The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Volume II Part 5

To understand the importance of lighthouses, we need only remind the reader of the published "Statement," that the number of British vessels alone, which have been annually returned as wrecked, amounts to _five hundred and fifty_;--namely, "three shipwrecks every two days throughout the year." The average burden of merchant-vessels is about one hundred and ten tons; and if we value old and new together at half the price of building, we have 330,000 for the worth of the whole, which, by deducting the value of sails, masts, and other materials saved from some of those stranded, may be reduced to 300,000. If we add an equal sum for the cost of the cargoes, the whole loss from shipwrecks will amount to 600,000. This statement proceeds on an old estimate from 1793 to 1829; but M'Culloch, in the supplement to his Dictionary, says that the number of ships actually lost, or driven ash.o.r.e, in 1833, amounted to _eight hundred_. It is probable, then, that the annual lost by shipwreck is not much short of a _million sterling_. If _one-fifth_ of this loss could be prevented by additional lighthouses, the saving of money would amount to a _million_ in five years,--to say nothing of the still more important saving in human life. We are anxious--not on the score of economy only, but of humanity--to place these lamentable facts before the eyes of Government, from whose hands the mitigation at least, if not the removal, of such disasters is confidently expected.

In the rock immediately under the lighthouse is a large cavern, called Bob's Cove,--a very characteristic feature, and a chief attraction to pleasure-parties, who resort hither at low water for the sake of the view, which from this isolated point is very striking and variegated:--

"Town and hamlet, sea and sh.o.r.e, Wooded steep and mountain h.o.a.r; Ships that stem the waters blue, All concentrate in the view."

Expanding to the eastward, is the beautiful curve of Swansea Bay and the distant mountains; on the westward, the broken coast of Gower; in front, the boundless expanse of ocean. The bracing sea breezes inhaled upon this exposed promontory, its elastic turf, and the magnificent prospect it everywhere commands, never fail to produce a most agreeable and salutary exhilaration, and const.i.tute the finest medical and physical tour in the world.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Na.s.s SANDS LIGHTHOUSES.

(near Bristol.)]

THE Na.s.s SANDS LIGHTHOUSES.

"After our ship did split, When you, and that poor number saved with you, Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother, Most provident in peril, bind himself-- Courage and hope both teaching him the practice-- To a strong mast that lived upon the sea, Where, like Orion on the dolphin's back, I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves So long as I could see."

TWELFTH NIGHT.

The Na.s.s Lights were erected by the late Mr. Nelson, in 1832, under the direction of the Trinity House. The eastern, or upper Light, burns at the height of one hundred and sixty-seven feet, and the western, or lower one, at one hundred and twenty-three feet above high-water mark.

They are one thousand feet apart, built of the stone of the country, and stand on Na.s.s Point, near Dunraven Castle, Glamorganshire.

It unfortunately was not merely the dangers of the ocean to which the luckless mariner was in past times exposed upon this iron-bound coast, to them was too frequently added the infamous deceptions of the wreckers, who were accustomed to resort to the artifice of driving to and fro an a.s.s bearing two lanterns, so as to represent a distant vessel in motion, and thus lured many a ship to destruction among the rocks and sands. Numerous are the legends of fearful interest which the older inhabitants relate descriptive of the accidents attendant upon these murderous practices, now happily only matters of history.

The erection of lighthouses, beacons, and other means for the prevention of shipwreck, is every year becoming an object of greater importance to the members of that excellent corporation, the Trinity House. Within the last thirty years, great and permanent advantages have been secured to commerce by the vigilance and activity of that body. Much, however, is still left to call aloud for the exercise of their high privilege, skill, and humanity. The navigation of our coasts is still attended in many parts with imminent danger. Rocks, and shoals, and quicksands, indeed, cannot be obliterated by the hand of man; but the perils they involve, in respect to the shipping, may be greatly diminished by increasing the number of those monitory beacons to which the eye of the mariner is so often turned with intense anxiety. The erection of the two lighthouses which here ill.u.s.trate the subject, has been attended with the happiest consequences. Many a shipwreck, we will venture to say, has been prevented by a timely regard to these friendly beacons.

The Bristol Channel has often been the scene of sad catastrophes in the chronicles of seafaring life; but at present the danger to the foreign and coasting-trade has been greatly obviated by those judicious measures which have emanated from the above society.

