328 
their visit to inquire whether the strange house remains and its 
owner fulfils still his duties, but after an agreeable visit of 54 
hours the train was again sought, and a return made to Bath 
shortly after nine o’clock, a slow journey of 74 miles in 34 
hours ! 
Llanthony Abbey and Abergavenny, June 16th.—A large party of 
Members of the Field Club numbering 22, started by the 8.30 
a.m. Great Western train, via. the Severn Tunnel, on June 16th, 
for Abergavenny. Two brakes met their arrival there at 11.8 
a.m., and after a beautiful drive of 11 miles up the valley of 
Ewyas the ancient Priory of lLlan-Dewi-nant-Honddu, now 
contracted into the name Llanthony, was reached at 1 pm. A 
part of the old Monastic buildings has been converted into 
a picturesque hostelry, and very soon the resources of the 
hostess as to supplying liquid refreshments were put into 
requisition, the temperature of the day being something near 80° 
fahr. in the shade. 
The remains of the Priory Church are considerable, and many 
parts are in excellent preservation owing to the fine sandstone of 
the Old Red series of which it was built. 
This Monastery of Augustinian Monks had but a short exist- 
ence, and before the close of the reign of King John, 1216, had 
definitely yielded up its precedence to its daughter Priory of New 
Llanthony at Gloucester. 
The charm of its remote situation on the banks of the Honddu 
and foot of the Black Mountains did not spare the Monks from 
continual raids of the Welsh, but the marvel remains, how in so 
short a tenure, such magnificent buildings could have been 
erected, and how the immense cost of them could have been 
defrayed. 
Early in the 6th century David, Archbishop of Caerleon, 
founded a small cell on this secluded spot in order that he might 
occasionally retire for religious meditation. On the transference 
of the Welsh primatial see to Menevia this cell saw no more of 
