Part 1

Transcribed from the 1803 J. Nichols and Son edition by David Price, email [email protected]

[Picture: Tintern Abbey]

A TOUR THROUGHOUT SOUTH WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE.

COMPREHENDING

A GENERAL SURVEY

OF THE

PICTURESQUE SCENERY, REMAINS OF ANTIQUITY, HISTORICAL EVENTS, PECULIAR MANNERS, AND COMMERCIAL SITUATIONS, OF THAT INTERESTING PORTION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

* * * * *

BY J. T. BARBER, F.S.A.

* * * * *

ILLUSTRATED WITH A MAP AND TWENTY VIEWS, ENGRAVED FROM DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR.

[Picture: Decorative divider]

_LONDON_:

PRINTED BY J. NICHOLS AND SON, RED LION PASSAGE, FLEET STREET;

FOR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, STRAND.

* * * * *

1803.

* * * * *

To RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, ESQ. M.P.

_SIR_,

_Highly admiring that transcendent genius and ability which renders you conspicuous among the foremost characters of the age_; _nor less venerating that manly independence which has dignified your political career_, _it must be my regret_, _in dedicating this Work to you_, _that it is not more suitable to the rank of merit to which it is inscribed_.

_I am_, _SIR_, _With great respect_, _Your most obedient Servant_,

_J. T. BARBER_.

