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the Saint, but on the conquest of this part of the Welsh marches 
by Sir Hugo de Laci, who came in the suite of William the 
Conqueror, William, one of his followers, and Ernicius, confessor 
to Queen Maud, settled here as Monks in 1103. A new church 
was erected by these Monks on the site of S. David’s ruined cell, 
and it was consecrated to 8. John the Baptist in 1108 by Urban 
Bishop of Landaff and Reynelm Bishop of Hereford. Nothing of 
this church however remains; the present ruins are of transition 
architecture Norman and Early English, and are thought to be of 
the time of King Henry I. who sent Roger Bishop of Sarum with 
large sums of money to the Monks of Ewyas to enablethem to 
erect Monastic buildings. The Austin Friars of Holy Trinity 
London, Merton and Colchester despatched 40 of their members 
to commence the establishment, Ernicius being first Prior. Both 
Ernicius and William the Hermit were buried beneath the high 
altar. Robert de Bethune was second Prior, and was greatly 
aided by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the pious gifts 
of Queen Maud, wife of Henry I. He was elected Bishop of 
Hereford in 1131, and was succeeded by Robert de Bracy, who 
fled with his monks to Hereford to claim his predecessor’s aid 
against the Welsh on the death of King Henry 1135, and the place 
never recovered its position but became for a few years a mere cell 
to its more prosperous daughter at Gloucester, which King John 
greatly enriched. At the dissolution under Henry VIII. the 
revenues were £748 per annum. The records of the Priories 
came into the possession of the Duke of Norfolk on his marriage 
to the heiress of the Scudamores, who became possessed of the 
remains of the Gloucester Priory by marriage, and are said to be 
the most perfect of all the Monastic records in the Kingdom. The 
ruins of the Llanthony Priory were purchased by the late W. 
Savage Landor, in 1809, who spent large sums of money on them, 
and they are still the property of the family. 
Remounting the brakes at 3 p.m. the return journey to 
Abergavenny was quickly completed and a visit paid to the 
