It is a charming amphitheatre
overlooked by the lofty tops around, and there on the green slope
the Niggers had set up their stage, and ranged the spectators'
chairs in the classification of first, second, and third so dear
to the British soul. There they cracked their jokes, and there
they sang their songs; the songs were newer than the jokes, but
they were both kinds delivered with a strong Cockney accent, and
without an aspirate in its place. But it was all richly
acceptable to the audience, who laughed and cheered and joined in
the chorus when asked. Here, as everywhere, the crowd delighted
equally in songs of the sloppiest sentimentality and of humor
nighest indecency.
[Illustration: LLANDUDNO FROM GREAT ORME'S NECK]
On the afternoon of our visit the good lady next me could not
contain her peculiar pride in the entertainment, and confided
that she knew the leader of the troupe, who was an old friend of
her husband's. It was indeed a time and place that invited to
expansion. Nothing could have been friendlier and livelier than
the spectacle of the spectators spread over the grassy slope, or
sublimer than the rise of the hills around, or more enchanting
than the summer sea, with the large and little shipping on it,
and the passenger-steamers going and coming from Liverpool and
all the points in the region round.
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