Wye Tour

Despite this (frequently accurate[9]) criticism, the popularity of the tour endured until the middle of the 19th century – well after the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Picturesque fad.

Wye Tour destinations like Tintern Abbey remain some of the most popular weekend destinations for British tourists to the present day[10] During the height of the Wye Tour's popularity (the first decade of the nineteenth century,[11] there were no fewer than eight to ten "pleasure boats" launching from Ross-on-Wye towards Chepstow each day.

[2] These pleasure boats were equipped with drawing tables, at which tourists would either read travel journals (usually Gilpin's Observations...) or sit and rapidly sketch scenes that struck them as especially Picturesque.

[14] in its own right, and the crumbling structure, entwined with vines and set on a large hill that loomed over the viewer, "was generally considered to rank as the second grand object of the tour".

Tourists of the time (like Thomas Whateley, who reverentially mentioned "a path [for the ironworkers], worn into steps narrow and steep, winding among the precipices" and commented on a "sullen sound that, at stated intervals from the strokes of the great hammers in the forge, deadens the roar of the water-fall"[16]) thought of the ironworks as enhancing the Picturesque qualities of the surrounding landscape; "the natural scene itself is awesome, and therefore positively enhanced by the presence of industry".

The following morning, tourists would pass riverside hamlets and Picturesque natural scenery before finally arriving at the Tour's greatest spectacle,[12] Tintern Abbey.

The Duke's restorative efforts, which included hammering bronze letters into the brick floor, introducing plants that compromised the structural integrity of arches and hallways, and other such harmful practices, ultimately did more damage than good to the ruins.

Gilpin had been encouraged to make the journey by his friend Thomas Gray, who had found the tour to be "a succession of nameless beauties".