The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1846-10-22
Leaf from the Editors Journal,
Number 3.
VALLEY OF THE W~YE.-WNDCLIFF.

$500 W
An hours walk from Chepstow brings you
to the base Of the celebrated Windclif.-
The winding path which conducts you to the
summit Of this majestic watchtower of nature,
is one of the gentlest ascent, and arched al
most the whole distance, by the interlaced
foliage Of young trees thickley lining each
side. The eminence is denscly crowned with
pines, so that the vast panorama does not
burst upon you at once upon gaining the
summit. 1t is not until you have descended
by a few winding turf steps into a kind Of
balcony, partially jutting over the cliff, that q
scene of awe-inspiring magnifcence opens to
the vision well calculated to inspire senti-
ments thus expressed by Coleridge in view Of
it:
Oh, what a goodly scene!
Grey clouds that shadowing spot the sunny fields
And river, now with bushy rocks DER browed,
Now winding, bright and full, with naked bank;
And seats and lawns, the abbey and the wood,
And cots and hamlets, and faint city spire;
The channel there, the island and white sails;
Dim coasts and cloud-like hills, and shoreless ocean,
1t seemed like Omnipotence ! God, methought,
Had built him there a temple the whole world
Seemed imagedi in its vast circumference
No wish profancd my overwhelmed heart;
Blest hour! it was a luxury to be-"
Sitting in this rude balcony, or rocky pull
pit, with u canopy Of thick foliage extended
over your head, from the trees above, you
find yourself on the apex of a crescent noun
tain Of green, the opposite horn of which,
gracefully gathering in its woody cliffs, CON
verges to a point of silken lawn, which dips
into the Wye, whose channel bends to the
curve of its mountain wall. Over this point
the eye passes on to the steep wall of another
crescent cliff in the distance, on which the
grey walls and ivied overs of Chepstow Cas-
tie are deserted. Over this again the sandy
Severn winds, chcckered with islands and in
dented with promontories covered with woods ;
and beyond, the bold shore of Bristol rolls
its still waves Of verdurc against the vision
Farther to the right opens the widening sea,
flashing into indistinctness beneath the sun
light. The most beautiful feature in this
land-and-water-scape is in the immediate
This is the farm Of Lancaut, in
the bosom Of the river, which almost sur
rounds it. The peninsula, of which it is
comprised, is in the shape Of a heart, gently
from u high neck or ridge to the riv-
err. / counted twenty-five fields, all wrought
in different tints, and looking like a lake of
pictures in the midst of the stern
mountains. The mown fields were so pellu-
cidly green, that the trees were mirrored in
them, like vessels anchored in the still blue
And there were sheep lying or feed
ing-I conld not discern which-on the
banks of the river and they looked, for all
the world, like tufts of wool strewed on the
grass. Still the sense of height was not OPP
p~ressive, nor was the evidence of it, in the
of objects beneath, unpleas-
ant. At right angles with the neck of this
peninsular picture-farm, and Immediately OPP
the terminating points ofboth horns of
The crescent mountain upon which you stand
arise two vast concave walls, or crescent
the two nearest horns of which meet
n, and form, the neck of the peninsula and
descend gently the line of its velvet banks
the rivers brink. Perhaps the valley or
,hannel of the Wye may be best described
,y saying, that it forms the letter s in every
hree miles, and is the autograph of the
earthquake and deluge, chronicling, in these
ternal rocks, one of the awful convulsions
which rent the earth before man was made,
nd ere the elements had dissolved the fierce
artnership in which they co-worked to find
heir own places, and to fill the world with
forks of sublime magnificence for the con-
amplation of reasoning beings.
It was like descending into the lower walks
f life, in many senses of significance, to
ave this high place of nature, erected with
ut hands for the worship other God. I'M
,ediately at the the very foot ofthc cliff is a
tile cottage that out-fairies the faires them
1t is a little gothic thing ofmoss, with
S hundred grasshopper eyes of stained glass l
at the sunbeams that peep through S
he yews and elm leaves at it. In this little {
ylvan temple refreshments are served up to |
nrties who have sharpencd their appetites by '
Sending and descending the cliff. There '
re several apartments for this purpose, all t
f which are constructed, of moss, and lined t
it'll chairs, sofas, &c., which look as if they a
Guild leaf out again if left in the rain. The
bile in the largest of these apartments, is a i
,ction taken out of the butt of a walnut-tree /
lat once grew in the court of Chcpstow Cas- t
/ should think it was six feet in diane a
r and one foot in thickness, standing on legs
the rudest " log cabin" order. Its surface 5
as polished to the lustre of porcelain, and 5
to conspire to give a relish to the sim f
lest repast spread upon it for the traveller or a
,urist. E. BURRITT, I
Tintwn Abbey, Aug, 2 2,1846, It