No Fissidens was found in the streams.

A large var. of taxifolius, L., simulating decipiens, occurred on wet shady rocks. Decipiens, De Not., itself occurred sparingly. None of the other species were seen.

Epipterygium Tozeri, Grev., was discovered, barren, and in small quantity on the Wye near Erwood bridge.

Cinclidotus fontinaloides, Hedw., occurred in the Wye; and Fontinalis antipyretica, L. In very long barren masses in the dry bed of a small stream. F. squamosa, L., Hedwigia, and Cryphea remained undiscovered.

Leucodon sciuroides was rather scarce.

Antitrichia was not found.

Neckera complanata, L. Common, but barren. Crispa, L., occurred on the wooded rocks.

Homalia trichomanoides, Schreb., was seen in several places, but always barren.

Pterygophyllum remained unseen.

Leskea polycarpa, Ehrh., was absent from the Edw, but present in small quantity upon the Wye.

Anomodon viticulosus, L. Frequent, but barren. Heterocladium was not discovered.

Thuidium tamariscinum. Fine in the wooded gorge, but barren.
Pterogonium gracile, Dill., was noticed at several spots.

Thamnium alopecurum, L. In the wooded gorge,

Climacium dendroides, L. Very fine at Llanbwchllyn, and occurring by the Wye at Erwood; in both places, of course, barren.

Isothecium myurum, Poll. Plentiful and fruiting.

Homalothecium sericeum, L. Very common.

Camptothecium lutescens, Huds. Only noticed at one spot, in

the wooded gorge.

Scleropodium cæspitosum, Wilson. Absent both from the Edw and Wye. Illecebrum, Schw. Fine and plentiful, on a hedge bank (one capsule noticed); also on the wooded rocks of the gorge.

Brachythecium glareosum, B. & S., was not seen. Velutinum, L. Occurred sparingly in the upper part of the Edw valley. Rutabulum, L., and rivulare, B. & S. Both common. Populeum, Hedw. Noticed at several spots in the gorge. Plumosum, Swartz. Not noted.

Eurhynchium myosuroides, L. Very abundant, and fruiting on the shady rocks. Striatum, Schreb. In all kinds of situations. Crassinervium, Tayl. Abundant both on exposed and wooded rocks, but barren. Swartzii, Turn. Small and poor. Prælongum, Dill. Pretty common. Var. Stokesii

abundant by the rivers. Pumilum, Wils. Seen. Teesdalei, Sm. In a single shady rivulet.

Hyocomium seemed to be absent.

Rhynchostegium depressum, Bruch., occurred at one place in the wooded gorge. Confertum, Dicks, and murale, Hedw., remained unseen. Rusciforme, Weiss. Abundant.

A Plagiothecium, probably large denticulatum L., but barren occurred in the woods. Undulatum, L. Seemed to be absent.

Amblystegium irriguum, Wils. and fluviatile, Swartz. were searched for in vain. Serpens, L. was quite a rare plant (Llanbwchllyn). Riparium. Absent.

Hypnum aduncum, Hedw., and its congeners were not met with. Revolvens, Swartz. On Llandeilo hill. Filicinum, L. Poor and rare. Commutatum, Hedw. Occurred barren, but no falcatum, Brid. Hamulosum, B. & S. Occurred on the Wye at Erwood station. Cupressiforme, L., and the var. resupinatum. Abundant. Arcuatum, Lindb., was only noticed in damp grass near the Wye at Erwood station. Molluscum, Hedw., was pretty abundant in the wooded rocks, but barren. Palustre, L., var. subsphæricarpon, was fine in a dry rill. Ochraceum, Turn., occurred in the Edw. Stellatum, Schreb., with its congeners, remained unnoticed. Cordifolium, Hedw., occurred in plenty at Llanbwchllyn, and was noticed at one other spot. Cuspidatum, L. Common; in fruit at Llanbwchllyn. Schreberi, Ehrh. Abundant in the gorge, and splendens, Dill.: purum, L., loreum, L., and triquetrum, L., all fruited in the wooded gorge very abundantly. Squarrosum, L., was common. A marsh variety, approaching calvescens, Wils., in size, occurred at Llanbwchllyn.

Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club.

JULY 28TH, 1891.

