the east are the mountains of Talgarth and Ewyas. {57} The natives
of these parts, actuated by continual enmities and implacable
hatred, are perpetually engaged in bloody contests. But we leave to
others to describe the great and enormous excesses, which in our
time have been here committed, with regard to marriages, divorces,
and many other circumstances of cruelty and oppression.



CHAPTER III



Ewyas and Llanthoni


In the deep vale of Ewyas, {58} which is about an arrow-shot broad,
encircled on all sides by lofty mountains, stands the church of
Saint John the Baptist, covered with lead, and built of wrought
stone; and, considering the nature of the place, not unhandsomely
constructed, on the very spot where the humble chapel of David, the
archbishop, had formerly stood decorated only with moss and ivy. A
situation truly calculated for religion, and more adapted to
canonical discipline, than all the monasteries of the British isle.
It was founded by two hermits, in honour of the retired life, far
removed from the bustle of mankind, in a solitary vale watered by
the river Hodeni. From Hodeni it was called Lanhodeni, for Lan
signifies an ecclesiastical place. This derivation may appear far-
fetched, for the name of the place, in Welsh, is Nanthodeni. Nant
signifies a running stream, from whence this place is still called