A Tour throughout South Wales and Monmouthshire Part 14

{265} This part of our journey, in wading through a right Welch road, brought to my mind an anecdote of Mr. Morris. When a bill was before the House of Commons for the improvement of the roads in Monmouths.h.i.+re, many gentlemen of the county, willing to plod through the same mire that had bedaubed their ancestors, gave it a strong opposition. Mr. Morris, who had a mind above vulgar prejudices, and who was a warm promoter of every useful improvement, being examined at the bar of the House and questioned, "What roads have you in Monmouths.h.i.+re?" replied, "None."-"How do you travel then?"-"In ditches," was his reply.

{268} A rough carved figure of a man in a coat of mail is shewn as the effigy of Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, the founder of the abbey.

This account, however, is altogether erroneous: Richard was only great nephew of the founder, and he was buried in the chapter-house of Gloucester.

{274} The neighbourhood that has risen round the abbey is called Abbey Tintern, to distinguish it from this village, which is about a mile distant.

{285} The Herberts came over soon after the Conquest, and settled at Worndee, near Abergavenny.

{287} The manor of Troy deviated from the Herbert line to that of the earls of Worcester about the beginning of the seventeenth century. In the Apophthegms of the Marquis of Worcester is related a punning _jeu d'esprit_ upon the word Troy, between the old Marquis and his royal guest Charles the First. Sir Thomas Somerset, the Marquis's brother, residing at Troy-house, possessed a greater art in forcing plants than was at that time generally understood in England; which enabled him to send a present of fruit to the Marquis that was entirely out of the natural season. The old Peer, highly pleased, carried them to the King, and said, "Here I present you, Sire, 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 that there had grown any apricots before."

{308} This cross-legged position of sepulchral effigies does not denote that the person represented was a Knight Templar, as is generally supposed; but that he had visited the Holy Land: indeed, his having entered into vows that he would perform the journey, ent.i.tled him to this distinction.

{310} One of his posterity, William de Braose, in the reign of King John, says Dugdale, "gave the t.i.thes of his castle, _viz._ of bread, wine, beer, cyder, all manner of fresh, fish, salt, honey, wax, tallow, and in general whatsoever should be brought thither and spent there, upon condition that the Abbot and Convent of St. Vincent's in Mans, to which the priory was a cell, should daily pray for the soul of King Henry the First; as also for the soul of him the said William and the soul of Maud his wife."

{313} See Page 290.

{330} There is an oblong camp in the neighbourhood of the town called _Y Gaer_; where Roman bricks, bearing the inscription LEG. II. AUG. are frequently ploughed up. Near this camp is a rude pillar, about six feet high, called the _maiden stone_; on one side of which are the figures of a man and woman coa.r.s.ely carved in relief.

{343} Cairns, or barrows, in the druidical ages, were large heaps of stones raised over the bodies of deceased heroes. After the introduction of Christianity, similar piles were placed on malefactors, to give a sort of counteraction to the old custom; and it soon became the bitterest wish a man could give his enemy, "that a cairn might be his monument."

{349} In _Dugdale's Monasticon_, the signature _G.o.dricus Duxi_ occurs twice among the witnesses to two charters granted by king Canute.

{351} The distance from Ross to Chepstow, in a straight line, is not more than sixteen miles and a half; but owing to the sinuosity of the river the voyage by water is near thirty-eight miles. The boats descend with the current, and are towed all the way back by men: this laborious task may account for the expensive hire of a boat, which I understand to be three guineas.

{355} We did not neglect to visit the remains of Lanthony Abbey near Gloucester, the successful rival of the foundation in Monmouths.h.i.+re. The ruins are situated about a mile southward of the town: they are by no means picturesque, consisting of a series of buildings which surround a large square area; the dilapidated walls of the chapel are standing without enc.u.mbrance; but the other parts are made up into farming habitations, with numerous out-houses and sheds.