Title: The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin Through Wales
Author: Cambrensis, Giraldus
Language: English
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BALDWIN THROUGH WALES***


Transcribed from the 1912 J. M. Dent and Sons edition by David Price,
email ccx074@pglaf.org



            THE ITINERARY OF ARCHBISHOP BALDWIN THROUGH WALES
                                    by
                           Giraldus Cambrensis


INTRODUCTION


GERALD THE WELSHMAN—Giraldus Cambrensis—was born, probably in 1147, at
Manorbier Castle in the county of Pembroke.  His father was a Norman
noble, William de Barri, who took his name from the little island of
Barry off the coast of Glamorgan.  His mother, Angharad, was the daughter
of Gerald de Windsor {0a} by his wife, the famous Princess Nesta, the
“Helen of Wales,” and the daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr Mawr, the last
independent Prince of South Wales.

Gerald was therefore born to romance and adventure.  He was reared in the
traditions of the House of Dinevor.  He heard the brilliant and pitiful
stories of Rhys ap Tewdwr, who, after having lost and won South Wales,
died on the stricken field fighting against the Normans, an old man of
over fourscore years; and of his gallant son, Prince Rhys, who, after
wrenching his patrimony from the invaders, died of a broken heart a few
months after his wife, the Princess Gwenllian, had fallen in a skirmish
at Kidwelly.  No doubt he heard, though he makes but sparing allusion to
them, of the loves and adventures of his grandmother, the Princess Nesta,
the daughter and sister of a prince, the wife of an adventurer, the
concubine of a king, and the paramour of every daring lover—a Welshwoman
whose passions embroiled all Wales, and England too, in war, and the
mother of heroes—Fitz-Geralds, Fitz-Stephens, and Fitz-Henries, and
others—who, regardless of their mother’s eccentricity in the choice of
their fathers, united like brothers in the most adventurous undertaking
of that age, the Conquest of Ireland.

Though his mother was half Saxon and his father probably fully Norman,
Gerald, with a true instinct, described himself as a “Welshman.”  His
frank vanity, so naïve as to be void of offence, his easy acceptance of
everything which Providence had bestowed on him, his incorrigible belief
that all the world took as much interest in himself and all that appealed
to him as he did himself, the readiness with which he adapted himself to
all sorts of men and of circumstances, his credulity in matters of faith
and his shrewd common sense in things of the world, his wit and lively
fancy, his eloquence of tongue and pen, his acute rather than accurate
observation, his scholarship elegant rather than profound, are all
characteristic of a certain lovable type of South Walian.  He was not
blind to the defects of his countrymen any more than to others of his
contemporaries, but the Welsh he chastised as one who loved them.  His
praise followed ever close upon the heels of his criticism.  There was
none of the rancour in his references to Wales which defaces his account
of contemporary Ireland.  He was acquainted with Welsh, though he does
not seem to have preached it, and another archdeacon acted as the
interpreter of Archbishop Baldwin’s Crusade sermon in Anglesea.  But he
could appreciate the charm of the _Cynghanedd_, the alliterative
assonance which is still the most distinctive feature of Welsh poetry.
He cannot conceal his sympathy with the imperishable determination of his
countrymen to keep alive the language which is their _differentia_ among
the nations of the world.  It is manifest in the story which he relates
at the end of his “Description of Wales.”  Henry II. asked an old
Welshman of Pencader in Carmarthenshire if the Welsh could resist his
might.  “This nation, O King,” was the reply, “may often be weakened and
in great part destroyed by the power of yourself and of others, but many
a time, as it deserves, it will rise triumphant.  But never will it be
destroyed by the wrath of man, unless the wrath of God be added.  Nor do
I think that any other nation than this of Wales, or any other tongue,
whatever may hereafter come to pass, shall on the day of the great
reckoning before the Most High Judge, answer for this corner of the
earth.”  Prone to discuss with his “Britannic frankness” the faults of
his countrymen, he cannot bear that any one else should do so.  In the
“Description of Wales” he breaks off in the middle of a most unflattering
passage concerning the character of the Welsh people to lecture Gildas
for having abused his own countrymen.  In the preface to his “Instruction
of Princes,” he makes a bitter reference to the prejudice of the English
Court against everything Welsh—“Can any good thing come from Wales?”  His
fierce Welshmanship is perhaps responsible for the unsympathetic
treatment which he has usually received at the hands of English
historians.  Even to one of the writers of Dr. Traill’s “Social England,”
Gerald was little more than “a strong and passionate Welshman.”

Sometimes it was his pleasure to pose as a citizen of the world.  He
loved Paris, the centre of learning, where he studied as a youth, and
where he lectured in his early manhood.  He paid four long visits to
Rome.  He was Court chaplain to Henry II.  He accompanied the king on his
expeditions to France, and Prince John to Ireland.  He retired, when old
age grew upon him, to the scholarly seclusion of Lincoln, far from his
native land.  He was the friend and companion of princes and kings, of
scholars and prelates everywhere in England, in France, and in Italy.
And yet there was no place in the world so dear to him as Manorbier.  Who
can read his vivid description of the old castle by the sea—its ramparts
blown upon by the winds that swept over the Irish Sea, its fishponds, its
garden, and its lofty nut trees—without feeling that here, after all, was
the home of Gerald de Barri?  “As Demetia,” he said in his “Itinerary,”
“with its seven cantreds is the fairest of all the lands of Wales, as
Pembroke is the fairest part of Demetia, and this spot the fairest of
Pembroke, it follows that Manorbier is the sweetest spot in Wales.”  He
has left us a charming account of his boyhood, playing with his brothers
on the sands, they building castles and he cathedrals, he earning the
title of “boy bishop” by preaching while they engaged in boyish sport.
On his last recorded visit to Wales, a broken man, hunted like a criminal
by the king, and deserted by the ingrate canons of St. David’s, he
retired for a brief respite from strife to the sweet peace of Manorbier.
It is not known where he died, but it is permissible to hope that he
breathed his last in the old home which he never forgot or ceased to
love.

He mentions that the Welsh loved high descent and carried their pedigree
about with them.  In this respect also Gerald was Welsh to the core.  He
is never more pleased than when he alludes to his relationship with the
Princes of Wales, or the Geraldines, or Cadwallon ap Madoc of Powis.  He
hints, not obscurely, that the real reason why he was passed over for the
Bishopric of St. David’s in 1186 was that Henry II. feared his _natio et
cognatio_, his nation and his family.  He becomes almost dithyrambic in
extolling the deeds of his kinsmen in Ireland.  “Who are they who
penetrated into the fastnesses of the enemy?  The Geraldines.  Who are
they who hold the country in submission?  The Geraldines.  Who are they
whom the foemen dread?  The Geraldines.  Who are they whom envy would
disparage?  The Geraldines.  Yet fight on, my gallant kinsmen,

    “Felices facti si quid mea carmina possuit.”

Gerald was satisfied, not only with his birthplace and lineage, but with
everything that was his.  He makes complacent references to his good
looks, which he had inherited from Princess Nesta.  “Is it possible so
fair a youth can die?” asked Bishop, afterwards Archbishop, Baldwin, when
he saw him in his student days. {0b}  Even in his letters to Pope
Innocent he could not refrain from repeating a compliment paid to him on
his good looks by Matilda of St. Valery, the wife of his neighbour at
Brecon, William de Braose.  He praises his own unparalleled generosity in
entertaining the poor, the doctors, and the townsfolk of Oxford to
banquets on three successive days when he read his “Topography of
Ireland” before that university.  As for his learning he records that
when his tutors at Paris wished to point out a model scholar they
mentioned Giraldus Cambrensis.  He is confident that though his works,
being all written in Latin, have not attained any great contemporary
popularity, they will make his name and fame secure for ever.  The most
precious gift he could give to Pope Innocent III., when he was anxious to
win his favour, was six volumes of his own works; and when good old
Archbishop Baldwin came to preach the Crusade in Wales, Gerald could
think of no better present to help beguile the tedium of the journey than
his own “Topography of Ireland.”  He is equally pleased with his own
eloquence.  When the archbishop had preached, with no effect, for an
hour, and exclaimed what a hardhearted people it was, Gerald moved them
almost instantly to tears.  He records also that John Spang, the Lord
Rhys’s fool, said to his master at Cardigan, after Gerald had been
preaching the Crusade, “You owe a great debt, O Rhys, to your kinsman,
the archdeacon, who has taken a hundred or so of your men to serve the
Lord; for if he had only spoken in Welsh, you would not have had a soul
left.”  His works are full of appreciations of Gerald’s reforming zeal,
his administrative energy, his unostentatious and scholarly life.

Professor Freeman in his “Norman Conquest” described Gerald as “the
father of comparative philology,” and in the preface to his edition of
the last volume of Gerald’s works in the Rolls Series, he calls him “one
of the most learned men of a learned age,” “the universal scholar.”  His
range of subjects is indeed marvellous even for an age when to be a
“universal scholar” was not so hopeless of attainment as it has since
become.  Professor Brewer, his earliest editor in the Rolls Series, is
struck by the same characteristic.  “Geography, history, ethics,
divinity, canon law, biography, natural history, epistolary
correspondence, and poetry employed his pen by turns, and in all these
departments of literature he has left memorials of his ability.”  Without
being Ciceronian, his Latin was far better than that of his
contemporaries.  He was steeped in the classics, and he had, as Professor
Freeman remarks, “mastered more languages than most men of his time, and
had looked at them with an approach to a scientific view which still
fewer men of his time shared with him.”  He quotes Welsh, English, Irish,
French, German, Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, and with four or five of these
languages at least he had an intimate, scholarly acquaintance.  His
judgment of men and things may not always have been sound, but he was a
shrewd observer of contemporary events.  “The cleverest critic of the
life of his time” is the verdict of Mr. Reginald Poole. {0c}  He changed
his opinions often: he was never ashamed of being inconsistent.  In early
life he was, perhaps naturally, an admirer of the Angevin dynasty; he
lived to draw the most terrible picture extant of their lives and
characters.  During his lifetime he never ceased to inveigh against
Archbishop Hubert Walter; after his death he repented and recanted.  His
invective was sometimes coarse, and his abuse was always virulent.  He
was not over-scrupulous in his methods of controversy; but no one can
rise from a reading of his works without a feeling of liking for the
vivacious, cultured, impulsive, humorous, irrepressible Welshman.
Certainly no Welshman can regard the man who wrote so lovingly of his
native land, and who championed her cause so valiantly, except with real
gratitude and affection.

But though it is as a writer of books that Gerald has become famous, he
was a man of action, who would have left, had Fate been kinder, an
enduring mark on the history of his own time, and would certainly have
changed the whole current of Welsh religious life.  As a descendant of
the Welsh princes, he took himself seriously as a Welsh patriot.
Destined almost from his cradle, both by the bent of his mind and the
inclination of his father, to don “the habit of religion,” he could not
join Prince Rhys or Prince Llewelyn in their struggle for the political
independence of Wales.  His ambition was to become Bishop of St. David’s,
and then to restore the Welsh Church to her old position of independence
of the metropolitan authority of Canterbury.  He detested the practice of
promoting Normans to Welsh sees, and of excluding Welshmen from high
positions in their own country.  “Because I am a Welshman, am I to be
debarred from all preferment in Wales?” he indignantly writes to the
Pope.  Circumstances at first seemed to favour his ambition.  His uncle,
David Fitz-Gerald, sat in the seat of St. David’s.  When the young
scholar returned from Paris in 1172, he found the path of promotion easy.
After the manner of that age—which Gerald lived to denounce—he soon
became a pluralist.  He held the livings of Llanwnda, Tenby, and Angle,
and afterwards the prebend of Mathry, in Pembrokeshire, and the living of
Chesterton in Oxfordshire.  He was also prebendary of Hereford, canon of
St. David’s, and in 1175, when only twenty-eight years of age, he became
Archdeacon of Brecon.  In the following year Bishop David died, and
Gerald, together with the other archdeacons of the diocese, was nominated
by the chapter for the king’s choice.  But the chapter had been
premature, urged, no doubt, by the impetuous young Archdeacon of Brecon.
They had not waited for the king’s consent to the nomination.  The king
saw that his settled policy in Wales would be overturned if Gerald became
Bishop of St. David’s.  Gerald’s cousin, the Lord Rhys, had been
appointed the king’s justiciar in South Wales.  The power of the Lord
Marches was to be kept in check by a quasi-alliance between the Welsh
prince and his over-lord.  The election of Gerald to the greatest see in
Wales would upset the balance of power.  David Fitz-Gerald, good easy man
(_vir suâ sorte contentus_ is Gerald’s description of him), the king
could tolerate, but he could not contemplate without uneasiness the
combination of spiritual and political power in South Wales in the hands
of two able, ambitious, and energetic kinsmen, such as he knew Gerald and
the Lord Rhys to be.  Gerald had made no secret of his admiration for the
martyred St. Thomas à Becket.  He fashioned himself upon him as Becket
did on Anselm.  The part which Becket played in England he would like to
play in Wales.  But the sovereign who had destroyed Becket was not to be
frightened by the canons of St. David’s and the Archdeacon of Brecon.  He
summoned the chapter to Westminster, and compelled them in his presence
to elect Peter de Leia, the Prior of Wenlock, who erected for himself an
imperishable monument in the noble cathedral which looks as if it had
sprung up from the rocks which guard the city of Dewi Sant from the
inrush of the western sea.

