{308} This cross-legged position of sepulchral effigies does not denote that the person represented was a Knight Templar, as is generally supposed; but that he had visited the Holy Land: indeed, his having entered into vows that he would perform the journey, entitled him to this distinction. {310} One of his posterity, William de Braose, in the reign of King John, says Dugdale, “gave the tithes of his castle, _viz._ of bread, wine, beer, cyder, all manner of fresh, fish, salt, honey, wax, tallow, and in general whatsoever should be brought thither and spent there, upon condition that the Abbot and Convent of St. Vincent’s in Mans, to which the priory was a cell, should daily pray for the soul of King Henry the First; as also for the soul of him the said William and the soul of Maud his wife.” {313} See Page 290. {330} There is an oblong camp in the neighbourhood of the town called _Y Gaer_; where Roman bricks, bearing the inscription LEG. II. AUG. are frequently ploughed up. Near this camp is a rude pillar, about six feet high, called the _maiden stone_; on one side of which are the figures of a man and woman coarsely carved in relief. {343} Cairns, or barrows, in the druidical ages, were large heaps of stones raised over the bodies of deceased heroes. After the introduction of Christianity, similar piles were placed on malefactors, to give a sort of counteraction to the old custom; and it soon became the bitterest wish a man could give his enemy, “that a cairn might be his monument.” {349} In _Dugdale’s Monasticon_, the signature _Godricus Duxi_ occurs twice among the witnesses to two charters granted by king Canute. {351} The distance from Ross to Chepstow, in a straight line, is not more than sixteen miles and a half; but owing to the sinuosity of the river the voyage by water is near thirty-eight miles. The boats descend with the current, and are towed all the way back by men: this laborious task may account for the expensive hire of a boat, which I understand to be three guineas. {355} We did not neglect to visit the remains of Lanthony Abbey near Gloucester, the successful rival of the foundation in Monmouthshire. The ruins are situated about a mile southward of the town: they are by no means picturesque, consisting of a series of buildings which surround a large square area; the dilapidated walls of the chapel are standing without encumbrance; but the other parts are made up into farming habitations, with numerous out-houses and sheds.