360 



Fi-oin Clifford Church thf route was taken ])ast the Clifford Priory Oak tree 

 on the roadside by the Priory Farm, whose dimensions are given on page 310 of 

 Transactions, 1870, as being 25 feet 4 inches at 5 feet from the ground. The girtli 

 of the tree is now decidedly larger, but comparisons are valueless, because the 

 increase of girth is mainly due to the wider separation of the parts of the hollow 

 trunk, split down to the ground on the north side and otherwise ruthlessly treated 

 by vandal hands. 



From the Priory Oak the direction was taken across country and the park, 

 in front of the residence called "The Moor," into the turnpike road, thence along 

 a lane towards Cusop Church, leaving Llydyadyway to the left ; the botanists, how- 

 ever, ascended Cusop Hill, leaving Llydyadyway on their right hand. Some even 

 explored Mouse Castle Wood, but did not succeed in finding even the traces of 

 the ancient encampment on its summit, which undoubtedly exist there and are 

 represented in the six-inch Ordnance Map. 



The fine yew trees in Cusop Churchyard have often been referred to. Upon 

 this occasion they were again measured and they gave the following dimensions : — 

 The largest, at the south-east corner of the Church, had increased from 21 feet 2 

 inches at 3 feet from the ground to 22 feet 3 inches, and the tree at the south-west 

 corner had a girth of 23| feet at 5 feet from the ground, and 23 feet at 3 feet from 

 the ground in comjiarison with 20 feet 8 inches at a height of 3 feet, as recorded in 

 Transactions, page 246, of 18(i6. 



In the Churchyard is an inscription on a flat stone, called the "Martyr's 

 tomb." — " Here lyeth the body of William Seward, of Badesey, in the county of 

 Worcester, gent., who departed ys life Oct. ye 22nd, 1742, aged 38. To me to 

 live is Christ, and to die is gain. Phillipians, Chap, ye 1st, ver 21. 



If earth be all, \ 



Why ore and ore a beaten path I 



You walk and draw up nothing new, >1797. 

 Not so our Martyr's seraph did | 



When from the vers'e of Wales he fled. J 



Mr. Seward was an itinerant preacher who was so violently wounded by 

 stones, whilst iweaching on Black Lion Green at Hay, as to have died in 

 consequence. 



The site of Cusop Castle, on a knoll contiguous to the Churchyard and upon 

 its western side, was inspected. Mr. Lilwall, of Llydyadyway, contributed the 

 information that, upon conducting some excavations here some years ago, he 

 found extensive remains of building .stones, and also in the field on the eastern or 

 opposite side of the adjoining lane ; he also added that Duncumb says " Cusop 

 had a 'Peel ' tower," that is to say it was a stronghold of which the tower is the 

 only considerable work, and which stands within a walled base court or barmkin 

 of moderate area ; the tower itself being the fortress, the residence of the family, 

 &c., &o., not only during a siege but at all times ; a tower rather than a castle. 

 The finest specimen now extant of the Peel Tower, so celebrated upon the Scotch 

 border is that of Borthwick in Midlothian, built about the middle of the 15th 

 century, temp. James II., (Clarke's Mediaeval Military Architecture, p. 247). 



