33 



diagonal bracings, &c., &o. — and mentioned the great expense that had been 

 incurred two or three years since, on the recommendation of Captain Tyler, 

 the Government Inspector, to give it additional security. 



The Cnimlin Viaduct is one of those bold works that no description can 

 realise. It requires to be seen to be understood. A photograph will give its 

 likeness no doubt, but it gives no true representation of the effect it produces. 

 It must be felt as well as seen. Look from its highest point on the valley 

 beneath, and a lower world is there, with its works, its cottages, its own railroad, 

 its river, its canal, its ordinary roads, and its little dwarfed men and women 

 moving about here and thei-e — 



' ' The very rrows that winged the midway air 

 Showed scarce so gross as beetles." 



And better than all, is the wooded dingle the viaduct crosses, ■ndnduig prettily 

 away. Pictures, and facts, and figures, with regard to any work of real mag- 

 nitude, are fallacies. Nevei-theless, there are those who cannot be happy without 

 facts and figui-es, so here they are, broadly given, and they ought to be correct, 

 too, for tkey are derived from a Guide Book in royal octavo, — 

 " All gorgeous in crimson and gold." 



"The Crumlin bridge was designed by T. W. Kennard, Esq. It is formed of 

 open iron work, and supported by open cross-braced iron pillai-s. It consists 

 of ten spans of 150 feet each. Its height above the valley is 200 feet. The 

 length of iron work is 1..500 feet, and, including the masonry, 1,658 feet. The 

 materials consumed were 2,479 tons 19 cwt. of iron, 31,294 cubic feet of wood, 

 and 51,361 cubic feet of niasomy. It was three years and ahalf building, 

 and was opened for traffic in 1857. It cost £62,000, or about £41 78. 

 per foot." 



How vei-y little all this really conveys ! It would perhaps be more simple 

 to say that it is the third of a mile long, and could pass over Hereford 

 Cathedral with 30 feet to spare. And here we leave its statistics and will only 

 say this more of it, that the finest artistic view the visitors got was unques- 

 tionably from the stile on the road towards LlanhUleth hilL Here trees 

 conceal the station, the works, the houses, and all that is sordid ; the bridge 

 is in full view, with its graceful curve, at the further end ; its spider-web-like 

 lightness is saen to the greatest advantage ; the base of the pillars is concealed ; 

 and from a slight haze in the broad valley the imagination may picture it as deep 

 as it pleases, and fancy it crosses a broad river, or even a small arm of the sea. 



Leaving the valley, luxuriant in the ordinary ferns, the visitors are led 

 up the hill ; higher and drier they find it, the further they go, and the more 

 dusty too. 



The glorious summer weather that has brought out the treasures of Flora 

 with such exuberance aad precocity in the present season, might be supposed 

 to have offered extraordinary facilities to botanical exploration, and the invoca- 



