“The Kinge here borne did prove a peerless Prince; He conquered France and reigned nine yeares in hap; There was not here so great a victor since, That had such chaunce and fortune in his lap. For he by fate and force did covet all, And, as turn came, stroke hard at Fortune’s ball, With manly mind, and ran a reddie waye To lose a feint, or winne the gole by playe. If Monmouth bring such princes forth as this, A soyle of grace it shall be call’d of right; Speake what you can, a happie seat it is, A trim shiere town for noble Baron or Knight; A cittie sure, as free as is the best, Where ’Size is kept, and learned lawyers rest; Such auncient wise, in meete and wholesome ayre, Where the best sort of people do repayre.”
<g>Kymin Hill</g>, on the south-east side of Monmouth, commands one of the finest views in the kingdom. To this enchanting prospect, the celebrated lines by Dyer may be applied with little alteration:--
“Now I gain the mountain’s brow-- What a landscape lies below! No clouds, no vapours intervene; But the gay, the open scene, Does the face of Nature show In all the hues of heaven’s bow; And, swelling to embrace the light, Spreads around beneath the sight. Old castles on the cliffs arise, Proudly towering in the skies; Rushing from the woods, the spires Seem from hence ascending fires. Half his beams Apollo sheds On the yellow mountain heads, Gilds the fleeces of the flocks, And glitters on the broken rocks.”
“And see the rivers, how they run Through woods and meads, in shade and sun! Ever charming, ever new, When will the landscape tire the view?”
AUTHORITIES quoted or referred to in the preceding article on Raglan Castle and its vicinity:--Dugdale--Camden--Collins’ Peerage--Speed--Hollinshed--Williams’ Monmouth--Grafton--Robert of Gloucester--Illustrations of British History--Peck’s Curiosa--Stow--Winwood--Manners and Customs of England--Pictorial History--Memoirs of the Court of James I.--Osborne’s Memoirs--Evelyn’s Diary--Strutt--Somers’ Tracts--Howel’s Letters--Barber’s Tour--Bayly’s Apophthegms of the Marquess of Worcester--Churchyard--Wood’s Rivers of Wales--Thomas’ Raglan--Carne--Archæological Journal--Clarendon’s History--Certamen Religiosum--Ellis’s Original Letters--Memoirs of Swift--Carlyle--Parliamentary Papers--Mercurius Civicus--Edwards--The Family History--History of the Civil War--Chronicles--Rushworth’s Papers--Lodge’s Illustrations--County History and Local Descriptions--Sir R. Colt Hoare--Coxe--Notes of a Personal Visit to Raglan--Communications from Correspondents, etc.--_See_ APPENDIX.