A

HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS

IN

SOUTH WALES

AND ITS BORDERS, INCLUDING THE RIVER WYE.

WITH A TRAVELLING MAP.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1860.

The right of Translation is reserved.

LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,

AND CHARING CROSS.

PREFACE.

DURING the last twenty years the general features of South Wales have undergone great changes in social, commercial, and even geographical points of view.

The enormous development of mining enterprise and the opening of new railways have peopled districts which were formerly uninhabited. New towns have arisen, new harbours have been formed; and the fair counties of South Wales, particularly those of Gwent and Morganwg, have woke up to a new phase of existence.

The Editor has brought the information in this Handbook up to the present day, in the hope that it will really guide the traveller to what is most worth seeing. Having lived the greater portion of his life in the district that he has endeavoured to delineate, he believes that it may be depended upon. But if any inaccuracies or misstatements should be met with (and both will occasionally creep in), he will be obliged if his readers will kindly write to him on the subject, in order that a speedy correction may follow, to the care of Mr. MURRAY, Albemarle Street,

Cefnmawr, Beaufort, 1860.

CONTENTS.

ROUTES.

** The names of places are printed in italics only in those routes where the places are

VII. GLOSSARY OF WELSH WORDS AS OCCURRING IN THE CON-

STRUCTION OF WELSH NAMES

..

VIII. POINTS OF INTEREST FOR THE GEOLOGIST

IX. SKELETON ROUTES

xxiv

..

xxviii

xxix

I. PHYSICAL FEATURES.

FEW Countries are more diversified than S. Wales, or present greater
contrasts and variety in scenery. All the requisites of perfect land-
scape, mountains (though seldom rising to the grand), desert moors,
wooded hills, smiling valleys, broad rivers, and rushing torrents,—all
offer themselves in turn to the view of the traveller. The mountain
ranges may be divided broadly into 4 groups, each forming the charac-
teristic feature of a quarter of the country, and each giving rise to one
or more of the principal rivers.

1. The S. E. Division, comprising roughly the district between
Abergavenny and Llandeilo on the N., Newport and Kidwelly on the
S.-The space between these towns is almost entirely filled up by one
massive group, which in fact constitutes the coal-basin of S. Wales,
bounded on the N. and E. by the valley of the Usk, and on the W.
by that of the Towey. The principal eminences in this range are the
Blorenge (1600 ft.), Mynydd Llangynider, Brecon Beacons (2862 ft.),
Mount Capellante or Carmarthenshire Beacons (2598 ft.), Talsarn,
Cribarth, and Trichrûg, the northern slopes of which give rise to the
Usk and its tributaries, the Senni, Tarell, &c. On the southern slopes,
however, a different arrangement prevails; and instead of a tolerably
uniform line of old red sandstone and mountain limestone hills
extending E. and W., lofty and narrow ridges containing coal-mea-
sures are thrown out in a general direction to the S. or S.W., most
of them running nearly to the sea-coast. In consequence of this the
valleys change their direction to due N. and S., the country is more
broken and romantic, and the streams narrower and more impetuous.