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Introduction
to Caerleon
Mrs Williams' singular adventure
The destruction of Caerleon's antiquities
Roman and Norman remains
Etymology of Caerleon
Academy of two hundred philosophers
Churches
King Arthur
Castle
The walk from Caerleon to Newport
Descending
slowly from the village of Christ-Church, we approached
Caerleon, a town famed in Roman, British, and Norman story
for its former strength and splendour. None of its ancient
magnificence now remains; tho’ some memorials of it
may be discovered in ruined walls and fragments of antique
masonry, scattered through the town and its immediate vicinity.
Time, however, could not rob it of its natural beauties;
and the happy situation in which it stands will never cease
to afford pleasure to the eye of taste. We entered the town
at the east end, by crossing a bridge thrown over the Usk,
a passage that had been formerly well defended, as is evident
from the ruins of a bastion, or round tower, on the left
hand, probably of Norman architecture. The
bridge is formed of wood on a similar construction, and
for the same reason as that of Chepstow, the tide at each
place rising occasionally to the incredible height of fifty
or sixty feet. The boards which compose the flooring of
this bridge being designedly loose, (in order to float with
the tide when it exceeds a certain height) and prevented
from escaping only by little pegs at the ends of them, do
not afford a very safe footing for the traveller; and some
aukward accidents have been known to arise from this cause.
A singular adventure occurred about twenty years ago, to
a female, as she was passing it at night, which tells so
much to the credit of the ladies, that it would be unpardonable
in a Tourist, who is less an admirer of the sex than myself,
not to detail the particulars.
The
heroine in question was a Mrs. Williams, well known in the
town, and living there till within these few years; she
had been to spend a cheerful evening at a neighbour’s
house on the eastern side of the river, and was returning
home, (I presume) at a decent hour, and in a decorous state.
The night being extremely dark, she had provided herself
with a lantern and candle, by the assistance of which she
found her way towards the bridge, and had already passed
part of the dangerous structure. When about half seas over,
however, (don’t mistake my meaning) she unfortunately
trod on a plank that had by some accident lost the tennons
originally fixed to the ends of it, and had slipped from
its proper situation; the faithless board instantly yielded
to the weight of the good lady, who, I understand, was rather
corpulent, and carried her through the flooring, candle
and lantern, into the river. Fortunately at the moment of
falling she was standing in such a position as gave her
a seat on the plank, similar to that of a horseman on his
nag. It may be easily imagined that Mrs. Williams must have
been somewhat surprised by this change of situation, as
well as alteration of climate. Blessed, however, with a
large share of that presence of mind, or patient endurance
of evil, which exalts the female character so far above
our own, the good lady was not overwhelmed (except with
the water) by her fall ; and steadily maintained her seat
on the board, taking care at the same time to preserve the
candle lighted, rightly supposing it would serve as an index
to any one who might be able or willing to assist her. Thus,
bestriding the plank, our heroine was hurried down by the
river towards Newport, the bridge of which she trusted would
stop her progress, or its inhabitants be alarmed with her
cries. In both her hopes, however, she was disappointed;
the rapidity of a spring-tide sent her through the arch
with the velocity of an arrow discharged from the bow, and
the good people of the town had long been wrapt in slumber.
Thus situated, her prospect became each moment more desperate,
her candle was nearly extinguished, and every limb so benumbed
with cold, that she had the greatest difficulty in keeping
her saddle; already had she reached the mouth of the Usk,
and was on the point of encountering the turbulent waves
of the Bristol Channel, when the master of a fishing-boat,
who was returning from his nightly toils, discovered the
gleaming of her taper and heard her calls for assistance,
and, after a considerable struggle between his humanity
and superstition, ventured at length to approach this floating
wonder, and brought Mrs. Williams safely to the shore in
his boat.
To
the antiquary, Caerleon is a place of much curiosity; you
would, therefore, consider us as unpardonable, had we not
half blinded ourselves amongst the rubbish of its ruins,
and torn our clothes with the thorns and brambles that conceal
these venerable remains. Our researches indeed were conducted
with all proper spirit and perseverance; but, I am sorry
to say, they were not rewarded by any discovery that could
throw new light on the history of the place, or make a material
addition to what is already written on the subject. Time
has been assisted, in his tardy but ceaseless operations
of destruction on the antiquities of Caerleon, by the active
industry of its own inhabitants; some of whom, stimulated
by a principle of avarice, have destroyed or removed many
of the finest monuments of its ancient splendour. Within
these three years the town has been despoiled of two gate-ways,
probably Norman; and the lofty keep which stood on the mound
to the north-east of the town has also, since the memory
of man, been levelled with the ground. Facts like these
certainly detract considerably from the classical character
of the Caerleonites, but you will be still more indignant
at their want of common curiosity, when I mention an anecdote
equally true.
