Part 45

[346] The north aisle is occupied by a wash-house and skittle-ground. The cloisters, dormitories, and other offices are used for the reception of visitors, under the direction of a resident steward. Latterly, the ruins appear to have suffered little from time or desecration. The western front is very perfect and beautiful, but the tracery of the great window is obliterated. The owner of the property is Walter Savage Landor, Esq., the poet.--_Archæol. Journ._

[347] _Edition_ 1806; but serious dilapidations have taken place since then, and even within three or four years. Great credit is due to the house of Beaufort for the pains taken in the conservation of the religious houses and castles that have fallen to its possession and custody; and it is very gratifying to know that the example is followed by the present Proprietor of Llanthony.

[348] London: Pickering.

[349] Now, in Walter de Troucestre’s Chron., we read, “A.D. 1301, on the first day of April, being Easter-eve, the Church of Llanthony, near Gloucester, was entirely burnt to the bare walls, together with its _four_ belfries, nor did any bell remain that was not either broken or melted.”--_Roberts._

[350] Supposed by some to have been the Sacristy or Vestiary.--See preceding pages.

[351] See Tinterne Abbey: Descrip. of Dole.

[352] Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. iii. Orat. August.

[353] The Rules --of which the above are but a meagre and imperfect outline--are expressed with great beauty and simplicity in the original, to which the reader is again referred. It is worth mentioning that the celebrated Thomas à Kempis was a monk of this Order; and, perhaps, no devotional work has appeared in so many languages, or run through so many editions, as his “_De Imitatione Christi_.”

[354] The tracts written, and supposed to be written, by him, were published by Bertrand Tissier in 1662.

[355] Vol. iii. page 66.

[356] Conveyances of smoke by holes in the walls are of very ancient date in English castles; but the earliest certain instance of chimneys, properly so called, is understood to occur in some castles abroad, about the year 1347.

[357] See Raglan Castle, description and woodcut, _ante_.

[358] The Castle of Grosmont, by a grant of King John, belonged to the family of Breoses, but afterwards to Hubert de Burgh, who, to “calm a court tempest,” resigned it with three others to Edward III. See description of the Castle in this work.

[359] Thomas’s Glendower, 132

[360] Memoirs of Owen Glendower, 1822.

[361] See the preceding account of Raglan Castle.

[362] “Secunda urbicula, quam Burrium Antoninus dixit, sedet ubi Brithin profluens Iscae commiscetur, Britannis hodie, transpositis literis, Brumbegie pro _Burenbegie_, et Caer-Uske--Gyraldo Castrum Oscæ--et Anglis Usk, nunc solum Castri ampli ruinas ostendit, quod amænissimé intersidet inter Iscam flumen, et Oilwy rivulum ...”

[363] Monuments Antiqua, Kennet’s Rom. Antiq., Tacitus, Vegetius de re Militari, Thomas, p. 141.

[364] We do not read of any nuns having been “stolen from the nunnery” of Uske; but as the reader may be aware, poor Sir Osbert Giffard paid severely for his sacrilegious gallantry in stealing not one but _two_ nuns out of Wilton Abbey. He was ordered never to enter a nunnery more! never to be in the presence of a nun without special leave of his Diocesan. Nor was this enough: he was condemned to go thrice “naked in his shirt and breeches” to the parish church of W., though not, it is said, in presence of the nuns; to be each several time beaten with a rod, much to the comfort of his own soul, and the edification of the by-standers; and so, also, in Salisbury market, and in Shaftesbury church. He was condemned, moreover, to doff the insignia of knighthood, and don a coarse garment of russet, trimmed with lamb or sheep’s wool; to wear calf-skin on his nether extremities, and not to wear any shirt after flagellation. And all this ignominious treatment to be rigorously enforced, until he, the said Osbert, should have been three years in the Holy Land, or recalled by royal authority.--_Brit. Monachism_, iii. 161. _County Hist._

