Herefordshire

“ In 1788 he settled at Hereford in the dual capacity of editor and printer of Pugh's ‘Hereford Journal.’ Two years later he accepted an engagement from Charles, eleventh duke of Norfolk, the owner, jure uxoris, of extensive estates in the county, to compile and edit a history of Herefordshire. The terms were 2l. 2s. per week for collecting materials, with extra payment for journeys out of the county, the work to be the property of the duke. The first volume, containing a general history of the county and account of the city, was published, 4to, Hereford, 1804 ”

“ George Lewis, whom I saw yesterday, gave me a deplorable account of the moral and intellectual state of the constituency of Herefordshire, enough to shake the strongest faith in popular institutions, and reliance on what is called the good sense of the people. In Herefordshire the battle was fought entirely upon the question of Free Trade. ”

“ Herefordshire is also famous as a breeding county for its cattle of bright red hue, with mottled or white faces and sleek silky coats. The Herefords are stalwart and healthy, and, though not good milkers, put on more meat and fat at an early age, in proportion to food consumed, than almost any other variety. ”

“ Herefordshire was first represented in parliament in 1295, when it returned two members, the boroughs of Ledbury, Hereford, Leominster and Weobley being also represented. Hereford was again represented in 1299, and Bromyard and Ross in 1304, but the boroughs made very irregular returns, and from 1306 until Weobley regained representation in 1627, only Hereford and Leominster were represented. Under the act of 1832 the county returned three members and Weobley was disfranchised. ”

“ Herefordshire (116) , an inland county of West England, lying on the Welsh border between Shropshire and Monmouthshire; it is a pretty agricultural county, through the centre of which runs the Wye; in the E. are the Malvern Hills and in the SW. the Black Mountains (2631 ft) ; the rich red soil produces fine wheat, hops, and apples; there is some trade in timber, some stone and marble quarrying, and the cattle are noted; its history is associated with many stirring historical events, and in various parts are antiquities of considerable interest. ”

“ The Bishop and the bishopric are known everywhere, as something which is a man's own as much as the shire with its sheriff and lord-lieutenant. It is not so where geography is less happy. I remember the remark forty years ago, when the great restoration of the church of Hereford was going on. It was said that the people of Herefordshire cared for their cathedral church; it was an essential part of their shire and city. But the people of that part of Shropshire which was in the diocese of Hereford did not care for the church of Hereford ”

“ HEREFORD, a city and municipal and parliamentary borough, and the county town of Herefordshire, England, on the river Wye, 144 m. W.N.W. of London, on the Worcester-Cardiff line of the Great Western railway and on the west-and-north joint line of that company and the North-Western. It is connected with Ross and Gloucester by a branch of the Great Western, and is the terminus of a line from the west worked by the Midland and Neath & Brecon companies. Pop. (1901) 21,382. It is mainly on the left bank of the river, which here traverses a broad valley, well wooded and pleasant. ”

“ If London is in Middlesex [702] , it is Middlesex’s one borough. In Hertfordshire is Hertford. In Buckinghamshire is Buckingham, but no aid can be expected from it. In Oxfordshire is Oxford. In Gloucestershire is Gloucester, but Winchcombe also asserts its burghal rank. In Worcestershire is Worcester, while Droitwich appears occasionally with a small gift. Hereford is the one borough of Herefordshire. Turning to the third zone, we pass rapidly through Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire; each has its borough. ”

“ The district which is now Herefordshire was occupied by a tribe the Hecanas, who congregated chiefly in the fertile area about Hereford and in the mining districts round Ross. In the 8th century Offa extended the Mercian frontier to the Wye, securing it by the earthwork known as Offa’s dike, portions of which are visible at Knighton and Moorhampton in this county. In 915 the Danes made their way up the Severn to the district of Archenfield, where they took prisoner Cyfeiliawg bishop of Llandaff, and in 921 they besieged Wigmore, which had been rebuilt in that year by Edward. ”

