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districts, tempting alike to the botanist and the lover of picturesque scenery. The 

 sparkling Usk rolls beneath its double bridge, glances on its cumbrous ruined castle 

 seated on a green elevated mound, and, ploughing into the gravel on its pebbly 

 shores, hastens along its beauteous vale to the ocean. Bounding the valley on the 

 west rises the stupendous Blorenge Mountain to the height of 1720 feet, the termi- 

 nation in this direction of that band of mountain limestone that encompasses the 

 South Wales coal-field ; clouds ever and anon wreath its summit, while the morn- 

 ing sun lights up the woods at its base, its green sides, and its protruding rocks, 

 leaving the vast punch -bowl hollows of the mountain shadowed in gloomy obscu- 

 rity. Northward the pyramidal height of the Sugar Loaf and its massive subject 

 buttresses of old red sandstone block up the vale, leaving but a scanty space for 

 the passage of the Usk on the one hand, and shelving off on the other towards the 

 isolated fortress of the Skirrid Vawr, whose terraced ridges and detached promon- 

 tories form a commanding object eastward ; while from thence to the south an 

 undulating woody ridge, capped by the feathery Little Skirrid, extends almost to 

 the very banks of the river. 



" The lucid Usk, the undulating line 



That nature loves ; whether with gentle bend 



She slopes the vale, or lifts the gradual hill, 



Winds the free rivulet, or down the bank 



Spreads the wild wood's luxuriant growth, or breaks 



With interrupting heights the even bound 



Of the out-stretched horizon."* 



To increase the charm of the scene, the foaming little river Gavenny, to which the 

 town owes its name, rushes from the eminences eastward through richly verdant 

 meadows to increase the liquid resources of the Usk at this place. The beauties of 

 the country around, Crickhowell only six miles northward, Ilagland's noted towers 

 eight miles to the south, with the matchless arches of Tintern within the range of 

 a more distant excursion, conspire to tempt the pausing footsteps of the tourist at 

 Abergavenny ; but, anxious to press forward while all was bright and gay over- 

 head, I determined to encamp here on my return for a short time. I, therefore, 

 took measures for proceeding to Newport as soon as breakfast was dispatched, and 

 meantime met the first rays of the saffron morn on the dewy banks of the Gavenny 

 and the Usk. 



Sambucus ebulus, the Dwarf Elder, I noticed by a spring on the road towards 

 Skenfreth, and observed it in considerable plenty in a hedge not far from the 

 foot of the Derry. 



Cotyledon umbilicus appeared in profusion and luxuriance on many old walls 

 in the town and suburbs. 



* Sotheby. 



