Thomas Alfred Coward

“ On a headland is a tower, used as a landmark before the lighthouse was erected, and beyond the lighthouse, on a couple of stacks, hundreds of terns lay their nests on the bare, jagged rocks or amongst the dense tangle of tree-mallow and sea-beet. ”

“ Llanddwyn Island was once isolated, and even now a storm sweeps heavy seas above its stone causeway; it is sacred to the memory of St. Deuwnn or Ddwyn, an early British lady. Baring-Gould calls her Dwynwen and says that she was a princess, probably daughter of a king of Brecknock. Her own love affairs did not run smoothly, but she became the patron saint of lovers and adopted as her motto: "Nothing wins hearts like cheerfulness." ”

“ When the young brood, tiny infants in down, are led from the burrow to the shore, the fishermen lie in wait to intercept them; the sheld-duck is a showy, handsome bird on ornamental waters. Nevertheless, it is no easy matter to capture these juveniles, for at a very early age they can run, and if they gain the water they prove that diving is instinctive; even a trained water-dog cannot catch them then.
On the Warren, moles burrow in the loose sand, making superficial runs through the turf and star-grass roots; these miners had many runs on the Sands, even below high-tide mark. ”

“ Marram is Newborough's crop to-day; it is harvested, dried, and taken to the village, where skilled fingers plait ropes and matting. tough and durable, which is exported in considerable quantity; the star grass, which binds the sand and saves the land from further encroachment, feeds the inhabitants of Newborough.
A little rocky peninsula tips the seaward limits of the Warren, where a lighthouse and a few pilots' cottages are all that remain of the village of Llanddwyn ”

“ Two streams, the Braint and Cefni, rise in the inland marshes, and enter the sea on either side of Newborough Warren; the latter was once a trickle through a great marsh, now it is a broad, embanked tidal stream, draining the whole of the vast Malldraeth Marsh. Much of this land is under cultivation, rich, fertile soil ”

“ Round the Abbey are the remains of the monastic gardens, still fruitful, for the once well-tilled land. helped by rotting seaweed, an excellent fertiliser, produces the best early potatoes for Carnarvon market. Starlings and a most valuable member of this isolated colony, a donkey, were occupying the ruin on our first visit, and we have since found that patient steed the best method of transporting baggage across the soft and shifting dunes. ”