Each Tour followed the same general itinerary. First, tourists would leave Ross-on-Wye, appreciating the "mazy course and lofty banks"., p. 17 of the river on the way to their next major destination, Goodrich Castle. Gilpin deemed the castle "correctly Picturesque"., p. 28 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"., p. 127 From Goodrich Castle, tourists would sail past the ironworks at New Weir (sometimes spelled "New Wear"). 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") 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"., p. 93 After sailing past New Weir, the boats would next pass under Symond's Yat, a rock that impressed passers-by with a sense of the Sublime.
