SECTION IX.
Quitting Monmouth on an excursion to Rhaglan Castle, we ascended a considerable hill about a mile from the town, that afforded one of the most luxuriant landscapes we had witnessed in the course of our route. From this eminence, the rich valley in which Monmouth is situated, and the beauties of the surrounding country, are highly illustrative of Gray’s opinion of the charming situation of this place. He rapturously describes this scene as “the delight of his eyes and the very seat of pleasure.” We have attempted to give an idea of this much admired spot in the annexed plate.
The ride to Rhaglan Castle, a distance of about six miles, amply gratified us for this deviation from our main pursuit.
This magnificent remain of ancient splendor stands on an elevated situation commonly called Twyn-y-ciros, which signifies in Welch the cherry hill; and, as we approach it from the village, appears to wear that solemn and majestic air highly characteristic of the spirit of the times in which it flourished. The external view here selected, we flatter ourselves will not only convey the best idea of its extent and magnificence, but is a point from which we do not remember to have ever seen it represented. This noble building, which may rather be terminated a castellated house than a castle, is in many parts, still in good preservation. It was erected in the reign of Henry VII. and does not therefore boast of great antiquity; many additions were made to it about the time of Elizabeth, these constitute, the most elegant parts of this superb pile, and are to be found in the windows of the grand hall, or banqueting room; the ornaments of the frieze and cornice are light and elegant, and in the best taste of that time. To the left of this hall, was a large court one hundred feet long, and sixty feet broad, well arched and ornamented, with curious stone work both on the walls and windows. In the midst of the court was a pleasant marble fountain called the White Horse: the following remark of Dr. Griffin, relative to the white horse may not prove uninteresting. “I remember,” says he, “some years ago, they used to shew here part of the body of a black horse, which stood in the middle of some water that supplied the castle, and was a fountain. I was told the parliamentarians poisoned the water during the siege, and that the stone horse absorbed the poison; it was very hard, but on being struck, or rubbed with any hard substance, emitted a very offensive smell. Perhaps I had the legend very imperfectly, and it should have been added, the poison turned the white horse into a black one.” The castle is surrounded by a wide fosse thirty feet broad, wherein was originally placed an artificial water work, which spouted up water to the height of the castle, and contains within it two acres, one of which appears to have been encompassed with domestic offices, such as kitchen, brewhouse, &c. and in which there is an oven, and fire range of such extraordinary dimensions, as to satisfy us, that there were times in which they were not wholly occupied in feats of arms.
In this building every precaution has been used to guard and secure the approaches to it; and the utmost magnificence is to be observed in every part of the interior, even in the domestic offices. The staircase and ascent to the grand apartments are peculiarly noble; and beneath the areas which are vaulted, are various subterraneous apartments, and extensive cellars of the most excellent workmanship. The citadel, which is octagonal, is surrounded by a moat, and stands at a small distance from the castle: its principal parts are in a perfect state of preservation. This noble castle is in the possession of the Duke of Beaufort, whose ancestor, the Marquis of Worcester in the time of Charles the first, added and fortified many extensive out works, by which he was enabled to hold it for the king’s use till his imprisonment at Holmby. It once contained a garrison of eight hundred men, and was the last castle that surrendered to the parliament forces, then under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax. This event happened on the nineteenth of August 1646, and is reported to have been effected by a female in the garrison, and by the use of a very ordinary female engine, the mere waving a handkerchief, as a signal for the introduction of Cromwell’s party. If this were so, politics were probably by no means the primary incentives of this lady’s zeal, and there were doubtless secret articles in this treaty, unknown to the besieging general. The window at which she appeared is still shewn.
The more probable account is, that from the very long siege it sustained, the upper part was undermined, and the timbers being burnt a great part of it fell down. Soon after its surrender, the castle was demolished and left, in nearly the same state in which it now remains. The loss to the family is supposed to be upwards of a hundred thousand pounds, besides the forfeiture of an estate of twenty thousand a year. Three considerable parks of remarkable fertility, and richly stocked with deer, once appertained to this castle.
