ROSS. 



merable benefits to the poor and the unfortunate. Among 

 other advantages conferred by him on Rofs, he raifed the 

 church fpire above ioo feet in height, and inclofed a piece 

 of ground with a wall, and funk a relcrvoir in the centre of 

 it, for the ufe of the inhabitants. He likewife conllrudted 

 a line broad caufeway at the weftern extremity of the town. 

 The houfe in which Mr. Kyrle relided was afterwards the 

 King's Arms, (ituated near the entrance of the town from 

 Glouceiter, but is no longer an inn. 



The ftreets of Rofs are moflly lituated on tlie top and 

 flope of a hill, and are extremely narrow. The market- 

 houfe, though erected fo late as the reign of Charles II., 

 is in a very decayed Hate. It is conftructed uf ftone, and 

 difplays the heterogeneous uu.de of building prevalent in 

 the reign of his predecedor, James I. The church is a 

 handfoir.e Hructuie, having a tower, furmonnted bv a lofty 

 fpire at its weftern end. In the window over the altar here, 

 among oiIki fragments of painted glafs, is one reprefenting 

 a billiop, with the infeription, " Thomas Herefordenfis," 

 written beneath in black letter. This bifhop had probably 

 been a benefactor to the church. The views from the fur- 

 rounding cemetery, and from the contiguous proipect 

 ground, are much celebrated. Immediately below, the 

 river Wye forms a fine femicircle, at one of the ex- 

 tremities of which are the ruins of Wilton caftle ; and 

 beyond it an extcnlive vale, terminated by dillant moun- 

 tains. Near the church-yard is a fpot called Bifliop's- 

 Court, from the circumftance of its having been anciently 

 the fcite of a palace, belonging to the biihops of Here- 

 ford. 