THE third Field Meeting this year was held as a Ladies' Day, at Llanthony Abbey, on Tuesday, July 28th. The following members attended: the Rev. Sir George H. Cornewall, Bart., President; Sir Herbert Croft, Bart., Vice-President; Count Lubienski, Captain de Winton, Revs. J. Barker, J. O. Bevan, W. K. Brodribb, J. Dunn, Edwyn A. Ely, C. S. Hagreen, M. Hopton, H. B. D. Marshall, and Plaskitt C. Lewis, Dr. F. Bainbridge, Dr. Fitzsimons, Messrs. H. G. Apperley, W. H. Banks, W. H. Barneby, H. C. Beddce, C. P. Bird, C. G. Blathwayt, T. Davies Burlton, J. Carless, Sam Carrington, R. Clarke, George Cresswell, Luther Davis, M. J. Ellwood, C. J. Lilwall, H. Southall, H. G. Sugden, H. C. Moore (Honorary Secretary), and James B. Pilley (Assistant Secretary). There was a large attendance of ladies and other visitors, as shown in the following list:-Lady Cornewall, Lady Croft, Miss Apperley, Mrs. Armstrong, Mrs. Craigie Halkett, Miss Bainbridge, Miss Banks, Miss Barker, Miss Beddoe, Mrs. C. P. Bird and friends, Mrs. R. H. Bird, and friends, Mrs. Blathwayt, Miss M. A. Boycott, Miss E. Bull, Miss L. Bull, Miss Carless, Miss E. Carless, Mrs. R. Clarke, Mrs. Cresswell, Miss de Winton, Mrs. Ellwood, Mrs. Fitzsimons, Miss Goldfinch, Miss Holmes, Mrs. Horton, Miss Horton, Miss Lamb, Miss Lewis, Mrs. McEwen, Miss Marris, Miss D. Marshall, Mrs. Moore, Miss Moore, Mrs. Pilley, Miss Pilley, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Sugden, Miss Thomas, Mrs. Timmins; Major Craigie Halkett, Rev. R. H. Bird, Mr. W. Blake, Mr. E. W. Bowell, Mr. A. E. Boycott, Mr. R. W. Brown, Mr. Caffull, Rev. John Davies, of Pandy, Mr. N. Kennedy, Mr. L. Riley, and Mr. H. T. Timmins, of Edgbaston, who was preparing pen and ink sketches for illustrating his forthcoming work on Nooks and Corners of Herefordshire.

The members trained to Llanvihangel, where they were met by brakes from the Angel Hotel, Abergavenny, which conveyed them over the six and a half miles of road which, so soon as the Honddu river is reached, opposite the village of Cwmyoy, runs along its right or western side, in the Vale of Ewyas, as nearly parallel to the course of the river as the contours of the ground will permit. The position of the village of Cwmyoy is very prominent, situated under a large outlier from the Hatteral Hill, which outlier, called Graig, has the appearance of having being divided into two parts. The lofty heights of the Hatteral Hill, proceeding more northerly, present, in their almost perpendicular grand precipices, the appearance of escarpments of a miniature Gibraltar, or of Aden upon its landside, inacessible even to an escalading party.

As the traveller approaches Llanthony through the picturesque Ewyas Valley he witnesses in the plantation of Spanish Chestnut trees skirting the

road a fragment of the improvements carried out in the earlier part of this century by the proprietor of the estate, the late Walter Savage Landor. At the site of the Abbey the valley widens out, and the noble, although bare, hills enclosing the massive towers of the ruin present a majestic circumvallation. The first inspection of the ruins might dispose the contemplative visitor to exclaim with the author of "Imaginary Conversations,"

"Ichabod! Where is the glory?
Llanthony! an ungenial clime

And the broad wings of restless Time
Have rudely swept thy massy walls,
And rock't thine abbots in their palls!

Works II., 635, 636.

Having, however, entered the precincts, gazing in admiration of the magnificent lofty pointed arches, the artistic corbels and ornamented gigantic pillars, and standing in the roofless nave, chancel, or transept wherein the wind now plays where formerly resounded Latin hymns of praise, the visitor is carried back in solemn meditation to the days when pious men and pious women contributed not only their tithes, but, with much self-denial, the greater part of their substance, to rear here a temple to the Most High, and when architects applied their utmost skill to make the building worthy of the name. Drayton, in his "Polyolbion" thus expresses himself in his description of this secluded valley.

