they show the line where the limestone crops out from beneath the coal. From these mountains the country is gullied or furrowed with valleys, extending nearly north and south towards the sea. The mountains themselves are limestone, and contain neither the southern slopes, and indeed stretch up those slopes and lie nearly on the surface of the ground. And here, too, the numerous small rivers take their rise; so that we find most of the large iron and coal works to be near the northern limestone limit, and at the heads of the small valleys through which the rivers run towards Newport and Cardiff. stand on the ridge which separates Glamorganshire | mountains mark the northern limit of the coal-field: from Brecknockshire; and it will be seen by a reference to a map of the iron and coal-works of South Wales, how large and important a number of them lie on or in the immediate vicinity of this dividing ridge. Or, still better, if we extend our glance farther eastward, and include the northern border region of Monmouth-iron nor coal; but the iron and coal approach close to shire, we have yet more striking evidence of this local arrangement. Let us, for instance, start from Pontypool, and ascend the valley of the little river Sychan towards the mountains. Here, as we ascend higher and higher, we meet with the Pen-twin ironworks, the British iron-works, the Varteg iron-works, and the Blaen-Avon iron-works. Then, mounting the ridge, and following the mail coach-road from Abergavenny to Merthyr, we find numerous iron-works at the head of small river-valleys. There are the Bryn-mawr and Nant-y-glo works near the head of the Ebbw; the Beaufort, the Ebbw Vale, and the Victoria works at the head of the Ebbw-vawr; the Sirhowy and the Tredegar works at the head of the Sirhowy; and the Rumney works at the head of the Rumney. All these rivers assume such directions as to terminate at or near Newport; and it is thus that Newport has become the outlet for such a large mining district. Still continuing west, we pass Dowlais, Merthyr, Pen-y-darren, and Cyfarthfa, and enter on the high road from Merthyr to Swansea. Here we find the Aberdare and the Hirwain works; which, as well as those of the Merthyr district, are situated near streams which find an outlet at Cardiff instead of Newport. Aberdare is, if possible, a still more extraordinary place than Merthyr or Dowlais; for the latter have some trace of antiquity, and had begun to rise in the last century; whereas Aberdare was little other than a mere village so late as 1840, though now there are 13,000 inhabitants grouped in and around the town. The people are as iron-bound and coal-bound as any people can be; for those who are not employed on iron and coal for the works, are digging coals for the export colliery trade. There are three Aberdare collieries which send each more than 40,000 tons of coals annually down the Glamorganshire Canal to Cardiff; besides several others of smaller rank. The town has a total absence of everything that can justly be called a handsome building; yet are its streets something cleaner, and its houses somewhat better built, than those of its neighbour Merthyr. We have said that, of Newport and Cardiff, each is the outlet of a vast amount of mineral wealth. They are both beyond the limits of the mineral field; but one stands near the mouth of the Usk, and the other near that of the Taff, and the valleys of these two rivers form numerous meeting-points with other rivers flowing from the north; so that a large extent of mountain country is drained by streams which enter the sea near these two towns. And this mountain country happens to be that in which the mineral treasures lie nearest the surface. The whole district is a most remarkable one. Bleak, dismal, and sterile In many of the collieries of South Wales, the truck system is prevalent, and the general socia position of the colliers is anything but creditable to the proprietors; but the Abercarn colliery, belonging to Sir Benjamin Hall, is interesting, as showing how much good can be effected by a proprietor who studies the comfort of those under his employ. This colliery is one of the numerous group which send their mineral treasures to Newport for shipment. The Abercarn and Gwythin collieries, which form pretty nearly one concern, are situated in the picturesque valley of the Ebbw, about eleven miles from Newport. The collieries are placed under the management of a gentleman who travelled into various parts of Europe and America, with a view of introducing all available colliery improvements which might suggest themselves to his mind. The collieries comprise pits of two kinds of coal; the bituminous coal for household purposes and for gas-making, and the strong, durable, anthracite coal for steam engines. Wherever machinery can be employed in the works, it is so; and the operations are conducted with a degree both of quiet and of cleanliness not usual in collieries. This use of ma chinery, so far from being injurious to the workmen, is part of a system which contributes to their comfort, as well as to the general perfection of the works. All the colliers' houses belong to the proprietor of the works. They are thoroughly drained and sewered (a most rare quality in South Wales), and are built with an attention to domestic comfort far above the usual level of colliers' cottages. There is a public bake-house, with fuel and attendants provided free of charge; public baths and washhouses, also free of charge; a scientific institution and readingroom, to which a very small quarterly payment admits the colliers and their families; and national schools, English and Welsh, sufficient to educate the children of the colliers. The men have a well-managed sick society, under their own control. There is no approach to the truck system; and all wages are paid on Fridays, that the weekly purchases of the collier's family may be made on Saturday instead of Sunday