Sherborne and Tewkesbury were both only a few miles off our route, and had we planned rightly we could have visited with very little loss of time these two interesting towns with their great abbey churches, which rank in size and importance with many of the cathedrals.

Ten miles from Penzance would have brought us to Lands End—­the extreme southwestern point of England, abounding in wild and beautiful ocean-shore scenery, but the story of dangerous hills deterred us, though we afterwards regretted our decision.  Nor could we pass again as we did at Camelford in Cornwall within five miles of King Arthur’s Tintagel without seeing this solitary and wonderfully romantic ruin, with the majestic—­even awe-inspiring—­scenery around it.

Perhaps the most interesting trip which we missed, but which would have required more time than we could give, was a two or three days’ run through the extreme south of Wales.  It is only thirty miles from Monmouth to Cardiff, a coal-mining metropolis, itself of little interest, but with many places worth visiting in its immediate vicinity.  Cardiff Castle, too, is one of the best known of the Welsh ruins, and here Henry I confined his elder brother Robert for twenty years while he himself, in reality a usurper, held the English throne.  Ten miles north of Cardiff is the rude and inaccessible castle of Caerphilly, which is reckoned the most extensive ruin in the Kingdom.

Following the coast road for one hundred miles, one comes to the ancient town of St. Davids, at the extreme southwestern point of Wales.  Here in the Middle Ages was a city of considerable size, a great resort of pilgrims to St. David’s shrine, William the Conqueror being one of these.  The modern St. Davids is a mere village, and its chief attraction is its grand cathedral and the ruins of the once gorgeous episcopal palace.  The cathedral, built in the Tenth Century, is curiously situated in a deep dell, and only the great tower is visible from the village.

The return trip from St. Davids would best be made over the same road to Carmarthen, then taking the road northward to Llandovery, where is located one of the ruins of what was once the greatest abbey in Southern Wales.  From this point the road direct to Abergavenny is a good one and passes through much of the picturesque hill country of Wales.

From Bangor in North Wales it is about twenty miles to Holyhead, from which point the car could easily be transferred to Ireland in two or three hours.  This would mean an additional two weeks to the tour, and no doubt more time could pleasantly be spent in the Emerald Isle.  The roads in Ireland are far from equal to those of England or Scotland, but the scenery, especially on the coast, is even lovelier, and the points of interest quite as numerous.