Meanwhile a reconnaissance was being made by one of our body, who was despatched to visit, as in a private capacity, Borth, and two or three other spots on the Welsh coasts, while inquiries were also made in other directions.

On Monday, 13th, the Headmaster left Uppingham for a visit to the sites which promised most favourably.  A deep snow on the ground made the departure from home seem the more cheerless, but it had melted from the Welsh hills before we reached them.  On Tuesday, the party—­which now consisted of the Headmaster, two of the staff, and one of the Trustees (whose services on this occasion, and many others arising out of it, we find it easier to remember than to acknowledge as they deserve)—­stayed a night at the inland watering-place of Llandrindod, one of the suggested sites.  The bleak moors round it were uninviting enough that squally March day.  But the question of settling here was dismissed at once; there was not sufficient house-room in the place.  So next morning we bore down upon Borth.

The first sight of the place seemed to yield us assurance of having reached our goal.  The hotel is a long oblong building with two slight retiring wings, beyond which extends a square walled enclosure of what was then green turf; Cambrian Terrace overlooks the enclosure at right angles to the hotel, the whole reminding us remotely of a college quadrangle.  On entering the hotel, the eye seized on the straight roomy corridors which traverse it, and the wide solid staircase, as features of high strategic importance.  A tour of the rooms was made at once, and an exact estimate taken of the possible number of beds.  Besides two other members of the staff, who joined the pioneers at Borth, the school medical officer had come down to meet us, and reported on what lay within his province.  Meanwhile two of the party were conducted by mine host to explore a “cricket-ground” close to the hotel, or at least a plot of ground to which adhered a fading tradition of a match between two local elevens.  The “pitch” was conjecturally identified among some rough hillocks, over the sandy turf of which swept a wild northwester, “shrill, chill, with flakes of foam,” and now and then a driving hailstorm across the shelterless plain.  So little hospitable was our welcome to a home from which we were sometime to part not without regretful memories.

Next day, March 16th, a contract was signed, which gave us the tenancy of the hotel till July 21st, with power to renew the contract at will for a further term after the summer holidays.  Our landlord, Mr. C. Mytton, was to provide board (according to a specified dietary) and bed (at least bed-room) for all who could be lodged in his walls, and board (with light and firing) for the whole party; to supply the service for the kitchen, and to undertake the laundry.  Servants for attendance on the boys were to be brought by the masters.  The payment was to be 1 pound a head per week for all who were