Returning to Monmouth we resumed our passage down the Wye, on a morning, one of the most beautiful ever beheld. The retrospective view of Monmouth on passing down, the spire of the church, the town, bridge, and surrounding scene, though inferior to that above, yet in some respects exhibited a very picturesque landscape. The hills opposite to Monmouth, are called the Kemmin Rocks, on the summit of which Mr. Philip Hardwick, an architect, has erected a stone building for the reception of his friends, called Philip’s Court. This spot commands a view most extensive and diversified, and will well repay the labour of climbing up what John Bunyan would justly call Hill Difficulty. To those who visit this spot it may be worth the trouble of going about a mile further to view, amongst many others, an immense large rock called the Buck Stone; a name probably derived from the deer having sheltered themselves under it when the adjacent country was in the form of a park. Its situation is on the extreme edge of the hill; and, though of an immense size, it stands on an angular point, and is so nicely balanced, as to be with a very small degree of force, set in motion and shaken. Approaching the junction of the Monnow with the Wye, the side scenes of the river, increase in richness both of woody, and verdant scenery, and with such agreeable breaks in the distance as to produce an enchanting effect.
A little below this point, a small river called the Trothe, or Trothey, unites itself with our Wye, on whose banks they jointly pass, near a respectable mansion called Troy house, in the possession of the Duke of Beaufort, to whom it descended from Sir Charles Somerset.
Sir Charles was the third son of Edward Earl of Worcester, and married the daughter and heiress of Sir William Powell of Troy, by whom he acquired a considerable estate, and added much influence to the house of Worcester. The present edifice notwithstanding it was designed by Inigo Jones, has little that can recommend it to notice. It is used merely as a lodge, and is occasionally only occupied by the family. A few portraits decorate its walls, but they are not of consequence sufficient to take the traveller far out of his way. The cradle wherein Harry of Monmouth is reported to have been rocked is here exhibited as a great curiosity, but the freshness of its velvet, its nails and appendages, bespeak it rather to have been the receptacle of one of the Beaufort family in the time of Charles the second.
To those however who are fond of cradles (and in their second childhood, amongst our old lady antiquaries, some such there may be) the annexed sketch of one, the appearance of which bespeaks it as not unlikely to have been of that time, and which is in the possession of the Reverend Mr. Ball of Newlands, a few miles from Monmouth, may not prove an unacceptable regale.
It is made of oak without any covering, and is suspended by two iron rings, by which it receives motion on the least touch or action of the child; it is three feet long, one foot four deep, and one foot six wide; it is ornamented at the top of the supporters, which are octagonal, with two birds, resembling eagles, but their beaks are broken off. The following anecdote relative to Troy house, extracted from the “Apothegms of the Earl of Worcester,” it is presumed will be thought not unworthy a place in this work.
“Sir Thomas Somerset, brother to the Marquis of Worcester, had a house which was called Troy, five miles from Rhaglan 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 grateful 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 his brother a present; and such an one as (the times and the 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 the 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 hand but his own. In comes the marquis then, at the end of the supper, led by the arm, with a slow pace, expressing much Spanish gravity, with a silver dish in each hand, filled with rarities; and a little basket on his arm as a reserve, when making his obeisance he thus speaks: May it please your Majesty, if the four elements could have been robbed to have entertained your Majesty, I think I had but done my duty, but I must do as I may. If I had sent to Bristol for some good things to entertain your Majesty, that would have been no wonder at all. If I had procured from London, some goodness that might have been acceptable to your Majesty, that would have been no wonder. But here I present you, Sir, (placing his dishes upon the table) with that which came not from Lincoln that was, nor London that is, nor 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.” Whereupon the marquis replied, “Any thing to please your Majesty.” When my lord marquis departed the presence, one told him that he would make a very good courtier; remember well, replied the marquis, that I said one thing which may give some hopes of me: Any thing to please your majesty.
