man
states the drawing to have been taken during a recent tour; and our
readers will allow it to be _fair sketch_. By way of rendering it
unique, we append the following description from the same fair hand:--
From Shrewsbury to the Ness Cliff, (on the road to Ceriogg Bridge,)
there is in the scenery little worthy of remark, until we approach
the latter place, when the cliff on the right hand, and the Brathyn
mountains (Montgomeryshire) on the left of the traveller, produce a
very picturesque effect; and the post-house of Ness Cliff commands an
extensive and lovely view of mountainous and champagne country. At this
place we were invited to see a curious cave cut in the rock, which was,
in the sixteenth century, the residence of one Humphrey Kynaston, a
notorious bandit. This, however, was not his own work, since Ness Cliff,
having been worked as a quarry, the cave, either by accident or design,
was wrought by the labourers, and used by them as _salle a manger_,
dormitory, or tool-house, according to circumstances. We proceeded to it
by a broad rising walk of red sand, delightfully wooded, and presenting
an enchanting view of the Brathyn and Wrekin, as well as the country for
some miles round. At the end of this walk is a gate, which opens into a
small grove; proceeding a little into which, we saw the cave in the high
red cliff immediately before us. We ascended by a considerable flight of
narrow and rugged steps cut from the solid rock: the interior of this
curious place is as black as a coal-mine, and a partition, more than
half the way across, divides the part where Kynaston used to reside
by day from that in which he slept and _kept his horse_, for he had
actually the ingenuity to make the animal ascend and descend the stairs
above-mentioned. The robber's initials, and the date of the year in
which we may suppose he cut them, appear on the partition just opposite
the entrance. The romance of the place was not a little augmented by the
appearance of its inhabitant, (a blacksmith,) whose tall, thin figure,
and whose pale, wild, and haggard countenance, well accorded with the
singularity of his abode. He read for our amusement and _instruction_,
I conceive, a few choice passages from a well-thumbed penny pamphlet,
purporting to contain the veritable history of the adventurous Kynaston;
from whence it appeared that Master Humphrey was a gentleman, like "that
prince of thieves," Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give t
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