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diff --git a/36367-h/36367-h.htm b/36367-h/36367-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7fee717 --- /dev/null +++ b/36367-h/36367-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5722 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Wye and Its Associations, by Leitch Ritchie</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Wye and Its Associations, by Leitch +Ritchie + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Wye and Its Associations + a picturesque ramble + + +Author: Leitch Ritchie + + + +Release Date: June 10, 2011 [eBook #36367] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WYE AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1841 Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and +Longmans edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p0b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Decorative title page, with Goodrich castle (followed by proper +title page)" +title= +"Decorative title page, with Goodrich castle (followed by proper +title page)" +src="images/p0s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h1>THE WYE<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS</span></h1> +<p style="text-align: center">A PICTURESQUE RAMBLE.</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">By LEITCH +RITCHIE, Esq.</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">AUTHOR OF +“WANDERINGS BY THE LOIRE,” “WANDERINGS BY THE +SEINE,”</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">“THE MAGICIAN,” +ETC.</span></p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">LONDON:</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">LONGMAN, +ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">LONGMANS</span>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">1841.</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><a name="pagei"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. i</span><span +class="GutSmall">LONDON:</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">PRINTED BY J. HADDON, CASTLE STREET, +FINSBURY.</span></p> +<h2><a name="pageii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +ii</span>ADVERTISEMENT,</h2> +<p>A portion of the lower part of the Wye has been described by +Gilpin, Archdeacon Coxe, and some others; and the same portion +has been touched upon, with greater or less minuteness, by Prince +Puckler Muscau, and various Welsh tourists, as well as by +Whateley in his Essay on Modern Gardening. It seemed, +however, to the writer of the present sketch, that something more +was due to the most celebrated river in England; and that another +book (not too large for the pocket, and yet aspiring to a place +in the library) which should point out the beauties of the Wye, +and connect them <a name="pageiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +iv</span>with their historical and romantic +associations—beginning at the source of the stream on +Plinlimmon, and ending only at its confluence with the +Severn—might still be reckoned an acceptable service by the +lovers of the picturesque. Hence this little work, which +may be consulted at will either as a finger-post by the +traveller, or as a companion by the reading lounger at home.</p> +<p><i>London</i>, <i>November</i> 28<i>th</i>, 1840.</p> +<h2><a name="pagev"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +v</span>CONTENTS.</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER I.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">Page.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Philosophy of the picturesque—Peculiarities of +English scenery—Worcester—Immigration of peasant +girls—The Devils’ Garden—The Rest on the +Stones—Plinlimmon—Inhabitants of the summit—The +Inn—Source of the Wye</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page1">1</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER II.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Descent of Plinlimmon—Singular +illusion—Llangerrig—Commencement of the +picturesque—The Fall of the Wye—Black +Mountain—Course of the river—Builth—Peculiarity +of the scenery—Approach to the English border—Castle +of the Hay—First series of the beauties of the Wye</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page17">17</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER III.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Clifford Castle—Lords-marchers—Fair +Rosamond—Ruins of the Castle—The silent +cottage—Approach to +Hereford—Castle—Cathedral—Nell +Gwynn—Cider—Salmon—Wolves</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page31">31</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER IV.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Beauty and tameness—The travelling +hill—Ross—The silver tankard—The Man of +Ross—The sympathetic trees—Penyard +Castle—Vicissitudes of the river—Wilton +Castle—A voyage to sea in a basket—Pencraig Hill</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page45">45</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a +name="pagevi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. vi</span>CHAPTER +V.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Roman passes of the Wye—Goodrich +Castle—Keep—Fortifications—Apartments—Its +history—Goodrich Court—Forest of Dean—Laws of +the Miners—Military exploit—Wines of +Gloucestershire</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page58">58</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER VI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Iron furnaces of the Wye—Lidbroke—Nurse of +Henry V—Coldwell Rocks—Symond’s Yat—New +Weir—Monmouth</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page74">74</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER VII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Monmouth—History of the Castle—Apartment of +Henry of Monmouth—Ecclesiastical remains—Benedictine +priory—Church of St. Mary—Church of St. +Thomas—Monnow Bridge—Modern town—Monmouth +caps—The beneficent parvenu</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page87">87</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER VIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Welsh pedigree of queen Victoria—A poet’s +flattery—Castles of Monmouthshire—Geoffrey of +Monmouth—Henry of Monmouth—The Kymin—Subsidiary +tour—Sir David Gam—White +Castle—Scenfrith—The Castle +spectres—Grosmont—Lanthony Abbey</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page100">100</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER IX.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Raglan Castle—Description of the ruins—History +of the Castle—The old lord of Raglan—Surrender of the +fortress—Charles I. and his host—Royal +weakness—The pigeons of Raglan—Death of the old +lord—Origin of the steam engine</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page121">121</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER X.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Troy House—Anecdote—Antique +custom—Village churches of +Monmouthshire—White-washing—The bard—Strewing +graves with flowers—St. Briavels’ +Castle—Llandogo—Change in the character of the +river—The Druid of the Wye—Wordsworth’s +“Lines composed above Tintern Abbey”</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page140">140</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a +name="pagevii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. vii</span>CHAPTER +XI.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Vales of the Wye—Valley of Tintern—Tintern +Abbey—History—Church—Character of the +ruin—Site—Coxe’s +description—Monmouth—Insecurity of sepulchral +fame—Churchyarde on Tombs—Opinions on +Tintern—Battle of Tintern</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page156">156</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Wye below Tintern—Benagor +Crags—Lancaut—Piercefield +Bay—Chepstow—Ancient and modern bridge—Chepstow +Castle—Roger de Britolio—Romance of +History—Chepstow in the civil wars—Marten the +regicide</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page174">174</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">CHAPTER XIII.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Piercefield—Points of view—Curious +appearance—Scenic character of the place—View from +Wyndcliff—Account of Valentine +Morris—Anecdotes—The Wye below Chepstow—Aust +Ferry—Black Rock Ferry—St. +Theodoric—Conclusion</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page192">192</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><a name="pageviii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +viii</span>ENGRAVINGS.</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">Page.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>GOODRICH CASTLE</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">VIGNETTE TITLE.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>LLANGERRIG</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page19">19</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>RHAIADYR</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page21">21</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>NEAR RHAIADYR</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page22">22</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>CLIFFORD CASTLE</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page35">35</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>HEREFORD</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page44">44</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>ROSS</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page48">48</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>THE NEW WEIR</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page81">81</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>TINTERN</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page158">158</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>TINTERN ABBEY</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page160">160</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>CHEPSTOW</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page177">177</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>VIEW FROM WYNDCLIFF</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page198">198</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span>CHAPTER +I.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Philosophy of the +picturesque—Peculiarities of English +scenery—Worcester—Immigration of peasant +girls—The Devils’ Garden—The Rest on the +Stones—Plinlimmon—Inhabitants of the summit—The +Inn—Source of the Wye.</p> +<p>Foreigners have often expressed their surprise that the +English should travel so far in search of picturesque scenery, +when they have abundance at home: but the remark is conceived in +an unphilosophical spirit. We do not travel for the mere +scenery. We do not leave the Wye unexplored, and go abroad +in search of some other river of its own identical +character. <a name="page2"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +2</span>What we gaze at in strange lands is not wood, and water, +and rock, but all these seen through a new +medium—accompanied by adjuncts which array universal nature +herself in a foreign costume. A tree peculiar to the +country—a peasant in an un-English garb—a cottage of +unaccustomed form—the slightest peculiarity in national +manners—even the traces of a different system of +agriculture—all contribute to the impression of novelty in +which consists the excitement of foreign travel.</p> +<p>The proof of this is our keener perception of the beauties of +English scenery after returning from abroad. We are then +capable of instituting a comparison; and our national manners are +no longer the sole medium, but one of various media through which +nature is viewed. An untravelled Englishman is ignorant of +his own country. He must cross the seas before he can +become acquainted with home. He must admire the romance of +the Rhine—the sublimity of the (mountain) Rhone—the +beauty of the Seine and the Loire—before he can tell what +is the rank of the Wye, in picturesque character, among the +rivers of Europe.</p> +<p><a name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 3</span>The +journey from London to Worcester, which is the direct route to +the Upper part of the Wye, discloses many of the peculiarities of +English scenery and character—peculiarities which to the +natives are of so every day a kind, that it is only by reflection +and comparison they learn to appreciate them. The country +seats of the great land proprietors, with their accompaniments of +lawn and plantation, extending as far as the eye can reach, form +a part of the picture; and so do the cottages of the village +peasantry, with their little gardens before the door, admitting a +peep into the interior of the humble abode. In the +aristocratical dwellings, half hidden in that paradise of groves +and glades, we find every refinement that gold can purchase, or +taste produce: in the huts, comfort, and its inseparable adjunct +cleanliness, are the most striking characteristics.</p> +<p>The former speak of wealth, and the happiness that depends on +wealth; the latter of comparative poverty, and the home pleasures +that are compatible with poverty. On the continent, there +is always something out of keeping in the picture. In the +great chateaux <a name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +4</span>and their grounds, there is always some meanness, some +make-shift observable; while in the great country seats of +England, on the contrary, all is uniform. In the cottages +abroad, even those of a higher order, there are always dirt and +slovenliness—inattention to the minute comforts of humble +life—meals snatched anyhow and anywhere—sleep taken +without an idea of the luxuries of sleep. In England, on +the other hand, notwithstanding the irregularities of fortune, we +find an absolute identity in the various classes of the +population. The labourer—returned, perhaps, from +mending the highway, sits down in state to dinner, with a clean +white table-cloth, and the coarse ware nicely arranged before +him. The floor is swept, perhaps washed, to do honour to +the occasion; and his wife, who is at once the mistress and the +servant of the feast, prides herself on making her husband (whom +she calls her “master”)—<i>comfortable</i>.</p> +<p>We need not be told that this is not a universal +picture. We need not be reminded of the want and misery +which exist in numerous parts of the country, for with these we +are well acquainted. The <i>foreigner</i>, however, to whom +<a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>such scenes +are new, will meet with them frequently enough, and especially on +the road we are now travelling, to induce him to set them down as +one of the grand characteristics of England.</p> +<p>The road presents, also, at various turnings, that truly +English scene, a well-known specimen of which is viewed from +Richmond Hill. A level country lies a few hundred feet +below us, and extends in front, and on either side, till it is +lost in the distance, or bound in by low and filmy hills which +just mark the horizon with their waving line of shadow. +This expanse is studded with towns, and villages, and seats, and +cottages, and square towers, and tapering spires, rising amidst +woods and groves, and surrounded by green fields and +meadows. A great part of the peculiar character of the +landscape is due to the enclosures of various kinds of foliage +which separate one field from another. In most parts of the +continent—and more especially in France—these are of +very rare occurrence; and thus the beauty of the picture, when it +has any beauty at all, depends upon the colours of the different +kinds of grain <a name="page6"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +6</span>or other productions, which make the vast expanse of +vegetation resemble an immense and richly variegated +carpet. In spring, therefore, before these colours have +been fairly brought out, it may easily be conceived that France +is one of the least interesting countries in Europe. With +us, on the other hand, the face of the earth resembles a garden, +and more especially in one of those flat landscapes we have +alluded to. The changes of the seasons diversify without +diminishing the beauty; and even winter presents, instead of a +uniform and dreary waste, a varied picture executed in hoar frost +and snow.</p> +<p>Worcester is one of the most aristocratic looking towns in +England, and presents every token of being a wealthy and +flourishing place. Its cathedral, an edifice of the +beginning of the thirteenth century, has drawn hither many a +pilgrim foot even from foreign countries. Our present +business, however, is with the works of nature, or with those of +art fallen into decay, and their fragments standing amidst the +eternal youth of the hills and rivers, like monuments of the +insignificance of man.</p> +<p><a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>Worcester +is famous for its manufactures of porcelain and gloves; but our +attention was more strongly attracted to exports of another kind, +of which it appeared to be at least the entrepôt, if it was +not the original market. At a little distance from the +town, several waggons had halted near a public house, and their +freight, a numerous party of peasant girls, were breakfasting by +the road side. They were eating and drinking as joyously as +if their laps had been filled with far more enticing food than +bread and ale. They were on their way to some greater +mart—perhaps to the all-devouring metropolis; and when +breakfast was over, they resumed their slow journey, some few who +had mounted the waggons singing in parts, and the rest, walking +by the side, joining in the chorus. They had no fears, poor +girls, of the result of their adventure—or rather, no +forethought.</p> +<p>But it is not till after we pass the little town of Kington, +on the eastern borders of Herefordshire, that the picturesque +commences, and we must hasten on to our more immediate +task. Between Kington and New Radnor, <a +name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 8</span>are the Stanner +Rocks, with the Devil’s Garden on their summit, luxuriously +planted—of course by no human hand—with wild +flowers. Beyond New Radnor (formerly the county town, but +now a paltry village,) opens the Vale of Radnor on one side, and +on the other, a rude mountain scene, distinguished by a waterfall +of some celebrity, called Water-break-its-neck. The stream +rushes down a precipitous descent of seventy feet, into a hollow +with craggy and unequal sides. The spot of the cascade is +marked by an insulated rock, eighteen or twenty feet high, +standing erect above it like a monument.</p> +<p>After passing the village of Penybont, the Llanbadarn Vawr, or +great church of Badarn, is to the left of the road, an edifice +which dates from the time of the Conqueror; and nothing else of +interest is observable till we reach Rhaiadyr, on the Banks of +the Wye. As it will be more convenient, however, to examine +the river in descending with the stream, we shall only say here, +that the journey from Rhaiadyr to the summit of Plinlimmon lies +through woods, and hill passes, becoming ruder <a +name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>and wilder at +every step we advance. The character of the population +seems to change in conformity with their physical +circumstances. The want of tidiness which marks the British +mountaineer is the more conspicuous from the contrast it presents +to the opposite quality we have admired in the plains; and +already the women have assumed the round hat of the ruder sex, +and destroyed with its masculine associations the charms peculiar +to their own. Against this absurdity we must protest, +whether we meet with it in the Welsh girl, or the fair equestrian +of Hyde Park. It betrays not only the most pitiful taste, +but the most profound ignorance of nature, on which is founded +the theory of female beauty.</p> +<p>Stedva Gerrig, or “the Rest on the Stones” now +commonly called by the name of the mountain, is a hamlet of three +or four houses situated on a stream which separates the counties +of Montgomeryshire and Cardiganshire, in a nook of comparatively +level land, into which abut several of the lower ridges of +Plinlimmon. The spot has little of the wildness of mountain +scenery, but its extreme solitude; for being here <a +name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>near the top +of the mountainous group, and surrounded by its remaining +elevations, we are insensible of our real altitude above the +level of the country. These elevations, besides, have none +of the ruggedness of character we usually find in such +places. They are, in general, smoothly-swelling eminences, +which if rising from the plain would receive the name of hills; +they are wholly naked of trees, or even brushwood; and being +covered with green herbage, they at first sight give one the idea +of an extensive grass farm, rather than a sterile mountain. +It is the altitude of the spot, however, and the nipping blasts +to which it is exposed, that render it naked of the larger kinds +of vegetation; and there is only a nook here and there capable of +bearing even a scanty crop of oats. This region, therefore, +excepting a few fields around Stedva Gerrig, supplies subsistence +only to sheep; and the greater number even of these we found had +been withdrawn to situations less exposed to the Welsh winds.</p> +<p>Of the few inhabitants of the hamlet, the principal man of +course is the innkeeper; and the other fathers of families are +shepherds. <a name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +11</span>The latter class of men have wages amounting to twelve +pounds a year, and enjoy their houses and little fields of corn +and potatoes, with as much pasturage as they have use for free of +rent. The husband, assisted by his sons, when young, tends +the sheep on the mountain; the wife makes flannel, and knits +stockings; and the daughters go out to service at an early +age. Their little menage is comfortable. Their bread +is barley cakes; they sometimes salt a pig; they provide +themselves with a quarter of beef at one time, and, like their +betters, “live at home, and kill their own +mutton.” Nay, one of these flourishing shepherds is a +rival of <i>the</i> innkeeper; his hut being duly licensed to +sell ale, cyder, &c., and the sign-board having the following +intimation:—“The notorious hill of Plinlimmon is on +these premises, and it will be shown with pleasure to any +gentlemen travellers who wishes to see it.” And this +intimation (letting grammar alone) is correct; for although the +notorious article in question, viz., the loftiest part of +Plinlimmon is not entirely in the garden, curtained off, like the +balloon at the Yorkshire Stingo, from the gaze <a +name="page12"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 12</span>of all who do +not pay a shilling to see it, yet it is actually on the premises, +about three or four miles—only a sheep +walk—distant.</p> +<p>The Plinlimmon inn, undoubtedly, is the place for our +money. It is now—although its character was very +different only two years ago—neat, clean, and +comfortable. We do not say that it affords the +accommodation of a city on the top of a Welsh mountain, but yet +to the traveller who has seen more of the world than the plains +of England, it will make a very desirable resting-place. +Such traveller, on dismounting from the Aberystwith mail, will be +right glad to sit down by a clean and bright fire-side, and if +the turf should not be lighted in the parlour, he will be proud +of the privilege of the kitchen. There, if he has our own +good fortune, he will find the landlady, a frank, cheerful, and +kindly woman, with the table drawn in quite to the hearth, and +reading “Elegant Extracts.” Materials of +another kind will speedily grace the board, viz., bread, butter, +cheese, eggs, and excellent home-brewed ale. Do you sneer +at this bill of fare? A fico for thy travellership! +Then will mine host enter in the midst, a bold, <a +name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 13</span>intelligent, +yet modest fellow; and, bustling through the various parts of the +scene, will “come, like a shadow, so depart” the +substantial form of the serving maiden, her cheeks round, and +flushed, her eye beaming with innocent gaiety, and her full and +swelling chest seeming as if it were with difficulty withheld +from bursting the corsage. These three, by the way, are the +only inhabitants of the hamlet who speak English.</p> +<p>After supper, the traveller, if he be not of the heathen sect +of Tee-totallers, takes a glass of brandy and water, for the +reason assigned by St. Paul in his Epistle to Timothy, or any +other orthodox reason; and finally, he will enter into a clean +and comfortable bed, and sleep, not the less soundly it is to be +presumed, that his meal had not involved the murder of a chicken, +or of any other of his fellow creatures of the earth.</p> +<p>The next morning the landlord walked with us to the source of +the Wye, about three miles distant. We ascended and +descended several of the rounded summits already mentioned; and +upon the whole, the little excursion is somewhat trying to the +lungs. A rill flowed between <a name="page14"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 14</span>every two eminences, destined soon or +late to unite with the Wye, and at length the latter stream +appeared, bubbling down the side of a slope in a volume which +might be comprised in the circumference of a teacup. Higher +up, a few rushes seem to hide the fountain from which it springs; +but following for a brief space a line of damp, plashy earth +above, we reach a tiny pool, little more than a hand-breadth +across, supplied by droppings rather than gushes from a bank of +black earth—and this is the source of the Wye. +Looking down its tortuous valley, the view is majestic from the +massive forms of the objects which surround it; but the solitude, +the dreariness, the utter desolation of the scene, form the +distinctive features of the picture.</p> +<p>Plinlimmon, or Pumlumon, is not, correctly speaking, a single +mountain, but several distinct mountains rising from one +base. Each of these distinct mountains, again, is +subdivided into several others; but in the aggregate, there is +little of the variety which might be expected from so +extraordinary an assemblage. It is entirely destitute of +wood. There are none of <a name="page15"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 15</span>the craggy peaks and precipices which +usually form the picturesque of mountain scenery. All is +smooth but blackened turf, frequently undulating over fathomless +bogs, the mysteries of which the traveller who ventures into this +desolate region without a guide has a fair chance of +exploring. The summit, of which the highest point is two +thousand four hundred and sixty-three feet above the level of the +sea, forms a plateau of several miles; whence the hills of +Cardiganshire are seen to the south; Cardigan bay and Saint +George’s channel to the west; to the north, the +perpendicular brow of Cader Idris; to the north-west, the +three-peaked Breidden hills; and to the east, the fertile plains +of Herefordshire and Shropshire.</p> +<p>Besides the Wye, there are several other rivers which have +their source on Plinlimmon, the most distinguished of which is +the Severn. About two miles distant from where we now +stand, this stream issues from a little bog-hole, in a volume +which might be stepped across by a child. The whole +mountain, in fact, seems a reservoir of water; and it is not +surprising <a name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +16</span>that Owen Glendwr should have been able to maintain +himself here, as he did in 1401, even with so small a force as a +hundred and twenty men. The entrenchments made by the hero +may still be traced; and brazen spearheads, and other instruments +of war, have been found within them in our own day.</p> +<h2><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +17</span>CHAPTER II.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Descent of Plinlimmon—Singular +illusion—Llangerrig—Commencement of the +Picturesque—The Fall of the Wye—Black +Mountain—Course of the river—Builth—Peculiarity +of the scenery—Approach to the English border—Castle +of the Hay—First series of the beauties of the Wye.</p> +<p>Leaving Stedva Gerrig, the road runs by the side of the stream +before mentioned, through a succession of mountain valleys, +which, being without the grandiose forms of the view from +Plinlimmon, are uninteresting from the want of trees. On +the left there was a wreath of grey smoke flying backward on the +wind, from the brow of the steep which forms the side of the +valley; and we speculated within ourselves as to whether this was +the ensign of <a name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +18</span>some unlawful still. It proved, however, to be the +foam of a little mountain torrent, caught suddenly by the gust +ere it reached the edge of the precipice; and so complete was the +illusion, that it was not till we had climbed to the spot, that +we were convinced of the phenomenon being the production of water +instead of fire.</p> +<p>The valley here was wide, and the vista backwards towards +Stedva Gerrig of considerable length. A very remarkable +effect was produced by the light of the early sun streaming +through masses of grey clouds, and flashed back again not only by +the stream, but by the entire surface of the soil which was +completely saturated by torrents of rain that had fallen during +the night. Just after this, and nearly three miles from the +inn, the Wye suddenly burst into the valley from the left, and +rushing beneath a bridge, flung itself into the little +river. The latter, conscious that although its volume was +greater, its strength and impetuosity were less than those of the +marauder, quietly resigned itself to its fate, receiving the name +and acknowledging the authority of its lord and spouse; and +thenceforth, we found ourselves <a name="page19"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 19</span>wandering along the banks, less known +than those less renowned, of the classic Vaga.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p19b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Llangerrig" +title= +"Llangerrig" +src="images/p19s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The sameness of the scenery continued for five miles further, +till on entering the hamlet of Llangerrig, consisting of a few +huts of the meanest description, and an old church, of which a +view is annexed, trees began to add their interest to the +picture. The valley, however, was wide, the trees small, +and the river, notwithstanding its receiving here another +accession, was still insignificant. By degrees, however, as +we proceeded, the hills became closer, and the massiveness of +their forms lent a certain degree of grandeur to the scene. +These again disappeared; and the hills returned: and the Wye as +before ran brawling through a commonplace valley. A series +of vicissitudes went on till the hills, assuming the character +without the magnitude of mountains, threw themselves wildly +together, and we found ourselves in a savage pass, the steep +abutting masses of which were in some cases formed of grey and +naked rock.</p> +<p>The river here is occasionally almost choked up with stones +and fragments of rocks, which <a name="page20"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 20</span>must either have rolled from the +heights into the bottom of the valley, or been uncovered in their +original beds by the action of the water. Here opens (in +our judgment) the first of the numerous picturesque views +presented by the Wye. The spot is marked by the accession +of a tributary stream, which is crossed by means of a bridge.</p> +<p>After getting out of this gorge, the scenery becomes softer +and more commonplace; and at three miles nearer, the vista is +terminated by the little church tower of Rhaiadyr, painted +against a misty hill at some distance beyond.</p> +<p>In the time of the Welsh princes, there was here a fortress of +some importance, of which no vestiges remain. It was +erected, we are told, by Rhys, prince of South Wales, in the time +of Richard II., and burnt down in 1231, by Llewellin ap +Jorwerth. The little town itself is modern, and consists +principally of two streets intersecting each other at right +angles. The name, which is in full <i>Rhaiadyr Pwy</i>, +means the Fall of the Wye, but is no longer applicable, the +cataract having been almost levelled in 1780, when the bridge was +erected. From <a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +21</span>this bridge the view of the river is exceedingly fine, +as will be seen by the annexed engraving; although all the +remnant of the waterfall is the plunging of the stream over a low +ledge of rocks. The town itself has a good deal of +character. It is decidedly a Welsh town; and +notwithstanding the commingling that must have taken place in the +races, it possesses that foreign aspect which is so exciting to +the curiosity.