39 



into view the new stone parsonage of Welsh Bicknor, and its pretty little chu'eh, 

 and a stoppage was made to visit them. 



The church has been entirely re built, but without staying to notice its 

 details, often rich and elaborate, it may be said that due regard has been paid 

 to its great antiquarian treasure, the recumbent female effigy, said to be the 

 Countess of Salisbury who nursed Henry V. at the neighbouring mansion of 

 Courtfield. It is without date or inscription but from its costume, which is 

 graceful, Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick thought it a century older than this date, 

 that is he referred it to the time of Edward I. It might perchance represent 

 that Countess of Salisbury whose son, Sir John Montacute, succeeded to the 

 earldom, and became also Earl Marshall of England. He is remarkable for 

 having embraced the Lollard doctrines at a very early period, and was one of 

 the first to suffer martyrdom, for he was murdered by the populace of Ciren- 

 cester in the year 1400. A Lady Montacute is however said to have been 

 the real nurse of Henry V. 



The parsonage is prettier to look from, than to look at. But those who 

 cared not for its architecture could scarcely fail to be charmed with its site for 

 the view back up the river, upon Lidbrook, is very fine. The botanists too 

 found here the beautiful flowering rush, Butomus umbcllatus, in Llossom, and 

 the round-leaved mint, Mcntlia rotundifolut, growing freely but not yet in 

 flower. 



The river here separates "Welsh Bicknor in Monmouthshire — formerly 

 Wales — from English Bicknor in Gloucestershire, and therefore it used hero 

 to divide Wales from England. 



" Inde vagos Vaga Cambrenses, bine respicit Anglos," 



as Neckham says, which may be translated — 



"Here Wye the wandering Welsh, and there the English sees." 



This Neckham, by the way, was one of the earliest of Vaja's poets. His real 

 name was Alexander Nequani. He was an Englishman, who was educated at 

 Paris, and became a monk of the order of St. Augustine. He applied to be 

 admitted as a resident in the Abbey of St. Albans. The jolly old Abbot, 

 seeing the signature "Nequam" (a word in Latin meaning "worthless"), 

 chuckled within himself, and seat him this answer — 



"Si bonus sis, venias, si nequam, nequaquam," 



which, for the benefit of the ladies, may he thus given in English, though the 



pun is lost by it, and its brevity too — 



" If you're good for anything, yea, you may ; 

 But if good for nothing, stay away." 



If the pun was irresistible to the old Abbot, it secured the admission of tho 

 student, and it was effective too, for it made him change his name forthwith to 

 "Neckham," without a Times' advertisement. Neckham afterwards became 

 Abbot of Cirencester, and died there in 1217. His chief work was a Latin 

 poem, " De Laude Sapientise Divinae." 