[365] The town is incorporated and governed by a portreeve who has concurrent jurisdiction with the county magistrates, a recorder, two bailiffs, and burgesses. The recorder appoints the burgesses, from among whom the portreeve is chosen at a court-leet, on a day previous to St. Luke’s day, or the 29th of October. The recorder is appointed by the lord of the borough. Four constables are chosen at an annual court-leet of the lord of the manor of Uske, who is also lord of the borough, although the latter is no part of the manor. The quarter-sessions are held alternately here and at Monmouth. The town-house, erected by the Duke of Beaufort, is a handsome building. There are monthly fairs, and the inhabitants, besides the japan ware already mentioned, are occupied in the salmon fishery and agriculture. A free grammar-school for boys was founded here in 1621, by Roger Edwards, with almshouses for twelve poor persons, and an exhibition at Oxford. These almshouses, forming three sides of a quadrangle, have been recently rebuilt. In the main street the houses are much scattered, and ornamented by intervening gardens, which give an air of healthy cheerfulness to the place. The Wesleyans, Independents, and Roman Catholics, have all their meeting-houses or chapels.--_Parl. Gaz._

[366] Or in the elegant lines of Ausonius:--

“Nec te puniceo rutilantem viscere salmo Transierim, latæ cujus vaga verbera caudæ Gurgite de medio summas reseruntur in undas.”

[367] See vol i. of this work, art. “Arundel.”

[368] A.D. 1189. Hen. Rex ... dedit Maritagium Isabellæ, filiæ Ricardi Strongbow . Willelmo Marescallo primo, et sic factus est Comes totius Pembrochiæ, et dominus totius hæreditatis.--_Will. Worcest._

[369] See history of Tinterne Abbey, _ante_ p. 44.

[370] See his character as already given in this work.

[371] See the original, as above.--Tinterne, p. 46.

[372] Gilbert Mareschal, a principal and most potent peere of the realm, proclaimed here a Disport of running on horseback with launces, which they called Tourneaments , under the name of _Fortunie_, making a scorne of the King’s authority, whereby these Tourneaments were inhibited. To which place, when a great number of the nobility and gentry were assembled, it fortuned that Gilbert himselfe, as he ranne at tilt, by occasion that his flinging horse brake bridle and cast him, was trampled under foote, and so pitifully died.--_Chronicle._

[373] Among his other feats “of spirit and prowess,” the following, recorded by the grave monk of St. Albans, is sufficiently “characteristic:”--About this time, William de Valence, residing at Hertfort Castle, as it is said, rode to the parke of Heathfeld, belonging to the Bishop of Ely, and there, hunting without any leave, went to the bishop’s manor-house; and there readily finding nothing to drink but ordinary beer, and, swearing and cursing the drink and those who made it, broke open the butlery doors. After all his company had drunk their fills of the best wines in the bishop’s cellars, he pulled the spigots out of the vessels, and let out the rest upon the floor; and then a servant of the house hearing the noise, and running to see what the matter was, they laughed him to scorn, and so departed.--_Dugd._ B. 774, Paris, 855.

[374] This Earl of Pembroke fell at the battle of Bayonne, in June, 1296, being the 23d of Edw. I., and was buried in St. Edmond’s chapel, Westminster.

[375] Scotticé, _Peel_, or castle.

[376] Penbrock, Penbrok, Pembrok, or Pembroke: names of the same places and persons, all variously spelt in the original deeds.

