Our Author,
Giraldus, Seems To Have Taken His Account Of The Spring, On The
Summit Of This Mountain, From Report, Rather Than From Ocular
Testimony.
I (Sir R. Colt Hoare) examined the summits of each peak
very attentively, and could discern no spring whatever.
The soil is
peaty and very boggy. On the declivity of the southern side of the
mountain, and at no considerable distance from the summit, is a
spring of very fine water, which my guide assured me never failed.
On the north-west side of the mountain is a round pool, in which
possibly trout may have been sometimes found, but, from the muddy
nature of its waters, I do not think it very probable; from this
pool issues a small brook, which falls precipitously down the sides
of the mountain, and pursuing its course through a narrow and well-
wooded valley, forms a pretty cascade near a rustic bridge which
traverses it. I am rather inclined think, that Giraldus confounded
in his account the spring and the pool together.
{57} The first of these are now styled the Black Mountains, of
which the Gadair Fawr is the principal, and is only secondary to the
Van in height. The Black Mountains are an extensive range of hills
rising to the east of Talgarth, in the several parishes of Talgarth,
Llaneliew, and Llanigorn, in the county of Brecknock, and connected
with the heights of Ewyas. The most elevated point is called Y
Gadair, and, excepting the Brecknock Van (the Cadair Arthur of
Giraldus), is esteemed the highest mountain in South Wales. The
mountains of Ewyas are those now called the Hatterel Hills, rising
above the monastery of Llanthoni, and joining the Black Mountains of
Talgarth at Capel y Ffin, or the chapel upon the boundary, near
which the counties of Hereford, Brecknock, and Monmouth form a point
of union. But English writers have generally confounded all
distinction, calling them indiscriminately the Black Mountains, or
the Hatterel Hills.
{58} If we consider the circumstances of this chapter, it will
appear very evidently, that the vale of Ewyas made no part of the
actual Itinerary.
{59} Landewi Nant Hodeni, or the church of St. David on the Hodni,
is now better known by the name of Llanthoni abbey. A small and
rustic chapel, dedicated to St. David, at first occupied the site of
this abbey; in the year 1103, William de Laci, a Norman knight,
having renounced the pleasures of the world, retired to this
sequestered spot, where he was joined in his austere profession by
Ernicius, chaplain to queen Maude. In the year 1108, these hermits
erected a mean church in the place of their hermitage, which was
consecrated by Urban, bishop of Llandaff, and Rameline, bishop of
Hereford, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist: having afterward
received very considerable benefactions from Hugh de Laci, and
gained the consent of Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, these same
hermits founded a magnificent monastery for Black canons, of the
order of St. Augustine, which they immediately filled with forty
monks collected from the monasteries of the Holy Trinity in London,
Merton in Surrey, and Colchester in Essex.
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