“The manor of Matherne, where there is now a palace, was given to the bishops of Llandaff by Maurice, king of Glamorganshire, about the year 560, on the following occasion:—His father, St. Theodoric, as he is usually called, having resigned his crown to this son, embraced the life of a hermit. The Saxons invading the country, Theodoric was reluctantly called from his hermitage to take the command of the army; he defeated them near Tintern upon the Wye. Being mortally wounded in the engagement, he precipitated his return, that he might die among his friends, and desired his son to erect a church, and bury him on the spot where he breathed his last: but scarcely had he proceeded five miles, when he expired at a place near the conflux of the Wye and Severn. Hence, according to his desire, a chapel being erected, his body was placed in a stone coffin. As I was giving orders to repair this coffin, which was either broken by chance or decayed by age, I discovered his bones, not in the smallest degree changed, though after a period of a thousand years, the skull retaining the aperture of a large wound, which appeared as if it had been recently inflicted. Maurice gave the contiguous estate to the church, and assigned to the place the name of Merthur Tewdrick, or the martyrdom of Theodorick; who, because he perished in battle against the enemies of the christian name, is esteemed a martyr.”
Our task is now finished: we turn away to seek “fresh fields and pastures new,” but the murmur of the Wye will remain long in our ear.
DISTANCES IN THE TOUR OF THE WYE.
| From the source of the Wye to | miles. |
| Stedva Gerrig | 2½ |
| Rhaiader | 17½ |
| Builth | 14 |
| Hay | 15¼ |
| Clifford Castle | 2½ |
| Hereford | 16½ |
| Ross | 14¼ |
FROM ROSS TO MONMOTH AND CHEPSTOW.
By Land. | |||
| m. | f. | p. |
From Ross by the turnpike to Monmouth | 10 | 0 | 0 |
In a straight line, or as the crow flies | 9 | 0 | 10 |
From Ross to Chepstow by the turnpike | 24 | 0 | 0 |
By Coleford | 21 | 0 | 0 |
In a straight line | 16 | 4 | 0 |
The base or supposed tunnel of the hill, between Coldwell and the New Weir, is six hundred yards; the circuit of the river is four miles two furlongs.
| m. | f. | p. |
From Ross to Goodrich Castle | 4 | 4 | 0 |
To Coldwell | 7 | 0 | 0 |
To New Weir | 4 | 2 | 0 |
To Monmouth | 5 | 1 | 0 |
From Ross to Monmouth | 20 | 7 | 0 |
To Tintern | 10 | 4 | 0 |
To Chepstow | 6 | 4 | 60 |
From Ross to Chepstow | 37 | 7 | 60 |