330 
restored Church of S. Mary, which consists of a huge Nave 
and equally lofty N. Aisle, with a Central Tower, under 
‘which are the Choir Stalls, with an Altar in the first bay of the 
Chancel, considerably raised on a wooden flooring. Behind this 
are the Monks’ Stalls of ancient black oak and canopied Stalls 
for the Prior and Sub-Prior, with large chambers to the N. and 
S. in which are a series of elaborate tombs, worthy of much 
careful examination, as being of great historical interest. 
Among these tombs, which have mostly recumbent effigies 
of great artistic merit, but wholly covered with engraved initials 
of generations of idiotic idlers, are those of Eva de Braose, 
daughter of William, Earl of Pembroke, and wife of William de 
Braose, Lord of Abergavenny, deceased 1246; of Eva de 
Cantelupe, Baroness Bergavenny, 1257; Sir William de 
Hastings, who died 1349; and Lawrence Hastings, Earl of 
Pembroke, 1348; a gorgeous tomb with two figures recumbent 
with canopies over their heads with the base surrounded by 
small statues is in the centre of the S. Aisle. The male figure, 
whose head is lying on an infant, and his feet resting on a 
lion with a trilobed tail, is that of Sir William Ap Thomas, 
progenitor of all the Herberts, Earls of Pembroke, who died in 
1445 ; his wife, whose head has but an ordinary pillow for her 
headrest, and no footstool, is Gwladys, daughter of Sir David 
‘Gam, dying in 1454. May be the lady was an heiress, or it was 
a case of the grey mare being the better horse, for this doughty 
knight lies on the left of his wife. 
In the S. wall opposite to this monument is that of a prolific 
father, Sir Richard Herbert, of Ewyas, who died in 1510. At 
the rear of the figure there seem to be six sons bearing swords 
and two daughters at the extremes of the line. 
In the N. Aisle is a grand tomb of a gentleman and lady side 
by side. It is said to be the monument of Sir David Lewis, 
Judge of Admiralty in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1584, and 
founder of Jesus College, Oxford, and in the wall to the N. of 
