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 Cagwent, or Castell 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. {24} 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 have
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 conjunction with the
Severn. We examined the apartments in which Henry Marten, one of the
regicides, who sat to condemn King Charles I., was confined 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