_Southampton-street_, _Strand_, _London_, _Feb._ 15, 1803.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The intention of this Work is, to point out and describe such objects as command general interest throughout the country.--The usual plan of Tours only comprising a particular route, unless that precise line be retraced, a Tourist is obliged to encumber himself with several books, to enable him to gain all the information that he requires. The Author has felt this inconvenience in several excursions through Great Britain; and has therefore selected from the best authorities an account of those few parts which he had not an opportunity of visiting; in order that this Work may exhibit a general survey of Southern Cambria.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION. Page General Observations--A Sketch of Welch History--Ancient 1 Buildings CHAP. I. Voyage from Bristol to Swansea--Swansea 14 Castle--Manufactories--Welch Bathing--Ostermouth--Penrice, and Pennarth Castles--Seat of Mr. Talbot--Arthur's Stone, a large Cromlech CHAP. II. Loughor--Llanelly--Pembree-hill--Kidwelly, and its Castle 31 CHAP. III. Caermarthen--Female Labourers--Llanstephan Castle--A 36 Ford--Laugharne Castle--Fine Marine Views--New Inn--Tenby CHAP. IV. Manorbeer Castle--An Adventure--A Dilemma--Carew 48 Castle--Lawrenny--Pembroke--Its Castle--Lamphey Court--Stackpole Court--Bosherston Meer CHAP. V. Little England beyond Wales--Milford-haven--Welch 68 Beauties--Haverfordwest Fair--The Town, Castle, and Priory--Picton Castle--Hubberston--Milford CHAP. VI. Journey over the Precelly Mountain to Cardigan--Extensive 81 Prospect--Cardigan--St. Dogmael's Priory--Another Route from Haverfordwest to Cardigan, by St. David's--The Cathedral of St. David's--Grand Ruins of its Palace--A Loggan, or Rocking Stone--Ramsay Island--Fishguard--Newport--Kilgarran Castle--Salmon Leap--Newcastle CHAP. VII. Llanarth--Aberaeron--Llansansfried--Llanrhystid--An Enquiry 97 into a strange asserted Custom relating to the Mode of Courtship in Wales--Llanbadarn-vawr--Aberistwyth, and its Castle CHAP. VIII. Barrier of North and South Wales--The Devil's Bridge--Grand 110 Cataract of the Mynach--Cwm Ystwith Hills--Hafod--Ancient Encampments--Starflour Abbey--Tregarron--Roman Antiquities at Llandewi Brevi--Lampeter--Llansawel--Edwin's Ford--Llandilo CHAP. IX. Charming Vale of Towey--Dinevawr Castle--Golden 128 Grove--Grongar Hill--Middleton Hall--Caregcannon Castle--Reflections at a Ford--Glenheir Waterfall--An Accident--Pont ar Dulas--Return to Swansea CHAP. X. Neath Abbey, Town, and Castle--The Knoll--Briton 145 Ferry--Funereal Rites--Aberavon--Margam--Abbey Ruin--Pile CHAP. XI. Ogmore Castle--Ewenny Priory--Dunraven House--St. Donatt's 158 Castle--Llanbithian Castle--Cowbridge--Penline Castle--Coity Castle--Llantrissent--Benighted Ramble to Pont-y-Pridd--Water-falls CHAP. XII. Scenery of the Taffe--Stupendous Ruins of Caerphilly 172 Castle--The Leaning Tower--Fine View from Thornhill--Cardiff Castle--Ecclesiastical Decay of Landaff--The Cathedral CHAP. XIII. Entrance of Monmouthshire--Ancient 185 Encampments--Castleton--Tredegar Park--Newport--Church and Castle--Excursion to Machen Place--Picturesque View from Christ Church--Gold Cliff--Caerleon's Antiquities--Encampments--Lord Herbert of Cherbury--Lantarnam--Langibby Castle CHAP. XIV. Usk--Castle and Church--Excursion to Raglan--Elegant Ruins of 208 Raglan Castle--Views from the Devaudon--Roman Antiquities at Caerwent--Tesselated Pavement CHAP. XV. Wentwood Forest--Excursion to the Castles of Dinham; Lanvair; 227 Striguil; Pencoed; and Penhow--comprising extensive Views from the Pencamawr, &c.--Caldecot Castle--A Tale of other Times--New Passage--Sudbrook Encampment--and Chapel--St. Pierre--Mathern Palace--Moinscourt CHAP. XVI. Chepstow--Fine Scenery of its Vicinage--The Castle--Church, 246 and Bridge--Piercefield--Character of the late Mr. Morris CHAP. XVII. Tintern Abbey--Iron Works--Scenery of the Wye to 265 Monmouth--Old Tintern--Brook's Weir--Landago--Redbrook CHAP. XVIII. Monmouth--Church, Priory, and Castle--The Kymin--Wonastow 279 House--Treowen--Troy House--Trelech--Perthir--Newcastle--Screnfrith Castle--Grossmont Castle--John of Kent CHAP. XIX. Abbey of Grace-dieu--Sir David Gam--White Castle--Abergavenny 300 Hills--The Town, Cattle, and Church CHAP. XX. Werndee--Family Pride--Lanthony Abbey--Old Castle 312 CHAP. XXI. Re-entrance of South Wales--Crickhowell--Tretower--Brecon 323 Castle and Priory--Road to Llandovery--Trecastle--Pass of Cwm-dur--Llandovery Castle--Road from Brecon to Hereford--Brunlyss Castle--Female Vengeance--Hay--Clifford Castle CHAP. XXII. Bualt--Prince Llewelyn--Rhayder-gowy--Caractacus's 335 Camp--Offa's Dyke--Knighton--Presteign--Old and New Radnor--Llandrindod Wells CHAP. XXIII. Goodrich Castle and Priory--Wilton Castle--Scenery of the Wye 347 from Ross to Monmouth--Ross--Gloucester

ERRATA. {0}

Page 66, _for_ LAMPHEY CASTLE, _read_ LAMPHEY COURT.

68 and 80, _for_ Habberston, _read_ Hubberston.

98, _after_ horizon, _read_ the sea.

131, _in the note_, _for_ Druslwyn, _read_ Gruslwyn.

DIRECTIONS FOR THE PLATES.

Tintern Abbey to face the Title Page. The Map before the Introduction. Kidwelly Castle to face page 34 Llanstephan Castle 41 Manorbeer Castle 48 Carew Castle 61 Pembroke Castle 65 St. Dogmael's Priory 86 Kilgarran Castle 93 The Devil's Bridge 111 Falls of the Mynach 114 Dinevawr Castle 128 Careg-cannon Castle 138 Margam Abbey 153 Caerphilly Castle 174 Raglan Castle 213 Chepstow Castle 247 View from Piercefield 260 View on the Wye 277 Lanthony Abbey 315 Goodrich Castle 348

[Picture: Map of South Wales]

INTRODUCTION.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS--A SKETCH OF WELCH HISTORY--ANCIENT BUILDINGS.