Amidst a rich though hilly scenery, beautiful in its forms and happily diversified by a multitude of small farms, that exhibit evident marks of improving cultivation in this, yet very improvable, though fertile country, we reach Redbrook. Here a considerable manufactory of iron and tin gives a new and pleasing variety to the scenery and bustle on our river. Some of the iron ore used here comes from Coldford, and other places in the neighbourhood of the forest of Dean, but the greater part is brought from Lancashire.
About a mile and a half below Redbrook, the Wye receives a further supply from a small stream called Whitebrook; about the distance of a mile from whence stands St. Briaval’s Castle. It is situated on an eminence, and though so near the river, is from the water too indistinct an object for the pencil. This is to be regretted, as the woody declivities on each side of it are beautiful in their forms, and display a scene uncommonly rich and elegant; but on quitting the boat we found a nearer view of the castle, well worthy a place in this work, and a proper ornament of its subject. The annexed sketch exhibits a north east view of the castle, and the remains of the moat that in part surrounded it.
The distant Monmouthshire hills form a good termination to the scene, while the adjoining church and general face of the landscape presents a view, in its style and character, materially varying from any we have yet met with. From the remains of this castle it appears to have been a place of great strength, and of considerable extent; it was built by Miles, Earl of Hereford, in the reign of King Henry I. whose third son named Mahel, Camden informs us, was here overtaken by “God’s judgments for his rapacious ways, inhuman cruelties, and boundless avarice. For being courteously entertained here by Walter de Clifford, the castle taking fire, he lost his life by the fall of a stone on his head, from the highest tower.” The custody of St. Briaval’s, with the Forest of Dean, was granted to John de Monemouth, in the eighteenth year of King John. The Earl of Berkeley is the present constable, and the Duke of Beaufort, under whose direction the castle is kept in a good state of repair, is lord of the manor. The tower in the west front is now used as a prison. From hence, the views of the surrounding country are extensive and beautiful; and here the meandering of the Wye paints the landscape, as in its general course, and spreads richness and fertility in the vallies through which it flows. Returning to our boat we passed Big’s Weir, near which, on the bank of the Wye, is the seat of General Rooke, whose father captured Gibraltar.
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Llandogar.
It is situated in the midst of a rich pasturage, and commands a full view of the river, and that interesting variety of moving objects, which its busy commerce here presents. Amidst a range of beautiful scenery, we pass the pleasant village of Llandogar about a mile below. Here the river forms a smooth and glassy bay, through which the white sailed vessel is seen constantly gliding, or lying moored on the shore to take in her freight. The undulating hills, called the Hudnells, form a beautiful back ground to this charming scene, of which the annexed view will give a faint idea.
A little below is Cadithil Weir, from whence we dropped pleasantly down the stream to another village called Brook’s Weir, which is considered a half way distance from Monmouth to Chepstow. At this place the goods sent from Monmouth are shipped and conveyed in larger vessels to Bristol. The river, in an easy meandering course, soon brought us within view of the most picturesque object on its banks, the splendid and very elegant ruin of Tintern Abbey,
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Tintern Abbey.
Approaching this sublime and sequestered spot, the enthusiastic lover of simplicity in art and nature, the admirer of the picturesque and beautiful, the antiquary and the moralist will feel the effect, as it were, of enchantment, and become lost almost in a pleasing melancholy. The steepy hills, the hanging woods, the rolling stream, the nodding ruin, the surviving monuments of fallen grandeur and beauty in decay; the constructed space, the stillness and retirement, all conspire to impress the mind with awe, and for a moment withdraw from its vain pursuit of wealth and power, and abstract it from the world. On this remain, a very able writer has remarked, that “were the building ever so beautiful, encompassed as it is with shabby houses, it could make no appearance from the river.” In this we essentially differ, and present the annexed view in support of our opinion. Here every cottage appears as it really exists on the spot; and the petty, or if you please paltry accompaniments to which he alludes, appear to us so far from diminishing the grandeur of the general effect, that they serve rather on the contrary as a scale, and give magnitude to the principal object.
