road from Crekelade, which appears with a very high ridge and very
strait for eight miles, to Birdlip hill, prodigiously steep and rocky
to the north-west, till we came to Glocester, a colony of the Romans.
The old proverb, “As sure as God’s at Glocester,” surely meant the vast
number of churches and religious foundations here; for you can scarce
walk past ten doors but somewhat of that sort occurs. The western part
of the cathedral is old and mean; but from the tower, which is very
handsome, you have a most glorious prospect eastward through the choir
finely vaulted at top, and the Lady’s chapel, to the east window, which
is very magnificent: here, on the north side, lies that unfortunate
king, Edward II. and out of the abundance of pious offerings to his
remains, the religious built this choir: before the high altar in the
middle thereof lies the equally unfortunate prince Robert, eldest
son of William the Conqueror, after a miserable life: but he rests
quietly in his grave; which cannot be said of his younger brother,
Henry I. before spoken of at Reading abbey: he has a wooden tomb over
him, painted with his coats of arms, and upon it his effigies, in
Irish oak, cross-legged like a Jerusalem knight. The cloysters in this
cathedral are beautiful, beyond any thing I ever saw, in the style of
King’s-college chapel in Cambridge. Nothing could ever have made me so
much in love with Gothic architecture (as called); and I judge, for
a gallery, library, or the like, it is the best manner of building;
because the idea of it is taken from a walk of trees, whose branching
heads are curiously imitated by the roof. There are large remains of
several abbeys of black and white friers, &c. I saw this distich cut in
wood over an old door of a house:
*Cum ruinosa domus quondam quam tunc renovavit
Monachus Urbanus Osborn John rite vocavit.*
This city abounds much with crosses and statues of the kings of
England, and has a handsome prospect of steeples, some without a
church. Here are several market-houses supported with pillars; among
the rest a very old one of stone, Gothic architecture, uncommon and
ancient, now turned into a cistern for water. A mile or two distant
from the city is a very pleasant hill, called Robin Hood’s: I suppose
it may have been the rendezvous of youth formerly to exercise
themselves in archery upon festivals, as now a walk for the citizens.
By this city, the _Glevum_ of the Romans, the Ricning-street way runs
from the mouth of the Severn into Yorkshire. I have nothing new as to
its Roman antiquities; and since that is out of dispute, I hasten to
Worcester.
[Sidenote: +Branonium.+]
It was anciently called _Branonium_, which the Welsh corrupted into
_Wrangon_, prefixing _Caer_, as was their method; and thence our
_Worcester_: it signifies the city _ad frontem aquæ_. The commandery
here, formerly belonging to St. John’s of Jerusalem, is now possessed
by the hospitable My. Wylde: it is a fine old house of timber in the
form of a court: the hall makes one side thereof, roofed with Irish
oak: the windows adorned with imagery and coats armorial of stained
glass: built for the reception of pilgrims: it stands just without the
south gate of the city in the London road, where the heat of the famous
battle happened between king Charles II. and Oliver Cromwell. Digging
in the garden they frequently find the bones of the slain. Above, in
the park, is to be seen a great work, of four bastions, called the
Royal Mount, whence a _vallum_ and ditch runs both ways to encompass
this side of the city. Here I suppose the storm began, when the
Royalists were driven back into the city with great slaughter; and the
king escaped being made a prisoner in the narrow street at this gate
(as they say) by a loaded cart of hay purposely overthrown; by that
means he had time to retire at the opposite gate to an old house called
White Ladys, being formerly a nunnery in possession of the family of
Cookseys, where he left his gloves and garters, which a descendant of
that family, of the same name, now keeps. The chapel of this nunnery
is standing, and has some painted saints upon the wall of one end. A
mile and half above the south gate, on the top of the hill, is the
celebrated Perry wood, where Oliver Cromwell’s army lay.
[Sidenote: TAB. XVIII.]