It is needless to recount the many activities in which Gerald engaged
during the next twenty-two years.  They have been recounted with humorous
and affectionate appreciation by Dr. Henry Owen in his monograph on
“Gerald the Welshman,” a little masterpiece of biography which deserves
to be better known. {0d}  In 1183 Gerald was employed by the astute king
to settle terms between him and the rebellious Lord Rhys.  Nominally as a
reward for his successful diplomacy, but probably in order to keep so
dangerous a character away from the turbulent land of Wales, Gerald was
in the following year made a Court chaplain.  In 1185 he was commissioned
by the king to accompany Prince John, then a lad of eighteen, who had
lately been created “Lord of Ireland,” to the city of Dublin.  There he
abode for two years, collecting materials for his two first books, the
“Topography” and the “Conquest of Ireland.”  In 1188 he accompanied
Archbishop Baldwin through Wales to preach the Third Crusade—not the
first or the last inconsistency of which the champion of the independence
of the Welsh Church was guilty.  His “Itinerary through Wales” is the
record of the expedition.  King Richard offered him the Bishopric of
Bangor, and John, in his brother’s absence, offered him that of Llandaff.
But his heart was set on St. David’s.  In 1198 his great chance came to
him.  At last, after twenty-two years of misrule, Peter de Leia was dead,
and Gerald seemed certain of attaining his heart’s desire.  Once again
the chapter nominated Gerald; once more the royal authority was exerted,
this time by Archbishop Hubert, the justiciar in the king’s absence, to
defeat the ambitious Welshman.  The chapter decided to send a deputation
to King Richard in Normandy.  The deputation arrived at Chinon to find
Coeur-de-Lion dead; but John was anxious to make friends everywhere, in
order to secure himself on his uncertain throne.  He received the
deputation graciously, he spoke in praise of Gerald, and he agreed to
accept the nomination.  But after his return to England John changed his
mind.  He found that no danger threatened him in his island kingdom, and
he saw the wisdom of the justiciar’s policy.  Gerald hurried to see him,
but John point blank refused publicly to ratify his consent to the
nomination which he had already given in private.  Then commenced the
historic fight for St. David’s which, in view of the still active “Church
question” in Wales, is even now invested with a living interest and
significance.  Gerald contended that the Welsh Church was independent of
Canterbury, and that it was only recently, since the Norman Conquest,
that she had been deprived of her freedom.  His opponents relied on
political, rather than historical, considerations to defeat this bold
claim.  King Henry, when a deputation from the chapter in 1175 appeared
before the great council in London and had urged the metropolitan claims
of St. David’s upon the Cardinal Legate, exclaimed that he had no
intention of giving this head to rebellion in Wales.  Archbishop Hubert,
more of a statesman than an ecclesiastic, based his opposition on similar
grounds.  He explained his reasons bluntly to the Pope.  “Unless the
barbarity of this fierce and lawless people can be restrained by
ecclesiastical censures through the see of Canterbury, to which province
they are subject by law, they will be for ever rising in arms against the
king, to the disquiet of the whole realm of England.”  Gerald’s answer to
this was complete, except from the point of view of political expediency.
“What can be more unjust than that this people of ancient faith, because
they answer force by force in defence of their lives, their lands, and
their liberties, should be forthwith separated from the body corporate of
Christendom, and delivered over to Satan?”

The story of the long fight between Gerald on the one hand and the whole
forces of secular and ecclesiastical authority on the other cannot be
told here.  Three times did he visit Rome to prosecute his appeal—alone
against the world.  He had to journey through districts disturbed by
wars, infested with the king’s men or the king’s enemies, all of whom
regarded Gerald with hostility.  He was taken and thrown into prison as
King John’s subject in one town, he was detained by importunate creditors
in another, and at Rome he was betrayed by a countryman whom he had
befriended.  He himself has told us

                Of the most disastrous chances
    Of moving accidents by flood and field,

which made a journey from St. David’s to Rome a more perilous adventure
in those unquiet days than an expedition “through darkest Africa” is in
ours.  At last the very Chapter of St. David’s, for whose ancient rights
he was contending, basely deserted him.  “The laity of Wales stood by
me,” so he wrote in later days, “but of the clergy whose battle I was
fighting scarce one.”  Pope Innocent III. was far too wary a politician
to favour the claims of a small and distracted nation, already
half-subjugated, against the king of a rich and powerful country.  He
flattered our poor Gerald, he delighted in his company, he accepted, and
perhaps even read, his books.  But in the end, after five years’
incessant fighting, the decision went against him, and the English king’s
nominee has ever since sat on the throne of St. David’s.  “Many and great
wars,” said Gwenwynwyn, the Prince of Powis, “have we Welshmen waged with
England, but none so great and fierce as his who fought the king and the
archbishop, and withstood the might of the whole clergy and people of
England, for the honour of Wales.”

Short was the memory and scant the gratitude of his countrymen.  When in
1214 another vacancy occurred at a time when King John was at variance
with his barons and his prelates, the Chapter of St. David’s nominated,
not Gerald, their old champion, but Iorwerth, the Abbot of Talley, from
whose reforming zeal they had nothing to fear.  This last prick of
Fortune’s sword pierced Gerald to the quick.  He had for years been
gradually withdrawing from an active life.  He had resigned his
archdeaconry and his prebend stall, he had made a fourth pilgrimage, this
time for his soul’s sake, to Rome, he had retired to a quiet pursuit of
letters probably at Lincoln, and henceforward, till his death about the
year 1223, he devoted himself to revising and embellishing his old works,
and completing his literary labours.  By his fight for St. David’s he had
endeared himself to the laity of his country for all time.  The saying of
Llewelyn the Great was prophetic.  “So long as Wales shall stand by the
writings of the chroniclers and by the songs of the bards shall his noble
deed be praised throughout all time.”  The prophecy has not yet been
verified.  Welsh chroniclers have made but scanty references to Gerald;
no bard has ever yet sung an _Awdl_ or a _Pryddest_ in honour of him who
fought for the “honour of Wales.”  His countrymen have forgotten Gerald
the Welshman.  It has been left to Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Foster,
Professor Brewer, Dimmock, and Professor Freeman to edit his works.  Only
two of his countrymen have attempted to rescue one of the greatest of
Welshmen from an undeserved oblivion.  In 1585, when the Renaissance of
Letters had begun to rouse the dormant powers of the Cymry, Dr. David
Powel edited in Latin a garbled version of the “Itinerary” and
“Description of Wales,” and gave a short and inaccurate account of
Gerald’s life.  In 1889 Dr. Henry Owen published, “at his own proper
charges,” the first adequate account by a Welshman of the life and
labours of Giraldus Cambrensis.  When his monument is erected in the
cathedral which was built by his hated rival, the epitaph which he
composed for himself may well be inscribed upon it—

    Cambria Giraldus genuit, sic Cambria mentem
    Erudiit, cineres cui lapis iste tegit.

And by that time perhaps some competent scholar will have translated some
at least of Gerald’s works into the language best understood by the
people of Wales.

It would be impossible to exaggerate the enormous services which three
great Welshmen of the twelfth century rendered to England and to the
world—such services as we may securely hope will be emulated by Welshmen
of the next generation, now that we have lived to witness what Mr.
Theodore Watts-Dunton has called “the great recrudescence of Cymric
energy.” {0e}  The romantic literature of England owes its origin to
Geoffrey of Monmouth; {0f} Sir Galahad, the stainless knight, the mirror
of Christian chivalry, as well as the nobler portions of the Arthurian
romance, were the creation of Walter Map, the friend and “gossip” of
Gerald; {0g} and John Richard Green has truly called Gerald himself “the
father of popular literature.” {0h}  He began to write when he was only
twenty; he continued to write till he was past the allotted span of life.
He is the most “modern” as well as the most voluminous of all the
mediæval writers.  Of all English writers, Miss Kate Norgate {0i} has
perhaps most justly estimated the real place of Gerald in English
letters.  “Gerald’s wide range of subjects,” she says, “is only less
remarkable than the ease and freedom with which he treats them.  Whatever
he touches—history, archæology, geography, natural science, politics, the
social life and thought of the day, the physical peculiarities of Ireland
and the manners and customs of its people, the picturesque scenery and
traditions of his own native land, the scandals of the court and the
cloister, the petty struggle for the primacy of Wales, and the great
tragedy of the fall of the Angevin Empire—is all alike dealt with in the
bold, dashing, offhand style of a modern newspaper or magazine article.
His first important work, the ‘Topography of Ireland,’ is, with due
allowance for the difference between the tastes of the twelfth century
and those of the nineteenth, just such a series of sketches as a special
correspondent in our own day might send from some newly-colonised island
in the Pacific to satisfy or whet the curiosity of his readers at home.”
The description aptly applies to all that Gerald wrote.  If not a
historian, he was at least a great journalist.  His descriptions of
Ireland have been subjected to much hostile criticism from the day they
were written to our own times.  They were assailed at the time, as Gerald
himself tells us, for their unconventionality, for their departure from
established custom, for the freedom and colloquialism of their style, for
the audacity of their stories, and for the writer’s daring in venturing
to treat the manners and customs of a barbarous country as worthy the
attention of the learned and the labours of the historian.  Irish
scholars, from the days of Dr. John Lynch, who published his “Cambrensis
Eversus” in 1622, have unanimously denounced the work of the sensational
journalist, born out of due time.  His Irish books are confessedly
partisan; the “Conquest of Ireland” was expressly designed as an eulogy
of “the men of St. David’s,” the writer’s own kinsmen.  But in spite of
partisanship and prejudice, they must be regarded as a serious and
valuable addition to our knowledge of the state of Ireland at the latter
end of the twelfth century.  Indeed, Professor Brewer does not hesitate
to say that “to his industry we are exclusively indebted for all that is
known of the state of Ireland during the whole of the Middle Ages,” and
as to the “Topography,” Gerald “must take rank with the first who
descried the value and in some respects the limits of descriptive
geography.”

When he came to deal with the affairs of state on a larger stage, his
methods were still that of the modern journalist.  He was always an
impressionist, a writer of personal sketches.  His character sketches of
the Plantagenet princes—of King Henry with his large round head and fat
round belly, his fierce eyes, his tigerish temper, his learning, his
licentiousness, his duplicity, and of Eleanor of Aquitaine, his vixenish
and revengeful wife, the murderess of “Fair Rosamond” (who must have been
known to Gerald, being the daughter of Walter of Clifford-on-the-Wye),
and of the fierce brood that they reared—are of extraordinary interest.
His impressions of the men and events of his time, his fund of anecdotes
and _bon mots_, his references to trivial matters, which more dignified
writers would never deign to mention, his sprightly and sometimes
malicious gossip, invest his period with a reality which the greatest of
fiction-writers has failed to rival.  Gerald lived in the days of
chivalry, days which have been crowned with a halo of deathless romance
by the author of “Ivanhoe” and the “Talisman.”  He knew and was intimate
with all the great actors of the time.  He had lived in the Paris of St.
Louis and Philip Augustus, and was never tired of exalting the House of
Capet over the tyrannical and bloodthirsty House of Anjou.  He had no
love of England, for her Plantagenet kings or her Saxon serfs.  During
the French invasion in the time of King John his sympathies were openly
with the Dauphin as against the “brood of vipers,” who were equally alien
to English soil.  For the Saxon, indeed, he felt the twofold hatred of
Welshman and Norman.  One of his opponents is denounced to the Pope as an
“untriwe Sax,” and the Saxons are described as the slaves of the Normans,
the mere hewers of wood and drawers of water for their conquerors.  He
met Innocent III., the greatest of Popes, in familiar converse, he jested
and gossiped with him in slippered ease, he made him laugh at his endless
stories of the glory of Wales, the iniquities of the Angevins, and the
bad Latin of Archbishop Walter.  He knew Richard Cœur-de-Lion, the flower
of chivalry, and saw him as he was and “not through a glass darkly.”  He
knew John, the cleverest and basest of his house.  He knew and loved
Stephen Langton, the precursor of a long line of statesmen who have made
English liberty broad—based upon the people’s will.  He was a friend of
St. Hugh of Lincoln, the sweetest and purest spirit in the Anglican
Church of the Middle Ages, the one man who could disarm the wrath of the
fierce king with a smile; and he was the friend and patron of Robert
Grosstete, afterwards the great Bishop of Lincoln.  He lived much in
company with Ranulph de Glanville, the first English jurist, and he has
“Boswellised” some of his conversations with him.  He was intimate with
Archbishop Baldwin, the saintly prelate who laid down his life in the
Third Crusade on the burning plains of Palestine, heart-broken at the
unbridled wickedness of the soldiers of the Cross.  He was the near
kinsman and confidant of the Cambro-Normans, who, landing in Leinster in
1165, effected what may be described as the first conquest of Ireland.
There was scarcely a man of note in his day whom he had not seen and
conversed with, or of whom he does not relate some piquant story.  He had
travelled much, and had observed closely.  Probably the most valuable of
all his works, from the strictly historical point of view, are the
“Itinerary” and “Description of Wales,” which are reprinted in the
present volume. {0j}  Here he is impartial in his evidence, and judicial
in his decisions.  If he errs at all, it is not through racial prejudice.
“I am sprung,” he once told the Pope in a letter, “from the princes of
Wales and from the barons of the Marches, and when I see injustice in
either race, I hate it.”

The text is that of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, who published an English
translation, chiefly from the texts of Camden and Wharton, in 1806.  The
valuable historical notes have been curtailed, as being too elaborate for
such a volume as this, and a few notes have been added by the present
editor.  These will be found within brackets.  Hoare’s translation, and
also translations (edited by Mr. Foster) of the Irish books have been
published in Bohn’s Antiquarian Library.

The first of the seven volumes of the Latin text of Gerald, published in
the Rolls Series, appeared in 1861.  The first four volumes were edited
by Professor Brewer; the next two by Mr. Dimmock; and the seventh by
Professor Freeman.

                                                     W. LLEWELYN WILLIAMS.

_January_ 1908.

