The Wye and Its Associations

bard-Strewing graves with flowers-St. Briavels' Castle-Llandogo-Change in the charact

make the place resemble the meeting of four roads. We have already seen how interesting the Monnow is; the Trothy, which passes White Castle, and has its source in the mountains near the Great Skyrrid, is hardly less so; the Wye we have followed from

that arrests our attention in front by its sombre woods. In the reign of James I. it was the property of Sir Charles Somerset, the brother of the gal

al to send him a present; and such a one as (the times and 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 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

h he was born, the cradle in which he was rocked, and the armour in which he fo

lated or otherwise remarkable situation, there is sure to be connected with it some religious tradition, or some observance whose origin is lost in antiquity. The churches are usually an interesting feature in the landscape, for it would seem as if their founders had sought purposely out for them solitary places, by the banks of rivers or in the midst of groves or fields. In general they are exceedingly simple in appearance, many having the marks of great antiquity, and almost all being whitewashed from top to bottom. An antiquary has ingeniously accounted for this peculiarity

ceeding paragraph there is an allusion to another Welsh custom, of more classical authority, that of strewing the graves of the dead with flowers. The poem is an invocation to sum

t fruits of the spring, and collect thou blossoms to the bushes; shine proudly on the wall of lime, full as light and gaily bright; leave there in the vale thy footsteps in juicy herbage, in fresh attire; diffuse a load of delicious fruits, in bounteous course

s; the flowerets of the meads, and gems of the woods; the vivid trefoils, beauties of the ground, and the gaily smiling bloo

s. A rich rival, however, gained the unwilling prize; and the son of song consoled himself by carrying off his lost mistress on two several occasions, when her husband, Rhys Gwgan, was with the army in France, where he served in the rank of captain at the battle of Crecy. For both these offences he was fined and imprisoned, and in both instances lib

ok, also, serves the purpose of turning the wheels of some iron and tin works; but without vulgarising any more than such accidents have done heretofore, the scenic romance of the river. Wye Seal House comes next, on the same side of the river, with the hamlet of Whitebrook

but they have still a right of common in Hudknolls wood, a tract of land on the banks of the Wye seven miles long. They are supposed to enjoy the privilege through the performance of a strange ceremony on Whit-sunday. Each inhabitant pays twopence to the churchwardens, who buy bread and cheese with the fund, which they cut into small

remain entire with a narrow gateway between, composing the north-west front. They contain several apartments, the walls of which are eight feet thick. O

a century-had formerly jurisdiction over the forest of Dean; and it is recorded, that in his court the miners w

uiet beauty, which after the massive forms we have passed, we term prettyness. Whatever be its proper name, however, in the pedantry of taste, it is not surpassed on the Wye in its own kind. It is unfortunate, nevertheless, that at this spot an unfavourable change should be observed in the river-although only in the ri

roken only by the smokes of furnaces hidden among the trees, and whose still life has been varied only by the corracles of the ancient Britons, and other inland craft that never dreamt of the breezes of the salt sea, becomes now a small highway of trade, a sort of water lane by which the corn, and hoops, and fagots, and other productions of the interior are conveyed to Bristol. But even the coasting

nd ourselves gliding into the region of Tintern! Near this spot, the great Druid of the Wye, the poet of nature internal and external, produced a poem which in all probability will be read, either with tear

past, five summer

winters! an

lling from their

inland murm

hese steep an

ld secluded

re deep seclus

with the qui

come when I

his dark syca

ttage ground, the

eason, with thei

green hue, and

ds and copses

landscape. On

, hardly hedger

run wild: these

ry doors, and w

lence, from am

ertain notice

llers in the h

it's cave, wher

mit sit

beauteo

absence, have

cape to a bli

nely rooms, an

cities, I hav

eariness, sen

ood, and felt

even into my

restoration:

ed pleasure:

light or tri

ortion of a go

ameless, unre

d of love. Nor

y have owed

e sublime; th

e burden of

heavy and the

s unintell

that serene an

ffections gent

eath of this

motion of o

nded, we are

d become a

eye made qui

and the deep

o the life

f

belief, yet,

and amid the

light, when th

and the feve

n the beating

irit, have I t

hou wanderer th

my spirit tu

eams of half ext

cognitions d

t of a sad

of the mind

tand, not only

sure, but with

oment, there i

ars, and so I

o doubt, from wha

these hills;

the mountains

vers, and the

ure led: mor

ething that he

thing he loved.

pleasures of

animal moveme

l in all.-I

was. The sou

ke a passion:

and the deep a

nd their forms,

; a feeling

need of a re

upplied, nor

m the eye.-Tha

ching joys ar

izzy raptures

ourn nor murmu

for such loss,

mpense. For I

ature, not a

youth; but he

sad music

grating, thoug

nd subdue. A

at disturbs m

thoughts; a

far more deep

is the light

ocean and th

sky, and in t

d a spirit,

ngs, all objects

h all things. Th

he meadows,

; and of all

earth; of all

r,-both what t

ve; well please

the language

my purest thou

guardian of my

my mora