CHAPTER VI 



TRAVELLING BY COACH, FERRY, AND RAILWAY 



IN my early days much of the passenger transit of South 

 Wales and the south-westerly part of England passed over 

 the old Passage Ferry across the Severn from Beachley to 

 Aust, and consequently the coaches all passed our park gates. 

 It was said there were fourteen coaches a day. On this I 

 am unable to offer an opinion, but there were a great 

 number, and amongst them were two mails. The road to 

 the head of the old Passage Pier, from Chepstow, was about 

 three and a half miles in length, and very hilly (going up 

 one ascent, long or short as the case might be, to go down 

 another), with the exception of two lengths of flat " gallop- 

 ing ground." These well deserved their name, and I can still 

 remember the swing of violent speed at which the high, piled- 

 up vehicle tore past us, causing children and accompanying 

 dogs to allow it a very free passage. The journey was 

 not without risk of disaster, for on one occasion in turning 

 a sharp angle, on the incline of a steep shore-hill, with- 

 out due care, the coach lurched to the outward side of 

 the curve and made a distribution of its outside passengers 

 on the greensward by our park gates. It certainly would 

 have been a great help in those days if the wish (though 

 not exactly as he expressed it) of the driver of one of the 

 more old-fashioned of the coaches could have been carried 

 out, and " a little akyduct " made to convey the road from 

 the top of one hill to the next, thus avoiding the dangerous 

 descent. 



The view from the tops of the coaches as they galloped 

 along the flat road at the summit of the Severn cliffs down 

 to the Ferry pier was very beautiful. On one side was the 

 Severn, a mile wide at the narrowest, with the red Aust 

 cliffs opposite, the Sedbury cliffs above ; and, in the distance, 

 about thirty miles away up the river, the hills, near or 

 beyond Gloucester, could be faintly seen. On the other 



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