On the approach to Ross, a fine amphitheatre of trees called Ashwood
skirts the southern bank of the Wye. From this charming spot, near three
miles above Ross, the annexed view which comprehends the principal
objects that compose the beautiful in picturesque landscape was
sketched. The town is situated on the declivity of a hill at a happy
distance, and not too obtrusive on the eye; the rising hills with which
it is screened give a boldness of character to the situation, nor is the
winding of the river, and verdure of the country that enrich its banks,
less characteristic of this delightful neighbourhood. The hill to the
right of the town is called the Chase, and that on the left,
Penyard-wood, on which formerly stood a castle, said to have been
destroyed in the civil wars. The white spire of Ross church “bosomed
high in tufted trees” has at this distance an effect peculiarly
pleasing, but on a nearer approach, the town obtrudes too much on the
eye, and the picturesque and beautiful, gradually disappear.
Ross, abstracted from its elevated and delightful situation, has little
to render it worthy attention; the prospect from the church yard a spot
to which the traveller is generally conducted on his arrival, displays a
very extensive and enchanting landscape both above and below the town.
The beautiful and meandering course of the river beneath, enriched with
pleasure boats constantly in motion, in their passage to and from
Chepstow, gives life and beauty to the scene. These boats are lightly
constructed and are navigated by three men, either with or without a
sail. The heavy mass of building called the Town Hall, from its general
appearance conveys a faint idea of the worst style of Saxon
architecture; it is a ponderous and unmeaning heap of stone, huddled
together in the tasteless reign of James the first, by one John Abel who
erected a similar building at Hereford; they vie with each other in want
of taste, and have nothing to render them worthy notice but their
absurdity, which I believe is not to be equalled by the dullest
architect of that or any other period. At one end of the building,
intended I presume as an ornament, there is a noseless bust, supposed to
be that of the merry monarch Charles the second. In such a state of
decay is the stone of which this edifice is composed, together with the
heavy style of its architecture, that it has every appearance of having
been erected as far back as the time of the Saxons.
Notwithstanding the disadvantage under which this building labors, I
have yet considered the general view of which it forms a part as not
devoid of interest, it comprises the house in which the man of Ross
resided till his death, now known by the sign of the King’s Arm Inn. As
every the most trifling circumstance relative to a character so highly
distinguished by the pen of Pope, and still more highly dignified by the
general voice of the people of Ross becomes interesting, I have here
thought fit to give a view of the house in which he resided, and the
adjoining buildings.
To the benevolent John Kyrle, a name almost lost in the superior title
of the Good Man of Ross this town owes most of its improvements and
charitable institutions.
[Illustration:
_S. Ireland del._
_Market house &c._
_Pub. for S. Ireland Mar. 1, 1797_
]
He was born at Whitehouse, in the parish of Dymock, in the county of
Hereford in 1637, served the office of sheriff for the county in 1683,
and died in 1724.
From an income of only five hundred pounds a year, this good man appears
to have derived every happiness to himself and to have diffused it with
uncommon benevolence to all around him. This exemplary character has
been so interestingly delineated by the pen of Pope, that the
introduction of the following lines although well known, will need no
apology for their insertion in this work.
“Rise honest muse! and sing the _Man of Ross_:
“Pleas’d Vaga echoes thro’ her winding bounds,
“And rapid Severn hoarse applause resounds.
“Who hung with woods yon mountain’s sultry brow?
“From the dry rock, who bade the waters flow?
“Not to the skies in useless columns tost,
“Or in proud falls magnificently lost,
“But clear, and artless, pouring thro’ the plain
“Health to the sick, and solace to the swain.
“Whose cause-way parts the vale with shady rows?
“Whose seats the weary traveller repose?
“Who taught the heaven directed spire to rise?
“The _Man of Ross_, each lisping babe replies.
“Behold the market-place with poor o’erspread!
“_The Man of Ross_ divides the weekly bread;
“He feeds yon alms-house, neat, but void of state,
“Where age, and want sit smiling at the gate;
“Him portion’d maids, apprentic’d orphans blest,
“The young who labor, and the old who rest.
“Is any sick? the _Man of Ross_ relieves,
“Prescribes, attends, the medicine makes, and gives.”
“Is there a variance? enter but his door,
“Balk’d are the courts, and contest is no more.
“Despairing Quacks with curses fled the place,
“And vile Attorneys, now an useless race.
B. “Thrice happy man! enabled to pursue
“What all so wish, but want the power to do!
“Oh say, what sums that gen’rous hand supply?
“What mines to swell that boundless charity?
P. “Of debts and taxes, wife and children clear,
“This man possest—five hundred pounds a year.
“Blush, grandeur, blush! proud courts withdraw your blaze,
“Ye little stars! hide your diminished rays.
B. “And what? no monument, inscription, stone?
“His race, his form, his name almost unknown?
P. “Who builds a church to God, and not to fame,
“Will never mark the marble with his name;
“Go, search it there, where to be born and die,
“Of rich and poor makes all the history;
“Enough that virtue fill’d the space between
“Prov’d by the ends of being, to have been.”
The allusion of the poet, to a neglect in not raising a monument to the
good man’s name, no longer exists, for in 1776 a neat mural tablet was
erected to his memory in the chancel of the church, by Colonel Money, to
defray the expence of which, the sum of three hundred pounds was
bequeathed by a Lady Kinnoul, whose property devolving to the Colonel,
the good intention of the lady was by him accomplished. On this tablet
the following lines are inscribed.
“This monument was erected in memory of Mr. John Kyrle, commonly called
the Man of Ross.”
It is somewhat singular that neither his age, nor the time of his death,
are here mentioned. The design for the monument was made by a Mr. Marsh
of this town, who has introduced a bust of the good man that bears
little resemblance to either of the two portraits I met with in Ross;
one of these is in the possession of Philip Jones Esq.; a gentleman, who
by marriage with a descendant of John Kyrle, enjoys all his property,
and by his urbanity renders himself a worthy representative of that
exemplary character. This picture appears to be that of a person about
thirty six years of age, and is evidently the work of Sir Peter Lely.
The other portrait was at the King’s Arms Inn, formerly the residence of
John Kyrle, as described in the view given in this section, it
represents him at a more advanced period of life, and on that account,
although ill painted, it was preferred to the former as he is exhibited
nearer the close of a life, long and happily spent in the promotion of
virtue, and to the honor of human nature. I flatter myself the annexed
etching from this picture will not prove unacceptable to the admirer and
collector of portraits, as I do not remember to have ever seen a print
of this exalted character. The original is said to have been sketched
from the life unknown to Mr. Kyrle, on a Sunday whilst he was attending
divine service. He had often been solicited to sit for his picture, but
no inducement could prevail on him to comply with the request of his
friends.
[Illustration:
_F. Barlow sculp^t._
JOHN KYRLE,
_Commonly called the Man of Ross_.
]
It is reported of Mr. Kyrle, that his ordinary mode of dress, was very
plain, and so mean as even to suggest the idea of indigence and want.
And even more unfavourable conclusions have been made, from his general
appearance, for upon no better foundation, it is said that when
travelling in Oxfordshire on horseback, he was apprehended near Benson,
upon a suspicion of having committed a robbery in a neighbouring county.
I need not add that this charge was dismissed the instant his name was
made known to the magistracy.
We cannot quit this town without noticing to the picturesque traveller,
a charming walk made by Mr. Kyrle, which led to what he called his farm,
it commands a beautiful view of the devious windings of the river
beneath, and Wilton castle, bridge, &c. on the opposite shore.