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p21b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Rhaiadyr" +title= +"Rhaiadyr" +src="images/p21s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>This appearance, however, is still more evident in the next +place at which we arrive, Builth; but the traveller must not be +in a hurry to get there. The valley of the Wye, during the +fourteen miles which intervene, presents a continuous series of +picturesque views, sufficient of themselves to make the +reputation of the river. The stream rushes the whole way +through a singularly rocky and winding bed, bound in by lofty and +fantastic banks, and these by hills, naked or wooded, barren or +fertile, of every variety of form. One of the most +remarkable of the latter is the Black Mountain, which is posted +directly in front, and fills up the valley, as if to guard the +pass from the <a name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +22</span>further progress of the Wye: but our wandering stream +sweeps abruptly round its base, and escaping by a narrow defile, +pursues its triumphant way towards Builth. One of those +pictures is imitated in the annexed engraving, and it will not be +difficult to find the identical spot chosen by the artist.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p22b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Near Rhaiadyr" +title= +"Near Rhaiadyr" +src="images/p22s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>For more than half the distance the road runs close by the +side of the river; but on reaching a few houses called Newbridge, +we diverge a little, and do not come near again till we have +travelled a distance of nearly five miles and approached the town +of Builth. The pedestrian, however, cares little for roads; +and, rejoining the river at will, he finds the series of views +continued—sometimes grand, sometimes beautiful, sometimes +picturesque, sometimes absolute gems of pastoral repose. +The river increases visibly before our eyes; and at length, when +near Builth, it rolls along, still foaming, still brawling, but +in a stream of considerable volume. Its principal +tributaries between Rhaiadyr and this place, are the Elian, the +Ithon, and the Yrfon; the last of which is celebrated by the +defeat of Llewellin in 1282, which took <a +name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>place at the +spot where the little river is crossed by a bridge, just before +it falls into the Wye, above Builth.</p> +<p>This part of the country, however, is completely +secluded. There never was, so far as we know, a public +conveyance between Rhaiadyr and Builth; and at the latter town, +at this season of the year—although it is still early in +October—the traveller will find no means of communication +with the rest of the world, except for those who journey with +post horses, and those who make use of the locomotive powers of +their own limbs.</p> +<p>Builth is finely situated, its narrow streets rising in +irregular terraces on the side of a hill on the right bank of the +Wye. The houses are as Welsh as can be, and have a +primitive, old world look, that has a great charm in our +eyes. The town is approached by a stone bridge of +considerable length; at the end of which, on the left hand, are +some mounds of grass and ivy, which conceal the remains of a +castle supposed to date from the eleventh century. All, +however, is conjecture as regards this castle, which was a small +fortress, with a keep of <a name="page24"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 24</span>forty yards in circumference, +surrounded by a ditch, and defended towards the south by two +trenches. It was repaired in 1209, by Gilbert, Earl of +Gloucester; after the death of Llewellin, it became an English +fortress; and in 1690, was accidentally destroyed by a fire, +which at the same time consumed the greater part of the +town. Builth, however, is older than its castle. It +is set down by the learned as the Bullæum Silurum of the +Romans; and various druidical remains in the neighbourhood carry +back the ken of the antiquarian to a still more remote epoch, +which is lost in shadows.</p> +<p>It was in this neighbourhood, as we have said, that Llewellin, +the last of the Welsh princes, was defeated and slain in +1282. Tradition relates, that while at Aberedw, a short +distance down the river, on the opposite bank, he was surprised +by the English, and escaped so narrowly, that he had only just +time to pass the drawbridge of Builth, before his pursuers came +up. The English, however, succeeded in cutting him off from +his army, by getting between the town and a village on the right +bank of the Wye where it was posted. Llewellin, <a +name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>upon this, +attempted to conceal himself in the woods, but he was discovered, +and beheaded, and his body buried at a place called Cern y +Bedd.</p> +<p>The air of Builth is supposed to be very salubrious, and for +this reason many respectable families have chosen it for their +residence. The abundance of game in its woods and hills, +and of trout, salmon, and grayling in its streams is another +inducement, and probably the <i>cause</i> of the good health of +its visitors. In this neighbourhood are mineral springs of +three kinds,—saline, sulphurous, and chalybeate,—and +a pump-room, frequently attended by a numerous company.</p> +<p>From a hill above the town is obtained a fine view of the +Llynsyraddon, the largest lake in Wales except Bala. The +country people believe that its bed was formerly the site of a +city; and, as in Ireland, Brittany, and other places where a +similar tradition prevails, they still see the towers of old +“’neath the calm, cold wave reclining.” +Giraldus calls the lake <i>Clamosam</i>, from the “terrible +thundering noise it makes upon the breaking up of the ice in +winter.”</p> +<p><a name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>The +valley of the Wye is less wild after passing Builth, but more +beautiful. After the fourth milestone, there is a +magnificent specimen of a formation of the hills which may be +said to be the grand peculiarity of this district. It +consists of a massive range on the opposite bank, laid out in +square terraces, such as Martin delights to heap on each other in +his pictures. But here, where Nature is the builder, these +masses of architecture are of rough, disjointed stones, hoary +with age, and sometimes overgrown with moss and lichens. On +the right bank where we stood, a small house is built just above +the road, as if to enjoy the picture; and, a little further on, +another of more aristocratic pretensions. A view, including +a portion of the latter—the green, smooth-shaven pastures +which answer for a lawn and extend to the water’s +edge—the Wye foaming and brawling at the bottom, half +hidden by trees of the deepest shadow—with the castellated +mount beyond, and the sweep of the valley closed in by hills to +the left—would form a whole, which Gilpin, with the +dogmatism of art, might call “correctly +picturesque.”</p> +<p><a name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 27</span>A +little further on, we had an opportunity of inspecting these +rocks more closely, which are only remarkable from the forms they +assume. In the instance before us, they were two immense +cubes of stone, as precise as if ruled by the square, and cut +with the chisel. They stood exactly horizontal with the +ground, and the upper was of smaller proportions than the +lower. No other rock or even stone was near. At some +distance another entirely insulated mass presented itself, as +large as a cottage of two stories, with walls as perpendicular, +and secluded like a cottage by trees.</p> +<p>The small village of Glasbury presents a view well worth +notice. This is particularly the case at Maeslough Hall, +where Gilpin characterises the scenery as “wonderfully +amusing,” declaring that the situation is one of the finest +in Wales. On passing the seventh milestone, the valley +spreads out into a wide plain bounded by an amphitheatre of +hills; and as we proceed, numerous villas peeping through the +trees, show that we have now left entirely behind us the +peculiarities of Welsh scenery, and are again on the borders of +merry England. As we <a name="page28"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 28</span>approach the Hay, the aristocratical +buildings become more numerous, and the romance of the scene +diminishes, till at length we enter a small, but neat and +comfortable-looking town.</p> +<p>The Hay has some historical associations of the doings of +Llewellin and King John, by the latter of whom its castle was +destroyed in 1216; but with the exception of a Gothic gateway +there are no remains to interest the antiquarian. There are +said, indeed, to be the fragments of some Roman fortifications; +but we are something like Sir Walter Scott in this respect, who +had seen so many ghosts, that at last he found it difficult to +believe in them. Tradition relates that the castle was +built in one night by the celebrated Maud de Saint Wallery, alias +Maud de Hain, alias Moll Walbee. “She built (say the +gossips),” as we find in Jones’s Brecknock, +“the castle of Hay in one night: the stones for which she +carried in her apron. While she was thus employed, a small +pebble, of about nine feet long, and one foot thick, dropped into +her shoe. This she did not at first regard; but in a short +time, finding it troublesome, she indignantly threw it over the +river Wye into Llowes <a name="page29"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 29</span>churchyard in Radnorshire (about +three miles off), where it remains to this day, precisely in the +position it fell, a stubborn memorial of the historical fact, to +the utter confusion of all sceptics and unbelievers.”</p> +<p>Between Builth and the Hay ends one series of the beauties of +the Wye. The stream hitherto is a mountain rivulet, +sometimes almost a torrent, and its characteristics are wildness +and simplicity. Its course is impeded by rocks, amidst +which it runs brawling and foaming; and, generally speaking, it +depends upon itself, and upon the nature of its own bed for the +picturesque, the hills around forming only the back ground. +We shall see, as we get on, the manner in which this will change, +till the banks become the objects of admiration, and the stream +itself, although much increased in volume, is considered a mere +adjunct, and its bosom a convenient site from which to view +them.</p> +<p>Gilpin’s observations on this point are very judicious, +although he had not the advantage of seeing with his own eyes the +upper part of the Wye. “It is possible, I +think,” says he, “the Wye may in this place (alluding +to the country <a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +30</span>between Builth and the Hay) be more beautiful than in +any other part of its course. Between Ross and Chepstow, +the grandeur and beauty of its banks are its chief praise. +The river itself has no other merit than that of a winding +surface of smooth water. But here, added to the same +decoration from its banks, the Wye itself assumes a more +beautiful character; pouring over shelving rocks, and forming +itself into eddies and cascades, which a solemn parading stream +through a flat channel cannot exhibit. An additional merit +also accrues to such a river from the different forms it assumes +according to the fulness or emptiness of the stream. There +are rocks of all shapes and sizes, which continually vary the +appearance of the water, as it rushes over or plays among them; +so that such a river, to a picturesque eye, is a continued fund +of new entertainment.”</p> +<h2><a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +31</span>CHAPTER III.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Clifford +Castle—Lords-marchers—Fair Rosamond—Ruins of +the Castle—The silent cottage—Approach to +Hereford—Castle—Cathedral—Nell +Gwynn—Cider—Salmon—Wolves.</p> +<p>Leaving Hay, the valley widens, the background softens, and +the whole scene assumes the character of an English vale, where +the hills on each side are cultivated to the summit. On the +right, as we proceed, a deep umbrageous wood comes in to give +effect, just where effect was wanting; and, surmounting a conical +eminence above the road, near the second milestone, the hoary +ruins of Clifford Castle intermix with the monotony of modern +life the associations of the olden time.</p> +<p><a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +32</span>Clifford Castle was built by William Fitzosborne, earl +of Hereford, but was held at the time of the Domesday Survey by +Rudolphus de Totenie. It was obtained by the Cliffords by +the marriage of Walter Fitz-Richard with Margaret, daughter of +Ralph de Cundy. Walter Fitz-Richard—a descendant of +Richard II., duke of Normandy—whose father accompanied the +Conqueror into England, having married the heiress of Ralph de +Cundy, of Clifford Castle, took the name of De Clifford, and the +place remained the baronial seat of the family for two +centuries.</p> +<p>The nobles of that age were not merely required to do military +service for their lands, but other imposts were laid upon them by +the feudal custom, which had the effect of a true property +tax. At the marriage of Matilda, daughter of Henry I., with +Charles V. of Germany, the king collected a sum equal to about +£135,000 of our money from the land, at a fixed rate per +hide; and the returns (<i>certificationes</i>) show very clearly +the distribution of property at the time. We find Walter de +Clifford set down for one hide in Herefordshire in Wales. +It may be noted, in <a name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +33</span>passing, that Henry was not only generous in granting +lands to his own and his father’s followers, but the same +request being made to him by some Flemings, whose share of terra +firma had been wrested from them by an incursion of the sea, he +made no scruple to comply. “Being very +liberall,” say the Welsh chronicles, “of that which +was not his owne, he gave them the land of <i>Ros</i>, in West +Wales, or Dynet, where Pembroke, Haverford, and Tenby are now +built; and they there remain to this day, as may well be +perceived by their speech and conditions being farre differing +from the rest of the countrye.”</p> +<p>The Norman knights who settled on the Welsh borders acquired +the name of Lords Marchers, being styled Marchiones Walliæ +in the Red Book of the Exchequer; although the title of nobility +derived from this, <i>Marquis</i>, was not introduced till the +reign of Richard II. These lords marchers, of whom were the +Cliffords and other families in Hereford, had each a law for his +own barony, and determined of their own authority all suits +between their tenants. They were entitled to the goods and +chattels of such of their tenants as died intestate. This +<a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 34</span>power, in +fact, was such as could only be continued by violence; and hence +the coolness or treachery of some of them when any serious +attempt was made by the sovereign to introduce the laws and +customs of the English into Wales. After the death of +Llewellin, the last prince of Wales, this was at length effected +by Edward I.; but still, the Marches, not being included in the +division of the land into counties became a scene of such +anarchy, that it was found necessary to institute a court of +judicature for that district alone. This court continued +till the first year of William and Mary, when it was dissolved by +an act of Parliament, in consequence, as the preamble states, of +its having become “a great grievance to the +subject.” Previous to this, however, in the time of +Henry VIII., the Marches of Wales were definitely united to +England; when Clifford and other places, which were before a +debatable land of bloodshed and confusion, became a part of +Herefordshire.</p> +<p>But Clifford Castle is not associated merely with ideas of war +and rapine, but with those of love and beauty. Here was +born that too celebrated lady, of whom Dryden says—</p> +<blockquote><p><a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +35</span>“Jane Clifford was her name, as books aver,<br /> +Fair Rosamond was but her <i>nom de guerre</i>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p35b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Clifford Castle" +title= +"Clifford Castle" +src="images/p35s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>She was the daughter of one of the earls of Clifford, and +became celebrated for her amour with Henry II.; who built her a +bower in Woodstock Park, which he defended from his jealous wife +by the classical device of a labyrinth. Queen Eleanor, +however, who was as well read in ancient history as her spouse, +was not slow in hitting upon the expedient of the clue of thread; +and, on reaching her rival, the historical romancers add, she +compelled her to swallow poison. Whatever may have been her +fate, Fair Rosamond was buried at Godstow, and a Latin epitaph +inscribed on her tomb to this effect:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Here lies not Rose the Chaste, but Rose the +Fair,<br /> +Whose breath perfumes no more, but taints the air.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The ruins of the castle, completely covered with ivy, look +down solemn and sad upon the Wye:</p> +<blockquote><p>“Clifford has fallen—howe’er +sublime,<br /> +Mere fragments wrestle still with time;<br /> +<a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 36</span>Yet as +they perish, sure and slow,<br /> +And rolling dash the stream below,<br /> +They raise tradition’s glowing scene,—<br /> +The clue of silk, the wrathful queen;<br /> +And link in memory’s firmest bond<br /> +The love-lorn tale of Rosamond.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>We carried away with us for a considerable distance the dreamy +repose of Clifford Castle; but this was at length broken by +repose of another character. The scene was a little wayside +hut, purporting to be an inn, where the weary pedestrian might +obtain shade or shelter, if no refreshment. An old man, and +an old woman, occupied the two fireside corners, the one reading, +the other sewing, in profound silence. Around the hearth, +there was a semi-circle of five cats, in various attitudes of +rest, but not one breaking the stillness of the place even by a +pur. A dog, apparently kept in proper order by his feline +associates, lay outside the semicircle, and shared in the +tranquillity of the scene. We paused for a moment at the +door, feeling that our presence was an intrusion; but, after a +brief question, and a brief reply, the good wife dropped her eyes +again upon her work, and the dog, who had himself raised his +head, returned to his <a name="page37"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 37</span>slumber with a sigh. As for the +other inhabitants, our presence had produced no effect upon them +at all, and we withdrew to proceed upon our wanderings, +unconsciously taking care to tread without noise.</p> +<p>From this place to Hereford, the road runs through a rich and +well cultivated country, dotted here and there with houses and +villages, but not thickly enough to disturb the idea of pastoral +repose. Approaching Bradwardine, where the old castle said +to have been the residence of the family of that name is +<i>not</i>, the soil swells into wooded eminences, one of which +is called Mirebeck Hill; and Brobury’s Scar, a picturesque +cliff rising from the bank of the river, adds still further to +the diversity of the prospect. Then came the various villas +which usually adorn the neighbourhood of a large town—and +which here are true embellishments to the landscape; and finally +we enter the ancient, sober, quiet cathedral city of +Hereford.</p> +<p>Hereford was a principal town of Mercia under the Heptarchy, +the palace of Offa, the most powerful of the Mercian princes, +being within three miles of it on the north-eastern side. +Its <a name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +38</span>church, in the time of Offa, was probably nothing more +than a wooden building; but to the rise of that church in wealth +and reputation was owing, according to the usual sequence of +events at the period, the prosperity of the town. Offa had +treacherously inveigled to his court Ethelbert, prince of the +East Angles, when he murdered him, and usurped his crown. +The body of the victim was buried in the church, where by working +of miracles it attracted so much attention to the spot, that a +new church of stone was constructed on the site of the wooden +edifice, and dedicated to <i>Saint Ethelbert</i>. +Multitudes of course flocked to visit the martyr’s tomb; +the church was richly endowed by the remorse or hypocrisy of the +assassin; and Hereford speedily rose from its comparative +obscurity.</p> +<p>About the year 939, the city was first enclosed by walls, the +fragments of which now existing are supposed to stand upon the +original foundations. They were eighteen hundred yards in +extent, enclosing the town on all sides except towards the south, +where it has the defence of the Wye. There were six gates, +and fifteen embattled watch-towers. The castle, concerning +<a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 39</span>the date +of which antiquarians are not agreed, stood on the south and east +sides of the city, with the Wye on the south and the cathedral on +the west. Leland describes the keep as having been +“high and very strong, having in the outer wall ten +semicircular towers, and one great tower within.” He +adds, that “it hath been one of the largest, fayrest, and +strongest castels in England.” In the time of the +civil wars, Hereford was the scene of some strife, but since then +nothing has occurred—not even the introduction of +manufactures—to disturb its repose.</p> +<p>With the exception of the cathedral, a grand view of which is +to be had from the Castle Green Promenade—a fine public +walk on a small scale—there is nothing to detain the +traveller. Some fragments of the city walls, however, and +of an old priory, may be visited by the antiquary; together with +an old house, a “brotherless hermit,” the last of a +race demolished for the purpose of widening the street where the +town hall stands—or rather sits—resting uneasily on +some thin columns. The house, adorned with grotesque faces, +bears its date, 1621.</p> +<p>The traveller may also go, if he will, to Pipe <a +name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 40</span>Lane, +formerly called Pipe Well Street, leading from the bridge to the +cathedral, to see the house where Nell Gwynn was not born, and +the bedchamber where she did not sleep. These curiosities +will be shown for a trifle, and they must now suffice: the +dwelling which really had the distinction of giving birth to +Mistress Eleanor having been pulled down more than twenty years +ago.</p> +<p>After the removal of this celebrated lady to London, she made +her first appearance in Drury Lane Theatre, in the character of a +fruit-girl, not on the stage, but in the lobby. Mr. Hart, +the manager, however, was induced to notice her by her natural +humour and vivacity, and he produced her upon the boards about +the year 1667. Here she became a favorite of Dryden, who +wrote some of his prologues and epilogues expressly for +her. “The immediate cause of her becoming the object +of the king’s affection is thus represented. At the +duke’s theatre, under Killegrew’s patent, the +celebrated Nokes appeared in a hat larger than that usually +assigned to Pistol, which diverted the audience so much as to +help off a bad play. Dryden, in return, caused a hat to <a +name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 41</span>be made of +the circumference of a large coach wheel, and made Mrs. Gwynn +speak an epilogue under the umbrella of it, with the brim +stretched out in its utmost horizontal extension, not unlike a +mushroom of that size. No sooner did she appear in this +strange dress, than the house was in convulsions of +laughter. Amongst the rest, the king gave the fullest marks +of approbation, by going behind the scenes after the play, and +taking her home in his own coach to sup with him.” <a +name="citation41"></a><a href="#footnote41" +class="citation">[41]</a> Her son, born in 1670, was +afterwards created duke of St. Albans; and her grandson became a +prelate of the church, and the denizen of the episcopal palace +nearly adjoining the humble house in Pipe Lane, where his +maternal ancestor was born. Mrs. Gwynne was one of the few +royal favorites who have not abused their power, otherwise than +in spending money which should have been under the control of the +nation. She was munificent in her charities, and may be +considered, if not the founder of Chelsea Hospital, the cause of +its having been founded. “Her stature was short, <a +name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>her hair +inclined to red; her eyes were small and lively, and she +possessed what the French term embonpoint. Her feet were of +the most diminutive size, and as such were the subject of +frequent mirth to the merry monarch.”</p> +<p>The staple commodity of Hereford is cider; but the reputation +of the county for this production dates backward only to the +reign of Charles I., when, according to Evelyn, it became +“in a manner one entire orchard.” The apples +are merely a variety of the crab, as the pears are descended from +the common wild pear. The plantations are found in every +aspect, and on every soil; but in general the west winds, so much +praised by the Roman poets, and after them by Philips the bard of +cider, are unwholesome to the plant, from the circumstance of +their blowing over the Welsh mountains, which are capped with +snow even in the spring. The best colours for cider fruits +are red and yellow, the juice of the green being harsh and +poor. The pulp should be yellow, but this part of the apple +is not so important as the rind and kernel, in which the strength +and flavour of the liquid reside; and for this reason the smaller +the apple <a name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +43</span>is the better. From twenty-four to thirty gallons +are required to fill the provincial hogshead of one hundred and +ten gallons.</p> +<p>The cider-mill used even at this moment is a rude and +imperfect contrivance, consisting of a circular stone, about +twelve hundred weight, set on its edge in a shallow circular +trough, and drawn round by a horse. The apples are +gradually introduced into the trough, and a quantity may be thus +mashed equal to a hogshead of cider in the day. The +expressed juice is put into casks, not quite filled, and in the +open air; and as soon as the vinous fermentation takes place, it +is racked. When two years old it may be bottled, after +which it will become rich and sparkling, and so remain for twenty +or thirty years. Perry is made with pears pretty nearly in +the same way.</p> +<p>The salmon is still the principal fish taken in the Wye, +though far less plentiful than formerly. It was at one time +a common clause in the indentures of apprentices that they should +not be compelled to live on salmon more than two days in the +week. Wolves were formerly so numerous in this district, +that in 1234 a proclamation <a name="page44"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 44</span>was issued commanding them to be +destroyed, and calling upon “all the king’s liege +people to assist therein.” A wolf would now be an +extraordinary spectacle indeed on the sunny slopes, or prowling +among the apple orchards of Hereford! But the Wye has seen +changes more remarkable than this.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p44b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Hereford" +title= +"Hereford" +src="images/p44s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +45</span>CHAPTER IV</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Beauty and tameness—The travelling +hill—Ross—The silver tankard—The Man of +Ross—The sympathetic trees—Penyard +Castle—Vicissitudes of the river—Wilton +Castle—A voyage to sea in a basket—Pencraig Hill.</p> +<p>Comparatively speaking, there is little worthy of remark +between Hereford and Ross; and yet Gilpin’s charge of +<i>tameness</i> is unjust. What it wants is +excitement. The valley of the Wye is here +beautiful—neither more, nor less; but its beauty is similar +to that of the portion we have just traversed between the Hay and +Hereford, and we therefore call it tame. Why did we not +apply the word before? Because the contrast presented by +the valley after leaving Hay with the wilder or grander features +we had passed <a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +46</span>formed one of the <i>vicissitudes</i> of the +river. This will be understood by a traveller who journeys +up the stream. On reaching Ross, after emerging from the +tumult, or sublimity, of the lower passage, he will gaze with +delight on one of the most quietly beautiful landscapes in +England—whose smooth green eminences, gentle groves, +orchards and hop plantations (the latter far finer objects than +the vineyards of the continent), white cottages, villages, and +village spires, give an endless and yet simple variety to the +picture. After passing Hereford, in quest of new +excitement, the scene-hunter will pronounce a similar character +of landscape <i>tame</i>.</p> +<p>Six miles from Hereford, the Lay adds its waters to the Wye, +and near the confluence we remark an abrupt elevation, which +being wholly different in character from the rest of the soil +conveys the idea of an accident of nature. And such it +actually is.</p> +<p>Marclay Hill—for so the elevation is called—in the +time of Elizabeth, according to Camden, “rose as it were +from sleep, and for three days moved on its vast body with an +horrible noise, driving everything before it to an higher +ground.” <a name="page47"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 47</span>Fuller states that the ascent gained +by the surprising traveller was eleven fathoms, that its bulk was +twenty acres, and that the time it took to perform the feat was +fourteen hours. Sir Richard Baker, in the “Chronicles +of England,” is still more minute. “In the +thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth,” says he, “a +prodigious earthquake happened in the east parts of +Herefordshire, at a little town called Kinnaston. On the +seventeenth of February, at six o’clock in the evening, the +earth began to open, and a hill, with a rock under it, making at +first a great hollowing noise, which was heard a great way off, +lifted itself up, and began to travel, bearing along with it the +trees that grew upon it, the sheepfolds and flocks of sheep +abiding there at the same time. In the place from whence it +was first moved it left a gaping distance forty foot broad, and +fourscore ells long: the whole field was about twenty +acres. Passing along it overthrew a chapel standing in the +way, removed a yew tree planted in the churchyard from the west +to the east: with the like force it thrust before it highways, +sheepfolds, hedges, and trees; made tilled ground pasture, and +again turned pasture into tillage. <a +name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>Having walked +in this sort from Saturday evening till Monday noon, it then +stood still.” The yew tree still exists as a witness +of the fact, and the church bell was dug up not many years +ago.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p48b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Ross" +title= +"Ross" +src="images/p48s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The traces of a Roman camp on Woldbury Hill, and on Eaton Hill +those of an ancient fortification, forming a link in the chain of +defences which formerly ran along this part of the country, may +be inspected with advantage by the pedestrian who is read in +antiquarian lore; but to others there will appear nothing which +should detain their steps before the little town of Ross. +Here commences the tour of the lower Wye—of that part of +the river which is known to fame as <i>the</i> Wye. As for +the town itself, it is neat and prim-looking, sitting quietly +upon an eminence above the river. It is full of memories of +the Man of Ross, which sanctify it from the boisterous +vulgarities of a town. The “heaven-directed +spire” which he taught to rise is its prominent feature; +and this object keeps the lines of Pope ringing in our ears like +the church bell, and with a little of its monotony.</p> +<p>This bell, by the way, is something more than <a +name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 49</span>an ordinary +bell. It bears the name of John Kyrle, and was cast at +Gloucester, in 1695, at his own expense. Nay, it possesses +a relic more valuable than his name, for there is incorporated +with its substance his favorite silver tankard. He attended +himself at the casting, and, drinking solemnly the orthodox toast +of “Church and King,” he threw the cup into the +molten mass. In a local guide-book, we find several little +particulars of this fine old fellow, which are interesting from +their naïveté.</p> +<p>It appears he was entered a gentleman commoner, of Baliol +College, Oxford, in 1654, and that he was intended for the bar +but soon relinquished all thoughts of that profession, and +returning to Ross gave himself up to agriculture and building, +and the improvement of his native town.