Peter Bourne

By notowennewitt

Tyglandwr

'Leodogran, the King of Cameliard,
Had one fair daughter, and none other child;
And she was the fairest of all flesh on earth,
Guinevere, and in her his one delight ...'


opening lines of 'Idylls of the King'
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Hanbury Arms, on the banks of the River Usk in Caerleon, was the town house of the Morgan family but, on acquiring the site of Lantarnam Abbey, they allowed the house & its precincts to fall into bad repair. By 1593 they had ceased to live there but Elizabeth Morgan gave 30/- for the repair of the sea wall between the front of her house & the slip. Philip Hughes held this slip, or landing place, at a later date when the house was known as Tyglandwr. It became associated with the Hanbury Estate after 1720.

Ty Glandwr roughly translates (from Welsh) as Waterside House.

It was to Caerleon that Alfred, Lord Tennyson turned when he was writing 'Idylls of the King' in 1856. He lodged in the Hanbury Arms, where he could look out over the River Usk, & went on long walks through the surrounding countryside to draw inspiration.

Visitors can still sit in 'Tennyson's Window' - here it doesn't take much imagination (or liquid refreshment) to wander back through time ...

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