My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

LIFE AT LEICESTER AND NEATH 137groovings caused by the ice coming down fromHirwain, right against these ravines and precipices,and being thus heaped up and obliged to flow awayat right angles to its former course.But the most remarkable and interesting of thenatural phenomena of the upper valley is Porth-yr-Ogof (the gateway of the cavern), where the riverMellte runs for a quarter of a mile underground.The entrance is under a fine arch of limestone rockoverhung with trees, as shown in the accompanyingphotograph. The outlet is more irregular and lesslofty, and is also less easily accessible ; but the valleyjust below has wooded banks, open glades, and fantasticrocks near the cave, forming one of the mostcharmingly picturesque spots imaginable.I have already described one of the curious" standing stones " near the source of the Llia river,but there is a still more interesting example about amile and a half north-west of Ystrad-fellte, where theold Roman road—the Sarn Helen—crosses over theridge between the Nedd and the Llia valleys. Thisis a tall, narrow stone, roughly quadrilateral, on oneof the faces of which there is a rudely inscribed Latininscription, as seen in the photograph, and in a copyof the letters given. It reads as follows :—DERVACI FILIUS JUSTI IClACITmeaning " [The body] of Dervacus the son of Justuslies here."It will be seen that the letters D, A, and Iin Dervaci, and the T and I in Justi are inverted orreversed, probably indicating that the cutting wasdone by an illiterate workman, who placed them asmost convenient when working on an erect stone.The stone itself is probably British, and was utilized