherto had been superb,
midsummer sunshine, and not drop of
rain.
The sunshine glinting through the
trees; the pure sky above; The song of
birds, not yet all hushed, in the woods ;
the fresh breezy odors-these all became
such novelties and charms as had never
conceived possible. But seated on an
isolated rock, it was still, after all, out
of the Emusic of the waters that got
my chief mental enjoyment.
At last there was sudden change OF
wind. Heavy clouds swept over the
landscape, burrying in mist or occasional
showers all forms save those close at
hand.
Regular Welsh weather, sir y said
q fresh-colored elderly gentlemanlike
man in tourists suit, whom I found
the next morning in the coffee-room.
"My party viii be house-bound for a
couple of days at least, if know any
thing of this country; shocking place for
weather. Been here long, sir p
told him how long, and that I had
not had drop of rain the whole time.
Disadvantage in that, too," he went
on; mountainous scenery wants mist
and rain to drift. round the peaks, fill up
the torrents and bring out the waterfalls.
This one here will present fine sight
after another four-and-twenty hours OF
such weather; it was mere dribble last