                                * * * * *

The following is a list of the more important of the works of Gerald:—

  Topographia Hibernica, Expugnatio Hibernica, Itinerarium Kambriæ,
  Descriptio Kambriæ, Gemma Ecclesiastica, Libellus Invectionum, De Rebus
  a se Gestis, Dialogus de jure et statu Menevensis Ecclesiæ, De
  Instructione Principum, De Legendis Sanctorum, Symbolum Electorum.



FIRST PREFACE
TO STEPHEN LANGTON, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY


AS the times are affected by the changes of circumstances, so are the
minds of men influenced by different manners and customs.  The satirist
[Persius] exclaims,

    “Mille hominum species et mentis discolor usus;
    Velle suum cuique est, nec voto vivitur uno.”

    “Nature is ever various in her name;
    Each has a different will, and few the same.”

The comic poet also says, “_Quot capita tot sententiæ_, _suus cuique mos
est_.”  “As many men, so many minds, each has his way.”  Young soldiers
exult in war, and pleaders delight in the gown; others aspire after
riches, and think them the supreme good.  Some approve Galen, some
Justinian.  Those who are desirous of honours follow the court, and from
their ambitious pursuits meet with more mortification than satisfaction.
Some, indeed, but very few, take pleasure in the liberal arts, amongst
whom we cannot but admire logicians, who, when they have made only a
trifling progress, are as much enchanted with the images of Dialectics,
as if they were listening to the songs of the Syrens.

But among so many species of men, where are to be found divine poets?
Where the noble assertors of morals?  Where the masters of the Latin
tongue?  Who in the present times displays lettered eloquence, either in
history or poetry?  Who, I say, in our own age, either builds a system of
ethics, or consigns illustrious actions to immortality?  Literary fame,
which used to be placed in the highest rank, is now, because of the
depravity of the times, tending to ruin and degraded to the lowest, so
that persons attached to study are at present not only not imitated nor
venerated, but even detested.  “Happy indeed would be the arts,” observes
Fabius, “if artists alone judged of the arts;” but, as Sydonius says, “it
is a fixed principle in the human mind, that they who are ignorant of the
arts despise the artist.”

But to revert to our subject.  Which, I ask, have rendered more service
to the world, the arms of Marius or the verses of Virgil?  The sword of
Marius has rusted, while the fame of him who wrote the Æneid is immortal;
and although in his time letters were honoured by lettered persons, yet
from his own pen we find,

             “— — tantum
    Carmina nostra valent tela inter Martia, quantum
    Chaonias dicunt, aquila veniente, columbas.”

Who would hesitate in deciding which are more profitable, the works of
St. Jerom, or the riches of Crœsus? but where now shine the gold and
silver of Crœsus? whilst the world is instructed by the example and
enlightened by the learning of the poor cœnobite.  Yet even he, through
envy, suffered stripes and contumely at Rome, although his character was
so illustrious; and at length being driven beyond the seas, found a
refuge for his studies in the solitude of Bethlehem.  Thus it appears,
that gold and arms may support us in this life, but avail nothing after
death; and that letters through envy profit nothing in this world, but,
like a testament, acquire an immortal value from the seal of death.

According to the poet,

    “Pascitur in vivis livor, post fata quiescit;
          Cum suus ex merito quemque tuetur honor.”

And also

    “Denique si quis adhuc prætendit nubila, livor
    Occidet, et meriti post me referentur honores.”

Those who by artifice endeavour to acquire or preserve the reputation of
abilities or ingenuity, while they abound in the words of others, have
little cause to boast of their own inventions.  For the composers of that
polished language, in which such various cases as occur in the great body
of law are treated with such an appropriate elegance of style, must ever
stand forward in the first ranks of praise.  I should indeed have said,
that the authors of refined language, not the hearers only, the
inventors, not the reciters, are most worthy of commendation.  You will
find, however, that the practices of the court and of the schools are
extremely similar; as well in the subtleties they employ to lead you
forward, as in the steadiness with which they generally maintain their
own positions.  Yet it is certain that the knowledge of logic (the
_acumen_, if I may so express it, of all other sciences as well as arts)
is very useful, when restricted within proper bounds; whilst the court
(_i.e._ courtly language), excepting to sycophants or ambitious men, is
by no means necessary.  For if you are successful at court, ambition
never wholly quits its hold till satiated, and allures and draws you
still closer; but if your labour is thrown away, you still continue the
pursuit, and, together with your substance, lose your time, the greatest
and most irretrievable of all losses.  There is likewise some resemblance
between the court and the game of dice, as the poet observes:—

    “Sic ne perdiderit non cessat perdere lusor,
          Dum revocat cupidas alea blanda manus;”

which, by substituting the word _curia_ for _alea_, may be applied to the
court.  This further proof of their resemblance may be added; that as the
chances of the dice and court are not productive of any real delight, so
they are equally distributed to the worthy and the unworthy.

Since, therefore, among so many species of men, each follows his own
inclination, and each is actuated by different desires, a regard for
posterity has induced me to choose the study of composition; and, as this
life is temporary and mutable, it is grateful to live in the memory of
future ages, and to be immortalized by fame; for to toil after that which
produces envy in life, but glory after death, is a sure indication of an
elevated mind.  Poets and authors indeed aspire after immortality, but do
not reject any present advantages that may offer.

I formerly completed with vain and fruitless labour the Topography of
Ireland for its companion, the king Henry the Second, and Vaticinal
History, for Richard of Poitiou, his son, and, I wish I were not
compelled to add, his successor in vice; princes little skilled in
letters, and much engaged in business.  To you, illustrious Stephen,
archbishop of Canterbury, equally commendable for your learning and
religion, I now dedicate the account of our meritorious journey through
the rugged provinces of Cambria, written in a scholastic style, and
divided into two parts.  For as virtue loves itself, and detests what is
contrary to it, so I hope you will consider whatever I may have written
in commendation of your late venerable and eminent predecessor, with no
less affection than if it related to yourself.  To you also, when
completed, I destine my treatise on the Instruction of a Prince, if,
amidst your religious and worldly occupations, you can find leisure for
the perusal of it.  For I purpose to submit these and other fruits of my
diligence to be tasted by you at your discretion, each in its proper
order; hoping that, if my larger undertakings do not excite your
interest, my smaller works may at least merit your approbation,
conciliate your favour, and call forth my gratitude towards you; who,
unmindful of worldly affections, do not partially distribute your
bounties to your family and friends, but to letters and merit; you, who,
in the midst of such great and unceasing contests between the crown and
the priesthood, stand forth almost singly the firm and faithful friend of
the British church; you, who, almost the only one duly elected, fulfil
the scriptural designation of the episcopal character.  It is not,
however, by bearing a cap, by placing a cushion, by shielding off the
rain, or by wiping the dust, even if there should be none, in the midst
of a herd of flatterers, that I attempt to conciliate your favour, but by
my writings.  To you, therefore, rare, noble, and illustrious man, on
whom nature and art have showered down whatever becomes your supereminent
situation, I dedicate my works; but if I fail in this mode of
conciliating your favour, and if your prayers and avocations should not
allow you sufficient time to read them, I shall consider the honour of
letters as vanished, and in hope of its revival I shall inscribe my
writings to posterity.



SECOND PREFACE
TO THE SAME PRELATE


SINCE those things, which are known to have been done through a laudable
devotion, are not unworthily extolled with due praises; and since the
mind, when relaxed, loses its energy, and the torpor of sloth enervates
the understanding, as iron acquires rust for want of use, and stagnant
waters become foul; lest my pen should be injured by the rust of
idleness, I have thought good to commit to writing the devout visitation
which Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, made throughout Wales; and to
hand down, as it were in a mirror, through you, O illustrious Stephen, to
posterity, the difficult places through which we passed, the names of
springs and torrents, the witty sayings, the toils and incidents of the
journey, the memorable events of ancient and modern times, and the
natural history and description of the country; lest my study should
perish through idleness, or the praise of these things be lost by
silence.



CONTENTS

                                BOOK I
CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
         I.  Journey through Hereford and Radnor                    11
        II.  Journey through Hay and Brecheinia                     18
       III.  Ewyas and Llanthoni                                    34
        IV.  The Journey by Coed Grono and Abergevenni              44
         V.  Of the Progress by the Castle of Usk and the           50
             Town of Caerleon
        VI.  Newport and Caerdyf                                    56
       VII.  The See of Landaf and Monastery of Margan, and         61
             the Remarkable Things in those Parts
      VIII.  Passage of the Rivers Avon and Neth—and of             65
             Abertawe and Goer
        IX.  Passage over the Rivers Lochor and Wendraeth;          71
             and of Cydweli
         X.  Tywy River—Caermardyn—Monastery of Albelande           73
        XI.  Of Haverford and Ros                                   76
       XII.  Of Penbroch                                            82
      XIII.  Of the Progress by Camros and Niwegal                  91
                               BOOK II
         I.  Of the See of Saint David’s                            95
        II.  Of the Journey by Cemmeis—the Monastery of St.        102
             Dogmael
       III.  Of the River Teivi—Cardigan, and Emelyn               105
        IV.  Of the Journey by Pont Stephen, the Abbey of          109
             Stratflur, Landewi Brevi, and Lhanpadarn Vawr
         V.  Of the River Devi, and the Land of the Sons of        113
             Conan
        VI.  Passage of traeth mawr and traeth bachan, and         115
             of nevyn, carnarvon, and bangor
       VII.  The island of mona                                    118
      VIII.  Passage of the river conwy in a boat, and of          125
             dinas emrys
        IX.  Of the mountains of eryri                             127
         X.  Of the passage by deganwy and ruthlan, and the        128
             see of lanelwy, and of coleshulle
        XI.  Of the passage of the river dee, and of               131
             chester
       XII.  Of the journey by the white monastery,                133
             oswaldestree, powys, and shrewsbury
      XIII.  Of the journey by wenloch, brumfeld, the              137
             castle of ludlow, and leominster, to hereford
       XIV.  A description of baldwin, archbishop of               139
             canterbury

THE ITINERARY THROUGH WALES
BOOK I


CHAPTER I
JOURNEY THROUGH HEREFORD AND RADNOR


IN the year 1188 from the incarnation of our Lord, Urban the Third {11}
being the head of the apostolic see; Frederick, emperor of Germany and
king of the Romans; Isaac, emperor of Constantinople; Philip, the son of
Louis, reigning in France; Henry the Second in England; William in
Sicily; Bela in Hungary; and Guy in Palestine: in that very year, when
Saladin, prince of the Egyptians and Damascenes, by a signal victory
gained possession of the kingdom of Jerusalem; Baldwin, archbishop of
Canterbury, a venerable man, distinguished for his learning and sanctity,
journeying from England for the service of the holy cross, entered Wales
near the borders of Herefordshire.

The archbishop proceeded to Radnor, {12a} on Ash Wednesday (_Caput
Jejunii_), accompanied by Ranulph de Glanville, privy counsellor and
justiciary of the whole kingdom, and there met Rhys, {12b} son of
Gruffydd, prince of South Wales, and many other noble personages of those
parts; where a sermon being preached by the archbishop, upon the subject
of the Crusades, and explained to the Welsh by an interpreter, the author
of this Itinerary, impelled by the urgent importunity and promises of the
king, and the persuasions of the archbishop and the justiciary, arose the
first, and falling down at the feet of the holy man, devoutly took the
sign of the cross.  His example was instantly followed by Peter, bishop
of St. David’s, {12c} a monk of the abbey of Cluny, and then by Eineon,
son of Eineon Clyd, {12d} prince of Elvenia, and many other persons.
Eineon rising up, said to Rhys, whose daughter he had married, “My father
and lord! with your permission I hasten to revenge the injury offered to
the great father of all.”  Rhys himself was so fully determined upon the
holy peregrination, as soon as the archbishop should enter his
territories on his return, that for nearly fifteen days he was employed
with great solicitude in making the necessary preparations for so distant
a journey; till his wife, and, according to the common vicious licence of
the country, his relation in the fourth degree, Guendolena, (Gwenllian),
daughter of Madoc, prince of Powys, by female artifices diverted him
wholly from his noble purpose; since, as Solomon says, “A man’s heart
deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.”  As Rhys before his
departure was conversing with his friends concerning the things he had
heard, a distinguished young man of his family, by name Gruffydd, and who
afterwards took the cross, is said thus to have answered: “What man of
spirit can refuse to undertake this journey, since, amongst all
imaginable inconveniences, nothing worse can happen to any one than to
return.”

On the arrival of Rhys in his own territory, certain canons of Saint
David’s, through a zeal for their church, having previously secured the
interest of some of the prince’s courtiers, waited on Rhys, and
endeavoured by every possible suggestion to induce him not to permit the
archbishop to proceed into the interior parts of Wales, and particularly
to the metropolitan see of Saint David’s (a thing hitherto unheard of),
at the same time asserting that if he should continue his intended
journey, the church would in future experience great prejudice, and with
difficulty would recover its ancient dignity and honour.  Although these
pleas were most strenuously urged, the natural kindness and civility of
the prince would not suffer them to prevail, lest by prohibiting the
archbishop’s progress, he might appear to wound his feelings.

Early on the following morning, after the celebration of mass, and the
return of Ranulph de Glanville to England, we came to Cruker Castle, {13}
two miles distant from Radnor, where a strong and valiant youth named
Hector, conversing with the archbishop about taking the cross, said, “If
I had the means of getting provisions for one day, and of keeping fast on
the next, I would comply with your advice;” on the following day,
however, he took the cross.  The same evening, Malgo, son of Cadwallon,
prince of Melenia, after a short but efficacious exhortation from the
archbishop, and not without the tears and lamentations of his friends,
was marked with the sign of the cross.

