Monmouth (Mon'muth), the county town of Monmouthshire, stands, girt by wooded hills, at the influx of the Monnow to the Wye, 16 miles N. of Chepstow, 18 S. of Hereford, and 26 WSW. of Gloucester. Its chief features are the ruined castle of John of Gaunt, in which Henry V. was born; the parish church, dating from the 14th century, and restored in 1882 by Street at a cost of £7000, with a graceful spire 200 feet high ; the bridge over the Monnow (1272), with its ' Welsh gate,' and near it, a small Norman chapel; a fragment of a Benedictine priory, with ' Geoffrey of Monmouth's study ;' the new town-hall, built in 1888 at a cost of £10,000; and a grammar-school (1614). In the neighbourhood are the temple-crowned Kyinin (800 feet), commanding a glorious view; the Buckstone, a rocking-stone, displaced by tourists in 1885, but since re-poised; and, 7 miles SW., the superb ruins of Raglan Castle, defended for ten weeks in 1646 against Fairfax by the old Marquis of Worcester. First chartered by Edward VI., Monmouth unites with Newport and Usk to return a member. Pop. 5070. See Charters of Monmouth (1826), and works by Heath (1804) and Greene (1870).

Monmouth

Monmouth, capital of Warren county, Illinois, 179 miles by rail WSW. of Chicago, is the seat of Monmouth College (United Presbyterian, 1856), with 400 students, and manufactures farm implements, sewer pipes, and cigars. Pop. 7936.