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
half-built house was pulled down, and the disgusted Landor left England
for the Continent. At Llanthony he composed Latin verses and English
tragedy, but his best literary labor was performed after he left there.
A few miles farther up the valley is Capel-y-Ffyn, where Father Ignatius
within a few years has erected his Anglican monastery. He was Rev. Mr.
Lyne, and came from Norwich, where he was in frequent collision with the
bishop. After much pother and notoriety he took his Protestant monastic
settlement to this nook in the heart of the Black Mountains, where he
and his monks perform their orisons in peace.
[Illustration: LLANTHONY--THE SOUTH TRANSEPT, FROM THE NAVE.]
NEWPORT, CARDIFF, AND LLANDAFF.
We now follow down the Usk, and at its mouth upon the Severn estuary is
Newport, in Monmouthshire, where there are large docks and a
considerable trade. The ruins of Newport Castle stand on the western
bank of the river. In the suburbs is Caerleon, where the Romans long had
the garrison-post of the second Augustan legion. The museum here is
filled with Roman remains, and the amphitheatre, called "King Arthur's
Round Table," is alongside. Proceeding westward about twelve miles along
the shore of the Severn estuary, we come to Penarth Roads in
Glamorganshire, sheltered under a bold headland at the mouths of the Ely
and the Taff, and the flourishing Welsh seaport of Cardiff on the banks
of the latter stream. This is the outport of the Welsh coal and iron
region, and the Marquis of Bute, who is a large landowner here, has done
much to develop its enormous trade, which goes to all parts of the
world. Its name is derived from Caer Taff, the fortress on the river
Taff, and in early times the Welsh established a castle there, but the
present one was of later construction, having been built by Robert
Fitzhamon, the Anglo-Norman conqueror of Glamorgan. It was afterwards
strongly fortified, and here the unfortunate Robert, son of William the
Conqueror, was imprisoned for twenty-eight years by his brother Henry
I., his eyes being put out for his greater security. The tower where he
was confined still stands alongside the entrance gateway, and during his
long captivity we are told that he soothed his weariness by becoming a
poet. The ancient keep remains standing on its circular mound, but the
castle has been restored and modernized by the Marquis of Bute, who
occasionally resides there, and has given it a fine western front
flanked by a massive octagonal tower. The moat is filled up, and, with
the acclivities of the ramparts, is made a public walk and garden. In
the valley of the Taff, a short distance from Cardiff, is the famous
"Rocking Stone," standing on the western brink of a hill called
Coed-pen-maen, or the "Wood of the Stone Summit." It was anciently a
Druids' altar, and with a surface of about one hundred square feet is
only two to three feet thick, so that it contains about two hundred and
fifty cubic feet of stone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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