chaplain to Maud, wife of Henry I. They first built a small chapel
dedicated to St. David; gifts flowed in, and they were soon enabled to
construct a grand religious house, occupied by Augustinian monks, of
whom Ernisius became the first prior. Predatory raids by the Welsh,
however, harassed the monks, and after submitting for some time to these
annoyances they migrated to Gloucester, and founded another priory
alongside the Severn. Later, however, they returned to the old place and
kept up both establishments, but in the reign of Edward IV. the older
was merged into the newer "because of the turbulence of the neighboring
people and the irregular lives of its inmates." The ruins of Llanthony
are supposed to date from about 1200, and are of a marked though simple
beauty. The convent buildings are almost all gone, excepting fragments
of the cellars and chapter-house. The prior's residence has become a
farm-house, and where the monks sat in solemn conclave is now its
outbuildings. The towers are used, one for chambers and the other for a
dairy. The main part of the church is, however, carefully preserved with
a green turf floor, and the western towers up to the level of the walls
of the nave are still quite perfect, though the west window is gone and
parts of the adjacent walls have perished. The north transept has
fallen, but the southern transept is still in fair condition, lighted at
the end by a pair of round-headed windows, with a circular one above; a
semicircular arch on its eastern side opens into a chapel. The choir is
also well preserved. These ruins exhibit semicircular with pointed
arches in indiscriminate combination, and during the present century
decay has caused much of them to fall. It was to Llanthony that Walter
Savage Landor removed in 1809, selling much of his family estates in
order to buy it. He projected grand improvements, including the
restoration of the priory, the construction of roads and bridges, and
the cultivation of extensive tracts on the mountainside, so that it
became of note among literary men as the home of one of the most
original of their guild. His biographer tells us that he imported sheep
from Segovia, and applied to Southey and other friends to furnish him
tenants who would introduce improved agricultural methods. The
inhabitants of this remote region were morose and impoverished, and he
wished to reclaim them. To clothe the bare spots on the flanks of the
mountains, he bought two