Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

quarians. If there be no such thing here now, it does not follow, that such a phenomenon did not exist in the 11th century. This island must have undergone a variety of changes in the course of seven or eight centuries; and it is evident the sea has made great encroachments on this coast. The fissures in the cliff may have been filled up with sand, or its aperture may be below ebb water mark. Enquiring of persons in the neighbourhood, it appeared, that although unable to substantiate the fact, they were rivetted to the opinion; which is not the case in the vicinity of Barry. I confess myself a strong advocate for that species of evidence arising from tradition; for though the chain may have many links, manufactured by superstition; yet truth is nerally discoverable at the extremity of the line. It is by no means improbable, but there might have been here no opening in the adjacent cliffs, whose internal cavity being much larger than its aperture, the fluctuation of the waters would occasion an alternate inspiration, and expiration of the contained air: thus producing the various sounds so frequently said to have been heard, and so fancifully described.

ge

Ascending the hill from Barry, we passed the ruins of its castle, consisting of a few walls included in a barn; and an arched gateway, now the entrance into a farm-yard. This was an appendage to the castle of Fonman, and in the time of Leland, belonged to the St. Johus of Bedfordshire. We again descended into a lovely cwm, through which flowed a crystal stream, and a few cattle grazing on its margin. Passing this over some rising ground, we imperceptibly found ourselves in another, with a stream descending from one of the hills that surround it;

whose sides are covered with stupendous oaks and spreading beech trees; accompanied with varied and most luxuriant underwood. The vale winding and tapering to the north, till it was lost in the distant hills, and opening to the south in a spacious expanse to the sea; which forms a grand contrast, with the distant coast of England appearing in the back ground, to the charming and delicious scenery of Porth cwm Cerrig.* The luxuriancy of these bottoms was doubly gratifying to the eye, after the plain and unsylvan country we had before passed; and the traveller might easily imagine himself transported into the verdant vales of Piedmont and Savoy. To those, who have only passed in a westerly direction through the county of Glamorgan, it would never occur, that it possessed such a variety of sylvan and romantic scenery.

We proceeded to Penmarck, where on the verge of a deep ravine stand the ruins of its castle. This with the manour was bestowed by Fitzhamon on one of his adventurous knights, Gilbert Humphreville: and was one of the thirteen celebrated in AngloNorman story. But alas! what is wealth and power and transitory fame. In this instance, its vanity is striking. The seat of it is annihilated, the family is extinét; and the very name obliterated from the records of the time. The church is a good struc

* On the rocks both here and at Barry grow adiantum capillis-veneris, Polypodium vulgare, P. cambricum, and the most shewy indigenous plant of the island, Inula Helenium.

+ In a lane near the village we found lamium luteum, (evidently a distinct species from 1. album) and dianthus armeria.

Of the descendants of the twelve knights, there remain only.

[ocr errors]

ture, standing on the high land adjoining; and three large venerable yews in the church-yard, point out its antiquity.

About half a mile to the west, on the verge of another ravine, through which runs a small stream called Kenfon, is the castle of Fonmon. This is a large but irregular pile; built as a noble residence and place of defence; which is evident from the thickness of the walls, the flat embattled roof, and a high watch-tower at a small distance from it. The founder was John St. John, one of the twelve knights to whom the lordship of Fonmon, or Fenvon, was allotted. It continued in this family till the civil wars, when its owner was cruelly ousted for his loyalty; and the seignory, with its castle, bestowed by Oliver Cromwell upon Mr. Jones, a colonel in the parliament army, the particular friend and brother-in-law of the Protector. In this family it remains, being the residence of Robert Jones, esq. the present sheriff of the county. The castle has been modernised, the windows sashed, and the rooms decorated in the style of the time when the alterations, were made. Many of the rooms are lofty and spacious, particularly the saloon, or, as it is called, the Banqueting Room. Some fine paintings by various masters, possess sufficient merit to attract the attention of the connoisseur; particularly a portrait of the Protector, thought the most striking likeness extant of that extraordinary man, presented by himself to the ancestor of the family. ·

At a small distance on the coast jets a foreland, called Break-sea Point, often fatal to mariners. In

in Wales, the Tubervilles and the Flemings. In England the St. Johns, the Granvilles, and the Siwards.

deed the whole coast is the terror of those who navigate the Bristol channel. Sunk rocks and dangerous shoals lie in every direction, and numerous vessels are frequently wrecked on this insidious shore.

You will blush for humanity, my friend, when you are informed that the cruelties exercised by the inhabitants of this eoast towards the children of misfortune, surpasses the ruthless storm or raging ocean. Nothing can exceed the distress that persons must feel when driven in a moment on tremendous rocks, with nothing before their eyes but a certain and a shocking death! Or should they survive, it will be with the loss of property and friends, and perhaps every thing that makes it desirable to live! But the conduct of those miscreants called wreckers,* adds pain to sorrow, and poignancy to distress. We had heard much of the rapine and cruelty of these human vultures: but as every thing that tends to degrade the moral character of man, has a retrospect to ourselves, and tends also to lessen our own consequence, we were unwilling to admit, but very partially, the reiterated testimony. A short period however furnished an opportunity to some of the party for conviction. A large vessel, the Cæsar brig, outward bound from Bristol to Santa Cruz in the West Indies, deeply laden, came ashore, in a dark night, on the rocks

*If affinity in crimes would lead to consanguinity, we might conjecture that these were a colony from the Euxine Sea; rendered infamous from the cruelty of those resident on its borders, the Audparova. Whether they were, as Faine says, Amazonian women, who sacrificed every man with whom they had any commerce and connection; or, as probable history would prove, a race of men who sacrificed every stranger whom fortune threw upon their coast, to their idol Aor, or the Sun. (Vide Bryant's Analysis.)

above-mentioned. The news that a fine prize was off Break-sea Point, was quickly circulated. Numbers instantly flocked down to the coast for the purposes of plunder; and Oh! what were the sensations of the passengers and crew, when by the dawning light they discovered their situation! Not only, that it was impossible to get off the vessel, but that she would soon go to pieces! Mean while these harpies, by hundreds, were assembled, and boarding in all directions; staving in casks and packages for the more easy conveyance of their contents on shore; breaking open lockers, rifling the unfortunate passengers, and knocking down every one opposing their designs, or standiug in their way! Some gentlemen in the neighbourhood came down with what strength they could collect, with a view to hinder their depredations; but showers of poplers, the large pebbles on the beach, soon convinced them, that to attack or defend was in vain, and that the safety of their own lives depended upon a precipitate retreat. Indeed their aim in the onset, is often to murder the persons on board, that there may be no survivors to become evidence against them. So totally lost are they to those feelings generally discoverable in the 'common robber, that neither age nor sex appears to make the least impression on their obdurate hearts. They strip even children and females, when dead, cut off their fingers, and tear their ears for the sake of the clothes and jewels! and leave their naked bodies exposed on the beach, for interment to the returning ocean! It is affirmed, that they frequently kindle fires on the various eminences, to allure vessels to the fatal shore: but, as we never witnessed this, we will stop at that point, where humanity

« PredošláPokračovať »