USK CASTLE AND CHURCH—EXCURSION TO RAGLAN—ELEGANT RUINS OF RAGLAN CASTLE—VIEWS FROM THE DEVAUDON—ROMAN ANTIQUITIES AT CAERWENT—TESSELATED PAVEMENT. Usk, supposed to be the Burrium of the Romans, occupies a flat situation on the banks of its river. Though now a small place, in great part untenanted and falling to ruin, {208} it was formerly of very considerable extent. The form and dimensions of its ancient boundary may be traced in an imperfect rampart among the adjoining fields and orchards. The figure is not oblong, as most Roman works of the kind were, but irregularly rectilinear. On a gentle eminence in the northern precinct of the town is the castle, famous in history for withstanding many a fierce assault; but the ruin has little picturesque attraction: such parts as are not converted to the domestic purposes of a farm-yard are so enveloped in ivy, as scarcely to afford a characterizing form externally. We entered the castle through a Gothic gateway: vestiges of the baronial hall appear on the east side; and some of the towers, with round arched apertures, seem of the earliest construction: but we have no certain accounts when the castle was founded. Not far from the castle is the church, still a large structure, though much contracted from its original extent. The tower, in which circular arches are introduced, is the oldest part of the edifice; the body of the church is Gothic. This church belonged to a Benedictine priory of five nuns; and part of the priory-house is now standing, a little southward of the Church, in the occupation of a farmer. The common prison, a Gothic building near the bridge, was formerly a Roman Catholic chapel. {209} There are several ancient encampments in the neighbourhood of Usk. That of Craeg-y-garcyd, crowning a woody precipice on the west side of the river, about a mile above the town, is supposed by Harris to be Roman. Its figure is very irregular, and remarkable for seven very large tumuli within the rampart. About two miles from Usk, in our way to Raglan, we passed Campwood on our left, another encampment, of art oval figure, entirely covered with wood, but not remarkable either in its situation or construction. Our ride to Raglan traversed a bold undulating country of uncommon richness, where the luxuriance of the soil was alike conspicuous in impervious woods or teeming orchards sweeping over the hills, and verdant meadows sweetly carpeting the vallies. “When morn, her rosy steps in th’ eastern clime Advancing, sow’d the earth with orient pearl,”