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remains are more important and belong almost entirely to the later period when 
the Border Castle was doubtless refitted for the purpose of forming a residence for 
the Duke of Lancaster. You will find there a hall 80 feet long by 27 feet wide, 
lighted by five windows, and with indications of having been a really noble apart- 
ment. A chimney shaft of decorated work is a conspicuous feature and has been 
often engraved. 
The first notice we can find of Skenfrith is in the Chancery Rolls belonging 
to the third year of King John’s reign, 1201, or 1202. Mention is there made of a 
sum of money, £14 18s. 5d. expended out of the royal treasury in the repair of | 
the Castles of Hereford, Grosmunte, Blaunchcastell, and Schenefrid. No doubt 
the object of this expenditure was to put the Castles into such a state of defence 
as could enable the king to keepin check the Welsh, who were growing troublesome. 
But within a few years (March, 1204, and again January, 1206,) the king found it 
necessary to proceed in person to the border, for the lords of the Marches—and 
particularly William de Braose, the powerful baron who held most of this country, 
had become disaffected and joined cause with the turbulent Welsh. However, 
de Braose and the king made up their quarrel, and the latter restored to the baron 
his Castles of Grosmont, Skenfrith and Lantely, and accepted in return 3 steeds, 
10 greyhounds, and some other gifts. But the reconciliation does not seem to have 
been complete, for we learn from the Close Rolls that the castles were not surren- 
dered, but on the contrary were fortified for the king by Hubert de Burgh, who 
had been appointed Warden of the Marches. By the 18th December, 1206, mat- 
ters had been so far settled that Walter de Clifford, Sheriff of Herefordshire, was 
ordered to put into the hands of William de Braose his three fortresses, and for a 
while there was peace between the rival powers. But year after year the king 
came westward endeavouring to force an allegiance, which year after year was ren- 
dered with greater reluctance. At length the rupture with the barons took place, 
and John found that they had made common cause with the insurgent Welsh, and 
were in possession of all the strongest points upon the border. By vigorous 
measures he was enabled at the outset to recover some of the ground that had been 
lost, and by the close of the year 1214, he had seized on Grosmont and the neigh- 
bouring castles, and having placed his own garrisons in them had entrusted them 
to the care of his faithful partisan, John de Monmouth. But in the following 
spring the tide of success was turned. Llewelyn invaded England, and the barons, 
including Giles de Braose, Bishop of Hereford, united with him and secured the 
border castles throughout the whole length of the Marches. The king could make 
no head against the opposition, and on the 15th June, 1215, signed the Magna 
Charta. By some means or other he seems also to have regained possession of 
these South-western Castles, for by the end of the year they were restored to the 
custody of John de Monmouth. Nor did they change hands again for some time, 
for when Henry III., visited the border in 1220 and again in 1221—to check the 
threatened inroad of Llewelyn—Scenfrith Castle afforded him shelter, and it was 
in this neighbourhood that he met with most success. It would be tedious work 
to narrate the continually recurring disputes between Henry and the barons, and the 
successive invasions of the March district by Llewelyn and the Welsh. But in 1233 