</p> +<p>An old maiden cousin, of the euphonous name of Bubb, kept +house for him many years. In his person, John was tall, +thin, and well-shaped; his health was remarkably good, and he +scarcely knew any of the frailties of old age until within a very +short time of his death. His usual dress was a suit of +brown <i>dittos</i>, and a king William’s <a +name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 50</span>wig, all in +the costume of his day. He disliked crowds and routs, but +was exceedingly fond of snug, social parties, and “of +dinnering his friends upon the market and fair days.” +He was also exceedingly pleased with his neighbours dropping in +without ceremony, loved to make a good long evening of it, +enjoyed a merry story, and always seemed sorry when it was time +to break up. His dishes were generally plain and according +to the season, but he dearly loved a goose, and was vain of his +dexterity in carving it. During the operation, which he +invariably took upon himself, he always repeated one of those old +sayings and standing witticisms that seem to attach themselves +with peculiar preference to the cooked goose. He never had +roast beef on his table save and except on Christmas day; and +malt liquor and good Herefordshire cider were the only beverages +ever introduced. At his kitchen fire there was a large +block of wood, in lieu of a bench, for poor people to sit upon; +and a piece of boiled beef, and three pecks of flower, made into +loaves, were given to the poor every Sunday. The number he +chose at his “invitation dinners,” were nine, eleven, +<a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>or +<i>thirteen</i>, including himself and his kinswoman, Miss Bubb; +and he never cared to sit down to table until he had as many as +made one of these numbers. He not only superintended the +labours of the road makers, planters, and gardeners, but commonly +took an active part in them himself, delighting above all things +to carry a huge watering-pot to water the trees he had newly set +in the earth. “With a spade on his shoulder and a +glass bottle of liquor in his hand, he used to walk from his +house to the fields and back again several times during the +day.”</p> +<p>Without the trees planted by John Kyrle, Ross would be +nothing, so far as the picturesque is concerned; and a delightful +tradition, the truth of which is vouched by undeniable evidence, +proves that the trees were not ungrateful to their founder. +A rector, as the story goes, had the impiety to cut down some of +these living monuments of the taste of John Kyrle, which shaded +the wall of the church beside his own pew; but the roots threw +out fresh shoots, and these, penetrating into the interior, grew +into two graceful elms, that occupied his seat with their +foliage. If any one doubt the fact, let him <a +name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 52</span>go and +see. The trees are still there; their branches curtain the +tall window that opens upon the pew; and their beautiful leaves +cluster above the seat,</p> +<blockquote><p>“And still keep his memory green in our +souls.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Besides the elms in the churchyard and neighbourhood, there is +a fine avenue, planted by John Kyrle, called the Prospect, or the +Man of Ross’s Walk. It is on the ridge of a hill +behind the church, and commands a view of the valley of the Wye, +about which there is some difference of opinion. In +King’s anecdotes the planter’s taste for prospects is +commended; and it is said that “by a vast plantation of +elms, which he disposed of in a fine manner, he has made one of +the most <i>entertaining</i> scenes the county of Hereford +affords.” Gilpin, on the other hand, who travelled +with an easel before his mind’s eye, cannot make a picture +of it; and Gray the poet asserts, in reference to the spot in +question, that “all points that are much elevated spoil the +beauty of the valley, and make its parts, which are not large, +look poor and diminutive.”</p> +<p><a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>The +only other relic shown at Ross is a fragment of an oak bedstead, +on which Charles I. slept, on his way from Ragland Castle. +A house in Church Lane, called Gabriel Hill’s Great Inn, +contains the chamber so distinguished.</p> +<p>Here the traveller may hire a boat, if he choose, for the +remainder of his journey. The Wye, however, is navigable to +Hereford in barges of from eighteen to forty tons; and sometimes +in lighter boats even to the Hay, but the shoals in summer and +the floods in winter frequently interrupt the navigation. +In 1795 the river rose fifteen feet at the former place within +twenty-four hours, and carried away bridges, cattle, sheep, +timber, and everything that stood in its way.</p> +<p>But even if he determine afterwards to proceed by the river, +the traveller will do well to walk from Ross to the ruins of +Penyard Castle; not that these ruins are in themselves worthy of +his attention, but the road is beautiful throughout, and from the +summit, Penyard Chace, he will see the little town he has left, +and our wandering Wye in a new phasis. The country is +diversified with hills and valleys, and wooded spaces between; <a +name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>and more +especially when the shadows of evening are stealing over the +landscape, the whole is a scene of enchantment.</p> +<p>Although the lower passage of the river commences at Ross, we +do not, for two or three miles further, get fairly into its +peculiarities. From the gentle, the graceful, the gay, it +glides almost insensibly into the picturesque, the bold, and the +grand. The tranquillity of its course from the Hay—a +tranquillity dearly purchased by the labours of its wild career +during the upper passage—has prepared it for new +vicissitudes, and new struggles. The following description, +by archdeacon Coxe, applies to a great part of the portion we are +now entering upon, and cannot be improved either in fidelity or +style.</p> +<blockquote><p>“The effects of these numerous windings are +various and striking; the same objects present themselves, are +lost and recovered with different accompaniments, and in +different points of view: thus the ruins of a castle, hamlets +embosomed in trees, the spire of a church bursting from the wood, +figures impending over the water, and broken masses of rock +fringed with herbage, sometimes are seen on one side, sometimes +on <a name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>the +other, and form the fore-ground or background of a +landscape. Thus also the river itself here stretches in a +continuous line, there moves in a curve, between gentle slopes +and fertile meadows, or is suddenly concealed in a deep abyss, +under the gloom of impending woods.” “The banks +for the most part rise abruptly from the edge of the water, and +are clothed with forests, or are broken into cliffs. In +some places they approach so near that the river occupies the +whole intermediate space, and nothing is seen but woods, rocks, +and water; in others, they alternately recede, and the eye +catches an occasional glimpse of hamlets, ruins, and detached +buildings, partly seated on the margin of the stream, and partly +scattered on the rising grounds. The general character of +the scenery, however, is wildness and solitude; and if we except +the populous district of Monmouth, no river perhaps flows for so +long a course in a well cultivated country, the banks of which +exhibit so few habitations.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>A little below Ross, on the right bank of the river, are the +ruins of Wilton Castle, which was for several centuries the +baronial residence of the <a name="page56"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 56</span>Greys of the south, and was destroyed +by the Hereford royalists in the time of Charles I. Let us +relate, however, as a circumstance of still more interest, that +it was left, with the adjoining lands, by Thomas Guy, to the +admirable charity in London which he founded, known by the name +of Guy’s Hospital.</p> +<p>The Wye here passes under Wilton bridge, a construction of +rather a curious kind, which dates from the close of the +sixteenth century. Coracles are seldom seen so high up the +river as this; but we mention them here because the hero of +Gilpin’s often repeated anecdote was an inhabitant of +Wilton. This man, it seems, ventured into the British +Channel in a coracle, as far as the isle of Lundy; a very +remarkable voyage to be made in a canvass tub, the navigation of +the estuary of the Severn being quite as trying as that of any +part of the British seas. Previously, however, to this +exploit, the very same feat was performed by an itinerant +stage-doctor of Mitchel Dean in the Forest. The coracles +are a sort of basket made of willow twigs, covered with pitched +canvass or raw hide, and resembling in form the section of a +walnut-shell. Similar <a name="page57"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 57</span>rude contrivances are in use among +the Esquimaux and other savage tribes, and were employed by the +ancient Britons for the navigation of rivers. They are now +the fishing-boats of the rivers of South Wales; and when the +day’s work is done are carried home on the shoulders of +their owners, disposed in such a way as to serve for a hood in +case of rain. The early ships of Britain are described by +Cæsar and Pliny as being merely larger +coracles—clumsy frames of rough timber, ribbed with hurdles +and lined with hides. According to Claudian they had masts +and sails, although they were generally rowed, the rowers singing +to the harp.</p> +<p>At the farm of Weir End, the river takes a sudden bend, and +rolls along the steep sides of Pencraig Hill, which are clothed +with wood to the water’s edge. Soon the ruined +turrets of Goodrich Castle present themselves, crowning the +summit of a wooded eminence on the right bank, and as they vanish +and reappear with the turnings of the river the effect is +magnificent.</p> +<h2><a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +58</span>CHAPTER V.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Roman passes of the Wye—Goodrich +Castle—Keep—Fortifications—Apartments—Its +history—Goodrich Court—Forest of Dean—Laws of +the Miners—Military exploit—Wines of +Gloucestershire.</p> +<p>If the conjecture of antiquaries be correct, that the great +Roman road from Blestium to Gloucester, by Ariconium, proceeded +by the ford of the Wye at Goodrich Castle, it is possible that +this spot may have been of some consequence before the period +when history takes any cognizance of the fortress. Blestium +is supposed to be Monmouth, from which the road probably led +along the line of the present turnpike, between an entrenchment +to the left, opposite <a name="page59"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 59</span>Dixon Church, and an encampment on +the Little Doward, to the right, supposed by some to be Roman, +but usually described in the road books as British. The +name of Whitchurch Street, applied to a portion of this route +further on, favours the supposition of a Roman origin. +Ariconium, the next station from Blestium, is Rosebury Hill, near +Ross, according to those who identify Monmouth with +Blestium. There was another Roman way which led from +Blestium to Glevum (Gloucester) by a more direct route; crossing +the Wye at the former place, and leading up the Kymin from the +left bank of the river. At Stanton, a little further on, +the vestiges of a Roman settlement are indubitable, not only in +the name of the place itself, but in the entrenchments that may +be observed near the church, and the Roman cinders scattered +about the fields. At Monmouth and Goodrich Castle, +therefore, were the two great passes of the Wye used by the +Romans. At the latter the river is crossed by a ferry.</p> +<p>“The awe and admiration could not be enhanced with which +I wandered through the dark passages and the spacious courts, and +climbed <a name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +60</span>the crumbling staircase of Goodrich Castle.” +So says the German prince: although the time of his visit was +winter, when the Wye and its ruins are stripped of the adjunct of +foliage, which in the imagination of common travellers is +inseparably connected with ideas of the picturesque or beautiful +in natural scenery.</p> +<p>Goodrich Castle forms a parallelogram, with a round tower at +each angle, and a square keep in the south-west part of the +enclosure. A minute account of this remarkable ruin is +given in the “Antiqua Monumenta;” and Mr. Bonner +introduces his brief description, in illustration of his +perspective views, with the remark that “the fortification +(although not of large dimensions) contains all the different +works which constitute a complete ancient baronial +castle.” For this reason, if for no other, it would +demand special observation; but the tourist of the Wye, even if +ignorant of the interest which thus attaches to Goodrich Castle, +will acknowledge that it forms one of the finest objects hitherto +presented by the banks of the river. It stands on the +summit of a wooded hill, in the position of one of the castles of +the Rhine, and in the midst of <a name="page61"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 61</span>a scene of solemn grandeur which +Mason may have had in view when he wrote his spirited description +of the sacred grove of Mona, in “Caractacus.”</p> +<blockquote><p>“Here, Romans, pause, and let the eye of +wonder<br /> +Gaze on the solemn scene: behold yon oak<br /> +How stem it frowns, and with its broad brown arms<br /> +Chills the pale plains beneath him: mark yon altar,<br /> +The dark stream brawling round its rugged base,<br /> +These cliffs, these yawning caverns, this wide circus,<br /> +Skirted with unhewn stone: they awe my soul<br /> +As if the very genius of the place<br /> +Himself appeared, and with terrific tread<br /> +Stalked through his drear domain.”</p> + +<p> “Yonder +grots,<br /> +Are tenanted by bards, who nightly thence,<br /> +Robed in their flowing vests of innocent white,<br /> +Descend, with harps that glitter to the moon,<br /> +Hymning immortal strains. The spirits of the air,<br /> +Of earth, of water, nay of heav’n itself,<br /> +Do listen to their lay: and oft, ’tis said,<br /> +In visible shapes dance they a magic round<br /> +To the high minstrelsy.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The keep is the most ancient remains of the castle, and +presents, on a small scale, all the usual features of this part +of a fortification of the olden times. It was composed of +three stories, <a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +62</span>being intended to overlook the works, and had no windows +on the landward side. Each of these stories consisted of a +single small room, the lowest being the prison, without even a +loophole to admit air or light. “The original +windows,” says King, “are the most truly Saxon that +can be.” This applies more particularly to the one in +the middle of the upper story, which appears to have remained +without any alteration; while, in the one beneath, a stone frame +for glass seems to have been inserted. The style of this +addition points to the time of Henry VI., and we may believe that +it was made by the celebrated Earl Talbot, who tenanted one of +these small chambers. Besides the glass window, this +apartment boasts a hearth for fire; and, as is usual in such +buildings, the communication with the floor above is by a +circular staircase in an angle of the massive wall. +“To this staircase is a most remarkable door-way; it was +one large transom-stone, as if to aid the arch to support the +wall above, and in this respect resembles several other Saxon +structures, in which this strange kind of fashion seems to have +been uniformly adopted; until it became gradually altered <a +name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>by the +introduction of a flattish <i>under-arch</i>, instituted in the +room of the transom-stone.” <a name="citation63"></a><a +href="#footnote63" class="citation">[63]</a></p> +<p>The entrance to the keep was by a flight of steps, leading to +the above apartment; but the dungeon had an entrance of its own, +of a construction which leads antiquarians to conjecture, that it +was added in the reign of Edward III., when Richard Talbot +obtained the royal license for making his dungeon a state +prison.</p> +<p>The fortifications to be surmounted before an enemy could +arrive at the keep, were numerous and complete. +Independently of the fosse, there was a deep pit, hewn out of the +solid rock, to be crossed by a drawbridge, and then commenced a +dark vaulted passage between two semicircular towers. +Eleven feet within the passage was a massive gate, defended (as +likewise the drawbridge) by loopholes in the sides of the vault, +and machicolations in the roof, for pouring down molten lead or +boiling water on the assailants. A few feet farther on was +a portcullis, and then a second, the space between protected by +loopholes and machicolations. Presently there was <a +name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>another +strong gate, and finally a stone projection on both sides, +intended for the insertion of beams of timber, to act as a +barricade. If we add that the passage thus defended was +less than ten feet wide, and that the exterior walls of the whole +building were in general seven feet thick, an idea may be formed +of the strength of Goodrich Castle.</p> +<p>Within the ballium, or enclosed space, entered with such +difficulty, were the keep here described, the state apartments, +chapel, &c.; but the whole of these are in so ruinous a +state, as to be nearly unintelligible except to +antiquaries. The great hall was sixty-five feet long and +twenty-eight broad, and appears to have been a magnificent +apartment of the time of Edward I., as its windows +indicate. The fire-place is still distinguishable in the +great kitchen. Communicating with the hall is a smaller +room, from which a passage led into another room of state, +fifty-five feet by twenty; and this opened into the ladies’ +tower, standing upon the brow of a lofty precipice, and +commanding a delightful view over the country.</p> +<p>It is curious that so remarkable a structure <a +name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>should be +almost destitute of authentic history, till the very period when +it ceased to exist but as a ruin. All that is known of its +origin is, that a fort, held by a doomsday proprietor, of the +name of Godric, commanded the ford of the river at this place +before the Conquest. The fort consisted, in all +probability, of little more than the keep; to which, at later +periods, additions were made, cognisable by their style, till +Goodrich Castle became a regular fortress. In 1165 it was +the property of the earl of Pembroke, then lord of the whole +district from Ross to Chepstow; and, subsequently, it was a seat +of the Talbot family, who, in 1347, founded a priory of black +canons at Flanesford, which is now a barn, about a quarter of a +mile below the castle. During the civil wars this fortress +played a conspicuous part, being taken and retaken by the +opposing parties. In the first instance it held for the +parliament; but was afterwards seized by Sir Richard Lingen, who, +in 1646, defended it with great gallantry against Colonel Birch +for nearly five months, and thus conferred upon it the +distinction of being the last castle in England, excepting +Pendennis, which held out <a name="page66"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 66</span>for the king. In the following +year it was ordered by the parliament to be “totally +disgarrisoned and <i>slighted</i>,” which sentence was just +sufficiently carried into effect to give the Wye a magnificent +ruin at the very spot where taste would have placed it. +“Here,” says Mr. Gilpin, “a grand view +presented itself, and we rested on our oars to examine it. +A reach of the river, forming a noble bay, is spread before the +eye. The bank on the right is steep, and covered with wood, +beyond which a bold promontory shoots out, crowned with a castle +rising among trees. This view, which is one of the grandest +on the river, I should not scruple to call correctly +picturesque.”</p> +<p>Near the spot where Mr. Gilpin must have been is the ferry +where Henry IV., who was waiting to be taken across, received +intelligence of his queen’s being delivered of a prince at +Monmouth Castle. The king, according to tradition, was so +overjoyed at the news, that he presented the ferry and boat, +which at this time belonged to the crown, to the ferryman. +On the left bank, nearly opposite, are the church and village of +Walford, in the former of which is <a name="page67"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 67</span>buried Colonel Kyrle, who deserted +the service of Charles I. for that of the parliament.</p> +<p>Goodrich Court, to which a winding path leads from the castle, +is somewhat nearer Ross. It is the seat of Sir Samuel +Meyrick, the well known antiquary, and presents, in the +architecture, an exact imitation of a mansion of the middle of +the fourteenth century. In this respect, as well as in the +arrangement of its proprietor’s valuable collection of old +armour, the house may be said to be absolutely perfect. It +forms in itself and its contents, one of the most interesting +museums in Europe; and it is open, with very little ceremony, to +the inspection of the traveller, as all such things are, when +they do not happen to be the property of persons unworthy to +possess them.</p> +<p>The river sweeps boldly round the wooded headland on which +Goodrich Castle stands; and the ruin is thus presented again and +again, in new phases (but none so interesting as the first), to +the voyager, as he glides down the now varied and romantic +river. A steep ridge on the right bank is called Coppet, or +Copped Wood Hill, where the stream makes a sweep of five miles, +<a name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>to perform +the actual advance of one. The mass of foliage on the +opposite bank is a part of the Forest of Dean, variegated, by +rocks, hamlets, and village spires. Bishop’s Brook +here enters the Wye, and serves as a boundary between the +counties of Hereford and Gloucester, and between the parishes of +Walford and Ruerdean. “The view at Ruerdean +church,” says Mr. Gilpin, “is a scene of great +grandeur. Here both sides of the river are steep, and both +woody; but on one (meaning the left bank), the woods are +interspersed with rocks. The deep umbrage of the Forest of +Dean occupies the front, and the spire of the church rises among +the trees. The reach of the river which exhibits this scene +is long; and of course the view, which is a noble piece of +natural perspective, continues some time before the eye; but when +the spire comes directly in front, the grandeur of the landscape +is gone.”</p> +<p>The famous Forest of Dean is in the space which here lies +between the Severn and the Wye. “In former +ages,” as Camden tells us, “by the irregular tracks +and horrid shades,” it was so dark and dreary as to render +its inhabitants <a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +69</span>more audacious in robberies. In the time of Edward +I. there were seventy-two furnaces here for melting iron; and it +is related, that the miners of those days were very industrious +in seeking after the beds of cinders, where the Romans of Britain +had been at work before them, which remains, when burnt over +again, were supposed to make the best iron. The privileges +of these miners were, no doubt, for the most part assumed, but +some granted by law are highly curious. The following are +specimens:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Also, if any smith holder, or any other be +debtor, for mine to a miner, the which smith holder or other be +within, then the miner is bailiff in every place (except his own +close), to take the horse of the debtor, if he be saddled with a +work saddle, and with no other saddle; and be it that the horse +be half within the door of the smith, so that the miner may take +the tail of the horse, the debtor shall deliver the horse to the +miner. And if he so do not, the miner shall make and levy +hue and cry upon the said horse, and then the horse shall be +forfeit to the king for the hue and cry made and levied, and <a +name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 70</span>yet the miner +shall present the debtor in the Mind Law, which is the court for +the mine.”</p> +<p>“And the debtor before the constable and his clerk, the +gaveler and the miners, and none other folk to plead the right, +only the ministers shall be there, and hold a stick of holly, and +the said miner demanding the debt, shall put his hand upon the +said stick, and none other with him, and he shall swear by his +faith, that the said debt is to him due; and the prove made, the +debtor, in the same place, shall pay the miner all the debt +proved, or else he shall be brought to the castle of St. +Briavells till grace be made, and also he shall be amerced to the +king in two shillings.</p> +<p>“Also the miner hath such franchises to inquire the mine +in every soil of the king’s of which it may be named, and +also of all other folk, without withsaying of any man.</p> +<p>“And also if any be that denieth any soil, whatsoever it +be, be it sound or no, or of what degree it may be named, then +the gaveler, by the strength of the king, shall deliver the soil +to the miners, with a convenient way, next stretching to the +king’s highway, by the which mine may <a +name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 71</span>be carried to +all places and waters that lean convenient to the said mine, +without withsaying of any man.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Forest of Dean plays a conspicuous part in the wars of +Monmouthshire, serving as a natural outwork for the county. +The following transaction is described by Sanderson, the +historian of Charles I.:—“After Sir William +Waller,” says he, “had refreshed his men, he advanced +towards Monmouthshire, invited by some gentlemen to reduce these +parts. At his coming to the town of Monmouth, the garrison +of the lord Herbert retired, leaving a naked place to Sir +William; where he found small success of his parties, sent abroad +for supplies of money. He marches to Usk, and spending some +time to no purpose in that county, he returns, the stream of the +people affording him no welcome, being all universal tenants of +that county to the earl of Worcester.</p> +<p>“In this time Prince Maurice enters Teuxbury, with a +brigade of horse and foot added to the lord Grandeson, resolving +to make after Waller, or to meet his return out of Wales. A +bridge of boats wafts him over the Severn, with a body <a +name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 72</span>of two +thousand horse and foot. Waller was nimble in his retreat, +not to be catcht in a noose or neck of Wales; but, by a bridge of +boats, came back at Chepstow, with his foot and artillery, and +himself, with his horse and dragoons, passed through the lowest +part of the Forest of Dean, near the river side of Severn; and +ere the prince had notice, sends forth two parties to fall upon +two of the Prince’s quarters, which was performed, while +Waller’s main body slipped between both, and a party was +left also to face them, and make good the retreat, which came off +but disorderly, with loss of some soldiers. It was held a +handsome conveyance, and unexpected, to bring himself out of the +snare by uncouth ways.”</p> +<p>Gloucestershire, of which the Forest of Dean forms a part, +although still boasting one of the richest soils in England, is +no longer a <i>wine country</i>. “The ground,” +according to William of Malmesbury, “spontaneously produces +fruit in taste and colour far exceeding others, many of which +will keep the year round, so as to serve their owners till others +come in again. No county in England has more or richer +vineyards, <a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +73</span>or which yield greater plenty of grapes, and of a more +agreeable flavour. The wine has not a disagreeable +sharpness to the taste, as it is little inferior to that of +France in sweetness.” On this Camden remarks, that it +is more owing to “the indolence of the inhabitants than to +the alteration in the climate,” that in his time wine was +no longer a production of the county.</p> +<p>Vines were introduced into Britain by the Romans, and the +hills of South Wales became more especially famous for their +vineyards. They were mentioned in the Domesday Book, before +the time of William of Malmesbury; and tithes of wines are +frequently alluded to in the records of cathedrals.</p> +<h2><a name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +74</span>CHAPTER VI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Iron furnaces of the +Wye—Lidbroke—Nurse of Henry V.—Coldwell +Rocks—Symond’s Yat—New Weir—Monmouth.</p> +<p>The woods rising amphitheatrically on the left bank, just +before reaching Ruerdean, are called Bishop’s Wood; and +there will be observed, for the first time of their presenting +themselves conspicuously, the iron furnaces, which form a very +striking characteristic of the river.</p> +<p>The iron furnaces on the Wye rather add to than diminish the +effect of the scenery. This is caused by the abundance of +wood in the furnace districts, which conceals the details, while +it permits the smoke to ascend in wreaths through <a +name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 75</span>the trees, +and float like a veil around the hills. These works, +however, are merely a modern revival of a species of industry +which extends backwards beyond the reach of history. The +heaps of cinders which are discovered on the hills of +Monmouthshire are the production either of bloomeries, the most +ancient mode of fusing iron, or of furnaces of a very antique +construction. The operation of smelting was performed in +both of these by means of charcoal; and after the lands were +cleared, the want of fuel led to the decline of the iron +works. About eighty years ago, in consequence of the +discovery of the mode of making pig iron, and subsequently even +bar iron, with coal instead of charcoal, this branch of industry +suddenly revived; although on the Wye charcoal is still burnt, +and made upon the spot, where, instead of vulgarising the +district, it adds a very remarkable feature to the +picturesque.</p> +<p>At Lidbroke, on the same side, the commoner sympathies of life +come into play, and the vulgar occupations of men serve at once +to diversify the scene, and even to give it a new character of +the picturesque. The lower passage has hitherto <a +name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 76</span>been chiefly +distinguished by a romantic grandeur, both in the forms of +nature, and the associations of history; and even the iron +furnaces, from the circumstances we have mentioned, have added a +charm congenial to the character of the picture. At +Lidbroke, the new adjunct is nothing more than a <i>wharf</i>, +with little vessels lying near it,—boats passing and +repassing,—horses, carts, men, women, and children stirring +along the banks: but the whole, in such a spot, forms an +assemblage which adds, by contrast, to the general effect.</p> +<p>On the opposite bank the district of Monmouthshire, called +Welsh Bicknor, commences—for we have hitherto been in +Hereford—and Courtfield claims our attention for a moment, +as the place where Henry V. is said to have been nursed, under +the care of the countess of Salisbury. The remains of a +bed, and an old cradle, were formerly shown as relics of the +Monmouth hero. Half a mile further down the river is Welsh +Bicknor Church, which has puzzled the antiquarians by its +sepulchral effigy, representing a recumbent female figure in +stone, not ungracefully dressed in a loose robe, but without +inscription <a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +77</span>or coat of arms. Tradition will have it that this +is <i>the</i> countess of Salisbury; and it is perhaps correct in +the person, though wrong in the name, for the lady who nursed +Henry at Courtfield (supposing him to have been there at all) +was, in all probability, Lady Montacute, who married a second son +of the first earl of Salisbury, but was no countess +herself. Her son, however, Sir John de Montacute, who +possessed the manor of Welsh Bicknor, succeeded to the earldom, +and became earl-marshal of England. It was he who was chief +of the Lollards, and was murdered in 1400 by the populace of +Cirencester. The manor, although falling to the crown on +account of his supposed treason, was afterwards restored to the +family, and became the property of his descendant Richard, the +great earl of Warwick and Salisbury. Dugdale traces this +ominous heirloom to Margaret, grand-daughter of the great earl, +daughter of the duke of Clarence, and wife of Lord +Montague. This lady, after witnessing the execution of her +brother Edward, earl of Warwick, and her son Henry Lord Montague, +was herself beheaded in 1541. The manor of Welsh Bicknor, +<a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 78</span>and the +mansion of Courtfield, passed subsequently into the ancient +family of Vaughan. We may mention here, however, although +the circumstance is of no great consequence, that Sir Samuel +Meyrick assigns the costume of the figure in Welsh Bicknor Church +to the era of Edward I., about a century before that of Henry +V.