The voyage up the Bristol Channel is singularly romantic and beautiful; but the coast is exposed to all the fury of the Atlantic, and the surf against the cliffs is distinctly visible at Swansea. The steamers now keep close along sh.o.r.e, in a channel inside the Na.s.s Sands, which form an extensive and dangerous bank to seaward. The contrast between the tumultuous ma.s.ses of breakers over these sands, when the wind is fresh, and the calmness of the narrow channel we are traversing in security, is very striking. These sands, and another large shoal, called the Skerweathers, have been fatal to many vessels. A large West Indiaman, with a cargo of rum and other valuable produce, was lost a few years ago on a rock called the Tusca, which disappears at high-water; and in 1831, this coast was fatal to the steamer _Frolic_, in which all the crew and pa.s.sengers, amounting to nearly eighty persons, perished. The coast near Porthcaul appears at Swansea to be the eastern extremity of the bay; but the bluff point called the Na.s.s, about eight miles further, is literally so. The coast onwards, past the Na.s.s-point, as observed in the admirable Engraving annexed, is almost perpendicular, so as closely to resemble a lofty wall, in which the limestone rock is disposed in horizontal strata. When the sea runs high in this quarter, the scene, as may be readily conceived, is truly terrific--

"And not one vessel 'scapes the dreadful touch Of merchant-marring rocks."

MERCHANT OF VENICE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARDIFF.]

CARDIFF,

GLAMORGANSHIRE.

"Here British hearts the arms of Rome withstood, Repulsed her cohorts with their native blood; Till Caradoc and independence fell, And freedom shrieked in CARDIFF'S citadel-- And Cambria's heroes, rushing on the glave, Died gloriously for her they could not save!"

The county of Glamorgan, of which the princ.i.p.al town is represented in the accompanying plate, abounds in historical sites well adapted for the pencil, and furnishing the reader with many interesting facts and traditions. The southern portion of the country is remarkably fertile, highly cultivated, and presents to the stranger a long succession of luxuriant corn-fields, verdant pastures, and animated pictures of rural happiness and independence. It would be difficult to find any tract of land in Great Britain that can surpa.s.s the Vale of Glamorgan in richness of soil, or in soft and graceful scenery. This favoured region extends the whole length of the county--from the base of the mountains on the north to the sh.o.r.e of the Bristol Channel on the south-west. It presents throughout a most gratifying proof of what may be accomplished by judicious management, when soil and climate are both in favour of agricultural operations.

As a fair proof of the mild and salubrious nature of the atmosphere, we need only observe that the magnolia, the myrtle, and other delicate exotics, not only live but flourish in this auspicious climate. Equally favourable to health and longevity, this district has numerous living testimonies in the vigorous health and protracted age of its inhabitants, who are fully sensible of the blessings they enjoy. The valley, at its greatest breadth, measures about eighteen miles; in various places, however, it is contracted into less than the half of this s.p.a.ce, and presents in its outline a constant variety of picturesque and graceful windings.

The town of Cardiff is built on the eastern bank of the river Taff, over which there is a handsome bridge of five arches, leading to Swansea. It is a thriving town, possessing considerable trade; and, by means of a ca.n.a.l from Pennarth to Merthyr-Tydvil, has become the connecting medium between these extensive iron-works and the English market, and is, in fact, the port of the latter. The Taff, which falls into the sea at Cardiff, forms a princ.i.p.al outlet for the mining districts of Glamorganshire, the produce of which has. .h.i.therto found its way to market through the Glamorganshire ca.n.a.l; but its sea-lock, constructed about fifty years ago, has long been found inadequate to the demands for increased accommodation, in consequence of the great prosperity of trade since the ca.n.a.l was opened.

The Marquess of Bute, possessing lands in this neighbourhood, obtained, in 1830, an act for constructing a new harbour, to be called the Bute ship-ca.n.a.l, and completed the work at his own expense. The great advantages of this enterprise are--a straight, open channel from Cardiff-roads to the new sea-gates, which are forty-five feet wide, with a depth of seventeen feet at neap, and thirty feet at spring-tide. On pa.s.sing the sea-gate, vessels enter a capacious basin, having an area of about an acre and a half, sufficient to accommodate large trading-vessels and steamers. Quays are erected along the side of the ca.n.a.l, finished with strong granite coping, and comprising more than a mile of wharfs, with ample s.p.a.ce for warehouses, exclusive of the wharfs at the outer basin. This great work was finished in the summer of 1839, at an expense to the proprietor of three hundred thousand pounds.

