Wanderings of an Antiquary Author:Thomas Wright Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: King Arthur's Hall. 13 of the Great Doward is still seen the entrance to one of the ancient iron mines, to which tradition has given the name of King Arthur's... more » Hall. There were no doubt old legends which connected the spot with the history of the fabulous British hero, and some of our topographers have alluded to them without condescending to give them a place in their works; but our English peasantry are beginning to feel a sort of reluctance to repeat such legends to those who they think belong to a better informed class of society, and all that we can now obtain from them is that the caverns to which this is the entrance are said to have been resorted to " in the troubled times," and that it is confidently believed that a great chest full of treasure is concealed in the bottom of one of them. The accompanying sketch represents the entrance to King Arthur's Hall. It is, in fact, the entrance (or entrances) to an extensive series of chambers which have been made by the extraction of the iron ore, and which at present are much clogged up near the mouth, but they are said to extend to a very great depth underground. I am told that within the last twenty years a considerable quantity of iron "mine" has been obtained at a few hundred yards from this place, and much of it still remains in heaps not far from the banks of the Wye, in the wood above New Weir. I am informed that the ruined walls at the New Weir arc the remains of works of quite a modern date, in existence and full operation within the present century. The district of the Dowards lies in the bend of the river between Whitchurch and Ganarew. On the boundary where these two parishes join, in a meadow on the right hand of the road to Alonmouth, where the surface presents considerable inequality, I am informed that tr...« less