Nooks and Corners of PembrokeshireTimmins, H. Thornhill (Henry Thornhill)
History
Nooks and Corners of Pembrokeshire
Timmins, H. Thornhill (Henry Thornhill)
Pembrokeshire (Wales) -- Description and travel
Above the adjacent farmyard premises rises the quaint little
weather-beaten tower of the old priory chapel; its slender spire leaning
perilously awry, its stonework fast crumbling to decay. From the summit
of the tower hangs the crazy bell, with rusty chain and silent clapper.
One daintily-fashioned window is roughly blocked with brickwork, another
gives entrance to a pigeon-cot.
Within the adjoining house we are shown a fine old vaulted kitchen, with
deep-browed windows, and rude stone settle along the wall. Thence we
penetrate to a cool, dark chamber exhibiting traces of a gracefully
proportioned window enclosed by a pointed arch, long since blocked up.
Retracing our steps beneath hedges of flowering fuchsia, we return by
breezy, fern-clad commons and well-tilled fields to the landing-place;
where an amphibious-looking individual is laying out lobster-pots among
the weed-strewn rocks.
Caldey has ever been famed for the excellence of its oyster fisheries;
not to speak of the crabs and lobsters caught around its rocky shores,
which are commended by an Elizabethan writer who appears to have been an
authority on such matters. 'The Lapster,' says this enthusiast, 'sett
whole on the table, yieldeth Exercise, Sustenance and Contemplation;
exercise in cracking his legs and Clawes, sustenance by eating the Meate
thereof, and contemplation by beholding the curious Work of his complete
Armour, both in hue and workmanship.'
'And the Crabbe,' continues the same writer, 'doth sensiblye feele the
Course of the Moone; fillinge and emptyeing yt selfe with the encrease
and decrease thereof, and therefore ys saied to be best at the full
Moone.'
Once more afloat, we are speedily wafted past the cave-pierced cliffs of
St. Margaret's Isle, and across the placid waters of Caldey Sound.
Running beneath the fortress-crowned St. Catherine's Rock, we round the
Castle Hill and disembark in Tenby's sheltered haven.
Though our rambles about its old streets have by no means exhausted the
curious nooks of Tenby, yet we have all broad Pembrokeshire lying as it
were at our doors, and waiting only for an 'open sesame' to disclose its
most interesting features. By far the larger number of these lie within
a measurable distance of Tenby, whence access is easily obtained to them
by road, rail, or boat. Moreover, by taking counsel with the local
time-table, the visitor may fare forth upon his way at a conscionable
hour of the morning and be back again at Tenby ere nightfall supervenes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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