This City Is Well Situated On The River Usk, Navigable
To The Sea, And Adorned With Woods And Meadows.
The Roman
ambassadors here received their audience at the court of the great
king Arthur; and here also, the archbishop Dubricius ceded his
honours to David of Menevia, the metropolitan see being translated
from this place to Menevia, according to the prophecy of Merlin
Ambrosius.
"Menevia pallio urbis Legionum induetur." "Menevia
shall be invested with the pall of the city of Legions."
Not far hence is a rocky eminence, impending over the Severn, called
by the English Gouldcliffe {74} or golden rock, because from the
reflections of the sun's rays it assumes a bright golden colour:
"Nec mihi de facili fieri persuasio posset,
Quod frustra tantum dederit natura nito rem
Saxis, quodque suo fuerit flos hic sine fructu."
Nor can I be easily persuaded that nature hath given such splendour
to the rocks in vain, and that this flower should be without fruit,
if any one would take the pains to penetrate deeply into the bowels
of the earth; if any one, I say, would extract honey from the rock,
and oil from the stone. Indeed many riches of nature lie concealed
through inattention, which the diligence of posterity will bring to
light; for, as necessity first taught the ancients to discover the
conveniences of life, so industry, and a greater acuteness of
intellect, have laid open many things to the moderns; as the poet
says, assigning two causes for these discoveries,
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