Monday 28th June 1819
passed a very merry evening, our party consisting of fourteen. Monday June 28th It was arranged that after breakfast we were to go to Pencraig and row down the river Wye to Monmouth the party started about ten o’Clock and having procured a very nice boat we first landed at
Goodridge Castle formerly inhabited by the Lords of Somerset it forms a very picturesque object from the Wye, we were much amused with exploring all the dark passages and dungeons, of which there are plenty in high preservation. we next tryed our skill in ascending
Simmons’ Height whence we have a very extensive view of the Mountains in Wales and the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire it is entirely out of my power to describe the varied beauties of the Wye. I must leave it to the imagination of the reader or to an other and more experienced tourist than ….( myself …)
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Pencraig is a small hamlet in Marstow parish, Herefordshire, overlooking the river Wye and 4 miles South West of Ross. Pencraig Court is the chief residence. https://ukga.org/england/Herefordshire/towns/Pencraig.html
Tourism and the Wye Valley: In his article, The Wye Valley: Riverside of the Romantics, from the Daily Telegraph Travel section of the 23rd September 2008, Nigel Richardson presents a strong case for Ross-on-Wye being the birthplace of tourism in Britain. He writes so beautifully that I can do no better than quote his words: “Artists such as JMW Turner, poets including Wordsworth, the leisured and the curious began to come here towards the end of the 18th century..” …“They came clutching the same book: Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, &c, Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty Made in the Summer of the Year 1770, by the artist and vicar William Gilpin, with aquatint illustrations by his nephew.
“This leather-bound pocket book (not actually published until 1783) was the first of several “tours” Gilpin wrote up of various British landscapes. In as much as they encouraged British people to experience and enjoy their own countryside, rather than seeking inspiration abroad, these books can be said to be the first modern guidebooks.
“And Gilpin started right here in Ross, where he picked up “a covered boat, navigated by three men”, for the journey of nearly 40 miles to Chepstow. The beauty of the Wye Valley, which is now protected by its designation as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is undimmed from Gilpin’s days. Its serpentine course and steep wooded sides, its craggy lookouts – Eagle’s Nest, Devil’s Pulpit, Lover’s Leap – and stereophonic birdsong seem to exist in a different dimension from the modern world.
The Wye Valley, copyright David Evans/Flickr
“Driving parallel to the river, you can speed from Ross to Chepstow in half an hour. Below the level of the road, and often invisible until you are right next to it, the river between the same points rewards days of exploring. It has a mysterious antilinear topography such that you are often unsure which bank you are looking at: east or west, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire or, indeed, Monmouthshire. Gilpin had a lot to say about this, how the riverbanks, or “side screens”, provide contrast and perspective, constantly unfolding fresh views like moving stage sets.” …
“We walked a particularly lush cut of the Wye, between Goodrich Castle and Symonds Yat Rock. We had Gilpin’s sanction. Writing of the castle he said: “This view, which is one of the grandest on the river, I should not scruple to call correctly picturesque.” We walked down through woods that had the mustiness and acoustics of a church interior, to water meadows carpeted in buttercups and wild mint, and had a picnic facing Symonds Yat Rock (with a Union flag on top) and Coldwell Rocks, which were favourite subjects of the sketchers and watercolourists who followed Gilpin.
“.. in August 1802, Nelson – no doubt clutching his copy of Gilpin – took the Wye tour himself. …As word got around that the “hero of the Nile” was in the area, his holiday swiftly turned into a triumphal procession: “When they got to Monmouth the townsfolk insisted on pulling his boat in and singing Hail the Conquering Hero.”
“Four years earlier, in July 1798, William Wordsworth had made his second visit to the Wye Valley. While walking “these steep woods and lofty cliffs” he wrote in his head a poem of sublime beauty which stands as a perfect embodiment of the Romantic sensibility. “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”, despite not mentioning the abbey except in the title, has lent the riverside Cistercian ruins just outside the village of Tintern a lasting fame….
“Remarkably little has changed on the river in the intervening years. The ancient inns and hand-pulled ferries are still there. People still take boats to Whitchurch Church near Symonds Yat for weddings and funerals. But the river itself has silted up and is no longer navigable as it was for Gilpin and Nelson….” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/artsandculture/3066900/The-Wye-Valley-Riverside-of-the-Romantics.html
Goodridge Castle: Norman medieval castle ruin north of the village of Goodrich in Herefordshire, England, controlling a key location between Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye. It was praised by William Wordsworth as the "noblest ruin in Herefordshire" and is considered by historian Adrian Pettifer to be the "most splendid in the county, and one of the best examples of English military architecture".
Goodrich Castle 2006 by Michael Eccles. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goodrich_Castle_01.jpg
Goodrich Castle by David Cox 1815 This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less. Source: http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/default.asp?Document=200.21.70.017.09&Image=1127&gst=
In the 13th century it frequently stood in the way of raids by the Welsh prince Llewelyn ap Gruffudd. It was eventually breached in the Civil War by Captain Birch and his enormous mortar called "Roaring Meg", able to fire a gunpowder-filled shell 85–90 kilograms (187–198 lb) in weight, in a local forge.
The "Roaring Meg" mortar used against the castle in March 1646. Image 7 August 2010 by Hchc2009 & licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.Source:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roaring_Meg_mortar.JPG
The Great Keep, 20 June 2007, by Pauline Eccles & from geograph.org.uk, Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0 sourced from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11120111
The Great Keep has the alternative name of the "Macbeth tower", after stories of an Irish chieftain held prisoner there. According to some tales, he died attempting to escape and his ghost is said to still haunt the tower. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodrich_Castle
Lords of Somerset: Lucy has probably got this wrong. Historically Goodridge was connected to the Earls of Shrewsbury – It was Raglan Castle that was associated with the Somerset’s.
Symonds Yat: a village in the Wye Valley and a popular tourist destination. The name is said to come from Robert Symonds, a 17th-century sheriff of Herefordshire, and yat, an old word for a gate or pass. The Yat Gorge was mined for iron ore and remains of a smelting works are located down stream of the Rapids. The ferry at Symonds Yat has always played a huge part in the life here. In 1800 there were 25 hand ferries between Ross and Chepstow just like those outside Ye Old Ferrie Inn and the Saracen's Head today. They were introduced in Roman times to link the forts of the Doward and the Yat and have served military, civilian, tourist and horse traffic over the years
Lucy’s reference to “Simmons’ Height whence we have a very extensive view..” suggests that she was atop Symonds Yat Rock. The Rock overlooks a spectacular gorge through which the River Wye snakes. Today this rock is a good viewpoint from which to watch raptors: a pair of peregrine falcons that nest annually within sight of the rock can be watched through telescopes set up by the RSPB. Buzzards, goshawks and hobbies are also regularly seen and it is sometimes possible to see migrant raptors such as ospreys and European honey buzzards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symonds_Yat
Can you help us?
Old Regency Prints or Pictures of scenes visited and maps of the Old Coaching Routes: Any illustrations of what Lucy would have seen in 1819 will bring our research alive. Any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and sites will enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought.