Part 6 (1/2)

In a few moments a gleam of light, transmitted by reflection through an opening in some trees, shone on my track, and discovered a dark huge figure standing at my horse's head. I was scarcely collected from my surprize when my bridle was forcibly arrested, and a loud but unintelligible voice seemed to demand that I should stop. Already was I conceiving how to repel the attack, when the man, observing that I did not understand Welch, civilly accosted me in imperfect English, and a.s.sured me that I was on the edge of a precipice. Nor did he leave me with this service, but kindly led my horse to the little village of PONT-Y-PRIDD, then within a short distance. Here, while regaling over a mug of ale, my conductor accounted for the light that surprized me: it proceeded from an immense bonfire of a party of colliers in some distant mountains, rejoicing at the blessing of peace. At this place I determined to fix my quarters; nor could the offer of a guide and lanthorn, to conduct me to the superior accommodation of the Bridgewater arms, induce me to tempt again the dangers of the night, or quit the coa.r.s.e barley bread, salt b.u.t.ter, and miserable beer of the village alehouse.

Early in the morning my companion rejoined me, when we visited Pont-y-pridd, the celebrated bridge of Glamorgans.h.i.+re. This extraordinary piece of masonry consists of a single arch, whose chord is 147 feet, thrown across the Taffe. William Edward, an ingenious mason of this country, who built it, failed in two preceding attempts, which would have proved his ruin; but the gentry in the neighbourhood laudably supported ported his ingenuity, although at first unsuccessfully exerted, and enabled him to complete the present structure. The great beauty of this arch arises from the simplicity of its construction, and indeed from its very defect as a roadway; for the pa.s.sage over the bridge is not sloped away into the adjoining roads, as it might be; but precipitately descends on each side, following the line of the arch. This circ.u.mstance, and its being defended with only a very low parapet, gives the bridge a remarkably light appearance. Situated in a romantic hollow, and abruptly jetting from the bold woody banks of the river, it looks a magic bow thrown across by the hands of fairies.

Two waterfalls in this neighbourhood deserve notice. One occurs about half a mile above the bridge. We proceeded to it through a delightful sylvan path on the bank of the river, and under the beetling brow of Craig-er-esk. The river is seen for a considerable distance struggling through a region of rocks, which in some places rise in large ma.s.ses above its surface, and in others appear through the transparency of the stream shelving to a considerable depth; wearing throughout the odd appearance of a vast a.s.semblage of cubes, variously heaped, but with one face constantly horizontal: at length the river breaks over a compact strata; yet only in a fall of eight or ten feet, which is divided into several streams. The white foam of the river, and the light grey tint of the rocks, afford a strong contrast to the mixed verdure and dark shadows of its banks; but upon the whole the subject is rather to be noticed for its singularity than for any leading points of picturesque beauty. More agreeably composed appeared to us the other cascade of the tributary river Rhayder, about two miles distant from the bridge. The dark rocks that occasion the fall; the surrounding craigs; the light and pendant foliage that adorns them, and the vigorous trees that emerge from the banks, are all disposed with the utmost symmetry, and form a highly-pleasing picture, though of inconsiderable dimensions.

CHAP. XII.

SCENERY OF THE TAFFE-STUPENDOUS RUINS OF CAERPHILLY CASTLE-THE LEANING TOWER-FINE VIEW FROM THORNHILL-CARDIFF CASTLE-ECCLESIASTICAL DECAY OF LANDAFF-THE CATHEDRAL.

From Pont-y-pridd we made another excursion toward Merthyr-tidvill; less to witness the lately-acquired importance of the town in consequence of the great iron-works established in its neighbourhood, than to trace the beauties of the Taffe through its romantic valley. At one time, a towering hill completely mantled with wood lifted its s.h.a.ggy summit to the clouds; in succession, naked rocks perpendicularly descended to the water; or, through favoured hollows, a stripe of green meadow would gently slope and mix its verdure with the stream. As we advanced, the narrow valley still further contracted, and the river, confined by the approaching bases of the mountains, a.s.sumed the character of a torrent.

Our road continued on one margin of the river, and a ca.n.a.l, singularly abounding with locks, kept pace with us on the other; to the Cyclopean region of Merthyr-tidvill. {173} We did not enter the town, but re-measured our steps to Pont-y-pridd; and about four miles below it bade adieu to the romantic course of the Taffe, in deviating up a steep confine of its valley towards the town and castle of Caerphilly.