“ The Hereford breed is maintained chiefly in Herefordshire and the adjoining counties. Whilst a full red is the general colour of the body, the Herefords are distinguished by their white face, white chest and abdomen, and white mane. The legs up to the knee or hock are also often white. As a protection against the sun in a hot climate dark spots on the eyelids or round the orbits are valuable. The horns are moderately long. Herefords, though they rear their own calves, have acquired but little fame as dairy cattle. They are very hardy, and produce beef of excellent quality. ”

“ During the Wars of the Roses the influence of the Mortimers led the county to support the Yorkist cause, and Edward, afterwards Edward IV., raised 23,000 men in this neighbourhood. The battle of Mortimer’s Cross was fought in 1461 near Wigmore. Before the outbreak of the civil war of the 17th century, complaints of illegal taxation were rife in Herefordshire, but a strong anti-puritan feeling induced the county to favour the royalist cause. Hereford, Goodrich and Ledbury all endured sieges. ”

“ By the time the King had raised his standard at Nottingham, Hilary, like almost every other dweller in Herefordshire, had become a most devoted Royalist, and it never occurred to her that in other parts of England, people just as well bred, just as honest, were equally devoted to the Parliamentary cause. ”

“ In some parts of Herefordshire, owing to failing population and former poverty, many of the small homesteads have become labourers' cottages. Although these places are always old, and generally dilapidated, they are large and airy. Surrounded by gardens and outhouses, they have room to breed pigs, and chickens, and ducks, making all the difference between independence and penury. ”

“ LINGEN, Sir HENRY (1612–1662) , royalist, born on 23 Oct. 1612, was eldest son of Edward Lingen of Sutton Frene, Herefordshire, by Blanch, daughter of Sir Roger Bodenham, K.B., of Rotherwas in the same county (Robinson, Mansions of Herefordshire, p. 179) . He inherited large estates in Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Gloucestershire, and his force of character gave him much influence in these counties. ”

“ His son, Henry Oldcastle, ultimately retained possession of the entailed Herefordshire estates of his father, and represented the county in parliament in 1437, 1442, and 1453 (Cat. of Patent Rolls, pp. 275, 277 ; Cal. Inquis. post mortem, iv. 124 ; Return of Members, i. 329, 333, 347) . Almeley afterwards passed, through females, first to the Milbournes, and then, under Henry VII, to the Monningtons of Sarnesfield close by, who held it until 1670 (Robinson, Castles of Herefordshire, p. 5) . ”

“ HARLEY, Sir ROBERT (1579–1656) , M.P. and master of the Mint, born at Wigmore Castle, Herefordshire, and baptised on 1 March 1579, was son of Thomas Harley, esq., of Brampton Bryan Castle, Herefordshire, by his first wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir Andrew Corbet, knt., of Morton-Corbet, Shropshire. Thomas Harley (1545?–1631) was sheriff of Herefordshire under Elizabeth and James I, and was employed on the council of William, lord Compton, president of the marches of Wales. Robert Harley, whose mother died when he was young, received instruction from his uncle, Richard Hurley. ”

“ I do not understand why they should live in Herefordshire, unless they are very fond of cyder, for, in my opinion, London is the best place for people of moderate circumstances. In the country people are respected merely according to the acres they possess, an equipage is necessary, and company must be entertained at a great expense.... I am afraid his friend Stillingfleet [88] has left Herefordshire.... Last Tuesday Mr. ”

“ From 1341 to 1351 he held the rectory of Pulham, Norfolk, which in the latter year he exchanged for Ledbury, Herefordshire. He also held at one time the prebend of Lyme, Salisbury. Like Roger de Northburgh, he entered the royal service, and on 23 Feb. 1345, being then canon of Lichfield and Hereford, was of sufficient importance to be joined with Sir Nigel Loryng [q. v.] ”

“ This is in the parish of Weston, two miles on the Gloucester side of Ross, and, if not the first, nearly the first, parish in Herefordshire upon leaving Gloucester to go on through Ross to Hereford.—On quitting Gloucester I crossed the Severne, which had overflowed its banks and covered the meadows with water.—The soil good but stiff. The coppices and woods very much like those upon the clays in the South of Hampshire and in Sussex; but the land better for corn and grass. The goodness of the land is shown by the apple-trees, and by the sort of sheep and cattle fed here. ”

