The itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales Part 11

{119} The remains of vast submerged forests are commonly found on many parts of the coast of Wales, especially in the north. Giraldus has elsewhere spoken of this event in the Vaticinal History, book i.

chap. 35.

{120} Giraldus, ever glad to pun upon words, here opposes the word NOMEN to OMEN. "Plus nominis habens quem ominis." He may have perhaps borrowed this expression from Plautus. Plautus Delphini, tom. ii. p. 27. - Actus iv., Scena iv.

{121} Armorica is derived from the Celtic words Ar and Mor, which signify on or near the sea, and so called to distinguish it from the more inland parts of Britany. The maritime cities of Gaul were called "Armoricae civitates - Universis civitatibus quae oceanum attingunt, quaeque Gallorum consuetudine Armoricae appellantur." - Caesar. Comment, lib. vii.

{122} The bishops of Hereford, Worcester, Llandaff, Bangor, St.

Asaph, Llanbadarn, and Margam, or Glamorgan.

{123} The value of the carucate is rather uncertain, or, probably, it varied in different districts according to the character of the land; but it is considered to have been usually equivalent to a hide, that is, to about 240 statute acres.

{124} This little brook does not, in modern times, deserve the t.i.tle here given to it by Giraldus, for it produces trout of a most delicious flavour.

{125} See the Vaticinal History, book i. c. 37.

{126} Lechlavar, so called from the words in Welsh, Llec, a stone, and Llavar, speech.

{127} Cemmeis, Cemmaes, Kemes, and Kemeys. Thus is the name of this district variously spelt. Cemmaes in Welsh signifies a circle or amphitheatre for games.

{128} [Cardigan.]

{129} There is place in Cemmaes now called Tre-liffan, i.e. Toad's town; and over a chimney-piece in the house there is a figure of a toad sculptured in marble, said to have been brought from Italy, and intended probably to confirm and commemorate this tradition of Giraldus.

{130} Preseleu, Preselaw, Prescelly, Presselw.

{131} St. Bernacus is said, by Cressy, to have been a man of admirable sanct.i.ty, who, through devotion, made a journey to Rome; and from thence returning into Britany, filled all places with the fame of his piety and miracles. He is commemorated on the 7th of April. Several churches in Wales were dedicated to him; one of which, called Llanfyrnach, or the church of St. Bernach, is situated on the eastern side of the Prescelley mountain.

{132} The "castrum apud Lanhever" was at Nevern, a small village between Newport and Cardigan, situated on the banks of a little river bearing the same name which discharges itself into the sea at Newport. On a hill immediately above the western side of the parish church, is the site of a large castle, undoubtedly the one alluded to by Giraldus.

{133} On the Cemmaes, or Pembrokeshire side of the river Teivi, and near the end of the bridge, there is a place still called Park y Cappel, or the Chapel Field, which is undoubtedly commemorative of the circ.u.mstance recorded by our author.

{134} Now known by the name of Kenarth, which may be derived from Cefn y garth - the back of the wear, a ridge of land behind the wear.

{135} The name of St. Ludoc is not found in the lives of the saints. Leland mentions a St. c.l.i.tauc, who had a church dedicated to him in South Wales, and who was killed by some of his companions whilst hunting. "c.l.i.taucus Southe-Walliae regulus inter venandum a suis sodalibus occisus est. Ecciesia S. c.l.i.tauci in Southe Wallia."

- Leland, Itin., tom. viii. p. 95.

{136} The Teivy is still very justly distinguished for the quant.i.ty and quality of its salmon, but the beaver no longer disturbs its streams. That this animal did exist in the days of Howel Dha (though even then a rarity), the mention made of it in his laws, and the high price set upon its skin, most clearly evince; but if the castor of Giraldus, and the avanc of Humphrey Llwyd and of the Welsh dictionaries, be really the same animal, it certainly was not peculiar to the Teivi, but was equally known in North Wales, as the names of places testify. A small lake in Montgomeryshire is called Llyn yr Afangc; a pool in the river Conwy, not far from Bettws, bears the same name, and the vale called Nant Ffrancon, upon the river Ogwen, in Caernarvonshire, is supposed by the natives to be a corruption from Nant yr Afan cwm, or the Vale of the Beavers. Mr.

Owen, in his dictionary, says, "That it has been seen in this vale within the memory of man." Giraldus has previously spoken of the beaver in his Topography of Ireland, Distinc. i. c. 21.

{137} Our author having made a long digression, in order to introduce the history of the beaver, now continues his Itinerary.

From Cardigan, the archbishop proceeded towards Pont-Stephen, leaving a hill, called Cruc Mawr, on the left hand, which still retains its ancient name, and agrees exactly with the position given to it by Giraldus. On its summit is a tumulus, and some appearance of an intrenchment.

