VOL. XIX. (2) EXCURSION— MONMOUTH AND TRELLECH 
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tradition — enjoyed great popularity in Norman days. His inventions were 
adopted as facts by Alfred of Beverley, and were translated by Gaimar and 
Wace into French verse. Green, the historian, states that “ out of Geoffrey’s 
creation grew little by little the poem of the Table Round.” 
The Parish Church has been much restored, but contains interesting 
work of Norman date, a Saxon font, a cresset stone discovered during the 
restoration, and a good collection of old tiles placed so that they are secured 
from defacement. There is a fine chancel screen by Street. Henry V. is 
credited with having brought the bells from Calais, tradition saying that 
when he was about to sail for England after the battle of Agincourt, the 
people of Calais rang a peal of joy, whereupon the King took possession of 
the bells, and had them hung in his native town. 
The party then proceeded to theCastle,of which little remains to indicate 
its former strength and importance. Its date is uncertain, though Camden 
attributes it to John of Monmouth, and it was certainly standing in the time 
of Henry III. A favourite residence of John of Gaunt and of Henry IV., it 
was here that Henry V. was bom, to whose memory a statue is placed in the 
Market Square. A narrow window, with remains of some tracery, is still 
pointed out as marking the room where his birth took place. In the Record 
Office is a mandate from Henry VI. to his steward of Monmouth to repair 
“ a certain tower of our Castle of Monmouth, where our very dear Father of 
famous memory was born, called the Gatehouse, which is very weak and ruin- 
ous.” 
Near the Castle ruins is the old Dower House of the Beauforts, now used 
as the headquarters of the Monmouthshire Regiment, and by the courtesy 
of Colonel Morgan Lindsay the Members were invited to see the officers’ 
mess room, in which is a very remarkable ceiling of plaster ornamentation, 
believed to be the work of an Italian. It is in perfect preservation, and 
there can be few finer specimens of such decoration. As it chanced, Lord 
Raglan, grandson of Field-Marshal Lord Raglan, Commander of the Forces 
in the Crimea, was in the building at the time, and he very kindly gave in- 
formation as to its associations. 
On leaving the Castle, Mr Skinner conducted the Members to the garden 
adjoining the Capital and Counties Bank, with which he was connected for 
many years, where they were able to see a portion of the town wall, with its 
bastion and sally port, and also a chair in which Lord Nelson is said to have 
sat when he visited Monmouth on August 19th, 1802, 
On the way to the “ Beaufort Arms,” where lunch was taken. Members 
saw the striking statue by Sir Goscombe John erected in the Market Square 
to the memory of the Hon. C. S. Rolls, son of Lord Llangattock, well loiovra 
as a pioneer in the use of the automobile and one of the first Englishmen to 
take up aviation. He was killed while making a flight at Bournemouth, 
July 12th, 1910, 
At 1. 15 the Members entered the brakes which were in readiness for the 
drive to Trellech, and after passing under the Bridge Gate on Monnow Bridge, 
stopped to visit the Norman Church of St. Thomas-over-Monnow. Mr T. 
M. Skinner mentioned that until the eleventh century Monmouth was in the 
diocese of Llandaff and from then until 1843 in that of Hereford, at that 
date being restored to Llandaff. 
The Church of St Thomas stands in what was formerly known as 
” Cappers Town,” or Overmonnow — a place distinct from Monmouth — owing 
its name to the industry of ” cap-making ” formerly carried on there. The 
following notes are condensed from an account prepared by Mr P. Potter 
for the visit of the Cambrian Archaeological Association in 1885 : — 
The west door is modern, old inhabitants remembering the Church with 
a blank west-end wall used at times for games of base-ball ! Prior to 1830 