About
eighteen months or two years back, on digging a cavity to
receive the foundation of a large warehouse, near the church,
the workmen struck upon a mass of fragments of ancient masonry;
consisting of capitals, shafts, and pedestals of pillars;
entablatures, friezes, architraves, &c. The circumstance
was communicated to the owner, and some curious person suggested
to him, that by expending a little more money it might lead
to a further discovery, and throw new light on the history
of the town. He went to the excavation, looked at the remains
with perfect indifference, and coolly observing, that “thes’em
sort of things had nothing to do with his coal speculation,”
ordered the workmen to cover them up.
Much
of the present town stands within the precincts of an ancient
Roman camp, the walls of which still partially exist, though
deprived of their facings, and so dilapidated as to leave
their foundation scarcely visible in many places. Their
form is parallelogramical, and their extent nearly six hundred
yards by five hundred. A little to the north-west of these,
in a meadow, a circular depression or concavity of the ground
occurs, which is supposed by the initiated to he a Roman
amphitheatre; though the profane vulgar consider it as the
place of revelry between Arthur and his knights of the round
table; and assert that the hero, when he quitted mortal
existence, sank into the earth at this his favourite spot.
Whatever its former consequence might have been, it is now
inferior to many an English cock-pit, and holds out an useful
lesson to the pomp of greatness, and the pride of descent.
If it be Roman, as many circumstances concur to make us
think it is, it would be a castrensian amphitheatre, formed
by hollowing out the ground to a certain depth and circumference,
and then furnishing its gently declining sides with green
turf seats to accommodate the numerous spectators. The mound
of earth, called the keep, though probably owing its origin
to the Normans, seems to consist partly of Roman ruins;
fragments of Roman pottery, and masses of Roman bricks,
are easily discovered by penetrating into the ground in
the slightest manner. Of more modern antiquity, the only
specimen which struck us, was the conventual house of the
Miss Morgans’, having an interior quadrangle, originally
connected, in all probability, with an abbey of Cistertian
monks, which appears to have been settled very early at
Caerleon.
It
may be amusing, perhaps, to recall to your recollection
a few particulars connected with the history of this place.
The
present name, Caerleon, (the castle or camp of the legion)
clearly points out a Roman origin. Horsley, than whom we
cannot follow a better authority, supposes that the Romans
arrived at this spot in the reign of Antoninus Pius, about
the middle of the second century; and finding it to be a
place agreeing in the circumstances of its situation
with their system of castrametation, they made it the station,
or head-quarters, of the second Augustan legion. In allusion
to this disposition of a particular body of troops, they
called it Isca Legionis Secundae Augustae or Isca Silurum,
as being the capital city of the Silures or South-Wallians.
Here,
it appears, the legion continued till within a short time
of the departure of the Romans
from Britain; since inscriptions towards the close
of the empire, and coins of some of the later emperors,
have at different times been discovered on this spot.
From
these circumstances, as well as from the extensive ruins
which have accidentally presented themselves in a circle
round the present town of a mile in diameter, it cannot
be questioned that Caerleon became, under the auspices
of the Romans, a large and magnificent place; exhibiting
those specimens of grandeur and refinement which generally
decorated a Roman city—a forum, temples, baths, and
theatres. The arts, indeed, seem to have been cultivated
here to a high degree, as the many elegant relics of antiquity,
and beautiful fragments of Roman masonry, formerly
to be seen in the possession of different people at Caerleon,
sufficiently testify. But its chief
glory arose from the success with which intellectual acquirements
were pursued; for if we give credit to the testimony of
an ancient author (Alexander Elsebiensis), we are to believe,
that Caerleon was a second Crotona, since he tells us (just
previous to the arrival of the Saxons in Britain) there
was an academy of two hundred philosophers at this place.
Excellence, indeed, is only a relative term, and therefore,
sagacious as these men of science would appear to be in
the eyes of the ignorant multitude around them, they might,
notwithstanding, be still far inferior to the scholars of
Pythagoras. The circumstance, however, if it be fact, proves
that Caerleon had attained to a very great comparative degree
of civilization under the auspices of the conquerors
of the world.
