<g>Monmouthshire</g>.
HERE still the feudal bulwark frowns,
With many a tale of siege and sally;
And there the mouldering Abbey crowns
The silent and secluded valley.
And still, when Twilight spreads her wings,
By Abbey wall or Castle hoary,
The pilgrim hears harmonious strings
Struck to the theme of <g>Cambria’s</g> glory.
Again--from yonder halls of state,
Where now the hermit-owl is dwelling--
In song, assembled Bards relate
The daring deeds of bold <g>Llewellyn</g>.
Again from yonder Abbey choir--
Its dim religious lights revealing--
The lofty strains of <g>David’s</g> lyre
From arch and pillared aisles are pealing.
But no! the morning’s ruddy beam--
The breath of day--is on the river;
And all that peopled Fancy’s dream
Is scattered in its light for ever.
[Illustration: T]<g>HE CASTLE</g> of Uske occupies a commanding position--an
abrupt rocky eminence which overlooks the town, river, and valley, which
were once the property of its feudal lords. It is a domestic fortress of
great antiquity, and with the advantages of its natural site,
strengthened and improved by all the appliances of military art--art as
it was practised in the days of chivalry--these mouldering walls, though
now stripped of all their massive proportions, must have presented a
bold and almost impregnable aspect. The lapse of centuries, however, has
materially changed its appearance; and the Castle that once entertained
the redoubtable <g>Strongbow</g> and his companions, is now little more than a
mass of ruins--the chief recommendation of which is its picturesque
character as a prominent feature in the landscape.
The ruins consist merely of a shell, enclosing an area or court, and
some outworks on the west, formed by two straight walls converging one
to the other, and strengthened at their union by a round tower, as
represented in the accompanying woodcut. At the extremity of the south
wall is a grand pointed gateway, with grooves for a portcullis, which
was the principal entrance. The upper part has been converted into a
farm-house with considerable additions.
[Illustration: Tower in Uske Castle.]
Like other castles of its style and period, it consists of straight
walls, fortified with round and square towers, and no apertures
externally but loopholes or œillets, except where these have been
enlarged for modern use and convenience. Several of the apartments have
chimneys--a comparatively modern refinement. The baronial hall measures
forty-eight by twenty-four feet; far inferior in dimensions to some of
the halls already described, but still a noble apartment, and dignified
from its association with Strongbow and his knights, whose occasional
rendezvous was within these walls.
At the time of the Roman occupation, this county formed part of the
Silurian territory, which included also the counties of Glamorgan,
Brecknock, Radnor, and Hereford; and in order to secure the conquest of
this part of the country, the new masters were compelled to form a range
of strongly fortified posts. No less than five stations were erected in
that part of Siluria included in Gwentland, as at Caerwent, Caerleon,
Abergavenny, Monmouth, and Uske. In the attempts of the Saxon monarchs
to subjugate Wales, the Gwentians, or inhabitants of Monmouthshire,
opposed the most formidable resistance; nor does it appear that they
were ever vanquished during the Saxon period. The Conqueror, however,
adopted a new and more effective mode of curbing their resistance. He
directed his barons to make incursions at their own expense, and gave
them leave to hold the lands they conquered _in capite_ of the crown.
These feudal tenures became petty royalties; the barons became despots,
and, intrenched in their fortified castles, assumed independent
sovereignty, until these baronial governments were abolished by Henry
VIII., who divided Wales into counties.
<g>The river</g> Uske takes its rise from a lake on the northern side of the
Bannau-Sir-Gaer, in Carmarthenshire, and after running first north and
then east as far as Brecknock, is joined by the Honddi, which, as
already described, waters the monastic vale of Ewias. It then flows
south-east as far as Abergavenny, and in this part of its course is
joined by the Grwyneu-fawr, and about three miles below this it enters
Monmouth. The extent of its course is about sixty miles, every portion
of which is distinguished more or less by scenes of pastoral and
picturesque beauty--enhanced by vestiges of ancient encampments,
religious edifices, and feudal strongholds. The river is spanned at Uske
by a stately bridge of five arches.
The annexed woodcut, with which we close this brief notice, represents a
chamber in the Castle, with an arched window and a fireplace,
comparatively modern. Chimneys do not seem to have been introduced much
before the time of Henry the Eighth, as appears from the following
extract from Leland’s Itinerary:--“One thynge I much notyed in the haule
of Bolton,” built temp. Rich. II., “how chimneys were conveyed by
tunnels made in the syds of the wauls, betwyxt the lights in the haule;
and by this means, and by no others, is the smoke of the harthe in the
haule wonder strangely carrayed.”[355] Previously to this period, the
smoke was suffered to escape from the louvre, or lantern-turret in the
roof, in large halls and kitchens, the fire being made of logs of wood
laid on iron or brass dogs, in the centre of the room. But in the
smaller rooms, like that in the woodcut, fireplaces were built, the
arches or chimney-pieces of which often remain; but the chimney itself
was carried up only a few feet, where an aperture was left in the wall
for the smoke to escape,[356] and there was frequently a window over the
fireplace, as in the hall at Raglan.[357]
<g>Uske</g> is supposed to occupy the site of the Roman _Burrium_--the
_Bullæum_ of Ptolemy; it stands on a point of land formed by the
confluence of the two rivers, Uske and Olway, and the situation is
considered to be one of the most beautiful in South Wales. The
successive ranges of woods and hills on each side of the river are
richly varied and picturesque; while every year adds something to the
natural embellishment of the scene, by the distribution of fruit and
forest trees--for which the soil is naturally adapted--and that growing
taste for agriculture and rural improvement which is everywhere
conspicuous in the county of Monmouth. The boundaries and outlines of
the valley--which is everywhere pleasing--perpetually vary as the points
of view are changed; so that every change in his position opens to the
spectator a new combination of features which pass before him like a
moving panorama--
“Ever changing, ever new.”
[Illustration: A Chamber in the Castle.]
<g>Uske</g> has a melancholy pre-eminence among the strongholds of this county,
as a point at which the fury of intestine war was often lighted into
flames. During the long and disastrous warfare with Owen Glendower, it
was subjected to every species of hardship and oppression. From the
battle of Uske, when the Cambrian chief was defeated and driven into the
mountains, it remained in possession of the royal troops; but while it
suffered the fate of a vanquished post, it derived little support from
the victors; for whatever standard floated from its walls, it was only
the signal of systematic oppression. From the military chronicle of
those unhappy times, we take the following particulars of the
<g>Battle of Uske.</g> This was the last effort on the part of Owen Glendower
to drive the English from the frontier. Having assembled an army of
eight thousand men enthusiastically attached to him, he prosecuted his
march through scenes of fire and bloodshed--desolating the country,
ravaging the Marches, and practising every cruelty which the spirit of
revenge could suggest. Grosmont[358]--or more probably Uske--was given
to the flames. This marauding division was opposed by a handful of men
commanded by Sir Gilbert Talbot--joined by Sir William Newport and Sir
John Geindre--on the 11th of March, and cut to pieces, no quarter being
given except to one person, whom young Henry, in his despatch to his
father, styles ‘un grand chieftyn entre eulx;’ and humanely adds, that
“he would have sent him this prisoner, but that he could not ride with
ease.” Prince Henry at the time of this action was at Hereford--at the
head of the army, with which he was to open the campaign--when the news
of the victory reached him. The ancient Britons, who lost a thousand men
in this battle, appear to have fought with less than their accustomed
valour. They were probably raw recruits, without good officers or strict
discipline; and without Glendower’s presence to direct and animate them
in the charge, they appear to have fallen an easy prey to the enemy. The
interception of young March, and this defeat, hastened the fall of
Glendower; but, resolved to make a strong effort to retrieve his lost
credit in the field, he sent one of his sons with another army, which,
on being joined by many fugitives from the late disaster, was found
sufficiently strong to risk another engagement. This took place on the
15th of the same month; but the results were still more disastrous than
on the previous battle; for of the Welsh army fifteen hundred were slain
or taken prisoners. Tudor, the brother of Owen, was left dead on the
field; while his son, who had the chief command, was made prisoner, and
retained as a hostage in the English camp. The historian relates that so
great was the personal resemblance between Owen and his brother Tudor,
that when the dead body of the latter was discovered in the field, it
was immediately reported that Glendower himself had fallen, and that,
with the death of their leader, the Welsh must necessarily abandon the
contest. On closer examination, however, it was found that the
exultation thus spread through the English camp was premature; for
although the resemblance was very striking, it was observed that a wart
over the eye--a mark which distinguished the “great Owen”--was not to be
traced in the present individual, and it was at once admitted that
Tudor, and not Owen, had fallen in the conflict.
Prince Henry, according to Carte,[359] commanded at this battle,
supposed to have taken place near Uske. Wynne also mentions an action
fought on the same day on which the son of Owen was made prisoner; and
the number of those slain and made prisoners, coincides with the above
account of Mr. Pennant, but the scene of action is removed to Uske,
where he says “the Welsh received a sad blow from the Prince of Wales’
men.” In the history of this period there is a confusion which Mr.
Pennant thus clears up:--Hollinshed mentions another defeat sustained by
the Welsh in the month of May, in which Griffith Yonge, Owen’s
chancellor, was made prisoner. But in this, according to Pennant, the
chronicler confounds this battle with the action near Grosmont. If Yonge
was the “grand chieftyn” there made prisoner, which is questionable, he
must have soon escaped from the power of the English, or have been
released, as he is a witness the following year to a pardon granted by
Owen to one Ieuan Goch. Here Mr. Thomas[360] suggests that the two
accounts by Hollinshed and Wynne might be reconciled, by allowing that a
battle was actually fought at Uske, subsequent to that on the 15th of
March. Dates among earlier writers are often uncertain, always
perplexing. But Uske in many parts bears evident marks of Owen’s
desolating system of warfare; a ruinous aspect bespeaks its having been
stormed by an enemy at no remote date; and all these circumstances
deriving weight from local tradition--which corroborates the surmise,
and attributes the havoc to Glendower--Uske may be fairly set down as
the scene of devastation referred to in the text.[361]
<g>Craig-y-Gaeryd</g>, near Uske, is supposed to have been a Roman camp. It
covers the brow of a precipice overhanging the eastern bank of the
river, and is now overgrown with copsewood; but in many places the
intrenchments are thirty feet deep. Within the area are several tumuli
from fifteen to twenty feet high. From the small torrent of <g>Berden</g>, near
this point, some authors have derived the name of Burrium, as being
placed at its confluence with the river Uske.[362]
With regard to these camps and intrenchments, Mr. King, in his
“Monumenta Antiqua,” supposes that most of the strong intrenchments on
the summits of natural hills must be attributed to Britons, although
subsequent conquerors might have occupied them. They are designated,
indiscriminately, Roman camps, Danish forts, or Saxon intrenchments, but
often erroneously. The _Roman_ camps were quadrangular, divided into a
pavilion for the general and chief officers, and another portion for the
tents of the common soldiers. It was fortified with a ditch and parapet,
termed _fossa_ and _vallum_. The Danes did not undergo the labour of
erecting them on the high hills where they are often found, nor run the
risk of being cooped up and starved in them during their invasions; nor
can we suppose them to be their work after they settled here as
conquerors. The great castle of Norwich, built by Canute, and the great
tower at Bury, prove their civilization and skill in architecture.
Neither could these hill-camps be Saxon. During the Heptarchy, they
erected fortresses of stones. Besides, their earth-works were
encampments on plain ground with double ditches, and with either the
whole or part of the area raised above the level of the adjacent
country, and sometimes with a very small mount for a watchguard. The
magnificence of the Norman castles, still splendid in their ruins, will
not allow them to have had any share in throwing up these rude
intrenchments. They must, therefore, have been the strongholds of the
ancient Britons, where their families were lodged, and their cattle
housed, on any emergency or invasion.[363]
<g>The Church</g>, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient structure of
Anglo-Norman origin, but apparently curtailed in its dimensions to suit
the diminished population of modern Uske. The square embattled tower
which now stands at the east, formerly occupied the centre, and
communicated with a transept and choir. Four pointed arches now separate
the nave from the north aisle. The windows are ornamented Gothic, or
rather Norman; and the porches, though not elegant, are in the same
style. This was the Priory Church; and of the conventual building, the
remains are seen on the south-east side of the tower. From the
churchyard, a circular arched portal leads through the court to the
ancient edifice now converted into a farm-house. It was founded by one
of the Clare family as a priory for five Benedictine nuns, about the
middle of the thirteenth century. In an apartment on the first floor,
the frieze of the ceiling is ornamented with thirty devices, and
emblazoned coats of arms. At the Dissolution, this priory was valued at
£69. 9s. 8d. per annum; and the site granted to Roger Williams of
Langibby. Rowland Williams of Langibby was distinguished by Queen
Elizabeth and James the First, and received the honour of knighthood.
His grandson, Sir Trevor Williams, was created a baronet in
consideration of his services and loyal attachment to <g>Charles</g> the First.
<g>Founder.</g>--Tanner, quoting from a MS. in the office of First Fruits, says
they accounted Sir Richard de Clare and Sir Gilbert his son, Earls of
the Marches, for their Founders, and prayed for them as such; for which,
at the time of the Dissolution, an allowance appears to have been made
amongst the reprises.
The temporalities of this priory are thus valued in Pope Nicholas’s
Taxation, A.D. 1291:--Priorissa de Uska habet viginti quatuor acras
terræ quæ valent per annum viii.s.: De annuo redditu, vi.s. viii.d., de
Molendino. ibidem x.s., de perquisitis cur. v.s. _Item_, habet apud
Shirencnewt [Shire Newton?] de reddit, assis. iii.s. = Summa £1. 12s.
8d.
Among the spiritualities of the diocese of Llandaff, we find the
following churches, of which the priory and convent of Uske appear to
have been patrons, namely, Raglan, Mykenny, Uske, Langrerion, Lampadock,
and Lamyhangel.
In another place, it is said:--Capitulam Landav. percipit de tenentibus
de Landconyan unam marcam, et illam reddunt luminar. prioratus de Uske.
In the diocese of Worcester, we find, “Porcio priorissæ in capell. de
Hatherlo j.l. The gross value of this priory [26th Hen. VIII.] was rated
at £69. 9s. 8d., the clear income at £55. 4s. 5d. The site and other
lands were granted 28th Hen. VIII. to Roger Williams, grandfather of Sir
Trevor Williams [of whom Cromwell speaks in his letter from Pembroke.]
At the Dissolution, Elen Williams was the lady prioress. In the Lord
Treasurer’s Remembrancer’s office is the following:--“Uske: De Elizea
John ap Jevan vidua, occasionat. ad ostendendum quo titulo tenet domum
et situm Prioratus de Uske, et alias terras in comitatu Monmouth. That
the said widow be called upon to show by what title she holds the house
and site of the Priory of Uske, and other lands in the county of
Monmouth.” Leland describes it briefly as “a priory of Nunnes at Cair
Uske, a flite shot from the castel.”
An impression from the conventual seal of this priory is extant in the
Chapter-house at Westminster, attached to the acknowledgment of
Supremacy. [25 Hen. VIII.] It represents the Virgin Mary seated on an
ornamented chair between two pilasters, the infant Jesus in her lap.
Above are a crescent and star, the legend--S. SĈE MARIE ET CONVENTUS DE
USKE.
* * * * *
The emblematical devices and emblazoned arms already mentioned, as
covering the frieze of the ceiling in the chief apartment, are supposed
to represent the armorial bearings of the various benefactors of the
priory.
<g>Prioresses.</g>--The last Prioress, or Superieure, was the above-named “Elen
Williams.” Among the Gilbertine Nuns there were three prioresses, one of
whom presided in turn, and had then the first stall--one of her
coadjutors standing on the right hand, the other on the left. The
presiding Prioress held the Chapter, enjoined the penances, granted all
the licences or allowances, visited the sick, or caused them to be
visited by one of her companions. She had obedience and respect paid to
her by all. The food was delivered by the Cellaress, but the vestments
of the Nuns were cut, sewed, and divided by the Prioress. She could not
sit near any _man_ in their house, unless some discreet sister sat
between them. The Prioress was to endeavour to visit the Nuns, unless
when she was in the kitchen, or confined to her dortoire by sickness.
If any sister wished to confess, she signified her desire to the
Prioress, if she was in the cloister or church; or she confessed to her,
or to any person authorised to act for her. On holidays she sent some
“learned nun” with a book to her sisters, to teach them somewhat that
might operate to the profit of their souls, or confirm the rigour of the
Order. She presided over the Chapter of the Sisters, and one of her
coadjutors often took their _veniæ_ in the evening Chapter. On festival
days she visited them “if she had time,” and diligently inquired of
their strict observance of the rules of the Order. If she left the
dormitory after dinner, or after complin, she did not go out unless with
attendant nuns. She was obliged to indicate the cause of her departure
to the Prior of all. If she left the church through sickness, she
confessed in the Chapter, and no one stood in her stall except at Mass,
and when necessity required it.--[Brit. Monach.]
She was bound to shun conferring with the _Scrutatrices_, or
sister-visitors, from other houses, that were deputed to her; or to make
search for anything except in the common Chapter. If she was in the
Infirmary, she was required to conduct herself more reservedly; and not
to speak with more than two together, and that only in a “bounded
place,” unless, perhaps, necessity compelled her to talk with more for
the sake of consultation; or when she happened to hold the Chapter of
the Sick. She had authority, upon emergencies, to hold the Chapter of
the Convent, and receive confessions, and if she was confined by severe
illness, she could, like the rest, talk and give her directions in
bed.[364]
<g>Uske</g> enjoys the hereditary distinction of having been the “residence of
Richard, Duke of York, and the birth-place of his two sons, Edward the
Fourth, and Richard the Third;” names which have furnished many stirring
incidents, many sparkling and many disastrous achievements to the
British annals. The town of Uske is disposed in the form of an oblong
square, the principal street forming the public road to Abergavenny. The
corporation consists of a mayor or bailiff, a community, and
burgesses;[365] and in the town-house are held the petty sessions for
the upper division of the hundred of Uske. The only native manufacture
is that of japan ware.