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CYLCHGRAWN LLYFRGELL GENEDLAETHOL CYMRU THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES JOURNAL VOLUME XII. Winter, 1962. NUMBER 4. THE GIRLHOOD OF AUGUSTA WADDINGTON (AFTERWARDS LADY LLANOVER)— 1802-23 (PLATES XII. 11-12) Augusta Waddington1 was born at Llanover, Monmouthshire, four miles south of Abergavenny, on 21 March 1802, ten years after her father2 had purchased the estate and removed there from Dunston Park, Berkshire. All her life she loved Llanover better than any other place in the world-and that not for want of com- parison with other places, for both before and after her marriage she travelled to Italy, and she was also familiar with Paris, Switzerland, the Grand Duchy of Baden, the Valley of the Rhine, and the French Riviera. The great park of Llanover lies on the east of the road from Pontypool to Abergavenny, above the beautiful River Usk. Augusta was born in Ty Uchaf (the Upper House), also known as the White House. At the back, a brook rushes rapidly through the garden, in pools and cascades, with many islets, which made it a paradise for the three sisters, Frances,3 Emilia4 and Augusta, who played there. When Archdeacon Coxe5 was touring Monmouthshire in 1799, three years before Augusta's birth, to collect material for his book on the county,6 the hospitable Mr. Waddington cordially invited him to make Llanover a centre for his exploration of the surrounding country,7 and accompanied him on many of his excursions. Sir Richard Colt Hoare,8 who illustrated the book, also stayed with the Waddingtons, 1 1803-96. 2 Benjamin Waddington, 1749-1828. For details of Benjamin Waddington's ancestry, see: 'The Waddington's of Llanover' by the present author, National Library of Wales Journal, Vol. XI, No. 4, Winter 1960, with genealogy of the Waddington family, p. 296-7. 3 1791-1876. Married Christian Carl Josiah Bunsen (1791-1860), afterwards Baron Bunsen, in 1817. 1794-1819. Married Colonel George Manley in 1817. 5 1747-1829. William Coxe, Rector of Bermerton and Stourton, and Archdeacon of Wiltshire. 6 A Historical Tour through Monmouthshire, first published in 1801. A second edition was published by Davies & Co., Brecon, in 1904, and the page references which follow refer to the second edition. 7 Coxe, op. cit. p. 223. 8 1758-1838. Historian of Wiltshire. D.N.B.