during the middle and lower ages. But this would protract my stay too long; I will therefore only observe, that after the death of Arthur, Caerleon dwindled both in its piety and consequence, and was only considered of importance as a barrier post, during the unavailing struggles of the Welsh for independence. In which period it frequently experienced all the the horrors of sacking and pillage, so often attendant on sieges in those sanguinary ages.

The castle, whose ruins stand near the river, appears to have been a British fortress, probably erected about the time of the Norman invasion. We, however, do not hear of it till 1171, when Henry took the town, dispossessing Jorwerth-ap-Owen, lord of Gwent. In 1173, after a noble stand, it was retaken by Owen, and the castle given up to the Welsh in exchange for the prisoners taken in the town. The following year it was recovered for the king by a large confederate army of English and Normans; but afterwards restored to Owen, upon his doing homage and swearing fealty to the king at Gloucester, on the instance of Rhys, prince of South Wales. It was again taken by William Marshall, earl of Pembroke, 1218. On the death of the Earl it was retaken, after a most desperate resistance, by Llewelyn-ap-Jorwerth, and retained by his descendants till the time of Edward I. (Vide Powel.)

The present town consists of two or three small streets, and many of the houses in a state of dilapi

* This has been confounded with the more modern edifice of Newport. Vide Second Walk in IVales.

dation. The most decent building we observed is a charity school, for maintaining and educating thirty poor boys, and twenty poor girls, till they attain the age of fourteen, when they are apprenticed with a bounty of seven pounds to the former, and four for the latter. They are clothed in a dress of blue cloth, with a badge of white, containing the initials C. W. alluding to the founder; who, an inscription in front of the building informs you, was Charles Williams, Esq. a native of the town. The spirit of the place seems in unison with its appearance; being chiefly inhabited by a poor, indolent set of people; alike unaffected by the greatness of their past, as inattentive to the advantages of their present condition.

Ruminating on the extent and consequence of this once celebrated city. Comparing it with its present appearance of indigence and dilapidation, I fell into a reverie on the fate of cities, the downfal of empires, and the vanity of man! Alas! said I, Is this the once far famed Isca Silurum of the Romans? The station of the Invincible Legion, Augusta Secunda? The theatre on which you exhibited your superiority in arts and sciences to the rude Britons ? The seat of consular government? The residence of a Vicegerent of the mighty Roman empire? The resort of wealth, greatness, luxury, and fashion, reduced to this miserable village of ragged houses and mouldering walls*, with scarce a vestige left to shew its

* Amid the ruins grow in abundance artemisia, absinthium, ' tanacetum vulgare, antirrhinum monspessularium, arenaria tennifolia; near, vicia sylvatica, and lichen pustulatus.

former splendour, or evince a pre-eminence over the villages in its vicinity!

The decline and fall of empires, and the destruction of cities, are calculated to convince us of the transitory nature of what are esteemed the most durable objects here, and to give us just notions of the present and a future state of existence; to impress the mind with the folly of human pride, and the vanity of earthly greatness, and what little value should be stamped on the short-lived breath of fame. Sojourners here for a short and uncertain period, if we are desirous of uninterrupted happiness, or emulous of lasting fame, we must build for eternity; and say with the poet, but with more modesty, and better hopes,

Exegi monumentum ære perennius

Regalique situ Pyramidum altius,

Quod non Imber edax, non Aquilo impotens

Possit diruere, aut innumerabilis

Annorum series et fuga Temporum."

· HOR.

I am Yours S. E.

DEAR SIR,

LETTER III.

ASCENDING the Gam to the north of Caerleon, nearly the whole county of Monmouth lay stretched like a map before us. The hill we now stood upon forms part of the mountainous ridge, running through the centre of the county in

an irregular direction towards another chain of mountains that intersects the whole of Brecknockshire; forming by constant interruptions a succession of well wooded luxuriant vales. Between the elevations of the Gam and the Penca-mawr, in a most romantic bottom, flows in varied, and oft in boisterous beauty, the winding Uske. The lofty Devandon excluded the Wye from our view, and left her humble rival to display her peculiar charms of picturesque beauty. The Uske, by the shorter distance from its source to its mouth, rising near Trecastle and flowing into the sea near Gold Cliff, cannot be expected to equal the Wye in the variety of its attendant scenery; yet it teems with a number of views that charm, and scenes that please. It rapidly passes from a wild mountain torrent into a widely-flowing tide river; and though the descent from the heights into the vale is often sudden, yet it is seldom so abrupt, as not to leave some extent of rich pastures on its margin. And this remarkable characteristic attends it, from its source through greater part of its course; which materially softens the rudeness of the surrounding heights, and gives a fine effect to its well wooded outline and while the rapidity of the current bespeaks its alpine origin, the verdure of the adjoining pasture, abounding with numerous herds and flocks, give an addiditional zest to its delicious and luxuriant scenery. Hanging woods with cottages embosomed in their foliage, interesting by their modesty and concealment, often finely contrasted with

elegant mansions, tend to heighten the effect. While the varied woods, interchanging from groups of trees to humble bushes, from the soft tints of incipient vegetation, to the strong colouring of denser foliage, aided by the variety of outline formed by the curvature of the river; are circumstances which irresistibly engage the fancy, and divert the mind to the operations of nature, as soothing to our feelings, as they are grateful to the eye. Ascending the Table Land to the left, the extensive prospect forms a sublime contrast to the tranquillity of the subjacent vale.

To the west the view is circumscribed by the range of the Pontypoole Hills, terminating in the Blorange, Skyryd vawr, Tom Balan, the Sugar Loaf, and Peny vale; whose varied summits are seen to great advantage, like so many advanced posts before the broad expanse of the South Wales barrier, termed the Black Mountains: and the traveller who has visited the Alps, might here imagine himself in the vicinity of Mount Brennus, and the two St. Bernards. To the north east, the heights of the Devandon and Chepstow Park, with the intermediate vales full of rich farms, villages, castles, and towns. To the east, the extensive moor of Caldecot, the Severn, the Denny, King Road, Bristol Channel, steep and flat Holmes, the extensive shores of Somerset and Devon, stretching away to the south, till the eye is lost in the distant ocean, On a part of this ridge, overlooking the elegant mansion of Sir Robert Salisbury, stands the small, but conspi