The weather prevented our seeing the celebrated Walks of Piercefield, but
we promised ourselves the pleasure of visiting them on our return down
the Wye. The Castle of Chepstow, called Kaswent, or Castelk Gwent,
stands on a rock washed by the river Wye, near its influx into the
Severn. Topographical writers differ in their accounts concerning the
antiquity of the Castle, but it is generally supposed to have been built
at the same time with the town, appearing at that period to have been a
kind of citadel to Chepstow. {9} The Castle was formerly of great
extent, as, according to Leland’s account, the “waulles began at the end
of the great bridge over Wy,” yet “in the castel ys one tower, as I heard
say, by the name of Langine.” Little now remains of its former grandeur:
but, impelled by an irresistible curiosity, we ascended the decayed steps
of the tower, from whence the eye traced with pleasure the windings of
the Wye, till it was at last lost in its conjunction with the Severn.
With horror we examined the dark dungeon, where Henry Martin, one of the
twelve judges, who sat to condemn Charles I. was confined seven and
twenty years.
Grand views of the Bristol Channel still continued to form interesting
objects from the road; but about three miles from Chepstow, we turned
into some fields on the right, to examine the Ivy-mantled walls of