{252} Several of the glazed figured tiles used by the Normans, commonly called Roman tiles, patched up in different parts of the ruin, and a few Roman bricks built in the heterogeneous mass that composes the grout-work of the walls, have occasioned many persons to consider the castle as of Roman foundation. But these circumstances, standing alone, afford very inconclusive grounds. On the Normans building the castle, the Roman fragments were most probably brought from the then decaying town of Caerwent, and with other rubbish applied to the work. {255} In the garden of a house in Bridge-street is the phenomenon of a well of soft water that ebbs and flows regularly is an exact opposition to the tide. {261} Col. Wood is about to dispose of this estate. {264} She was a niece of lord Peterborough. {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 Monmouthshire, 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 Monmouthshire?” 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.”