But they are dangerous places for
any but miners _or_ schoolboys; and I shrank from encouraging
an enthusiastic American to risk being killed in a Roman pit,
even with the ideal advantage of afterwards being buried with
his own ancestors in England! So I said but little about
them.
The Miners' Court is presided over by another government
officer, called the "Gaveller"; from a Celtic word which means
_holding;_ as in the Kentish custom of "Gavelkind."* These
courts are held in "Saint Briavels" (pronounced "Brevels")
Castle: a quaint old building of the thirteenth century,
on the western edge of the Forest, where it was placed to
keep the Welsh in check. It looks down on a beautiful reach
of the river Wye at Bigswear; and it was just on this edge
that Wordsworth stood in 1798, when he thought out his "Lines
composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey," etc.
Five years have passed; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters; and again I hear
These waters rolling from their mountain springs
With a soft inland murmur. Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs.
Pages:
1524
1525
1526
1527
1528
1529
1530
1531
1532
1533
1534
1535
1536
1537
1538
1539
1540
1541
1542
1543
1544
1545
1546
1547
1548