the harvest-field waves above, as it has done for generations past.

The cavern of Cwm Porth is within two miles of Ystradfellte. The approach on the upper or northern part of the river is exceedingly picturesque; but the visitor is not aware of the stupendous natural aqueduct he has the opportunity of exploring until he reaches the river, when he feels the full force of its peculiar wildness and grandeur. On either side of the opening, numbers of forest and other trees, of great diversity of form and variety of foliage, grow spontaneously; even in the fissures of the bold rocks, high above the head of the spectator, large trees are seen expanding towards the sky. At the entrance, the cavern is about forty feet wide and twenty high. There is sufficient light, on a fine day, for examining about fifty yards of this natural tunnel, when it gradually fades away into impenetrable gloom, and nothing but the blaze of a flambeau will enable the visitor to complete the inspection of this extraordinary place.

CHAPTER XVII.

TRECASTLE-BRECON CRICKHOWEL-LLANTONY.

And oft the craggy cliff he loved to climb,
When all in mist the world below was lost,
What dreadful pleasure! there to stand sublime,
Like shipwreck'd mariner on desert coast,
And view the enormous waste of vapour tossed
In billows, lengthening to the horizon round,
Now scooped in gulfs, with mountains now embossed!
And hear the voice of mirth and song rebound,
Flocks, herds, and waterfalls, along the hoar profound!

BEATTIE.

THE inhabitant of one of the quiet rural districts of "merry England," whose eye has been accustomed to rest only upon the green slopes and flower-enamelled meadows of his native land, teeming with happy life and rich in verdant beauty, can form no adequate idea of the scene which is presented in a region of sterile rocks, interchanged only here and there by solitary cwms or hollows, where a scanty vegetation struggles for existence, and over which the foot of the enterprising traveller rarely treads.

The county of Brecknock, like that of its neighbour Glamorgan, presents, in many parts, the same wild features of untamed nature that it did when the ancient lords of Cambria left it to the undisputed possession of

THE MOUNTAIN DISTRICT.

301

its aboriginal tenants, the foxes,* while they chose their more genial dwelling-places in the fertile vales lying east of the Severn.

The lofty ridge of the Epynt Mountains stretches itself in a north-easterly direction, from the confines of Carmarthenshire, nearly up to the little town of Builth, dividing the county of Brecknock into two unequal parts. The southern portion of the county sustains a chain of enormous rocky elevations, commencing also in the neighbouring county of Carmarthen, and continuing, in successive ridges, till it terminates in the east near the Usk, a little below the town of Crickhowel. Between these chains, to the westward, and appearing as if to make up the circle of rocks, rises abruptly the Black Mountain, near to the small hamlet of Talgarth.

The old road, as it is called, from Ystradfellte to Brecknock, traverses the mountain district, and as it comprehended many of the wild features of the county, I chose it for my track as far as my wanderings might render it available. About two miles from the village, I came to another fall of the Melte, which, although extremely picturesque, from the angular direction in which the river is projected, is unaccompanied either by the luxuriant vegetation, or the romantic character, which give so much beauty and interest to the others. Beyond this fall the scene became indescribably dreary. Immediately before and around me arose hill after hill, in weary succession, whose dull monotonous brown turf afforded but a bare existence to the meagre flocks that sought their pasture. On the verge of my path towered

*The primitive name of Brecknockshire was Garth Madrin, the Foxhold.