KINGTON AND RADNORSHIRE 149 



purchased in the days of his prosperity and which was only 

 a few miles distant, being, in fact, an adjoining parish. I 

 and he walked over to see it one day, and found it to be 

 situated in a lonely wild valley bounded by lofty and rather 

 picturesque mountains. It was a small country house built 

 by my uncle, partly from the heaped-up ruins of the ancient 

 Cistercian monastery, the lower portion of the church still 

 remaining, the walls having the remains of clustered columns 

 attached to them. It would have made a charming summer 

 residence in a few years, when the shrubs and trees had 

 grown, and the whole surroundings had been somewhat 

 modified by judicious planting, especially as Mr. Wilson had 

 purchased, I believe, the entire estate, comprising the greater 

 part of the parish, and including the whole valley and its 

 surrounding mountains. 



Two pencil sketches by my brother, made in a surveyor's 

 field-book while at this place, have been preserved and are 

 here copied, as examples of his delicacy of touch and power 

 of giving artistic effect to the simplest objects. The upper 

 one is the village taken from the house we lodged in showing 

 the low church at the end of the street, and the queer little 

 house just opposite us, occupied then by the village shoemaker, 

 but showing some architectural pretensions as compared with 

 the usual cottages in a small Welsh village. The lower one is 

 a small and lonely chapel in a remote part of the parish, to 

 which the local builder has given character, while the dreary 

 surroundings are well indicated in the sketch. 



When we had finished at Llanbister, we went about ten 

 miles south to a piece of work that was new to me — the 

 making of a survey and plans for the enclosure of common 

 lands. This was at Llandrindod Wells, where there was 

 then a large extent of moor and mountain surrounded by 

 scattered cottages with their gardens and small fields, which, 

 with their common rights, enabled the occupants to keep 

 a horse, cow, or a few sheep, and thus make a living. All 

 this was now to be taken away from them, and the whole 

 of this open land divided among the landowners of the 



