Roman passes of the Wye--Goodrich
Castle--Keep--Fortifications--Apartments--Its history--Goodrich
Court--Forest of Dean--Laws of the Miners--Military exploit--Wines of
Gloucestershire.
If the conjecture of antiquaries be correct, that the great Roman road
from Blestium to Gloucester, by Ariconium, proceeded by the ford of the
Wye at Goodrich Castle, it is possible that this spot may have been of
some consequence before the period when history takes any cognizance of
the fortress. Blestium is supposed to be Monmouth, from which the road
probably led along the line of the present turnpike, between an
entrenchment to the left, opposite Dixon Church, and an encampment on the
Little Doward, to the right, supposed by some to be Roman, but usually
described in the road books as British. The name of Whitchurch Street,
applied to a portion of this route further on, favours the supposition of
a Roman origin. Ariconium, the next station from Blestium, is Rosebury
Hill, near Ross, according to those who identify Monmouth with Blestium.
There was another Roman way which led from Blestium to Glevum
(Gloucester) by a more direct route; crossing the Wye at the former
place, and leading up the Kymin from the left bank of the river. At
Stanton, a little further on, the vestiges of a Roman settlement are
indubitable, not only in the name of the place itself, but in the
entrenchments that may be observed near the church, and the Roman cinders
scattered about the fields. At Monmouth and Goodrich Castle, therefore,
were the two great passes of the Wye used by the Romans. At the latter
the river is crossed by a ferry.
"The awe and admiration could not be enhanced with which I wandered
through the dark passages and the spacious courts, and climbed the
crumbling staircase of Goodrich Castle." So says the German prince:
although the time of his visit was winter, when the Wye and its ruins are
stripped of the adjunct of foliage, which in the imagination of common
travellers is inseparably connected with ideas of the picturesque or
beautiful in natural scenery.
Goodrich Castle forms a parallelogram, with a round tower at each angle,
and a square keep in the south-west part of the enclosure. A minute
account of this remarkable ruin is given in the "Antiqua Monumenta;" and
Mr. Bonner introduces his brief description, in illustration of his
perspective views, with the remark that "the fortification (although not
of large dimensions) contains all the different works which constitute a
complete ancient baronial castle." For this reason, if for no other, it
would demand special observation; but the tourist of the Wye, even if
ignorant of the interest which thus attaches to Goodrich Castle, will
acknowledge that it forms one of the finest objects hitherto presented by
the banks of the river. It stands on the summit of a wooded hill, in the
position of one of the castles of the Rhine, and in the midst of a scene
of solemn grandeur which Mason may have had in view when he wrote his
spirited description of the sacred grove of Mona, in "Caractacus."
"Here, Romans, pause, and let the eye of wonder
Gaze on the solemn scene: behold yon oak
How stem it frowns, and with its broad brown arms
Chills the pale plains beneath him: mark yon altar,
The dark stream brawling round its rugged base,
These cliffs, these yawning caverns, this wide circus,
Skirted with unhewn stone: they awe my soul
As if the very genius of the place
Himself appeared, and with terrific tread
Stalked through his drear domain."
"Yonder grots,
Are tenanted by bards, who nightly thence,
Robed in their flowing vests of innocent white,
Descend, with harps that glitter to the moon,
Hymning immortal strains. The spirits of the air,
Of earth, of water, nay of heav'n itself,
Do listen to their lay: and oft, 'tis said,
In visible shapes dance they a magic round
To the high minstrelsy."
The keep is the most ancient remains of the castle, and presents, on a
small scale, all the usual features of this part of a fortification of
the olden times. It was composed of three stories, being intended to
overlook the works, and had no windows on the landward side. Each of
these stories consisted of a single small room, the lowest being the
prison, without even a loophole to admit air or light. "The original
windows," says King, "are the most truly Saxon that can be." This
applies more particularly to the one in the middle of the upper story,
which appears to have remained without any alteration; while, in the one
beneath, a stone frame for glass seems to have been inserted. The style
of this addition points to the time of Henry VI., and we may believe that
it was made by the celebrated Earl Talbot, who tenanted one of these
small chambers. Besides the glass window, this apartment boasts a hearth
for fire; and, as is usual in such buildings, the communication with the
floor above is by a circular staircase in an angle of the massive wall.
"To this staircase is a most remarkable door-way; it was one large
transom-stone, as if to aid the arch to support the wall above, and in
this respect resembles several other Saxon structures, in which this
strange kind of fashion seems to have been uniformly adopted; until it
became gradually altered by the introduction of a flattish _under-arch_,
instituted in the room of the transom-stone." {63}
The entrance to the keep was by a flight of steps, leading to the above
apartment; but the dungeon had an entrance of its own, of a construction
which leads antiquarians to conjecture, that it was added in the reign of
Edward III., when Richard Talbot obtained the royal license for making
his dungeon a state prison.
