SEPTEMBER. 387 



the Sugar-Loaf, Melampyrum arvense, var. montana, 

 appeared plentifully, Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) 

 on the banks of the Usk in profusion, and various 

 Mints, as Mentlia sylvestris, Spear-mint (M. viridis), 

 and Fragrant Mint (M. acutifolia), by rivulets des- 

 cending from the deep combs of the sullen lofty Blo- 

 renge. 



But evening has surprized us while musing on the 

 summit of the Little Skirrid, near Abergavenny, 

 amidst the wild groves of aged Hollies, Hawthorns, 

 Maples, and Beeches, that surround its lonely verdant 

 brow. The sun has sunk behind a purple cloud, but 

 the winding Usk gleams with mirror-like brightness in 

 the fair valley below, throughout all its undulations. 

 The clouds of evening slowly fold upon the solemn 

 brows of the Black Mountains, darken the head of the 

 Great Skirrid, and cast into deep shadow the majestic 

 wooded buttresses of the Sugar Loaf, whose narrow 

 peak bright above all, rises the acknowledged sove- 

 reign of this mountain conclave ; while the eye resting 

 upon the darkened surly Blorenge, robed in the deep- 

 est purple, vainly attempts to penetrate the gloom 

 that has now settled upon its rocky escarpment, and 

 bathes its ferns and mosses in the dews of night. 

 One lonely light among the woods at its base, alone 

 serves to show by comparison the giant bulk whose 

 indentations have been torn, bared, and riven by the 

 autumn floods and storms. -Te woods, wilds, and soli- 

 tudes, ere again the tempest raves in terror through 

 your leafy glades, driving the phrenzied streams from 

 their murmuring pebbly beds, and tracing desolation 

 on the flowery meads ere again the muddy torrent 

 breaks its bounds from the incessant rain, and the 



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