A Run Through South Wales Via The London And North Western Railway PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 edition. Excerpt: ... Leaving Carmarthen by the Pencader line, the tourist reaches LAMPETER, a small town pleasantly situated on the banks of the Teivy, and of considerable importance, as possessing a college for the instruction of young men designed for the Church, whose limited means prevent their going to Oxford or Cambridge. Near the town, the Teivy is crossed by a bridge, said to have been built in the time of King Stephen, but other accounts give it much less claims to antiquity. The route onwards by rail is almost devoid of interest or beauty, and scarcely any thing worthy of note is observed until we come to STRATA FLORIDA, about sixteen miles from Aberystwith. At the distance of a couple of miles from the railway station, and in a singularly wild and desolate district, are the ruins of the once grand and richly endowed monastery of that name. It was called by the Welsh, Mynachlog Yystrad Fflur, --the abbey of the blooming or fertile plain, now strangely Latinised into Strata Florida. Nothing certain is known of its origin, tradition variously ascribing its erection to Rhys ap Tewdwr in 1080, and Rhys ap Gryffydd in 1164. It was founded for Cistercian monks; in its archives a record of all national transactions was kept; and within its precincts many princes, nobles, abbots, and bards were interred. After various vicissitudes, being more than once destroyed and again restored, it fell into decay after the dissolution of all monastic establishments, in the reign of Henry VIII. The only remains of this once beautiful sanctuary, are a portion of wall, a pointed window nearly overgrown with ivy, and a Norman arch at the northern entrance, exquisitely fluted, and having over the centre a finely carved stone, apparently representing a double crosier head. So..