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208

PLEASURE-BOATS-SCENERY OF THE WYE.

the master, perceiving, no doubt, that we were people of taste in quest of picturesque beauties, called for our orders respecting a boat to go down the river. These boats attend there during the touring season. The price from hence to Chepstow, 45 miles in two days, is L.4, 10s. and 5s. pour boire. The landlord knew exactly what was necessary for the victualling of the vessel, and we found all ready in a basket in the boat; this boat was covered with an awning, the seats with a carpet, a small table in the middle, and two oars.

From Ross to Monmouth the Wye is a good little river, without vices or virtues; you see cultivated fields to the right and left, and nothing else. Lower down, the banks rise by degrees, are clothed with woods, and broken with rocks in fine detached masses; the woods, however, are only coppice, cut every fourteen years, no fine trees; and at the water line, instead of sand or rock, are reeds steeped in mud, although the current is rapid: here and there a neat green turf extends to the water. The finest parts of the Wye resemble the banks of our Hudson river. One of these rivers is more than a mile wide, and the other perhaps twenty yards, unfavourable extremes on both sides; there the majesty of the banks sinks before the vastness of the river,here they overpower it. This river meets so many promontories and sinuosities, that a walk of half a mile, at the point where Goodrich Castle stands, brought us to a place which the boat had a circuit of three miles to make before reaching; and another time, we made a short cut of about a mile over a high promontory, four miles round, called New Weir, or Symond's Yacht. From the summit of this high ridge, beyond the deep trench at the bottom of which the river flows, the view extends far and wide over a waving sur

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WYE-GOODRICH CASTLE-TINTERN ABBEY. 209

face of country, remarkably well cultivated, and dotted over with cottages and good houses, most of them owned by the Duke of Beaufort. We were here beset by a great number of beggars, attracted, and in fact created, by the alms of travellers. The hopes of getting their bread that way has prevented honest exertions, and they have become wretchedly poor by pretending to be so. This is more or less the case where there is any sight to attract travellers. Wales and the Wye are visited by all tourists; we are precisely in the tract, and meet them at all the inns,-stalking round every ruin of castle or abbey,—and climbing every high rock for a prospect; each with his Gilpin or his Cambrian Guide in his hand, and each, no doubt, writing a journal. This is rather ridiculous and discouraging. Goodrich Castle is a very fine ruin.

The exterior of Tintern Abbey disappointed us; but the coup d'œil of the interior is wonderful. Suppose Westminster Abbey, with the roof off,the pavement transformed into a short green turf, over which clusters of pillars, like Gothic skeletons, rear their slender forms; dark ivy in matted locks hanging from their high bushy heads. The walls, and part of the arches over the aisles are still entire; even the delicate tracery-work of the large windows; and, as we were told, the painted glass adhered to them till within a few years. I took some views of these ruins. Upon the whole the beauties of the Wye itself fall rather short of the descriptions of Gilpin and other travellers.

Wishing to see the last number of Cobbett, we sent the servant of the inn to procure it; he is just returned, and informs us, that nobody in Chepstow knows anything of Cobbett's Political Register. I do not know whether to wish the good people of

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210

WALES-COTTAGES.

Chepstow joy of it, or to pity them; as the Poli tical Register, together with some treason, contains certainly a good deal of information and entertain

ment.

July 14.-We are at Cowbridge, Glamorgan shire. Forty miles to day, through Newport, Cardiff, and Landaff:-the country just uneven enough

to afford extensive views over an immense extent of cultivation, lost in the blue distance; nothing wild, or, properly speaking, picturesque, but all highly beautiful, and every appearance of prosperity. Wales seems more inhabited, at least more strewed over with habitations of all sorts, scattered or in villages, than any part of England we have seen, and which are rendered more conspicuous by white-washing of the most resplendent whiteness. Every cottage too has its roses, and honeysuckles, and vines, and neat walk to the door; and this attention bestowed on objects of mere pleasurable comforts, is the surest indication of minds at ease, and not under the immediate pressure of poverty. It is impossible indeed to look round without the conviction, that this country is, upon the whole, one of the happiest, if not the happiest in the world. The same class in America has certainly more advantages, and might have more enjoyments; but superior industry and sobriety more than compensate for the difficulties they have to struggle with here. The women we see are certainly better looking than nearer London. The language of the inhabitants is quite unintelligible to us; at the inns, however, all is transacted in English. Having gone to see some ruins while the horses were changing at Cardiff, we found the post-boy had driven away; and on inquiring the reason on his return, he said he was afraid the horses would catch

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