The ruins of Wilton callle above-mentioned ftand on the 

 wcltern bank of the Wye. This manlion was for feveral 

 centuries the refidence of the Greys, of the fouth, who de- 

 rived from it their original baronial title, in the reign of 

 Edward I. foon alter they acquired pofleflion of it. Its 

 prefent ruinous condition is to be attributed to the royalilt 

 governors of Hereford, by whole orders the whole interior 

 was confumed by fire. The feats and objects ot antiquarian 

 interefl in this vicinity are numerous. On the fummit of 

 Eaton-hill, about two miles to the north ot Rofs, is a large 

 encampment, probably of Roman origin. The intrench- 

 ments are in a very perfect ftate, and are of great depth. A 

 farm-houfe here difplays veftiges of an ancient m mtion, and 

 the Surrounding grounds are itill defignated the Park of 

 Eaton ; but the hillory oi the place is entirely loll. At a 

 hamlet called Hole-in-thc-Wall, about a mile further to the 

 north, are fotne foundations of walls, which bear the ap- 

 pearam i antiquity. What occasioned the appella- 



tion by which their fcite is diftingiufhed, is an excaval 

 formed in tin- rocky ban! louring garden, -which, 



when complete, led by a I or fteps downwards into a 



cavity, whole root \ rted by a fingle column. Af- 



cending the hill towards Old Gore is a hollow fpace i 

 ing about ioo paces, in which a number of celts were dif- 

 covered a few ;• . rs ago. Thefe instruments n re ni rly of 

 the fame h/.t ndhad videntl iark»ofthe 



mould were vifible. On the oppofite Gde of the river from 

 Hole-in-the-Wall, (lands Kingfton-houfe; long the property 

 of the Holkyn .' family ; one ot whom, fen ant Holkyns, is 

 faid to have enl ined hei J I. with a morrice-dai.ee, 



performed by ten persons whole uniti d 1 one 



thoufand y< tfi. Above this Fawley-Court, 



anciently th • t. at ot fir John ICyrle, progenitor to the 



" Man of Rofs," and now t'i pi perty of a gentleman 



a 1 Mom , a defcendant from the I imily by the female 



line. Goodrich callle is filus I ut four miles to the 

 fouth of Rols, on a finely wooded promontory, round which 



the river Wye forms a femi-urcular Sweep. This fortrefe 

 was for many years the baronial refidence of the Talbots, 

 earls of Shrewsbury. By whom it was originally founded 

 is unknown, though the near affinity of its name to that of 

 duke Godnc, who occurs as a witnefs to two charters 

 granted by king Canute, renders it not an improbable con- 

 jecture that he was the perfon. Nothing of its authentic 

 hillory is recorded till the reign of king John, where we 

 find it mentioned as the property of William Strigu], earl 

 marfhal, who died here in 1246. Subsequently it was con- 

 veyed by a female heir to William de Valentia, 1 1 Pem- 

 broke, from whole family it palled to the Talbots, after- 

 wards earls of Shrewfbury. Elizabeth, daughter of Gilbert, 

 the feventh earl, carried it by marriage to Henry de Grey, 

 earl of Kent, whofe defcendant; held it till the death of 

 Henry, duke of Kent, when it was fold to admiral Griffin, 

 anceftor to the prefent proprietor. Few hiltorical 

 note are related refpecting this callle. In the civil wars 

 between king Charles I. and his parliament, it was at firft 

 garrisoned for the latter, but was captured loon after by 

 the royalifts, who, in their turn, were compelled to furrend f 

 it to the republicans, after a liege of lix weeks, A.l). 1646. 

 On the 25th of Auguft, 111 the lame year, the parliament 

 ordered it to be notified to the countefs of Kent, that it 

 was necefiary the caftle fhould be demoliflied. Accordingly 

 it was difmantled in March following ; and has lince been 

 gradually falling to decay, but enough of it yet remains to 

 point out its former extent and grandeur. The form of 

 this Structure is that of a parallelogram 176 feet long, by 

 152 broad. Each of the four angle., is llrengthened by a 

 round tower, and in the fouth-well part of the area is a 

 fquare keep, which appears to be of anterior date to the reft 

 of the building. " This keep tower," fays King, in his 

 Munimenta Antiqua, vol. lii. " has every mark in its ftyle 

 of architecture of being coeval with the Saxon age." It 

 confilts of three itories, the lowelt of which was uled as a 

 prilon. The principal entrance was by a flight of lteps, 

 which is detached from the main building, and conducts 

 to a platform before the door-way into the fecond and 

 principal (lory, which has no interior connection with the 

 dungeon beneath, as happens in moll Norman caflles. The 

 entrance to the pnton-apartments was under a very re- 

 markable fort ot pointed arch, formed of " quite flat fides, 

 which feem, from the appearance of the wall around, and 

 from its peculiar Iky 1 ■, to have been inlerted many ages after 

 the keep was erected, and in the time of Edward III. : — a 

 fufpicion that appears to be molt llrongly confirmed by the 

 circumllar.ee, that about the tv> nty-lecond year of the 

 rei mi of that king, Richard Talbot, its then lord, obtained 

 the royal licence tor having in his callle a pinion for male- 

 factors ; having alfo the cognizance of pleas of the crown, 



within his lordfhip of Irchenfield and Wormilow." 



The windows in the two upper [lories are faid, l>v the fame 



. r, to be genuine Saxon ; and that in the middle o( the 



ler ltory feems to have continued unaltered from the 



period of it ; eonitrnction. The columns on each lide Hand 

 within the arch, the lemicircular part of which 1 1 mntcd 

 with zigzag : this window terminates the middle projecting 

 buttrefs that a (fills in fupporting the 1 iwerj and underwit 

 IS a zigzag moulding, or band, which is carried round the 

 whole building. The window in the middle llory 1 nearly 

 linnlar to that defcribed ; but a ftone frame for glafs i 

 (erted in it, apparently oi the ageoi Henry VI., and pro- 

 bably the work of the celebrated earl Talbot, who, according 

 to trad 1 1 ion, had his private cl eel >.t in this keep. The olhei 

 portions ot the callle are ot much later erection than the keep. 

 The entrance was very llrongly fortified. Immediately in fj 



and 