</p> +<p>A short distance below the church this abutment of +Monmouthshire terminates, and the right bank of the river lies as +before in Hereford, the left in Gloucester. At Coldwell, +the view is closed in by a magnificent rock scene, differing +entirely in character from any yet afforded by the Wye. To +suffer this to appear—supposing the traveller to be +descending the river—a wooded hill, called Rosemary +Topping, one of the common features of the stream, shifts like a +scene in a theatre, and becomes a side-screen; so that the almost +naked cliff remains the principal object, and confers its +character upon the view, to which the river and its banks to the +right and left are only adjuncts.</p> +<p>The first grand mass of rock is nearly insulated, and reminds +one at first sight of the keep <a name="page79"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 79</span>of some ruined castle. But the +Coldwell rocks want no associations of the kind: they are +fragments of the temples of nature, and have nothing to do with +the history of man. To our judgment, the shadowy hollows +scooped out of the sides of the precipices, and overhung by +foliage, which are nothing more than the sites of <i>lime +kilns</i>, are more advantageous to the picture than the finest +ruins imaginable. They come in without pretence; they make +no effort at rivalry; but present the idea of human nature in an +attitude of befitting humility and simplicity. +“These,” says the German prince, “are craggy +and weatherbeaten walls of sandstone, of gigantic dimension, +perpendicular or overhanging, projecting abruptly from amid oaks, +and hung with rich festoons of ivy. The rain and storms of +ages have beaten and washed them into such fantastic forms, that +they appear like some caprice of human art. Castles and +towers, amphitheatres and fortifications, battlements and +obelisks mock the wanderer, who fancies himself transported into +the ruins of a city of some extinct race. Some of these +picturesque masses are at times loosened by the action of the +weather, and <a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +80</span>fall thundering from rock to rock, with a terrific +plunge into the river.”</p> +<p>From Symond’s Yat to the New Weir, this <i>kind</i> of +scenery continues; although the masses of cliff of course change +their form and situation. The river, in a portion of its +course, washes their base, at one time an almost perpendicular +wall, at another clothed in woods till near the summit, which is +seen rising out of the foliage, and tracing its battlemented +outline upon the sky. From these two points the distance is +only six hundred yards by land, and not less than four miles by +water; and the shorter route is in this case the better. On +the river, we soon lose the magnificence of the picture; while on +shore, there is superadded to this a view of the extravagant +mazes of the Wye on either side of the neck of land on which the +spectator stands. If it be added that the point of view, +Symond’s Yat, appeared to Mr. Coxe to be two thousand feet +high (although this is an evident mistake), it will readily be +imagined that this scene is of itself worth a pilgrimage to the +Wye. The prospect, comprehending portions of Herefordshire, +Gloucestershire, and Monmouthshire, embraces the <a +name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 81</span>following +objects, according to those who are versed in the local +names. To the north is seen Coppet Wood Hill, interspersed +with rock and common;—to the north-west appear the spire +and village of Goodrich, and, at the foot of the hill, Rocklands +and Huntsholm Ferry;—to the west, Hunthsolm, behind which +is Whitchurch, and, in the distance, the Welsh hills;—to +the south-west, the mountainous side of the Great +Doward;—to the south, Staunton Church, and the Buck-stone, +upon a promontory; and below, Highmeadow Woods and the river; on +the left, the rock of the New Weir, and on the right, the rocky +wall of the east side of the Doward;—to the south-east, the +village of English Bicknor, a side view of Coldwell Rocks, and +Rosemary Topping;—and, to the east, Ruerdean Wood, with the +church in the distance, Bishop’s Wood, and Courtfield, with +the woody ridges of Hawkwood and Puckwood completing the +panorama.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p81b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The New Weir" +title= +"The New Weir" +src="images/p81s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Gilpin calls the New Weir the second grand scene on the +Wye.</p> +<blockquote><p>“The river,” says he, “is wider +than usual in this part, and takes a sweep round a towering +promontory of rock, which forms the side-screen <a +name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>on the left, +and is the grand feature of the view. It is not a broad, +fractured piece of rock, but rather a woody hill, from which +large projections in two or three places burst out, rudely hung +with twisting branches, and shaggy furniture; which, like the +mane round the lion’s head, gives a more savage air to +these wild exhibitions of nature. Near the top a pointed +fragment of solitary rock, rising above the rest, has rather a +fantastic appearance—but it is not without its effect in +marking the scene . . . On the right side of the river, the bank +forms a woody amphitheatre, following the course of the stream +round the promontory. Its lower skirts are adorned with a +hamlet, in the midst of which volumes of thick smoke, thrown up +at intervals from an iron forge, as its fires receive fresh fuel, +add double grandeur to the scene. . . .</p> +<p>“But what peculiarly marks this view, is a circumstance +on the water. The whole river at this place makes a +precipitate fall—of no great height indeed, but enough to +merit the name of a cascade, though to the eye above the stream +it is an object of no consequence. In all the scenes we had +yet passed, the water moving with a <a name="page83"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 83</span>slow and solemn pace, the objects +around kept time, as it were, with it; and every steep, and every +rock which hung over the river, was solemn, tranquil, and +majestic. But here the violence of the stream, and the +roaring of the waters, impressed a new character on the scene: +all was agitation and uproar, and every steep and every rock +stared with wildness and terror.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Let us add the testimony of another great authority on the +picturesque; more especially as his remarks serve to corroborate +our own on the effect received by the river from objects which +elsewhere are mean and common.</p> +<blockquote><p>“A scene at the New Weir on the Wye, which +in itself is truly great and awful, so far from being disturbed, +becomes more interesting and important by the business to which +it is destined. It is a chasm between two high ranges of +hills, that rise almost perpendicularly from the water: the rocks +on the sides are mostly heavy masses, and their colour is +generally brown; but here and there a pale craggy shape starts up +to a vast height above the rest, unconnected, broken, and bare: +large trees frequently force out their way amongst them; and many +<a name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 84</span>of these +stand far back in the covert, where their natural dusky hue is +heightened by the shadow that overhangs them. The river +too, as it retires, loses itself in the woods, which close +immediately above, then rise thick and high, and darken the +water. In the midst of all this gloom is an <i>iron +forge</i>, covered with a black cloud of smoke, and surrounded +with half-burnt ore, with coal, and with cinders: the fuel for it +is brought down a path, worn into steps narrow and steep, and +winding among precipices; and near it is an open space of barren +moor, about which are scattered the huts of the workmen. It +stands close to the cascade of the Weir, where the agitation of +the current is increased by large fragments of rocks, which have +been swept down by floods from the banks, or shivered by tempests +from the brow; and the sullen sound, at stated intervals, of the +strokes from the great hammer in the forge, deadens the roar of +the waterfall. Just below it, while the rapidity of the +stream still continues, a ferry is carried across it; and lower +down the fishermen use little round boats called truckles +(coracles), the remains perhaps of the ancient British +navigation, which <a name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +85</span>the least motion will overset, and the slightest touch +may destroy. All the employments of the people seem to +require either exertion or caution; and the ideas of fear or +danger which attend them give to the scene an animation unknown +to the solitary, though perfectly compatible with the wildest +romantic situation.” <a name="citation85"></a><a +href="#footnote85" class="citation">[85]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>To this, however, we must add as a note, that both Weir and +forge have now vanished. The more headlong rush and louder +roar of the river mark the place where the former stood; and some +limekilns contribute the smoke of the latter without its +noise.</p> +<p>During the whole of this part of the passage, the stream is +interrupted by fragments of rock, around which the water rushes +tumultuously; but at the New Weir these interruptions, above +noticed, acquire a character of sublimity, when taken in +conjunction with the rest of the picture. The river, +roaring and foaming, is in haste to escape, and at length is lost +to the eye, as it seems to plunge for ever into sepulchral +woods.</p> +<p>Beyond this, there are several other rock <a +name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 86</span>scenes, but +none that will bear description after the foregoing; although to +the traveller wearied with excitement, they come in with good +effect. Below New Weir, the river stretches with a curve +between Highmeadows Wood on the left bank, and the precipitous +cliffs of the Great Doward on the right. Then the Little +Doward peeps over a screen of rocks and shrubs. These two +hills are called King Arthur’s Plain, and between these is +King Arthur’s Hall, the level of an exhausted iron +mine. Then we pass a cluster of rocks called St. +Martin’s or the Three Sisters, and a pool of the river +named St. Martin’s Well, where the water is said to be +seventy feet deep. Various seats and cottages give variety +to the picture, situated in the midst of rich woods and +undulating eminences; and at length the landscape sinks calmly +down, and Monmouth—“delightsome +Monmouth”—is seen in long perspective, terminating a +reach of the river.</p> +<h2><a name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +87</span>CHAPTER VII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Monmouth—History of the +Castle—Apartment of Henry of Monmouth—Ecclesiastical +remains—Benedictine priory—Church of St. +Mary—Church of St. Thomas—Monnow Bridge—Modern +town—Monmouth caps—The beneficent parvenu.</p> +<p>Monmouth lies embowered among gentle hills, only diversified +by wood, corn, and pasture; but to view it either from the Wye, +or any of the neighbouring eminences, one would be far from +supposing it to have so tame, or at least so quiet a site. +From one point, its spire is seen passing through a deep and +mysterious wood; from another, it hangs perched on a precipitous +ridge; and from the Wye it rises with considerable stateliness in +the form of an amphitheatre. It stands at the confluence of +the Wye and the <a name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +88</span>Monnow, from which it derives its English name.</p> +<p>A royal fortress existed here before the conquest, a +circumstance which renders its early history full of fearful +vicissitudes, although these are but very imperfectly +traced. In the time of Henry III., the castle, after +changing hands repeatedly, was taken and rased to the +ground. “Thus the glorie of Monmouth,” says +Lambarde, “had clean perished, ne had it pleased God longe +after in that place to give life to the noble King Henry V., who +of the same is called Henry of Monmouth.” It was a +favourite residence of the father of this prince, King Henry IV., +and also of his father, John of Gaunt, “time honoured +Lancaster,” to whom it came by his marriage with Blanch, +daughter and heiress of Henry, duke of Lancaster, whose title he +was afterwards granted. Henry V. was born here in 1387, and +from this circumstance is styled Henry of Monmouth. This +prince enlarged the duchy of Lancaster with his maternal +inheritance, and obtained an act of parliament that all grants of +offices and estates should pass under the seal of the +duchy. Henry VI. and <a name="page89"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 89</span>VII. possessed the castle of +Monmouth, as part of the duchy, by right of inheritance; but +between these reigns it was given by Edward IV. to Lord Herbert, +afterwards earl of Pembroke. Although the duchy, however, +continued in the crown, the castle, together with other +possessions in Monmouthshire, was alienated, and became private +property, but at what period does not clearly appear. In +the reign of Elizabeth, it is ascertained, by different grants, +to have been still parcel of the duchy, and also in that of James +I., by the following presentment made under a commission: +“Item, wee present that his majestie hath one ancient +castell, called Monmouth Castell, situated within the liberties +of the said towne, which is nowe, and hath been for a long time, +ruinous and in decaye, but by whom it hath byn decayed wee knowe +not, nor to what value, in regarde it was before our +rememberment, savinge one greate hall which is covered and +mayntayned for the judges of the assise to sitt in. And for +and concerning any demean lands belonginge to the same castell, +wee knowe not of any more save only the castell hill, wherein +divers have gardens, and the castell green, <a +name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 90</span>which is +inclosed within the walls of the said castell.”</p> +<p>Before the end of the seventeenth century, we find the castle +in the hands of the first duke of Beaufort, if the following +anecdote, indicative either of an ambitious or a fantastic +spirit, can be believed. “The marchioness of +Worcester,” says the author of the Secret Memoirs of +Monmouthshire, “was ordered by her grandfather, the late +duke of Beaufort, to lie in of her first child in a house lately +built within the castle of Monmouth, near that spot of ground and +space of air, where our great hero Henry V. was born.”</p> +<p>Whatever mutilations this castle may have undergone since the +days of its royal magnificence, by whomever it may have been at +length “decayed,” or at whatever period it came into +the hands of the Beauforts, this at least is certain, that there +is now not more than enough left to indicate its site. +“The transmutations of time,” says Gilpin, “are +often ludicrous. Monmouth Castle was formerly the palace of +a king, and the birthplace of a mighty prince; it is now +converted into a yard for fattening ducks.” The <a +name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 91</span>ruins, +however, must have been concealed from his view by the stables +and other outhouses that had risen from the fragments, so as +completely to hide them from the townward side. Coxe, a +much more correct observer, although less learned in the laws of +the picturesque, describes them in 1800 as presenting, when +viewed from the right bank of the Monnow, “an appearance of +dilapidated grandeur which recalls to memory the times of feudal +magnificence.”</p> +<p>Although the roof and great part of the walls had already +fallen, the site of two remarkable apartments could be traced +distinctly; that in which Henry was born, and another adjoining +which had been used, even within the memory of some of the +inhabitants, for the assizes. The latter was sixty-three +feet in length and forty-six in breadth, and was no doubt the +“greate hall” mentioned in the presentment quoted +above as being “mayntayned for the judges of the assise to +sitt in.”</p> +<p>The apartment of Henry of Monmouth is thus described by the +archdeacon:</p> +<blockquote><p>“The apartment which gave birth to the +Gwentonian hero was an upper story, and the <a +name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 92</span>beams that +supported the floor still project from the side walls; it was +fifty-eight feet long, and twenty-four broad, and was decorated +with gothic windows, of which some are still remaining, and seem +to be of the age of Henry III. The walls of this part are +not less than ten feet in thickness. About fifty years ago, +a considerable part of the southern wall fell down with a +tremendous crash, which alarmed the whole town, leaving a breach +not less than forty feet in length. On the ground floor +beneath are three circular arches terminating in chinks, which +have a very ancient appearance; at the north-eastern angle, +within a stable, may be seen a round tower six feet in diameter, +which was once a staircase leading to the grand +apartment.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>To the right of this apartment, the same author traced the +vestige of the original walls in a private house built within the +ancient site. They were from six to ten feet, formed of +pebbles and mortar, and is so compact a mass as not to yield in +hardness to solid stone.</p> +<p>Next to the ruined castle of an ancient town, come the +ecclesiastical remains; for the stronghold of the chief, and the +cell of the monk, were <a name="page93"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 93</span>usually the nucleus round which the +town was gathered. The principal relics of the latter kind +in Monmouth are those of a benedictine priory of black monks, +dedicated to St. Mary, which was founded as a cell to the +monastery of St. Florence, near Saumur in Anjou, by Wikenoc, lord +of Monmouth in the reign of Henry I. The ruins are small, +but interesting; and not the less so from containing an apartment +distinguished by a rich gothic bay window, pointed out by +tradition as the study of that mysterious personage, Geoffry of +Monmouth. The church of the priory stood on the site of the +present parish church of St. Mary, of which the tower and the +lower part of the spire are the only remains of the +original. This spire, which is “lofty, and light, and +small,” is the grand scenic feature of the town when viewed +from a distance; and in return, it affords to the traveller who +will take the trouble to ascend it a point from which to view the +country to most advantage. The beautiful vale in which the +town stands, with its undulating eminences, among which wander +the Wye, the Monnow, and the Trothy, is seen in an almost +circular form, <a name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +94</span>enclosed from the vulgar world, by a line of hills +mantled with woods and forests.</p> +<p>The ancient church of St. Thomas stands near the bridge of the +Monnow, and from its circular arches, and extreme simplicity of +appearance, is probably older than the conquest. This does +not apply, however, to the entire building, the western window, +and some other morçeaux, displaying the ornamented Gothic +of a late period. The antiquity of the building, it should +be said, is rendered the more probable by its standing beyond the +bridge, where the suburbs of the modern town are supposed to +occupy the site of the British town during the Saxon era.</p> +<p>The bridge, of which a view is given in Grose’s +Antiquities, is itself an object of interest, containing, on its +centre, the Monnow Gate, the only one of the four original gates, +mentioned by Leland, that remains entire. Both bridge and +gate bear evidence of very high antiquity, and were probably +erected by the Saxons as a barrier against the Welsh. The +town was farther fortified by a wall and moat, of which the +latter was entire in the time of Leland, and some fragments of +the former remaining. But all vestiges <a +name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 95</span>of those +defences have now vanished, with the exception of the Monnow +Gate, and some pieces of a tower.</p> +<p>Of the modern town, it can be said that it is neat and clean, +with one broad and well-built street. It is neither mean +nor elegant, and presents no offensive contrast to the beautiful +scenery by which it is surrounded. The navigation of the +Wye is its principal support, for at the present day at least it +has no manufactories, although celebrated in that of its own +Henry for <i>caps</i>. “If your majestie is +remembered of it, the Welchmen did goot service in a garden where +leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth +caps.” The account given of this staple article by +Fuller, in his Worthies, is worth quoting.</p> +<blockquote><p>“These,” says he, “were the most +ancient, general, warm, and profitable coverings of men’s +heads in this island. It is worth our pains to observe the +tenderness of our kings to preserve the trade of cap-making, and +what long and strong struggling our state had to keep up the +using thereof, so many thousands of people being thereby +maintained in the land, especially <a name="page96"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 96</span>before the invention of +fulling-mills, all caps before that time being wrought, beaten, +and thickened, by the hands and feet of men, till those mills, as +they eased many of their labour, outed more of their +livelihood. Capping anciently set fifteen distinct callings +on work, as they are reckoned up in the statute: 1. carders, 2. +spinners; 3. knitters; 4. parters of wool; 5. forfers; 6. +thickeners; 7. dressers; 8. walkers; 9. dyers; 10. battelers; 11. +shearers; 12. pressers; 13. edgers; 14. liners; 15. band-makers, +and other exercises. No wonder then that so many statutes +were enacted in parliament to encourage this +handicraft.” * * * * “Lastly; to keep up the +usage of caps, it was enacted, in the 13th of Queen Eliz. cap. +19, that they should be worne by all persons (some of worship and +quality excepted) on sabbath and holy days, on the pain of +forfeiting ten groats for the omission thereof.</p> +<p>“But it seems that nothing but hats would fit the heads +(or humours rather) of the English, as fancied by them fitter to +fence their fair faces from the injury of wind and weather, so +that the 39th of Queen Elizabeth this statute was repealed; <a +name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 97</span>yea, the cap, +accounted by the Romans an emblem of liberty, is esteemed by the +English (falconers and hunters excepted) a badge of servitude, +though very useful in themselves, and the ensign of constancy, +because not discomposed, but retaining their fashion, in what +form soever they may be crouded.</p> +<p>“The best caps were formerly made at Monmouth, where the +capper’s chapel doth still remain, being better carved and +gilded than any other part of the church. But on the +occasion of a great plague happening in this town, the trade was +some years since removed hence to Beaudley, in Worcestershire, +yet so that they are called Monmouth caps unto this day. +Thus this town retains, though not the profit, the credit of +capping, and seeing the child keeps the mother’s name, +there is some hope in due time she may return to her.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Monmouth appears also to have dealt largely in ale, if we may +judge by a grant of Henry IV. as lord of the manor, to its +burgesses. “That the brewers of ale there, who were +anciently held to pay the king’s ancestors and progenitors +eight gallons of ale at every brewing, in the <a +name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 98</span>name of +Castlecoule, during the time the king, or his heirs, were +dwelling in the said town, should now pay in lieu thereof 10d. +each brewing, except when the king, his heirs or his councils, +holding his sessions there, were present in the said town, in +which case the ancient custom of Castlecoules should be +observed.”</p> +<p>We must not omit an anecdote connected with the history of a +free-school, founded here in the reign of James I. William +Jones, born at Monmouth, as Burton tells us in his History of +Wales, was forced to quit the place for not being able to pay ten +groats. He removed to the great field for adventurers, +London, and became first a porter, then a factor, and afterwards +went over to Hamburgh, where he found such sale for his Welsh +cottons, that in a very short time he realised a handsome +fortune. He founded a school in his native place, allowing +fifty pounds a year to the master, and a hundred pounds salary to +a lecturer, together with an almshouse for twenty poor people, +each having two rooms and a garden, and two shillings and +sixpence a week. It is said, however, by other authorities, +that Jones was a native of Newland, <a name="page99"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 99</span>in Gloucestershire; and after having +made his fortune in London, that he returned thither in the +assumed character of a beggar, to try the liberality of his +townsmen. In this he found them wanting, for they +tauntingly told him to go and ask relief at Monmouth, where he +had lived at service. He took their advice, and being +better received there, founded the above charities in token of +his gratitude.</p> +<h2><a name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +100</span>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Welsh pedigree of queen Victoria—A +poet’s flattery—Castles of +Monmouthshire—Geoffrey of Monmouth—Henry of +Monmouth—The Kymin—Subsidiary tour—Sir David +Gam—White Castle—Scenfrith—The Castle +spectres—Grosmont—Lanthony Abbey.</p> +<p>“Monmouthshire,” as has been well observed, +“though now an English county, may be justly considered the +connecting link between England and Wales, as it unites the +scenery, manners, and language of both.” In ancient +times, it was a debatable land of another kind, when Romans, +Saxons, and Normans, strove by turns against the aboriginal +Britons. During the Roman invasion it was a part of the +territory of the Silures, who inhabited the eastern division of +South Wales, and were one of the three great <a +name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>Welsh +tribes; but in the conflict of the Saxons, Gwent (its British +name) played the most distinguished part of all, under its +sovereign Utha Pendragon and the renowned king Arthur. To +Gwent, moreover, if chronicles say true, we are indebted for our +present sovereign lady, who is descended collaterally from its +princes. Merrich, the son of Ithel, king or prince of +Gwent, died without issue male, leaving one daughter, Morvyth, +who espoused Gwno, great grandson to Rees ap Theodore, prince of +South Wales, and lineal ancestor of Sir Owen Tudor, grandfather +of Henry VII. “So that it appears,” say the +Secret Memoirs of Monmouthshire, “that the kings of +Scotland and England are originally descended from Morvyth, this +Gwentonian prince’s daughter, and heir to Meyrick, last +king of Gwent, who, according to several authentic British +pedigrees, was lineally descended from Cadwalladar, the last king +of Britain, and as our historians do testify, did prognosticate, +fifteen hundred years past, that the heirs descended of his loins +should be restored again to the kingdom of Britain, which was +partly accomplished in king Henry VII., and more by the accession +<a name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>of James +I. to the British throne, but wholly fulfilled in the happy union +of all Britain by the glorious queen Anne; whom God long +preserved of his great goodness, and the succession of the +Protestant line.”</p> +<p>We know not what value may be attached to this illustrious +ancestry by Queen Victoria; but her predecessor, Queen Elizabeth, +was fond of tracing her descent from the ancient kings of her +country—a predilection which the courtly Spenser does not +omit to flatter in his Faerie Queene.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Thy name, O soveraine Queene, thy realme +and race,<br /> +From this renowned prince derived arre,<br /> +Who mightily upheld that royal mace<br /> +Which thou now bear’st, to thee descended farre<br /> +From mighty kings and couquerors in warre,<br /> +Thy fathers and thy grandfathers of old,<br /> +Whose noble deeds above the northern starre,<br /> +Immortall fame for ever hath enrold;<br /> +As in that <i>old man’s booke</i> they were in order +told.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The <i>old man</i> have referred to is Geoffrey of Monmouth, +of whom more anon.</p> +<p>It is to the Norman invasion that Monmouthshire <a +name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 103</span>owes its +castles; for the great barons were not employed by the state, as +had been the case with the Saxons, to conquer the territory, but +were invited to enter upon adventures at their own cost, and for +their own gain. The lands they subdued became their own; +they were created lords-barons over them; and castles speedily +bristled up all over the territory to maintain the authority so +acquired. Pennant states the number for Wales at a hundred +and forty-three, of which Monmouthshire, as the frontier region +between the belligerents, had of course the greatest proportion, +amounting, it is said, to at least twenty-five. In these +baronial lands, the writs of ordinary justices of the royal +courts were not current. The barons marchers, as they were +called, had recourse to their feudal lord the king in person; and +the same abuses and confusion were the result which we have +noticed in Herefordshire, till Henry VIII. abolished this +anomalous government, divided Wales into twelve shires, and +withdrew Monmouthshire into the list of the English +counties. It is interesting to trace the chain of +fortresses thus destined to become, still earlier than in the <a +name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 104</span>natural +course of time, a series of ruins. They extend, in this +county, along the banks of the Monnow, the Wye, and the Severn, +and from Grosmont, diagonally, to the banks of the Rumney; while +castellated mansions, such as Raglan, which we shall notice +presently (at first only a rude fortress), arose in all quarters +to keep the natives in due respect.</p> +<p>King Arthur, mentioned above as prince of Gwent, did not reign +at Monmouth, but at Caerleon; although he is closely associated +with the former place, inasmuch as the gothic room in the priory +which we have pointed out, on the authority of tradition, as the +study of Geoffrey of Monmouth, was in all probability the +birthplace of his most heroic achievements. Geoffrey, in +fact, for it is needless to attempt to conceal the fact from our +readers, was an historical romancer rather than an +historian. The groundwork of his celebrated performance was +Brut y Breninodd, or the Chronicle of the Kings of Britain, +written by Tyssilio, or St. Telian, bishop of St. Asaph, in the +seventh century; but Geoffrey owns himself, that he made various +additions to his original, particularly of Merlin’s +prophecies. <a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +105</span>After all, however, if we may venture to express our +private opinion on so recondite a subject, it seems to us that a +monkish history, of the seventh century, must have been +reasonably fertile in itself in wonderful incidents and legendary +tales, and that in all probability Geoffrey of Monmouth deserves +less credit as a romancer than he has received from one party, as +well as less credit as an historian than he has received from the +other.</p> +<p>However this may be, the work has served as a valuable +storehouse for our poets and romancers. It has even +supplied the story of King Lear to Shakspeare, who deepened the +pathos by making Cordelia die before her father; whereas, in the +original story, Lear is restored to his kingdom, and Cordelia to +life. Milton drew from it his fiction of Sabrina in the +Mask of Comus; and in early life he had formed the design of +writing an epic poem on the subject taken up from Geoffrey by +Spenser, in the second book of the Faerie Queene—</p> +<blockquote><p>“A chronicle of Briton kings,<br /> +From Brute to Arthur’s reign.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="page106"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +106</span>Dryden, also, intended to produce an epic poem on the +subject of king Arthur, but he contented himself with an opera, +in which he has sublimely described the British worthy</p> + +<blockquote><p> “in +battle brave,<br /> +But still serene in all the stormy war,<br /> +Like heaven above the clouds; and after fight<br /> +As merciful and kind to vanquished foe<br /> +As a forgiving God.