The Cambrian Directory [1800]; Or, Cursory Sketches of the Welsh Territories.: With a Chart, Comprehending at One View, the Advisable Route, Best Inns, Distances, and Objects Most Worthy of Attention.Anonymous
History
The Cambrian Directory [1800]; Or, Cursory Sketches of the Welsh Territories.: With a Chart, Comprehending at One View, the Advisable Route, Best Inns, Distances, and Objects Most Worthy of Attention.
Anonymous
Wales -- Guidebooks
with the ruins of the chapel, forming the back ground. In Courtfield
House, tradition reports, the warlike Henry V. was nursed; and in the
church of Welch Buckner, situated to the right, in a noble amphitheatre,
enclosed with rocks, first embraced the Christian religion. A busy
scene, of craft loading and unloading, and coals shipping for various
parts from the quay at Lidbroke, presents a picture of cheerful activity,
and forms a pleasing contrast to the quiet, rich, and retired spots, we
had left behind us; such spots, as were well adapted to form the mind of
Britain’s glory—the virtuous Henry. The banks now became richly clothed
with wood, from the summits of the highest rocks to the water’s edge; and
a hill in front, called Rosemary Topping, from the mellow luxuriance of
its sides, closed the prospect. Almost every sweep presents a new
object, to strike the admiration of the spectator: the transitions are
sudden, but never so harsh as to disgust; even the contrast between the
embellishments of art we had just left, and the wild rocks, which here
exhibit nature in her most striking attitudes, give an additional
impression to each other.
We now reached those fine mass of rocks, called Coldwell, one of which,
Symond’s Yatch, to the left, it is customary for company to ascend, in
order to view the mazy and circuitous course of the river, and the
extensive prospect around. The Forest of Dean, the counties of Monmouth,
Hereford, and Gloucester, were extended before us, studded with villages,
diversified with clusters of half-visible farm houses; with many a grey
steeple, “embosomed high in tufted trees.” In painting the several views
from this summit, the happiest description would fail; the impression can
only be conveyed by the eye. The river here makes a most extraordinary
winding round the promontory, and having completed a circuit of more than
five miles, flows a second time immediately under Symond’s Yatch. The
whole of this mazy course may be traced from this eminence. From hence
we discovered a very remarkable polysyllabical articulate echo, and we
reckoned twelve distinct reverberations from the explosion of a gun,
fired on this spot. It is here again customary for the boatmen to impose
on strangers, and if they can prevail on them, during their walk to
Symond’s Yatch, will take the boat round the circuit of five miles, and
meet them at New Wier, in order that no time should be lost; but this
laziness we by no means encouraged, and the whole course of this
extraordinary and romantic sweep proved highly gratifying. Goodrich
spire, which we again wound round, presented itself; huge fragments of
massy rocks which have rolled down from the precipices, opposite Manuck
Farm, here almost choaked up the course of the stream. The changing
attitudes and various hues of Symond’s Yatch, lifting its almost spiral
head high above the other rocks, as we receded and drew near it, supplied
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