Cardiff Castle, which stands insulated on a high mound of earth, was partially restored and modernised by the late Marquess of Bute. This ancient fortress is connected with several interesting events in history. In one of its towers, or dungeons, Robert Duke of Normandy was twenty-five years imprisoned by his younger brother, Henry the First, who had previously usurped the throne and deprived him of his eyesight.

In the reign of Charles the First it was bombarded by the Parliamentary forces during three successive days, and only surrendered in consequence of treachery on the part of the garrison.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GLOUCESTER.]

GLOUCESTER.

"I which am the queene Of all the British vales, and so have ever been Since Gomer's giant brood inhabited this isle, And that of all the rest myself may so enstyle."

DRAYTON. _Vale of Gloucester._

Caer-Glow, or the "fair city" of the ancient Britons, is a name happily characteristic of Gloucester. The beauty of its situation, on a gentle eminence overlooking the Severn, where its stream is divided into two channels by the Isle of Alney; the richness and fertility of the surrounding districts; its highly picturesque scenery; its splendid cathedral and numerous public buildings; and latterly the tide of prosperity occasioned by the vast improvements in regard to its inland port, present a combination of attractions for which it would be difficult to find a parallel in the British provinces. Commercial enterprise has now a fixed residence in the place, and within the last ten years has made great and important advances in the several departments of foreign and domestic industry.

The Port of Gloucester and the Cathedral, of which the accompanying plate gives a most correct and interesting view, are the two princ.i.p.al features; and to these, in accordance with the plan of the work, our descriptive text will be more strictly confined. The Port is of great antiquity,--so much so as to have existed as an inland harbour long prior to any written doc.u.ment of the place,--but it is only of late years that ships of burden could be anch.o.r.ed in the city basin. A century ago, as recorded in the _Magna Britannia_, the Port of Gloucester had a large quay and wharf on the banks of the river, very commodious for trade, to which belonged a custom-house, with officers proper for it; but the business was not great, as the city of Bristol, only a few miles distant, had engrossed all the foreign trade in this part of the country. The vessels which at the period in question navigated the Severn were generally small trading-craft, of between fifty and two hundred tons burden, so that Gloucester was deprived of all those advantages which have been so happily secured to it by modern enterprise and improvement. Of these, the Berkeley ship-ca.n.a.l is a n.o.ble monument. By the vast facilities thus afforded, the commerce of Gloucester has enjoyed a course of uninterrupted prosperity, and bids fair to eclipse even Bristol itself in the extent and ramifications of its still increasing trade. Ships of heavy burden are now safely moored in the basin, and discharge those cargoes in the heart of the city which had formerly to be transhipped at Bristol, and conveyed to their destination by means of barges and lighters.

The Gloucester Spa, which is now become a place of fashionable resort, has contributed in no small degree to the many attractions of the city and its vicinity. This saline chalybeate was first opened to the public by a grand fete, in May, 1815. The establishment contains every requisite for the health and recreation of the visitors, and vies as much with Cheltenham and Leamington in its appropriate and tasteful arrangements, as it does in the salubrious qualities of its spring--in proof of which numerous testimonies are daily added as the result of experience. There is a very handsome pump-room, with hot, cold, and vapour baths, and an abundant supply of water. The Spa is in the centre of grounds tastefully laid out, embellished with all the care and effect of landscape-gardening, and presenting to the _pieton_ and equestrian a pleasing variety of shady walks and rides,

"Mid rural scenes that fascinate the gaze, And conjure up the deeds of other days."

The Cathedral of Gloucester is deservedly considered one of the n.o.blest specimens of ecclesiastical architecture in Christendom. It is a grand object with every traveller who enters upon a tour of the English provinces, and makes a strong impression on the mind, even after he has visited the gorgeous temples of Rome and Milan.

In the interior of the cathedral are numerous specimens of monumental sculpture; among which the most remarkable are those of Robert, Duke of Normandy, and Richard the Second. The present altar, of the Corinthian order, is placed before the rich tracery of the original high-altar, which, except from the side-galleries of the choir, is concealed from view. The great elevation of the vault overhead, the richness and variety of its designs, the elaborate and minute tracery with which the walls are adorned, added to the vast dimensions of the great oriel--eighty-seven feet in height--render the choir an almost unrivalled specimen of what is styled the florid Gothic, and leave an impression upon the stranger's mind never to be obliterated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BRISTOL.

(from Rownham Ferry.)]