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In these days of the "iron horse," the electric telegraph, and the many 

 wonderful appliances of science, men live so fast, travel so fast, and think so 

 rapidly, that it is extremely difficult to realise the almost miraculous changes 

 which the lapse of a few hundred years have brought about in the characters, 

 the habits and intelligence of the human inhabitants of Great Britain ; and yet 

 it is so. 



What changes have occurred since the days of Queen Anne, and Alexander 

 Pope penned his celebrated poem on the good deeds of John Kyrle, in an arbour 

 at Pengethley ; and Dean Swift, whose ancestors were Vicars of Goodrich, 

 wandered about the ruins of the Castle which his grandfather saw demolished. 

 What changes have passed since the garrisons of Wilton and Goodrich Castles 

 fought like lions for King Charles, and those noble buildings were laid in ruins 

 by the winners in that great struggle between the supporters of the King and 

 the men who fought for the Commonwealth ! But there is more, far more, to 

 interest the lover of olden times and old histories with the historical and 

 legendary lore of these ancient homes of some of England's noblest men. 



Goodrich Castle was a stronghold in the days of Edward the Confessor, and 

 Wilton dates from the Conquest ; so that the antiquarian has much to tell of the 

 Marshalls . and Strongbows, and the Talbots, at Goodrich, and of the Grey de 

 Wiltons, of Wilton, the ancestors of the present well-known geologist and 

 palaeontologist. Sir Philip de Grey Egerton. Nor is it only among the castellated 

 ruins that the antiquarian searches for the records of other days. There is 

 scarcely a village round Ross that does not possess some relics of those early 

 ages. Edward Ironsides left the manor of Ross to the Bishops of Hereford. In 

 the N.E. corner of Ross Churchj'ard there stand the ruins of a Cross which was 

 probably erected by Bishop Betun, who lived in the time of the first Henry, 

 days of cruelty and wrath, the days of the tragedy at Cardiff Castle, and the 

 loss of the White Ship. We learn from Dr. Strong, that Bishop Betun after- 

 wards obtained a grant from Stephen to hold at Ross a weekly Market. 



The Church of Brampton Abbots dates from the times of the early Normans, 

 the manor having been given to the Abbots of Gloucester by the Conqueror 

 himself. Bridstowe (dedicated to St. Bridget), long the residence of the Rev. 

 T. T. Lewis, one of the first and ablest of Silurian geologists, was consecrated in 

 the days of King Harold, and before the battle of Hastings. Again, the 

 Churches of Hentland and Whitchurch have Dubritius for their patron, and it is 

 said that this St. Dubritius founded a college at Hentland, in the days when 

 "Good King Arthur ruled this land." 



There is " old Ariconium," also, which is said to have been swallowed by an 

 earthquake (a progenitor, perhaps, of the earthquake which awoke Ross last 

 year), and hills which are said to have been defended by the legions of the heroic 

 Caractacus. In short, I doubt very much if there is more satisfactory ground in 

 England for the searcher into human antiquities than is the border country 

 around Ross. 



