311 



machinery became more used, these eflforts failed. An Abergavenny genius dis- 

 covered a method of bleaching hair, which enriched the place, so long as the enormous 

 periwigs remained in fashion, for Abergavenny wigs became quite the fashion, 

 and were worth from £40 to £50 each ; but that went by. Then the beauty of 

 the scenery and the mildness and salubrity of the air were widely proclaimed, and 

 consumptive patients were invited there to get cured by drinking goat's whey, 

 but the road was weary, and patients ceased to come. The ironworks in the 

 district gave the next important help to the trade of the town, and very pros- 

 perous they made it, but after some years that source failed, and is now being 

 happily compensated for by increased railway facilities and railway works — a 

 population of some 2,000 has thus become nearly 8,000 within the present century, 

 and visitors find it a cheerful thriving town, with new buildings, new streets, new 

 houses, or fresh planted sites for them on all sides. 



The Woolhope Club brought their fair visitors to the Brecon Road Station 

 for the ascent of the Sugar-Loaf. Here carriages and a few ponies were waiting 

 for those who wished for such help, but the majority set off on foot for the 

 mountain. Dry and tedious are the beginnings of all great undertakings, and the 

 first mile or two of roads and lanes to the foot of the Eholben were hot, and dusty 

 too. By the side of the lane leading up to it was a very remarkable laurel. It 

 was no longer a shrub but a veritable tree, whose stem at 5 feet from the ground 

 measured 4ft. llin. in circumference, and afterwards divided into two trunks. It 

 might fairly be adduced as practical evidence of the general mildness of the 

 climate there. 



The steep grassy slopes of the Rholben offered by no means "an easy ascent," 

 for the dry weather had made the grass very slippery, and the seats, so consider- 

 ately placed there, were very welcome resting places to enjoy a few strawberries, 

 and meditate on the grandeur of the Blorenge, with its broad bare summit, 

 and its sides so richly clothed with timber. It forms a fine background to the 

 town over which it seems to hang. Another scramble, and at another seat the 

 little Scyrrid comes well into view, on whose slopes are the fields which William 

 de Braos granted to Talley Abbey in Carmarthenshire, and strawberries again 

 were very refreshing. The walking now becomes easy and pleasant, the mountain 

 air invigorating, and the views on every side fine. The mountain to the east, 

 which gives such character to the Abergavenny scenery by its rugged bipartite 

 top, is the Great Scyrrid, Scyrrid Fawr, or Holy Mountain. 



Craggy Skirrid, sacred soil, 

 Oft trod by pilgrim foot o'er the smooth swell 

 Of Derry. 



SOTHEBT. 



There was formerly at the top of this hill a Roman Catholic Chapel, dedicated 

 to St. jSIichael, a patron saint of sailors, of which a few ve'stiges still remain. The 

 remembrance of the site, however, is preserved by a hollow space, said to be 

 formed by superstitious devotees, who resorting here on Michaelmas Eve, carry 

 away the soil to strew over the graves of their friends. The religious veneration 



