be noticed by the opulent and respectable characters, who make the tour of this county in the summer season. All places owe their origin to small beginnings; and if the inhabitants were to aim at affording accommodations to strangers, they might soon have an opportunity of tasting of the advantages, resulting from an intercourse with the affluent part of society; and instead of looking on a well-dressed character (if perchance met on the common) as an object of curiosity, they might see the green turf abounding in elegant figures, either with their dresses" waving in the wanton wind," or seated on the carpet, surveying our matchless scenery, or enjoying a delicious repast, exempted from the fastidious pomp of unmeaning ceremony.

My efforts to promote the welfare of Monmouthshire are too poor to be mentioned; but a warmer heart for its interests doth not exist in the county.

The living, which is a Vicarage, is the gift of the Crown.

The Rev. William Seys, who resides in a handsome house near the church, is the present incumbent.

The Church, which is situate close to the turnpike road, makes no appearance as a near object; but when viewed from any of the adjoining heights, surrounded as it is by the village, it happily fills up the centre of the vale in which it is placed.

There are no monuments within its walls to claim the stranger's notice.

The

The Rev, John Rumsey has also a very good house and estate in this parish, whose family have long resided here.

There are also two Inns in the village, the Crown, and the Lion, (before which the public road passes), where the company may refresh themselves, on frugal fare, and their horses taken care of, while they survey the scenes herein before described.

On leaving Trellech,-the road has little interesting, except a view on the Devauden common, which is seen to equal advantage from the Purcas hill, till we arrive at the COCKSHUT, at the end of Chepstow Park, when a glorious view of the Severn Sea, with the junction of the river Wye, added to a great expance of country, bursts upon the sight, and continues at intervals till we approach the village of St. ARVONS. Here we leave the turnpike, and enter a road, on the left hand, about two miles in extent, which gradually brings us to the Beaufort Arms, TINTERN, where Mr. Gethen resides, who has the care of the Abbey.

Returning from Tintern by the same road, we again

arrive at

SAINT ARVONS,

a beautiful village, thro' which the public road passes, and continues by the side of Persfield Park for a considerable length; when, after a fine drive of two miles, we arrive at CHEPSTOW ;-an account of which, by C. Heath, may be had at either of the Inns.

TINTERN ABBEY.

BY C. HEATH.

THIS highly beautiful and interesting RUIN,—the

delight and admiration of strangers from every part of the kingdom,-is situate in the Upper Division of the Hundred of Ragland; distant from Monmouth (the county town), 10 miles, from Chepstow 5, and from Ragland 11 miles, from each of which places there is a direct turnpike road; but the communication by water from Monmouth, or from Chepstow, is by far the most pleasant, as well as the most general, method, which strangers adopt, when passing on pleasurable excursions through this county.

All historians agree, that the author of its foundation was Walter Fitz-Richard de Clare, of the noble family of the CLARES in Suffolk, formerly Earls of Glocester and Hertford, created Earls of Pembroke in the reign of King Stephen,-that it was largely endowed by the Marshalls, and afterwards by the Bigods Earls of Norfolk,-that at the Dissolution of the Religious Houses in the year 1537 (28 Henry VIII.) the site was granted to Henry Earl of Worcester,-with whose descendant, His Grace the Duke of Beaufort, its valuable possessions now remain.

Certainly such particulars are leading features in its history; but others of equal, if not superior moment, arrest the attention of the antiquarian traveller. What a pleasure would it be, at this day, to be made acquainted with the time the building occupied in finishing, the expence it amounted to, with the wages of the labourers employed on it;-description of the interior when in its meridian splendor; the succession of abbots, and roll of the convent; its officers, and nature of their employment,-with its several relations from its foundation in the reign of King Henry I. till its dissolution in the reign of King Henry VIII.-the fate and fortune of its inhabitants, with a map of their estates (tho' small at that day,-192l 18 4d, Dugdale, but 2591 11s 6d, Speed;) yet at the present amounting to a noble fortune.

These are circumstances that would always be read, by the inquisitive mind, with unspeakable pleasure; but, alas, in turning the eye over the various records (within my reach,) now in existence, respecting the Monasteries and Monastic Life, how frail and imperfect are its footsteps!-scarcely a ray of light is now to be met with which regards this once beautiful House, or the above important and desirable Information.

Bishop Baderon, called William of Worcester, from being bishop of the then united sees of Worcester and Bristol, has preserved in his " Itinerary," a curious Obituary of the Founders and Benefactors of this Monasiery, as also the dimensions of the Church,-inserted in Mr. Grose's account of this place,-which, with the fol

lowing Memorandums, are the only fragments contained in the Work, relating to this Monastery:

"The Convent of the Blessed MARY of TINTERN "entered the said Church, to perform Divine Service "in the New Church, in the year 1287."

"And the following year, 4th [or 5th] of October, they entered the Choir, and the first Mass was celebrated at the High Altar."

But, with deference to the Prelate's information, either himself, his secretary, or printer, appears to have committed a great error, with respect to the time here mentioned when the Convent entered the Church; for it is impossible to suppose the Abbey occupied one hundred and fifty-six years in building, unless we infer from the expression New Church, that the present edifice was erected on the ruins of a former, or less commodious, Monastery.

Mr. Wyndham, in his "Tour thro' Monmouthshire and Wales," makes the following observations: "Tho' "the Abbey was founded in 1131, the present church

was begun several years posterior to the foundation; as it is an elegant specimen of the pure Gothic, con"structed upon one plan, and in one stile. The form " of the pillars at the east end of the nave, which are cut to appear like four round columns clustered toIgether, and which had, originally, light intermediate shafts, a little detached from their apparent junction,. are not unlike those in the Cathedral of Salisbury, "which was not founded till the year 1217, nor finished