“ Along the Cardiganshire coast in Owen’s rear a string of castles frowned out upon the Irish Sea, held, since it was a royal county, by the constables of the King, who were sometimes of English, sometimes of Welsh, nationality. Inland, as far as the Herefordshire border, was a confused network of lordships, held for the most part direct from the King on feudal tenure by English or Anglo-Welsh [Pg 143] nobles, and each dominated by one or more grim castles of prodigious strength, against which the feeble engines and guns of those days hurled their missiles with small effect. ”

“ It spins together the leaves at the tips of the twigs, and so forms a cocoon-like habitation. The moth is out in May and June, and even July in the north. It flies in the afternoon sunshine around and over birch trees, and occasionally alights on the leaves. It has been taken in Kent, and more frequently in Essex and Suffolk, but it is more plentiful in Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and from Surrey to Dorsetshire and Wiltshire; also in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and on high ground in North Wales, Staffordshire, and Derbyshire ”

“ Despite its present atmosphere of peace and quietude, Hereford saw strenuous times in the fierce warfare which raged between the English and Welsh, though few relics of those days remain. The streets are unusually wide and with few exceptions the buildings are modern. Surrounding the town is a stretch of green, level meadow, upon which graze herds of the red and white cattle whose fame is wider than that of their native shire. No doubt there are many familiar with the sleek Herefords who have no idea from whence they take their name. ”

“ Hereford is a clean and pleasant old town, quite unsmirched by any factory chimneys, and largely concerned in cider-making, county business, and matters educational and ecclesiastical: a typical cathedral town, with the virtues and failings of its type in great perfection. It is not so rich in Tudor architecture as Shrewsbury, Ludlow, or Tewkesbury, but has a fair sprinkling of seventeenth-century houses, and many restful byways of Queen Anne or Early Georgian type. ”

“ Below the ancient bridge, over which so many armed hosts have marched to fight the Welsh, the Wye spreads into rapid shallows and thus skirts the city; fair meadows upon one{52} side, upon the other the Bishop’s Palace and the Cathedral, and the broad Castle green, where that vanished fortress once stood. And now upon high terraces the citizens of Hereford muster in strength when the sun shines, with a fine prospect over the broad rippling river and over the most wooded of landscapes, to the dark masses of the Black Mountains, behind which the sun sets. ”

“ I well remember one occasion while we were at Hereford, a very pompous and extremely proper town, as all cathedral cities are; my lord and I were robed for the reception of the High Sheriff (as he is called) and his chaplain, who were presently coming with the great carriage to take us to be churched before we charged the grand jury.
Hereford is a very stately place, and enjoys a very high opinion of its own importance in the world. It is almost too respectable to admit of the least frivolity in any circumstances. ”

“ No one can be many minutes in Hereford without detecting that not only the people but the very buildings take their key from the grand cathedral that, calmly gazing into the face of Time, has seen of men and houses generations come and generations go.
Hereford as an ecclesiastical centre is one of the most ancient in Great Britain, but until the commission of Offa’s grievous crime it must have been comparatively unimportant, with a small wooden structure for a church. ”

“ The, in this respect, utterly guileless Cathedral town of Hereford is, indeed, the only place above the scale of a small market-town within touch of its banks. Everywhere, even between the rapids, the river itself is instinct with the sense of buoyancy. After leaving the Black Mountains above Hereford it becomes at intervals for pleasure-boats a navigable stream; but till it leaves Wales it has all the boil and rush and stir of a salmon river. It is easy to pick out those sections of the Wye, charming as they are in a quiet, pastoral, Severn-like fashion, which are the least distinguished. ”

“ His past history necessarily made him a royalist partisan during the barons' wars, and his border diocese, where the marchers and Llywelyn of Wales took opposite sides, was exposed to the fiercest outbursts of the strife. Late in 1262 Llywelyn threatened Hereford, and Peter, on the pretext of a fit of the gout, kept himself away from danger at Gloucester, while providing the castle of Hereford with garrison and provisions. In June 1263 Henry visited Hereford and wrote angrily to the bishop, complaining that he found in that city neither bishop, dean, official, nor prebendaries ”