In pursuance of a design I had long formed of visiting Ireland, I set out from London in May 1775; and taking Bath in my way, a short stay in that city presented a few objects on which I shall venture to make the following observations.
The Circus, which is two hundred and seventy-two feet in diameter, and in the circumference of which is contained a range of a hundred and five windows in each story, would, with a few alterations, make a magnificent amphitheatre for bull-fights, were those exhibitions used in Britain. The watch-box in the centre appears like a common receptacle for the filth of the houses which encircle it. The sharp-pointed obelisk in the middle of the square is a véritable aiguille, and is the only one of the kind in Europe; the paintings and vases in Spring-gardens are execrable to the last degree; and after a virtuoso has had the misfortune of beholding these objects, he may conclude the day in character, by spending his evening at the sign of the Shakespeare and Greyhound.
He may also observe the votive crutches, &c. which are hung up by way of ornamenting the baths, and are so many monuments of the devout gratitude of the patients who have luckily recovered the use of their limbs (though not of their understanding) by using the waters. All these remarks may be obviated by only taking away the watch-box, curtailing the point of the obelisk, white washing the paintings, breaking the vases, un-coupling the Greyhound from Shakespeare, and returning the crutches to the owners.
In Bristol I was entertained with the sight of a rib of a famous dun cow, killed by Sir William Penn: this knight and his rib are both deposited in the church of St. Mary Redcliffe.
I ferried over the Severn at Aust, and proceeded to Chepstow, where I spent a day very agreeably in viewing the gardens of Persfield (which much resemble those of Mount-Edgecumbe near Plymouth), and Tintern Abbey, which is one of the most elegant pieces of Gothic ruins now existing.<1> The bridge at Chepstow is of wood; here the tide generally rises fifty feet.
About thirteen miles from Cardiff, in Glamorganshire, I crossed the celebrated bridge called Pont-y-Pridd,<2> it consists of a single arch, and is probably the largest in Europe, excepting one of those of the bridge del castel vecchio<3> in Verona. The Welsh bridge was built in 1755, by a common mason. The arch is the segment of a circle, the chord of which is an hundred and forty feet; the bridge is eleven feet broad between the parapets. The Italian bridge was built in 1354, and consists of three arches, the largest of which is a hundred and forty-two feet, the next eighty-two and the last seventy.<4>
At Margam, near Neath, I saw the orangerie, belonging to Mr Talbot, containing fifty large orange and lemon trees, and about an hundred and fifty smaller. They are only exposed to the air a quarter of the year; the thickest trunk was nine inches in diameter.
At Abergwilly, near Carmarthen, I observed the singular kind of boats called Coracles. "They are generally five feet and a half long, and four broad, their bottom is a little rounded, and their shape is nearly oval. These boats are ribbed with light laths, or split twigs, in the manner of basket work, and are covered with a raw hide, or strong canvas, pitched so as to prevent leaking. A seat crosses just above the centre, towards the broad end. The men paddle them with one hand, and fish with the other, and when their work is finished, bring their boats home on their backs; at first sight they appear like the shells of so many enormous turtles.'<5> They weigh about twenty-five pounds each. Sir James Ware, in the twenty-fourth chapter of the second volume in folio of his Antiquities of Ireland, gives the following account of these boats "The ancient Irish made use of wicker boats covered with cow-hides, not only on rivers, but sometimes in their navigation on the open seas These little barks were called by them corraghs, probably from the British word corwg, which signifies a boat covered with a hide." That chapter is filled with quotations from Herodotus, Caesar, Lucan, Solinus, Apollin. Sidonius, Virgil, and Pliny, relative to this kind of vessels.
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A Tour in Ireland in 1775
Non-FictionIn 1775, an English gentleman called Richard Twiss (later FRS) spent some months in Ireland, and on his return home, wrote this account of his journey. It describes an itinerary from Dublin north to the giant's Causeway, thence to Londonderry, Doneg...
