THE WELSH BORDERLAND 



and one of the greatest and most imposing mediaeval 

 castles in England. There is everywhere the pleasant, 

 unsmirched atmosphere of a clean market-town, and 

 the picturesque intermingling of foliage with buildings 

 which suggests space and elbow-room. East of the 

 high-pitched town, dominated by its hoary and 

 massive castle, the sharp peaks of the Clee hills spring 

 up close at hand to a height of seventeen hundred 

 feet. While behind it on the west, directly from the 

 river, there rise to a thousand feet or more those 

 beautifully wooded ranges already alluded to, where 

 the wild fallow-deer roam unseen in luxuriant undu- 

 lations of wood and glade. From the foot of the 

 town and castle hill, spreading northward more or 

 less, are the valleys of the Teme, the Onny, and the 

 Corve, with Wenlock Edge, Caradoc, and the high 

 Church Stretton range bounding the horizon. 



It is only fitting that Ludlow should look its part, 

 since it was the official capital of Wales and the Marches 

 through the whole Tudor and Stuart periods, and its 

 castle as the then seat of government is a good deal 

 more than the mere mighty relic of ancient border 

 strife. Nor is there, I think, a place in all England 

 where within a radius of twenty odd miles so much 

 that is aesthetically beautiful in the way of village 

 and manor-house architecture, combined with noble 

 ecclesiastical and feudal relics of a former day, is set 

 off by natural scenery of a kind that infinitely helps 

 to impress such things upon the imagination. No 

 angler with a particle of taste need be at a loss here 

 even in a dry spell. 



The Onny is a pretty little trout stream with 



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