CHEPSTOW.
The weather prevented our seeing the celebrated Walks of Piercefield, but we promised ourselves the pleasure of visiting them on our return down the Wye. The Castle of Chepstow, called Kaswent, or Castelk Gwent, stands on a rock washed by the river Wye, near its influx into the Severn. Topographical writers differ in their accounts concerning the antiquity of the Castle, but it is generally supposed to have been built at the same time with the town, appearing at that period to have been a kind of citadel to Chepstow. [9] The Castle was formerly of great extent, as, according to Leland’s account, the “waulles began at the end of the great bridge over Wy,” yet “in the castel ys one tower, as I heard say, by the name of Langine.” Little now remains of its former grandeur: but, impelled by an irresistible curiosity, we ascended the decayed steps of the tower, from whence the eye traced with pleasure the windings of the Wye, till it was at last lost in its conjunction with the Severn. With horror we examined the dark dungeon, where Henry Martin, one of the twelve judges, who sat to condemn Charles I. was confined seven and twenty years.
Grand views of the Bristol Channel still continued to form interesting objects from the road; but about three miles from Chepstow, we turned into some fields on the right, to examine the Ivy-mantled walls of