Favourite Outing

A Memory of Abergavenny.

My family and I often walked to the River Usk, going down Pentre Road and crossing the Brecon Road. We used to have picnics on the side nearest St. Mary's church in Llanwenarth, and look in the water for tiny fish and insects. I particularly liked the flowers I found in the meadows nearby and picked large bunches to take back to my grandparents' house. On the banks grew quantities of a flower I now know to be called "Jumping Jack, "Touch-me-not" or "policeman's helmet", but which I called a "netflower". At one point there was a chain ferry, with a sort of flat punt-like boat, and it was fun crossing the river in it.