The fortifications to be surmounted before an enemy could arrive at the
keep, were numerous and complete. Independently of the fosse, there was
a deep pit, hewn out of the solid rock, to be crossed by a drawbridge,
and then commenced a dark vaulted passage between two semicircular
towers. Eleven feet within the passage was a massive gate, defended (as
likewise the drawbridge) by loopholes in the sides of the vault, and
machicolations in the roof, for pouring down molten lead or boiling water
on the assailants. A few feet farther on was a portcullis, and then a
second, the space between protected by loopholes and machicolations.
Presently there was another strong gate, and finally a stone projection
on both sides, intended for the insertion of beams of timber, to act as a
barricade. If we add that the passage thus defended was less than ten
feet wide, and that the exterior walls of the whole building were in
general seven feet thick, an idea may be formed of the strength of
Goodrich Castle.
Within the ballium, or enclosed space, entered with such difficulty, were
the keep here described, the state apartments, chapel, &c.; but the whole
of these are in so ruinous a state, as to be nearly unintelligible except
to antiquaries. The great hall was sixty-five feet long and twenty-eight
broad, and appears to have been a magnificent apartment of the time of
Edward I., as its windows indicate. The fire-place is still
distinguishable in the great kitchen. Communicating with the hall is a
smaller room, from which a passage led into another room of state,
fifty-five feet by twenty; and this opened into the ladies' tower,
standing upon the brow of a lofty precipice, and commanding a delightful
view over the country.
It is curious that so remarkable a structure should be almost destitute
of authentic history, till the very period when it ceased to exist but as
a ruin. All that is known of its origin is, that a fort, held by a
doomsday proprietor, of the name of Godric, commanded the ford of the
river at this place before the Conquest. The fort consisted, in all
probability, of little more than the keep; to which, at later periods,
additions were made, cognisable by their style, till Goodrich Castle
became a regular fortress. In 1165 it was the property of the earl of
Pembroke, then lord of the whole district from Ross to Chepstow; and,
subsequently, it was a seat of the Talbot family, who, in 1347, founded a
priory of black canons at Flanesford, which is now a barn, about a
quarter of a mile below the castle. During the civil wars this fortress
played a conspicuous part, being taken and retaken by the opposing
parties. In the first instance it held for the parliament; but was
afterwards seized by Sir Richard Lingen, who, in 1646, defended it with
great gallantry against Colonel Birch for nearly five months, and thus
conferred upon it the distinction of being the last castle in England,
excepting Pendennis, which held out for the king. In the following year
it was ordered by the parliament to be "totally disgarrisoned and
_slighted_," which sentence was just sufficiently carried into effect to
give the Wye a magnificent ruin at the very spot where taste would have
placed it. "Here," says Mr. Gilpin, "a grand view presented itself, and
we rested on our oars to examine it. A reach of the river, forming a
noble bay, is spread before the eye. The bank on the right is steep, and
covered with wood, beyond which a bold promontory shoots out, crowned
with a castle rising among trees. This view, which is one of the
grandest on the river, I should not scruple to call correctly
picturesque."
Near the spot where Mr. Gilpin must have been is the ferry where Henry
IV., who was waiting to be taken across, received intelligence of his
queen's being delivered of a prince at Monmouth Castle. The king,
according to tradition, was so overjoyed at the news, that he presented
the ferry and boat, which at this time belonged to the crown, to the
ferryman. On the left bank, nearly opposite, are the church and village
of Walford, in the former of which is buried Colonel Kyrle, who deserted
the service of Charles I. for that of the parliament.
Goodrich Court, to which a winding path leads from the castle, is
somewhat nearer Ross. It is the seat of Sir Samuel Meyrick, the well
known antiquary, and presents, in the architecture, an exact imitation of
a mansion of the middle of the fourteenth century. In this respect, as
well as in the arrangement of its proprietor's valuable collection of old
armour, the house may be said to be absolutely perfect. It forms in
itself and its contents, one of the most interesting museums in Europe;
and it is open, with very little ceremony, to the inspection of the
traveller, as all such things are, when they do not happen to be the
property of persons unworthy to possess them.
The river sweeps boldly round the wooded headland on which Goodrich
Castle stands; and the ruin is thus presented again and again, in new
phases (but none so interesting as the first), to the voyager, as he
glides down the now varied and romantic river. A steep ridge on the
right bank is called Coppet, or Copped Wood Hill, where the stream makes
a sweep of five miles, to perform the actual advance of one. The mass of
foliage on the opposite bank is a part of the Forest of Dean, variegated,
by rocks, hamlets, and village spires. Bishop's Brook here enters the
Wye, and serves as a boundary between the counties of Hereford and
Gloucester, and between the parishes of Walford and Ruerdean. "The view
at Ruerdean church," says Mr. Gilpin, "is a scene of great grandeur.
