Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1 | Page 9

be thought
out of place to allude to it here. This same John Ferrour, with Sir
Thomas Blount and others, was tried in the Castle of Oxford for high
treason, in the first year of Henry IV. Blount and the others were
condemned and executed; but to John Ferrour a free pardon, dated
Monday after the Epiphany, was given, "our Lord the King
remembering that in the reign of Richard the Second, during the
insurrection of the Counties of Essex and Kent, the said John saved the
King's life in the midst of that commonalty, in a wonderful and kind
manner, whence the King happily remains alive unto this day. For since
every good whatever naturally and of right requires another good in
return, the King of his especial grace freely pardons the said John."
Plac. Cor. in Cast. Oxon.]
[Footnote 10: Thus, in a warrant, dated 6th March 1381, an order is
given by the Duke for payment to a Goldsmith in London, of 10l. 18s.
for a present made by our dear daughter Philippa, to our very dear
daughter Mary, Countess of Derby, on the day of her marriage; and
also "40 shillings for as many pence put upon the book on the day of
the espousals of our much beloved son, the Earl of Derby." Eight marks
are ordered to be paid for "a ruby given by us to our very dear daughter
Mary:" 13s. 4d. for the offering at the mass. Ten marks from us to the
King's minstrels being there on the same day; and ten marks to four
minstrels of our brother the Earl of Cambridge being there; and fifty
marks to the officers of our cousin, the Countess of Hereford! On the
31st of January following, the Duke lays himself under a bond to pay to
"Dame Bohun, Countess of Hereford, her mother, the sum of one
hundred marks annually, for the charge and cost of his daughter-in-law,
Mary, Countess of Derby, until the said Mary shall attain the full age of

fourteen years."]
We shall probably not be in error, if we fix the period of the Countess
of Derby leaving her mother's for her husband's roof somewhere in the
year 1386, when he was twenty, and she sixteen years old; and we are
not without reason for believing that they made Monmouth Castle their
home.
Some modern writers affirm that this was the favourite residence of
John of Gaunt's family: but it is very questionable whether from having
themselves experienced the beauty and loveliness of the spot, they have
not been unconsciously tempted to venture this assertion (p. 009)
without historical evidence. Monmouth is indeed situated in one of the
fairest and loveliest valleys within the four seas of Britain. Near its
centre, on a rising ground between the river Monnow (from which the
town derives its name) and the Wye and not far from their confluence,
the ruins of the Castle are still visible. The poet Gray looked over it
from the side of the Kymin Hill, when he described the scene before
him as "the delight of his eyes, and the very seat of pleasure." With his
testimony, unbiassed as it was by local attachment, it would be unwise
to mingle the feelings of affection entertained by one whose earliest
associations, "redolent of joy and youth," can scarcely rescue his
judgment from the suspicion of partiality. At that time John of Gaunt's
estates and princely mansions studded, at various distances, the whole
land of England from its northern border to the southern coast. And
whether he allowed Henry of Bolinbroke to select for himself from the
ample pages of his rent-roll the spot to which he would take his bride,
or whether he assigned it of his own choice to his son as the fairest of
his possessions; or whether any other cause determined the place of
Henry the Fifth's birth, we have no reasonable ground for doubting that
he was born in the Castle of Monmouth, on the 9th of August 1387.
Of Monmouth Castle, the dwindling ruins are now very scanty, and in
point of architecture present nothing worthy of an antiquary's (p. 010)
research. They are washed by the streams of the Monnow, and are
embosomed in gardens and orchards, clothing the knoll on which they
stand; the aspect of the southern walls, and the rocky character of the

soil admirably adapting them for the growth of the vine, and the
ripening of its fruits. In the memory of some old inhabitants, who were
not gathered to their fathers when the Author could first take an interest
in such things, and who often amused his childhood with tales of
former days, the remains of the Hall of Justice were still traceable
within the narrowed pile; and the crumbling