A

HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS

IN

SOUTH WALES

AND ITS BORDERS, INCLUDING THE RIVER WYE.

Gough Adas Wales.

8o. 3.0.

LONDON PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,

AND CHARING CROSS.

PREFACE.

WITHIN the last thirty years, South Wales has gradually become so opened up by roads and railways, that every part of it is now easily accessible to the tourist.

The same cause has tended so largely to the development of mining and manufacturing enterprise, that the face of the country is, in many districts, completely changed, and many of its natural characteristics swept away.

The Editor has brought up the information of this second Edition to the latest point-but as inaccuracies will creep in, he requests that any notice of such may be kindly sent to him, to the care of Mr. MURRAY, 50, Albemarle Street.

June, 1870.

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

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 Caermarthenshire Beacons (2598 ft.), Talsarn,
Cribarth, and Trichrûg, the northern slopes of which give rise to the
Usk and its tributaries, the Senni, Tarel, &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