But here it is proper to mention what happened during the reign of king
Henry the First to the lord of the castle of Radnor, in the adjoining
territory of Builth, {14a} who had entered the church of Saint Avan
(which is called in the British language Llan Avan), {14b} and, without
sufficient caution or reverence, had passed the night there with his
hounds.  Arising early in the morning, according to the custom of
hunters, he found his hounds mad, and himself struck blind.  After a
long, dark, and tedious existence, he was conveyed to Jerusalem, happily
taking care that his inward sight should not in a similar manner be
extinguished; and there being accoutred, and led to the field of battle
on horseback, he made a spirited attack upon the enemies of the faith,
and, being mortally wounded, closed his life with honour.

Another circumstance which happened in these our days, in the province of
Warthrenion, {14c} distant from hence only a few furlongs, is not
unworthy of notice.  Eineon, lord of that district, and son-in-law to
prince Rhys, who was much addicted to the chase, having on a certain day
forced the wild beasts from their coverts, one of his attendants killed a
hind with an arrow, as she was springing forth from the wood, which,
contrary to the nature of her sex, was found to bear horns of twelve
years’ growth, and was much fatter than a stag, in the haunches as well
as in every other part.  On account of the singularity of this
circumstance, the head and horns of this strange animal were destined as
a present to king Henry the Second.  This event is the more remarkable,
as the man who shot the hind suddenly lost the use of his right eye, and
being at the same time seized with a paralytic complaint, remained in a
weak and impotent state until the time of his death.

In this same province of Warthrenion, and in the church of Saint
Germanus, {15a} there is a staff of Saint Cyric, {15b} covered on all
sides with gold and silver, and resembling in its upper part the form of
a cross; its efficacy has been proved in many cases, but particularly in
the removal of glandular and strumous swellings; insomuch that all
persons afflicted with these complaints, on a devout application to the
staff, with the oblation of one penny, are restored to health.  But it
happened in these our days, that a strumous patient on presenting one
halfpenny to the staff, the humour subsided only in the middle; but when
the oblation was completed by the other halfpenny, an entire cure was
accomplished.  Another person also coming to the staff with the promise
of a penny, was cured; but not fulfilling his engagement on the day
appointed, he relapsed into his former disorder; in order, however, to
obtain pardon for his offence, he tripled the offering by presenting
three-pence, and thus obtained a complete cure.

At Elevein, in the church of Glascum, {16a} is a portable bell, endowed
with great virtues, called Bangu, {16b} and said to have belonged to
Saint David.  A certain woman secretly conveyed this bell to her husband,
who was confined in the castle of Raidergwy, {16c} near Warthrenion,
(which Rhys, son of Gruffydd, had lately built) for the purpose of his
deliverance.  The keepers of the castle not only refused to liberate him
for this consideration, but seized and detained the bell; and in the same
night, by divine vengeance, the whole town, except the wall on which the
bell hung, was consumed by fire.

The church of Luel, {16d} in the neighbourhood of Brecheinoc
(_Brechinia_), was burned, also in our time, by the enemy, and everything
destroyed, except one small box, in which the consecrated host was
deposited.

It came to pass also in the province of Elvenia, which is separated from
Hay by the river Wye, in the night in which king Henry I. expired, that
two pools {17} of no small extent, the one natural, the other artificial,
suddenly burst their bounds; the latter, by its precipitate course down
the declivities, emptied itself; but the former, with its fish and
contents, obtained a permanent situation in a valley about two miles
distant.  In Normandy, a few days before the death of Henry II., the fish
of a certain pool near Seez, five miles from the castle of Exme, fought
during the night so furiously with each other, both in the water and out
of it, that the neighbouring people were attracted by the noise to the
spot; and so desperate was the conflict, that scarcely a fish was found
alive in the morning; thus, by a wonderful and unheard-of prognostic,
foretelling the death of one by that of many.

But the borders of Wales sufficiently remember and abhor the great and
enormous excesses which, from ambitious usurpation of territory, have
arisen amongst brothers and relations in the districts of Melenyth,
Elvein, and Warthrenion, situated between the Wye and the Severn.



CHAPTER II
JOURNEY THROUGH HAY AND BRECHEINIA


HAVING crossed the river Wye, we proceeded towards Brecheinoc, and on
preaching a sermon at Hay, {18a} we observed some amongst the multitude,
who were to be signed with the cross (leaving their garments in the hands
of their friends or wives, who endeavoured to keep them back), fly for
refuge to the archbishop in the castle.  Early in the morning we began
our journey to Aberhodni, and the word of the Lord being preached at
Landeu, {18b} we there spent the night.  The castle and chief town of the
province, situated where the river Hodni joins the river Usk, is called
Aberhodni; {18c} and every place where one river falls into another is
called Aber in the British tongue.  Landeu signifies the church of God.
The archdeacon of that place (Giraldus) presented to the archbishop his
work on the Topography of Ireland, which he graciously received, and
either read or heard a part of it read attentively every day during his
journey; and on his return to England completed the perusal of it.

I have determined not to omit mentioning those occurrences worthy of note
which happened in these parts in our days.  It came to pass before that
great war, in which nearly all this province was destroyed by the sons of
Jestin, {19a} that the large lake, and the river Leveni, {19b} which
flows from it into the Wye, opposite Glasbyry, {19c} were tinged with a
deep green colour.  The old people of the country were consulted, and
answered, that a short time before the great desolation {19d} caused by
Howel, son of Meredyth, the water had been coloured in a similar manner.
About the same time, a chaplain, whose name was Hugo, being engaged to
officiate at the chapel of Saint Nicholas, in the castle of Aberhodni,
saw in a dream a venerable man standing near him, and saying, “Tell thy
lord William de Braose, {19e} who has the audacity to retain the property
granted to the chapel of Saint Nicholas for charitable uses, these words:
‘The public treasury takes away that which Christ does not receive; and
thou wilt then give to an impious soldier, what thou wilt not give to a
priest.’”  This vision having been repeated three times, he went to the
archdeacon of the place, at Landeu, and related to him what had happened.
The archdeacon immediately knew them to be the words of Augustine; and
shewing him that part of his writings where they were found, explained to
him the case to which they applied.  He reproaches persons who held back
tithes and other ecclesiastical dues; and what he there threatens,
certainly in a short time befell this withholder of them: for in our time
we have duly and undoubtedly seen, that princes who have usurped
ecclesiastical benefices (and particularly king Henry the Second, who
laboured under this vice more than others), have profusely squandered the
treasures of the church, and given away to hired soldiers what in justice
should have been given only to priests.

Yet something is to be said in favour of the aforesaid William de Braose,
although he greatly offended in this particular (since nothing human is
perfect, and to have knowledge of all things, and in no point to err, is
an attribute of God, not of man); for he always placed the name of the
Lord before his sentences, saying, “Let this be done in the name of the
Lord; let that be done by God’s will; if it shall please God, or if God
grant leave; it shall be so by the grace of God.”  We learn from Saint
Paul, that everything ought thus to be committed and referred to the will
of God.  On taking leave of his brethren, he says, “I will return to you
again, if God permit;” and Saint James uses this expression, “If the Lord
will, and we live,” in order to show that all things ought to be
submitted to the divine disposal.  The letters also which William de
Braose, as a rich and powerful man, was accustomed to send to different
parts, were loaded, or rather honoured, with words expressive of the
divine indulgence to a degree not only tiresome to his scribe, but even
to his auditors; for as a reward to each of his scribes for concluding
his letters with the words, “by divine assistance,” he gave annually a
piece of gold, in addition to their stipend.  When on a journey he saw a
church or a cross, although in the midst of conversation either with his
inferiors or superiors, from an excess of devotion, he immediately began
to pray, and when he had finished his prayers, resumed his conversation.
On meeting boys in the way, he invited them by a previous salutation to
salute him, that the blessings of these innocents, thus extorted, might
be returned to him.  His wife, Matilda de Saint Valery, observed all
these things: a prudent and chaste woman; a woman placed with propriety
at the head of her house, equally attentive to the economical disposal of
her property within doors, as to the augmentation of it without; both of
whom, I hope, by their devotion obtained temporal happiness and grace, as
well as the glory of eternity.

It happened also that the hand of a boy, who was endeavouring to take
some young pigeons from a nest, in the church of Saint David of Llanvaes,
{21} adhered to the stone on which he leaned, through the miraculous
vengeance, perhaps, of that saint, in favour of the birds who had taken
refuge in his church; and when the boy, attended by his friends and
parents, had for three successive days and nights offered up his prayers
and supplications before the holy altar of the church, his hand was, on
the third day, liberated by the same divine power which had so
miraculously fastened it.  We saw this same boy at Newbury, in England,
now advanced in years, presenting himself before David the Second, {22a}
bishop of Saint David’s, and certifying to him the truth of this
relation, because it had happened in his diocese.  The stone is preserved
in the church to this day among the relics, and the marks of the five
fingers appear impressed on the flint as though it were in wax.

A small miracle happened at St. Edmundsbury to a poor woman, who often
visited the shrine of the saint, under the mask of devotion; not with the
design of giving, but of taking something away, namely, the silver and
gold offerings, which, by a curious kind of theft, she licked up by
kissing, and carried away in her mouth.  But in one of these attempts her
tongue and lips adhered to the altar, when by divine interposition she
was detected, and openly disgorged the secret theft.  Many persons, both
Jews and Christians, expressing their astonishment, flocked to the place,
where for the greater part of the day she remained motionless, that no
possible doubt might be entertained of the miracle.

In the north of England beyond the Humber, in the church of Hovedene,
{22b} the concubine of the rector incautiously sat down on the tomb of
St. Osana, sister of king Osred, {22c} which projected like a wooden
seat; on wishing to retire, she could not be removed, until the people
came to her assistance; her clothes were rent, her body was laid bare,
and severely afflicted with many strokes of discipline, even till the
blood flowed; nor did she regain her liberty, until by many tears and
sincere repentance she had showed evident signs of compunction.

What miraculous power hath not in our days been displayed by the psalter
of Quindreda, sister of St. Kenelm, {23a} by whose instigation he was
killed?  On the vigil of the saint, when, according to custom, great
multitudes of women resorted to the feast at Winchelcumbe, {23b} the
under butler of that convent committed fornication with one of them
within the precincts of the monastery.  This same man on the following
day had the audacity to carry the psalter in the procession of the relics
of the saints; and on his return to the choir, after the solemnity, the
psalter stuck to his hands.  Astonished and greatly confounded, and at
length calling to his mind his crime on the preceding day, he made
confession, and underwent penance; and being assisted by the prayers of
the brotherhood, and having shown signs of sincere contrition, he was at
length liberated from the miraculous bond.  That book was held in great
veneration; because, when the body of St. Kenelm was carried forth, and
the multitude cried out, “He is the martyr of God! truly he is the martyr
of God!”  Quindreda, conscious and guilty of the murder of her brother,
answered, “He is as truly the martyr of God as it is true that my eyes be
on that psalter;” for, as she was reading the psalter, both her eyes were
miraculously torn from her head, and fell on the book, where the marks of
the blood yet remain.

Moreover I must not be silent concerning the collar (_torques_) which
they call St. Canauc’s; {24} for it is most like to gold in weight,
nature, and colour; it is in four pieces wrought round, joined together
artificially, and clefted as it were in the middle, with a dog’s head,
the teeth standing outward; it is esteemed by the inhabitants so powerful
a relic, that no man dares swear falsely when it is laid before him: it
bears the marks of some severe blows, as if made with an iron hammer; for
a certain man, as it is said, endeavouring to break the collar for the
sake of the gold, experienced the divine vengeance, was deprived of his
eyesight, and lingered the remainder of his days in darkness.

A similar circumstance concerning the horn of St. Patrick (not golden
indeed, but of brass [probably bronze], which lately was brought into
these parts from Ireland) excites our admiration.  The miraculous power
of this relic first appeared with a terrible example in that country,
through the foolish and absurd blowing of Bernard, a priest, as is set
forth in our Topography of Ireland.  Both the laity and clergy in
Ireland, Scotland, and Wales held in such great veneration portable
bells, and staves crooked at the top, and covered with gold, silver, or
brass, and similar relics of the saints, that they were much more afraid
of swearing falsely by them than by the gospels; because, from some
hidden and miraculous power with which they are gifted, and the vengeance
of the saint to whom they are particularly pleasing, their despisers and
transgressors are severely punished.  The most remarkable circumstance
attending this horn is, that whoever places the wider end of it to his
ear will hear a sweet sound and melody united, such as ariseth from a
harp gently touched.

In our days a strange occurrence happened in the same district.  A wild
sow, which by chance had been suckled by a bitch famous for her nose,
became, on growing up, so wonderfully active in the pursuit of wild
animals, that in the faculty of scent she was greatly superior to dogs,
who are assisted by natural instinct, as well as by human art; an
argument that man (as well as every other animal) contracts the nature of
the female who nurses him.  Another prodigious event came to pass nearly
at the same time.  A soldier, whose name was Gilbert Hagernel, after an
illness of nearly three years, and the severe pains as of a woman in
labour, in the presence of many people, voided a calf.  A portent of some
new and unusual event, or rather the punishment attendant on some
atrocious crime.  It appears also from the ancient and authentic records
of those parts, that during the time St. Elwitus {25a} led the life of a
hermit at Llanhamelach, {25b} the mare that used to carry his provisions
to him was covered by a stag, and produced an animal of wonderful speed,
resembling a horse before and a stag behind.