[377] These jousts and tournaments were used a long time, says the chronicle, and with such slaughter of gentlemen in all places, but in this England most of all--since that King Stephen brought them in--that by divers decrees of the Church they were forbidden, upon paine that whosoever therein were slaine should want Christian buriall in church or churchyard: and hiere with us King Henrie the Third, by advice of his sages, made an Act of Parliament, that their heires who transgressed in this kind should be disinherited. Howbeit, contrary to the said law, so good and wholesome, this naughty and wicked custome was practised a great while, and grew not quite out of use before the happie daies of Kinge Edward the Third, [Matt. Paris, 1248.] In the present instance, the Earl was a youth of but seventeen; but inspired with the manly courage of his forefathers, adventured to tilt with Syr John St. John , by an unlucky slip of whose lance young Hastings was run through the body, and suddenly died. He was a person of so noble disposition that, in bounty and courtesy, he exceeded most of his degree. But, adds the chronicle, his untimely death was then thought by many to be a judgment upon the family in regard that Aymer de Valence, his ancestor, was one of those who gave sentence of death upon Thomas, Earl of Lancaster; for it was observed, that after that judgment so given, _none of the succeeding_ Earls ever saw his father, nor any father of them took delight in seeing his child!

[378] The reader may refer to our account of this transaction in the history of Raglan, in which, also, sketches of the Earls of Pembroke , of the house of Herbert, are given.

[379] Hywel y Fwyall , a British chieftain, is described by the Welsh bards as having commanded a body of his countrymen, as a corps of reserve, at the battle of Cressy; and by his seasonable advance, and valorous incursion upon the French lines, to have materially added to the acceleration of victory.--_Ow. Glendwr_, 33.

[380] The Plantagenets are at the plough; while the descendants of the knaves that served them are at the helm of public affairs.

[381] See Speed, p. 465.

[382] See the Drama of Richard III., Act V.

[383] See also the Enumeration as given by Shakspeare.

[384] Thomas’s “Glendwr,” 1822.

[385] It is mentioned as a curious genealogical fact, that Cromwell was descended from Cadwgan, second son of Bleddyn-ap-Cynfyn, founder of the third royal tribe. The family name was anciently Williams; Morgan Williams, of Nantchurch, in Cardiganshire, married the sister of Thomas Cromwell, the minister Earl of Essex, and was succeeded by his son, Sir Richard Cromwell, of Hinchinbroke, in Huntingdonshire, who first assumed the name of Cromwell. He was father to Sir Henry Cromwell, the grandfather, by Robert, the second son of Oliver, the “Protector.” Yorke--Thomas’ Mem. of Owen Glendwr, 225.

[386] _Caer-Tyf_--Castle or fort on the Taafe.--See Warner, p. 46.

[387] Powel’s Hist. p. 111; also, Warner’s Tour, p. 47

[388] Tanner’s Not. Monast.; Thomas’s Mems. of Glendower; Coxe’s Tour.

[389] Excursions in Wales. 1851.

[390] Its Welsh name is _Dynbych-y-Pyscoed_,--_piscium_ copia admodum celebre, ut Britannicé Tenby-Piscoid denominatur.--_Gyrald._

[391] Of this inundation, which swamped part of Holland, and sent a new colony to Wales, Drayton sings:--

“When wrathful Heaven the clouds so liberally bestowed, The seas--then wanting room to lay their boist’rous load-- Upon the Belgian coast their pampered stomachs cast, That peopled cities sank into the mighty waste. The Flemings were enforced to take them to their oars, To try the setting main to find out firmer shores. When, as this spacious Isle them entrance did allow, To plant the Belgian stock upon this goodly brow; These nations, that their tongues did naturally affect, Both generally forsook the British dialect.”

[392] There was also a chapel, dedicated to St. Julian, on the quay; the free chapel of St. John’s, founded by the Valences, or Valentias, with a lazar-house and almshouse. The modern charities of Tenby are liberally supported.

[393] See his Memoirs of Owen Glendwr, p. 61, to which we are indebted for much information on this subject.

[394] See vol. i. of this work, Castles and Abbeys, pp. 155, 156.

[395] “The first day he read the _first book_ to a great concourse of people, and afterwards entertained all the poor of the town; on the second day he read the _second book_, and entertained all the doctors and chief scholars; and on the third day he read the _third book_, and entertained all the young scholars, soldiers, and burgesses.”

