[Illustration: RUINS OF GOODRICH CASTLE.]
[Illustration: A BEND OF THE RIVER WYE.]
The Wye flows on through its picturesque glen towards Monmouth, the
water bubbling with a strong current. A raised causeway carries the road
to Monmouth over the meadows. On the right hand are the ruins of Wilton
Castle, built in Stephen's reign, and burned in the Civil War. Tourists
go by small boats floated on the current down the Wye, and the boats are
hauled back on donkey-carts, little trains of them being seen creeping
along the Monmouth road. From Ross to Monmouth the river flows through a
region of rolling hills, with abrupt declivities where the rapid stream
has scarped the margin into cliffs and ridges. The valley narrows, and
the very crooked river flows through bewitching scenery until by another
great horseshoe bend it winds around the ruins of Goodrich Castle,
reared upon a wooded cliff, with Goodrich Court near by. The latter is a
modern imitation of a mediaeval dwelling, constructed according to the
erratic whims of a recent owner. This Court once contained the finest
collection of ancient armor in England, but most of it has been
transferred to the South Kensington Museum. Goodrich Castle was once a
formidable fortress, and it dates from the reign of Stephen. Here it was
that in the days of Edward the Confessor, "entrenched in a stockade of
wood, Goderic de Winchcomb held the ford" over the Wye, and gave the
place his name. It grew in strength until the Civil War, when Sir
Richard Lingen held it for the king. This was a memorable contest,
lasting six weeks, during which the besiegers belabored it with the best
battering-cannon they could procure, and used up eighty barrels of
gunpowder voted by Parliament for the purpose. Then the defenders
demanded a parley, but the assailants, angry at being so long baulked of
their prey, insisted upon unconditional surrender. Afterwards the castle
was demolished, but the fine old keep remains in good preservation,
commanding a grand view over the winding valley of the Wye and to the
Forest of Dean in one direction and the Malvern Hills in another. The
ruins are of a quadrangular fortress, and within the courtyard
Wordsworth once met the child whose prattle suggested his familiar poem,
"We are Seven." Little now remains of Goodrich Priory, but the parish
church of the village can be seen afar off, and contains a chalice
presented by Dean Swift, whose grandfather, Thomas Swift, was once its
rector.
[Illustration: IN SYMOND'S YAT.]
Below Goodrich this wayward river makes an enormous loop, wherein it
goes wandering about for eight miles and accomplishes just one mile's
distance. Here it becomes a boundary between the two Bickner
villages--Welsh Bickner and English Bickner. To the eastward is the
Forest of Dean, covering over twenty-six thousand acres, and including
extensive coal-pits and iron-works, the smoke from the latter
overhanging the valley. The river-channel is dug deeply into the
limestone rocks, whose fissured and ivy-clad cliffs rise high above the
water, varied by occasional green meadows, where cattle are feeding. The
river bends sharply to the westward past the crags at Coldwell, and then
doubles back upon its former course. This second bend is around a high
limestone plateau which is the most singular feature of the beautiful
glen. The river sweeps in an elongated loop of about five miles, and
returns to within eighteen hundred feet of its former channel, and the
plateau rises six hundred feet to the apex of the headland that mounts
guard over the grand curve--the famous Symond's Yat. On the top are the
remains of an ancient British fort, and rocks, woods, fields, and
meadows slope down to the river on almost every side, making a
bewitching scene. It was here that the Northman Vikings in 911 fortified
themselves after they landed on the Severn and penetrated through the
Forest of Dean. They were led by Eric in quest of plunder, and captured
a bishop, who was afterwards ransomed for two hundred dollars. Their
foray roused the people, who besieged the Vikings, forming a square
encampment which commanded their fortification, and remains of which are
still visible. They drove the Vikings out with their hail of arrows, and
punished them so terribly that the defile down which they fled is still
known as "The Slaughter." The remnant who escaped afterwards surrendered
on condition of being allowed to quit the country, and their experience
had such wholesome influence that no Vikings came that way afterwards.
The Wye next bends around two bold limestone hills known as the Great
and the Little Doward, each surmounted by ancient encampments, where
arrowheads and other relics, not to forget the bones of a giant, have
been found. In fact, bones seem to be a prolific product of this region,
for the "bone-caves" of the Dowards produce the relics of many animals
long vanished from the kingdom, and also disclose rude weapons of flint,
showing that the primitive races of men were here with them. Beds of
stalagmites, sand, and gravel covered these relics, deposited by an
ancient stream which geologists say flowed three hundred feet above the
present bed of the Wye. Then we come to the richly-wooded deer-park of
the Leys with its exquisite views, and here the wildly romantic scenery
is gradually subdued into a more open valley and a straighter stream as
the Wye flows on towards Monmouth. The parts of the river just described
are not more renowned for their beauty, though considered the finest in
England, than for their salmon, and we are told that three men with a
net have been known to catch a ton of salmon in a day, while the
fishery-rights are let at over $100,000 annually.