[Picture: Caerphilly Castle]

The celebrated ruin of CAERPHILLY CASTLE soon appeared at some distance beneath us, occupying the centre of a small plain, which, with its surrounding amphitheatre of hills, presented a display of regular fences and cultivation that strikingly contrasted with the district that we had just left. The idea formed on a first view of this stupendous pile is rather that of a ruined town than a castle: it is by much the largest ruin in Britain, although its dimensions are somewhat inferior to those of Windsor castle. The high outer rampart, with its ma.s.sive abutments and frequent towers, still in a great measure entire, conveys at once a clear impression of the great extent of the fortress. In entering upon an examination of the ruin we pa.s.sed the barbican, {174} now built up into habitations; and, proceeding between two dilapidated towers, entered the great area of the castle:-a range of building, beneath the rampart on our right, once formed the barracks of the garrison. We then advanced to that pile of superior building, _i.e._ of citadel, hall, chapel, state and other apartments, which is generally considered as the castle, in distinction from the encircling area and its wall: clambering over the fragments of another drawbridge and its defending towers, we entered the first court, which appears to have comprised the citadel: thence we pa.s.sed through a large gateway, with several grooves for portcullises, to the princ.i.p.al court of the Castle. The area of this court is seventy yards by forty: on the south side is that princely apartment, by some considered the hall, and by others the chapel: but, whichever it may have been, vestiges of much original beauty appear in the elegant outline of its four large windows; the grand proportions of the chimney-piece, and the light triplet pillars, with arches that go round the room. The appearance of mortice holes in the walls for the ends of beams, at the height of about the middle of the windows, led Camden to suppose that the cieling was projected from thence, and that an apartment above was lighted by the upper portion of the windows; but surely at a time when symmetry in building was so well cultivated, and where it appears to have been so successfully applied, such a ridiculous contrivance could not have taken place: more probably, as I conceive, from those mortices a support was derived for a lofty arched roof, or a gallery. {175} Eastward of the hall, is the curiosity of a leaning tower, a bulky fragment of the ruin between seventy and eighty feet in height, whose walls are of a prodigious thickness: it hangs nearly eleven feet out of the perpendicular, and is only held together by the strength of its cement. How or when this phenomenon happened no legend informs us; but it has remained in this state many centuries. As the adjoining towers, and all the standing parts of the ruin, remain perpendicular, the cause must have arisen from a local failure of the foundation: hence I am of opinion, that a solution of the phenomenon may be found in the effects of a mine, and which probably took place during the long siege which Hugh le Despenser sustained in this castle in the time of Edward the Second.

Near this part of the ruin a place is shewn as the mint, with two furnaces for melting metal. From this chamber we ascended a spiral staircase to the corridor, still in very good preservation, which, lighted by small windows, and pa.s.sing round the princ.i.p.al court, formed a communication with the different apartments. The external view of the western entrance of the ruin, with its ponderous circular towers venerably shaded with ivy, is remarkably striking; and, with the remains of its drawbridge and defending outwork, may be considered as the most entire part of the ruin. An artificial mound some distance off, but within the works of the castle, was most likely used for exploratory purposes.

From the great plan of this castle, and there being no direct evidence to the contrary, its foundation has been attributed to the Romans; and some ingenious arguments have been adduced to prove, that it was their Bullaum Silurum. But it sufficiently appears, that no considerable part of the present fortress was built by them, as the predatory army of Rhys Tycan took and rased Caerphilly castle in 1221. The best supported opinion is that of the Hon. Daines Barrington, who attributes the present erection to Edward the First.-Caerphilly has lately increased from an obscure village to a well-built little town; and the respectable appearance of its two inns may be in a great measure dated from the great increase of the visitants of the castle. {177}

We left Caerphilly, over to hilly boundary, on the road to Cardiff; where we noticed the singular appearance of some peasants digging coals from the surface of the ground. At the extremity of this tract, Thornhill, a grand elevation, afforded us a most extensive prospect, which, illuminated by an evening sun, formed a picture of uncommon brilliancy.

