THE PREACHING CROSS, HEREFORD.
ROSS FROM WILTON.
It was as the shrine of St. Ethelbert that it first became important. There is a good deal of disagreement on the subject of Ethelbert’s death. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, for instance, says tout court that in 792 Offa commanded the head of King Ethelbert to be cut off; whereas Matthew of Westminster gives quite a different version of the affair, completely exonerating Offa, “that most noble and most illustrious and most high-born king.” It was Offa’s queen, Quendritha, he says, who caused a peculiarly comfortable armchair to be placed in the bedroom of her visitor the King of East Anglia, and beneath it “a deep hole to be dug”—with very unpleasant consequences for the visitor. When the horrified Offa heard of Ethelbert’s fate he shut himself up and refused food. “But,” adds Matthew, “although he was quite innocent of all participation in the King’s death, he nevertheless sent a powerful expedition and annexed the Kingdom of the East Angles to his own dominions.”
The murdered guest, whoever his murderer, was first buried at the spot still called St. Ethelbert’s Well, and afterwards in Hereford Cathedral, to its great enrichment.
There are several roads from Hereford to Ross, none of which follow the river closely. The most commonly used—being the least hilly—is by Bridstow and Much Birch. Between this road and the Wye are still to be seen traces of the College of Llanfrother, founded by Dubritius, that great Archbishop of Caerleon who preached so movingly at King Arthur’s coronation and then resigned his see to the still greater St. David. On the other side of the Wye is a shorter, but after the first five or six miles a more hilly route, with some fine backward views and some glimpses of the river. The surface of this road is all that can be desired, and the hills are by no means formidable; but as one approaches Ross the country is rather uninteresting.
Ross itself may be regarded as a monument to one John Kyrle.
“Rise, honest muse, and sing the Man of Ross! [cries Pope]
Whose causeway paves the vale with shady rows?
Whose seats the weary traveller repose?