bequeathed by him to his brother, Cardinal Beaufort, who was styled 'the rich Bishop of Winchester,' on account of the munificence of his gifts to that place.

This famous cardinal was, as you have read in English history, one of the most conspicuous characters in Henry the Sixth's reign, and was thought to have conspired with Margaret of Anjou to murder the Duke of Gloucester, though he only survived him but a few months.

On the cardinal's death-bed, so little had his ambitious schemes and plottings prepared him for death, he is said to have exclaimed that he would give all his wealth for a few years more of life; and in Shakespeare's play of Henry the Sixth, the poet has made him say to that monarch on his death-bed:

'If thou be'st death, I'll give thee England's treasure, Enough to purchase such another island,

So thou wilt let me live, and feel no pain.'

Their sister, Joan, became queen of Scotland through the cardinal's influence; and she, too, realized that to be illustrious and great in position is not to be necessarily always happy; and she lived to see James the First, her husband, cruelly murdered

in her presence, whilst she was heroically endeavouring to defend him, by throwing herself between him and his assassins, being herself wounded in the attempt.

A good, pious, and learned lady was the greatgrand-daughter of the first Sir John Beaufort, Margaret, mother of Henry the Seventh, and whose tomb you have seen in Westminster Abbey. When Catherine Swinford's children were legitimatized, their exclusion from the right of inheritance to the throne was accidentally omitted; but Henry the Fourth had the words 'exceptâ dignitate regnis' inserted in their new patent of nobility.

The powerful family of the De Clares seem to have originally owned Raglan, at least the estate of the town and castle of Raglan, Earl Strong-bow giving it, in the thirteenth century, to one Sir Walter Bloet, by whose descendant, Elizabeth, heiress of Sir John Bloet, it passed into the Berkeley family. This was in the reign of Henry the Second. But other authorities state that in Richard the Second's reign it belonged to Sir John Morley, by the marriage of whose daughter it passed into the Herbert family.

It is not my intention to weary you with a long account of the early owners of Raglan; but its principal founder seems to have been Sir William ap Thomas, a descendant of the Morley family, in Henry the Fifth's reign.

He seems to have pulled down any older and ruder fortress that existed at Raglan before his time, and to have erected in its stead a magnificent castle.

This Sir William ap Thomas was founder of the families of Pembroke, Powis, and Carnarvon, on the male side, and the Dukes of Beaufort on the female.

He was also a man of great valour, and in 1415 was made a knight-banneret for his military services. He left one son, named William, whom Edward the Fourth created Lord of Raglan; and by that monarch's express command, four bards, the most skilled in all South Wales for their knowledge of genealogies-a matter which, I have told you before, was always entrusted to the minstrels— traced his pedigree; and then the king commanded him no longer to adhere to the Welsh custom of changing the surname at every generation, but

to call himself Herbert, and his descendants after him,

Raglan Castle was selected by Edward the Fourth as the prison of the Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry the Seventh; and William Herbert treated him with the greatest kindness; but one day the owner of Raglan being absent, the Earl of Richmond was set free by his uncle, Earl of Pembroke, and conveyed to France.

Pride of family was a very great trait in ancient British as well as in Welsh character; and though it has nothing to do with Raglan Castle, I think it will amuse you to hear what a witty saying is ascribed to James the First. On his road into England, on Elizabeth's death and his accession to the throne, he rested at Lumley Castle, in Durham, near Chester le Street. Lumley Castle is one of the largest in that part of England; and after the king had been shown all over its spacious apartments, his host pompously produced his pedigree, which traced the existence of the Lumley family into the most distant ages of antiquity. The king read it gravely, and then graciously restoring it to his host, who was standing expectant of his

Majesty's surprise at the long line of ancestry it displayed, said, 'Gude faith, I didna ken that Adam's sirname was Lumley!'

William Herbert was created Earl of Pembroke after the attainder of the Earl Jaspar. He had a brother, Sir Richard Herbert of Coldbrook House, near Abergavenny, in South Wales; and his tomb, which represents him recumbent in a coat of mail, and his bare head resting on a sheaf of arrows, which was his crest, is in Abergavenny Church. He and his elder brother, William Herbert, were valiant supporters of the white rose during the civil wars of York and Lancaster. Sir Richard is said to have been gigantic in height and size, and to have been as valiant a soldier as the earl. One day he and his brother apprehended in Anglesey seven brothers, notorious murderers, and commanded them to be hung. The mother of these men threw herself upon her knees before Sir Richard Herbert, and entreated them to spare two of them; 'for,' cried she, five are surely enough for justice.' Sir Richard was of a kindly nature, and relented; but the earl sternly said, 'No,' and ordered the execution of all the seven sons of the unfortunate