Caerwent, the Venta Silurum of the Romans, is now an inconsiderable village; it was once a seaport, but at present is two miles distant from the Severn; it occupies a gently inclining plain.  Mr. Coxe, in his “Tour through Monmouthshire,” has given a plan of the Roman town, which was defended on all sides except the southern, by a deep fosse.  The walls are from twelve to twenty-four feet in height, and from nine to twelve in thickness.  Many curious figures which have been discovered in the pavements, have been destroyed through the ignorance of the country people.  The mounds and mouldering walls in the adjacent fields, present melancholy memorials of the former grandeur of this place.

The village of Trelech is remarkable for three Druidical stones, which give name to it.  Harold here defeated the Britons, and from an inscription on a pedestal in the village, we may suppose that a large tumulus near this spot, contains the bones of the slain.

At the mansion of Courtfield, at Welsh Bicknor, the seat of the Roman Catholic family of Vaughan, Henry V. is traditionally reported to have been nursed, under the care of the Countess of Salisbury; a monumental effigy of a lady in accordance with the style of that age, is in the church.

The celebrated ruins of Tintern Abbey, on the banks of the Wye, which are kept in high preservation by the Duke of Beaufort, afford a noble specimen of Gothic architecture, and retain marks of their ancient magnificence: 

  “The fair wrought shaft all ivy bound
  The tow’ring arch with foliage crown’d
  That trembles on its brow sublime,
  Triumphant o’er the spoils of Time.”

These remains acquire additional beauty from their romantic situation.  The roof has fallen in; but the pillars and tracery of many of the windows are perfect.  The green lawn is covered with fragments of sculpture and memorials of those who once dwelt within this magnificent pile: 

  “But all is still.  The chequer’d floor,
  Shall echo to the step no more;
  Nor airy roof the strain prolong
  Of vesper chant or choral song.”

  BLOOMFIELD.

In the year 1634, Colonel Sandys attempted to make the Wye navigable by means of locks, but as this experiment was unsuccessful, they were afterwards removed.  This river from the confluence of its mountain streams after heavy rains, is subject to sudden inundations, which though in many respects injurious to the farmer, greatly fertilize the meadows in its vicinity, and especially those near Monmouth, by the valuable matter it deposits.  The tide of the Severn, from the peculiar projection of the rocks at the mouth of the Wye, flows up the latter river with great rapidity, to the height of more than forty feet.  “The highest tide,” says Mr. Coxe, “within the memory of the present generation, rose to fifty-six feet.”

To the admirers of the architecture of the baronial mansions of the middle ages, the remains of the numerous castles which have been erected on the banks of the Wye to repel the incursions of the Welsh, by the Talbots and Strongbows, and other renowned families of former days, will afford the highest gratification, and give a silent though powerful admonition, that human grandeur endureth but for a day: