M O N 
stiftion, in July 1787, for 240 guineas, to the late Henry 
Tovvnley Ward, efq. who had a feat in the neighbourhood. 
MONKEY KE'Y, a fmall ifland in the bay of Hon¬ 
duras, near the coaft of Mexico. Lat. 16. ac. N. Ion. 80. 
S 5. W. 
MONKEY POI'NT. See Punta Chica. 
MONK'HOOD, J. The character of a monk.—He had 
left off his monkhood too, and was no longer obliged to 
them. Atterbury. 
MONK'ISH, adj. Monadic; pertaining to monks; 
taught by monks.-—Thole public charities are a greater 
ornament to this city than all its wealth, and do more 
real honour to the reformed religion, than redounds to 
the church of Rome from all thole monki/h and fuperfti- 
tious foundations of which lhe vainly boalts. Atterbury. 
Rife, rife, Rofcommon, fee the Blenheim mufe 
The dull reftraint of monki/h rhyme refufe. Smith. 
MONK'LAND (New), a town of Scotland, in the 
county of Lanerk : ten miles eaft of Glafgovv. 
MONK'LAND (Old), a town of Scotland, in the 
county of Lanerk. This parifn abounds with coals; and 
in the year 1770, an aft of parliament was obtained for 
making a navigable cut or canal from the Monkland-col- 
lieries to the city of Glafgow and the river Clyde. The 
number of inhabitants in the whole,parilh is about 4000. 
It is eight miles eaft of Glafgow. 
MONK'TON, a poft-town of America, in Addifon- 
county, Vermont, eaft of Ferrifburg; containing 1080 in¬ 
habitants.—A townfhip of Annapolis-county, in Nova 
Scotia; it confifts chiefly of wood-land and falt-marfh, 
and contains about fixty families. 
MONLEON' EN BAROU'SSE, a town of France, in 
the department of the Upper Pyrenees: twenty-feven 
miles fouth of Tarbe. 
MONLEON' EN MAGNOAC', a town of France, in 
the department of the Higher Pyrenees: twenty-one 
miles eaft of Tarbes^-artd fourteen north-north-eaft of La 
Barthe de Nefte. 
MONLI'RAS, a town of the ifland of Cuba: forty-five 
miles eaft of Bayanro. 
MONLU^ON', or MoNTLugoN, a town of France, and 
principal place of a diftrift, in the department of the Al- 
lier: thirty-fix miles weft-fouth-weft of Moulines, and 
thirty-three eaft of Gueret. Lat. 46. 20. N. Ion. 2.40. E. 
MONMOREL' (Charles le Bourgde), an admired French 
preacher in the feventeenth and eighteenth century, was 
born at Pont-Audemer, in the diocefe of Lifieux, in Nor¬ 
mandy ; but no mention is made of the year either of his 
birth or of his death. He was made almoner to the duchefs 
of Burgundy, in 1697; and, through the intereft of ma- 
dame de Maintenon, obtained a prefentation to the abbey 
of Lannoy, as a reward of his admirable pulpit-talents. 
He publiihed a collection of Homilies, in 10 vols. mmo. 
which are much efteemed, being written with iimplicity 
and precilion, in the method and ftyle of the, ancient fa¬ 
thers, from whole writings the author has introduced into 
them many apt and flunking quotations. Nouv. Diet. Ilijl. 
MON'MOUTH, a market-town and borough in the 
county of Monmouth, Hands on a narrow peninfula, 
formed by the confluence of the rivers Monnow and 
Wye. It is a town of great antiquity, and according to 
Horfley (in his Britannia Romans) was the Bleftium of 
Antoninus. No Roman remains, however, have been 
found here to corroborate this opinion, which, though 
probable, is chiefly founded on the faft of the coincidence 
of diltances between that and the connefting ftations, 
northward and fouthward, with the aftual diltances be¬ 
tween thofe and the prefent feite of Monmouth. The 
callle at this place is mentioned in ancient records as 
being one of the ftrong holds garrifoned by the early 
Saxons, to fecure their conqueils of the country between 
the Severn and the Wye; and to curb the depredatory 
incurfions of the Wellh. Very little, however, belides 
this bare faft, is known concerning this fortrefs, till the 
MON 079 
era of the Conqueft, when it appears, from a paftage in 
Domefday-book, to have belonged to the king. William, 
the foil of William Fitz-Baderon, to whom four“caru~ 
cates of land in the caftle of Monmouth, part of the 
royal demefne, were given in cuftody” about this time, 
took the furname of de Monmouth, from the place, 
which continued in the poffeffion of his defendants till 
the reign of Henry III. when John de Monmou th became 
the proprietor. During the reign of that monarch, which 
is recorded to have been one continued Icene of civil 
ftrifej this fortrefs was occafionally befieged and occupied 
by both parties ; and was ultimately religned, together 
with the honour, to prince Edward and his heirs for 
ever, in confideration of certain lands granted for life. 
The prince foon afterwards furrendered it to the king, 
who bellowed it on his younger fon Edmund, earl of 
Lancafter, from whom it defeended to John of Gaunt, 
king of Caftile and duke of Lancafter, who, as well as his 
fon Henry of Bolingbroke, (afterwards Henry IV.) made 
it their favourite refidence. Henry V. the celebrated 
hero of Agincourt, was born in one of the rooms of 
Monmouth-caftle in the year 1387, and feems alfo to 
have palfed his infancy here. This caftle fublequently 
became the property of Henry VI. as part of the duchy 
of Lancafter, which had defeended to him by inheritance. 
Upon his dethronement and attainder, it fell to Ed¬ 
ward IV. who granted it to William lord Herbert, whom 
he created Earl of Pembroke; but, having once more 
reverted to the crown, Henry VII. pofleffed it by the fame 
right that he afcended the throne. Since that period, 
the caftle has become private property; but at what date 
its alienation from the duchy took place is not afeertained. 
Previoufly, however, to the dole of the feventeenth cen¬ 
tury, we find it in the poffeffion of Flenry, the firft duke 
of Beaufort; and it is now the property of his defeendant, 
the prefent duke. 
Under the aulpices of its lords, Monmouth early be¬ 
came a privileged place, and particularly enjoyed many 
immunities as forming a parcel of the duchy of Lancafter. 
The earlieft charter, however, which appears in the ar¬ 
chives, is dated in the year 1549, and was granted by the 
monarch then reigning “ to the burgeffes of his burgh 
and town of Monmouth, in the marches of Wales, and 
within his duchy of Lancafter.” This deed confirms 
various franchifes and privileges bellowed upon the in¬ 
habitants by Henry VIII. and in addition confers the 
power of elefting a mayor and two bailiffs. Since that 
time, therefore, Monmouth has been governed by officers 
under that denomination, who are aififted by a common 
council, compofed of eighteen members. 
The iituation of this town is extremely pleafant and 
highly pifturelque: it Hands near the extremity of an 
expanded vale, furrounded by gentle hills and lwelling 
eminences, either covered to their fummits with rich 
woods, or laid out in fields of corn and pafture. It is a 
place of confiderable extent, and contains many relpeft:- 
able buildings, but has only one principal llreet, which 
leads from the bridge over the Monnow to the market¬ 
place. In this llreet Hands the town-hall, an edifice of 
modern ereflion, built upon pillars, which form a hand- 
fome colonnade. A llatue of Henry V. is placed in a 
niche over the front entrance. The other ftreets are 
mollly narrow. One of them leads from the market¬ 
place to St. Mary’s church. That edifice formerly be¬ 
longed to an alien priory for black monks of the Bene- 
diftine order, an inllitution which was founded in the 
time of Henry I. by Wihenoc, grandfon of Fitz-Baderon, 
and third lord of Monmouth. Only a few veftiges of 
the monallery can now be dilcovered a little to the north 
of the church, which, with the exception of the tower 
and fpire, is entirely a new building. The church of 
St. Thomas, now lubordinate to St. Mary’s, is an ancient 
ftructure. Coxe, in his Hillorical Tour through this 
county, lays, “that the Iimplicity of its form, the circu¬ 
lar lhape of the door-ways, and of the arch feparating the 
nave 
