“The Kinge here borne did prove a peerless Prince;
He conquered France and reigned nine yeares in hap;
There was not here so great a victor since,
That had such chaunce and fortune in his lap.
For he by fate and force did covet all,
And, as turn came, stroke hard at Fortune’s ball,
With manly mind, and ran a reddie waye
To lose a feint, or winne the gole by playe.
If Monmouth bring such princes forth as this,
A soyle of grace it shall be call’d of right;
Speake what you can, a happie seat it is,
A trim shiere town for noble Baron or Knight;
A cittie sure, as free as is the best,
Where ’Size is kept, and learned lawyers rest;
Such auncient wise, in meete and wholesome ayre,
Where the best sort of people do repayre.”
<g>Kymin Hill</g>, on the south-east side of Monmouth, commands one of the
finest views in the kingdom. To this enchanting prospect, the celebrated
lines by Dyer may be applied with little alteration:--
“Now I gain the mountain’s brow--
What a landscape lies below!
No clouds, no vapours intervene;
But the gay, the open scene,
Does the face of Nature show
In all the hues of heaven’s bow;
And, swelling to embrace the light,
Spreads around beneath the sight.
Old castles on the cliffs arise,
Proudly towering in the skies;
Rushing from the woods, the spires
Seem from hence ascending fires.
Half his beams Apollo sheds
On the yellow mountain heads,
Gilds the fleeces of the flocks,
And glitters on the broken rocks.”
“And see the rivers, how they run
Through woods and meads, in shade and sun!
Ever charming, ever new,
When will the landscape tire the view?”
* * * * *
AUTHORITIES quoted or referred to in the preceding article on
Raglan Castle and its vicinity:--Dugdale--Camden--Collins’
Peerage--Speed--Hollinshed--Williams’ Monmouth--Grafton--Robert of
Gloucester--Illustrations of British History--Peck’s
Curiosa--Stow--Winwood--Manners and Customs of England--Pictorial
History--Memoirs of the Court of James I.--Osborne’s
Memoirs--Evelyn’s Diary--Strutt--Somers’ Tracts--Howel’s
Letters--Barber’s Tour--Bayly’s Apophthegms of the Marquess of
Worcester--Churchyard--Wood’s Rivers of Wales--Thomas’
Raglan--Carne--Archæological Journal--Clarendon’s History--Certamen
Religiosum--Ellis’s Original Letters--Memoirs of
Swift--Carlyle--Parliamentary Papers--Mercurius
Civicus--Edwards--The Family History--History of the Civil
War--Chronicles--Rushworth’s Papers--Lodge’s Illustrations--County
History and Local Descriptions--Sir R. Colt Hoare--Coxe--Notes of a
Personal Visit to Raglan--Communications from Correspondents,
etc.--_See_ APPENDIX.