Bernard de Newmarch {26a} was the first of the Normans who acquired by
conquest from the Welsh this province, which was divided into three
cantreds. {26b}  He married the daughter of Nest, daughter of Gruffydd,
son of Llewelyn, who, by his tyranny, for a long time had oppressed
Wales; his wife took her mother’s name of Nest, which the English
transmuted into Anne; by whom he had children, one of whom, named Mahel,
a distinguished soldier, was thus unjustly deprived of his paternal
inheritance.  His mother, in violation of the marriage contract, held an
adulterous intercourse with a certain knight; on the discovery of which,
the son met the knight returning in the night from his mother, and having
inflicted on him a severe corporal punishment, and mutilated him, sent
him away with great disgrace.  The mother, alarmed at the confusion which
this event caused, and agitated with grief, breathed nothing but revenge.
She therefore went to king Henry I., and declared with assertions more
vindictive than true, and corroborated by an oath, that her son Mahel was
not the son of Bernard, but of another person with whom she had been
secretly connected.  Henry, on account of this oath, or rather perjury,
and swayed more by his inclination than by reason, gave away her eldest
daughter, whom she owned as the legitimate child of Bernard, in marriage
to Milo Fitz-Walter, {27} constable of Gloucester, with the honour of
Brecheinoc as a portion; and he was afterwards created earl of Hereford
by the empress Matilda, daughter of the said king.  By this wife he had
five celebrated warriors; Roger, Walter, Henry, William, and Mahel; all
of whom, by divine vengeance, or by fatal misfortunes, came to untimely
ends; and yet each of them, except William, succeeded to the paternal
inheritance, but left no issue.  Thus this woman (not deviating from the
nature of her sex), in order to satiate her anger and revenge, with the
heavy loss of modesty, and with the disgrace of infamy, by the same act
deprived her son of his patrimony, and herself of honour.  Nor is it
wonderful if a woman follows her innate bad disposition: for it is
written in Ecclesiastes, “I have found one good man out of a thousand,
but not one good woman;” and in Ecclesiasticus, “There is no head above
the head of a serpent; and there is no wrath above the wrath of a woman;”
and again, “Small is the wickedness of man compared to the wickedness of
woman.”  And in the same manner, as we may gather grapes off thorns, or
figs off thistles, Tully, describing the nature of women, says, “Men,
perhaps, for the sake of some advantage will commit one crime; but woman,
to gratify one inclination, will not scruple to perpetrate all sorts of
wickedness.”  Thus Juvenal, speaking of women, say,

    “— Nihil est audacior illis
    Deprensis, iram atque animos a crimine sumunt.
    — Mulier sævissima tunc est
    Cum stimulos animo pudor admovet.
    — colllige, quod vindicta
    Nemo magis gaudet quam fœmina.”

But of the five above-mentioned brothers and sons of earl Milo, the
youngest but one, and the last in the inheritance, was the most
remarkable for his inhumanity; he persecuted David II., bishop of St.
David’s, to such a degree, by attacking his possessions, lands, and
vassals, that he was compelled to retire as an exile from the district of
Brecheinoc into England, or to some other parts of his diocese.
Meanwhile, Mahel, being hospitably entertained by Walter de Clifford,
{28a} in the castle of Brendlais, {28b} the house was by accident burned
down, and he received a mortal blow by a stone falling from the principal
tower on his head: upon which he instantly dispatched messengers to recal
the bishop, and exclaimed with a lamentable voice, “O, my father and high
priest, your saint has taken most cruel vengeance of me, not waiting the
conversion of a sinner, but hastening his death and overthrow.”  Having
often repeated similar expressions, and bitterly lamented his situation,
he thus ended his tyranny and life together; the first year of his
government not having elapsed.

A powerful and noble personage, by name Brachanus, was in ancient times
the ruler of the province of Brecheinoc, and from him it derived this
name.  The British histories testify that he had four-and-twenty
daughters, all of whom, dedicated from their youth to religious
observances, happily ended their lives in sanctity.  There are many
churches in Wales distinguished by their names, one of which, situated on
the summit of a hill, near Brecheinoc, and not far from the castle of
Aberhodni, is called the church of St. Almedda, {29a} after the name of
the holy virgin, who, refusing there the hand of an earthly spouse,
married the Eternal King, and triumphed in a happy martyrdom; to whose
honour a solemn feast is annually held in the beginning of August, and
attended by a large concourse of people from a considerable distance,
when those persons who labour under various diseases, through the merits
of the Blessed Virgin, received their wished-for health.  The
circumstances which occur at every anniversary appear to me remarkable.
You may see men or girls, now in the church, now in the churchyard, now
in the dance, which is led round the churchyard with a song, on a sudden
falling on the ground as in a trance, then jumping up as in a frenzy, and
representing with their hands and feet, before the people, whatever work
they have unlawfully done on feast days; you may see one man put his hand
to the plough, and another, as it were, goad on the oxen, mitigating
their sense of labour, by the usual rude song: {29b} one man imitating
the profession of a shoemaker; another, that of a tanner.  Now you may
see a girl with a distaff, drawing out the thread, and winding it again
on the spindle; another walking, and arranging the threads for the web;
another, as it were, throwing the shuttle, and seeming to weave.  On
being brought into the church, and led up to the altar with their
oblations, you will be astonished to see them suddenly awakened, and
coming to themselves.  Thus, by the divine mercy, which rejoices in the
conversion, not in the death, of sinners, many persons from the
conviction of their senses, are on these feast days corrected and mended.

This country sufficiently abounds with grain, and if there is any
deficiency, it is amply supplied from the neighbouring parts of England;
it is well stored with pastures, woods, and wild and domestic animals.
River-fish are plentiful, supplied by the Usk on one side, and by the Wye
on the other; each of them produces salmon and trout; but the Wye abounds
most with the former, the Usk with the latter.  The salmon of the Wye are
in season during the winter, those of the Usk in summer; but the Wye
alone produces the fish called umber, {30a} the praise of which is
celebrated in the works of Ambrosius, as being found in great numbers in
the rivers near Milan; “What,” says he, “is more beautiful to behold,
more agreeable to smell, or more pleasant to taste?”  The famous lake of
Brecheinoc supplies the courntry with pike, perch, excellent trout,
tench, and eels.  A circumstance concerning this lake, which happened a
short time before our days, must not be passed over in silence.  “In the
reign of king Henry I., Gruffydd, {30b} son of Rhys ap Tewdwr, held under
the king one comot, namely, the fourth part of the cantred of Caoc, {31}
in the cantref Mawr, which, in title and dignity, was esteemed by the
Welsh equal to the southern part of Wales, called Deheubarth, that is,
the right-hand side of Wales.  When Gruffydd, on his return from the
king’s court, passed near this lake, which at that cold season of the
year was covered with water-fowl of various sorts, being accompanied by
Milo, earl of Hereford, and lord of Brecheinoc, and Payn Fitz-John, lord
of Ewyas, who were at that time secretaries and privy counsellors to the
king; earl Milo, wishing to draw forth from Gruffydd some discourse
concerning his innate nobility, rather jocularly than seriously thus
addressed him: “It is an ancient saying in Wales, that if the natural
prince of the country, coming to this lake, shall order the birds to
sing, they will immediately obey him.”  To which Gruffydd, richer in mind
than in gold, (for though his inheritance was diminished, his ambition
and dignity still remained), answered, “Do you therefore, who now hold
the dominion of this land, first give the command;” but he and Payn
having in vain commanded, and Gruffydd, perceiving that it was necessary
for him to do so in his turn, dismounted from his horse, and falling on
his knees towards the east, as if he had been about to engage in battle,
prostrate on the ground, with his eyes and hands uplifted to heaven,
poured forth devout prayers to the Lord: at length, rising up, and
signing his face and forehead with the figure of the cross, he thus
openly spake: “Almighty God, and Lord Jesus Christ, who knowest all
things, declare here this day thy power.  If thou hast caused me to
descend lineally from the natural princes of Wales, I command these birds
in thy name to declare it;” and immediately the birds, beating the water
with their wings, began to cry aloud, and proclaim him.  The spectators
were astonished and confounded; and earl Milo hastily returning with Payn
Fitz-John to court, related this singular occurrence to the king, who is
said to have replied, “By the death of Christ (an oath he was accustomed
to use), it is not a matter of so much wonder; for although by our great
authority we commit acts of violence and wrong against these people, yet
they are known to be the rightful inheritors of this land.”

The lake also {32} (according to the testimony of the inhabitants) is
celebrated for its miracles; for, as we have before observed, it
sometimes assumed a greenish hue, so in our days it has appeared to be
tinged with red, not universally, but as if blood flowed partially
through certain veins and small channels.  Moreover it is sometimes seen
by the inhabitants covered and adorned with buildings, pastures, gardens,
and orchards.  In the winter, when it is frozen over, and the surface of
the water is converted into a shell of ice, it emits a horrible sound
resembling the moans of many animals collected together; but this,
perhaps, may be occasioned by the sudden bursting of the shell, and the
gradual ebullition of the air through imperceptible channels.  This
country is well sheltered on every side (except the northern) by high
mountains; on the western by those of cantref Bychan; {33a} on the
southern, by that range, of which the principal is Cadair Arthur, {33b}
or the chair of Arthur, so called from two peaks rising up in the form of
a chair, and which, from its lofty situation, is vulgarly ascribed to
Arthur, the most distinguished king of the Britons.  A spring of water
rises on the summit of this mountain, deep, but of a square shape, like a
well, and although no stream runs from it, trout are said to be sometimes
found in it.

Being thus sheltered on the south by high mountains, the cooler breezes
protect this district from the heat of the sun, and, by their natural
salubrity, render the climate most temperate.  Towards the east are the
mountains of Talgarth and Ewyas. {34a}  The natives of these parts,
actuated by continual enmities and implacable hatred, are perpetually
engaged in bloody contests.  But we leave to others to describe the great
and enormous excesses, which in our time have been here committed, with
regard to marriages, divorces, and many other circumstances of cruelty
and oppression.



CHAPTER III
EWYAS AND LLANTHONI


IN the deep vale of Ewyas, {34b} which is about an arrow-shot broad,
encircled on all sides by lofty mountains, stands the church of Saint
John the Baptist, covered with lead, and built of wrought stone; and,
considering the nature of the place, not unhandsomely constructed, on the
very spot where the humble chapel of David, the archbishop, had formerly
stood decorated only with moss and ivy.  A situation truly calculated for
religion, and more adapted to canonical discipline, than all the
monasteries of the British isle.  It was founded by two hermits, in
honour of the retired life, far removed from the bustle of mankind, in a
solitary vale watered by the river Hodeni.  From Hodeni it was called
Lanhodeni, for Lan signifies an ecclesiastical place.  This derivation
may appear far-fetched, for the name of the place, in Welsh, is
Nanthodeni.  Nant signifies a running stream, from whence this place is
still called by the inhabitants Landewi Nanthodeni, {35} or the church of
Saint David upon the river Hodeni.  The English therefore corruptly call
it Lanthoni, whereas it should either be called Nanthodeni, that is, the
brook of the Hodeni, or Lanhodeni, the church upon the Hodeni.  Owing to
its mountainous situation, the rains are frequent, the winds boisterous,
and the clouds in winter almost continual.  The air, though heavy, is
healthy; and diseases are so rare, that the brotherhood, when worn out by
long toil and affliction during their residence with the daughter,
retiring to this asylum, and to their mother’s {36a} lap, soon regain
their long-wished-for health.  For as my Topographical History of Ireland
testifies, in proportion as we proceed to the eastward, the face of the
sky is more pure and subtile, and the air more piercing and inclement;
but as we draw nearer to the westward, the air becomes more cloudy, but
at the same time is more temperate and healthy.  Here the monks, sitting
in their cloisters, enjoying the fresh air, when they happen to look up
towards the horizon, behold the tops of the mountains, as it were,
touching the heavens, and herds of wild deer feeding on their summits:
the body of the sun does not become visible above the heights of the
mountains, even in a clear atmosphere, till about the hour of prime, or a
little before.  A place truly fitted for contemplation, a happy and
delightful spot, fully competent, from its first establishment, to supply
all its own wants, had not the extravagance of English luxury, the pride
of a sumptuous table, the increasing growth of intemperance and
ingratitude, added to the negligence of its patrons and prelates, reduced
it from freedom to servility; and if the step-daughter, no less enviously
than odiously, had not supplanted her mother.

It seems worthy of remark, that all the priors who were hostile to this
establishment, died by divine visitation.  William, {36b} who first
despoiled the place of its herds and storehouses, being deposed by the
fraternity, forfeited his right of sepulture amongst the priors.  Clement
seemed to like this place of study and prayer, yet, after the example of
Heli the priest, as he neither reproved nor restrained his brethren from
plunder and other offences, he died by a paralytic stroke.  And Roger,
who was more an enemy to this place than either of his predecessors, and
openly carried away every thing which they had left behind, wholly
robbing the church of its books, ornaments, and privileges, was also
struck with a paralytic affection long before his death, resigned his
honours, and lingered out the remainder of his days in sickness.

In the reign of king Henry I., when the mother church was as celebrated
for her affluence as for her sanctity (two qualities which are seldom
found thus united), the daughter not yet being in existence (and I
sincerely wish she never had been produced), the fame of so much religion
attracted hither Roger, bishop of Salisbury, who was at that time prime
minister; for it is virtue to love virtue, even in another man, and a
great proof of innate goodness to show a detestation of those vices which
hitherto have not been avoided.  When he had reflected with admiration on
the nature of the place, the solitary life of the fraternity, living in
canonical obedience, and serving God without a murmur or complaint, he
returned to the king, and related to him what he thought most worthy of
remark; and after spending the greater part of the day in the praises of
this place, he finished his panegyric with these words: “Why should I say
more? the whole treasure of the king and his kingdom would not be
sufficient to build such a cloister.”  Having held the minds of the king
and the court for a long time in suspense by this assertion, he at length
explained the enigma, by saying that he alluded to the cloister of
mountains, by which this church is on every side surrounded.  But
William, a knight, who first discovered this place, and his companion
Ervistus, a priest, having heard, perhaps, as it is written in the
Fathers, according to the opinion of Jerome, “that the church of Christ
decreased in virtues as it increased in riches,” were accustomed often
devoutly to solicit the Lord that this place might never attain great
possessions.  They were exceedingly concerned when this religious
foundation began to be enriched by its first lord and patron, Hugh de
Lacy, {38} and by the lands and ecclesiastical benefices conferred upon
it by the bounty of others of the faithful: from their predilection to
poverty, they rejected many offers of manors and churches; and being
situated in a wild spot, they would not suffer the thick and wooded parts
of the valley to be cultivated and levelled, lest they should be tempted
to recede from their heremitical mode of life.