{138} In 1135.

{139} Lampeter, or Llanbedr, a small town near the river Teivi, still retains the name of Pont-Stephen.

{140} Leland thus speaks of Ystrad Fflur or Strata Florida: "Strateflere is set round about with montanes not far distant, except on the west parte, where Diffrin Tyve is. Many hilles therabout hath bene well woddid, as evidently by old rotes apperith, but now in them is almost no woode - the causes be these. First, the wood cut down was never copisid, and this hath beene a cause of destruction of wood thorough Wales. Secondly, after cutting down of woodys, the gottys hath so bytten the young spring that it never grew but lyke shrubbes. Thirddely, men for the monys destroied the great woddis that thei should not harborow theves." This monastery is situated in the wildest part of Cardiganshire, surrounded on three sides by a lofty range of those mountains, called by our author Ellennith; a spot admirably suited to the severe and recluse order of the Cistercians.

{141} [Melenydd or Maelienydd.]

{142} Leaving Stratflur, the archbishop and his train returned to Llanddewi Brefi, and from thence proceeded to Llanbadarn Vawr.

{143} Llanbadarn Fawr, the church of St. Paternus the Great, is situated in a valley, at a short distance from the sea-port town of Aberystwyth in Cardiganshire.

{144} The name of this bishop is said to have been Idnerth, and the same personage whose death is commemorated in an inscription at Llanddewi Brefi.

{145} This river is now called Dovey.

{146} From Llanbadarn our travellers directed their course towards the sea-coast, and ferrying over the river Dovey, which separates North from South Wales, proceeded to Towyn, in Merionethshire, where they pa.s.sed the night. [Venedotia is the Latin name for Gwynedd.]

{147} The province of Merionyth was at this period occupied by David, the son of Owen Gwynedd, who had seized it forcibly from its rightful inheritor. This Gruffydd - who must not be confused with his great-grandfather, the famous Gruffydd ap Conan, prince of Gwynedd - was son to Conan ap Owen Gwynedd; he died A.D. 1200, and was buried in a monk's cowl, in the abbey of Conway.

{148} The epithet "bifurcus," ascribed by Giraldus to the river Maw, alludes to its two branches, which unite their streams a little way below Llaneltid bridge, and form an aestuary, which flows down to the sea at Barmouth or Aber Maw. The ford at this place, discovered by Malgo, no longer exists.

{149} Llanfair is a small village, about a mile and a half from Harlech, with a very simple church, placed in a retired spot, backed by precipitous mountains. Here the archbishop and Giraldus slept, on their journey from Towyn to Nevyn.

{150} Ardudwy was a comot of the cantref Dunodic, in Merionethshire, and according to Leland, "Streccith from half Trait Mawr to Abermaw on the sh.o.r.e XII myles." The bridge here alluded to, was probably over the river Artro, which forms a small aestuary near the village of Llanbedr.

{151} The Traeth Mawr, or the large sands, are occasioned by a variety of springs and rivers which flow from the Snowdon mountains, and, uniting their streams, form an aestuary below Pont Aberglaslyn.

{152} The Traeth Bychan, or the small sands, are chiefly formed by the river which runs down the beautiful vale of Festiniog to Maentwrog and Tan y bwlch, near which place it becomes navigable.

Over each of these sands the road leads from Merionyth into Caernarvonshire.

{153} Lleyn, the Canganorum promontorium of Ptolemy, was an extensive hundred containing three comots, and comprehending that long neck of land between Caernarvon and Cardigan bays. Leland says, "Al Lene is as it were a pointe into the se."

{154} In mentioning the rivers which the missionaries had lately crossed, our author has been guilty of a great topographical error in placing the river Dissennith between the Maw and Traeth Mawr, as also in placing the Arthro between the Traeth Mawr and Traeth Bychan, as a glance at a map will shew.

{155} To two personages of this name the gift of prophecy was anciently attributed: one was called Ambrosius, the other Sylvestris; the latter here mentioned (and whose works Giraldus, after a long research, found at Nefyn) was, according to the story, the son of Morvryn, and generally called Merddin Wyllt, or Merddin the Wild. He is pretended to have flourished about the middle of the sixth century, and ranked with Merddin Emrys and Taliesin, under the appellation of the three princ.i.p.al bards of the Isle of Britain.

{156} This island once afforded, according to the old accounts, an asylum to twenty thousand saints, and after death, graves to as many of their bodies; whence it has been called Insula Sanctorum, the Isle of Saints. This island derived its British name of Enlli from the fierce current which rages between it and the main land. The Saxons named it Bardsey, probably from the Bards, who retired hither, preferring solitude to the company of invading foreigners.

