The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 2

Barmouth, says Mr. Roscoe, is considered to the north-west part of the kingdom, much like Weymouth and other fashionable watering-places to the south, and is resorted to during the summer months, not only by numbers of families in the Principality, but by many others residing in the surrounding counties. The sands are very fine and hard, extending along the beach for several miles, and the bathing is at all times as excellent as can be desired. The restless tides of the Channel dashing against the surrounding coast produce that constant and salubrious motion, which is extended to the waters of the bay. There are two convenient inns, the "Commercial," and the "Cors y Gedol Arms," besides a number of respectable lodging-houses.

The town has the benefit of weekly markets, with an excellent supply of fish and poultry, at a cheap rate, and is further enlivened by two annual fairs, in October and November. The native manufactures consist chiefly of flannel and hosiery, a great quantity of which is exported. The other exports consist of corn, butter, cheese, oak-bark, timber, &c.; the imports, of coal, culm, and other articles for the use of the interior.

The number of small coasting-vessels, and others belonging to this haven that trade with Ireland, is stated at a hundred or upwards; and commercial business, upon the whole, is considered to be in a flourishing state.

The distance of Barmouth from London is two hundred and twenty-two miles, and it communicates with Caernarvon by a cross-mail. The resident population is considerably under two thousand, but is greatly augmented during the bathing season. The shipping at the pier communicates to the place a particular air of prosperity and cheerfulness, and gives employment to a very considerable portion of the inhabitants.

"The beauties of the road from Llanilltyd to Barmouth," says Mr. Pratt, "are so manifold and extraordinary that they literally beggar description. New pastures of the most exuberant fertility, new woods rising in all the majesty of foliage, the road itself curving in numberless unexpected directions, – at one moment shut into a verdant recess, so contracted that there seems neither carriage nor bridle-way out of it, and at another the azure expanse of the main ocean filling the eye. On one side, rocks glittering in all the colours of that beauty which constitutes the sublime, and of a height which diminishes the wild herds that browse, or look down upon you from the summit, where the largest animal appears insignificantly minute. On the other hand, plains, villas, cottages, or copses, with whatever belongs to that milder grace which appertains to the beautiful."

SWANSEA BAY. GLAMORGANSHIRE

"In front, the Bay its crystal wave expands,Whose rippling waters kiss the glittering sandsFar o'er its bosom, ships with spreading sailsExport the ores from Cambria's sunny vales.Above – yon feudal bulwarks crown the steep,Whose rocky base repels the stormy deep;Here health is found, – there Industry resides, —And Freedom on her native shore abides."

The reputation which Swansea has long enjoyed as a delightful watering-place has suffered no diminution in consequence of the numerous rivals with which this coast is so agreeably diversified. As bathing quarters, it enjoys peculiar advantages in its shore, which is admirably adapted for that purpose; while the adjacent scenery, and the various objects of interest or curiosity with which it abounds, serve as pleasing incentives to exercise and recreation, – the happy effects of which are soon observable in the health and appearance of invalids who make choice of Swansea as their summer residence. Every resource which visitors can desire, for promoting either health of body or agreeable occupation for the mind, is here amply provided. Warm, sea-water, and vapour, baths, – public rooms, billiard-tables, reading-rooms, circulating libraries, – with comfortable private lodgings and excellent hotels, are among the list of daily luxuries at their command.

The Harbour of Swansea is capacious, – well constructed, defended by two strong stone piers, about eighteen hundred feet in length, – and affords accommodation to a great many trading-vessels. On the west pier, a light-house and watch-tower offer additional security to the shipping; and every facility is provided for lading and unlading. The tide flows a considerable way up the river, which is navigable to the extent of two miles for vessels of burden. The canal, running parallel with the river, extends to Brecknockshire, a distance of sixteen miles; and in its course passes through thirty-six locks, and over several aqueducts. Its head is nearly four hundred feet higher than its mouth, which readily accounts for the great number of locks. There is also a canal from the Swansea to the Neath canal, on which a packet-boat is established, and a tram-road from the former to Oystermouth. With Bristol and Ilfracombe there is a regular communication kept up by means of steam-vessels, which leave and arrive according to the state of the tide.

