A CORRECT LIST OF ALL THE FAIRS IN MONMOUTHSHIRE. Abergavenny-May 14, for lean cattle and sheep; first Tuesday after Trinity, linen and woollen cloth; September 25, hogs, horses, and flannels. Caerleon May 1, July 20, September 21, cattle. Castletown-May 6, August 5, November 26, cattle. Chepstow-Friday in Whitsun week, horned cattle; Saturday before June 20, for wool; August 1, Friday week after St. Luke, October 18, horned cattle; last Monday in the month, ditto. Christchurch-Cattle. Crismond-Ditto. Magor--Two last Mondays in Lent, horned cattle. Monmouth-June 18, wool; Whit-Tuesday, September 4, ditto; November 22, horned cattle, fat hogs, and cheese. Newport-Ascension-day, Whit-Thursday, August 15, November 6, cattle; third Monday in the month, cattle and sheep. Pontypool-April 22, July 5, October 10, horses, lean cattle and pedlary; last Monday in the month, ditto. Uske-Monday after Trinity, October 29, horses, lean cattle, and pedlary. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY OF MONMOUTH. BOUNDARIES, SITUATION, EXTENT, THE county of Monmouth is bounded on the south by the river Severn, on the west by Glamorganshire, and part of Brecknockshire; on the north by part of Brecknock and Herefordshire, and on the east by Gloucestershire; from which it is separated by the River Wye. The situation of this county is picturesque, and particularly delightful. The eastern parts are woody, and the western mountainous; a diversified, and luxurious scenery of hill, and dale. Here the eye is enchanted with Sylvan shades, impervious woods, fields enriched with the finest corn, and meadows enamelled with flowers; there lofty mountains whose summits reach the clouds, form a sublime, and majestic view, highly awful and deeply impressive. Nor will the climate of this county be found inferior to its local beauties. It is salubrious, and friendly to convalscence and longevity. The air is pure, and if it is found in the mountainous regions of a bleak and piercing nature, yet it tends greatly to strengthen and brace the animal system, and precludes those disorders which prevail in a moist and milder atmosphere. This county in length, from north to south, is 33 miles; its breadth, from east and west, 26 miles, and its circumference 110 miles. Uske is nearer the middle of it than any other market town. It comprises an area of 550 square miles. The county is divided into six hundreds, which comprehends seven towns, namely: Monmouth, Caerleon, Chepstow, Uske, Abergavenny, Newport, and Pontypool. NAME, ANCIENT HISTORY, &c. This county was formerly called Wentset, and Wents Wents-land, and by the Britons, Gwent, from an ancient city of that name. The people inhabiting this and the neighbouring county of Herefordshire, were the ancient Silures. The modern name of the Shire is taken from the county town. Ostorius Scapula, the Roman commander in Britain, appointed by the Emperor Claudius, endeavoured to make a conquest of these brave and valiant people, who had hitherto supported with honour their native independence, and braved the power of the Roman eagle. The Silures were at this time under the government of an heroic prince, the celebrated Caractacus: after magnanimously resisting the military power of the Roman general, he was unfortunately taken captive, and with his family sent to Rome, to grace the honours of the triumph, of his victorious antagonist. It was under the pressure of such a humiliating circumstance, that Caractacus preserved a dignified and heroic temper of mind, which rendered him as great when led captive amidst the shouts of victory, and the splendor of military glory, as when he was formerly at the head of his troops. When conducted before Claudius, he made a speech which astonished the. Emperor, and the nobles surrounding him, who penetrated with admiration, perceived in the person of the captive monarch a great and illustrious philosopher. The Romans occupied the country of the Silures, as a conquered province, from their full establishment, in the reign of Vespasian, to the period of their final departure from Britain, when the mighty empire of Rome, was approaching its dissolution. There are three Roman stations yet visible in the county, "Venta Silurum," at Caerwent; "Isca Silurum," Caerleon; and "Gobannium," Abergavenny. The Roman road, denominated the " Julia Strata," according to the best accounts, led from Aqua Solis, (the water of the sun) Bath, in Somersetshire, to Menevia, St. David's, in a direction direction through the counties of Monmouth, Glamorgan, Caermarthen, and Pembroke. Various aqueducts, baths, tesselated pavements, columns, statues, urns, sarcophaguses, and altars, have been dug up in different parts of this county; an undeniable evidence of the Romans having occupied it. Monmouthshire in the time of the Saxons remained part of the principality of Wales, and thus it continued until the reign of King Henry the Eighth, when it was included among the counties of England. But the actual benefit, resulting from its being incorporated a county of England did not take place until near the end of the reign of King Charles the Second, when the judges began to hold the assizes here in the Oxford circuit. Much had been suffered by the tyrannical exercise of feudal jurisprudence in this county cre this happy and auspicious event arrived. Remains of Roman fortifications are still visible in various parts. Mr. Coxe, that acute and justly celebrated traveller, who has explored the northern regions of Europe with the penetrating eye of a philosophic Tourist, has observed in his "Historical Tour in Monmouthshire," that a square or parallelogramical form is the only indubitable mark of Roman origin. According to the criterion of this sagacious traveller, most of the Roman encampments and fortifications in this county are of this form; four only being rectangular. In 1602 there was discovered at Caerleon a chequered pavement, and a statue in a Roman habit, with a quiver of arrows; but the head, hands, and feet were broken off. From an inscription found adjacent, it proved to be a statue of Diana. At the same time the fragments of two stone altars were dug up, one of which was erected by Hæterionus, general of Augustus, and proprætor of the province of Cilicia. There was also a votive altar dug up, from from which the name of the Emperor Geta appeared to have been erased. Long beto, e the Saxons came into this county there were three churches at Caerleon, one of which was dedicated to St. Julian, another to St. Aaron, who both suffered under the Dioclesian persecution, and the third had monks, and was the metropolitan church of Wales. Near Caerleon, in 1654, a Roman altar of free stone was found, inscribed to Jupiter and Juno. Towards the end of the 17th century, in the church of a village, called Tredonnock, a fair and entire monument, of a Roman soldier of the second legion, called Julius Julianus, was dug up, and near this place were also found other Roman antiquities. The population of Monmouthshire, according to the last survey by act of parliament, and agreeable to the specified return in consequence of that act, is estimated at 45,582; out of which 5,540 were reported as employed in trade, manufacture, or bandicraft, and 12,871 in agriculture. Mr. Coxe is inclined to estimate the population higher, and rates the number, including both sexes, at 48,000. This county sends only three members to the British senate: two knights of the shire, and one burgess for the borough of Monmouth. RIVERS. The county of Monmouth is abundantly watered with fine rivers, the principal of which are the Severn; the Wye, the Mynow, the Rumney, the Usk, and the Ebwy. The Mynow, or as Camden denominates it, the Munow, rises in Brecknockshire, pursues its course south-east, and dividing this county from Hereford, falls into the river Wye at the town of Monmouth. The Rumney rises in Brecknockshire, and directng its course south-east, dividing the county from Glamorganshire, fall into the Severn. The |