morning. NEWPORT AND CAERLEON. Such being the relative positions of the mountains, the valleys, the outcrop of coal and iron, the ports, and the sea, it is no marvel that Newport and Cardiff should have grown rapidly in importance. The Welsh coal is better fitted than most others for use in steamnavigation, and hence one cause of the immense export of coal within the last few years from the two ports just named. The coals sent down the Glamorganshire Canal and the Taff Vale Railway from Aberdare, Merthyr, and other districts of the Taff valley, in 1847 amounted to 514,000 tons. The receipts of coal at Newport in the same year, from the Monmouthshire collieries, amounted to 552,000 tons. But in 1848 the exports from Cardiff rose to the immense amount of 665,000 tons; while those from Newport were 554,000, almost exactly the same as in the preceding year. The details of the export of coals from five ports in the Bristol Channel in 1848 were as follows In round numbers, two million tons of coal were exported from South Wales in 1848, besides the immense quantity consumed in the iron and copper works. The Merthyr coal has been found, by government commissioners appointed to investigate this subject, the best of all South Wales coals for steam-ships; and this circumstance will give an importance to Cardiff over Newport as a place of shipment. In respect to iron, the quantity sent to Newport and Cardiff from the mountain and valley districts rose from 240,000 tons in 1834 to 320,000 in 1843; and in 1850 it will very probably have reached half a million of tons. from the east chiefly by the steam-boats from Bristol, on account of the cheapness of the fares. Every day as tide serves, steamers leave Bristol for both ports, crossing the Bristol Channel a little below the spot where the majestic Severn enters it, and proceeding a little way up the Usk and the Taff respectively. A payment of about two shillings suffices for either voyage. As we enter the Usk on the voyage to Newport, we pass two or three bends of the river, and speedily find that the town stretches for about a couple of miles along the west-bank, while the east bank exhibits little other than green fields. We scarcely know in any other part of the kingdom an instance in which a large town has crept along one bank of a comparatively narrow river, and left the other bank so entirely untouched and uninhabited as in the present instance. One bridge crosses the Usk near the northern end of the town, forming part of the great mail-coach road from England to Swansea, and a little beyond this is the fine timber bridge which carries the railway over the Usk. The east bank of the river is not absolutely vacant; for there is one coarse pottery work, and one ship-yard; but these are nearly the only interruptions to green fields. This state of things has one advantage, that the inhabitants can leave a busy and somewhat dirty town, and get among the green fields in a very few minutes. For Newport is certainly not among the cleanest of towns. It can scarcely become so, as it is the mouth whence an immense quantity of coal discharges itself to the river side. Railways or tramways are met with in almost every street in the southern half of the town, laid down on the level of the street, and bearing their burdens of coal-trucks at all hours of the day and night. These tramways extend from Newport to the hills in the north-west part of the county, where the collieries are situated; and as Newport is the place of shipment for the whole of them, the arrivals of coal are large and frequent. The tramways have not come to the houses, but the houses to the tramways; for rows of houses, intended chiefly as workmen's and labourers' dwellings, have been built by the side of most of the tramways within the town. Newport and Cardiff are both placed on the line of the South Wales Railway. This railway, at present in the infancy of its traffic, will one day become important. It is to join the Bristol and Gloucester railway near Gloucester, and extend entirely through South Wales These tramways, as well as the Monmouthshire canal, to Fisguard in Pembrokeshire, passing through or terminate on the banks of the Usk, at a little below near the towns of Chepstow, Newport, Cardiff, Bridg- Newport; and here we find the shipping being laden end, Port Talbot, Neath, Swansea, Loughor, Llanelly, with the mineral produce. A dock has been built Caermarthen, Pembroke, and Haverfordwest,-a list of near the junction of the canal with the river, and this towns which ought ultimately to yield an adequate dock is generally completely filled with ships, receiving revenue to the company. But the portion already con- their cargoes of coal and iron. The dock was opened structed and now opened extends only from Chepstow in 1842, and a fine ship of 1200 tons passed mato Swansea, a distance of 75 miles. The junction jestically through it on the day of opening. But line however from Chepstow to the Gloucester railway, the dock can accommodate only a small part of the is rapidly approaching completion; and it has lately shipping thus taking in cargoes; and consequently we been determined to proceed with the western part of find that the whole west bank of the river, as far the line as far as Cardiff. The line is on the broad- southward as a village or surburb called Pillgwenlly, gauge, and, like all other parts of that magnificent is occupied by quays, wharfs, staiths, and other appursystem, its capabilities in respect to speed and accommo- tenances to a shipping trade. Steamers come here to dation are great. obtain a supply of coals for their own use; merchant Newport and Cardiff, however, are still approached ships come for cargoes to supply to foreign countries; and coasters take in their cargoes for various ports of England and Wales. Very little is exported from Newport except coal and iron; the imports include the usual variety of goods required for the consumption