The public buildings of Swansea – ancient and modern – are numerous in proportion to the population. The Town-hall, erected in 1829, is an elegant structure, approached by two flights of steps, and adorned with columns of the Doric order. The castle, situated nearly in the centre of the town, was originally a building of great extent, and of a strength well suited to the purposes of its erection. A massive tower, surmounted by a range of light arches which support a parapet, is the principal part now remaining of this once redoubtable fortress. It appears to have been founded at the remote epoch of 1113, by Henry Beaumont, Earl of Warwick, – a Norman leader who conquered Gowerland; but being soon after laid siege to by a Welsh chief, – Griffith ap Rhys ap Theodore, – a considerable portion of the outworks was destroyed. It is now in the possession of the Duke of Beaufort, "Earl" of Glamorgan, who is hereditarily entitled to the "prisage and butlerage" of all wines brought into the harbours of Swansea and Chepstow.

The public rooms of Swansea stand on the north side of the promenade, called the Burrows, which consist of several acres tastefully laid out in parterres. Here also are an excellent House of Industry and an Infirmary, established in 1817 and situated on the beach. Besides the free Grammar-school, founded in the seventeenth century, by Hugh, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, there are the Lancasterian and National-schools, which are incalculable blessings to the increasing population of Swansea.

OYSTERMOUTH CASTLE

"Here – the 'grim-visor'd knight,' at the head of his band,Has cased him in armour, and girt on his brand;While Beauty looked down from her lattice on high,With the 'smile on her lip and the tear in her eye.'But victor nor vassal shall hither return: —The castle is roofless, – the chief's in his urn;And those ramparts, that frown o'er the surf-beaten rocks,Are the haunt of the sea-fowl, – the lair of the fox."

This stately relic of the feudal ages overlooks the picturesque Bay of Swansea, and attracts many strangers to its gate, – not only for its venerable antiquity, but for its bold position on the verge of lofty and abrupt limestone cliffs, which command a magnificent view of the subjacent scenery. It is supposed by some to have been erected by the Earl of Warwick, in the reign of Henry the First; by others, to have been the family fortress of the Lords of Gower, in the reign of King John. But to which of the two the credit of founder belongs is matter of conjecture. Like the Castle of Swansea, already mentioned, it is now the property of the Beaufort family, whose mineral possessions in this district are said to be of incalculable value.

The principal walls of this domestic fortress have suffered comparatively little from the lapse of time, or the hand of violence. Most of the original apartments may be easily traced out, so as to give a tolerably correct idea of their shape and dimensions, and the internal economy with which they were arranged. The general figure of the main body is polygonal; the ramparts are lofty and massive, but not flanked with towers, except at the entrance, which appears to have been strongly secured by double gates and a portcullis.

In many parts along this picturesque coast, the limestone rocks swell over a fine sandy beach into perpendicular cliffs of great boldness, exhibiting vast quantities of organic remains, and worn in many places into deep and lofty caverns. Built on a cliff of this description, and with all the necessary accessories of vigilance and security, it could have been hardly possible to have selected anything more eligible for a feudal keep, whose chiefs generally chose their fortalices as the eagle chooses his eyry, – to secure a wide field for himself, and exclude lesser birds of prey.

The village of Oystermouth – about half a mile to the south of the castle – occupies a beautiful position on the verge of the Bay. A lofty rock throws its shadow over it; the headland of which, called the Mumble Point, stretches far into the sea, and affords a safe anchorage for shipping. The village is chiefly inhabited by fishermen, who, as the name implies, are mostly employed in dredging for oysters, which are found of superior quality in the adjoining bay. During summer, it is much resorted to by strangers, for the benefit of sea-bathing, – a source of annual revenue to the inhabitants, who, by letting their apartments, secure very good returns.

This is understood to be the natal soil of Gower, – the father of English poetry, – and therefore classic ground: —

"Here, in the olden time the 'moral' GowerAttuned his harp upon that rocky strand;Gather'd the shell, and pluck'd the vernal flower,And struck the wild chord with a master's hand.To him the summer sea, the stormy wave,Were heaven-born music in their various keys;As, thundering through yon subterranean cave,The billows sang in chorus with the breeze."

The railway from Oystermouth to Swansea is a source of great convenience to the inhabitants, as a means of ready intercourse between the most frequented points of the coast adjacent. Newton, proverbially known as a healthy station for invalids and sea-bathers, and Caswell Bay, within half-an-hour's walk of Oystermouth, are well deserving of a stranger's attention. The latter is remarkable for the number and extent of the marine caverns already alluded to, as well as for the beauty and variety of the sea-shells with which the sands at low water are profusely enamelled.