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Pope followed, in like manner, with plentiful materials for +the pavement of a certain place—good intentions; but after +all, our national history has been left to the muse of Blackmore. +<a name="citation106"></a><a href="#footnote106" +class="citation">[106]</a></p> +<p>Geoffrey was born in Monmouth, and is supposed to have been +educated in the monastery, although the room pointed out as his +study is evidently of a more modern date. He became +archdeacon of his native town, and in 1152 was consecrated bishop +of St. Asaph. This is all <a name="page107"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 107</span>that is known of his history; and +his works, with the exception of his great romance adverted to +above, are confined to a treatise on the Holy Sacraments, and +some verses on the enchanter Merlin.</p> +<p>Perhaps a word may not be amiss on the other worthy connected +by birth with the fame and the ruins of Monmouth. Henry V. +passed some of his earliest years in this county; but in his +youth was transferred to Oxford, where he studied under his uncle +Cardinal Beaufort, then chancellor of the university, and where, +as Stowe relates, he “delighted in songs, meeters, and +musical instruments.” He is thus described by the +chronicler, on the authority of John of Elmham:</p> +<blockquote><p>“This prince exceeded the meane stature of +men, he was beautiful of visage, his necke long, body long and +leane, and his bones small; neverthelesse he was of great +marvellous strength, and passing swift in running, insomuch that +he with two other of his lords, without hounds, bow, or other +engine, would take a wild buck or doe in a large +parke.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Henry is usually treated as a mere warrior; <a +name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 108</span>and it is +the custom to sneer at him as such, by those who are unable to +judge of the minds of men by the spirit of the age in which they +live. He was remarkable, however, for more than his +military prowess, and exhibited many traits of a truly great +character. Some of these are very agreeably detailed by Mr. +Coxe, who relates also, from Speed, that “every day after +dinner, for the space of an hour, his custom was to lean on a +cushion set by his cupboard, and there he himselfe received +petitions of the oppressed, which with great equitie he did +redresse.” His sudden change from the wild +licentiousness of his youth is described by his contemporary, +Thomas de Elmham, as having taken place at the bedside of his +dying father; and we need not remark that in that age, the +religious feeling he exhibited on the occasion was not +inconsistent with the ferocity of the hero.</p> +<blockquote><p>“The courses of his youth promis’d it +not;<br /> +The breath no sooner left his father’s body,<br /> +But that his wildness, mortified in him,<br /> +Seem’d to die too: yea, at that very moment,<br /> +Consideration like an angel came,<br /> +And whipped the offending Adam out of him;<br /> +<a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 109</span>Leaving +his body as a paradise,<br /> +To envellop, and contain celestial spirits.<br /> +Never was such a sudden scholar made;<br /> +Never came reformation in a flood,<br /> +With such a heady current, scouring faults;<br /> +Nor ever hydra-headed wilfulness,<br /> +So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,<br /> +As in this king.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Monmouth, as the half-way station between Ross and Chepstow +for the tourists of the Wye, usually claims a large portion of +their attention; and, independently of its historical +associations, the delightful walks in the neighbourhood +abundantly repay it. The views from numerous points are +very beautiful; and one more especially, independently of the +nearer parts of the picture, commands on all sides an expanse of +country which seems absolutely unlimited.</p> +<p>“If among these views,” says the historical +tourist, “one can be selected surpassing the rest, it is +perhaps that from the summit of the Kymin, which rises from the +left bank of the Wye, and is situated partly in Monmouthshire, +and partly in Gloucestershire. On the centre of this +eminence overhanging the river and town, a pavilion has been +lately erected by subscription, <a name="page110"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 110</span>to which is carried a walk, gently +winding up the acclivity. . . .</p> +<p>“I shall not attempt to describe the unbounded expanse +of country around and beneath, which embraces an extent of nearly +three hundred miles. The eye, satiated with the distant +prospect, reposes at length on the near views, dwells on the +country immediately beneath and around, is attracted with the +pleasing position of Monmouth, here seen to singular advantage, +admires the elegant bend and silvery current of the Monnow, +glistening through meads, in its way to the Wye, and the junction +of the two rivers, which forms an assemblage of beautiful +objects.</p> +<p>“The level summit of the Kymin is crowned with a +beautiful wood, called Beaulieu Grove, through which walks are +made, terminating in seats, placed at the edge of abrupt +declivities, and presenting in perspective, through openings in +the trees, portions of the unbounded expanse seen from the +pavilion. There are six of these openings, three of which +comprehend perspective views of Monmouth, stretching between the +Wye and the Monnow, in different positions. At one <a +name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 111</span>of these +seats, placed on a ledge of impending rocks, I looked down on a +hanging wood, clothing the sides of the declivities, and sloping +gradually to the Wye, which sweeps in a beautiful curve, from +Dixon Church to the mouth of the Monnow; the town appears seated +on its banks, and beyond the luxuriant and undulating swells of +Monmouthshire, terminated by the Great and Little Skyrrid, the +Black Mountains, and the Sugar Loaf, in all the variety of +sublime and contrasted forms.”</p> +<p>It is not our intention to notice any of the numerous seats +and mansions with which this delightful region abounds; but, +leaving the tourist to make such easy discoveries for himself, we +would hint to him that, while at Monmouth, he has an opportunity, +without great expense of time or labour, of making himself +acquainted with many interesting objects which ought to be +considered as adjuncts of the tour of the Wye. Between this +place and the Hay the river describes an irregular semicircle, of +which the Monnow, for about half way, may be said to be the cord; +and this latter stream, as the most important and beautiful +tributary of the Wye, <a name="page112"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 112</span>has a claim upon the pilgrim which +should not be set aside.</p> +<p>This minor excursion, however, will not be complete without +diverging a little to the left at the outset for the purpose of +visiting White Castle; for this ruin is inseparably associated +with the other reliques of baronial power presented by the +route. It is within a short distance of Landeilo Cresseney +on the Abergavenny road, where a farm will be pointed out to the +traveller, called the Park, belonging to the duke of Beaufort, as +the site of Old Court, formerly the residence of the valiant Sir +David Gam, who, before the battle of Agincourt, reported to Henry +V. that there were “enough of the enemy to be killed, +enough to run away, and enough to be taken +prisoners.” It is said that the children of this +Welsh worthy were so numerous as to form a line extending from +his house to the church. From Gladys, one of these +children, the dukes of Beaufort and earls of Pembroke are +descended. The farm alluded to was formerly the red deer +park of Raglan Castle.</p> +<p>White Castle must have been constructed in the earliest period +of the Norman era, if not before <a name="page113"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 113</span>the conquest; and the massive ruins +that still remain attest that it must have kept the country side +in awe, as the abode of one of those fierce barons who were the +prototypes of the giants and dragons of the romancers. This +fortress, with those of Scenfrith and Grosmont on the banks of +the Monnow, belonged to Brien Fitz Count, the Norman conqueror of +the tract called Overwent, stretching from the Wye to +Abergavenny; and they were afterwards seized by Henry III., and +given by him to the celebrated Herbert de Burgh. Herbert +resigned them anew to the crown, after being imprisoned and +almost famished to death. Henry granted them to his son +Edward Crouchback, and they afterwards fell to John of Gaunt, in +the way we have related of Monmouth Castle, and became parcel of +the duchy of Lancaster.</p> +<p>The ruins stand on the ridge of an eminence, surrounded by a +moat. The walls, which are very massive, describe nearly an +oval, and are defended by six round towers, not dividing the +courtine in the usual way, but altogether extramural, and +capable, therefore, of acting as independent fortresses, even +after the inner court had <a name="page114"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 114</span>been taken. The principal +entrance was protected by a portcullis and drawbridge, and by an +immense barbican, greatly disproportioned to the size of the +castle, on the opposite site of the moat. The name of the +place was Castell Gwyn, White Castle, or Castell Blanch, all +which mean the same thing in British, Saxon, and Norman.</p> +<p>In the time of James I., it is presented as “ruinous and +in decay time out of mind,” and yet, during the reign of +his immediate predecessor Elizabeth, it is described in the +Worthines of Wales as “a loftie princely place.”</p> +<blockquote><p>“Three castles fayre are in a goodly +ground,<br /> +Grosmont is one, on hill it builded was;<br /> +Skenfrith the next, in valley it is found,<br /> +The soyle about for pleasure there doth passe;<br /> +Whit Castle is the third of worthy fame,<br /> +The county there doth bear Whit Castle’s name,<br /> +A stately seate, a loftie princely place,<br /> +Whose beauties give the simple soyle some grace.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Scenfrith is not more than five miles from White Castle, but +the access to it is only fit for pedestrians. The ruin +stands on a secluded spot in the midst of hills, and overlooks +the placid <a name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +115</span>Monnow, the passage of which it was no doubt its duty +to guard. It is a small fortress severely simple, and +exhibiting all the marks of high antiquity. There are no +traces of outworks; but the walls are flanked by five circular +towers. About the middle of the area is a round tower, +which was the keep or citadel. Scenfrith seems to have no +history peculiarly its own; it was one of “the three +castles,” changing hands with them apparently as a matter +of course, and that was enough for its ambition.</p> +<p>The road from Scenfrith to Grosmont leads through Newcastle; +but the remains of the fortress, from which this place derived +its name, are barely discernible, and its history has for ever +perished. In the absence of human associations, however, it +is well provided with those of another kind. The mount, or +barrow, under which its fragments are hidden, is the haunt of +spirits; and an oak tree in the neighbourhood is so completely +protected by such means, that an attempt even to lop a branch is +sure to be punished by supernatural power.</p> +<p>The ruins of Grosmont Castle stand on an eminence near the +Monnow, surrounded by a <a name="page116"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 116</span>dry moat, with barbican and other +outworks. Its pointed arches declare it by far the youngest +of the three sisters. The remains now left enclose only a +small area; but walls and foundations may be traced, which show +that its original size was really considerable, and this is +confirmed by the presence of a spacious apartment, which no doubt +formed the great baronial hall. In the reign of Henry III. +it was invested by Llewellin, and the siege raised by the king; +and, on another occasion, Henry retreated to Grosmont, where his +troops were surprised by the Welsh as they slept in the trenches, +and lost five hundred horses, besides baggage and treasure. +The banks of the Monnow, from which the ruins rise, are +precipitous, and tufted with oaks, and the whole scene is +singularly picturesque. The hero of the village tradition +is here John of Kent, or Guent, who built a bridge over the +Monnow in a single night, by means of one of his familiar +spirits. Many other stories as wonderful are related of him +by the inhabitants; some say he was a monk, versed in the black +art; others that he was a disciple of Owen Glendowr; and others +that he was the great magician himself.</p> +<p><a name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 117</span>At +Grosmont the line of the Monnow turns away to the west, towards +its source among the Black Mountains; but the traveller who +eschews more fatigue than is necessary will take the route by +Craig-gate and Crickhowell, and so get into a road which will +lead him along the Honddy, a tributary of the Monnow, to the +magnificent ruins of Lanthony Abbey, the furthest object we +propose to him in this subsidiary tour.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Here it was, stranger, that the patron +saint<br /> +Of Cambria passed his age of penitence—<br /> +A solitary man; and here he made<br /> +His hermitage; the roots his food, his drink<br /> +Of Honddy’s mountain-stream. Perchance thy youth<br +/> +Has read with eager wonder how the knight<br /> +Of Wales, in Ormandine’s enchanted bowers,<br /> +Slept the long sleep: and if that in thy veins<br /> +Flows the pure blood of Britain, sure that blood<br /> +Has flowed with quicker impulse at the tale<br /> +Of Dafydd’s deeds, when through the press of war<br /> +His gallant comrades followed his green crest<br /> +To conquests. Stranger! Hatterel’s mountain +heights,<br /> +And this fair vale of Cwias, and the stream<br /> +Of Honddy, to thine after thoughts will rise<br /> +More grateful, thus associate with the name<br /> +Of Dafydd and the deeds of other days.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“After catching a transient view of the Honddy,” +says archdeacon Coxe, “winding through a deep glen, at the +foot of hills overspread with <a name="page118"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 118</span>wood and sprinkled with white +cottages, we proceeded along a hollow way, which deepened as we +advanced, and was scarcely broad enough to admit the +carriage. In this road, which, with more propriety might be +termed a ditch, we heard the roar of the torrent beneath, but +seldom enjoyed a view of the circumjacent scenery. We +passed under a bridge thrown across the chasm, to preserve the +communication with the fields on each side: this bridge was +framed of the trunks of trees, and secured with side rails, to +prevent the tottering passenger from falling in the abyss +beneath. It brought to my recollection several bridges of +similar construction, which I observed in Norway, which are +likewise occasionally used as aqueducts, for the purposes of +irrigation. Emerging from this gloomy way, we were struck +with the romantic village of Cwnyoy, on the opposite bank of the +Honddy, hanging on the sides of the abrupt cliff, under a +perpendicular rock, broken into enormous fissures. We +continued for some way between the torrent and the Gaer, and +again plunged into a hollow road, where we were enclosed, and saw +nothing but the overhanging hedgerows. . . . <a +name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 119</span>The abbey +was built like a cathedral, in the shape of Roman crosses, and +though of small dimensions, was well proportioned. The +length, from the western door to the eastern extremity, is 210 +feet; and the breadth, including two aisles, 50; the length of +the transept, from north to south, 100. It was constructed +soon after the introduction of the Gothic architecture, and +before the disuse of the Norman, and is a regular composition of +both styles. The whole roof, excepting a small fragment of +the north aisle, is fallen down, and the building is extremely +dilapidated. The nave alone exhibits a complete specimen of +the original plan, and is separated on each side by the two +aisles, by eight pointed arches, resting on piers of the simplest +construction, which are divided from the upper tier of Norman +arches by a straight band of <i>fascia</i>. From the small +fragment in the northern aisle, the roofs seem to have been +vaulted and engroined, and the springing columns, by which it was +supported, are still visible on the wall. Four bold arches, +in the centre of the church, supported a square tower, two sides +of which only remain. The ornamental arch <a +name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 120</span>in the +eastern window, which appears in the engraving of Mr. +Wyndham’s Tour, and in that published by Hearne, has now +fallen. The only vestiges of the choir are a part of the +south wall, with a Norman door, that led into the side aisle, and +the east end of the south wall; a bold Norman arch, leading from +the transept into the southern aisle of the choir, still +exists. The walls of the southern aisle are wholly +dilapidated; and the side view of the two ranges of Gothic +arches, stretching along the nave, is singularly picturesque; the +outside wall of the northern aisle is entire, excepting a small +portion of the western extremity; the windows of this part are +wholly Norman, and make a grand appearance. In a word, the +western side is most elegant; the northern side is most entire; +the southern the most picturesque; the eastern the most +magnificent.”</p> +<p>The abbey originated in a small chapel, built here as a +hermitage by St. David, the titular saint of Wales; but for the +account of its foundation and history, we must refer the reader +to Mr. Coxe’s Tour, Dugdale’s Monasticon, or the +History of Gloucestershire.</p> +<h3><a name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +121</span>CHAPTER IX.</h3> +<p class="gutsumm">Raglan Castle—Description of the +ruins—History of the Castle—The old lord of +Raglan—Surrender of the fortress—Charles I. and his +host—Royal weakness—The pigeons of Raglan—Death +of the old lord—Origin of the steam Engine.</p> +<p>That magnificent specimen of what is called a castellated +mansion, Raglan castle, is so interesting in itself, and at so +convenient a distance from the river, that it forms an +indispensable part of the tour of the Wye. The ruins stand +upon an eminence, near the village of the same name, eight miles +from Monmouth, and cover, with their massive forms, an area of +one-third part of a mile in circumference. This includes +the citadel, which was not contained within the fortress as +usual, but formed a separate building, connected <a +name="page122"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 122</span>with it by +a drawbridge. It was called Melyn y Gwent, or the Yellow +Tower of Gwent. It was of a hexagon form, five stories +high, defended by bastions and a moat, and surrounded with raised +walks or terraces. The building was faced with hewn stone, +of a greyish colour, and from its smoothness resembling polished +marble.</p> +<p>The earliest style of this edifice dates only from the reign +of Henry V.; but the greater part was probably added afterwards, +when, by the marriage of Sir Charles Somerset into the house of +Herbert, and the acquisition then of the lordships of Raglan, +Chepstow, and Gower, the house of Beaufort became one of the +greatest in the county. The building is of a description +peculiar to that period in the history of Monmouthshire, when the +barons had superadded to their warlike habits those of modern +luxury and magnificence. Externally, the place has +evidently been a strong fortress; internally a splendid +mansion. The ascent to the state apartment is both noble +and well contrived; while the circular staircase in the hexagon +citadel, the windows of the great hall, and the chimney-pieces, +with their light and elegant cornices, <a +name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>are in the +style of modern edifices. The kitchen and butlery were +connected with the hall, and indicate, by their construction, the +princely hospitality of the lords of Raglan. All the rooms +had chimneys, those of each floor distinct from the rest. +The cellars were extensive—so were the subterranean +passages and dungeons. The architecture is various, some +parts of the most elegant gothic, some heavy and unwieldy, +representing at once the two distinct characters of luxury and +war. The southern declivity, towards the village, was laid +out in fish-ponds; three parks of considerable extent supplied +game and recreation; and the proprietor of this unique mansion +was able, through the fertility of his surrounding estates, to +maintain a garrison of eight hundred men.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Of these noble ruins,” says Mr. Coxe, +“the grand entrance is the most magnificent; it is formed +by a gothic portal, flanked with two massive towers: the one +beautifully tufted with ivy, the second so entirely covered, that +not a single stone is visible. At a small distance, on the +right, appears a third tower, lower in height, almost wholly +ivyless, and with its machicolated <a name="page124"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 124</span>summit, presenting a highly +picturesque appearance. The porch, which still contains the +grooves for two portcullises, leads into the first court, once +paved, but now covered with turf, and sprinkled with +shrubs. The eastern and northern sides contained a range of +culinary offices, of which the kitchen is remarkable for the size +of the fire-place; the southern side seems to have formed a grand +suite of apartments, and the great bow window of the hall, at the +south-western extremity of the court, is finely canopied with +ivy. The stately hall which divides the two courts, and +seems to have been built in the days of queen Elizabeth, contains +the vestiges of ancient hospitality and splendour: the ceiling is +fallen down, but the walls still remain; it is sixty feet in +length, twenty-seven in breadth, and was the great +banqueting-room of the castle. At the extremity are placed +the arms of the first marquis of Worcester, sculptured in stone, +and surrounded with the garter: underneath is the family motto, +which fully marks the character of the noble proprietor, who +defended the castle with such spirit from the parliamentary army: +‘Mutare <a name="page125"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +125</span>vel timere sperno;’ ‘I scorn either to +change or to fear.’ The fire-place deserves to be +noticed for its remarkable size, and the singular structure of +the chimney. The hall is occasionally used as a fives +court.</p> +<p>“To the north of the hall are ranges of offices, which +appear to have been butteries; beyond are the traces of splendid +apartments. In the walls above I observed two +chimney-pieces, in high preservation, neatly ornamented with a +light frieze and cornice: the stone frames of the windows are +likewise in many parts, particularly in the south front, +distinguished with mouldings and other decorations, which Mr. +Windham justly observes, would not be considered inelegant, even +at present.</p> +<p>“The western door of the hall led into the chapel, which +is now dilapidated; but its situation is marked by some of the +flying columns, rising from grotesque heads, which supported the +roof. At the upper end are two rude whole-length figures, +in stone, several yards above the ground, recently discovered by +Mr. Heath, under the thick clusters of ivy. Beyond the +foundations of the chapel is the area of the second <a +name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 126</span>court, +skirted with a range of buildings, which, at the time of the +siege, formed the barracks of the garrison. Not the +smallest traces remain of the marble fountain, which once +occupied the centre of the area, and was ornamented with the +statue of a white horse.</p> +<p>“Most of the apartments of this splendid abode were of +grand dimensions, and the communications easy and +convenient. The strength of the walls is still so great, +that if the parts still standing were roofed and floored, it +might even now be formed into a magnificent and commodious +habitation.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The fountain mentioned above was called the White Horse, from +the figure from which the water played. In a note supplied +by Dr. Griffin to Williams’s History of Monmouthshire, it +is said that the people who showed the ruins used to exhibit part +of the body of a <i>black</i> horse which stood in the middle of +the water which supplied the castle. The cause of the +change of colour was that during the siege the parliamentarians +poisoned the fountain! The horse, it seems, absorbed the +fatal drug, and not only became black, but when struck by any +hard substance, emitted a fetid smell. <a +name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 127</span>It is +difficult to trace the early history of the castle, from the +contradictory accounts given of it by Dugdale; but in the time of +Henry V. the proprietor was Sir William ap Thomas, second son of +Sir Thomas ap Guillim, from whom the earls of Pembroke, Powis, +and Caernarvon are descended in the male, and the dukes of +Beaufort in the female line. William, the eldest son of +this Sir William, was created by Edward IV. lord of Raglan, +Chepstow, and Gower; and, in obedience to the royal command, he +discontinued the Welsh custom of changing the surname at every +descent, and took Herbert as his family name, in honour of his +ancestor Herbert Fitzhenry, chamberlain to Henry I. Richard +was for some time detained at Raglan in the custody of lord +Herbert, who was a distinguished partisan of the house of York, +and who at length died on the scaffold, at Banbury, in this +cause, having previously been created earl of Pembroke. His +son, by the desire of Edward IV., yielded this title to the +Prince of Wales; and, dying without male issue, the castle of +Raglan, and many other noble possessions devolved upon his +daughter Elizabeth. The heiress married Sir <a +name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 128</span>Charles +Somerset, natural son of the duke of Somerset, who lost his head +in 1463 for his devotion to the house of Lancaster; and he, a +brave soldier, a prudent statesman, and an accomplished courtier, +was created by Henry VIII., for his services, earl of +Worcester.</p> +<p>It is probable that the castle of Raglan, owed a great part of +its magnificence to him. In the following reign, it is thus +mentioned in the Worthines of Wales.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Not far from thence, a famous castle +fine,<br /> +That Raggland hight, stands moted almost round,<br /> +Made of freestone, upright, straight as line,<br /> +Whose workmanship in beauty doth abound.</p> +<p>“The curious knots, wrought all with edged toole,<br /> +The stately tower that looks ore pond and poole,<br /> +The fountain trim, that runs both day and night,<br /> +Doth yield in showe a rare and noble sight.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Four earls of Worcester held almost royal state in this +princely abode; but the fifth earl and first marquis was destined +to witness its fall. He was one of the most devoted friends +of <a name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +129</span>Charles I.; and may be said to have defended not only +his own mansion but all Monmouthshire from the parliamentary +arms.</p> +<p>The defeat of the royal army at Marston Moor was the signal +for the fall of Monmouth and of Raglan Castle. Prince +Rupert immediately directed his attention to the marches of +Wales, and ordered colonel Gerard to force his way through +Gloucestershire by the Aust passage: but the latter was opposed +by Massey, and defeated. Monmouth soon after fell into the +hands of Massey by the treachery of Kirle, lieutenant-colonel to +Holtby, governor of the town for Charles; and lord Worcester at +Raglan, in great alarm, demanded the assistance of prince +Rupert’s cavalry.</p> +<p>Throgmorton, on whom the command of Monmouth devolved, set out +with a party of three hundred horse to surprise the castle of +Chepstow, and in his absence the following brilliant exploit was +performed by the royalists, which we give in the words of +Sanderson. “The cavaliers from Ragland and Godridg, +about break of day, lodg themselves undiscovered behind a rising +ground near Monmouth, and <a name="page130"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 130</span>viewing all advantages, fourty of +them come up to the higher side of the town towards Hereford, +having a sloping bank cast up of good height, with a ditch, over +which they pass, mount the bank, and climbed over, and so got to +the next part, fell upon the guard, some killed, other fled, and +with an iron bar break the post chain, force the gate, and open +it to the horse, who ride up with full career to the main guard, +seized them, and took the rest in their beds, with colonel +Broughton, four captains, as many lieutenants and ensigns, the +committee, all the common souldiers, two hundred prisoners, two +sakers, a drake, nine hammerguns, ammunition and provision, and +five hundred muskets.”</p> +<p>But the fate of the war was now determined, and after the +battle of Naseby Charles was unable to meet the parliamentarians +in a general engagement, and retired to the castle of +Raglan. Thence he secretly departed to commit himself to +the Scottish army; and the marquis of Worcester was besieged at +Raglan for six months. The old lord, who was then +eighty-four years of age, on hearing of the landing of his son +lord Glamorgan with some Irish forces, sent the following <a +name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 131</span>bold letter +to the parliamentarian committee at Chepstow.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Having notice that you are not ignorant of +my son’s landing with the Irish forces, I am so much of a +father, and tender of the whole country’s ruin, that if +this coming to this place be hasted by the occasion of your +answer, you and not I will be the occasion of the country’s +curse. You have taken from me my rents and livelihood, for +which if you give unbelied reparations, I shall be glad to live a +quiet neighbour amongst you; if otherwise, you will force me to +what my own nature hath no liking of, and yet justifiable by the +word of God, and law of nature. I expect your answer by the +messenger, as you give occasion.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“<span class="smcap">H. +Worcester</span>.</p> +<p>“Raglan, May 29, 1646.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This brought on a long and fruitless negotiation. The +old lord saw that even the master of Raglan was not the master of +circumstances; and, at length, it was agreed that the castle +should be delivered up. “Nobly done,” says +Sanderson, “to hold out the last garrison for <a +name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 132</span>the king in +England or Wales.” In the articles of surrender, +however, the soldierly honour of the marquis was spared as much +as possible, it being agreed “that all the officers, +gentlemen, and soldiers, with all other persons there, should +march out with their horses and arms, colours flying, drums +beating, trumpets sounding, matches lighted at both ends, bullets +in mouth, each soldier twelve charges of powder, matches and +bullets proportionable, bag and baggage, to any place within two +miles of any garrison where the marquis shall mention.”</p> +<p>Soon after this surrender, the castle was demolished, and the +timber cut down in the parks, the loss to the family, in personal +property, without including the forfeiture and an estate of +twenty thousand pounds a year, being estimated at upwards of a +hundred thousand pounds. The Chase of Wentwood, including +Chepstow Castle and Park, was immediately bestowed upon Oliver +Cromwell; who appears also to refer, in the settlements upon his +family to other estates in Monmouthshire, parcels of the noble +property of the marquis of Worcester.</p> +<p>In a publication of that day, entitled “Witty <a +name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 133</span>Apothegms +delivered at several times, and on several occasions, by king +James I., king Charles I., and the marquis of Worcester,” +several anecdotes are given which throw a strong light upon the +character of this fine old lord of Raglan.