<g>The Priory</g>, of which little remains, was a cell belonging to the Benedictine Monastery of Saumur in Anjou; and in this, as we have said, the renowned Geoffrey is believed to have prosecuted his studies. By some writers he is called a monk of the Dominican order; but, according to Leland, the fact has never been established; nor have we any sure grounds for believing that, as others report, he attained the dignity of Cardinal under the Holy See. He has higher claims to the reverential remembrance of posterity, than either a monk’s cowl or a cardinal’s hat. But notwithstanding his reputed Treatise on the Holy Sacrament, and poetical Commentaries on Merlin, his fame must ever rest on the original, or translated, History[316] of Britain, to which we have already alluded. Queen Elizabeth, we are told, was fond of tracing her descent from the British line; and Spenser, in his “Faërie Queen,” introduces his Chronicle of Briton Kings, from Brut to Arthur, with the following address:-- “Thy name, oh Soveraine <g>Queene</g>, thy realme and race, From this renowned Prince derived arre, Who mightily upheld that royal mace, Which now thou bear’st, to thee descended farre, From mighty Kings and Conquerors in warre. Thy fathers and thy grandfathers of old, Whose noble deeds above the northern starre, Immortal Fame for ever hath enrolled, As in that <g>Old Man’s</g> book they were in order told.” Near the bridge of the Monnow stands the ancient-- <g>Church of St. Thomas.</g> The simplicity of its form--to quote the historian of the place--the circular shape of the door, the arch separating the nave from the chancel, the ornaments of which bear a Saxon character, seem to indicate that it was constructed before the Conquest. The western window and some of the other apertures--which are ornamented Gothic--have been evidently formed since the original foundation.