Sketches OF The Environs of Oswestry. (continued 2)

In closing our Sketches of the Environs, a brief reference to Chirk and Llangollen Vale, both being within half an hour’s railway ride from Oswestry, seems to be necessary.

Chirk is situated upon the northern bank of the river Ceiriog, and is a pleasant and somewhat picturesque village. The entire parish is the property of Col. Myddelton Biddulph. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, contains an interesting monument of the gallant Sir Thomas Myddelton; and in the church-yard are some fine yew trees, the growth of centuries. There is an excellent inn in the village, The Chirk Castle Arms, kept by Mr. Moses, who is also post-master there. From the poor-rate return for the present year (1855), it appears that the acreage of the parish is 4,635a. 3r. 29p.; the gross rental, £9,401 8s. 4d.; and the rateable value assessed to the relief of the poor, £9,308 2s. 1d. The present much-respected Vicar is the Rev. Joseph Maude, who is also, as already stated, Chairman of the Board of the Oswestry Incorporation. The Vale of the Ceiriog, like that of the Dee, generally attracts the attention of railway travellers, from its singular beauty and historical associations. It is crossed by a Viaduct of the Great Western Railway, and by an Aqueduct also, extending along the Ellesmere canal upon long ranges of arches at a considerable elevation. Llangollen Vale is only a few minutes’ ride from Chirk, and, we need not add, “the admired of all observers.” The tourist is amazed with the first view obtained of it; its hills and slopes display enchanting spots, and the beauty of the natural scenery is increased by the massive elegance of Robertson’s railway viaduct across the Dee, and the classic grace of Telford’s aqueduct. The Vale, on both sides the river Dee, is at length brought to a high state of cultivation. Looking down the valley from the railway viaduct, or from the more elevated portions of the Holyhead road, the scene presents a strange admixture of beauty and ugliness; and a stranger, for the first time viewing the scene, would declare, “I see nothing but smoke.” On the north side of the river are the extensive iron works of the New British Iron Company, disgorging smoke and flame day and night, and on the opposite side of the river are the Vron limestone quarries and kilns, equally active in discharging huge volumes of vapour. The tourist must pass on from these manufacturing localities, and his eye will soon rest upon scenery of surpassing loveliness and grandeur. The wood-crowned heights of Trevor, the Eglwyseg and Berwyn range of mountains, the old battered fortress, Castell Dinas Bran, the luxuriant Vale, which presents the form of a capacious amphitheatre, and the Dee, vending its course over beds of clay-slate, limestone, and granitic boulders,—these, with abundance of full-grown timber, snug villas, white-washed cottages, and well-managed farms, with fertile fields and well-farmed hill-sides, show of what materials the panoramic valley is composed. Could Moore have viewed it, as we have done on a bright summer day, he would have been constrained to quote his own beautiful line,

“The valley lies smiling before me.”

Of Llangollen itself we shall attempt no description. Its charms have been transmitted to glowing canvass and sung in rapturous verse from Anna Seward downwards; its hostelries, the Hand and the Royal Hotels, its “trouts,” its mountain mutton, sparkling ale, and other delicacies, have too long been the “household words” of tourists, album-writers, and after-dinner orators, to render eulogium or even “faint praise” from us in the slightest degree necessary.

After these poetic visions it is difficult to descend to sober reality. The tourist, generally speaking, unless he be a botanist, a geologist, or an artist, penetrates little beyond the public highway, except in those localities distinguished by a waterfall, an ancient castle, or a noble residence. Thousands of people, from the manufacturing districts, cannot in their visits to the Principality do more than give a passing glance to the country through which they hurriedly travel. In the immediate vicinity of the turnpike-roads on both sides of the Dee the land there lets at a high price, and, generally speaking, is ably farmed; and ascending the hills, to the heights of ten or twelve hundred feet, most of the little inclosures occupied by small farmers, or by parties engaged principally in other occupation than that of agriculture, are also well cultivated, and fetch a rental of from 30s. to 40s. per acre. Some twenty years ago the mountain-land in the Vale of Llangollen was deemed common, and but few habitations were erected upon it; but at the present time neat cottage-dwellings for the industrious poor are raised in clusters, and most of the land attached to them is farmed with a skill and success that would put to the blush many a professed agriculturist. No doubt that this comparatively high price for mountain-land is caused by the large number of working-men employed in the various manufacturing and other working establishments in the neighbourhood. Such men require small portions of what is called occupation land, on which to feed a cow and grow a little wheat, barley, oats, and potatoes. To them the land even at the price is an advantage; but still it is a fact worthy of note, that mountain-land in this busy district is in great demand, and whenever let fetches a high rental. Such is the influence of manufactures upon agriculture, both of which, as Sir Josiah Child said years ago, “must wax or wane together.”

OSWESTRY: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY GEORGE LEWIS.