The ruined windows, pillars, and mouldings are all of them very elegant specimens of the most perfect style of Gothic architecture. That wreck and desolation to which the revolution of opinion, the wasteful rapacity and tyranny of Henry, had subjected this lovely spot, would have presented only marks of violence, and under the pretence of religion, the ravaging arm of an unprincipled barbarian. It is to the gentler tyranny, the silent and progressive ravages, of time, that we owe many of those delicate touches and features of beauty that embellish this elegant and interesting ruin. These have contributed to soften down the sharper edges of the chissel, and, by blending its variegated tufts of moss, and spreading and overhanging with its loose drapery, and many tinted greens, the highly wrought ornaments and sculpture of the place, have given to the whole a richness and mellowness, far beyond the reach of art.
The small gothic Gate at the entrance from the water, was evidently an adjunct of the abbey, and the remaining small buildings adjoining, formed part of its out-offices. The abbey was founded A. D. 1131, by Walter de Clare, for monks of the Cistercian order; and dedicated to Saint Mary. About the time of the revolution, here were thirteen religious houses, whose estates were estimated according to Dugdale at one hundred and ninety-two pounds, one shilling and four pence per annum. The site was granted in the twenty-eighth of Henry the VIII. to Henry Earl of Worcester, from whom it has descended to the present Duke of Beaufort.
On entering this sublime ruin the mind is struck with a reverential and religious awe: a sensation which can be no more expressed by words, than it can in this full extent be excited by all the graces of Grecian proportions, and all the decencies of orthodox worship. The noble clustered columns form a beautiful scene in perspective; and, while some of the rich Gothic ornaments and pointed arches above, present themselves as if magically suspended, and raise an idea of grandeur, accompanied, if not with alarm with some degree of surprise, the various ruinated fragments of capitals and pillars below, which lie scattered indiscriminately and in part overgrown and buried in beds of wild flowers and verdant tendrils, create an interesting disorder, and suggest ideas, though perhaps of a melancholy tinge, yet so far from a distressing nature as to lull the mind to a repose, congenial to the general turn of the surrounding scenery.
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Interior of Tintern Abbey.
The smooth and trim manner in which the ground is here kept, is not, according to our conception, very much in unison with the assemblage of objects around, where brokenness and irregularity are the principal and leading features of the place, the tameness and uniformity produced by it, are incongruous and out of character.
The western window, although in point of proportion rather too wide for its height, is yet a curious specimen of the ancient Gothic, and no contemptible study for one who is smitten with a true passion for the antique. The roof of the building is entirely fallen in, and with it some of the pillars are lost, but their bases still remain above the surface of the ground, so as to enable the antiquary, if he has the least of the architect about him, very easily to give a ground plot of the whole.
In the middle of the nave, the lofty arches which once supported the steeple, rise high above the rest; but though they retain their forms, they are reduced to a mere ridge of stone.
The neighbouring iron works belonging to Mr. Tanner of Monmouth, will afford a different scene, and should be visited by every traveller. Here the quiet and repose of the cottage is happily contrasted by the activity and bustle of the forge.
In passing along the river side to the iron works, many beautiful passages in landscape present themselves; they are composed of woody and diversified hills, similar to those adjoining to the abbey, but heightened by the busy scenes of the labourer and artificer, constantly employed in the adjacent manufactory. The iron works are principally supplied from Furness in Lancashire with ore, which is dissolved by the blasts of immense bellows that are worked by means of cylinder pumps. The best qualities of the ore are separated from the dross by a water wheel and hammers, by which operation considerable quantities of pure metal are collected, and the powder is sold to the glass houses. Various forges are here contrived for the purpose of forming the mutilated ore into proper sizes, from the largest bar of iron, to the smallest wire.