The collegiate church is stately enough: in it is buried the restless
king John; not where now his monument stands in the choir before the
high altar, but under a little stone before the altar of the eastermost
wall of the church; on each side him, upon the ground, lie the effigies
of the two holy bishops and his chief saints Wolstan and Oswald, from
whose vicinity he hoped to be safe from harm: the image of the king
likewise I suppose formerly lay here upon the ground, now elevated
upon a tomb in the choir as aforesaid. There is a large and handsome
stone chapel over the monument of prince Arthur, son of Henry VII. on
the south side of the high altar. The cloysters are very perfect, and
the chapter-house is large, supported, as to its arched roof, with
one umbilical pillar: it is now become a library well furnished,
and has a good many old manuscripts. There is a large old gate-house
standing, and near it the castle, with a very high artificial mount or
keep nigh the river. We met here with an odd instance of a prodigious
memory, in a person the powers of whose soul are run out (as we may
speak) intirely into that one; for otherwise his capacity is very weak:
if we name any passage in the whole Bible, he will immediately tell you
what book, chapter, and verse, it is in; a truly living concordance.
Here are a great many churches, and in good repair: one steeple is
octangular, another is remarkable for its lofty spire. A large bridge
of six arches over the beautiful Severn, enriched on both sides with
pleasant meadows. This is a large city, very populous and busy, and
affords several fine prospects, particularly from Perry wood. No doubt
but this was a Roman city; yet we could find no remains, but a place in
it called Sidbury, which seems to retain from its name some memorial of
that sort.
[Illustration: 18 _King_ Johns _Monument before the Altar in Worcester
Choir._
_Præhonorabili Dⁿᵒ. Eduardo Dⁿᵒ. Harley bonarum Artium
cultori & fautori Tabula votiva._
_J. Pine sculp._ _W. Stukeley designat_]
[Illustration: 85 +Ariconivm+
_9ᵗʰ. Sept. 1721._
_Tempus edax Rerum Tuqᵤₑ Invidiosa Vetustas
Omnia destruitis. Vitiataqᵤₑ dentibus Ævi
Paulatim lenta consumitis Omnia Morte._
+Ov.+
Jacobo Hill Ar. J. C. Vicinæ Civitatis formam consecrat W. Stukeley.
_Stukeley delin._]
[Sidenote: +Ypocessa.+]
[Sidenote: +Salinis.+]
[Sidenote: +Malvern.+]
A Roman road goes hence along the river to Upton, where antiquities are
dug up, (I take it for _Ypocessa_ of Ravennas) and so to Tewksbury,
where it meets with the Ricning-street way. A little below Worcester
a river called Teme falls into the Severn; and many other synonymous
rivers there are in England, beside the great Thames, which shows it
a common name to rivers in the old Celtic language, and the same with
the Greek Ποταμος, the first syllable cut off. A little above, a river
called Saltwarp falls into the Severn from Droitwich, a Roman town,
which occurs too in Ravennas under the name of _Salinis_; and they
still make salt at the place. From hence I made an excursion to Great
Malvern, a considerable priory at the bottom of a prodigious hill of
that name: the church is very large and beautiful, with admirable
painted glass in all the windows, and several old monuments: upon a
stone now in the body of the church, but taken from without the south
side in a garden, which was anciently the south wing, this.
PHILOSOPHVS DIGNVS BONVS ASTROLOGVS LOTHERING,
VIR PIVS AC HVMILIS MONACHVS PRIOR HVIVS OVILIS
HAC IACET IN CISTA GEOMETRICVS AC ABACISTA
DOCTOR WALCHERVS FLET PLEBS DOLET VNDIQ. CLERVS
HVIC LVX PRIMA MORI DEDIT OCTOBRIS SENIORI
VIVAT UT IN CELIS EXORET QVISQ. FIDELIS M. C. XXXV.[49]
there is a carved stone image, by the south wall of the choir, of
very rude and ancient workmanship: it is a knight covered with mail
and his surcoat; in his right hand a halbert like a pick-axe, in his
left a round target. Here are many coats of arms and cognizances upon
a glazed sort of brick; such I have seen at other places. A handsome
gate-house is left, and from the houses in the town you command a very
noble prospect over Worcester, as far as Edghill, as they tell us: it
is thought the Malvern has metals in its bowels. We diverted ourselves,
as we rode through Dean forest, with a house after the primitive style,
built round an oak tree, whose branches are still green with leaves.
Vide Vitruv. L. II. C. I. Two thousand years ago, one would have
suspected it to be a Druid’s.
[Sidenote: +Ariconium.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. LXXXV.]
[Sidenote: +Credonhill.+ Br. _camp_.]
[Sidenote: +Sutton walls.+ Ro. _camp_.]
