374 WILD PLOWEES OF 



eed up a rough torrent's bed, now overgrown with 

 tortuous drooping birches and mountain ash, now 

 rude with displaced slabs, among which the chafed 

 waters brawled and splashed, and the brown but 

 white-breasted Dipper napped his wings ; or barring 

 the way with steep walls of verdant moss, over which 

 the stream murmured and bubbled amidst its rocks 

 and crags, of which one in the centre bore a very 

 large and beautiful Crowberry Bush (JEmpetrum ni- 

 grwni), laden with its sable fruit, and many patches of 

 flowering heath gleamed on the sides of the dingle. 

 Far below, lessened yet beautified by mellowing dis- 

 tance, the broken towers and arches of Llantony 

 Abbey stood grey and desolate in the sober hues of 

 evening ; and above and around us, the dark frowning 

 eternal heath-clad hills formed in solemn magnificence 

 a grand but broken amphitheatre, rounded by the 

 action of waters long since passed away, but still 

 bearing on their barren heads the pristine traces of 

 stern desolation that ages have not taught to subside 

 even before the smile of summer ; while solemn, nay 

 even terrific, must be the aspect of these hills amidst 

 the wailing storms of winter. 



Now, however, we could say with WOKDSWOETH, as 

 we threw ourselves panting on the bright thick and 

 soft Heather to take a transient but delicious rest 



" Ah ! what a sweet recess, thought I, is here 

 Instantly throwing down my limbs at ease 

 Upon a bed of Heath ; full many a spot 

 Of hidden beauty have I chanced to espy 

 Among the mountains ; never one like this ; 



range, which, standing on the borders of Herefordshire and Monmouth- 

 shire, more properly bears the name of the Halterel Hills. To the south 

 it is connected with hills that approach very near to the Deny, one of the 

 vast buttresses of the Sugar-Loaf Mountain. 