</p> +<p>“In the midst of the civil commotions, Charles I. made +several visits to Raglan Castle, and was entertained with +becoming magnificence. The marquis not only declined all +offers of remuneration, but also advanced large sums; and when +the king thanked him for the loans, replied, Sir, I had your word +for the money, but I never thought I should be so soon repayed; +for now you have given me thanks, I have all I looked +for.” At another time, the king, apprehensive lest +the stores of the garrison should be consumed by his suite, +empowered him to exact from the country such provisions as were +necessary for his maintainance and recruit, “I humbly thank +your majesty,” he said, “but my castle will not stand +long if it leans on the country; I had rather be brought to a +morsel of bread, than any morsels of bread should be brought me +to entertain your majesty.”</p> +<p><a name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>The +following conversation shows the amiable weakness of +Charles’s humanity.</p> +<p>Sir Trevor Williams, and four other principal gentlemen of +Monmouthshire, being arrested for disloyalty, and conducted to +Abergavenny, the king was advised to order them to an immediate +trial, which must have ended in their conviction; but Charles, +moved by the tears and protestations of Trevor Williams, suffered +him to be released, on bail, and committed the others only to a +temporary confinement. “The king told the marquess +what he had done, and that when he saw them speak so honestly, he +could not but give some credit to their words, so seconded by +tears, and withal told the marquess that he had onely sent them +to prison; whereupon the marquess said, what to do? to poyson +that garrison? Sir, you should have done well to have heard +their accusations, and then to have shewn what mercy you +pleased. The king told him, that he heard that they were +accused by some contrary faction, as to themselves, who, out of +distaste they bore to one another on old grudges, would be apt to +charge them more home than the nature of their offences had +deserved; to whom the marquess <a name="page135"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 135</span>made this return, Well, Sir, you may +chance to gain the kingdom of heaven by such doings as these, but +if you ever get the kingdom of England by such ways, I will be +your bondman.”</p> +<p>Another conversation between the marquis and Sir Thomas +Fairfax is worth relating.</p> +<p>“After much conference between the marquess and General +Fairfax, wherein many things were requested of the general by the +marquess, and being, as he thought himself, happy in the +attainment, his lordship was pleased to make a merry petition to +the general as he was taking his leave, viz. in behalf of a +couple of pigeons, who were wont to come to his hand, and feed +out of it constantly, in whose behalf he desired the general that +he would be pleased to give him his protection for them, fearing +the little command that he should have over his soldiers in that +behalf. To which the general said, I am glad to see your +lordship so merry. Oh, said the marquess, you have given me +no other cause, and hasty as you are, you shall not go untill I +have told you a story.</p> +<p>“There were two men going up Holborn in a cart to be +hanged; one of them being very <a name="page136"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 136</span>merry and jocund, gave offence to +the other who was sad and dejected, insomuch that the downcast +man said unto the other, I wonder, brother, that you can be so +frolic, considering the business we are going about. Tush, +answered the other, thou art a fool; thou wentest a thieving, and +never thought what would become of thee, wherefore being on a +sudden surprised, thou fallest into such a shaking fit, that I am +ashamed to see thee in that condition: whereas I was resolved to +be hanged, before ever I fell to stealing, which is the reason +nothing happenning strange or unexpected, I go so composed unto +my death. So, said the marquess, I resolved to undergo +whatsoever, even the worst of evils that you are able to lay upon +me, before I took up arms for my sovereign, and therefore wonder +not that I am so merry.”</p> +<p>“In the correspondence with Fairfax,” says the +author of the Historical Tour, “which preceded the +capitulation, the marquis of Worcester seems to have strongly +suspected that the parliament would not adhere to the +conditions. His apprehensions were not groundless, for on +his arrival in London he was committed to the custody <a +name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 137</span>of the +Black Rod. He bitterly complained of this cruel usage, and +deeply regretted that he had trusted himself to the mercy of the +parliament. A few hours before his death, he said to Dr. +Bayley, If to seize upon all my goods, to pull down my house, to +fell my estate, and send up for such a weak body as mine was, so +enfeebled by disease, in the dead of winter, in the winter of +mine age, be merciful, what are they whose mercies are so +cruel? Neither do I expect that they should stop at all +this, for I fear they will persecute me after death.</p> +<p>“Being informed, however, that parliament would permit +him to be buried in his family vault, in Windsor Chapel; he cried +out, with great sprightliness of manner, Why, God bless us all, +why then I shall have a better castle when I am dead, than they +took from me whilst I was alive. With so much cheerfulness +and resignation did this hero expire, in the eighty-fifth year of +his age.”</p> +<p>The second marquis was the author of that puzzling +“Century of the Names and Scantlings of such Inventions as +I can at present call to mind to have tried and +perfected.”</p> +<p><a name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +138</span>“It appears,” we are told, “from a +passage in the Experimental Philosophy of Dr. Desaguliers, that +Captain Savary derived his invention of the fire engine, since +called the steam engine, from the 68th article in the Century of +Scantlings; and that to conceal his original he bought up all the +marquis’s books, and burnt them.” The following +is the “scantling.”</p> +<blockquote><p>“An admirable and most forcible way to drive +up water by fire, not by drawing or sucking it upwards, for that +must be, as the philosopher calleth it, <i>intra sphæram +activitatis</i>, which is at but such a distance. But this +way hath no bounder, if the vessels be strong enough; for I have +taken a piece of a whole cannon, whereof the end was burst, and +filled it three quarters full of water, stopping and screwing up +the broken end, as also the touch-hole, and making a constant +fire under it, within twenty-four hours it burst, and made a +great crack; so that having a way to make my vessels that they +are strengthened by the force within them, and the one to fill +after the other, I have seen the water run like a constant +fountain stream forty feet high; one vessel of water, rarified by +fire, drives up forty feet of <a name="page139"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 139</span>cold water. And a man that +attends the work has but to turn two cocks, that one vessel of +water being consumed, another begins to force and refit with cold +water, and so successfully, the fire being tended and kept +constant, with the self-same person may likewise abundantly +perform in the interim between the necessity of turning the said +cocks.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>We now renew our onward course, but with many a lingering look +at “delightsome Monmouth.”</p> +<h2><a name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +140</span>CHAPTER X.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Troy House—Anecdote—Antique +custom—Village Churches of +Monmouthshire—White-washing—The bard—Strewing +graves with flowers—St. Briavels’ +Castle—Llandogo—Change in the character of the +river—The Druid of the Wye—Wordsworth’s +“Lines composed above Tintern Abbey.”</p> +<p>Just below Monmouth the Wye forms a sharp curve, the apex of +which is met by the Monnow and the Trothy, in such a way that +these two streams, tending to nearly the same point, but coming +from different directions, and the two sides of the Wye curve, +make the place resemble the meeting of four roads. We have +already seen how interesting the Monnow is; the Trothy, which +passes White Castle, and has its source in the mountains near the +Great Skyrrid, is hardly less so; the Wye we have followed from +the summit <a name="page141"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +141</span>of Plinlimmon, through a tract of mingled beauty and +grandeur, unrivalled in England; and we are now about to trace +its course to the monastic ruins of Tintern, and through the +fairy land of Piercefield to its destined bourne, the Severn.</p> +<p>The banks are at first low, and the country laid out in level +meadows, framed in at a short distance by swelling hills. +Troy House is the first object that arrests our attention in +front by its sombre woods. In the reign of James I. it was +the property of Sir Charles Somerset, the brother of the gallant +defender of Raglan Castle, between whom and Charles I. a +conversation relating to Troy House took place, which is thus +reported in the “Apothegms.”</p> +<p>“Sir Thomas Somerset, brother to the marquis of +Worcester, had a house which was called Troy, five miles from +Ragland Castle. This Sir Thomas, being a complete +gentleman, delighted much in fine gardens and orchards, where, by +the benefit of art, the earth was made so gratefull to him at the +same time that the king (Charles the first) happened to be at his +brother’s house, that it yielded him wherewithal to send +him a present; and such a one as (the times <a +name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 142</span>and seasons +considered) was able to make the king believe that the sovereign +of the planets had now changed the poles, and that Wales (the +refuse and outcast of the fair garden of England) had fairer and +riper fruit than England’s bowels had on all her +beds. This present, given to the marquis, he would not +suffer to be presented to the king by any other hand than his +own. ‘Here I present you, sir,’ said the +marquis, (placing his dishes on the table) ‘with that which +came not from Lincoln that was, nor from London that is, nor from +York that is to be, but from Troy.’ Whereupon the +king smiled, and answered the marquis, ‘Truly, my lord, I +have heard that corn grows where Troy town stood, but I never +thought there had grown any apricots before.’”</p> +<p>Some articles said to be relics of Henry V. are preserved +here: the bed in which he was born, the cradle in which he was +rocked, and the armour in which he fought at Agincourt. +There is also a carved oak chimney-piece from Raglan Castle.</p> +<p>Soon the hills approach nearer, and, covered with rich +foliage, sweep down more suddenly <a name="page143"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 143</span>towards the river. On the +right bank is Penalt church, standing on a wooded eminence; and +behind it, an extensive common distinguished for a superstitious +custom, derived, as is supposed, from the days of the +druids. When a funeral passed that way, the cortege stopped +at an oak tree, and placed the corpse on a stone seat at its +foot. The company than sang a psalm, and resumed their +procession. It may be remarked that wherever an old oak +tree is found in this part of the country, in an insulated or +otherwise remarkable situation, there is sure to be connected +with it some religious tradition, or some observance whose origin +is lost in antiquity. The churches are usually an +interesting feature in the landscape, for it would seem as if +their founders had sought purposely out for them solitary places, +by the banks of rivers or in the midst of groves or fields. +In general they are exceedingly simple in appearance, many having +the marks of great antiquity, and almost all being whitewashed +from top to bottom. An antiquary has ingeniously accounted +for this peculiarity, by the custom the Normans had of +constructing even large buildings of pebbles and rag-stone, <a +name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 144</span>which +obliged them to cover the inequalities, outside and inside, by a +coat of lime and sand. However this may be, the effect is +not unpleasing; more especially when the rural temple, as is +frequently the case, is shaped like a barn, and without a +belfry. Such churches, more especially in the mountainous +districts, still present the rounded arches, and other +peculiarities, which denote that their rude walls were raised by +our Saxon ancestors, if not by the ancient Britons +themselves.</p> +<p>We find the white walls, so common in Wales, alluded to as a +poetical circumstance by one of the bards of the fourteenth +century, in a piece of considerable beauty; and in the succeeding +paragraph there is an allusion to another Welsh custom, of more +classical authority, that of strewing the graves of the dead with +flowers. The poem is an invocation to summer, to shed its +blessings over the country of Gwent. The following is the +paragraph referred to, with the second allusion, terminating the +ode by an abrupt and pathetic transition.</p> +<blockquote><p>“If I obtain thee, O summer, in thy splendid +hour, with thy fair growth and thy sporting <a +name="page145"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 145</span>gems; thy +serenity pleasantly bear, thou golden messenger, to +Morganoc. With sunshine morn gladden thou the place, and +greet the whitened houses; give growth, give the first fruits of +the spring, and collect thou blossoms to the bushes; shine +proudly on the wall of lime, full as light and gaily bright; +leave there in the vale thy footsteps in juicy herbage, in fresh +attire; diffuse a load of delicious fruits, in bounteous course +among its woods; give thy crop like a stream over every lawn, the +meadows, and the land of wheat; clothe the orchard, the vineyard, +and the garden, with thy abundance and thy teeming harvest; and +scatter over its fair soil the lovely marks of thy glorious +course!</p> +<p>“And oh! whilst thy season of flowers, and thy tender +sprays thick of leaves remain; I will pluck the roses from the +branches; the flowerets of the meads, and gems of the woods; the +vivid trefoils, beauties of the ground, and the gaily smiling +bloom of the verdant herbs, to be offered to the memory of a +chief of favorite fame: Humbly I will lay them on the grave of +Ivor!”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Ivor here alluded to was Ivor Hael, or the Generons, an +ancestor of the Tredgear family <a name="page146"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 146</span>of Morgans, whose pedigree is +traced, by the Welsh bards from the third son of Noah. The +poet David, ap Gwillim, styled the Welsh Ovid, loved a lady of +the name of Morvid, in whose praise his prolific muse produced no +fewer than a hundred and forty-seven poems. A rich rival, +however, gained the unwilling prize; and the son of song consoled +himself by carrying off his lost mistress on two several +occasions, when her husband, Rhys Gwgan, was with the army in +France, where he served in the rank of captain at the battle of +Crecy. For both these offences he was fined and imprisoned, +and in both instances liberated by the gentlemen of Gwent, who +came forward in a body in favour of their darling bard. The +above extract is taken from one of two poems which he wrote in +testimony of his gratitude. It may be added, that when +flowers are planted on graves, it was, and we believe is the +custom to surround the area with stones, which are periodically +<i>whitewashed</i>.</p> +<p>On the bank opposite Penalt, or a little further down, is +Redbrook, upper and lower, the one standing above the other on +the hill side. The stream from which they derive this name +<a name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +147</span>separates Monmouthshire from Gloucestershire, and the +Wye then continues the boundary. The brook, also, serves +the purpose of turning the wheels of some iron and tin works; but +without vulgarising any more than such accidents have done +heretofore, the scenic romance of the river. Wye Seal House +comes next, on the same side of the river, with the hamlet of +Whitebrook and its paper-mills on the opposite bank. Then +Pan-y-van hill, and the ruins of the old manor-house of +Pilton—then an iron bridge over the Wye, and then +Big’s-weir House, and its surrounding grove, with Hudknolls +behind, and the ruins of St. Briavels’ Castle on their +summit.</p> +<p>This fortress stands in the forest of Dean, and dates from the +reign of Henry I., when it was founded by Milo, earl of Hereford, +for the residence and defence of some of the +lords-marchers. St. Briavels, formerly a place of some +importance, is now a village. Its inhabitants enjoyed +several singular immunities which are now obsolete; but they have +still a right of common in Hudknolls wood, a tract of land on the +banks of the Wye seven miles long. They are supposed to <a +name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 148</span>enjoy the +privilege through the performance of a strange ceremony on +Whit-sunday. Each inhabitant pays twopence to the +churchwardens, who buy bread and cheese with the fund, which they +cut into small pieces, and distribute to the congregation +immediately after the service is ended, in the midst of a general +scramble. They are also allowed to cut wood, but not +timber, in any part of the forest. It is said that a +countess of Hereford procured for them their privileges by the +performance of a feat similar to that of the Lady Godiva.</p> +<p>St. Briavels’ Castle was erected by Milo St. Walter, +earl of Hereford, in the time of Henry I., as a barrier against +the Welsh. Two circular towers alone remain entire with a +narrow gateway between, composing the north-west front. +They contain several apartments, the walls of which are eight +feet thick. One is used as a prison for the hundred. +In the interior are two other similar gateways, on the right and +left of which are the remains of spacious rooms.</p> +<p>The governor of St. Briavels—for it became a royal +fortress after the Hereford family had <a +name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 149</span>possessed +it for about a century—had formerly jurisdiction over the +forest of Dean; and it is recorded, that in his court the miners +were sworn upon a branch of holly instead of the testament, lest +the holy book should be defiled by their fingers.</p> +<p>We now enter a long reach of the river, with Tiddenham Chase +Hill rising boldly in front; till Llandogo appears, a beautiful +little village on the right bank, seated on a hill side in the +midst of gardens and orchards, and with its small church near the +edge of the water, peeping through the trees. This is a +scene of quiet beauty, which after the massive forms we have +passed, we term <i>prettyness</i>. Whatever be its proper +name, however, in the pedantry of taste, it is not surpassed on +the Wye in its own kind. It is unfortunate, nevertheless, +that at this spot an unfavourable change should be observed in +the river—although only in the river considered as a volume +of water, and not taken in conjunction with its scenery. +Here the Wye becomes a tide stream, acted upon by the ebb and +flow of the Severn sea; and in consequence, it is henceforward +habitually turbid, and no longer a current <a +name="page150"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 150</span>of pure +element, subject only to the influence of rains and freshes.</p> +<p>This circumstance has also its effect upon the moral character +of the river. Large barges are floated up by the tide to +Brook Weir, a little lower down, which is midway between Monmouth +and Chepstow, or nine miles from each; and there they receive the +merchandise brought thither in small inland vessels from the +upper part of the Wye. Our romantic stream, therefore, +whose outlines hitherto have been broken only by the smokes of +furnaces hidden among the trees, and whose still life has been +varied only by the corracles of the ancient Britons, and other +inland craft that never dreamt of the breezes of the salt sea, +becomes now a small highway of trade, a sort of water lane by +which the corn, and hoops, and fagots, and other productions of +the interior are conveyed to Bristol. But even the coasting +barge, with her blackened sails, and sixty tons of cargo, is not +here “a jarring and a dissonant thing.” +Creeping with the tide along those solemn banks, she acquires a +portion of their solemnity; floating silently through those +pastoral vales, she is invested, for the time being, <a +name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 151</span>with their +simplicity. Her characteristics are swallowed up in the +character of the river—the spell of the Wye is upon +her!</p> +<p>If you doubt the fact, let us wander on but a little further; +let us turn the point of Lyn Weir, and, looking along the reach +beyond, inquire with what vulgarised ideas, with what broken +associations, we find ourselves gliding into the region of +Tintern! Near this spot, the great Druid of the Wye, the +poet of nature internal and external, produced a poem which in +all probability will be read, either with tears or smiles of +delight, long after the works of man shall have completely +obliterated those features of the grand, the beautiful, the +simple, and sublime, to which it is our humble task to point the +finger.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Five years have past, five summers, with +the length<br /> +Of five long winters! and again I hear<br /> +These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs<br /> +With a sweet inland murmur.—Once again<br /> +Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,<br /> +That on a wild secluded scene impress<br /> +Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect<br /> +The landscape with the quiet of the sky.<br /> +The day is come when I again repose<br /> +<a name="page152"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 152</span>Here, +under this dark sycamore, and view<br /> +These plots of cottage ground, these orchard tufts,<br /> +Which, at this season, with their unripe fruits,<br /> +Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves<br /> +Among the woods and copses, nor disturb<br /> +The wild green landscape. Once again I see<br /> +These hedgerows, hardly hedgerows, little lines<br /> +Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms,<br /> +Green to the very doors, and wreaths of smoke<br /> +Sent up, in silence, from among the trees;<br /> +With some uncertain notice, as might seem<br /> +Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,<br /> +Or of some hermit’s cave, where, by his fire,<br /> +The hermit sits alone.</p> +<p> “These beauteous +forms,<br /> +Through a long absence, have not been to me<br /> +As is a landscape to a blind man’s eye:<br /> +But oft, in lonely rooms, and ’mid the din<br /> +Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,<br /> +In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,<br /> +Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;<br /> +And passing even into my purer mind,<br /> +With tranquil restoration:—feelings too<br /> +Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,<br /> +As have no slight or trivial influence<br /> +On that best portion of a good man’s life,<br /> +His little, nameless, unremembered acts<br /> +Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust,<br /> +To them I may have owed another gift,<br /> +Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood<br /> +In which the burden of the mystery<br /> +In which the heavy and the weary weight<br /> +Of all this unintelligible world<br /> +<a name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 153</span>Is +lightened:—that serene and blessed mood,<br /> +In which the affections gently lead us on,<br /> +Until, the breath of this corporeal frame<br /> +And even the motion of our human blood<br /> +Almost suspended, we are laid asleep<br /> +In body, and become a living soul:<br /> +While with an eye made quiet by the power<br /> +Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,<br /> +We see into the life of things.</p> +<p> “If this<br /> +Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft,<br /> +In darkness and amid the many shapes<br /> +Of joyless daylight, when the fretful stir<br /> +Unprofitable, and the fever of the world<br /> +Have hung upon the beatings of my heart;<br /> +How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,<br /> +O sylvan Wye! Thou wanderer through the woods,<br /> +How often has my spirit turned to thee.</p> +<p>“And now with gleams of half extinguished thought,<br /> +With many recognitions dim and faint,<br /> +And somewhat of a sad perplexity,<br /> +The picture of the mind revives again,<br /> +While here I stand, not only with the sense<br /> +Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts<br /> +That in this moment, there is life and food<br /> +For future years, and so I dare to hope,<br /> +Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first<br /> +I came among these hills; when like a roe<br /> +I bounded o’er the mountains, by the sides<br /> +Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,<br /> +Wherever nature led: more like a man<br /> +<a name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 154</span>Flying +from something that he dreads, than one<br /> +Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then<br /> +(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,<br /> +And their glad animal movements all gone by)<br /> +To me was all in all.—I cannot paint<br /> +What then I was. The sounding cataract<br /> +Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,<br /> +The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,<br /> +Their colours and their forms, were then to me<br /> +An appetite; a feeling and a love<br /> +That had no need of a remoter charm,<br /> +By thought supplied, nor any interest<br /> +Unborrowed from the eye.—That time is past,<br /> +And all its aching joys are now no more,<br /> +And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this<br /> +Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts<br /> +Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,<br /> +Abundant recompense. For I have learned<br /> +To look on nature, not as in the hour<br /> +Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes<br /> +The still, sad music of humanity<br /> +Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power<br /> +To chasten and subdue. And I have felt<br /> +A presence that disturbs me with the joy<br /> +Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime<br /> +Of something far more deeply interfused,<br /> +Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,<br /> +And the round ocean and the living air,<br /> +And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:<br /> +A motion and a spirit, that impels<br /> +All thinking things, all objects of all thought,<br /> +And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still<br /> +A lover of the meadows, and the woods,<br /> +And mountains; and of all that we behold<br /> +From this green earth; of all the mighty world<br /> +<a name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 155</span>Of eye, +and ear,—both what they half create,<br /> +And what perceive; well pleased to recognise,<br /> +In nature and the language of the sense,<br /> +The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,<br /> +The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul<br /> +Of all my moral being.”</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><a name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +156</span>CHAPTER XI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Vales of the Wye—Valley of +Tintern—Tintern +Abbey—History—Church—Character of the +ruin—Site—Coxe’s +description—Monuments—Insecurity of sepulchral +fame—Churchyarde on tombs—Opinions on +Tintern—Battle of Tintern.</p> +<p>The “Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on +revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour,” are justly +esteemed one of the masterpieces of modern poetry; but +independently of this, they belong so peculiarly to the river we +are attempting to illustrate, and are associated so intimately +with the character of its scenery, and its reputation as a +fountain of high thoughts and beautiful feelings, that our volume +would have been incomplete without them. It is curious that +this piece, which is dated in the <a name="page157"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 157</span>concluding years of the last +century, should be the only fruits as yet given to the world of +the poetical inspiration of the Wye—for the effusions of +Bloomfield are not to be named with those of Wordsworth.</p> +<p>We have seen that where the picturesque character of the Wye +is chiefly formed by its banks, which is the case from Goodrich +Castle downwards, these embrace the stream with more or less +straitness, rising in naked crags from the water’s edge, or +throwing their waving woods over the current. At intervals, +however, they recede to some little distance from either side; +picturesque hills forming the side-screens, and hills, rocks, and +trees terminating the perspective in front, and enclosing the +river like a lake. In such cases, the bottom is formed by a +green pastoral meadow, through which the stream wanders +leisurely, as if reposing after former struggles, and preparing +for new ones. These lonely vales are not merely secluded +from “the hum, the crowd, the shock of men,” but from +all turbulent thoughts and unholy desires. The world lives +in them only in the recollections of dead things, and feelings, +and persons. They are <a name="page158"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 158</span>spots, to use the fine but +unappreciated image of Maturin,</p> +<blockquote><p>“Where memory lingers o’er the grave +of passion,<br /> +Watching its tranced sleep!”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The admirable taste so unequivocally displayed by the monks of +old, in the selection of sites for their ascetic retreats, could +not have overlooked this characteristic of the Wye; and +accordingly we find, in the most beautiful of these delightful +nooks, standing on a gently swelling meadow, by the banks of the +lake-like river, the finest conventual ruins in England.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p158b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Tintern" +title= +"Tintern" +src="images/p158s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Tintern Abbey, though one of the oldest of the Cistercian +communities in this country, was never famous either for its +wealth, or the number of its brethren; and at the dissolution it +contained only thirteen monks, supported by a rental of between +two and three hundred pounds at the highest calculation. <a +name="citation158"></a><a href="#footnote158" +class="citation">[158]</a> It was founded in 1131 by Walter +de Clare, and dedicated to the Virgin <a name="page159"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 159</span>Mary; but the endowments were +greatly increased by Gilbert de Strongbow, lord of Striguil and +Chepstow, and afterwards earl of Pembroke. The religious +colony consisted of Cistercians, otherwise called White Monks, +introduced into England only three years before, where they +formed an establishment at Waverley in Surrey. These +brethren spread so luxuriantly, however, that in the reign of +Henry VIII. there were thirty-six greater, and thirty-nine lesser +monasteries, and twenty-six nunneries, of their rule.</p> +<p>The founder of the church was Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk; +and it would appear that the choir was finished and consecrated +before the rest of the building was complete, a circumstance not +unusual at that time. The consecration took place in 1268; +and in the body of the church the architecture is of a style long +subsequent. The remains of the church are now the only +interesting parts of the ruin, at least as a picture: and they +are in fact what is called “Tintern Abbey;” although +there are still fragments remaining here and there of the other +parts of the pile. The church was built in the regular +cathedral <a name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +160</span>form; with a nave, north and south aisles, transept and +choir, and a tower which stood in the centre.</p> +<p>Complete as the demolition is, there are at least vestiges, +even in the most ruinous parts, which explain the original form, +and even most of the details of the edifice. The very +effects of time, as may be well supposed, are here among the +principal advantages. The broken outlines, the isolated +columns, the roofless walls, are all adjuncts of the picturesque; +but added to these, there are the curtains, the canopies, the +chaplets, coronals, festoons, of ivy, mosses and lichens, which +give as much effect to a ruin, as rich draperies do to naked +walls.