54 



visited. The dinner was one ■wMch furnished very cogent illus- 

 trations of the maxim "the more the merrier," the double-room 

 of the rather astonished host of the Craven Arms being as full 

 as it could or rather couldn't hold, and something over. Several 

 short but useful papers were read, in the intervals of a rather 

 brisk discussion, chiefly on botanical questions suggested by 

 doubts as to the indigenous character of the Astrantia Major. 



On the 2nd of the following month, August, the Club 

 assembled at PontrUas Station for its 3rd Meeting, and the Mem- 

 bers walked, by Ewyas Harold Common, as far as the beauti- 

 ful vestige of the ancient border Abbey of Dore ; of which the 

 historical account (if such it can be called) that we have, is so 

 defective that the detruncated relic (for the nave is gone) re- 

 mains a perfect mystery of architectural beauty and labour, 

 affording a school of transitional work, of that choice period 

 when the Norman treatment had not disappeared from Early 

 English work, and the latter had not begun to yield to the 

 temptations of the Decorated style : a period, to my mind, the 

 most attractively beautiful, and the most permanently interesting 

 of all that come under the general title of Gothic Architecture. 

 The plain and shallow work of the exterior enhances the sur- 

 prising beauty of the chiselwork in the groining of the Lady 

 Chapel or Ambulatory which encloses the Chancel, almost the 

 only portion which remains quite entire. Even through the 

 stubborn coat of whitewash, which is half an inch thick, the deep 

 yet delicate work of the artist may be appreciated in all its rich 

 and never self repeating profusion. Scarcely any of the capitals 

 or corbelled projections are alike : indeed the execution of the 

 groin work of the Ambulatory on the north side is unsurpassed 

 by any work of the kind I have ever seen. To examine it is to 

 wonder more and more, after approaching it over so many miles 

 of bad road, and in so wild a district. To the traveller from the 

 Abbey of Dore to that of Llanthony the world would not appear 

 to have advanced much during the last five centuries. The 

 thanks of all admirers of Aichitecture are due to the present 



