1. XLIV Usk Priory
The Flora of the Priory grounds revealsthe tastes of a keen amateur gardener, who loves unusual shrubs and plants, and has a penchant for the rock garden and the Herbaceous border. The grouping of the trees as seen from the level mead which extends from the soutehrn boundary of the garden, is very charming. Giant Scots Firs, ruddy of stem, rise in picturesque outline aboeve the western gable, the drive is flanked by giant beech, whch nearer at hand dark Wellingtonias sweep the lawn with their spreading lower branches. The house itself is clothed in verdure, a magnolia, with its oval fleshy leaves and large white flowers, lending distinction to the west wing. As background to this picture are the upper branches of the lofty trees in the churchyuard, and the grand old Norman tower which dominates the whole.

(Source) South Wales Daily News (NMR): October 15th 1910; a photo accompanies the text and there is a postcard of 1905 in the NMR showing the bnuildings covered in creepers.
CSB November 2002

2. This garden is depicted on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of Monmouthshire XIX, sheet 15 (1901).
C.S.Briggs 16.05.06