THE MUMBLES' LIGHTHOUSE

"Amidst the storms, – when winds and waves are high,Unmoved I stand, – undimm'd I shed my light;And through the blackness of December's skyI pour effulgence on the seaman's sight."Inscription for a Lighthouse.

The Mumbles' Lighthouse is much frequented by visitors from Swansea during the season. Few jaunts of this character can be productive of more enjoyment than a trip from Swansea to Oystermouth Castle and the Mumbles' rocks. The road, issuing from the western extremity of Swansea, follows the shore of the bay, with the open sea on the left, and on the right a range of wooded hills; of which advantage has been taken for the site of numerous pretty villas. Some gentlemen's seats occupy the intervening level, and their plantations skirt the high-road. Of these Singleton Abbey and Woodlands are the principal. As we near the extremity of the bay the scene is indeed beautiful. Oystermouth Castle, and the pretty village of the same name, lead the visitor onwards till he reaches a broken, breezy headland, the only ascent to which is by a kind of sheep-path, which zig-zags its way to the summit of a narrow promontory terminating in two islands, and on the farther of which is situated the Mumbles' Lighthouse. It is a structure admirably adapted for the purpose to which it is devoted. To every building of this description, devoted to the preservation of human life, a profound interest is attached; and we cannot but observe at a single glance how invaluable these Lights have been, and ever must be, where the danger of shipwreck is so greatly increased by the rugged nature of a coast – here walled in by precipitous cliffs, and there scattered with rocks that appear and disappear according to the tide. The means thus happily adopted along the Welsh coast have been crowned with success; and how comfortable is it to reflect, when calmly seated at our winter hearths, that – while the "winds howl round our steady battlements," and "ships break from their moorings," – there are friendly lights sparkling around our coasts, to cheer and direct the bewildered mariner in his course, to show him his danger, and to point out "a way to escape."

To understand the importance of lighthouses, we need only remind the reader of the published "Statement," that the number of British vessels alone, which have been annually returned as wrecked, amounts to five hundred and fifty; – namely, "three shipwrecks every two days throughout the year." The average burden of merchant-vessels is about one hundred and ten tons; and if we value old and new together at half the price of building, we have £330,000 for the worth of the whole, which, by deducting the value of sails, masts, and other materials saved from some of those stranded, may be reduced to £300,000. If we add an equal sum for the cost of the cargoes, the whole loss from shipwrecks will amount to £600,000. This statement proceeds on an old estimate from 1793 to 1829; but M'Culloch, in the supplement to his Dictionary, says that the number of ships actually lost, or driven ashore, in 1833, amounted to eight hundred. It is probable, then, that the annual lost by shipwreck is not much short of a million sterling. If one-fifth of this loss could be prevented by additional lighthouses, the saving of money would amount to a million in five years, – to say nothing of the still more important saving in human life. We are anxious – not on the score of economy only, but of humanity – to place these lamentable facts before the eyes of Government, from whose hands the mitigation at least, if not the removal, of such disasters is confidently expected.

In the rock immediately under the lighthouse is a large cavern, called Bob's Cove, – a very characteristic feature, and a chief attraction to pleasure-parties, who resort hither at low water for the sake of the view, which from this isolated point is very striking and variegated: —

"Town and hamlet, sea and shore,Wooded steep and mountain hoar;Ships that stem the waters blue,All concentrate in the view."

Expanding to the eastward, is the beautiful curve of Swansea Bay and the distant mountains; on the westward, the broken coast of Gower; in front, the boundless expanse of ocean. The bracing sea breezes inhaled upon this exposed promontory, its elastic turf, and the magnificent prospect it everywhere commands, never fail to produce a most agreeable and salutary exhilaration, and constitute the finest medical and physical tour in the world.

THE NASS SANDS LIGHTHOUSES

"After our ship did split,When you, and that poor number saved with you,Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother,Most provident in peril, bind himself —Courage and hope both teaching him the practice —To a strong mast that lived upon the sea,Where, like Orion on the dolphin's back,I saw him hold acquaintance with the wavesSo long as I could see."Twelfth Night.

