Travel
[We publish on this page articles and notes which may help our readers in making their plans for travel at home and abroad. They are written by correspondents who have visited the places described. We shall be glad to answer questions arising out of the Travel articles published in our columns. Inquiries should be addressed to the Travel Manager, The SPECTATOR, 99 Gower Street, w.c.1.]
Italy in Wales
THERE are some places of which I am so fond that I will never disclose their names to anyone. Their charm lies in their remoteness : they have not yet been "discovered." Portmeirion would be one of these, but there is no need to keep it secret : its isolation is secured, it is safeguarded from the onslaughts of the tripper, it is protected from the offensive smudges of the jerrybuilder. This peninsula at the head of the Portmadoc bay in Merionethshire is privately owned, and the land between it and the mainland has been legally guaranteed from exploitation by a Reciprocal Restrictive Covenant, a legal process which is not as frequently employed as it should be.
The owner of this spot for years had the idea of creating an ideal village on his own ideal site. He imagined a place, in his own words, "sea-girt, rocky and mountainous, yet .so sheltered as to be luxuriously wooded, prudently remote, yet reasonably accessible, if possible with a waterfall, a ruined castle, and a nucleus of old buildings." Here he deter- mined to prove, and has certainly succeeded in proving for all time, that (again in his own words) "exploitation need not necessarily mean destruction, that it was possible to enhance the beauty of a site by building appropriately." " Appro- priately " is the right word : in this sheltered semi-tropical setting, with its rocky cliffs, its surrounding mountains, its sandy beach, framed by magnificent trees and undergrowth, and its warm enticing sea, what type of building could be more fitting than this bright colour-washed citadel dominated by the white campanile ?
Portmeirion was once an old country home, looking over Tremadoe Bay toward Harlech. The owner has trans- formed it into a first-class hotel ; he has made self-con- tained cottages of the stables and outbuildings ; he has remodelled the existing houses to suit his fantastic, entertaining, but wonderfully successful scheme. Portmeirion village may grow, but its growth will be controlled by one man's fancy. As has already been explained, the surrounding land can never be exploited, and the individuality of the Portmeirion estate, which is protected by its own gatehouse and toll bar, will remain unspoiled.
Portmeirion is an ideal place to spend a holiday, particularly in the early summer and early autumn. August is very often wet. There are a few permanent residents, and at present holiday-makers come in the spring, summer, and early autumn, though the mildness of its climate will probably create a winter season. There is only accommodation at present for under a hundred visitors in the hotel and in the cottages and flats, which can be taken either as furnished quarters in the ordinary way or with complete service through the hotel. Practical particulars about Portmeirion are given in a most seductive little pamphlet called Portmeirion Explained: With Pictures, which is published at is. by the ICynoch Press, Birmingham. The illustrations make one's mouth water for the sea and the sun.
There is plenty to do at Portmeirion. There is sailing; swimming not only in the sea, but in a fresh water pool, and, better still, in the mountain tarns and streams ; tennis on the hard, green, hotel court ; fishing for brown trout and sometimes salmon in the River Glasllyn ; walking, of a kind as varied and exciting as the most ardent walker could desire ; mountain climbing in Snowdonia ; and, for the more indolent, there is always one of the most beautiful views in the world to gaze
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