England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign TravelCook, Joel
History
England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign Travel
Cook, Joel
England -- Description and travel
Friars' monastery are in the Widemarsh suburb. They consist chiefly of
an interesting relic of that religious order, an hexagonal
preaching-cross standing on a flight of steps and open on each side.
Hereford Castle has disappeared, but its site is an attractive public
walk overlooking the Wye, called the Castle Green.
[Illustration: OLD NAVE, HEREFORD CATHEDRAL.]
THE MAN OF ROSS.
[Illustration: ROSS BRIDGE.]
[Illustration: HOUSE OF THE "MAN OF ROSS."]
The Wye flows on through a fairly open valley, with broad meadows
extending from the bases of the wooded hills to the river. On
approaching Ross the meadows contract, the hills come nearer together,
and the new phase of scenery in the glen which here begins makes the Wye
the most beautiful among English rivers. Ross stands at the entrance to
the glen, built upon a sloping hill which descends steeply to the Wye.
It was the Ariconium of the Romans, and has been almost without stirring
history. It has grown in all these centuries to be a town of about four
thousand five hundred population, with considerable trade, being the
centre of a rich agricultural section, and is chiefly known to fame as
the home of Pope's "Man of Ross." This was John Kyrle, who was born at
the village of Dymock, not far away, May 22, 1637. He was educated at
Balliol College, Oxford, where they still preserve a piece of plate
which he presented as a parting gift. He afterwards settled at Ross, and
lived to an advanced age, dying November 11, 1724. He was described as
"nearly six feet high, strong and lusty made, jolly and ruddy in the
face, with a large nose." His claim to immortality, which has made his
name a household word in England, cannot better be described than by
quoting some of Pope's lines:
"Who hung with woods yon mountain's sultry brow?
From the dry soil who bade the waters flow?...
Whose causeway parts the vale with shady rows?
Whose seats the weary traveller repose?
Who taught that heaven-directed spire to rise?
'The Man of Ross,' each lisping babe replies.
Behold the market-place with poor o'erspread!
The Man of Ross divides the weekly bread:
He feeds yon almshouse, neat, but void of state,
Where age and want sit smiling at the gate:
Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans blest,
The young who labor, and the old who rest.
Is any sick? The Man of Ross relieves.
Prescribes, attends, the med'cine makes and gives.
Is there a variance? Enter but his door.
Balked are the courts and contest is no more....
Thrice happy man! enabled to pursue
What all so wish, but want the power to do!
Oh say what sums that generous hand supply,
What mines to swell that boundless charity?
Of debts and taxes, wife and children, clear.
That man possessed--five hundred pounds a year!"
[Illustration: MARKET PLACE, ROSS.]
[Illustration: ROSS CHURCH.]
[Illustration: THE TREES IN ROSS CHURCH.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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