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p160b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Tintern Abbey" +title= +"Tintern Abbey" +src="images/p160s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The tiles which formed the flooring have been removed; and a +carpet of smooth turf laid down, on which fragments of columns, +monuments, statues, and sculptures are scattered. This of +course is not entirely the doing of time; but art is not +displayed obtrusively enough to offend. A ruined edifice, +it should be observed, although this is frequently forgotten by +critics, is a work of man and nature <i>conjointly</i>; and the +traces, therefore, of taste or ingenuity are not to be <a +name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 161</span>condemned, +as if these were exercised in shaping a cliff or amending a +cataract.</p> +<p>Gilpin describes Tintern Abbey as occupying “a great +eminence, in the middle of a circular valley;” and another +author declares its site, somewhat tautologically, to be a +<i>flat plain</i>; to which some idle person has taken the +liberty of appending this marginal note, in the copy of the work +in the British Museum—“Flat plain indeed! It is +situated just at the brow of a richly wooded hill!” +The truth is, that the ruin itself is not to be entirely depended +upon, as it contrives to assume a different appearance even in +respect of position, at every turn. Viewed from a short +distance down the river, it actually looks as if standing on an +eminence; but on a nearer approach, we find it in reality not +greatly elevated above line of the water. It is in fact +built at the bottom of the valley, in a spot chosen apparently +for solitude and meditation. The solitude, however, it must +be confessed is not now so complete as one would wish. The +inhabitants of the monastery, it is true, have vanished, but +their places have been supplied by poor cottagers, who hide their +misery in the very cells of the <a name="page162"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 162</span>monks; and, if this were not enough, +fragments of the ruin have been broken up, or unearthed, for the +construction of other hovels. In the following description +will be found the opinions on this remarkable scene of archdeacon +Coxe, who, together with the less correct, but more +<i>artistical</i> Gilpin, have been hitherto the only recognised +authorities of the Wye.</p> +<blockquote><p>“We disembarked about half a mile above the +village of Tintern, and followed the sinuous course of the +Wye. As we advanced to the village, we passed some +picturesque ruins hanging over the edge of the water, which are +supposed to have formed part of the abbot’s villa, and +other buildings occupied by the monks; some of these remains are +converted into dwellings and cottages, others are interspersed +among the iron founderies and habitations.</p> +<p>“The first appearance of the celebrated remains of the +abbey church did not equal my expectations, as they are +half-concealed by mean buildings, and the triangular shape of the +gable ends has a formal appearance.</p> +<p>“After passing a miserable row of cottages, and forcing +our way through a crowd of importunate <a +name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 163</span>beggars, we +stopped to examine the rich architecture of the west front; but +the door being suddenly opened, the inside perspective of the +church called forth an instantaneous burst of admiration, and +filled me with delight, such as I scarcely ever before +experienced on a similar occasion. The eye passes rapidly +along a range of elegant gothic pillars, and, glancing under the +sublime arches which supported the tower, fixes itself on the +splendid relics of the eastern window, the grand termination of +the choir.</p> +<p>“From the length of the nave, the height of the walls, +the aspiring form of the pointed arches, and the size of the east +window, which closes the perspective, the first impressions are +those of grandeur and sublimity. But as these emotions +subside, and we descend from the contemplation of the whole to +the examination of the parts, we are no less struck with the +regularity of the plan, the lightness of the architecture, and +the delicacy of the ornaments; we feel that elegance is its +characteristic no less than grandeur, and that the whole is a +combination of the beautiful and the sublime.</p> +<p><a name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +164</span>“The church was constructed in the shape of a +cathedral, and is an excellent specimen of gothic architecture in +its greatest purity. The roof is fallen in, and the whole +ruin open to the sky, but the shell is entire; all the pillars +are standing, except those which divided the nave from the +northern aisle, and their situation is marked by the remains of +the bases. The four lofty arches which supported the tower +spring high in the air, reduced to narrow rims of stone, yet +still preserving their original form. The arched pillars of +the choir and transept are complete; the shapes of all the +windows may be still discriminated, and the frame of the west +window is in perfect preservation; the design of the tracery is +extremely elegant, and when decorated with painted glass must +have produced a fine effect. Critics who censure this +window as too broad for its height, do not consider that it was +not intended for a particular object, but to harmonise with the +general plan; and had the architect diminished the breadth, in +proportion to the height, the grand effect of the perspective +would have been considerably lessened.</p> +<p>“The general form of the east window is <a +name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 165</span>entire, but +the frame is much dilapidated; it occupies the whole breadth of +the choir, and is divided into two large and equal compartments, +by a slender shaft, not less than fifty feet in height, which has +an appearance of singular lightness, and in particular points of +view seems suspended in the air.</p> +<p>“Nature has added her ornaments to the decorations of +art; some of the windows are wholly obscured, others partially +shaded with tufts of ivy, or edged with lighter foliage; the +tendrils creep along the walls, wind round the pillars, wreath +the capitals, or, hanging down in clusters, obscure the space +beneath.</p> +<p>“Instead of dilapidated fragments overspread with weeds +and choked with brambles, the floor is covered with a smooth +turf, which, by keeping the original level of the church, +exhibits the beauty of its proportions, heightens the effect of +the gray stone, gives a relief to the clustered pillars, and +affords an easy access to every part. Ornamented fragments +of the roof, remains of cornices and columns, rich pieces of +sculpture, sepulchral stones, and mutilated figures of monks and +heroes, whose ashes repose within these <a +name="page166"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 166</span>walls, are +scattered on the green sward, and contrast present desolation +with former splendour.</p> +<p>“Although the exterior appearance of the ruins is not +equal to the inside view, yet in some positions, particularly to +the east, they present themselves with considerable effect. +While Sir Richard Hoare was employed in sketching the +north-western side, I crossed the ferry, and walked down the +stream about half a mile. From this point, the ruins, +assuming a new character, seem to occupy a gentle eminence, and +impend over the river without the intervention of a single +cottage to obstruct the view. The grand east window, wholly +covered with shrubs, and half mantled with ivy, rises like the +portal of a majestic edifice embowered in wood. Through +this opening and along the vista of the church, the clusters of +ivy, which twine round the pillars or hang suspended from the +arches, resemble tufts of trees; while the thick mantle of +foliage, seen through the tracery of the west window, forms a +continuation of the perspective, and appears like an interminable +forest.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The reputation of Tintern Abbey depends <a +name="page167"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 167</span>upon no +historical associations. The romance of its situation is +heightened by no romance of incident. It is simply a part +of a picture, and might be entitled in the catalogue of a gallery +“an abbey.” The sepulchral remains it holds +retain neither name nor date; and one of the most entire of the +figures (supposed to be the effigies of the founder of the +monastery, which, however, must be looked for at Gloucester, +where according to Leland he was buried) is disputed the +possession of the usual number of fingers on the right hand; one +antiquary, hesitating between four and five, and another +according to it, more generously, five fingers—and a +thumb! In no part of the country has this means of +prolonging fame been more constantly resorted to than in +Monmouthshire; but unfortunately, owing to its geographical +position as a frontier district, in no part of the country has +the object been more frequently defeated. As a solitary +instance of this among thousands, we are tempted to quote a +fragment which just now catches our eye, from the rhymes of +<i>Churchyarde</i> (a most suitable name), and the rather that it +exhibits the poet of the “Worthines of <a +name="page168"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +168</span>Wales” in a more poetical light than usual. +He is describing the tombs in the church of Abergavenny; and +after noting the arms and other particulars, proceeds—</p> +<blockquote><p>“But note a greater matter now,<br /> +Upon his tomb in stone,<br /> +Were fourteene lords that knees did bow<br /> +Unto this lord alone.<br /> +Of this rare work a porch is made,<br /> +The barrons there remaine<br /> +In good old stone, and auncient trade,<br /> +To show all ages plaine,<br /> +What honour wass to Hastings due,<br /> +What honour he did win:<br /> +What armes he gave, and so to blaze<br /> +What lord had Hastings bin.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>But alas for the frailty of fame even so secured! The +dilapidated monument laughed in the unconscious rhymer’s +face through the rents of time; the principal effigies had been +removed to a window, and several of the “fourteene +lords” placed in a porch; and the very name of him whose +memory the whole had been intended to perpetuate, had become a +matter of doubt and controversy! “Some say this great +lord was <a name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +169</span>called Bruce and not Hastings, but most do hold opinion +he was called Hastings!”</p> +<p>It may seem almost superfluous to give any further evidence +respecting the picturesque character of Tintern Abbey; but as we +design this volume not merely to act the part of a sign-post, but +to save the common reader the trouble of reference, we shall add +two other quotations.</p> +<blockquote><p>“It would be difficult to imagine a more +favourable situation, or a more sublime ruin. The entrance +to it seems as if contrived by the hand of some skilful +scene-painter to produce the most striking effect. The +church, which is large, is still almost perfect; the roof alone, +and a few of the pillars, are wanting. The ruins have +received just that degree of care which is consistent with the +full preservation of their character; all unpicturesque rubbish +which could obstruct the view is removed, without any attempt at +repair or embellishment. A beautiful smooth turf covers the +ground, and luxuriant creeping plants grow amid the stones. +The fallen ornaments are laid in picturesque confusion, and a +perfect avenue of thick ivy-stems climb up the pillars, and form +a <a name="page170"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 170</span>roof +over head. The better to secure the ruin, a new gate of +antique workmanship, with iron ornaments, is put up. When +this is suddenly opened, the effect is most striking and +surprising. You suddenly look down the avenue of ivy-clad +pillars, and see their grand perspective lines closed, at a +distance of three hundred feet, by a magnificent window eighty +feet high and thirty broad: through its intricate and beautiful +tracery you see a wooded mountain, from whose side project abrupt +masses of rock. Over head the wind plays in the garlands of +ivy, and the clouds pass swiftly across the deep blue sky. +When you reach the centre of the church, whence you look to the +four extremities of its cross, you see the two transept windows +nearly as large and beautiful as the principal one; through each +you command a picture totally different, but each in the wild and +sublime style which harmonises so perfectly with the +building. Immediately round the ruin is a luxuriant +orchard. In spring, how exquisite must be the effect of +these grey venerable walls rising out of that sea of fragrance +and beauty!”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The other extract belongs to the class sentimental, <a +name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 171</span>and is not +a description of Tintern Abbey, but of the mood of mind to which +it disposes.</p> +<blockquote><p>“The great tree, or vegetable rock, or +emperor of the oaks (if you please), before which I bowed with a +sort of reverence in the fields of Tintern, and which for so many +ages has borne all the blasts and bolts of heaven, I should deem +it a gratification of a superior kind, to approach again with +‘unsandaled feet’ to pay the same homage, and to +kindle with the same devotion. But I should find amidst the +magnificent ruins of the adjoining abbey, something of a sublime +cast, to give poignancy to my feelings. I must be +alone. My mind must be calm and pensive. It must be +midnight. The moon, half veiled in clouds, must be just +emerging from behind the neighbouring hills. All must be +silent, except the winds gently rushing among the ivy of the +ruins. I should then invoke the ghosts of the abbey; and +fancy, with one stroke of her magic wand, would rouse them from +their dusty beds, and lead them into the centre of the +ruin. I should approach their shadowy existences with +reverence, make inquiries respecting the manners and customs, and +genius and fate of antiquity, <a name="page172"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 172</span>desire to have a glimpse of the +destiny of future ages, and enter in conversations which would be +too sacred, and even dangerous to communicate.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The only event unconnected with the monastery which is +assigned to this locality is a <i>battle</i>. Whether it +was fought on the hills above, or whether the demon of war +actually intruded within the charmed circle of Tintern—or +whether the whole is a fable, invented for the express purpose of +desecrating the very idea of the place—we cannot +tell. But however this may be, the fact, or the falsehood, +is commemorated in the following epitaph, which is placed on the +north side of the chancel of the church of Mathern.</p> +<blockquote><p>Here lyeth entombed the body of<br /> +Frederic, King of Morganoch or<br /> +Glamorgan, commonly called<br /> +St. Thewdrick, and accounted a martyr,<br /> +because he was slain in a battle against<br /> +the Saxons, being then Pagans, and in<br /> +defence of the Christian religion. The<br /> +battle was fought at Tintern, when he<br /> +obtained a great victory. He died here<br /> +being in his way homeward, three<br /> +<a name="page173"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 173</span>days +after the battle, having taken<br /> +order with Maurice his son, who suc-<br /> +ceeded him in the kingdom, that in the<br /> +same place he should happen to decease, a<br /> +church should be built, and his body buri-<br /> +ed in y<sup>e</sup> same, which was accordingly performed<br /> + in the year +1601.</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><a name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +174</span>CHAPTER XII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">The Wye below Tintern—Banagor +Crags—Lancaut—Piercefield +Bay—Chepstow—Ancient and modern bridge—Chepstow +Castle—Roger de Britolio—Romance of +history—Chepstow in the civil wars—Marten the +regicide.</p> +<p>The Wye being now a tide river, time requires to be studied by +the traveller who would see it in its beauty or grandeur. +The shores must be hidden by the full stream, and the overhanging +woods fling their shadow as before over the glancing +waters. Some bargain for the moon, to silver the tree tops, +and send her angel-visitings through the vistas of foliage. +But the truth is, before reaching this point we have become the +spoiled children of nature; we have grown fastidious in our +admiration, and would criticise perfection itself.</p> +<p><a name="page175"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 175</span>With +the one drawback of the sludginess of the shores at ebb water, +the Wye below Tintern is as worthy of our homage as ever. +But it may be, that the romance of its rocks and woods impending +over the current, and the deep stillness of the scene, broken +only by the rippling sound of its flow, may harmonize <i>too</i> +closely with the holy solitude we have left. Our sensations +are uninterrupted; we carry with us the ruins and their +associations; the mouldering abbey glides upon the stream before +us; and the recesses of the rocks, and deep paths of the woods, +are peopled with the spectres of the monastery. Thus we +have no new impressions to mark our progress, and one of the +finest parts of the river escapes almost without notice.</p> +<p>There is notwithstanding much variety in this part of our +course. The reaches are short; the banks steep, sometimes +overhanging in naked precipices, sometimes waving with romantic +woods; while numerous narrow promontories intercept the view, and +cut the scene into separate pictures. Banagor Crags, on the +left, form a stupendous wall of cliff, extending for a +considerable distance, without presenting anything <a +name="page176"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 176</span>in +themselves to relieve the eye, except here and there some +recesses or small shrubs, painting their interstices. But, +as if aware of the disadvantage even of a sublime uniformity, +nature has spread upon the opposite side a scene incomparable for +richness and variety. A bright green sward, broken into +narrow patches, swells upwards from the water’s edge, till +it is lost in acclivities mantled with woods; and rising from the +ridge of these, a mass of perpendicular rock towers aloft to the +height, as it is computed, of eight hundred feet, overhung with +shaggy thickets.</p> +<p>We now turn the peninsula of Lancaut, which comes sloping down +from Tiddenham Chase, till it terminates in fertile meadows; and, +on the right, rise from the water’s edge, with a kind of +fantastic majesty, the Piercefield cliffs, capped with +magnificent woods. Twelve projecting masses of these rocks +have received the names of the twelve apostles, and a thirteenth +is called St. Peter’s Thumb. While wondering where +this will end, we sweep round another point, and find ourselves +in Piercefield Bay. To the right a line of perpendicular +cliffs is still seen, but <a name="page177"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 177</span>crowned instead of trees with an +embattled fortress; which, for a moment, might seem to have been +cut out of the rock. The view is closed by a range of red +cliffs, with the magnificent iron bridge of Chepstow spanning the +river. This is the last of the great views <i>on</i> the +Wye; and if seen under favorable circumstances of time and tide, +it is one of the finest.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p177b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Chepstow" +title= +"Chepstow" +src="images/p177s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Chepstow stands on the side of an acclivity, overlooked itself +on all sides by loftier hills, so that from every part of the +town a different view is obtained. Approaching it from the +road which leads from the New Passage, this position, owing to +the singularity of a part of the higher ground, gives the scene a +very peculiar appearance. Nothing is seen but the red +cliffs of the Wye, and the tall masts of the shipping rising +among them; and it is not till close at hand that the houses +appear, shelving down to the river. Archdeacon Coxe +observes, that he has seldom visited any town whose picturesque +situation surpassed that of Chepstow; and according to Mr. +Wyndham, another traveller in this district, “the beauties +are so uncommonly excellent, that the most exact critic in +landscape would scarcely <a name="page178"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 178</span>wish to alter a position in the +assemblage of woods, cliffs, ruins, and water.” Among +these features, the Wye and its banks are conspicuous. The +ridge of cliff on the left bank below the bridge is remarkable +both for its form and variety of colouring; while, on the +opposite bank above, the gigantic remains of the castle, +stretching along the brink of the precipice, give an air of +romance to the picture, not frequently found in one of the +crowded haunts of men.</p> +<p>The bridge is of cast iron, and was completed only in +1816. There are five arches, resting on stone piers; but +although in reality a massive structure, it has the air of +lightness, when viewed from the river, which iron bridges usually +possess. The old bridge was formerly composed of a level +floor, carried along wooden piers, except in the centre, where a +massive pillar of stone, dividing Gloucester and Monmouth, was +the support. Afterwards, however, stone piers were +substituted for those on the Monmouth side, before the two +counties joined in the erection of the present noble +structure.</p> +<p>“According to tradition,” says Mr. Coxe, +“the bridge of the Wye was formerly half a <a +name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 179</span>mile above +the present bridge, at a place called Eddis, nearly opposite to +the alcove in Piercefield grounds, and seemingly in a direction +leading towards an ancient encampment which encircles the +grotto. The remains of the abutments are said to have been +visible in the memory of some of the present generation; and the +vestiges of a pitched road were recently found in digging near +the spot. I walked to the spot, but could not discern the +smallest traces of the ancient bridge, and the ground on which +the pitched road was discovered was planted with potatoes. +I was, however, amply gratified for my disappointment by the +pleasantness of the walk by the side of the river, the beauty of +the hanging woods of Piercefield, and the picturesque appearance +of the castle.”</p> +<p>The castle of Chepstow is said by some antiquaries, to have +been built originally by Julius Cæsar; which is denied by +others, on the reasonable grounds, that Julius Cæsar never +was there, and that Roman reliques, although abundant in the +neighbourhood, have never been discovered in the town. +However this may be, the name by which it is at present known, is +Saxon, <a name="page180"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +180</span>and denotes a place of traffic; and Leland traces at +least its prosperity to its situation being favourable for +commerce. “The towne of Chepstowe,” says he, +“hath been very strongly walled, as yet well doth +appere. The walles began at the grete bridge, over the Wy, +and so came to the castel; the which yet standeth fayer and +strong, not far from the ruin of the bridge. A grete +lykelyhood ys, that when Carguen began to decay, then began +Chepstow to flourish, for yt standeth far better, as upon Wy +there ebbing and flowing, by the Rage coming out of the Severn, +so that to Chepstowe may come grete shippes.”</p> +<p>The castle, as we have said, crowns the brow of a precipice, +forming here the right bank of the Wye; and its walls, on the +northern side, are so close to the edge as to seem nothing more +than a prolongation of the rock. The rest of the fortress +was defended by a moat and its own lofty towers.</p> +<p>The area was divided into four courts. The first, which +is entered by a Norman gateway, contained the grand hall, the +kitchen, and other apartments, on a scale of considerable +grandeur. <a name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +181</span>At the south-eastern angle of this court is the keep, +or citadel, now called Harry Marten’s Tower. The +second court contains no architectural remains, except the walls; +but in the third is a remarkable building, usually designated as +the chapel. It seems to have formed one magnificent +apartment, probably with a gallery running along the sides. +The fourth court was separated from the rest by a moat, which was +crossed by a drawbridge. Whether a former building stood +here or not, William Fitzosborn, earl of Hereford, is said in +Domesday Book to have built the castle of Chepstow. It was +inherited by his third son Roger de Britolio, who was deprived of +his estates, and condemned to perpetual imprisonment for +rebellion. The fierce character of this Norman baron is +well illustrated in the following anecdote preserved by +Dugdale.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Though he frequently used many scornful and +contumelious expressions towards the king, yet he was pleased, at +the celebration of the feast of Easter in a solemn manner (as was +then used), to send to this earl Rodger, at that time in prison, +his royal robes, who so disdained the <a name="page182"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 182</span>favour, that he forthwith caused a +great fire to be made, and the mantle, the inner surcoat of silk, +and the upper garment, lined with precious furs, to be suddenly +burnt. Which being made known to the king, he became not a +little displeased, and said, ‘<i>Certainly he is a very +proud man who has thus abused me</i>; <i>but</i>, <i>by the +brightness of God</i>, <i>he shall never come out of prison as +long as I live</i>.’ Which expression was fulfilled +to the utmost, for he never was released during the king’s +life, nor after, but died in prison.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In the reign of Henry I., we find Chepstow in the possession +of the Clare family; of whom Richard de Clare, surnamed, like his +father, Strongbow, is famous for his Irish adventures. +‘At the solicitation of Dermot Macnagh, king of Leinster, +who had been dethroned by his rival Roderic the Great, king of +Connaught (for there were then five kings in Ireland), he +proceeded to that country with twelve hundred men, to espouse the +cause of the unfortunate potentate: being offered, in the spirit +of the age, his daughter for a wife, and his kingdom for an +inheritance. Strongbow landed at Waterford in 1171; <a +name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 183</span>married the +princess; and his father-in-law dying at the very moment demanded +by poetical justice, conquered his promised kingdom, and took +possession of Dublin the capital. The romance, however, was +spoiled by Henry II., who, in high dudgeon at this presumption of +a subject, confiscated his estates, and carried an army over to +Ireland, with the purpose of annexing Leinster to the English +crown. Strongbow submitted; abandoned Waterford and Dublin +to his feudal master; was restored to his estates, and made +constable of Ireland. His character is thus described by +Giraldus Cambrensis:</p> +<blockquote><p>“This earle was somewhat ruddie and of +sanguine complexion and freckle face, his eyes greie, his face +feminine, his voice small, and his necke little, but somewhat of +high stature: he was verie liberall, corteous, and gentle; what +he could not compass or bring to passe in deed, he would win by +good word and gentle speeches. In time of peace he was more +redie to yield and obeie than rule and beare swaie. Out of +the campe he was more like to a souldier companion than a +captaine or ruler; but in the camp and in the warres he carried +with him the state and <a name="page184"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 184</span>countenance of a valiante +captaine. Of himselfe he would not adventure anie thing; +but being advised and set on, he refused no attempts; but for +himselfe he would not rashlie adventure or presumptuouslie take +anie thing in hand. In the fighte and battell he was a most +assured token and signe to the whole companie, either to stand +valiante to the fight, or for policie to retire. In all +chances of warre he was still one and the same manner of man, +being neither dismaied with adversitie, or puffed up with +prosperitie.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>By the marriage of a daughter of Richard Strongbow (who had no +male issue) our castle next came into the hands of one of the +greatest men of his time, William, marshal of England, lord +protector of the kingdom; and by the marriage of his daughter +(for although he had five sons they all died without issue), it +fell to Hugh Bigod, earl of Norfolk. This daughter was +Maud, remarkable for having been in her widowhood created +<i>marshal</i> in virtue of her descent, the king himself, Henry +III., solemnly giving the truncheon into her hands. She was +buried in Tintern Abbey in 1248, her body being carried into the +choir by her four sons.</p> +<p><a name="page185"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 185</span>After +changing hands several times, Chepstow Castle appears to have +been <i>sold</i> to the earl of Pembroke; whose heiress Elizabeth +conveyed it by marriage, as we have already had occasion to +relate, to Sir Charles Somerset, afterwards earl of +Worcester. Churchyarde mentions the fact of the sale in his +uncouth rhymes.</p> +<blockquote><p>“To Chepstowe yet, my pen agayne must +passe,<br /> +When Strongbow once (an earl of rare renown),<br /> +A long time since, the lord and maister was<br /> +(In princly sort) of casle and of towne.<br /> +Then after that, to Mowbray it befell,<br /> +Of Norfolke duke, a worthie known full well;<br /> +Who sold the same to William Harbert, knight,<br /> +That was the earle of Pembroke then by right.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>During the civil wars, this place was considered of great +importance.</p> +<blockquote><p>“At first, Chepstow was garrisoned for the +king, until in 1645, Colonel Morgan, governor of Gloucester, at +the head of three hundred horse and four hundred foot, and +assisted by the mountaineers, with little difficulty made himself +master of the town, and in a few days compelled the governor, +Colonel Fitzmorris, to surrender <a name="page186"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 186</span>the castle. But the castle was +afterwards surprised by the loyalists, under Sir Nicholas Hemeys, +who, in the absence of the governor, by means of a secret +correspondence, obtained possession of the western gate, and made +the garrison prisoners of war. On this event Cromwell +marched against it in person, took possession of the town, but +assailed the castle without success, though garrisoned only by a +hundred and sixty men. He then left Colonel Ewer, with a +train of artillery, seven companies of foot, and four troops of +horse, to prosecute the siege. But the garrison defended +themselves valiantly, until the provisions were exhausted, and +even then refused to surrender under promise of quarter, hoping +to escape by means of a boat, which they had provided for that +purpose. A soldier of the parliamentary army, however, swam +across the river, with a knife between his teeth, cut the cable +of the boat, and brought it away; the castle was at length +forced, and Sir Nicholas Hemys and forty slain in the +assault. This event was considered by the parliament so +important, that the captain who brought the news was rewarded +with fifty pounds, and a letter of thanks was sent <a +name="page187"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 187</span>to Colonel +Ewer and the officers and soldiers engaged in that +service.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In 1645, the castle, with the other estates belonging to the +marquis of Worcester, were settled upon Oliver Cromwell, but were +given back to the family at the restoration.</p> +<blockquote><p>“For thirty years secluded from mankind,<br +/> +Here Marten lingered. Often have these walls<br /> +Echoed his footsteps, as with even tread<br /> +He paced around his prison. Not to him<br /> +Did nature’s fair varieties exist:<br /> +He never saw the sun’s delightful beams,<br /> +Save when thro’ yon high bars he pour’d a sad<br /> +And broken splendor.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>All this, it now appears, is a poetical exaggeration, and the +thirty years’ captivity (diminished to twenty years) passed +away as easily as the sense of captivity would permit. The +regicide was permitted to spend his property as he pleased, to +enjoy the association of his wife, to receive visits, and even to +return them in the neighbourhood, accompanied by a guard.</p> +<p>Marten was one of the most zealous of those men who cast down +the statue of royalty from a <a name="page188"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 188</span>pedestal, upon which, although +re-erected, it can never again stand securely of its own strength +unsupported by public opinion. He does not appear to have +been himself of irreproachable character, but he was honest at +least in theory, and true to his principles, such as they +were.