The wide plain of Cardiff displayed for many miles, in every direction, a gratifying extent of Nature's bounty, in an endless variety of cultivation, chequered with numberless hedgerows, and enlivened by several villages, whose neatly whitened walls glistened through their appendant foliage: the rich verdure was in one part varied by the russet hue of an extensive warren. At the extremity of this tract appeared the expansive Severn, in which the two islands of the steep and flat Holmes were conspicuous; and afar off the bold hills of Somersets.h.i.+re closed the prospect. We slowly descended from the spot commanding this range of objects, and travelled on a good road towards Cardiff, with the episcopal ruins of Landaff at a small distance on our right.

On entering CARDIFF, the capital of Glamorgans.h.i.+re, between the ivy-mantled walls of its castle, and the mouldering ruin of a house of White Friars, we were much pleased with the aspect of the town: nor were we less so on a closer examination of its neat well-paved streets; it appearing to us one of the cleanest and most agreeable towns in Wales.

The high tower of its church, crowned with four transparent Gothic pinnacles, had long engaged our interest; but on a near view we did not find the body of the church to correspond with it; it being of an older date, a plain Norman structure. This, I believe, was the conventual church of the Franciscan Friars that are described as having occupied the eastern suburb of the town. The other parish church, for Cardiff is divided into two parishes, was undermined by the action of the river, about a century and a half since, and fell down. The house of the White Friars has been already noticed; and without the west gate stood a monastery of Black Friars. This town was formerly encompa.s.sed by a wall, and vestiges of its four gates yet remain. Cardiff, having the benefit of a good harbour, carries on a brisk trade with Bristol, and other places, and has of late considerably increased its commercial importance: but perhaps its chief interest with tourists will be derived from its castle.

CARDIFF CASTLE, a seat of the Marquis of Bute, (Baron Cardiff and Earl of Windsor), was until lately a Gothic structure of considerable elegance; but having undergone a repair, without attention to the antique style of architecture, it presents a motley combination, in which the remaining Gothic but serves to excite our regret for the greater portion destroyed.

The misguided direction of this work is prominently conspicuous in the enlargement of the building, wherein fas.h.i.+onable square windows appear throughout the lower apartments, while the original character of the edifice is imitated in the Gothic lines of the upper windows: a strange violation of common propriety, to raise an antique superstructure upon a modern foundation! The part of the castle which is kept up is a single range of building; and an elegant machicolated tower, overlooking the whole, still frowns defiance on the petty innovations beneath. The internal has been entirely new-planned, and a number of portraits of the present lord's progenitors are ranged in the apartments, with the princ.i.p.al events of their lives, emblazoned in letters of gold; but they are for the most part indifferently executed. In front of the building is a s.p.a.cious lawn, from the trim surface of which rises an artificial mound, bearing the mouldering ruin of the ancient keep, {181} carefully shorn of shrub and briar. In the tower, at the entrance, a dark damp dungeon is described to have been the prison of Robert duke of Normandy; in which he was confined near thirty years, after being deprived of his sight and inheritance by his younger brother Henry the First. But it is more probable that he had the whole range of the castle; for, independent of the improbability that any human creature could live so long in such a place, we have the authority of Odo Vitalis and William of Malmesbury, that Henry made his imprisonment as easy as possible; furnis.h.i.+ng him with an elegant table, and buffoons to divert him. A high rampart incloses the whole; round the top of which a walk is carried, affording many pleasing views of the surrounding country.

When Robert Fitzhammon conquered and divided the lords.h.i.+p of Glamorgan with his twelve knights, he reserved the town of Cardiff, among other estates, for himself, and erected this castle: here he held his courts of Chancery and Exchequer; the former on the first Monday in every month, when his knights or their heirs were bound to attend, and were then ent.i.tled to apartments in the outer court of the castle; which privilege, says Sir John Price, their heirs or a.s.signs enjoy to this day.

This castle has frequently experienced the vicissitudes of war. Soon after its erection, one Ivor Black, a little resolute Welchman, marched hither privately, with a troop of mountaineers, and surprised the castle in the night; carrying off William Earl of Gloucester (Fitzhammon's grandson), together with his wife and son; whom he detained prisoners until he obtained satisfaction for some injuries that he had suffered.

It was also taken by Maelgon and Rhys gyre anno 1282; and again by the parliamentary forces in the civil wars, after a long siege.

