|
Cycling Sideways...
Cycle
Home
Cycling
in Wales
Cycling
in the Welsh Borders of England
Photos
of Wales
Photos
of the Welsh Borders
Tales
of Wales
Pubs
& cafes in Wales
Pubs
& cafes in Welsh Borders
Travel
Info
Biking
Maps & Guidebooks
Cycling
Holidays
Welsh
Place Names
Cycling
Tips
Cycling
Books
Cycling
Links
|
|
|
Tales Of Wales
1: Vicars &
Tramps 2: The Lady of the
Lake
1: Vicars and Tramps
During the Victorian era the diarist Reverend
Francis Kilvert was the incumbent at various small parishes on
the Welsh Border. When he was the curate for the village of Clyro,
near Hay-on-Wye, he spent much of his time walking over the nearby
hills. On one such walk he came across one of Mid Wales' most
eccentric characters - the Reverend John Price. The Rev. Price
was the vicar at St. Peter's church Llanbedr, a minute hamlet
nestling in the Radnor Hills.
When Kilvert knew him, Price was about
60 years old, with luxuriant chestnut hair and moustache and a
white beard. He wore a greasy black dress coat, broken shoes,
a large cravat and a tall hat. There was no vicarage and he lived
first in a small cottage, then in three bathing machines known
as The Huts, and finally, when The Huts were destroyed by fire,
in a small grey building which had once been a chicken shed. Kilvert
went to visit him in this cabin, called Cwm Ceilio, and found
inside a wild confusion of litter, books and decaying food; but
outside it was "open to the South, and the sun, and the great
valley of the Wye, and the distant blue mountains".
To find new members for his congregation,
the Rev. Price scoured the highways and hedgerows. Soon his offer
of sixpence (two and a half pence in contemporary UK coinage)
per head per service began to fill his pews with unwashed tramps.
Furthermore he provided oil stoves so that the tramps could cook
meals during the sermon. Later, when he lost his tiny private
income, the fee of sixpence had to be reduced to fourpence. This
new proposal was solemnly discussed in the churchyard and finally
accepted by a sort of informal tramps' trade union.
 Price
also offered 5 shillings to each pair of vagrants 'living in sin'
who would consent to let him join them in Holy Wedlock. As his
sight was very weak, several business-like couples let him marry
them half a dozen times.
Having sunk into a very neglected state
in his old age, he was taken by friends to Talgarth hospital,
in the lea of the Black Mountains, where it was found necessary
to cut his clothes off his skin. He did not survive the bath which
followed. Despite the squalor and loneliness, Price was a scholar
who had invented and published two methods of shorthand.
2: The
Lady of the Lake | Joking
Aside
Tourist Info:
The Radnor Hills, to the north of Hay-on-Wye, are great cycling
country. If you want to visit John Price's church (his grave can
be seen in the churchyard) the map reference is: SO 142464 (Ordnance
Survey map 148). You can read more about Rev. Francis Kilvert
and the time he spent in Mid Wales and the Welsh Borders in 'Kilvert's
Diaries', paperback, published by Penguin Books.
|
|
|
– the medieval folklore stories of Wales
