172 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 191 1 



EXCURSION TO THE FOREST OF DEAN 



Tuesday, September 13th, 1910 



Director!; : L. Richardson and R. Williams 

 {Report by L. Richardson and John Sawyer) 



The Members met at Monmouth — a town on the borderland of England 

 and Wales, and associated with both Kingdoms. An English town, put 

 (as also was the county of Monmouth) into English territory by Act of Parlia- 

 ment in the reign of Henry VIII., it is in a Welsh diocese ; English for the 

 purposes of the Sunday Closing Act, it is Welsh for Intermediate Education ; 

 English in language, it is surrounded by places with Welsh names. Old 

 things and new jostle each other in delightful fashion. The militia barracks 

 enfold a part of the castle which was founded by William Fitz-Osbern, one 

 of the Norman Conqueror's regents in England during his absence in Nor- 

 mandy, and in which Henry \'. first saw the light ; from the western country- 

 side all traffic to the town still passes through the gate on Monnow Bridge, where 

 toll for man, beast and merchandise was demanded for many centuries ; half- 

 timbered, gabled houses, in quaint, narrow streets are lit with the electric 

 Ught ; iind the study of Geoffrey of Monmouth, the monkish historian of 

 the twelfth century, is near neighbour to two large Secondary schools, both 

 of which owe their existence to the munificence of one William Jones, a 

 native of Newland, a village near, who, after amassing a fortune in London, 

 richly endowed in Monmouth " one free Grammar School, for the instruction 

 and education of boys and youths in the Latin tongue and other more polite 

 literature and erudition." Then, who that knows his Shakespeare does not 

 call to mind some passages in Kin^ Henry V. " Ay, he was porn at Monmouth,' 

 says the Welshman Fluellen, speaking of the hero of Agincourt ; " what call 

 you the town's name where Alexander the pig [great] was porn ? . . . 

 I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn ? I tell you, captain— if 

 you look in the maps of the 'orld, I warrant you shall find in the comparisons 

 between Macedon and Monmouth that the situations, look you, is both 

 alike. There is a river in Macedon and there is also, moreover, a river at 

 Monmouth ; it is called Wye at Monmouth, but it is out of my prains 

 what is the name of the other river ; but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my 

 fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both." Then, speaking to 

 the King, Fluellen says, " If your Majesty is reinembered of it, the Welshmen 

 did goot service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their 

 Monmouth caps ; which your majesty knows, to this hour is an honourable 

 padge of the service ; and I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear 

 the leek upon Saint Tavy's day." " I wear it for a memorable honour," 

 replies the King, " for I am Welsh, you know, good countryman." To which 

 Fluellen replies, " All the water in the Wye cannot wash your majesty's 

 Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you ; Got bless it and preserve it, 

 as long as it pleases His grace, and his majesty too . " Unlike Henry V., 

 Monmouth folk do not consider it an honour to be Welsh ; they prefer to 

 be considered English. Monmouth caps have long since gone out of fashion, 

 though the name is still preserved in Capper's Town, the straggling parish 

 on the western side of the Monnow's bridge. [J. S.] 



Leaving Monmouth the party drove down the Wye Valley to the Red- 

 brook Tinplate works, the property of the Redbrook Tinplate Co. Ltd. (who 

 have offices in Liverpool and London). 