[396] The rivulet here mentioned is that which supplied the ancient ponds, and is shown on the right of the engraved picture. On the left is seen the church with its tall embattled tower--much resembling an Italian campanile--of Norman workmanship, and a style peculiar to this county. On the foreground is the dilapidated framework of an ancient cottage, with a chimney common to the country. This relic is supposed to belong to an era not less remote than that of the castle. To the right of the engraving, the promontory of St. Gowan’s Head is seen closing the distant horizon; and directly in front, the sea view presents an unlimited expanse of waters.

[397] Capellam nostri Castelli de Nethe, cum omni decima procurationis nostræ dæmus, in annona, et cateris rebus, et cum omni decima hominum mestrorum illius provincia, viz.: Francorum et Anglorum, etc., etc.

[398] Dat. per manum H. de Well , Arch. de Well, apud Burbeche, vj Januarii, anno regni nostri ix.

[399] See note regarding this name, _ante_ p. 305.

[400] Edward II. is also said to have found a temporary asylum in the parish of Llangynwyd-fawr, in the county of Glamorgan. He had interested himself much in the concerns of his Welsh subjects, arbitrating the feuds, and determining the disputes among the chieftains. In the day of adversity, these condescensions were repaid with loyal devotion to his person; and when harassed by his barons, and deserted by his English subjects, he found a brief sanctuary in Wales, at Neath Abbey, and also, as other writers conjecture, at Tinterne .

[401] Or Grenville, Grainvil, Greenfeld--various spellings for the same name.

[402] See Tewkesbury, vol. i. of this work, p. 172.

[403] On the authority of Girald. Cambrens.; _query_, Gwentiana, from Gwent, fair?

[404] Tourist in Wales, (1851,) p. 130.

[405] This and most others of the native patronymics are all variously spelt by different writers.

[406] Nevertheless, the old maxim of ἀριστον μεν ὐδωρ has lost nothing of its truth as a medicinal agent in the treatment of human maladies. The superstitious belief that once carried the invalid to drink, “nothing doubting,” of some distant well, necessitated, in many instances, a total change of scenes and habits, which could hardly fail to prove beneficial in many cases, in which the comforts of home and the established rules of treatment had been found quite ineffectual. The cures ascribed to hydropathy in our own time are, in many cases, not a whit less wonderful than those ascribed by monkish legends to the holy wells of England and Wales. The only difference is, that while tradition affirms that new _limbs_ were known to sprout out [as in the claw of a lobster] by the plentiful use of certain waters, hydropathics restrict themselves to the reproduction of _lungs_ only; so that the modern wells have rather an advantage over the ancient in the art of miracle-working.

[407] This daughter afterwards married Sir Henry le Scrope, Knt.

[408] Near the entrance to the lawn in front of the castle, on the road leading to Carew village and church, stands one of the early Crosses , in the centre of which is an elaborate inscription, but which cannot now be deciphered.--_Prescot_, 164.

[409] G. H. Warrington, Esq. See “Thomas’ Glendwr,” 1822.

[410] See the particulars as related in the chronicles of Speed and others.

[411] Camden.

[412] The Earl being at the time Lord Steward of the King’s household.--_Clarend._, vol. i. p. 58.

[413] _Vide_ Dec. Lanfr. Fosb. 67.

[414] Sanctor. Patrum. Reg. Monast. Louv. 12mo. 1571, fol. 9-51. Joh. de Turre Cremata, Concordia Regularum, &c., quoted in the Brit. Monach. p. 68.

[415] So far we have followed Stevens; but according to other authorities, he seems to have forgotten that the ancient Benedictines wore a _coif_ upon the head. The “Specimen Monochologiæ” clothes the Benedictine monk with breeches.--_V. Brit. Mon._

[416] His work on Osteology--written during the time he acted as Demonstrator in one of the metropolitan schools, and before he had reached his twentieth year--did him great credit.