THE MIRROR
OF
LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
| Vol. 19. No. 547. | SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1832 | [PRICE 2d. |
WILTON CASTLE.
Wilton Castle.Here is one of the ivy-mantled relics that lend even a charm toromantic nature on the banks of the Wye. Its shattered tower andcrumbling wall, combine with her wild luxuriance, to form a sceneof great picturesque beauty, though, as Gilpin observes, "the scenewants accompaniments to give it grandeur."
These ruins stand opposite to Ross, on the western bank of theWye. The Castle was for several centuries the baronial residence ofthe Greys of the south, who derived from it their first title, andwho became owners in the time of Edward the First. It may thereforebe presumed to have been one of the strongholds, in the greatstruggles for feudal superiority with Wales, which were commencedby Edward, whose "active and splendid reign may be considered as anattempt to subject the whole island of Great Britain to hissway."1 Or, in earlier times, being situatedon the ancient barrier between England and Wales, it may have beena station of some importance, from its contiguity to Hereford,which city was destroyed by the Welsh, but rebuilt and fortified byHarold, who also strengthened the castle. The whole district is ofantiquarian interest, since, at the period of the Roman invasion,Herefordshire was inhabited by the Silures, who also occupied theadjacent counties of Radnor, Monmouth, and Glamorgan, together withthat part of Gloucestershire which lies westward of the Severn. TheSilures, in conjunction with the Ordovices, or inhabitants of NorthWales, retarded, for a considerable period, the progress of theRoman victors, whose grand object seems to have been the conquestof these nations, who had chosen the gallant Caractacus as theirchieftain, and resolutely exhausted every effort in defence of theindependence of their country.
The present demolished state of the [pg 306] Castle is referred tothe Royalist Governors of Hereford, by whose orders it was burnt tothe bare walls during the reign of Charles I. in the absence of itsthen possessor, Sir J. Brydges.
The scenery of the WYE, at this point is thus described bytourists: "From Hereford to Ross, its features occasionally assumegreater boldness; though more frequently their aspect is placid;but at the latter town wholly emerging from its state of repose,"it resumes the brightness and rapidity of its primitive character,as it forms the admired curve which the churchyard of Rosscommands. The celebrated spire of Ross church, peeping over a noblerow of elms, here fronts the ruined Castle of Wilton, beneath thearches of whose bridge, the Wye flows through a charming successionof meadows, encircling at last the lofty and well-wooded hill,crowned with the majestic fragments of Gooderich Castle, andopposed by the waving eminences of the forest of Dean. The mightypile, or peninsula, of Symonds' Rock succeeds, round which theriver flows in a circuit of seven miles, though the opposite pointsof the isthmus are only