A tour throughout South Wales and MonmouthshireBarber, J. T. (John Thomas)
History
A tour throughout South Wales and Monmouthshire
Barber, J. T. (John Thomas)
Monmouthshire (Wales) -- Description and travel; Wales, South -- Description and travel
The road from Abergavenny to Brecon, bordering the clear and lively Usk
in a romantic valley, soon leaves the charming county of Monmouth; but is
attended with such a continuance of agreeable scenery as may diminish in
a considerable degree the regret of the tourist. Among the verdant
accompaniments of the serpentizing river, the rich groves and smiling
lawns of Dany Park are conspicuous, swelling above a fertile vale, and
backed by a range of wild mountains. Nearly opposite this, in a field to
the right of the road and the fifteen mile-stone from Brecon, is a single
upright stone, about fourteen feet high, conjectured to be a monument of
the druidical ages.
CRICKHOWELL, about two miles farther, is an old mean-built town; but,
hanging on the steep declivities of a fine hill, and dignified with the
picturesque ruin of a castle, it is an interesting object in the
approach. The extent of this fragment of antiquity (of obscure origin),
sometimes called Alashby Castle, is by no means considerable; the
foundation of the keep, seated on a high artificial mound, denotes much
original strength, and all the standing walls shew a very remote
erection; although a few enrichments of later times may be perceived
beneath the thickly-woven ivy. A narrow Gothic bridge crosses the Usk
here to the pleasing village of Langottoc, the neighbourhood of which is
enlivened with several handsome seats; but no one is more remarkable for
the excellence of its position and the singularity of its design than a
lately-erected residence of Admiral Gell’s.
The road continues scenic and entertaining to the small village of
TRETOWER, only to be noticed for a few picturesque fragments of its
castle, once the residence of Mynarch lord of Brecon. Then winding round
a conical eminence, the road ascends a mighty hill called the Bwlch,
which term signifies a rent in a mountain: during which ascent, a farewel
view of the vale of the Usk, with a small tributary valley, and its
appendant stream descending from some gloomy mountains to the north, and
joining it near the castle of Tretower, is truly interesting and grand.
But from these wide-ranging views, and all external scenery, the tourist
becomes shut up on entering the pass of the mountains, a sterile hollow,
from which he emerges on a subject of an entirely opposite and very
singular description. Surrounded by dark mountains, melancholy and
waste, appears an extensive lake called LANGOR’S POOL, upwards of six
miles in circumference; which, as the natives assure you, is the site of
a large city swallowed up by an earthquake, and is so well furnished with
perch, tench, and eels, as to be one-third fish to two-thirds water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account