But whilst the establishment of the mother church increased daily in
riches and endowments, availing herself of the hostile state of the
country, a rival daughter sprang up at Gloucester, under the protection
of Milo, earl of Hereford; as if by divine providence, and through the
merits of the saints and prayers of those holy men (of whom two lie
buried before the high altar), it were destined that the daughter church
should be founded in superfluities, whilst the mother continued in that
laudable state of mediocrity which she had always affected and coveted.
Let the active therefore reside there, the contemplative here; there the
pursuit of terrestrial riches, here the love of celestial delights; there
let them enjoy the concourse of men, here the presence of angels; there
let the powerful of this world be entertained, here let the poor of
Christ be relieved; there, I say, let human actions and declamations be
heard, but here let reading and prayers be heard only in whispers; there
let opulence, the parent and nurse of vice, increase with cares, here let
the virtuous and golden mean be all-sufficient.  In both places the
canonical discipline instituted by Augustine, which is now distinguished
above all other orders, is observed; for the Benedictines, when their
wealth was increased by the fervour of charity, and multiplied by the
bounty of the faithful, under the pretext of a bad dispensation,
corrupted by gluttony and indulgence an order which in its original state
of poverty was held in high estimation.  The Cistercian order, derived
from the former, at first deserved praise and commendation from its
adhering voluntarily to the original vows of poverty and sanctity: until
ambition, the blind mother of mischief, unable to fix bounds to
prosperity, was introduced; for as Seneca says, “Too great happiness
makes men greedy, nor are their desires ever so temperate, as to
terminate in what is acquired:” a step is made from great things to
greater, and men having attained what they did not expect, form the most
unbounded hopes; to which the poet Ovid thus alludes.

    “Luxuriant animi rebus plerumque secundis,
       Nec facile est æqua commoda mente pati;”

And again:

    “Creverunt opes et opum furiosa cupido,
       Et cum possideant plurima, plura petunt.”

And also the poet Horace:

    “—scilicet improbæ
    Crescunt divitiæ, tamen
       Curtæ nescio quid semper abest rei.
    Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam
       Majorumque fames.”

To which purpose the poet Lucan says:

    “—O vitæ tuta facultas
    Pauperis, angustique lares, o munera nondum
    Intellecta Deûm!”

And Petronius:

    “Non bibit inter aquas nec poma fugacia carpit
       Tantalus infelix, quem sua vota premunt.
    Divitis hic magni facies erit, omnia late
       Qui tenet, et sicco concoquit ore famem.”

The mountains are full of herds and horses, the woods well stored with
swine and goats, the pastures with sheep, the plains with cattle, the
arable fields with ploughs; and although these things in very deed are in
great abundance, yet each of them, from the insatiable nature of the
mind, seems too narrow and scanty.  Therefore lands are seized, landmarks
removed, boundaries invaded, and the markets in consequence abound with
merchandise, the courts of justice with law-suits, and the senate with
complaints.  Concerning such things, we read in Isaiah, “Woe unto them
that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no
place, that they be placed alone in the midst of the earth.”

If therefore, the prophet inveighs so much against those who proceed to
the boundaries, what would he say to those who go far beyond them?  From
these and other causes, the true colour of religion was so converted into
the dye of falsehood, that manners internally black assumed a fair
exterior:

    “Qui color albus erat, nunc est contrarius albo.”

So that the scripture seems to be fulfilled concerning these men, “Beware
of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they
are ravenous wolves.”  But I am inclined to think this avidity does not
proceed from any bad intention.  For the monks of this Order (although
themselves most abstemious) incessantly exercise, more than any others,
the acts of charity and beneficence towards the poor and strangers; and
because they do not live as others upon fixed incomes, but depend only on
their labour and forethought for subsistence, they are anxious to obtain
lands, farms, and pastures, which may enable them to perform these acts
of hospitality.  However, to repress and remove from this sacred Order
the detestable stigma of ambition, I wish they would sometimes call to
mind what is written in Ecclesiasticus, “Whoso bringeth an offering of
the goods of the poor, doth as one that killeth the son before his
father’s eyes;” and also the sentiment of Gregory, “A good use does not
justify things badly acquired;” and also that of Ambrose, “He who
wrongfully receives, that he may well dispense, is rather burthened than
assisted.”  Such men seem to say with the Apostle, “Let us do evil that
good may come.”  For it is written, “Mercy ought to be of such a nature
as may be received, not rejected, which may purge away sins, not make a
man guilty before the Lord, arising from your own just labours, not those
of other men.”  Hear what Solomon says; “Honour the Lord from your just
labours.”  What shall they say who have seized upon other men’s
possessions, and exercised charity?  “O Lord! in thy name we have done
charitable deeds, we have fed the poor, clothed the naked, and hospitably
received the stranger:” to whom the Lord will answer; “Ye speak of what
ye have given away, but speak not of the rapine ye have committed; ye
relate concerning those ye have fed, and remember not those ye have
killed.”  I have judged it proper to insert in this place an instance of
an answer which Richard, king of the English, made to Fulke, {41} a good
and holy man, by whom God in these our days has wrought many signs in the
kingdom of France.  This man had among other things said to the king;
“You have three daughters, namely, Pride, Luxury, and Avarice; and as
long as they shall remain with you, you can never expect to be in favour
with God.”  To which the king, after a short pause, replied: “I have
already given away those daughters in marriage: Pride to the Templars,
Luxury to the Black Monks, and Avarice to the White.”  It is a remarkable
circumstance, or rather a miracle, concerning Lanthoni, that, although it
is on every side surrounded by lofty mountains, not stony or rocky, but
of a soft nature, and covered with grass, Parian stones are frequently
found there, and are called free-stones, from the facility with which
they admit of being cut and polished; and with these the church is
beautifully built.  It is also wonderful, that when, after a diligent
search, all the stones have been removed from the mountains, and no more
can be found, upon another search, a few days afterwards, they reappear
in greater quantities to those who seek them.  With respect to the two
Orders, the Cluniac and the Cistercian, this may be relied upon; although
the latter are possessed of fine buildings, with ample revenues and
estates, they will soon be reduced to poverty and destruction.  To the
former, on the contrary, you would allot a barren desert and a solitary
wood; yet in a few years you will find them in possession of sumptuous
churches and houses, and encircled with an extensive property.  The
difference of manners (as it appears to me) causes this contrast.  For as
without meaning offence to either party, I shall speak the truth, the one
feels the benefits of sobriety, parsimony, and prudence, whilst the other
suffers from the bad effects of gluttony and intemperance: the one, like
bees, collect their stores into a heap, and unanimously agree in the
disposal of one well-regulated purse; the others pillage and divert to
improper uses the largesses which have been collected by divine
assistance, and by the bounties of the faithful; and whilst each
individual consults solely his own interest, the welfare of the community
suffers; since, as Sallust observes, “Small things increase by concord,
and the greatest are wasted by discord.”  Besides, sooner than lessen the
number of one of the thirteen or fourteen dishes which they claim by
right of custom, or even in a time of scarcity or famine recede in the
smallest degree from their accustomed good fare, they would suffer the
richest lands and the best buildings of the monastery to become a prey to
usury, and the numerous poor to perish before their gates.

The first of these Orders, at a time when there was a deficiency in
grain, with a laudable charity, not only gave away their flocks and
herds, but resigned to the poor one of the two dishes with which they
were always contented.  But in these our days, in order to remove this
stain, it is ordained by the Cistercians, “That in future neither farms
nor pastures shall be purchased; and that they shall be satisfied with
those alone which have been freely and unconditionally bestowed upon
them.”  This Order, therefore, being satisfied more than any other with
humble mediocrity, and, if not wholly, yet in a great degree checking
their ambition; and though placed in a worldly situation, yet avoiding,
as much as possible, its contagion; neither notorious for gluttony or
drunkenness, for luxury or lust; is fearful and ashamed of incurring
public scandal, as will be more fully explained in the book we mean (by
the grace of God) to write concerning the ecclesiastical Orders.

In these temperate regions I have obtained (according to the usual
expression) a place of dignity, but no great omen of future pomp or
riches; and possessing a small residence {44a} near the castle of
Brecheinoc, well adapted to literary pursuits, and to the contemplation
of eternity, I envy not the riches of Croesus; happy and contented with
that mediocrity, which I prize far beyond all the perishable and
transitory things of this world.  But let us return to our subject.



CHAPTER IV
THE JOURNEY BY COED GRONO AND ABERGEVENNI


FROM thence {44b} we proceeded through the narrow, woody tract called the
bad pass of Coed Grono, leaving the noble monastery of Lanthoni, inclosed
by its mountains, on our left.  The castle of Abergevenni is so called
from its situation at the confluence of the river Gevenni with the Usk.

It happened a short time after the death of king Henry I., that Richard
de Clare, a nobleman of high birth, and lord of Cardiganshire, passed
this way on his journey from England into Wales, accompanied by Brian de
Wallingford, lord of this province, and many men-at-arms.  At the passage
of Coed Grono, {45} and at the entrance into the wood, he dismissed him
and his attendants, though much against their will, and proceeded on his
journey unarmed; from too great a presumption of security, preceded only
by a minstrel and a singer, one accompanying the other on the fiddle.
The Welsh awaiting his arrival, with Iorwerth, brother of Morgan of
Caerleon, at their head, and others of his family, rushed upon him
unawares from the thickets, and killed him and many of his followers.
Thus it appears how incautious and neglectful of itself is too great
presumption; for fear teaches foresight and caution in prosperity, but
audacity is precipitate, and inconsiderate rashness will not await the
advice of the leader.

A sermon having been delivered at Abergevenni, {46} and many persons
converted to the cross, a certain nobleman of those parts, named
Arthenus, came to the archbishop, who was proceeding towards the castle
of Usk, and humbly begged pardon for having neglected to meet him sooner.
Being questioned whether he would take the cross, he replied, “That ought
not be done without the advice of his friends.”  The archbishop then
asked him, “Are you not going to consult your wife?”  To which he
modestly answered, with a downcast look, “When the work of a man is to be
undertaken, the counsel of a woman ought not to be asked;” and instantly
received the cross from the archbishop.

We leave to others the relation of those frequent and cruel excesses
which in our times have arisen amongst the inhabitants of these parts,
against the governors of castles, and the vindictive retaliations of the
governors against the natives.  But king Henry II. was the true author,
and Ranulf Poer, sheriff of Hereford, the instrument, of the enormous
cruelties and slaughter perpetrated here in our days, which I thought
better to omit, lest bad men should be induced to follow the example; for
although temporary advantage may seem to arise from a base cause, yet, by
the balance of a righteous judge, the punishment of wickedness may be
deferred, though not totally avoided, according to the words of the
poet,—

    “Non habet eventus sordida præda bonos.”

For after seven years of peace and tranquillity, the sons and grandsons
of the deceased, having attained the age of manhood, took advantage of
the absence of the lord of the castle (Abergevenni), and, burning with
revenge, concealed themselves, with no inconsiderable force during the
night, within the woody foss of the castle.  One of them, name Sisillus
(Sitsylt) son of Eudaf, on the preceding day said rather jocularly to the
constable, “Here will we enter this night,” pointing out to him a certain
angle in the wall where it seemed the lowest; but since

    “—Ridendo dicere verum
    Quis vetat?”

and

    “—fas est et ab hoste doceri,”

the constable and his household watched all night under arms, till at
length, worn out by fatigue, they all retired to rest on the appearance
of daylight, upon which the enemy attacked the walls with
scaling-ladders, at the very place that had been pointed out.  The
constable and his wife were taken prisoners, with many others, a few
persons only escaping, who had sheltered themselves in the principal
tower.  With the exception of this stronghold, the enemy violently seized
and burned everything; and thus, by the righteous judgment of God, the
crime was punished in the very place where it had been committed.  A
short time after the taking of this fortress, when the aforesaid sheriff
was building a castle at Landinegat, {48} near Monmouth, with the
assistance of the army he had brought from Hereford, he was attacked at
break of day, when

    “Tythoni croceum linquens Aurora cubile”

was only beginning to divest herself of the shades of night, by the young
men from Gwent and the adjacent parts, with the descendants of those who
had been slain.  Through aware of this premeditated attack, and prepared
and drawn up in battle array, they were nevertheless repulsed within
their intrenchments, and the sheriff, together with nine of the chief men
of Hereford, and many others, were pierced to death with lances.  It is
remarkable that, although Ranulf, besides many other mortal wounds, had
the veins and arteries of his neck and his windpipe separated with a
sword, he made signs for a priest, and from the merit of his past life,
and the honour and veneration he had shewn to those chosen into the
sacred order of Christ, he was confessed, and received extreme unction
before he died.  And, indeed, many events concur to prove that, as those
who respect the priesthood, in their latter days enjoy the satisfaction
of friendly intercourse, so do their revilers and accusers often die
without that consolation.  William de Braose, who was not the author of
the crime we have preferred passing over in silence, but the executioner,
or, rather, not the preventer of its execution, while the murderous bands
were fulfilling the orders they had received, was precipitated into a
deep foss, and being taken by the enemy, was drawn forth, and only by a
sudden effort of his own troops, and by divine mercy, escaped uninjured.
Hence it is evident that he who offends in a less degree, and unwillingly
permits a thing to be done, is more mildly punished than he who adds
counsel and authority to his act.  Thus, in the sufferings of Christ,
Judas was punished with hanging, the Jews with destruction and
banishment, and Pilate with exile.  But the end of the king, who assented
to and ordered this treachery, sufficiently manifested in what manner, on
account of this and many other enormities he had committed (as in the
book “De Instructione Principis,” by God’s guidance, we shall set forth),
he began with accumulated ignominy, sorrow, and confusion, to suffer
punishment in this world. {49a}

It seems worthy of remark, that the people of what is called Venta {49b}
are more accustomed to war, more famous for valour, and more expert in
archery, than those of any other part of Wales.  The following examples
prove the truth of this assertion.  In the last capture of the aforesaid
castle, which happened in our days, two soldiers passing over a bridge to
take refuge in a tower built on a mound of earth, the Welsh, taking them
in the rear, penetrated with their arrows the oaken portal of the tower,
which was four fingers thick; in memory of which circumstance, the arrows
were preserved in the gate.  William de Braose also testifies that one of
his soldiers, in a conflict with the Welsh, was wounded by an arrow,
which passed through his thigh and the armour with which it was cased on
both sides, and, through that part of the saddle which is called the
_alva_, mortally wounded the horse.  Another soldier had his hip, equally
sheathed in armour, penetrated by an arrow quite to the saddle, and on
turning his horse round, received a similar wound on the opposite hip,
which fixed him on both sides of his seat.  What more could be expected
from a balista?  Yet the bows used by this people are not made of horn,
ivory, or yew, but of wild elm; unpolished, rude, and uncouth, but stout;
not calculated to shoot an arrow to a great distance, but to inflict very
severe wounds in close fight.