The city of Hereford probably sprung up from the ruin of the Roman
_Ariconium_, now Kenchester, three miles off, higher up the river
Wye, but not very near it; which may be a reason for its decay.
Ariconium stands upon a little brook called the Ine, which thence
encompassing the walls of Hereford falls into the Wye. Two great
Roman ways here cross each other: one called the Port-way comes from
_Bullæum_, now Buelt, in Radnorshire; passing eastward by Kenchester,
through Stretton, over the river Lug, to Stretton Grantham upon the
Frome, it goes to Worcester: the other road comes from the south, and
Abergavenny, _Gobannium_, by Old town formerly _Blescium_; so by Dowre
a-cross the Golden vale and Archenfield to the river Wye, which it
passes at Eaton, where is a Roman camp for security, and a bridge for
convenience of the passage: thence it goes to Kenchester, so northwards
by Stretford: this Archenfield seems to retain the name of Ariconium.
Nothing remaining of its splendour, but a piece of a temple probably,
with a niche which is five foot high and three broad within, built of
Roman brick, stone, and indissoluble mortar: the figure of it is in
the fore-mentioned plate. There are many large foundations near it.
A very fine Mosaic floor a few years ago was found intire, soon torn
to pieces by the ignorant vulgar. I took up some remaining stones of
different colours, and several bits of fine potters ware of red earth.
Mr. Aubury in his manuscript notes says, anno 1670, old Roman buildings
of brick were discovered under-ground, on which oaks grew: the bricks
are of two sorts; some equilaterally square, seven or eight inches, and
one inch thick; some two foot square, and three inches thick. A bath
was here found by Sir John Hoskyns about seven foot square: the pipes
of lead intire; those of brick were a foot long, three inches square,
let artificially one into another: over these I suppose was a pavement.
This is an excellent invention for heating a room, and might well be
introduced among us in winter time. In another place is a hollow, where
burnt wheat has been taken up: some time since colonel Dantsey sent a
little box full of it to the Antiquarian Society. All around the city
you may easily trace the walls, some stones being left every where,
though overgrown by hedges and timber trees. The ground of the city is
higher than the level of the circumjacent country. There appears no
sign of a foss or ditch around it. The site of the place is a gentle
eminence of a squarish form; the earth black and rich, overgrown with
brambles, oak trees, full of stones, foundations, and cavities where
they have been digging. Many coins and the like have been found. Mr.
Ja. Hill, J. C. has many coins found here, some of which he gave to the
said society. Colonel Dantsey has paved a cellar with square bricks
dug up here: my lord Coningsby has judiciously adorned the floor of
his evidence-room with them. This city is overlooked and sheltered
towards the north with a prodigious mountain of steep ascent crowned
at the top with a vast camp, which ingirdles its whole _apex_ with
works altogether inaccessible: it is called Credon hill, seemingly
British: if you will take the pains to climb it, you are presented with
a most glorious and extensive prospect, as far as St. Michael’s mount
in Monmouthshire; bipartite at top, Parnassus-like, and of especial
fame and resort among the zealots of the Roman creed, who think this
holy hill was sent hither by St. Patrick out of Ireland, and has
wonderful efficacy in several cases. On the other hand you see the vast
black mountain separating Brecknockshire from this county: the city
Ariconium underneath appears like a little copse. On the other side
of the Wye you see Dinder hill, whereon is a Roman camp: and upon the
Lug are Sutton walls, another vast Roman camp upon a hill overtopping
a beautiful vale, the royal mansion of the most potent king Offa,
but most notorious for the execrable murder of young king Ethelbert,
allured thither under pretext of courting his daughter, and buried in
the adjacent church of Marden, situate in a marsh by the river side:
hence his body was afterwards conveyed to Hereford and enshrined; but
the particular place we cannot find. I suppose this martyr’s merits
were obliterated by the succeeding saint, Cantilupe, the great
miracle-monger on this side the kingdom, as his tutor and namesake
Thomas Becket was in Kent.
