So far the monk of Llanthony--whose partiality is very excusable; but, unfortunately, the <g>act</g> or charter of Edward IV., uniting the two abbeys, gives a different colouring to the transactions between the two abbeys--mother and daughter. It recites that, owing to the depredations committed on the convent by the neighbouring inhabitants, and the frequent removal of the priors and other members of the convent, the religious functions were negligently performed, and acts of charity and hospitality to strangers no longer exercised: Also, that as John Adams, the prior, had profusely squandered away the revenues of the church, maintaining only four canons besides himself, who paid no attention to the holy duties of the establishment: And whereas all due regard and reverence were paid to the sacred offices of the church by the members of the monastery of new Llanthony near Gloucester, the king hereby grants all the lands--both in England, Wales, and Ireland--now appertaining to the convent of Llanthony in Wales, to the prior of the convent of Llanthony near Gloucester, to have and to hold for ever, on the payment of the fine of three hundred marks, and on condition that he maintains an establishment--dative and removable at will--of a prior and four canons, as the mother-church, for the purpose of performing religious service and mass for the souls of its founders. “Thus,” continues our author,[328] “in the short period of thirty years, we see the simple chapel of St. David transmuted into a spacious and elegant abbey; that same building nearly deserted, and another, still more magnificent, erected and translated from the solitary banks of the little river Hodni, to the rich and luxurious shores of the Severn.” <g>Milo, Founder</g> of Llanthony Secunda.--Under this head, it is recorded in the Abbey Chronicle, that in the reign of King <g>Henry</g>, son of the Conqueror, there flourished a certain warrior of noble family named Gwalterus, or <g>Walter</g>, who was Constable, under the King, of the Castles of Gloucester and Hereford. The said Walter caused to be erected on his own demesne the Castle of Gloucester, and dying some time thereafter, his remains were conveyed to <g>Llanthony Abbey</g>, in Wales, and there buried. The aforesaid Walter left an only son, <g>Milo</g> by name, whom King Henry created Earl of <g>Hereford</g>; and moreover, by way of augmentation to the said earldom, made over to him and his heirs for ever a grant of the whole Forest of <g>Dean</g>.