SECT. I.

In making the Tour of South Wales and Monmouthshire, the _Admirer_ of _picturesque beauty_ dwells with peculiar pleasure on a tract of country comprising the greater part of Monmouthshire, and bordering the Severn and Bristol channel, to the western limits of Pembrokeshire. In this enchanting district, a succession of bold hills, clothed with wild forests, or ornamental plantations and delightful valleys, present themselves in constant variety: many fine estuaries and rivers, picturesque towns, and princely ruins, also adorn the scene, whose charms are inconceivably heightened by the contiguity of the Bristol channel, which washes the coast; in some places receding into capacious bays; in others, advancing into rocky promontories of the most imposing grandeur.

_The Statistical Enquirer_ finds equal subject of gratification, in the uncommon fertility of several valleys, and the woody treasures of numerous hills, bearing myriads of oaks, and other first-rate timber-trees. The mineral wealth of the country, and its convenient coast for traffic, are likewise subjects of high consideration; and, while the statist applauds the late rapid strides of manufactures and commerce in this district, he may discover sources hitherto latent for their increase.

_The Historian_ cannot fail of being interested while treading on the ground where Britons made their latest and most vigorous efforts for independence, against successive invaders; nor _the Antiquary_, while traversing a country replete with Monuments of the Druidical ages; military works of the Romans, Britons, Saxons, and Normans; and the venerable relics of numerous religious foundations.

Beyond this stripe of country, from ten to twenty miles in width, forming the southern extremity of Wales, and an intermixture of rich scenery (particularly in the neighbourhood of Brecon), with prevailing dreariness on the eastern frontier, South-Wales exhibits a tedious extent of hills without majesty, valleys overrun with peat bogs, and unprofitable moors. Beside the superb ruins of St. David's, the course of the Tivy near Cardigan, and the scenery about the Devil's Bridge, it has little to entice the attention of the tourist: the towns, for the most part, are miserably poor, and travelling accommodations very uncertain; the roads, too, are wretched beyond any thing that a mere English traveller ever witnessed. It is, therefore, a subject of no small gratification, that the chief beauties of South-Wales are found in a compact route; abounding with good towns, respectable accommodations, and very fair roads. This part of the country may be explored in a close carriage, though the better mode of travelling is, certainly, on horse-back. The pedestrian may claim peculiar advantages in his way of getting on; but I do not conceive, that a man enduring the fatigue of trudging day after day through miry roads, can maintain an exhilaration of spirits congenial with the beauties that surround him.

SECT. II.

The geographical situation and present limits of Wales are unnecessary to be here described. Of its history, the first certain accounts that we collect are on the invasion of the Romans, when Wales appears to have been divided into three principalities: the Silures, the Ordovices, and the Dimitae. The Silures possessed all that tract of country bounded by the Severn, the Tame, and the Towey; which, comprehending the counties of Monmouth, Glamorgan, Brecknock, Radnor, Hereford, and part of Gloucester, Worcester, and Caermarthen shires, comprised the greater part of South-Wales. The Dimitae inhabited that part of South-Wales westward of the Towey; and the Ordovices, North-Wales, including Anglesea.

The Romans having subdued _Britannia Prima_, _i.e._ the Southern part of England, advanced to the conquest of Wales, by them denominated _Britannia Secunda_; in this, however, they met with an unlooked-for opposition; the inhabitants were vigorous and brave; and the country, wildly piled together with mountains, forests, and morasses, presented an aggregation of difficulties, that would have discouraged a people less ardent in their enterprizes: nor did they succeed, until after a long warfare and a severe loss. The Silures and Dimitae fell under the yoke in the reign of Vespasian, when they were vanquished by _Julius Frontinus_. The Ordovices were not finally subdued until the time of his successor, _Agricola_, who, according to Tacitus, exterminated the whole nation.