"Mongst Hatterills' lofty hills, that with the clouds are crown'd,

The valley Ewias lies, immur'd so deep and round,

As they below that see the mountains rise so high

Might think the straggling herds were grazing in the sky;
Which in it such a shape of solitude do bear,

As nature at the first appointed it for prayer."

and a writer in Archæologia Cambrensis has the following lines :

"There may be mightier ruins-Conway's flood
Mirrors a mass more noble far than thine;
And Aberystwyth's gaunt remains have stood

The ceaseless shock when wind and waves combined:
Lone is Dolbadarn, and the lovely shrine

Of Valle Crucis is a spell of power,

By which each meaner thought and sense are charmed.

Proud of that long array of arch and tower

Raglan may claim a rude pre-eminence;

Tintern is peerless at the moonlit hour;

Neath, Chepstow, Goodrich, each has its pretence;

But 'mid thy solitary mountains, gained

By no plain beaten track, my spirit turns

To thee, Llanthony; and, as yet untrained,

Would freely worship where thine altar burns,

All, save by nature's priests, unseen and unprofaned."

When the party had assembled at Llanthony Abbey, the business of the day was despatched. It commenced by the election of three members, and the proposal of two gentlemen to be balloted for at the next meeting, after which the Rev. J. O. Bevan read a paper on "Certain useful subjects of scientific investigation." Most of the subjects herein referred to have already had considerable attention devoted to them by the Club-most notably the entomolgy,

the geology, and botany of our county-but the British Association for the Advancement of Science has, by long tried experience and interchange of views of the experts who adorn it, the credit of elaborating out of every subject which it touches a condition as near perfection as mortals can expect to attain. No wonder, then, that our delegate, Mr. Bevan, should endeavour to make the results of the work of members of our Club more valuable by placing within their reach the formulæ employed by the parent association, and by indicating the direction of the lines of research along which they are recommended to travel. Some of the subjects upon which Mr. Bevan made observations were-meteorology, photography, phenology, forestry, geology, biology, botany, entomology, anthropology, archæology, &c., &c. Upon conclusion of Mr. Bevan's address Mr. Moore suggested the formation, without delay, of committees to carry out the observations in accordance with the authorized forms adopted by the British Association. Some names were easily selected to entertain the subject of an Archæological map of the county of Hereford, and Mr. Moore was able without difficulty to give the constitution of a committee upon Geological photographs.

The Architectural features of the Abbey were now pointed out by the Rev. Sir George Cornewall, and in giving us its history he informed us how the Norman Knight William, accidentally carried into this isolated locality whilst hunting, was seized with a devotional impulse, and leaving the ways of the world devoted himself straightway to the solitude of a hermitage in 1100, where he was joined in 1103 by a congenial spirit, one Ernisi, chaplain to Henry's good queen Matilda, their combined zeal and efforts leading to the foundation, in 1107, of the Priory, under the fraternity of the monks of St. Augustine. These Austin canons formed a link between the regular and the secular clergy. Llanthony, from its situation, appears more adapted as a place for the Cistercian monks who delighted in mountains, trees, and rivers. Before these Austin monks had been thirty years at Llanthony they desired to get their foundation removed to Gloucester, where a second distinct monastery was formed, which was afterwards united, and then the Church must have been re-built.

Llanthony was visited in A.D. 1188 by Archbishop Baldwyn on his journey through Wales to preach the Crusades. He was accompanied through the Principality by Giraldus de Barri, Archdeacon of Brecon, whom he found residing at Llanddew near Brecon, whence they crossed the mountains by Talgarth to Llanthony.

To go still further back in history, the earliest mention of Llanthony dates from St. David, uncle of King Arthur, being wont to kneel and pray in his cell here situated. Where was the St. David's cavern which Drayton places there? Walter Savage Landor, replying to Southey, says :-"I have looked in vain for St. David's cave; not a cave is there in my whole manor.' At the present time there is a cave five miles distant from the Abbey under a huge mass of calcareous tufa rock, Travertine, an offspring detached from the parent above. This rock is about half a mile distant from Father Ignatius's monastery, but we do not believe that it could have been in existence in the time of St. David, who died in 544.

* Forster's "Biography of Walter Savage Landor."