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It must be seen ami felt to be enjoyed and understood, and with nil the varying 

 changes of light and shade, of season and the atmosphere, of its own conditions, 

 and in the incidents of the hour, the of tener it is visited the more freely will 

 its richness be esteemed and the more fully will its great beauty be appreciated. 



The fashionable " Tour of the "Wye " begins at Ross, and the Woolhope 

 Club invited the ladies this year to take the excursion in the orthodox manner. 

 Precise and careful arrangements had been made. They were most satisfactorily 

 carried out, and those ladies who braved the almost tropical sun spent a very 

 enjoyable day, ancl found afterwards how very much less they had felt the heat 

 than those had who remained at home. 



The ivy-clad ruins of Wilton Castle look so well from the river, and are 



always passed by so unceremoniously, that one is apt to fancy them mere 



artificial ornaments to the scenery. "Wilton Castle is a reality, however, and no 



sham, and at this time it gives a title to an earldom. Leland says King Stephen 



built it 729 years ago (1141), to protect the ford possibly, or as a check to the 



troublesome Welsh. History tells not, however, of any warlike deeds at the 



Castle. For many centuries it belonged to the De Greys, its most noted 



possessor being Sir "Win. Grey, the 13th Baron, " the greatest soldier of the 



nobility," as was said of him. He was Governor of the Castle of Guisnes, in 



Normandy, when it was attacked by the French. After a gallant defence he 



was compelled to surrender to the Duke of Guise, and had afterwards to pay 



the heavy ransom of 20,000 crowns for his liberty. His son Lord Arthur Grey, 



was a good soldier too, and he employed as his secretary Spenser the poet. 



The Fairy Queen was written when in his service, and Spenser calls him 



" Most noble Lord, the pillar of my life 

 And patron of my Muse's pupillage." 



Wilton Castle passed into the family of the Brydges in Queen Elizabeth's 

 reign. It had become, however, by this time a castellated mansion, " not a 

 castle-like but a house-like building," as Silas Taylor hath it. In the Civil "War 

 Sir John Brydges, its then possessor, took a very uncertain, unworthy part, 

 scheming and shuffling, but acting chiefly with the Roundheads. He thus made 

 himself very unpopular, and Wilton Castle was burnt down by those noted 

 royalists, "Henry Lingen of Sutton, and one Barneby Scudamore" at that 

 time "entrusted with ye government of ye city of Hereford." (Silas Taylor.) 

 The Brydges, Barons of Chandos, held possession for many years, when Sir 

 James Brydges, the "Timon" of Pope's Satire, and the "Princely Chandos" 

 of popular repute, became Marquis of Carnarvon and Duke of Chandos. In 

 1723, in consequence of some political pique, the Duke sold "Wilton Castle and 

 all his Herefordshire estates to Mr. Thomas Guy. They were left by Mr. Guy 

 intrust for the noble Hospital he founded in London, "Guy's Hospital," and 

 thus are they now held. 



As boat after boat, gaily, laden with fair philosophers, passed under 

 Wilton Bridge, its castle was forgotten in the exciting question whether there 

 was water enough to carry them safely over the shallows below. The result was 