The Nass Lights were erected by the late Mr. Nelson, in 1832, under the direction of the Trinity House. The eastern, or upper Light, burns at the height of one hundred and sixty-seven feet, and the western, or lower one, at one hundred and twenty-three feet above high-water mark. They are one thousand feet apart, built of the stone of the country, and stand on Nass Point, near Dunraven Castle, Glamorganshire.

It unfortunately was not merely the dangers of the ocean to which the luckless mariner was in past times exposed upon this iron-bound coast, to them was too frequently added the infamous deceptions of the wreckers, who were accustomed to resort to the artifice of driving to and fro an ass bearing two lanterns, so as to represent a distant vessel in motion, and thus lured many a ship to destruction among the rocks and sands. Numerous are the legends of fearful interest which the older inhabitants relate descriptive of the accidents attendant upon these murderous practices, now happily only matters of history.

The erection of lighthouses, beacons, and other means for the prevention of shipwreck, is every year becoming an object of greater importance to the members of that excellent corporation, the Trinity House. Within the last thirty years, great and permanent advantages have been secured to commerce by the vigilance and activity of that body. Much, however, is still left to call aloud for the exercise of their high privilege, skill, and humanity. The navigation of our coasts is still attended in many parts with imminent danger. Rocks, and shoals, and quicksands, indeed, cannot be obliterated by the hand of man; but the perils they involve, in respect to the shipping, may be greatly diminished by increasing the number of those monitory beacons to which the eye of the mariner is so often turned with intense anxiety. The erection of the two lighthouses which here illustrate the subject, has been attended with the happiest consequences. Many a shipwreck, we will venture to say, has been prevented by a timely regard to these friendly beacons. The Bristol Channel has often been the scene of sad catastrophes in the chronicles of seafaring life; but at present the danger to the foreign and coasting-trade has been greatly obviated by those judicious measures which have emanated from the above society.

The voyage up the Bristol Channel is singularly romantic and beautiful; but the coast is exposed to all the fury of the Atlantic, and the surf against the cliffs is distinctly visible at Swansea. The steamers now keep close along shore, in a channel inside the Nass Sands, which form an extensive and dangerous bank to seaward. The contrast between the tumultuous masses of breakers over these sands, when the wind is fresh, and the calmness of the narrow channel we are traversing in security, is very striking. These sands, and another large shoal, called the Skerweathers, have been fatal to many vessels. A large West Indiaman, with a cargo of rum and other valuable produce, was lost a few years ago on a rock called the Tusca, which disappears at high-water; and in 1831, this coast was fatal to the steamer Frolic, in which all the crew and passengers, amounting to nearly eighty persons, perished. The coast near Porthcaul appears at Swansea to be the eastern extremity of the bay; but the bluff point called the Nass, about eight miles further, is literally so. The coast onwards, past the Nass-point, as observed in the admirable Engraving annexed, is almost perpendicular, so as closely to resemble a lofty wall, in which the limestone rock is disposed in horizontal strata. When the sea runs high in this quarter, the scene, as may be readily conceived, is truly terrific —

"And not one vessel 'scapes the dreadful touchOf merchant-marring rocks."Merchant of Venice.

CARDIFF, GLAMORGANSHIRE

"Here British hearts the arms of Rome withstood,Repulsed her cohorts with their native blood;Till Caradoc and independence fell,And freedom shrieked in Cardiff's citadel —And Cambria's heroes, rushing on the glave,Died gloriously for her they could not save!"

The county of Glamorgan, of which the principal town is represented in the accompanying plate, abounds in historical sites well adapted for the pencil, and furnishing the reader with many interesting facts and traditions. The southern portion of the country is remarkably fertile, highly cultivated, and presents to the stranger a long succession of luxuriant corn-fields, verdant pastures, and animated pictures of rural happiness and independence. It would be difficult to find any tract of land in Great Britain that can surpass the Vale of Glamorgan in richness of soil, or in soft and graceful scenery. This favoured region extends the whole length of the county – from the base of the mountains on the north to the shore of the Bristol Channel on the south-west. It presents throughout a most gratifying proof of what may be accomplished by judicious management, when soil and climate are both in favour of agricultural operations.