Even
during the times of the Romans in Britain, it appears that
Caerleon enjoyed the blessings of the Christian religion.
Three noble churches are said to have been erected in it,
almost as soon as the gospel found its way into this country,
one of which was constituted the metropolitan church of
all Wales. Here the archiepiscopal seat continued till the
time of St. David, who, towards the close of the sixth century,
translated it to Menevia, or, as it was afterwards called,
from the name of this canonized prelate, St. David’s.
The deities of classical mythology, however, had their worshippers
also, and the great goddess of the Ephesians boasted a temple
erected to her honour in the city of Caerleon. (Camden 719.
This is evident from the following inscription discovered
at Caerleon in 1608: T. FL. POSTHUMIUS VARUS V. C. LEG.
TEMPL. DIANAE RESTITUIT.)
How
long the Roman forces were continued at Caerleon is not
to be ascertained. The second Augustan Legion had retired
from it, previous to the final desertion of Britain by that
people; but as coins of the Valentinians have been discovered
here, we may conclude that it was a station as low down
as the beginning of the fifth century.
The
enfeebled and emasculated Britons, when deprived of the
aid of the Romans, became an easy prey to the fierce hordes
of Saxon invaders, who flocked to this country about the
middle of the fifth century. Caerleon, with the country
surrounding it, fell into their hands, and doubtless suffered
severely in the undistinguishing destruction which
followed all the conquests of these barbarous tribes. It
soon recovered its pristine splendour, however, and under
the protection of the British hero, the renowned Arthur,
who wrested it from the Saxons after a fierce battle, it
became once more a place of consideration. Here it was that
he received the crown from the hand of Dubritius bishop
of Llandaff on being elected king of all Britain; and here
he instituted that order of chivalry, the Round Table,
which makes so conspicuous a figure in the old romances.
Thus
Caerleon became the scene of royal amusement, in which the
British dames of Arthur’s court were, at Easter and
Christmas, entertained with the jousts and tournaments of
his hundred and thirty noble knights.
A
tradition of these revels still exists in the town, and
a notice of it occurs in the sign of a publick-house which
displays a military figure, intended to represent King Arthur,
and subscribed with the following lines:-
1200
years and more are pass'd
Since Arthur ruled here;
And that to me once more he's come
Think it not strange or queere.
Though o'er my door, yet take my word,
To honour you he's able;
And make you welcome with good Ale,
And Knights of the Round Table.
Little
occurs relative to Caerleon, during that period of darkness
and confusion known by the name of the middle ages. It successively
felt the fury of the Saxon and the Dane, and was afterwards
alternately in the possession of the English and Welsh.
The castle, a remain of which is seen on the north side
of the bridge, seems to have been erected about the middle
of the twelfth century, if, indeed, it be the same called
by Powel the "New Castle upon Usk." At that time
the English held the town, but surrendered it, after a desperate
resistance, to Jorweth ap Owen, prince of South-Wales, in
1173. On the ensuing year, Caerleon experienced another
change of masters, when a large army of English and
Normans took possession of it; they retained it, however,
but a few months, King Henry II again restoring it to its
rightful owner, Jorweth ap Owen, on this prince and the
other South-Wallian leaders doing homage to him at Glocester.
In
the year 1218, Caerleon fell once inure into the hands of
the English, under William Marshall earl of Pembroke, and
experienced all the horrors of a complete sacking, the frequent
effect of military ferocity in the feudal ages. Llewellyn
ap Jorweth recovered it in 1231, and it was retained by
his descendants (see Powel's History of Wales, 201, 203,
et infra.) till the complete reduction of Wales by Edward
I.
Having gratified our curiosity here,
we proceeded towards Newport, a town at the distance of
two miles to the south-west of Caerleon. Our walk, which
conducted us by a foot-road over the fields, presented a
variety of rich views, Caerleon forming a prominent feature
in them, happily placed on the wooded banks of a fine winding
river, in the middle of a rich valley surrounded with hills.
After
an hour’s agreeable saunter, we descended towards Newport,
and entered the town over a magnificent stone bridge. It
is indeed, as yet, incomplete; but a sufficient portion
of the structure appears, to do great credit to the architectural
skill of its builder, Mr. Edward, son of the William Edward,
who is so deservedly famed for having thrown a durable arch
over the rapid Taafe at Pont-y-Pridd.
Note:
The ‘foot-road’ they traversed (indicated by the
dotted line)
is now the route followed by the main road from Caerleon
to Newport.
This does not appear on road maps until around 1830.
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