A mostly picture day ... with a little recap and refresher ...
In late April and May 1999 I was traveling through
Europe, chasing Mary Shelley—and others of her circle of family and friends—and,
as I’ve been writing about here the past few posts, I spent some time in
Porthmadog and Tremadog, Wales, places Mary had never gone but places where her
future lover and husband (yes, in that order), Percy Bysshe Shelley, had lived
for a while in 1813 with his wife, Harriet Westbrook Shelley—five months
pregnant with daughter Ianthe at the time of the late-night break-in and
gunfire and wrestling-match-on-the-floor at their house (Tan-yr-allt), February
26.
The spellings have changed (as I’ve noted) from
Shelley’s time to ours: He knew the little town where he lived as Tremadoc,
which lies only about a mile northwest from Porthmadog (spelled Porthmadoc then), where Shelley had
become enchanted with the Embankment project (walling out the sea, reclaiming
land)—now affectionately called “The Cob.”
Anyway, in 1999 I spent some glorious hours there—the late
afternoon and evening of May 2, and much of May 3—wandering around,
photographing sites, getting as close to Tan-yr-allt as I could. At the time I
was there, the former home of the Shelleys was a private school for little ones.
And I didn’t think it was too good an idea for an aging, bearded man to stand
around taking photographs. (But, officer,
I was just ….)
Since the time of my visit, Tan-yr-allt has become a B
& B, and there’s a decent video available that shows the exterior, the
views, some of the interior (
I’m including today some photos of the region and the
house (some from postcards)—with more to come
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