The Romans retained possession of this country until A.D. 408, when they withdrew their legions, and the most warlike of the British youth, for the defence of their central dominions. The inroads of the Scots and Picts, which immediately followed, do not appear to have materially affected the Welch; nor did the Saxons, though at constant war with them for several centuries, acquire any settled dominion in the country: yet they more than once partially overran Wales, obliging it to pay tribute; and in the reign of Edward the confessor, Harold, at the head of a great army, entering Wales, defeated Prince Griffith, sovereign of North-Wales, and, establishing himself in Gwent {6} (Monmouthshire), began a Palace at Portswit, which was, however, destroyed by Griffith before its completion.

From the departure of the Romans, in 408, to the inroads of the Anglo-Norman chieftains in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Wales was divided into numerous petty sovereignties or lordships, of varying name and extent, but tributary to an imperial Prince; though sometimes that dignity was split into two or three branches. These chiefs were usually at war with each other, or with their Princes, who seldom obtained tribute when their means of enforcing it was questionable.

The Anglo-Norman dominion in Wales was brought about in a manner wholly different from former conquests. William the First and his successors, finding sufficient employment in securing their English possessions, invited their chiefs, holding lands in the neighbourhood of Wales, to make incursions against the Welch lords, upon their separate interests. The Norman leaders thereupon, by creating feuds among the native powers, siding with one or the other party, and breaking with them on convenient opportunities, contrived to fix themselves in various parts of Wales; whence their conquests extending, by degrees, overspread the greater part of the country. The lands thus obtained became the property of the conquerors, who, under the title of lords marchers, were allowed to exercise an uncontrolled jurisdiction within their demesnes: but power acquired on such principles could only be retained by force; every petty despot secured himself in a fortress, and hence arose the extraordinary number of castles with which Wales is crowded, amounting, according to a native author, {7} to 143. The Welch princes still held a considerable tract of country, frequently overthrew the intruders, and even carried their arms into England; but in the defeat of the brave Llewelyn, by Edward the First, Wales lost every remnant of its independence, and became definitively united to the crown of England.

In the reign of Henry the Eighth Wales was divided into twelve shires, and Monmouthshire was included among the English counties; the feudal despotism of the lords-marchers was then abolished; and Wales, participating in the equal shelter of English jurisprudence, has proved itself as zealous in defending the common interests of the empire, as it was formerly conspicuous in struggling for its particular freedom.

SECT. III.

Among the numerous memorials of history and antiquity which distinguish Wales, castles and religious buildings possess the chief claim to attention; and, as Wales is an admirable field for the study of the civil and military architecture that prevailed in the middle ages, I shall give a slight sketch of the progress of those arts, so far as it seems applicable to the present purpose.

On the overthrow of the Romans by the Goths and Vandals, the arts vanished before the scourge of war; and the standard mode of architecture which adorned the Greek and Roman empires could no longer be executed in its original perfection. The general forms, indeed, were imitated, but without an observance of symmetry: the execution was rough and clumsy; the pillars were excessively thick, and the arches heavy; and where ornament was attempted the performance was very uncouth. Such was the state of architecture (a mere corruption of the Roman) that succeeded the devastations of the Goths, and has been called _Saxon_ and _Norman_: the term Gothic, however, would certainly be more appropriate.

At the beginning of the twelfth century, a new style of architecture made its appearance, distinguished by pointed arches and clustered columns {9}. Though at first coldly received, and but sparingly introduced among the rounded arches and massive columns called Saxon, it soon gained an undisputed footing.

About the latter end of the reign of Henry the Third, we find it acquire a more ornamental and distinct character. The pillars, which before were rounds and encircled with slender detached shafts, were then formed in entire reeded columns; the arched roofs also, which only exhibited the main springers, then became intersected with numerous ramifications and transomes. The decorations continued to increase until toward the close of Henry the Eighth's reign, when the light of science again dawned over Europe, and the relics of Greece and Rome were rightly considered as models of genuine taste; the classic elegance of the five Orders then appeared, intermixed with the Gothic; it soon became universal, and is now adopted in all superior buildings throughout Europe. Further characteristics of style might be pointed out, and lesser variations defined: but I do not presume to inform the antiquary; and the distinctions already drawn will be sufficient for the cursory tourist.

