[Illustration: LLANTHONY PRIORY, LOOKING DOWN THE NAVE.]
Rounding the southern extremity of the Black Mountains, and proceeding
farther westward, we enter another beautiful region, the Vale of Usk, a
stream that flows southward into the estuary of the Severn. Here is
Abergavenny, with its ancient castle guarding the entrance to the upper
valley, and with mountains on every side. Here rises, just north of the
town, the Sugar Loaf, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two feet
high, and on the left hand the mass of old red sandstone known as the
Blorenge, one thousand seven hundred and twenty feet high. A few miles
up the tributary vale of Ewias, which discloses glorious scenery, are
the ruins of Llanthony Priory. The valley is a deep winding glen cut out
by the Hodeni between the great cliffs of the Black Mountains on the one
side and the ranges around the Sugar Loaf on the other. In places the
cliffs are precipitous, but, generally, the lower slopes furnish
pasture-land and occasional woods, while the upper parts are covered
with bracken fern, with a few trees and copses. The priory stands on a
gentle slope at the base of the Black Mountains, elevated a short
distance above the stream. Its original name was Llanhodeni, or "the
Place by the Hodeni." It was founded by two hermits in the beginning of
the twelfth century--William de Lacy, a Norman knight, and Ernisius,
chaplain to Maud, wife of Henry I. They first built a small chapel
dedicated to St. David; gifts flowed in, and they were soon enabled to
construct a grand religious house, occupied by Augustinian monks, of
whom Ernisius became the first prior. Predatory raids by the Welsh,
however, harassed the monks, and after submitting for some time to these
annoyances they migrated to Gloucester, and founded another priory
alongside the Severn. Later, however, they returned to the old place and
kept up both establishments, but in the reign of Edward IV. the older
was merged into the newer "because of the turbulence of the neighboring
people and the irregular lives of its inmates." The ruins of Llanthony
are supposed to date from about 1200, and are of a marked though simple
beauty. The convent buildings are almost all gone, excepting fragments
of the cellars and chapter-house. The prior's residence has become a
farm-house, and where the monks sat in solemn conclave is now its
outbuildings. The towers are used, one for chambers and the other for a
dairy. The main part of the church is, however, carefully preserved with
a green turf floor, and the western towers up to the level of the walls
of the nave are still quite perfect, though the west window is gone and
parts of the adjacent walls have perished. The north transept has
fallen, but the southern transept is still in fair condition, lighted at
the end by a pair of round-headed windows, with a circular one above; a
semicircular arch on its eastern side opens into a chapel. The choir is
also well preserved. These ruins exhibit semicircular with pointed
arches in indiscriminate combination, and during the present century
decay has caused much of them to fall. It was to Llanthony that Walter
Savage Landor removed in 1809, selling much of his family estates in
order to buy it. He projected grand improvements, including the
restoration of the priory, the construction of roads and bridges, and
the cultivation of extensive tracts on the mountainside, so that it
became of note among literary men as the home of one of the most
original of their guild. His biographer tells us that he imported sheep
from Segovia, and applied to Southey and other friends to furnish him
tenants who would introduce improved agricultural methods. The
inhabitants of this remote region were morose and impoverished, and he
wished to reclaim them. To clothe the bare spots on the flanks of the
mountains, he bought two thousand cones of the cedars of Lebanon, each
calculated to produce a hundred seeds, and he often exulted "in the
thought of the million cedar trees which he would thus leave for shelter
and the delight of posterity." But he met the fate of many projectors.
After four years' struggle he became disgusted with Llanthony and its
people: he was in a quarrel with almost everybody, and his genius for
punctiliousness had turned nearly the whole neighborhood against him. He
had sunk his capital in the estate and its improvements, and becoming
embarrassed, it was taken out of his hands and vested in trustees. His
half-built house was pulled down, and the disgusted Landor left England
for the Continent. At Llanthony he composed Latin verses and English
tragedy, but his best literary labor was performed after he left there.
A few miles farther up the valley is Capel-y-Ffyn, where Father Ignatius
within a few years has erected his Anglican monastery. He was Rev. Mr.
Lyne, and came from Norwich, where he was in frequent collision with the
bishop. After much pother and notoriety he took his Protestant monastic
settlement to this nook in the heart of the Black Mountains, where he
and his monks perform their orisons in peace.
[Illustration: LLANTHONY--THE SOUTH TRANSEPT, FROM THE NAVE.]