The Wye and Its Associations

e-Nurse of Henry V.-Coldwell Roc

ed Bishop's Wood; and there will be observed, for the first time of their presenting themsel

ards 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 declin

nguished 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

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 Ri

fering 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

ous 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 h

gant 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 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, Rockla

Weir the second gra

y 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

is an object of no consequence. In all the scenes we had yet passed, the water moving with a 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 so

more especially as his remarks serve to corroborate our own on the effec

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 iron forge, 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; a

d. The more headlong rush and louder roar of the river mark the place where the fo

at the New Weir these interruptions, above noticed, acquire a character of sublimity, when taken in conjunction with the rest of the picture.

oward 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. Mart