THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CITI.—TIIE WELSH MARCII I—MONItIOUTIISIIIRIC AND HBRE• FORDSIIIRE.—THE LAND AND TIM TOWNS.
WE have alluded to the Castles of the March as among its most salient features. It is said that out of the 148 Welsh castles, the sites of twenty-five are still visible in Monnionthshire. "A regular chain of fortresses had at an early period been formed upon the river. Severn, Wye, and lalonnow, viz., Scenfreth, Grosmont, Monmouth, 'rrelech, Chepstow, and Caldecot. Another line stretches diagonally from Grosmont to the banks of the Rtunney, viz., White Castle, Tregaer, Usk, Llangyby, Caerleon, and Newport." Of these, Caerleon, Usk, and Sceufreth are believed to have the most decided claims to high antiquity. "In Wentwood forest or chase, a wooded tract of 2,200 acres belonging to the Duke of Beaufort, are ruins of no less than five castles, and there were originally six." The castles, of which the largest remains exist are Raglan, Caldecot, and White Castle. The first of these is situated on a gentle elevation, on the right of the road leading from Chepstow to A.bergavenny, and is said to represent nearly all the styles of architecture from the time of Henry V. to the early part of the seventeenth century. The residence of Charles I. here after the battle of Newby, and the long siege sustained by its owner, the Marquis of Worcester, against the Parliamentary forces, are well known facts in general English history. It was then dismautled, and its ruins became "a quarry for the neighbouring farmers," so that (although still a considerable ruin) the ancient grandeur of this house of the Somersets is but faintly represented. Caldecot Castle stands near Caerwent, and a little to the left of New Passage. It was long a seat of the llohuns, Earls of Hereford. "The principal parts remaining are the grand-entrance gateway, the hall, awl the keep." White Castle is "a gigantic moated ruin, on a high ridge, five miles east from Abergavenny. Its massive walls, flanked with huge round towers, with the extensive barbican, remain entire." Tintern and Llanthony Abbeys are the principal ecclesiastical ruins in Monmouthshire. The former was founded in 1131, for Cistercian monks, by Walter de Clare, but mass was first celebrated by the abbot within the walls in 1268. Llanthony Abbey, in Ewisas valley, at the foot of the Black Mountains, is a building of the twelfth century.
We can little more than mention the names of some of the castles of Herefordshire, remains of which are still to be seen. Wigmore, once the family seat of the Mortimers, is now a complete ruin. "The outward wall is the most perfect, though of this a very considerable part is destroyed ; within the area, on a high artificial hill, are the ruins of the keep, chiefly consisting of massive fragments, overlooking the country to the north and east." Edward the Elder is recorded to have repaired a castle at Wigmore. The property of the Mortimers passed to the Crown through the House of York, and continued part of the royal domain until the seventeenth century, when Wigmore and a large tract of the surrounding country were granted to the Ilarleys, and the Lord Treasurer Harley (in the reign of Anne) took from this grant his titles of Earl Mortimer and Lord Harley of Wigmore. Goodrich. Castle, on the Wye, was erected in the twelfth century, "on a lofty eminence, having a very abrupt approach from the river. It is partly surrounded by a very deep moat, over which there stood the drawbridge and portcullis. The portion built in the twelfth century is in good preservation." It was successively the residence of the Marshalls and De Valences, Earls of Pembroke, and the Talbots, Earls of Shrewsbury ; in 1616 it passed with a coheiress to the De Greys, Earls of Kent, and was sold by them in the reign of George II. It stood a siege by the Parliamentarians under Colonel Birch, but surrendered in 1646. On the Wye river also stands "the venerable ruin, clad with ivy," of Wilton Castle (built originally in the reign of Stephen, and rebuilt in that of Elizabeth), which gave the affix to the title of Lord Grey de Wilton, in whose family it continued till 1555, when Lord Grey was compelled to sell it to pay for his ransom from the French. It was bought by Lord Chandos, with whose family it continued till the reign of George I., when it was sold to the Governors of Guy's Hospital. On the road from Monmouth to Hereford are the ruins of Petnbridge Castle, the residence of Sir Richard Pembridge, who died in 1375. "The ruins are surrounded by a moat, having on the west side a terrace twenty-five feet in width, deepened by a banquette of earth." The castle was taken by the Parliamentary forces under Colonel Massey in 1644.
Many of the castles in Herefordshire are said to have been destroyed by Henry H. when he was reducing the feudal aristocracy under the law of the land, and this led, we are told, to a great increase for a time in the incursions of the Welsh on that part of the March, until checked by a Royal army. The movements of the celebrated Owen Glyndwr (Glendower), of course, greatly agitated the March ; and during the wars of York and Lancaster a battle was fought in 1461 at Mortimer's Cross, in the parish of Kingsland (in Herefordshire), between the Earl of March and an army under the Earl of Pembroke, in which Owen Tudor, husband of Queen Catherine (widow of Henry V.), was taken prisoner ; and he was beheaded at Hereford. In the civil wars of the reign of Charles I., the Marquis of Worcester and his son, the wellknown Earl of Glamorgan, had the chief command for the King in South Wales and the neighbouring counties. The Herbert family were divided between the two parties, as was also the case with the Morgans ; but in Herefordshire the Royalist gentry had a marked predominance, the Harleys, and other Puritan gentry being in a great minority.