of a large town. As the tramways cross the whole breadth of the southern half of the town, it will easily be seen that, especially in wet weather, the coal traffic must necessarily render street-cleanliness almost hopeless. The northern half of the town is, however, less exposed to this carbonaceous visitation, and here we find flagged pavements and a fair sprinkling of good inns and good shops. Westward the town is bounded by an eminence called Stow Hill, wholly to the north of the tramways; and this eminence is a spot for which the inhabitants ought to be thankful. It is high and healthy; and from the picturesque churchyard can be obtained a view, not only down the Usk to the Bristol Channel, but across the Channel to the Somersetshire coast. There is another hill also near Newport, on the east bank of the river, from which can be obtained a complete panorama of views, extensive and beautiful; so that Newport is more favoured in this respect than many of our smoke-enveloped towns. The antiquary has not much of his favourite food offered to him at Newport. Stow Church and the Castle comprise nearly all. Stow Church, perched on the summit of the hill of the same name, has a good deal of ancient work about it, much of which, however, can hardly be detected among the many alterations it has undergone. There is another church, St. Woolos, whose nave is said to exhibit even Saxon work; but it is well known that Norman has often been mistaken for Saxon, in respect to architectural styles. The Castle stands close to the foot of the bridge: hemmed in, in fact, between the old bridge and the railwaybridge. It is a mere wreck, yet is it worth a visit. It is leased in great part by a brewer, whose vats and butts and mash-tuns occupy vaults and passages once devoted to far other duties. The walls are of vast thickness, and have well nigh defied the attempts of modern workmen to make them yield a little extra space for the brewer's utensils. It is true that we do not want castles in 1851; yet the stern old walls and vaulted roofs seem to frown at these tubs and butts; and the odour of beer does not associate well with thoughts of the feudal magnificence of the Fitzhamons who built the castle eight centuries ago. Feudality has a hard fight of it in these days. A walk of four miles from Newport introduces us to a group of ruins far more interesting than any which Newport can present. These are at Caerleon, at present only a pretty village, but once a place of great importance. The visit is worth remembering for two other reasons-it carries us along a very lovely portion of the valley of the Usk; and it enables us to have a peep at the picturesque house called St. Julian's, half way between Newport and Caerleon; this house was the residence of the famous Lord Herbert of Cherbury, but it is now occupied as a farmhouse. Caerleon was Antonine's Isca Legionis Secundæ Augustæ, the Roman metropolis of Wales. As such, its interest surpasses that of any mere Norman town. The whole neighbourhood is rich in Roman remains: palaces, towers, baths, temples, an amphitheatre, aqueducts, walls-all are believed to have once existed here; and the more excavations are carried on, the more evidence is there afforded of this fact. Some of the principal inhabitants have long been engaged in superintending excavations; and a pretty building has just been erected, to serve as a museum or repository for the coins and other Roman remains found. Some of the results of the researches at Caerleon have recently been published. The amphitheatre, a circular excavation in the middle of a field close to the village, is very conspicuous: and near it are veritable remains of the old city walls. CAERPHILLY: CARDIFF: LLANDAFF. As Caerleon may be considered the most venerable remnant of ancient times near Newport, so does Caerphilly maintain a similar position in respect to Cardiff. It lies between Newport and Cardiff, but nearer to the latter than the former. It is now little more than a village; but its fine castle points to a more dignified position in past days. Caerphilly Castle (Cut, No. 3) is one of the finest in Great Britain. It is supposed to have been built about 1270; and it is known to have played a conspicuous part in the contests of the feudal ages. It was besieged about half a century after its construction; and there is said to have been within its walls, preserved as a resource during the siege, “two thousand fat oxen, twelve thousand cows, twenty-five thousand calves, thirty thousand fat sheep, six hundred draught horses, a sufficient number of carts for them, two thousand fat hogs; of salt provisions two hundred beeves, six hundred muttons, one thousand hogs; two hundred tuns of French wine, forty tuns of cider and wine (the produce of the estate), with wheat enough to make bread for two thousand men for four years." Quantities, these, which certainly stretch our belief to the utmost limit. The castle, in the days of its prime, was a most complete structure. It occupies a peninsula at the junction of two small rivers; and had a strong buttressed outer wall on the remaining or land side. Within this wall was a moat, which converted the site on which the castle stood into an island. There were hornworks, bastions, redoubts, towers, barracks, several open courts, drawbridges, portcullised gateways, an armoury, a great hall, state apartments-all on a scale of the first magnitude. The remains still visible of this fine structure are very considerable. The finest is the great hall, 70 feet in length, by 30 in width; it is lighted by four lofty beautiful windows in the decorated style; on one side are the remains of a fire-place of great size and splendour; and around the walls are pilasters, which once supported a groined ceiling; several other apartments, including the armoury and a corridor, can still be traced. Externally the two remaining towers form striking features in the ruins; one |