But let us again return to our Itinerary.



CHAPTER V
OF THE PROGRESS BY THE CASTLE OF USK AND THE TOWN OF CAERLEON


AT the castle of Usk, a multitude of persons influenced by the
archbishop’s sermon, and by the exhortations of the good and worthy
William bishop of Landaf, {50a} who faithfully accompanied us through his
diocese, were signed with the cross; Alexander archdeacon of Bangor {50b}
acting as interpreter to the Welsh.  It is remarkable that many of the
most notorious murderers, thieves, and robbers of the neighbourhood were
here converted, to the astonishment of the spectators.  Passing from
thence through Caerleon and leaving far on our left hand the castle of
Monmouth, and the noble forest of Dean, situated on the other side of the
Wye and on this side the Severn, and which amply supplies Gloucester with
iron and venison, we spent the night at Newport, having crossed the river
Usk three times. {50c}  Caerleon means the city of Legions, Caer, in the
British language, signifying a city or camp, for there the Roman legions,
sent into this island, were accustomed to winter, and from this
circumstance it was styled the city of legions.  This city was of
undoubted antiquity, and handsomely built of masonry, with courses of
bricks, by the Romans.  Many vestiges of its former splendour may yet be
seen; immense palaces, formerly ornamented with gilded roofs, in
imitation of Roman magnificence, inasmuch as they were first raised by
the Roman princes, and embellished with splendid buildings; a tower of
prodigious size, remarkable hot baths, relics of temples, and theatres,
all inclosed within fine walls, parts of which remain standing.  You will
find on all sides, both within and without the circuit of the walls,
subterraneous buildings, aqueducts, underground passages; and what I
think worthy of notice, stoves contrived with wonderful art, to transmit
the heat insensibly through narrow tubes passing up the side walls.

Julius and Aaron, after suffering martyrdom, were buried in this city,
and had each a church dedicated to him.  After Albanus and Amphibalus,
they were esteemed the chief protomartyrs of Britannia Major.  In ancient
times there were three fine churches in this city: one dedicated to
Julius the martyr, graced with a choir of nuns; another to Aaron, his
associate, and ennobled with an order of canons; and the third
distinguished as the metropolitan of Wales.  Amphibalus, the instructor
of Albanus in the true faith, was born in this place.  This city is well
situated on the river Usk, navigable to the sea, and adorned with woods
and meadows.  The Roman ambassadors here received their audience at the
court of the great king Arthur; and here also, the archbishop Dubricius
ceded his honours to David of Menevia, the metropolitan see being
translated from this place to Menevia, according to the prophecy of
Merlin Ambrosius.  “Menevia pallio urbis Legionum induetur.”  “Menevia
shall be invested with the pall of the city of Legions.”

Not far hence is a rocky eminence, impending over the Severn, called by
the English Gouldcliffe {51} or golden rock, because from the reflections
of the sun’s rays it assumes a bright golden colour:

    “Nec mihi de facili fieri persuasio posset,
    Quod frustra tantum dederit natura nito rem
    Saxis, quodque suo fuerit flos hic sine fructu.”

Nor can I be easily persuaded that nature hath given such splendour to
the rocks in vain, and that this flower should be without fruit, if any
one would take the pains to penetrate deeply into the bowels of the
earth; if any one, I say, would extract honey from the rock, and oil from
the stone.  Indeed many riches of nature lie concealed through
inattention, which the diligence of posterity will bring to light; for,
as necessity first taught the ancients to discover the conveniences of
life, so industry, and a greater acuteness of intellect, have laid open
many things to the moderns; as the poet says, assigning two causes for
these discoveries,

    “—labor omnia vincit
    Improbus, et duris urgens in rebus egestas.”

It is worthy of observation, that there lived in the neighbourhood of
this City of Legions, in our time, a Welshman named Melerius, who, under
the following circumstances, acquired the knowledge of future and occult
events.  Having, on a certain night, namely that of Palm Sunday, met a
damsel whom he had long loved, in a pleasant and convenient place, while
he was indulging in her embraces, suddenly, instead of a beautiful girl,
he found in his arms a hairy, rough, and hideous creature, the sight of
which deprived him of his senses, and he became mad.  After remaining
many years in this condition, he was restored to health in the church of
St. David’s, through the merits of its saints.  But having always an
extraordinary familiarity with unclean spirits, by seeing them, knowing
them, talking with them, and calling each by his proper name, he was
enabled, through their assistance, to foretel future events.  He was,
indeed, often deceived (as they are) with respect to circumstances at a
great distance of time or place, but was less mistaken in affairs which
were likely to happen nearer, or within the space of a year.  The spirits
appeared to him, usually on foot, equipped as hunters, with horns
suspended from their necks, and truly as hunters, not of animals, but of
souls.  He particularly met them near monasteries and monastic cells; for
where rebellion exists, there is the greatest need of armies and
strength.  He knew when any one spoke falsely in his presence, for he saw
the devil, as it were, leaping and exulting upon the tongue of the liar.
If he looked on a book faultily or falsely written, or containing a false
passage, although wholly illiterate, he would point out the place with
his finger.  Being questioned how he could gain such knowledge, he said
that he was directed by the demon’s finger to the place.  In the same
manner, entering into the dormitory of a monastery, he indicated the bed
of any monk not sincerely devoted to religion.  He said, that the spirit
of gluttony and surfeit was in every respect sordid; but that the spirit
of luxury and lust was more beautiful than others in appearance, though
in fact most foul.  If the evil spirits oppressed him too much, the
Gospel of St. John was placed on his bosom, when, like birds, they
immediately vanished; but when that book was removed, and the History of
the Britons, by Geoffrey Arthur, {53} was substituted in its place, they
instantly reappeared in greater numbers, and remained a longer time than
usual on his body and on the book.

It is worthy of remark, that Barnabas placed the Gospel of St. Matthew
upon sick persons, and they were healed; from which, as well as from the
foregoing circumstance, it appears how great a dignity and reverence is
due to the sacred books of the gospel, and with what danger and risk of
damnation every one who swears falsely by them, deviates from the paths
of truth.  The fall of Enoch, abbot of Strata Marcella, {54} too well
known in Wales, was revealed to many the day after it happened, by
Melerius, who, being asked how he knew this circumstance, said, that a
demon came to him disguised as a hunter, and, exulting in the prospect of
such a victory, foretold the ruin of the abbot, and explained in what
manner he would make him run away with a nun from the monastery.  The end
in view was probably the humiliation and correction of the abbot, as was
proved from his shortly returning home so humbled and amended, that he
scarcely could be said to have erred.  Seneca says, “He falls not badly,
who rises stronger from his fall.”  Peter was more strenuous after his
denial of Christ, and Paul after being stoned; since, where sin abounds,
there will grace also superabound.  Mary Magdalen was strengthened after
her frailty.  He secretly revealed to Canon, the good and religious abbot
of Alba-domus, his opinion of a certain woman whom he had seen; upon
which the holy man confessed, with tears in his eyes, his predilection
for her, and received from three priests the discipline of incontinence.
For as that long and experienced subtle enemy, by arguing from certain
conjectural signs, may foretell future by past events, so by insidious
treachery and contrivance, added to exterior appearances, he may
sometimes be able to discover the interior workings of the mind.

At the same time there was in Lower Gwent a demon incubus, who, from his
love for a certain young woman, and frequenting the place where she
lived, often conversed with men, and frequently discovered hidden things
and future events.  Melerius being interrogated concerning him, said he
knew him well, and mentioned his name.  He affirmed that unclean spirits
conversed with mankind before war, or any great internal disturbance,
which was shortly afterwards proved, by the destruction of the province
by Howel, son of Iorwerth of Caerleon.  At the same time, when king Henry
II., having taken the king of Scotland prisoner, had restored peace to
his kingdom, Howel, fearful of the royal revenge for the war he had
waged, was relieved from his difficulties by these comfortable words of
Melerius: “Fear not,” says he, “Howel, the wrath of the king, since he
must go into other parts.  An important city which he possesses beyond
sea is now besieged by the king of France, on which account he will
postpone every other business, and hasten thither with all possible
expedition.”  Three days afterwards, Howel received advice that this
event had really come to pass, owing to the siege of the city of Rouen.
He forewarned also Howel of the betraying of his castle at Usk, a long
time before it happened, and informed him that he should be wounded, but
not mortally; and that he should escape alive from the town.  In this
alone he was deceived, for he soon after died of the same wound.  Thus
does that archenemy favour his friends for a time, and thus does he at
last reward them.

In all these singular events it appears to me most wonderful that he saw
those spirits so plainly with his carnal eyes, because spirits cannot be
discerned by the eyes of mortals, unless they assume a corporeal
substance; but if in order to be seen they had assumed such a substance,
how could they remain unperceived by other persons who were present?
Perhaps they were seen by such a miraculous vision as when king Balthazar
saw the hand of one writing on the wall, “Mane, Techel, Phares,” that is,
weighed, numbered, divided; who in the same night lost both his kingdom
and his life.  But Cambria well knows how in these districts, from a
blind desire of dominion, a total dissolution of the endearing ties of
consanguinity, and a bad and depraved example diffused throughout the
country, good faith has been so shamefully perverted and abused.



CHAPTER VI
NEWPORT AND CAERDYF


AT Newport, where the river Usk, descending from its original source in
Cantref Bachan, falls into the sea, many persons were induced to take the
cross.  Having passed the river Remni, we approached the noble castle of
Caerdyf, {56a} situated on the banks of the river Taf.  In the
neighbourhood of Newport, which is in the district of Gwentluc, {56b}
there is a small stream called Nant Pencarn, {56c} passable only at
certain fords, not so much owing to the depth of its waters, as from the
hollowness of its channel and muddy bottom.  The public road led formerly
to a ford, called Ryd Pencarn, that is, the ford under the head of a
rock, from Rhyd, which in the British language signifies a ford, Pen, the
head, and Cam, a rock; of which place Merlin Sylvester had thus
prophesied: “Whenever you shall see a mighty prince with a freckled face
make an hostile irruption into the southern part of Britain, should he
cross the ford of Pencarn, then know ye, that the force of Cambria shall
be brought low.”  Now it came to pass in our times, that king Henry II.
took up arms against Rhys, the son of Gruffydd, and directed his march
through the southern part of Wales towards Caermardyn.  On the day he
intended to pass over Nant Pentcarn, the old Britons of the neighbourhood
watched his approach towards the ford with the utmost solicitude;
knowing, since he was both mighty and freckled, that if the passage of
the destined ford was accomplished, the prophecy concerning him would
undoubtedly be fulfilled.  When the king had followed the road leading to
a more modern ford of the river (the old one spoken of in the prophecy
having been for a long time in disuse), and was preparing to pass over,
the pipers and trumpeters, called Cornhiriet, from _hir_, long, and
_cornu_, a horn, began to sound their instruments on the opposite bank,
in honour of the king.  The king’s horse, startling at the wild, unusual
noise, refused to obey the spur, and enter the water; upon which, the
king, gathering up the reins, hastened, in violent wrath, to the ancient
ford, which he rapidly passed; and the Britons returned to their homes,
alarmed and dismayed at the destruction which seemed to await them.  An
extraordinary circumstance occurred likewise at the castle of Caerdyf.
William earl of Gloucester, son of earl Robert, {57} who, besides that
castle, possessed by hereditary right all the province of Gwladvorgan,
{58a} that is, the land of Morgan, had a dispute with one of his
dependants, whose name was Ivor the Little, being a man of short stature,
but of great courage.  This man was, after the manner of the Welsh, owner
of a tract of mountainous and woody country, of the whole, or a part of
which, the earl endeavoured to deprive him.  At that time the castle of
Caerdyf was surrounded with high walls, guarded by one hundred and twenty
men-at-arms, a numerous body of archers, and a strong watch.  The city
also contained many stipendiary soldiers; yet, in defiance of all these
precautions of security, Ivor, in the dead of night, secretly scaled the
walls, and, seizing the count and countess, with their only son, carried
them off into the woods, and did not release them until he had recovered
everything that had been unjustly taken from him, and received a
compensation of additional property; for, as the poet observes,

    “Spectandum est semper ne magna injuria fiat
    Fortibus et miseris; tollas licet omne quod usquam est
    Argenti atque auri, spoliatis arma supersunt.”

