Twenty-seven miles below Hereford on the Wye (but only fifteen by road),
there rises a small but steep bluff overlooking the sinuous windings of
the river, and straggling down from its top is built the town of Ross.
Pope, in his "Moral Essays," would give the credit for every one of the
town's agreeable features to a certain John Kyrle, who died in 1724 at
the advanced age of ninety. The elaborately thorough Pope credits him
with all the civic virtues, and appends an inventory of benefits, which
includes the benches disposed along the hill's brow for those wishing to
view the landscape, the causeways, bridges, &c., not omitting minute
charities to the villagers. Some members of the legal and medical
professions may join the writer in esteeming the poet fortunate in that
he did not fall into our clutches after he had penned the following
lines:
"Is any sick? the Man of Ross relieves,
Prescribes, attends, the med'cine 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."
This public benefactor lies buried in the northern side of the chancel,
and near by there comes through an opening in the wall a large vine,
rooted outside but bearing its leaves within the church. The glass here
is limited in extent but very delicate and charming. It fills the
eastern end of the chancel, which extends a short distance further to
the east than do the two ample additions opening out from each side of
that central portion of the church. These chancel windows are composed
of four lancets each, and the treatment is the same throughout, viz., a
single figure within a canopy. The personages are of good size,
occupying about half of the entire height of the canopy. Because the
windows are near the ground, Ross affords an excellent opportunity to
examine the peculiarly delicate drawing on English glass at this time,
which far excelled any contemporary French work. The architectural
details of the canopies are carefully worked out, and each is surmounted
by seven slender pinnacles standing out clearly against their red
background. Up the sides and into the cusps of each lancet runs a light
border. A very sober use is made of the tints throughout, yielding a
harmonious _ensemble_ of colour, well set off by the soft brownish
shades used in the depicted architecture.