[Sidenote: +Hereford.+]
In the north wing of the cathedral of Hereford is the shrine where
Cantilupe was buried, and which wing he himself built: his picture
is painted on the wall: all around are the marks of hooks where the
banners, lamps, reliques, and the like presents, were hung up in his
honour; and, no doubt, vast were the riches and splendor which filled
this place; and it is well guarded and barricadoed to prevent thieves
from making free with his superfluities: the shrine is of stone, carved
round with knights in armour; for what reason I know not, unless
they were his life-guard. I saw a book, printed at St. Omar’s, of no
little bulk, which contained an account of his miracles. The church
is very old and stately, the roof, ailes, and chapel, have been added
to the more ancient part by succeeding bishops, as also the towers,
cloysters, &c. The most beautiful chapter-house of a decagonal form,
and having an umbilical pillar, was destroyed in the civil wars. I
saw its poor remains, whence I endeavoured to restore the whole in
drawing as well as I could, from the symmetry and manner of the fabric,
which I guess to be about Henry the Sixth’s time: there are about four
windows now standing, and the springing of the stone arches between, of
fine rib-work, which composed the roof; of that sort of architecture
wherewith King’s-college chapel at Cambridge is built: two windows were
pulled down, a very little while ago, by bishop Bisse, which he used
in new fitting up the episcopal palace: under the windows in every
compartment was painted a king, bishop, saint, virgin, or the like;
some I found distinct enough, though so long exposed to the weather.
Here are the greatest number of monuments of the bishops I ever saw,
many valuable brasses and tombs, one of Sir Richard Penbrug, knight of
the garter, which I drew out for Mr. Anstis: in our Lady’s chapel, now
the library, a fine brass of Isabella the wife of Richard Delamare, ob.
1421. Between the cathedral and episcopal palace is a most venerable
pile, exceeding it in date, as I conjecture from its manner of
composure; built intirely of stone, roofed with stone: it consists of
two chapels, one above the other: the ground-plot is a perfect square,
beside the portico and choir: four pillars in the middle, with arches
every way, form the whole: the portico seems to have a grandeur in
imitation of Roman works, made of many arches retiring inwards: two
pillars on each side consist of single stones: the lowermost chapel,
which is some steps under ground, is dedicated to St. Catharine, the
upper to St. Magdalen, and has several pillars against the wall, made
of single stones, and an odd eight-square cupola upon the four middle
pillars: there have been much paintings upon the walls: the arched roof
is turned very artfully, and seems to have a taste of that kind of
architecture used in the declension of the Roman empire.
The city of Hereford stands upon a fine gravel, encompassed with
springs and rivulets, as well as strong walls, towers, and lunettes;
all which, with the embattlements, are pretty perfect, and enabled them
to withstand a most vigorous siege of the Scots army under general
Lesley. The castle was a noble work, built by one of the Edwards before
the Conquest, strongly walled about, and ditched: there is a very lofty
artificial keep, walled once at top, having a well in it faced with
good stone: by the side of the ditch arose a spring, which superstition
consecrated to St. Ethelbert: there is a handsome old stone arch
erected over it. Without the walls are the ruins of Black Friers
monastery, and a pretty stone cross intire; round which originally were
the cloysters built, as now the cloysters of the cathedral inclose
another such. These crosses were in the nature of a pulpit, whence a
monk preached to the people _sub dio_, as is now practised once a year
in the cloysters of some colleges in the universities; and I suppose
Paul’s cross in London was somewhat of this sort. There was likewise an
opulent priory, dedicated to our country saint, Guthlac of Crowland,
now intirely ruined: the situation of it in a marshy place best suited
him. White Friers on the other side the town is intirely ruined: a
gate-house and several other parts were seen by many now living. All
these religious conventions (as tradition goes) had subterraneous
passages into the city under the ditch, that the holy fraternities
might retire from the fury of war, upon occasion.
In our way from Hereford to Leominster we ascended with some difficulty
the mighty Dynmaur hill, the meaning of which appellation is the great
hill: it makes us some amends for the tediousness of climbing, by the
extensive and pleasant prospect it affords us from its woody crest
commanding a vast horizon.
[Sidenote: +Leominster.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. XXII.]
