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Dyma’r ffordd o’i chyrraedd. Edrychwch am droad i’r dde wrth ichi deithio tua’r gorllewin ar y ffordd i ben pella’r penrhyn. Mae’n hawdd ei golli. Cadwch eich llygaid ar agor am fryn coediog gyferbyn ar y chwith. Wedi troi, mae’r…
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The ageing of Henri Rouart
Henri Rouart was one of Edgar Degas’ oldest and most loyal friends. They went to same school in Paris, Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and served in the artillery together during the Franco-Prussian War (Degas was an indifferent soldier). Rouart became an engineer…
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Wye Valley Walk, day 7: Monnington-on-Wye to Hay-on-Wye
Before breakfast we meet the Couple from Chepstow properly for the first time, and have a chance to share our parallel experiences of the Walk. S. and J., it turns out, live in Tunbridge Wells and are keen ramblers. They’re…
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Wye Valley Walk, day 6: Hereford to Monnington-on-Wye
It’s a still, bright Sunday morning. We walk from our B&B through the quiet streets of Hereford, calling at our favourite lunch provider, Greggs, and make for the Cathedral to visit an attraction we missed yesterday, the statue in the…
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Wye Valley Walk, day 5: Fownhope to Hereford
Today our friends at Celtic Trails, who organised our trip, have taken pity on us and given us a half day off: there’s just between six and seven miles of easy walking ahead. For the first time we’re reduced to…
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Wye Valley Walk, day 4: Ross-on Wye to Fownhope
Another fine day, that starts with cloud and opens up later to sun and breeze. No shops or pubs on today’s route, so we buy our vegan sausage rolls in Greggs and make our way down to the river, alongside…
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Wye Valley Walk, day 3: Symonds Yat to Ross-on Wye
I’m awake before 4:30 this morning, after a nightmare in which I’m on the run from armed police and have to hide in the branches of a tree. The meaning’s obscure, but the presence of trees is easy enough to…
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Wye Valley Walk, day 2: Llandogo to Symonds Yat
This morning’s taxi back from Tintern to Cleddon has a punctured tyre, so Kate of Celtic Trails, luckily based in Tintern, is our chauffeur back up the frighteningly steep and narrow lane. As we pass through Llandogo we spot the…
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Wye Valley Walk, day 1: Chepstow to Llandogo
It’s a gloomy Tuesday morning in September – leaves are already on the pavements – and four of us have gathered for the group photo in the Castle car park in Chepstow before making a start on the first half…
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Carnegie libraries in Wales
Alfred Zimmern, the classicist and first professor of international politics in Aberystwyth (and the world) is now largely forgotten, except for one striking phrase he coined, ‘American Wales’. He was referring to the explosive industrialisation of south Wales in the…