214 
Crossing the Monnow, which runs by the side of the road for a considerable 
distance till lost in a dingle of the sullen Black Mountains, a pleasing scene pre¬ 
sents itself. On the left the heights rise up thickly covered with wood, while ex¬ 
tensive green meadows spread below, through which the shallow river brawls 
hoarsely over its stony bed, seen at intervals through the dense foliage of oaks 
that overshadow it, while here and there a funereal plume of yew increases the 
gloomy solemnity. Beyond, appear the terminating defiles of the mountains, whose 
dark parallel masses envelop each other in deep shadow as the traveller journies in 
apparent review past their huge flanks. Immense quantities of the Petasites vul¬ 
garis cover the banks and bed of the Monnow with their enormous leaves. I ob¬ 
served, also, by the road side, a large Salix alba , which, wreathed to its summit 
with Ivy, presented a singular aspect, with its silvery leaves in contrast with the 
dark-green Ivy which, like an insidious serpent, had sprung upon and was over¬ 
powering it within its multifarious folds. Although the Ivy seems to have no 
choice, but will mount up any tree within its influence, the Salices seem, in gene¬ 
ral, less liable to its attacks ; and hence, when triumphant, upon a large specimen 
of the alba especially, the picture it presents is rather remarkable. 
As I approached Llanvihangel, the singular hill, called the Skirrid Vawr, 
towered on the left of the road, presenting, in its contour, the remarkable appear¬ 
ance of a couchant beast of prey with an offspring at its feet. The fact is, that 
this lofty mass of old red sandstone has undergone the phenomenon termed a 
landslip, at some former period, a huge mass having been precipitated from the 
summit to the base of the hill, and a steep precipice and yawning gap now inter¬ 
vene between the two masses. To add to the picturesque effect, the young one, 
if the fallen rock may be so termed, is now luxuriantly overgrown with wood. 
This circumstance has been seized upon by superstition to impart a “ holy” charac¬ 
ter to the hill, it having been imagined that the rock was “ rent” at the crucifixion 
of our Saviour, and it bears the appellation of “ The Holy Mountain” to this day 
among the people of the neighbourhood. The foundations of a chapel, dedicated 
to St. Michael, may still be traced upon the hill, which merits a visit from the 
geologist, though not upon this account. It might be curious to inquire whether, 
in fact, this landslip of the Skirrid Vawr, to which I have alluded, was not really 
co-incident with the celebrated journey of Marclay Hill, in Herefordshire, noticed 
by the old chroniclers, and which is another member of the “ old red” strata. 
This might tend to prove a later shaking of this part of the island than geologists 
have hitherto admitted. 
Llanvihangel House is surrounded with avenues of the Scotch Fir (Pinus 
sylvestrisJ finer and more magnificent than I have anywhere else seen, of conside¬ 
rable altitude and great spread of bough. I measured one of the largest between 
the road and the house, which was eleven feet in circumference at a height as high 
as I could reach to measure, and rising up to the spread of the boughs above fifty 
feet, nearly of the same magnitude of bole. 
