

credit



Transcribed from the 1841 Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans
edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

[Picture: Decorative title page, with Goodrich castle (followed by proper
                               title page)]





                                 THE WYE
                           AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS


                          A PICTURESQUE RAMBLE.

                                * * * * *

                         BY LEITCH RITCHIE, ESQ.

     AUTHOR OF "WANDERINGS BY THE LOIRE," "WANDERINGS BY THE SEINE,"
                           "THE MAGICIAN," ETC.

                                * * * * *

                                * * * * *

                                * * * * *

                                 LONDON:

                     LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND
                                LONGMANS.

                                  1841.

                                * * * * *

                                 LONDON:
              PRINTED BY J. HADDON, CASTLE STREET, FINSBURY.




ADVERTISEMENT,


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 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.

_London_, _November_ 28_th_, 1840.




CONTENTS.

                              CHAPTER I.
                                                                 Page.
Philosophy of the picturesque--Peculiarities of English              1
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
                             CHAPTER II.
Descent of Plinlimmon--Singular                                     17
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
                             CHAPTER III.
Clifford Castle--Lords-marchers--Fair Rosamond--Ruins of            31
the Castle--The silent cottage--Approach to
Hereford--Castle--Cathedral--Nell
Gwynn--Cider--Salmon--Wolves
                             CHAPTER IV.
Beauty and tameness--The travelling hill--Ross--The                 45
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
                              CHAPTER V.
Roman passes of the Wye--Goodrich                                   58
Castle--Keep--Fortifications--Apartments--Its
history--Goodrich Court--Forest of Dean--Laws of the
Miners--Military exploit--Wines of Gloucestershire
                             CHAPTER VI.
Iron furnaces of the Wye--Lidbroke--Nurse of Henry                  74
V--Coldwell Rocks--Symond's Yat--New Weir--Monmouth
                             CHAPTER VII.
Monmouth--History of the Castle--Apartment of Henry of              87
Monmouth--Ecclesiastical remains--Benedictine
priory--Church of St. Mary--Church of St. Thomas--Monnow
Bridge--Modern town--Monmouth caps--The beneficent
parvenu
                            CHAPTER VIII.
Welsh pedigree of queen Victoria--A poet's                         100
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
                             CHAPTER IX.
Raglan Castle--Description of the ruins--History of the            121
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
                              CHAPTER X.
Troy House--Anecdote--Antique custom--Village churches of          140
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"
                             CHAPTER XI.
Vales of the Wye--Valley of Tintern--Tintern                       156
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
                             CHAPTER XII.
The Wye below Tintern--Benagor                                     174
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
                            CHAPTER XIII.
Piercefield--Points of view--Curious appearance--Scenic            192
character of the place--View from Wyndcliff--Account of
Valentine Morris--Anecdotes--The Wye below Chepstow--Aust
Ferry--Black Rock Ferry--St. Theodoric--Conclusion

ENGRAVINGS.

                                         Page.
GOODRICH CASTLE                VIGNETTE TITLE.
LLANGERRIG                                  19
RHAIADYR                                    21
NEAR RHAIADYR                               22
CLIFFORD CASTLE                             35
HEREFORD                                    44
ROSS                                        48
THE NEW WEIR                                81
TINTERN                                    158
TINTERN ABBEY                              160
CHEPSTOW                                   177
VIEW FROM WYNDCLIFF                        198

CHAPTER I.


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.

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.
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.

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.

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.

The former speak of wealth, and the happiness that depends on wealth; the
latter of comparative poverty, and the home pleasures that are compatible
