BARBER’S TOUR THROUGH SOUTH WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE. 
island, hundreds of vacant loungers have 
obeyed her direction, in performing 
‘the tour of Wales.”? Previous to the 
ate war, a continental tour was deemed 
necessary in the routine of education; 
that being checked, English excursions 
were adopted, either with the laudable 
desire of improvement, or as a fashion- 
able mode of killing time, and to furnish 
subject for winter prattle. 
. Mr. Barber is one of the curious, if 
Not inquisitive, travellers. Few objects 
of antiquity, beauty, or grandeur, seem 
to have escaped his notice, or have been 
passed by without a brief characteristic 
description. Being professionally an 
_ artist, he naturally feels principally in- 
. terested in the “ivy clad ruin,” the 
“ shattered castle,” the “ roaring cata- 
-ract,” and the beautiful, the picturesque, 
or the sublime scenery. ‘These are the 
objects of his admiration and research, 
_ yet he is not exclusively devoted to 
them. Manners, customs, histary, and 
general topography, are sometimes des- 
canted on; and following the bad ex- 
_ ample of some preceding tourists, he has 
_ given two or three specimens of the sur- 
prising and marvellous. 
_ The following historical particulars 
relating to the general history of South 
Wales, serve as an introduction to the vo- 
-dume: they are written in a concise, but 
eloquent style, and are highly creditable 
specimens of the manner of writing 
adopted by our tourist. 
_ In making the tour of South Wales and 
Monmouthshire,’ (Mr. Barber observes,) 
‘the admirer of picturesque beauty dwells 
with peculiar pleasure on a tract of country, 
_ tomprising the greater part of Miaiaaadh 
_ shire, and bordering the Severn and Bristol 
| channel, to the western limits of Pembroke- 
shire. In this enchanting district, a succes- 
sion of bold hills, clothed with wild forests, 
or ornamental plantations and delightful 
valleys, present themselves in constant varie- 
ty: many fine estuaries and rivers, pictu- 
Beeiixe towns, and princely ruins, also adorn 
the scene ; whose charms are inconceiyably 
heightened by the contiguity of the Bristol 
‘ehannel, which washes the coast; in some 
‘places receding into capacious bays; in 
others, advancing into rocky promontories of 
‘the most imposing grandeur. Zhe statis- 
“fieal enquirer finds equal subject of grati- 
- fication, in the uncommon fertility of seve- 
Fal yalleys, and the woody treasures of nu- 
~ merous hills, bearing myriads of oaks, and 
‘ether first rate timber-trees.. The mineral 
wealth of the Country, and its convenient 
coast for traflic, are likewise subjects of high 
ew 
consideration: and while the statist applauds 
413 
the late rapid strides of manufactures and 
commerce in this district, he may discover 
sources hitherto latent for their increase. 
«« The historian cannot fail of being inte- 
rested while treading on the ground where 
Britons made theirlatest and most vigorous 
efforts for independence, against successive 
invaders ; nor the antiguary, while traversing 
a country repiete with monuments of the 
Druidical ages; military works of the Ro- 
mans, Britons, Saxons, and Normans: and 
the venerable relics of numerous religious 
foundations. 
«« Beyond this stripe of country, from ten 
to twenty miles in width, forming the 
southern: extremity of Wales, and an inter- 
mixture of rich scenery, (particularly in the 
neighbourhood of Brecon) with ‘prevailing 
dreariness: on the eastern frontier, South 
Wales exhibits a tedious extent of hills with- 
out majesty, valleys over-run with peat bogs, 
and unprofitable moors. ‘ 
«* Besides the superb ruins of St. David's, 
the course of the ‘Tivy, near Cardigan, and 
the scenery about the Devil's Bridge, it has 
little to entice the attention of the tourist: 
the towns, for the most part, are miserably 
poor, and travelling accommodations very 
uncertain ; the roads, too, are wretclred be- 
yond any thing that a mere English traveller 
ever witnessed. It is therefore, a subject-ot 
no small gratification, that the chief beauties 
of South Wales are found in a compact 
route ; abounding with good towns, respec- 
table accommodations, and very fair roads. 
This part of the country may be explored in 
a close carriage, though the better mode of 
travelling is certainly on horse-back. The 
edestrian may claim peculiar advantages im 
Ris way of getting on; but I do not con- 
ceive, that a man enduring the fatigue of 
trudging, day after day, through miry roads, 
can maintain an exhilaration of spirits con- 
genial with the beauties that surround him. 
‘«« The geographical situation, and present 
limits of Wales, are unnecessary to be here 
described. Of its history, the first certain 
accounts that we collect are on the invasion 
of the Romans, when Wales appears to have 
been divided into three principalities : the 
Silures, the Ordovices, and the Dimite. The 
Silures possessed all. that tract of country 
bounded by the Severn, the Tame, and 
Towey ; which comprehending the counties 
of Monmouth, Glamorgan, Brecknock, 
Radnor, Hereford, and part of Gloucester, | 
Worcester, and Caermarthenshires, com-— 
prised the greater part of South Wales. ‘The 
Dimite inhabited that part of South Wales. 
westward of the Towey ; and the Ordovices, 
North Wales, including Anglesea, 
‘© The Romans having subdued Britannia 
Prima, i, e. the southern part of England, 
advanced to the conquest of Wales, l~; them 
denominated Britannia Secunda; in this, 
however, they met with an unlooked-for op- 
position; the inhabitants were vigorous and 
brave; and the country, wildly piled toge- 