Leominster is a town of brisk trade in manufactures of their admirable
wool, in hat-making, leather, and many others; it lies in a valley
luxuriant above measure. Three rivers of very swift current go
through the town, besides others very near: nor will the industrious
inhabitants suffer the water-nymphs that preside over the streams to
be idle: for with mills, and machinery of various contrivance, they
make them subservient to many uses in the way of their trades. Here was
a considerable priory on the north-side of the church, two ailes of
which are very ancient, and I suppose belonged to the priory: two other
ailes of more lightsome work have been added. The mayor, who invited
us to attend him thither, had a long black _caduceus_ to walk withall,
tipped with silver. There are some poor remains of the priory, chiefly
a little chapel, which I imagine belonged to the prior’s family:
underneath it runs a pretty rivulet, which used to grind his corn,
now converted to a fulling-mill: near are very large ponds for fish,
to furnish the monks on fasting days. There was a fine gate-house,
pulled down not long since, near the Ambry close, denominated from the
place (Almery) in which they gave their scraps away to poor people
at the gate, as I have observed at several other religious houses:
this is reckoned a great argument of their charity, whilst idle folks
lost their time in waiting for it. Round the cross built of timber I
saw this inscription, _Vive deo gratus, toti mundo tumulatus, crimine
mundatus, semper transire paratus_, and some more stuff of that sort.
In this town the soil is luxuriant above measure: trees of all sorts
flourish prodigiously: we were surprised at the extravagant bulk of
plants, leaves of dock as big as an ordinary tea-table, comfry leaves
as long as my arm. Mr. Gale and I disputed a good while about borage
quite grown out of cognizance.
We were entertained by my lord Coningsby at his seat of Hampton-court,
three miles off: at dinner time, one of the ancient bards in an
adjacent room played to us upon the harp, and at proper intervals threw
in many notes of his voice, with a swelling thrill, after a surprising
manner, much in the tone of a flute. This is a fine seat, built by our
countryman Harry of Bolingbroke, afterwards Henry the Fourth: it is,
castle like, situate in a valley, upon a rapid river under coverture
of Dynmaur: the gardens very pleasant, (the finest greens I ever saw)
terminated by vast woods covering all the sloping side of the hill;
whose wavy tops, when agitated by the wind, entertain the eye with a
most agreeable spectacle, and verdant theatric concavity, as high,
and as far, as you can well see. Here is a great command of water,
on all sides of the house, for fountains, basons, canals: within are
excellent pictures of the earl’s ancestors, and others, by the best
hands; Holbein, Dobson, Van Dyke, Sir P. Lely, &c. there is an original
of the founder, Henry the Fourth, of queen Elizabeth, of the duchess
of Portsmouth, &c. The windows of the chapel are well painted, some
images of the Coningsbys: here are two new stone stair-cases after a
geometrical method, with a view, I suppose, of security from fire: the
record-room is at top of a tower arched with stone, paved with Roman
brick; an iron door. From the top of the house goes a stair-case,
which they say has a subterraneous conveyance into Dynmaur wood;
which was the method of ancient times to escape the last extremity of
a siege. After dinner my lord did us the honour to ride out with us
into the park, which for beauty, diversity, and use, is very fine: it
is eight miles in circumference, and has all the variety of scenes
you can imagine; about 1200 head of deer in it: there are extensive
prospects, on one side reaching into Wiltshire; on another, over the
Welsh mountains; lawns, groves, canals, hills and plains. There is a
pool three quarters of a mile long, very broad, included between two
great woods: the dam that forms it across a valley, cost 800l. and
was made in a fortnight by 200 hands. There is a new river cut quite
through the park, the channel of which for a long way together is
hewn out of the rock: this stream enriches with derivative channels
vast tracts of land that before was barren. Here are new gardens and
canals laid out, and new plantations of timber in proper places to
complete its pleasures; warrens, decoys, sheep-walks, pastures for
cattle, and the like, intirely supply the house with all necessaries
and conveniences, without recourse to a market. His lordship showed us
in his study four or five vast books in manuscript, being transcripts
out of the record-offices, relating to his manors, royalties, estates
and muniments, which cost him 500l. in writing and fees: many of his
galleries and passages are adorned with the genealogy of his family,
their pictures, arms, grants, history, &c. The Roman road from
Ariconium to Uriconium lies west of Lemster by Stretford; then passes
over the Arrow, the Oney, the Lug; so through Biriton, two miles north
of Lemster, where they dig up the pavement of it, as it runs through
the grounds, made of squarish rag-stone.
[Illustration: 22 +Religiou_s_ Ruin_s_+
_Remnant of the Priory of Leominster Sep. 14. 1722._
_Black Fryers in Glocester._
_Aug. 24. 1721._
_Stukeley delin._ & Nobilissimo Thomæ Comiti de Coningsby DD. _E
Kirkall sculp._]
[Sidenote: +Ludlow.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. IV. V.]