</p> +<p>“Being authorised,” says Anthony Wood, “by +parliament, about 1642, he forced open a great iron chest, within +the college of Westminster, and thence took the crown, robes, +sword, and sceptre belonging anciently to king Edward the +Confessor, and used by all our kings at their inaugurations; and +with a scorn greater than his lusts and the rest of his vices, he +openly declared that there should be no farther use of those toys +and trifles, and in the jolity of that humour he invested George +Wither (an old puritan satyrist) in the royal habiliments; who +being crowned and royally arrayed (as well right became him) did +first march about the room, with a stately garb, and afterwards +with a thousand apish and ridiculous actions exposed those sacred +ornaments to contempt and laughter.”</p> +<p>Marten was a member of the high court of justice, regularly +attended the trial, was present <a name="page189"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 189</span>when sentence was pronounced, and +signed the warrant of death. It is added, that when +Cromwell took up the pen to sign, he spattered some ink upon +Marten; and Marten, when his turn came, returned the +frolic! The two friends, however, were enemies at +last. Cromwell would have made himself king if he had been +able, but Marten said, “If they must have a king, he had +rather have had the last than any gentleman in England; he found +no fault in his person, but in his office.” When the +regicides who surrendered to the king’s proclamation were +condemned, they claimed mercy on the score of having given +themselves up in order to save their lives; and Marten, always +forward and fearless, added, “that he had never obeyed any +proclamation before this, and hoped that he should not be hanged +for taking the king’s word now.” He was at +length condemned to perpetual imprisonment, but both in the Tower +and in Chepstow Castle he was treated with great lenity. He +died of apoplexy in the twentieth year of his confinement, and +seventy-eighth of his age. He was buried in the chancel of +the parish church at Chepstow, and a stone, with an inscription +<a name="page190"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 190</span>written +by himself placed over his body. This was removed, however, +to another part of the church, by the pious loyalty of a +succeeding vicar; but the stone being defaced, a new one was +substituted, by order of the churchwardens, in 1812, with the +original epitaph.</p> + +<blockquote><p> Here,<br +/> +September the 9, in the year of our Lord 1680,<br /> +Was buried a true Englishman,<br /> +Who in Berkshire was well known<br /> +To love his country’s freedom ’bove his own,<br /> +But living immured full twenty year,<br /> +Had time to write, as does appear,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">HIS EPITAPH.</p> +<p>H ere, or elsewhere (all’s one to you, to me),<br /> +E arth, air, or water, gripes my ghostly dust;<br /> +N o one knows how soon to be by fire set free.<br /> +R eader, if you an oft-tried rule will trust,<br /> +Y ou will gladly do and suffer what you must.</p> +<p>M y life was spent in serving you,<br /> +A nd death’s my pay (it seems), and welcome too;<br /> +R evenge destroying but itself, while I<br /> +T o birds of prey leave my old cage and fly.<br /> +E xamples preach to th’ eye, care then (mine says)<br /> +N ot how you end, but how you spend your days.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="page191"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 191</span>The +church was part of the chapel of a priory of Benedictine monks, +founded here soon after the Conquest; and is interesting from its +architecture, being for the greater part in the early Norman +style, but with ornamented gothic windows—and a tower +adorned by the taste of the present age with Greek pilasters!</p> +<h2><a name="page192"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +192</span>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">Piercefield—Points of view—Curious +appearance—Scenic character of the place—View from +Wyndcliff—Account of Valentine +Morris—Anecdotes—The Wye below Chepstow—Aust +Ferry—Black Rock Ferry—St. +Theodric—Conclusion.</p> +<p>The romantic region of Piercefield, extending from Chepstow to +Wyndcliff—a distance of about three miles by the sinuous +walk, is one of the grand attractions of this place. It is +nothing more, it is true, than a gentleman’s park; but then +the landscape gardener by whom this park was laid out is Nature +herself, who has lavished here her beauty, her grandeur, and her +romance, in the wildest profusion. Art is entirely +subservient to her purposes, opening the view where it was shut +in, and forming paths for the pilgrim foot that would approach to +worship.</p> +<p><a name="page193"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +193</span>“In the composition of the scenery,” says +the historical tourist, “the meandering Wye, the steep +cliffs, and the fertile peninsula of Lancaut, form the striking +characteristics.</p> +<p>“The Wye, which is everywhere seen from a great +elevation, passes between Wyndcliff and the Bangor rocks, winds +round the peninsula of Lancaut, under a semicircular chain of +stupendous cliffs, is lost in its sinuous course, and again +appears in a straight line at the foot of the Lancaut rocks, and +flows under the majestic ruins of Chepstow Castle towards the +Severn.</p> +<p>“The rocks are broken into a variety of fantastic +shapes, and scattered at different heights and different +positions: they start abruptly from the river, swell into gentle +acclivities, or hang on the summits of the hills; here they form +a perpendicular rampart, these jet into enormous projections, and +impend over the water.</p> +<p>“But their dizzy heights and abrupt precipices are +softened by the woods which form a no less conspicuous feature in +the romantic scenery; they are not meagre plantations placed by +art, but a tract of forests scattered by the hand of +nature. In one place they expand into open groves <a +name="page194"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 194</span>of large +oak, elm, and beech; in another form a shade of timber trees, +copses, and underwood, hiding all external objects, and wholly +impervious to the rays of the sun, they start from the crevices +of the rocks, feather their edges, crown their summits, clothe +their sides, and fill the intermediate hollows with a luxuriant +mass of foliage, bring to recollection of the border</p> +<blockquote><p>“‘Of Eden, where delicious +paradise,<br /> +Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green,<br /> +As with a rural mound, the champaign head<br /> +Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides,<br /> +With thicket o’ergrown, grotesque and wild,<br /> +Access denied, and over head up grew<br /> +Insuperable height of loftiest shade,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * * *</p> +<p>A sylvan scene and as the banks ascend<br /> +Shade above shade, a woody theatre<br /> +Of stateliest view.’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And this grandeur is heightened, not diminished, by the view +presented in the midst of fertile fields, and the simple details +of rural occupation. The peninsula of Laucaut, on the +opposite bank of the Wye, is a comparatively extensive farm, +cultivated to the highest perfection, <a name="page195"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 195</span>and rich with the gifts of +Ceres. It is dotted with trees, and a range of elms fringes +it on the side of the river. Towards the middle of its +pear-shaped area, or rather approaching the isthmus, stands the +farm house, with rocks and woods behind. The principal +points of view are the following:</p> +<p>1. The Lover’s Leap. 2. A seat near two beeches on +the edge of the precipice. 3. The Giant’s Cave, which +occupies the centre of the amphitheatre and overlooks Lancaut +peninsula. 4. The halfway seat under a large beech +tree. 5. The double view. 6. Above Piercewood. +7. The grotto. 8. The platform. 9. The alcove.</p> +<p>But other portions of the grounds not so frequently visited +are noticed by an observant traveller. “From the +Giant’s cave, a road winds beautifully along the brow of +the cliff to a grove of lofty oak, beech, and sycamore, which is +cleared from underwood, in the centre of the extensive forest +which spreads beneath the Lover’s Leap. In this +charming and sequestered spot is a cold bath supplied by a +copious and transparent rill, which springs at the foot of the +winding cliff, and ripples down the side of the declivity. +The road <a name="page196"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +196</span>then descends to Malridge meadow, on the bank of the +Wye, where the river appears like a lake, and the fertile +peninsula of Lancaut rises in a gentle declivity from the margin +of the stream to the isthmus.</p> +<p>“A beautiful walk, two miles in length, skirts this +meadow, at the foot of the stupendous range of Piercefield +cliffs, and then mounts to the house by steps, cut in a steep +rock. As the house stands several hundred feet above the +river, the ascent is long and difficult, but the toil is amply +repaid by the beauty and sublimity of the scene.”</p> +<p>From some of these points, it may be observed, the Severn, +seen <i>beyond</i> the Wye, appears to be considerably +<i>above</i> it; and, however easily explained the phenomenon may +be, an indescribably puzzling effect is produced by the idea that +the latter river, a few miles lower down, runs into the +former. The fact is noticed by Mr. Coxe, whose description +is truly excellent.</p> +<p>“From the Lover’s Leap the walk is carried through +a thick mantle of forests, with occasional openings, which seem +not the result of art or design, but the effect of chance or +nature, and <a name="page197"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +197</span>seats placed where the spectator may repose and view at +leisure the scenery above, beneath, and around. This</p> + +<blockquote><p> Bowery +walk<br /> +Of covert close, where scarce a speck of day<br /> +Falls on the lengthened gloom,</p> +</blockquote> +<p>is conformant to the genius of Piercefield; the screen of wood +prevents the uniformity of a bird’s eye view, and the +imperceptible bend of the amphitheatre conveys the spectator from +one part of the fairy region to the other without perceiving the +gradation. Hence the Wye is sometimes concealed or +half-obscured by overhanging foliage, at others, wholly expanding +to view, is seen sweeping beneath in a broad and circuitous +channel; hence in one place the Severn spreads in the midst of a +boundless expanse of country, and on the opposite side to the +Wye; at another both rivers appear on the same side, and the +Severn seems supported on the summit of the cliffs which form the +bank of the Wye. Hence the same objects present themselves +in different aspects, with varied accompaniments; hence the magic +transition from the impervious gloom of the <a +name="page198"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 198</span>forest to +open groves; from meadows and lawns, to rocks and precipices, and +from the beauties of English landscape, to the wildness of Alpine +scenery.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p198b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"View from Wyndcliff" +title= +"View from Wyndcliff" +src="images/p198s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>“The summit of Wind Cliff, which towers above the +northern extremity of the grounds, commands, in one point of +view, the whole extent of this interesting scenery: as I stood on +the brow of this precipice, I looked down on the fertile +peninsula of Lancaut, surrounded with rocks and forests, +contemplated the hanging wood, rich lawns, and romantic cliffs of +Piercefield, the castle and town of Chepstow, and traced the Wye, +sweeping in the true outline of beauty, from the Bangor crags to +its junction with the Severn, which spreads into an estuary, and +is lost in the distant ocean.</p> +<p>“A boundless extent of country is seen in every +direction from this commanding eminence, comprehending not less +than nine counties. In the midst of this expanse, I +principally directed my attention to the subject of my tour, +which now drew to a conclusion. I traced, with pleasing +satisfaction, not unmixed with regret, the luxuriant vallies and +romantic hills of this interesting <a name="page199"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 199</span>country, which I had traversed in +various directions, but I dwelt with peculiar admiration on the +majestic rampart which forms its boundary to the west, and +extends in one grand and unbroken outline, from the banks of the +Severn to the Black Mountains,</p> + +<blockquote><p> “‘Where +the broken landscape, by degrees<br /> +Ascending, roughens into rigid hills;<br /> +O’er which the Cambrian mountains, like far clouds<br /> +That skirt the blue horizon, dusky rise.’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Till Piercefield was inherited by Valentine Morris, whose +father had obtained it by purchase, the capabilities of the place +were unknown, principally, we should think, from the view being +hidden by a deep veil of forest. Morris saw everything, +however, with the eye of taste; and without officiously +intermeddling with nature, he contrived, by merely displaying the +treasures that before were concealed, and by opening out paths +through the woods to enable visiters to enjoy them, to render +Piercefield the fairy-land it now appears. He seems to have +been a man of a princely mind, but a thoughtless, unreflecting +disposition. His beautiful property <a +name="page200"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 200</span>was nothing +to him without admirers; and he was so grateful for admiration, +that he caused his servants to wait upon and feast, gratuitously, +even the vagrant stranger, as soon as his foot had entered the +magic circle. It is hardly necessary to add, therefore, +that by the time the beauties of Piercefield had become +extensively known, their master was ruined. Various other +circumstances, however, concurred to dissipate a large fortune, +and at length he retired to the West Indies, where he had +inherited considerable property. The following anecdote is +told of his adieu to Piercefield:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Before his final departure from England, he +indulged himself with bidding adieu to Piercefield. In +company with a friend he surveyed his own creation, for the last +time, with apparent composure and manly resignation. On his +return to Chepstow he was surrounded by the poor; who, throwing +themselves on their knees, thanked him for the numerous instances +of his bounty, and implored the blessing of Heaven on their +generous benefactor. Even this affecting spectacle he bore +with silent fortitude, and entered the chaise which conveyed him +to London. <a name="page201"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +201</span>But he no sooner reached the Gloucestershire side of +the bridge, than his ear was struck with the mournful peal of +bells, muffled, as is usual on the loss of departed friends; +deeply affected with this mark of esteem and regret, he could no +longer control his emotions, and burst into tears.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>He was made lieutenant-governor, and afterwards governor in +chief, of St. Vincent’s; where his affairs prospered so +much that he had almost recovered his fortune, when the island +was attacked by the French. With his usual nobility of +spirit, he advanced large sums out of his private funds towards +the defence, but all in vain: St. Vincent’s was taken, and +Morris Piercefield never could obtain from government either his +outlay or arrears. He returned to England to seek redress; +was arrested by his creditors, and himself a creditor of the +country to a large extent, languished in a debtor’s prison +for seven years. His books, movables, trifles, everything +were sold for bread; and his wife sunk under the horrors of their +situation, and became insane. Morris at length recovered +his liberty, and Lord North determined to shame his <a +name="page202"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +202</span>predecessors in the ministry, by performing an act of +common honesty. A minister, however, is seldom honest from +choice, because the outlay of money curtails his resources, and +because the wilful withholding, even of a just debt, does not +involve his character in society as a man of honour. Lord +North accordingly delayed the restitution as long as he could; +and poor Valentine Morris in 1789, was indebted to his +brother-in-law for a bed on which to die.</p> +<p>We cannot refrain from adding an anecdote relating to one of +the family of Walters, to whom the estate of Piercefield formerly +belonged.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Holding one day a conversation with Mr. +Knowles, whom he employed in building the alcove, he made +inquiries concerning the family of Walters, and asked if any of +them were yet living. Knowles replied that William, the +brother of John who sold the estate, was still alive and in great +distress. ‘Bring him to Piercefield,’ said +Morris, ‘and I will make him welcome.’ +‘If you would give him your whole estate he could not walk, +he is so much affected with the gout in his feet, and earns a +precarious livelihood by fishing.’ ‘If he then +cannot come <a name="page203"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +203</span>to me, I will take the first opportunity of calling on +him.’ Being some time afterwards engaged with Knowles +in forming an opening in the wood, he saw two men in a boat; +‘Stay here,’ he said to Knowles, ‘I will cross +the river in that boat, and examine whether the objects I want to +show can be seen from hence.’ Descending hastily he +hailed the watermen, leaped into the boat, was ferried over, and +on his return entered into conversation with the men, and +inquired their names and condition. ‘My name,’ +said one of them, ‘is * * * * *, I am a native of Chepstow; +and that man, pointing to his companion, is William +Walters.’ ‘What, Walters of Piercefield!’ +exclaimed Morris. ‘Yes, please your honour, I am the +brother of John, who sold the estate that you now +enjoy.’ Morris made no reply; but giving a gratuity +to each of the men, leaped on shore, rapidly ascended the hill, +and rejoining Knowles, cried, ‘I have been talking with +Walters:’ taking out several guineas, he added, +‘carry these to him, and tell him that he shall never want +while it is in my power to assist him.’ Knowles +suggested, that as the man was much addicted to liquor, he would +render <a name="page204"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +204</span>him more service by a weekly allowance. The next +market-day one of Morris’s servants carried to Walters a +joint of meat, and a small sum of money, which was continued +weekly until his death. Morris defrayed the expenses of his +funeral, and his carriage conveyed the corpse to St. Arvans, +where it was interred in the family vault.” <a +name="citation204"></a><a href="#footnote204" +class="citation">[204]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>From Chepstow to the confluence of the Wye with the Severn, +the distance is three miles; but although the banks are in +general lofty, they possess no features of interest to the +descending traveller. It may be sufficient merely to name +the Red Rocks, the Hardwick Cliffs, and Thornwell Woods. +After these St. Ewan’s Rocks appear on the left bank; and +we glide gradually into the wide expanse of the Severn. A +prolongation, however, of the left bank continues for some time +after we are fairly out of the Wye; the peninsula of Beachley, +extending almost half way across the Severn. From this is +the ferry of the Aust Passage, supposed to have been named after +one of the Roman generals. A <a name="page205"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 205</span>steam-packet now plies instead of an +open boat, and lands passengers at a handsome pier at all hours +of the tide.</p> +<p>On the Monmouthshire coast, a little way beyond the mouth of +the Wye, is the Black Rock Inn of the New Passage ferry, +supposed, notwithstanding its name, to be as ancient as the +other. This ferry was suppressed by Oliver Cromwell, on +account of a catastrophe which took place here of a very +interesting description. When the king was pursued by his +enemies, he crossed the Severn to Chiswell Pill on the opposite +side; but when the boatmen returned to the Black Rock, they found +a party of sixty armed republicans, waiting to follow the royal +fugitive. The ferrymen were royalists, but there was no +resisting commands enforced by so many drawn swords, and +reluctantly they took the enemies of their prince on board, and +pulled across the Severn. They landed their unwelcome +freight upon the English Stones, which appeared to be a part of +the shore, but was in reality separated by water, fordable only +at low tide. The tide had just turned. Some moments, +no doubt, were lost in dismay, and some in shouting <a +name="page206"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 206</span>to the +treacherous boatmen, who lay upon their oars to watch the +event. The English Stones disappeared with a suddenness +customary in the flow of that river; and the cries of sixty +drowning men were lost in the rush of the wild waters of the +Severn.</p> +<p>Before the Black Rock Inn, and near the mouth of the Wye, is +Mathern, formerly the episcopal residence of the bishops of +Llandaff. The church close by is the one pointed to by +tradition as having been raised over the ashes of Theodoric, the +hermit-king, who desecrated the holy solitude of Tintern with the +sounds of battle.</p> +<blockquote><p>“The manor of Matherne, where there is now a +palace, was given to the bishops of Llandaff by Maurice, king of +Glamorganshire, about the year 560, on the following +occasion:—His father, St. Theodoric, as he is usually +called, having resigned his crown to this son, embraced the life +of a hermit. The Saxons invading the country, Theodoric was +reluctantly called from his hermitage to take the command of the +army; he defeated them near Tintern upon the Wye. Being +mortally wounded in the engagement, he precipitated his return, +that he might die among <a name="page207"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 207</span>his friends, and desired his son to +erect a church, and bury him on the spot where he breathed his +last: but scarcely had he proceeded five miles, when he expired +at a place near the conflux of the Wye and Severn. Hence, +according to his desire, a chapel being erected, his body was +placed in a stone coffin. As I was giving orders to repair +this coffin, which was either broken by chance or decayed by age, +I discovered his bones, not in the smallest degree changed, +though after a period of a thousand years, the skull retaining +the aperture of a large wound, which appeared as if it had been +recently inflicted. Maurice gave the contiguous estate to +the church, and assigned to the place the name of Merthur +Tewdrick, or <i>the martyrdom of Theodorick</i>; who, because he +perished in battle against the enemies of the christian name, is +esteemed a martyr.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Our task is now finished: we turn away to seek “fresh +fields and pastures new,” but the murmur of the Wye will +remain long in our ear.</p> +<h2><a name="page208"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +208</span>DISTANCES IN THE TOUR OF THE WYE.</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>From the source of the Wye to</p> +</td> +<td><p>miles.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Stedva Gerrig</p> +</td> +<td><p>2½</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Rhaiader</p> +</td> +<td><p>17½</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Builth</p> +</td> +<td><p>14</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hay</p> +</td> +<td><p>15¼</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Clifford Castle</p> +</td> +<td><p>2½</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Hereford</p> +</td> +<td><p>16½</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Ross</p> +</td> +<td><p>14¼</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h3>FROM ROSS TO MONMOTH AND CHEPSTOW.</h3> +<table> +<tr> +<td colspan="4"><p style="text-align: center"><i>By Land</i>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>m</i>.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>f</i>.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>p</i>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>From Ross by the turnpike to Monmouth</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>In a straight line, or as the crow flies</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>From Ross to Chepstow by the turnpike</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">24</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>By Coleford</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>In a straight line</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">16</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>The base or supposed tunnel of the hill, between Coldwell and +the New Weir, is six hundred yards; the circuit of the river is +four miles two furlongs.</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td colspan="4"><p style="text-align: center"><a +name="page209"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 209</span><i>By +Water</i>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>m</i>.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>f</i>.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>p</i>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>From Ross to Goodrich Castle</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>To Coldwell </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>To New Weir</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>To Monmouth</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>From Ross to Monmouth</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">20</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>To Tintern</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">0</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>To Chepstow</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">60</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>From Ross to Chepstow</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">37</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">60</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h3>NAMES OF PLACES AS THEY OCCUR IN DESCENDING THE RIVER FROM +ROSS.</h3> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">right +bank</span>.</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">left +bank</span>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Wilton Bridge and Castle</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Weir End</p> +</td> +<td><p>Hill or New Hill Court</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Pencraig House and Wood</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Goodrich</span> Court</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> Castle</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> Priory or Haverford</p> +</td> +<td><p>Walford Church</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>North side of Coppet Wood Hill</p> +</td> +<td><p>Lays Hill</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p>Bishop’s Wood</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p>Ruerdean Church</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Court Field</p> +</td> +<td><p>Lidbrook</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Welsh Bicknor</p> +</td> +<td><p>Rosemary Topping</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Mr. Warren’s Monument</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Coldwell Rocks</span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>South side of Coppet Wood Hill</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Symond’s Yat</span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Goodrich Church</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Whitchurch</p> +</td> +<td><p><span class="smcap">New Weir</span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><a name="page210"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +210</span>Great Doward</p> +</td> +<td><p>Highmeadow Woods</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Arthur’s Vale</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Little Doward and Lays House</p> +</td> +<td><p>Table Mount</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Dixton Church</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Monmouth</span></p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Troy House</p> +</td> +<td><p>Halfway House</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Penalt</p> +</td> +<td><p>Redbrook</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Whitebrook</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Pen-y-van Hill and Maypole</p> +</td> +<td><p>Wye Seal-house</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Paper Mills</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Pilstone House</p> +</td> +<td><p>Big’s Weir House</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Llandogo</span></p> +</td> +<td><p>St. Briavels</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Coedithal Weir</p> +</td> +<td><p>Hudknolls</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Llyn Weir</p> +</td> +<td><p>Brook Weir</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tintern</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Fielding’s House</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Tintern Abbey</span></p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p>Bennagor Crags</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Wyndcliff</span> and Moss Cottage</p> +</td> +<td><p>Fryer’s Rocks</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Lover’s Leap</p> +</td> +<td><p>Lancaut</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Piercefield</span></p> +</td> +<td><p>Piercefield Bay</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Twelve Apostles</p> +</td> +<td><p>Tiddenham Rocks</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><span class="smcap">Chepstow</span></p> +</td> +<td><p>Tutshill</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h3>FROM MONMOUTH TO CHEPSTOW BY THE NEW ROAD.</h3> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>Upper Redbrook</p> +</td> +<td><p>2¼ miles.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Lower Redbrook</p> +</td> +<td><p>¼</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Florence College</p> +</td> +<td><p>3</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Big’s Weir</p> +</td> +<td><p>½</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Llandogo</p> +</td> +<td><p>1</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p><a name="page211"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +211</span>Tintern</p> +</td> +<td><p>2¾</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Tintern Abbey</p> +</td> +<td><p>¾</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Wyndcliff and Moss Cottage</p> +</td> +<td><p>2</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>St. Arvans</p> +</td> +<td><p>1</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Crossway Green</p> +</td> +<td><p>1½</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Chepstow</p> +</td> +<td><p>½</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p>15½</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>The distance from Chepstow to the embouchure of the Wye about +three miles.</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<div class="gapmediumline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">J. Haddon, Castle Street, +Finsbury.</p> +<h2>Footnotes</h2> +<p><a name="footnote41"></a><a href="#citation41" +class="footnote">[41]</a> Duncomb’s Collections.</p> +<p><a name="footnote63"></a><a href="#citation63" +class="footnote">[63]</a> Monumenta Antiqua.</p> +<p><a name="footnote85"></a><a href="#citation85" +class="footnote">[85]</a> Whateley’s Observations on +Modern Gardening.</p> +<p><a name="footnote106"></a><a href="#citation106" +class="footnote">[106]</a> Of late years, Mr. Pennie +attempted to revive a taste for such subjects in his +“Britain’s Historical Drama,” but without +effect. It a work, however, of considerable merit. +Southey’s Madoc has only a slender groundwork in British +history.</p> +<p><a name="footnote158"></a><a href="#citation158" +class="footnote">[158]</a> According to Dugdale, +£132. 1s. 4d.; and Speed, £256. 11s. 6d.</p> +<p><a name="footnote204"></a><a href="#citation204" +class="footnote">[204]</a> Historical Tour.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WYE AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 36367-h.htm or 36367-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/6/3/6/36367 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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