[Illustration: ROSS BRIDGE.]
[Illustration: HOUSE OF THE "MAN OF ROSS."]
The Wye flows on through a fairly open valley, with broad meadows
extending from the bases of the wooded hills to the river. On
approaching Ross the meadows contract, the hills come nearer together,
and the new phase of scenery in the glen which here begins makes the Wye
the most beautiful among English rivers. Ross stands at the entrance to
the glen, built upon a sloping hill which descends steeply to the Wye.
It was the Ariconium of the Romans, and has been almost without stirring
history. It has grown in all these centuries to be a town of about four
thousand five hundred population, with considerable trade, being the
centre of a rich agricultural section, and is chiefly known to fame as
the home of Pope's "Man of Ross." This was John Kyrle, who was born at
the village of Dymock, not far away, May 22, 1637. He was educated at
Balliol College, Oxford, where they still preserve a piece of plate
which he presented as a parting gift. He afterwards settled at Ross, and
lived to an advanced age, dying November 11, 1724. He was described as
"nearly six feet high, strong and lusty made, jolly and ruddy in the
face, with a large nose." His claim to immortality, which has made his
name a household word in England, cannot better be described than by
quoting some of Pope's lines:
"Who hung with woods yon mountain's sultry brow?
From the dry soil who bade the waters flow?...
Whose causeway parts the vale with shady rows?
Whose seats the weary traveller repose?
Who taught that 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 almshouse, neat, but void of state,
Where age and want sit smiling at the gate:
Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans blest,
The young who labor, and the old who rest.
Is any sick? The Man of Ross relieves.
Prescribes, attends, the med'cine makes and gives.
Is there a variance? Enter but his door.
Balked are the courts and contest is no more....
Thrice happy man! enabled to pursue
What all so wish, but want the power to do!
Oh say what sums that generous hand supply,
What mines to swell that boundless charity?
Of debts and taxes, wife and children, clear.
That man possessed--five hundred pounds a year!"
[Illustration: MARKET PLACE, ROSS.]
[Illustration: ROSS CHURCH.]
[Illustration: THE TREES IN ROSS CHURCH.]
It is not often that a man can do so much to benefit his townsfolk out
of the modest income of $2500 a year; and not only Pope, but Coleridge
also, has found this a theme for verse. The house in which the "Man of
Ross" lived is on the left-hand side of the market-place, and still
stands, though much changed. It is now a drug-store and a dwelling. The
floors and panelling of several of the chambers are of oak, while a
quaint opening leads to a narrow corridor and into a small room, which
tradition says was his bedroom, where he endured his last and only
illness, and died. The bedroom looks out upon his garden, divided like
the house, one-half being converted into a bowling-green. The
surrounding walls are overrun with vines and bordered by pear trees. On
the other side of the market-place is the town-hall, standing on an
eminence and facing the principal street, which comes up from the
river-bank. This hall is somewhat dilapidated, though still in daily
use, and is supported on crumbling pillars of red sandstone. Ross is
chiefly built upon the slope of a hill, terminating in a plateau, one
side of which the Wye, flowing through a horseshoe bend, has scarped out
into a river-cliff. Upon this plateau stands the little Ross Church with
its tall spire, a striking building in a singularly fortunate situation.
The churchyard, with an adjoining public garden called the Prospect,
extends to the brow of the cliff. The church is cruciform, and its spire
the landmark for the surrounding country. It was built in the fourteenth
century, but is without architectural features. The "Man of Ross" rests
within its walls, buried near the altar under a blue slab. His memory is
the most cherished remembrance of Ross, and is mellowed as the ages
pass. His fireside chair stands in the chancel, and they also show a
book containing his autograph. A tablet to his memory is inserted in the
wall, erected by a distant relative, Lady Betty Dupplin, for it is said,
as is usually the case, that his good deeds excited more enthusiasm in
strangers than among the people whom he benefited. Within the church, in
front of a window, two trees are growing, another indirect and
posthumous memorial of the "Man of Ross." They appeared about fifty
years ago, and the story is that a rector of the parish had cut down a
tree on the outside of the wall which the "Man of Ross" had originally
planted, whereupon these suckers made their appearance within the
building and asserted the vitality of the parent tree. They shot up
against the seat which is said to have been his favorite one, and though
at first objected to, the church-wardens bowed to the inevitable, and
they are now among the most prized relics within the church. The public
garden (the Prospect) adjoining the churchyard was another benefaction
of the "Man of Ross," and with some private houses and a hotel it crowns
the summit of the plateau. Here the hand of the "Man of Ross" again
appears in a row of noble elms around the churchyard which he is said to
have planted, some of them of great size. The view from the Prospect,
however, is the town's chief present glory. It stands on the brink of
the river-cliff, with the Wye sweeping at its feet around the apex of
the long horseshoe curve. Within the curve is the grassy Oak Meadow
dotted with old trees. On either hand are meadows and cornfields, with
bits of wood, and the Welsh hills rise in the distance.