Here both sides of the river are steep, and both woody; but on one
(meaning the left bank), the woods are interspersed with rocks. The deep
umbrage of the Forest of Dean occupies the front, and the spire of the
church rises among the trees. The reach of the river which exhibits this
scene is long; and of course the view, which is a noble piece of natural
perspective, continues some time before the eye; but when the spire comes
directly in front, the grandeur of the landscape is gone."
The famous Forest of Dean is in the space which here lies between the
Severn and the Wye. "In former ages," as Camden tells us, "by the
irregular tracks and horrid shades," it was so dark and dreary as to
render its inhabitants more audacious in robberies. In the time of
Edward I. there were seventy-two furnaces here for melting iron; and it
is related, that the miners of those days were very industrious in
seeking after the beds of cinders, where the Romans of Britain had been
at work before them, which remains, when burnt over again, were supposed
to make the best iron. The privileges of these miners were, no doubt,
for the most part assumed, but some granted by law are highly curious.
The following are specimens:--
"Also, if any smith holder, or any other be debtor, for mine to a
miner, the which smith holder or other be within, then the miner is
bailiff in every place (except his own close), to take the horse of
the debtor, if he be saddled with a work saddle, and with no other
saddle; and be it that the horse be half within the door of the
smith, so that the miner may take the tail of the horse, the debtor
shall deliver the horse to the miner. And if he so do not, the miner
shall make and levy hue and cry upon the said horse, and then the
horse shall be forfeit to the king for the hue and cry made and
levied, and yet the miner shall present the debtor in the Mind Law,
which is the court for the mine."
"And the debtor before the constable and his clerk, the gaveler and
the miners, and none other folk to plead the right, only the
ministers shall be there, and hold a stick of holly, and the said
miner demanding the debt, shall put his hand upon the said stick, and
none other with him, and he shall swear by his faith, that the said
debt is to him due; and the prove made, the debtor, in the same
place, shall pay the miner all the debt proved, or else he shall be
brought to the castle of St. Briavells till grace be made, and also
he shall be amerced to the king in two shillings.
"Also the miner hath such franchises to inquire the mine in every
soil of the king's of which it may be named, and also of all other
folk, without withsaying of any man.
"And also if any be that denieth any soil, whatsoever it be, be it
sound or no, or of what degree it may be named, then the gaveler, by
the strength of the king, shall deliver the soil to the miners, with
a convenient way, next stretching to the king's highway, by the which
mine may be carried to all places and waters that lean convenient to
the said mine, without withsaying of any man."
The Forest of Dean plays a conspicuous part in the wars of Monmouthshire,
serving as a natural outwork for the county. The following transaction
is described by Sanderson, the historian of Charles I.:--"After Sir
William Waller," says he, "had refreshed his men, he advanced towards
Monmouthshire, invited by some gentlemen to reduce these parts. At his
coming to the town of Monmouth, the garrison of the lord Herbert retired,
leaving a naked place to Sir William; where he found small success of his
parties, sent abroad for supplies of money. He marches to Usk, and
spending some time to no purpose in that county, he returns, the stream
of the people affording him no welcome, being all universal tenants of
that county to the earl of Worcester.
"In this time Prince Maurice enters Teuxbury, with a brigade of horse and
foot added to the lord Grandeson, resolving to make after Waller, or to
meet his return out of Wales. A bridge of boats wafts him over the
Severn, with a body of two thousand horse and foot. Waller was nimble in
his retreat, not to be catcht in a noose or neck of Wales; but, by a
bridge of boats, came back at Chepstow, with his foot and artillery, and
himself, with his horse and dragoons, passed through the lowest part of
the Forest of Dean, near the river side of Severn; and ere the prince had
notice, sends forth two parties to fall upon two of the Prince's
quarters, which was performed, while Waller's main body slipped between
both, and a party was left also to face them, and make good the retreat,
which came off but disorderly, with loss of some soldiers. It was held a
handsome conveyance, and unexpected, to bring himself out of the snare by
uncouth ways."
Gloucestershire, of which the Forest of Dean forms a part, although still
boasting one of the richest soils in England, is no longer a _wine
country_. "The ground," according to William of Malmesbury,
"spontaneously produces fruit in taste and colour far exceeding others,
many of which will keep the year round, so as to serve their owners till
others come in again. No county in England has more or richer vineyards,
or which yield greater plenty of grapes, and of a more agreeable flavour.
The wine has not a disagreeable sharpness to the taste, as it is little
inferior to that of France in sweetness." On this Camden remarks, that
it is more owing to "the indolence of the inhabitants than to the
alteration in the climate," that in his time wine was no longer a
production of the county.
Vines were introduced into Britain by the Romans, and the hills of South
Wales became more especially famous for their vineyards. They were
mentioned in the Domesday Book, before the time of William of Malmesbury;
and tithes of wines are frequently alluded to in the records of
cathedrals.