Among the principal gentry of Herefordshire in the time of Henry VI. we find enumerated the names of Baskerville. De la Sere, Lucy, Leinthall, Whitney, Brominch, Brugge, Byriton, Bodenham, Croft, Deverosc, De la Mare, Ap Griffith, Hackluit, Habberhale, De la Hay, De Lastay, Mortimer, Monyngton, Oldcastle, Ap Harry, Parker, Scudamore, Stapleton, Vaughan, Wigmore, and Walwayne. In the reign of Elizabeth we find the names of Chandos, Coningsby, Harrington, Herbert, Poole, Throgmorton, Townsend, Walmealey, Warburton, Beavan, Barrington, Blount, Broughton, Cornewall, Corbett, Davis, Garnons; Harley, Jones, Leighton, Lovell, Peniston, Rudhall, Tompkins, and Daintsey. In the Stuart period we find the names of Hoskyns, Kyrie, Seaborne, Weaver, Rogers, Powell, Pateshull, Barrow, Brydges, Hereford, Hall, Mason, James, Aubrey, Berkeley, Barneby, Birch, Blaney, Booth, Charlton, Clive, Hanbury,
Milborne, Pember, Price, Pye, Rodd, Salwey, Somerset, Seward, Vernon, Williams, Perrott, Pennoyre, Gwillym, Masters, &c., &c.
Among the distinguished families to whom Hereford has given a title, we have mentioned the De Bohuns, and we must not pass over the Deverenx, Viscounts Hereford and Earls of Essex
In Monmouthshire, during the Tudor period, the most eminent family names were Herbert, Lewis, Rowel, Welsh, Morgan, Ap Robert, Thomas, James, Kemis, Williams, Jones, Prichard, Billingsley, and Gainsford. In the Stuart period we find the additional names of Price, Montague, Rawlyns, Vanne, Hughes, Cocks, Aldney, Milborne, Walter, Baker, Moor, &c., &c. In modern times the families of Cotterell, Price, Foley, Hoskins, Lewis, &c., have had the leading influence in Herefordshire. In Monmouthshire the Sotnerseta and Morgans (Duke of Beaufort and Lord Tredegar) are paramount.
Turning to the towns of the latter county, first of all we must refer to the county town, Monnwuth, situated near the confluence of the rivers Wye and 3fonnow or Memoir, from which latter river it takes its name. We have referred to its probable Roman origin (as BLESTIUM), and to its occupation and fortification by the Saxons. It was at one time surrounded by walls, and by a moat on the sides which are not protected by the river. One gate still remains. The town lies in the centre of "gentle hills and swelling eminences." The houses rise on the side of a hill from the Wye, on whose right bank it stands, while the Monnow, which joins the Wye just below the town, encloses nearly the whole of it on the other side. The fragment of what was once a considerable castle (constructed of red gritstone), stands on the right of an eminence overlooking the Monnow and the adjacent meadows. A castle existed here from a very early period, and overawed the adjacent districts, which then belonged to the county of Hereford. In Domesday Book, under Herefordshire, four carucates of land in the castle of Monenzude (Monmouth), part of the Royal demesne, were given lc. William Fitz-Baderon, who possessed two lordships in Herefordshire and twelve in Gloucestershire. His son, William, as well as his successors, were surnamed "de Monmouth," and the castle continued in the family till the reign of Henry III. During the civil wars of that reign Monmouth Castle was occasionally besieged and occupied by both parties, and was frequently partially demolished. John de Monmouth, the last of the family, having no male heirs, was persuaded by the King to resign the castle and honour to Prince Edward and his heirs for ever, in consideration of certains lands granted him for life. Prince Edward, however, surrendering them in 1267, Henry III. granted them, with many other possessions, to his younger son, Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster. Thomas, the eldest son of the Earl of Lancaster, was attainted and beheaded in Edward H.'s reign ; but the younger son, Henry, obtained the Castle of Monmouth, and he increased his possessions and influence in Wales by marrying Maud, daughter and heiress of Sir Patrick Chaworth. He died in 1345, and was succeeded by his son Henry, first Duke of Lancaster, who died in 1362. With his daughter Blanche, the castle and honour passed to her husband, John of Gaunt, from whom they came to Henry of Bolingbroke, afterwards Henry IV. Monmouth Castle was a favourite residence of both John of Gaunt and his son Henry ; and here, in 1387, Henry V., styled "of Monmouth," was born, and he seems to have passed his infancy in Monmouthshire. Edward IV. took possession of this and the other family possessions of the House of Lancaster, and in the fifth year of his reign granted the castle of Monmouth in tail male to William, Lord Herbert, afterwards Earl of Pembroke ; but it again reverted to the Crown, and formed as before parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster, which Henry VII. inherited as King. He separated the Duchy from the Crown, and entailed it on himself and his heirs. The castle continued to belong to the Crown certainly till the 11th of James I.; when it was alienated is not known, but we find it in the possession of Henry, first Duke of Beaufort.
Under the shadow of this castle the town of Monmouth gradually grew up. It was first incorporated in 1550 by Edward. VI., but has sent a representative to the House of Commons (iii conjunction with Usk and Newport) since the 27th of Henry VIII. Woollen caps were once largely manufactured here ; they are referred to by Shakespeare in his play of Henry V., and it was ordained in the 13th of Elizabeth that they should be universally worn on Sundays and holidays. The parish church of St. Mary has a tower which dates from about the fourteenth century, and is surmounted with a beautiful spire, 200 feet in height. The church was partly rebuilt in 1740. A free grammar-school was founded here in the reign of James L "The town is not flourishing in appearance, and in point of prosperity is said to be almost stationary. Independently of the conversion of pig-iron into bars, and of tin plates, the chief trade consists of the export of bark and timber to Bristol and Ireland, and the general supply of the neighbouring agricultural districts." The population in 1861 was 5,783.
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