_Castles_ appear of no generally chosen figure, except such were founded by the Romans, who preferred that of an oblong square, unless there were special reasons to the contrary. Small castles consisted of a single court, or ward, whose sides were usually flanked by towers. The great hall, chapel, and domestic apartments, built from the outer wall into the court, occupied one or more sides. The citadel, called also the Keep and Dungeon, was a tower of eminent strength, wherein the Garrison made their last stand, and where prisoners were sometimes confined: the citadel was often detached from the walls, and built on an artificial mound encircled with a ditch. The barracks for the soldiers in garrison was generally a range of building near the gatehouse, or principal entrance. The latter building contained apartments for the Officers of the castle, and the portal was furnished with one, two, or three portcullisses. {11} A wet or dry moat surrounded the whole; and, advanced before the drawbridge that crossed it, there was often an outwork called a barbican. Large castles were only a repetition of these courts upon somewhat of a larger scale, connected with each other (Chepstow castle consists of four). In fortresses of the first class, an extensive embattled wall sometimes encircled the mass of fortification already described, at some distance, inclosing a considerable tract of ground, as at Caerphilly in Glamorganshire. {12} Castle walls appear in some instances built of solid masonry; but their general construction is of grout work. For this purpose, two slight walls were built parallel, from six to twelve feet asunder; the interval was then filled up with loose stones and rubbish, and the whole cemented together with a great quantity of fluid (according to some authors boiling) mortar: the mass soon acquired a sufficient firmness, and in the present day it possesses the adhesion of solid rock. This method was used by the Romans, and adopted by succeeding ages; but the arches were turned, and the angles coigned with hewn stones, which, after the Conquest, were brought from Caen in Normandy.

CHAP. I.

VOYAGE FROM BRISTOL TO SWANSEA--SWANSEA CASTLE--MANUFACTORIES--WELCH BATHING--OSTERMOUTH, PENRICE, AND PENNARTH CASTLES--SEAT OF MR. TALBOT--ARTHUR'S STONE, A LARGE CROMLECH.

In company with a brother artist, I entered BRISTOL with an intention of commencing my Cambrian tour in the neighbourhood of Chepstow; but an unthought-of attraction induced us to relinquish this project.

Returning from a ramble through the town, by the quay, we were agreeably amused with a fleet of vessels that was about to quit the river with the ebbing tide; some of them were already in full sail floating down the stream, and others getting under weigh. The spirited exertions of the seamen, and the anxious movements of numerous spectators, devoting their attention to friends or freight, gave animation to the scene, which was rendered particularly cheerful by the delightful state of the morning. On a sudden we were saluted with a duet of French-horns from a small sloop in the river; a very indifferent performance to be sure, yet it was pleasing. This sloop was bound to SWANSEA; and we learned that the wind was so directly favourable, that the voyage would in all probability be completed the same afternoon. We were now strongly disposed for an aquatic excursion; nor did the laughing broad faces of about a dozen Welch girls, passengers, alarm us from our purpose: so by an exertion we collected our portmanteaus and some refreshments in due time, and engaged in the voyage.

Leaving Bristol, and its romantic but ruined suburb CLIFTON, we entered upon the remarkable scenery of St. VINCENT'S Rocks. A bolder pass than is here formed I scarcely remember to have seen, even in the most mountainous parts of Great Britain: on one side, a huge rock rises in naked majesty perpendicularly from the river, to the height of some hundred feet; the immense surface is tinted with the various hues of grey, red, and yellow, and diversified by a few patches of shrubs, moss, and creeping lichens. A range of rocks equal in magnitude, but of less precipitous ascent, clothed with dark wild forest trees and underwood, forms the opposite boundary of the river; attempering the menacing aspect of impendent cliffs, with the softer features of sylvan hills.