{157} This ancient city has been recorded by a variety of names.

During the time of the Romans it was called Segontium, the site of which is now called Caer Seiont, the fortress on the river Seiont, where the Setantiorum portus, and the Seteia AEstuarium of Ptolemy have also been placed. It is called, by Nennius, Caer Custent, or the city of Constantius; and Matthew of Westminster says, that about the year 1283 the body of Constantius, father of the emperor Constantine, was found there, and honourably desposited in the church by order of Edward I.

{158} I have searched in vain for a valley which would answer the description here given by Geraldus, and the scene of so much pleasantry to the travellers; for neither do the old or new road, from Caernarvon to Bangor, in any way correspond. But I have since been informed, that there is a valley called Nant y Garth (near the residence of Ashton Smith, Esq. at Vaenol), which terminates at about half a mile's distance from the Menai, and therefore not observable from the road; it is a serpentine ravine of more than a mile, in a direction towards the mountains, and probably that which the crusaders crossed on their journey to Bangor.

{159} Bangor. - This cathedral church must not be confounded with the celebrated college of the same name, in Flintshire, founded by Dunod Vawr, son of Pabo, a chieftain who lived about the beginning of the sixth century, and from him called Bangor Dunod. The Bangor, i.e. the college, in Caernarvonshire, is properly called Bangor Deiniol, Bangor Vawr yn Arllechwedd, and Bangor Vawr uwch Conwy. It owes its origin to Deiniol, son of Dunod ap Pabo, a saint who lived in the early part of the sixth century, and in the year 525 founded this college at Bangor, in Caernarvonshire, over which he presided as abbot. Guy Rufus, called by our author Guia.n.u.s, was at this time bishop of this see, and died in 1190.

{160} Guia.n.u.s, or Guy Rufus, dean of Waltham, in Ess.e.x, and consecrated to this see, at Ambresbury, Wilts, in May 1177.

{161} Mona, or Anglesey.

{162} The spot selected by Baldwin for addressing the mult.i.tude, has in some degree been elucidated by the anonymous author of the Supplement to Rowland's Mona Antiqua. He says, that "From tradition and memorials still retained, we have reasons to suppose that they met in an open place in the parish of Landisilio, called Cerrig y Borth. The inhabitants, by the grateful remembrance, to perpetuate the honour of that day, called the place where the archbishop stood, Carreg yr Archjagon, i.e. the Archbishop's Rock; and where prince Roderic stood, Maen Roderic, or the Stone of Roderic." This account is in part corroborated by the following communication from Mr.

Richard Llwyd of Beaumaris, who made personal inquiries on the spot.

"Cerrig y Borth, being a rough, undulating district, could not, for that reason, have been chosen for addressing a mult.i.tude; but adjoining it there are two eminences which command a convenient surface for that purpose; one called Maen Rodi (the Stone or Rock of Roderic), the property of Owen Williams, Esq.; and the other Carreg Iago, belonging to Lord Uxbridge. This last, as now p.r.o.nounced, means the Rock of St. James; but I have no difficulty in admitting, that Carreg yr Arch Iagon may (by the compression of common, undiscriminating language, and the obliteration of the event from ignorant minds by the lapse of so many centuries) be contracted into Carreg Iago. Cadair yr archesgob is now also contracted into Cadair (chair, a seat naturally formed in the rock, with a rude arch over it, on the road side, which is a rough terrace over the breast of a rocky and commanding cliff, and the nearest way from the above eminences to the insulated church of Landisilio. This word Cadair, though in general language a chair, yet when applied to exalted situations, means an observatory, as Cadair Idris, etc.; but there can, in my opinion, be no doubt that this seat in the rock is that described by the words Cadair yr Archesgob." [Still more probable, and certainly more flattering to Giraldus, is that it was called "Cadair yr Arch Ddiacon" (the Archdeacon's chair).]

{163} This hundred contained the comots of Mynyw, or St. David's, and Pencaer.

{164} I am indebted to Mr. Richard Llwyd for the following curious extract from a Ma.n.u.script of the late intelligent Mr. Rowlands, respecting this miraculous stone, called Maen Morddwyd, or the stone of the thigh, which once existed in Llanidan parish. "Hic etiam lapis lumbi, vulgo Maen Morddwyd, in hujus caemiterii vallo loc.u.m sibi e longo a retro tempore obtinuit, exindeque his nuperis annis, quo nescio papicola vel qua inscia manu nulla ut olim retinente virtute, quae tunc penitus elanguit aut vetustate evaporavit, nullo sane loci dispendio, nec illi qui eripuit emolumento, ereptus et deportatus fuit."