“moss and burnt up grass” (MS III; Works [1903])—Heath comments on attempts to control the vegetation growing on the ruins:
“Ivy, in one large and continued
mass, had covered the left hand Tower [of the main entrance] from its base to its utmost summit,
and time was fast adding its wild tapestry to those on the opposite side of the gateway; but I rejoice to inform the visitor, that the good taste of
Mr. [Arthur] Wyatt, [agent of the owner, the duke of Beaufort,] has within these few years caused the pruning knife
to be so judiciously used, that where the architecture was screened by foliage, it has been removed in such a manner, that the beautiful parts it veiled have been restored,
and now discloses several ornaments which had long remained covered with this plant ‘attached to grandeur in decline’”.
Meanwhile, a picturesque effect was achieved by leaving the "tops of the towers and other parts . . . all richly cloathed with ivy, intermixed with a variety of flowering shrubs, &c.
which add a great relief and beauty in the season they flourish”
(“The Castle in Its Present State, as It Is Now Shewn”: “The First, or Eastern Court” and “The Yellow Tower, or Citadel”, in
Heath, Historical and Descriptive Accounts of the Ancient and Present State of Ragland Castle [11th ed., 1829], n.p.).