As a fair proof of the mild and salubrious nature of the atmosphere, we need only observe that the magnolia, the myrtle, and other delicate exotics, not only live but flourish in this auspicious climate. Equally favourable to health and longevity, this district has numerous living testimonies in the vigorous health and protracted age of its inhabitants, who are fully sensible of the blessings they enjoy. The valley, at its greatest breadth, measures about eighteen miles; in various places, however, it is contracted into less than the half of this space, and presents in its outline a constant variety of picturesque and graceful windings.

The town of Cardiff is built on the eastern bank of the river Taff, over which there is a handsome bridge of five arches, leading to Swansea. It is a thriving town, possessing considerable trade; and, by means of a canal from Pennarth to Merthyr-Tydvil, has become the connecting medium between these extensive iron-works and the English market, and is, in fact, the port of the latter. The Taff, which falls into the sea at Cardiff, forms a principal outlet for the mining districts of Glamorganshire, the produce of which has hitherto found its way to market through the Glamorganshire canal; but its sea-lock, constructed about fifty years ago, has long been found inadequate to the demands for increased accommodation, in consequence of the great prosperity of trade since the canal was opened.

The Marquess of Bute, possessing lands in this neighbourhood, obtained, in 1830, an act for constructing a new harbour, to be called the Bute ship-canal, and completed the work at his own expense. The great advantages of this enterprise are – a straight, open channel from Cardiff-roads to the new sea-gates, which are forty-five feet wide, with a depth of seventeen feet at neap, and thirty feet at spring-tide. On passing the sea-gate, vessels enter a capacious basin, having an area of about an acre and a half, sufficient to accommodate large trading-vessels and steamers. Quays are erected along the side of the canal, finished with strong granite coping, and comprising more than a mile of wharfs, with ample space for warehouses, exclusive of the wharfs at the outer basin. This great work was finished in the summer of 1839, at an expense to the proprietor of three hundred thousand pounds.

Cardiff Castle, which stands insulated on a high mound of earth, was partially restored and modernised by the late Marquess of Bute. This ancient fortress is connected with several interesting events in history. In one of its towers, or dungeons, Robert Duke of Normandy was twenty-five years imprisoned by his younger brother, Henry the First, who had previously usurped the throne and deprived him of his eyesight. In the reign of Charles the First it was bombarded by the Parliamentary forces during three successive days, and only surrendered in consequence of treachery on the part of the garrison.

GLOUCESTER

"I which am the queeneOf all the British vales, and so have ever beenSince Gomer's giant brood inhabited this isle,And that of all the rest myself may so enstyle."Drayton. Vale of Gloucester.

Caer-Glow, or the "fair city" of the ancient Britons, is a name happily characteristic of Gloucester. The beauty of its situation, on a gentle eminence overlooking the Severn, where its stream is divided into two channels by the Isle of Alney; the richness and fertility of the surrounding districts; its highly picturesque scenery; its splendid cathedral and numerous public buildings; and latterly the tide of prosperity occasioned by the vast improvements in regard to its inland port, present a combination of attractions for which it would be difficult to find a parallel in the British provinces. Commercial enterprise has now a fixed residence in the place, and within the last ten years has made great and important advances in the several departments of foreign and domestic industry.

The Port of Gloucester and the Cathedral, of which the accompanying plate gives a most correct and interesting view, are the two principal features; and to these, in accordance with the plan of the work, our descriptive text will be more strictly confined. The Port is of great antiquity, – so much so as to have existed as an inland harbour long prior to any written document of the place, – but it is only of late years that ships of burden could be anchored in the city basin. A century ago, as recorded in the Magna Britannia, the Port of Gloucester had a large quay and wharf on the banks of the river, very commodious for trade, to which belonged a custom-house, with officers proper for it; but the business was not great, as the city of Bristol, only a few miles distant, had engrossed all the foreign trade in this part of the country. The vessels which at the period in question navigated the Severn were generally small trading-craft, of between fifty and two hundred tons burden, so that Gloucester was deprived of all those advantages which have been so happily secured to it by modern enterprise and improvement. Of these, the Berkeley ship-canal is a noble monument. By the vast facilities thus afforded, the commerce of Gloucester has enjoyed a course of uninterrupted prosperity, and bids fair to eclipse even Bristol itself in the extent and ramifications of its still increasing trade. Ships of heavy burden are now safely moored in the basin, and discharge those cargoes in the heart of the city which had formerly to be transhipped at Bristol, and conveyed to their destination by means of barges and lighters.