A pleasant walk over the fields led us to the episcopal city of LANDAFF, now in extent an inconsiderable village: this deserted spot occupies a gentle eminence in the great plain of Cardiff. The west front of the cathedral is an admirable relic of Norman architecture, with two elegant towers of extraordinary height, profusely enriched with the best sculpture of that age: here all the apertures are circularly arched; but the windows of part of the nave, yet remaining, are Gothic. Upon the chancel's falling to decay some score years since, a great sum was expended in raising the present church upon the old stock; but surely such an absence of taste and common sense was never before instanced: beneath the solemn towers has sprung up a fantastic summer-house elevation, with a Venetian window, Ionic pilasters, and flower-pot jars upon the parapet. The same sort of window is coupled with the elegant line of the ornamented Gothic in other parts of the structure; and within, a huge building upon the model of a heathen temple surrounds the altar; which, with two thrones, darken and fill up nearly half the church. From this ma.s.s of inconsistencies we turned to the inspection of several ancient monuments, which were chiefly rec.u.mbent, and from several marks of recent damage appeared to be much neglected. {184a}

The cathedral, now in ruins, was built by Bishop Urban, anno 1120, upon the site of pile founded by St. Dubritius in the commencement of the sixth century, and dedicated to more saints than I have room to enumerate. Urban also built a palace here, which was destroyed by Owen Glendower: its high outer walls and gateway, however, remain, and form an inclosure to a garden. A large mansion adjoining, occupied by Mr.

Matthews, is, I understand, attached to the bishopric. {184b}

CHAP. XIII.

ENTRANCE OF MONMOUTHs.h.i.+RE-ANCIENT ENCAMPMENTS-CASTLETON-TREDEGAR PARK-NEWPORT; CHURCH; AND CASTLE-EXCURSION TO MACHEN PLACE-PICTURESQUE VIEW FROM CHRIST CHURCH-GOLD CLIFF-CAERLEON'S ANTIQUITIES-ENCAMPMENTS-LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY-LANTARNAM-LANGIBBY CASTLE.

On quitting Cardiff, we soon entered MONMOUTHs.h.i.+RE {185} in crossing Rumney bridge. The church of Rumney is a large Gothic edifice, with an embattled tower. Nearly opposite to it, on the left of the road, crowning a steep bank of the river, is an old encampment of an irregular figure, with a triangular outwork; and a short distance further, at Pen-y-pile, another occurs of a polyhedrous form. As we proceeded, the elevated mansion and extensive woods of RUPERAH, an elegant seat belonging to a branch of the Morgan family, appeared finely situated beneath the brow of some hills bordering the vale of Caerphilly; and on a gentle hill below it, KEVEN-MABLE, an ancient seat of the Kemy's family.

At the rural little village of St. Mellons, the old and new roads to Newport unite: we took the latter, which is the lowermost and nearest, traced on a range of gentle eminences skirting Wentloog level, an extensive fertile plain won from the sea. This wide flat, extending from the Rumney to the Usk rivers, is relieved by the intersections of hedges and drains, and has a sprinkling of white cottages; among which the towers of St. Bride's, Marshfield, and Peterson churches rise conspicuously. Our route pa.s.sed through Castleton, where there was formerly a castle; of which, however, only a small artificial mount, the site of its citadel, now inclosed in the garden of Mr. Phillips, and a chapel converted into a barn, remain. Gwern-y-cleppa park, the next object of our attention on the road, contains a ruin nearly hidden in an interwoven thicket, once the mansion of Ivor-hael (the generous), the pride of bardish song, who flourished in the commencement of the fourteenth century.

We entered TREDEGAR PARK in succession, a very ancient seat of the Morgan family. This park is laid out in the obsolete style of groves and avenues; but possesses great room for modern taste, in the variety of swell and hollow composing its surface, the remarkable size and beauty of the oaks and Spanish chesnuts with which it is decorated, and the picturesque course of the rapid Ebwy, whose red rocky banks form a striking contrast to the surrounding verdure. The turnpike road pa.s.ses through the park, and within a few hundred yards of the mansion, a huge quadrangular brick building, of the date of Charles the Second's reign, with a high shelving roof, in which are two or three tiers of windows, similar to the weighing-house at Amsterdam. Internally, the house is convenient and well arranged, with state and domestic apartments, several of which are preserved in their original character. The most remarkable is the oak room; the flooring of which, forty-two feet by twenty-seven, was furnished by a single oak; and the wainscoting, formed of the same material, is much admired for its antique carving. A large collection of pictures, chiefly family portraits, is distributed through the house; but few of them are valuable as specimens of art. Among the extensive offices are several remains of the ancient castellated mansion, described by Leland as ”a very fair place of stone.”