Here my observations upon South-Wales draw to a close: they have been very brief upon Radnorshire; and yet the excursion on the banks of the Wye describes almost its only attraction. Indeed, this county is remarkably barren in subjects of picturesque beauty, memorials of antique grandeur, and remarkable towns and villas. I find but one religious house in this shire described in Dugdale’s Monasticon, or Tanner’s Notitia Monastica, which is Abbey Cwm Hir, situated about six miles east of Rhayder; but I understand that no part of the building remains. It was founded for Cistercian monks by Cadwathelan ap Madoc in the year 1143, and must have been a very inconsiderable foundation, as its revenues at the suppression of monasteries were only valued at 28_l._ 14_s._ 4_d._ The castles that occur in this county are neither remarkable in their history nor venerable in decay. Yet frequent and memorable are the earthen works that characterize almost every hill in the county, which either wear the marks of cairns {343} or ancient encampments. “’Twas on those downs, by Roman hosts annoy’d, Fought our bold fathers, rustic, unrefin’d! Freedom’s fair sons, in martial cares employ’d, They ting’d their bodies but unmask’d their mind.” On a hill near Knighton, at the eastern limit of the county, is still shewn the CAMP OF CARACTACUS; and an encampment on another hill separated from the first by a deep valley, is said to be that of the Roman general Ostorius. The Britons waited the attack of the enemy’s legions in their advantageous position, and fought like men who valued life no longer than as it was connected with freedom; but their courage availed nothing before the skill and discipline of the Roman army; after an immense slaughter they gave way, and Caractacus’s wife, daughter, and brothers, were taken prisoners. The king escaped, but was soon after betrayed into the hands of his enemies. His noble speech and deportment when brought before the Roman emperor, as transmitted to us by the pen of Tacitus, must ever excite admiration, and evince the immutable dignity of manly virtue, however bereft of the factitious splendour of power.