In this same town of Caerdyf, king Henry II., on his return from Ireland,
the first Sunday after Easter, passed the night.  In the morning, having
heard mass, he remained at his devotions till every one had quitted the
chapel of St. Piranus. {58b}  As he mounted his horse at the door, a man
of a fair complexion, with a round tonsure and meagre countenance, tall,
and about forty years of age, habited in a white robe falling down to his
naked feet, thus addressed him in the Teutonic tongue: “God hold the,
cuing,” which signifies, “May God protect you, king;” and proceeded, in
the same language, “Christ and his Holy Mother, John the Baptist, and the
Apostle Peter salute thee, and command thee strictly to prohibit
throughout thy whole dominions every kind of buying or selling on
Sundays, and not to suffer any work to be done on those days, except such
as relates to the preparation of daily food; that due attention may be
paid to the performance of the divine offices.  If thou dost this, all
thy undertakings shall be successful, and thou shalt lead a happy life.”
The king, in French, desired Philip de Mercros, {59} who held the reins
of his horse, to ask the rustic if he had dreamt this? and when the
soldier explained to him the king’s question in English, he replied in
the same language he had before used, “Whether I have dreamt it or not,
observe what day this is (addressing himself to the king, not to the
interpreter), and unless thou shalt do so, and quickly amend thy life,
before the expiration of one year, thou shalt hear such things concerning
what thou lovest best in this world, and shalt thereby be so much
troubled, that thy disquietude shall continue to thy life’s end.”  The
king, spurring his horse, proceeded a little way towards the gate, when,
stopping suddenly, he ordered his attendants to call the good man back.
The soldier, and a young man named William, the only persons who remained
with the king, accordingly called him, and sought him in vain in the
chapel, and in all the inns of the city.  The king, vexed that he had not
spoken more to him, waited alone a long time, while other persons went in
search of him; and when he could not be found, pursued his journey over
the bridge of Remni to Newport.  The fatal prediction came to pass within
the year, as the man had threatened; for the king’s three sons, Henry,
the eldest, and his brothers, Richard of Poitou, and Geoffrey, count of
Britany, in the following Lent, deserted to Louis king of France, which
caused the king greater uneasiness than he had ever before experienced;
and which, by the conduct of some one of his sons, was continued till the
time of his decease.  This monarch, through divine mercy (for God is more
desirous of the conversion than the destruction of a sinner), received
many other admonitions and reproofs about this time, and shortly before
his death; all of which, being utterly incorrigible, he obstinately and
obdurately despised, as will be more fully set forth (by the favour of
God) in my book, “de Principis Instructione.”

Not far from Caerdyf is a small island situated near the shore of the
Severn, called Barri, from St. Baroc {60} who formerly lived there, and
whose remains are deposited in a chapel overgrown with ivy, having been
transferred to a coffin.  From hence a noble family, of the maritime
parts of South Wales, who owned this island and the adjoining estates,
received the name of de Barri.  It is remarkable that, in a rock near the
entrance of the island, there is a small cavity, to which, if the ear is
applied, a noise is heard like that of smiths at work, the blowing of
bellows, strokes of hammers, grinding of tools, and roaring of furnaces;
and it might easily be imagined that such noises, which are continued at
the ebb and flow of the tides, were occasioned by the influx of the sea
under the cavities of the rocks.



CHAPTER VII
THE SEE OF LANDAF AND MONASTERY OF MARGAN, AND THE REMARKABLE THINGS IN
THOSE PARTS


ON the following morning, the business of the cross being publicly
proclaimed at Landaf, the English standing on one side, and the Welsh on
the other, many persons of each nation took the cross, and we remained
there that night with William bishop of that place, {61a} a discreet and
good man.  The word Landaf {61b} signifies the church situated upon the
river Taf, and is now called the church of St. Teileau, formerly bishop
of that see.  The archbishop having celebrated mass early in the morning,
before the high altar of the cathedral, we immediately pursued our
journey by the little cell of Ewenith {61c} to the noble Cistercian
monastery of Margan. {62}  This monastery, under the direction of Conan,
a learned and prudent abbot, was at this time more celebrated for its
charitable deeds than any other of that order in Wales.  On this account,
it is an undoubted fact, that, as a reward for that abundant charity
which the monastery had always, in times of need, exercised towards
strangers and poor persons, in a season of approaching famine, their corn
and provisions were perceptibly, by divine assistance, increased, like
the widow’s cruise of oil by the means of the prophet Elijah.  About the
time of its foundation, a young man of those parts, by birth a Welshman,
having claimed and endeavoured to apply to his own use certain lands
which had been given to the monastery, by the instigation of the devil
set on fire the best barn belonging to the monks, which was filled with
corn; but, immediately becoming mad, he ran about the country in a
distracted state, nor ceased raving until he was seized by his parents
and bound.  Having burst his bonds, and tired out his keepers, he came
the next morning to the gate of the monastery, incessantly howling out
that he was inwardly burnt by the influence of the monks, and thus in a
few days expired, uttering the most miserable complaints.  It happened
also, that a young man was struck by another in the guests’ hall; but on
the following day, by divine vengeance, the aggressor was, in the
presence of the fraternity, killed by an enemy, and his lifeless body was
laid out in the same spot in the hall where the sacred house had been
violated.  In our time too, in a period of scarcity, while great
multitudes of poor were daily crowding before the gates for relief, by
the unanimous consent of the brethren, a ship was sent to Bristol to
purchase corn for charitable purposes.  The vessel, delayed by contrary
winds, and not returning (but rather affording an opportunity for the
miracle), on the very day when there would have been a total deficiency
of corn, both for the poor and the convent, a field near the monastery
was found suddenly to ripen, more than a month before the usual time of
harvest: thus, divine Providence supplied the brotherhood and the
numerous poor with sufficient nourishment until autumn.  By these and
other signs of virtues, the place accepted by God began to be generally
esteemed and venerated.

It came to pass also in our days, during the period when the four sons of
Caradoc son of Iestin, and nephews of prince Rhys by his sister, namely,
Morgan, Meredyth, Owen, and Cadwallon, bore rule for their father in
those parts, that Cadwallon, through inveterate malice, slew his brother
Owen.  But divine vengeance soon overtook him; for on his making a
hostile attack on a certain castle, he was crushed to pieces by the
sudden fall of its walls: and thus, in the presence of a numerous body of
his own and his brother’s forces, suffered the punishment which his
barbarous and unnatural conduct had so justly merited.

Another circumstance which happened here deserves notice.  A greyhound
belonging to the aforesaid Owen, large, beautiful, and curiously spotted
with a variety of colours, received seven wounds from arrows and lances,
in the defence of his master, and on his part did much injury to the
enemy and assassins.  When his wounds were healed, he was sent to king
Henry II. by William earl of Gloucester, in testimony of so great and
extraordinary a deed.  A dog, of all animals, is most attached to man,
and most easily distinguishes him; sometimes, when deprived of his
master, he refuses to live, and in his master’s defence is bold enough to
brave death; ready, therefore, to die, either with or for his master.  I
do not think it superfluous to insert here an example which Suetonius
gives in his book on the nature of animals, and which Ambrosius also
relates in his Exameron.  “A man, accompanied by a dog, was killed in a
remote part of the city of Antioch, by a soldier, for the sake of
plunder.  The murderer, concealed by the darkness of the morning, escaped
into another part of the city; the corpse lay unburied; a large concourse
of people assembled; and the dog, with bitter howlings, lamented his
master’s fate.  The murderer, by chance, passed that way, and, in order
to prove his innocence, mingled with the crowd of spectators, and, as if
moved by compassion, approached the body of the deceased.  The dog,
suspending for a while his moans, assumed the arms of revenge; rushed
upon the man, and seized him, howling at the same time in so dolorous a
manner, that all present shed tears.  It was considered as a proof
against the murderer, that the dog seized him from amongst so many, and
would not let him go; and especially, as neither the crime of hatred,
envy, or injury, could possibly, in this case, be urged against the dog.
On account, therefore, of such a strong suspicion of murder (which the
soldier constantly denied), it was determined that the truth of the
matter should be tried by combat.  The parties being assembled in a
field, with a crowd of people around, the dog on one side, and the
soldier, armed with a stick of a cubit’s length, on the other, the
murderer was at length overcome by the victorious dog, and suffered an
ignominious death on the common gallows.”

Pliny and Solinus relate that a certain king, who was very fond of dogs,
and addicted to hunting, was taken and imprisoned by his enemies, and in
a most wonderful manner liberated, without any assistance from his
friends, by a pack of dogs, who had spontaneously sequestered themselves
in the mountainous and woody regions, and from thence committed many
atrocious acts of depredation on the neighbouring herds and flocks.  I
shall take this opportunity of mentioning what from experience and ocular
testimony I have observed respecting the nature of dogs.  A dog is in
general sagacious, but particularly with respect to his master; for when
he has for some time lost him in a crowd, he depends more upon his nose
than upon his eyes; and, in endeavouring to find him, he first looks
about, and then applies his nose, for greater certainty, to his clothes,
as if nature had placed all the powers of infallibility in that feature.
The tongue of a dog possesses a medicinal quality; the wolf’s, on the
contrary, a poisonous: the dog heals his wounds by licking them, the
wolf, by a similar practice, infects them; and the dog, if he has
received a wound in his neck or head, or any part of his body where he
cannot apply his tongue, ingeniously makes use of his hinder foot as a
conveyance of the healing qualities to the parts affected.



CHAPTER VIII
PASSAGE OF THE RIVERS AVON AND NETH—AND OF ABERTAWE AND GOER


CONTINUING our journey, {65} not far from Margan, where the alternate
vicissitudes of a sandy shore and the tide commence, we forded over the
river Avon, having been considerably delayed by the ebbing of the sea;
and under the guidance of Morgan, eldest son of Caradoc, proceeded along
the sea-shore towards the river Neth, which, on account of its
quicksands, is the most dangerous and inaccessible river in South Wales.
A pack-horse belonging to the author, which had proceeded by the lower
way near the sea, although in the midst of many others, was the only one
which sunk down into the abyss, but he was at last, with great
difficulty, extricated, and not without some damage done to the baggage
and books.  Yet, although we had Morgan, the prince of that country, as
our conductor, we did not reach the river without great peril, and some
severe falls; for the alarm occasioned by this unusual kind of road, made
us hasten our steps over the quicksands, in opposition to the advice of
our guide, and fear quickened our pace; whereas, through these difficult
passages, as we there learned, the mode of proceeding should be with
moderate speed.  But as the fords of that river experience a change by
every monthly tide, and cannot be found after violent rains and floods,
we did not attempt the ford, but passed the river in a boat, leaving the
monastery of Neth {66} on our right hand, approaching again to the
district of St. David’s, and leaving the diocese of Landaf (which we had
entered at Abergevenny) behind us.

It happened in our days that David II., bishop of St. David’s, passing
this way, and finding the ford agitated by a recent storm, a chaplain of
those parts, named Rotherch Falcus, being conversant in the proper method
of crossing these rivers, undertook, at the desire of the bishop, the
dangerous task of trying the ford.  Having mounted a large and powerful
horse, which had been selected from the whole train for this purpose, he
immediately crossed the ford, and fled with great rapidity to the
neighbouring woods, nor could he be induced to return until the
suspension which he had lately incurred was removed, and a full promise
of security and indemnity obtained; the horse was then restored to one
party, and his service to the other.

Entering the province called Goer, {67a} we spent the night at the castle
of Sweynsei, {67b} which in Welsh is called Abertawe, or the fall of the
river Tawe into the sea.  The next morning, the people being assembled
after mass, and many having been induced to take the cross, an aged man
of that district, named Cador, thus addressed the archbishop: “My lord,
if I now enjoyed my former strength, and the vigour of youth, no alms
should ransom me, no desire of inactivity restrain me, from engaging in
the laudable undertaking you preach; but since my weak age and the
injuries of time deprive me of this desirable benefit (for approaching
years bring with them many comforts, which those that are passed take
away), if I cannot, owing to the infirmity of my body, attain a full
merit, yet suffer me, by giving a tenth of all I possess, to attain a
half.”  Then falling down at the feet of the archbishop, he deposited in
his hands, for the service of the cross, the tenth of his estate, weeping
bitterly, and intreating from him the remission of one half of the
enjoined penance.  After a short time he returned, and thus continued:
“My lord, if the will directs the action, and is itself, for the most
part, considered as the act, and as I have a full and firm inclination to
undertake this journey, I request a remission of the remaining part of
the penance, and in addition to my former gift, I will equal the sum from
the residue of my tenths.”  The archbishop, smiling at his devout
ingenuity, embraced him with admiration.

On the same night, two monks, who waited in the archbishop’s chamber,
conversing about the occurrences of their journey, and the dangers of the
road, one of them said (alluding to the wildness of the country), “This
is a hard province;” the other (alluding to the quicksands), wittily
replied, “Yet yesterday it was found too soft.”

A short time before our days, a circumstance worthy of note occurred in
these parts, which Elidorus, a priest, most strenuously affirmed had
befallen himself.  When a youth of twelve years, and learning his
letters, since, as Solomon says, “The root of learning is bitter,
although the fruit is sweet,” in order to avoid the discipline and
frequent stripes inflicted on him by his preceptor, he ran away, and
concealed himself under the hollow bank of a river.  After fasting in
that situation for two days, two little men of pigmy stature appeared to
him, saying, “If you will come with us, we will lead you into a country
full of delights and sports.”  Assenting and rising up, he followed his
guides through a path, at first subterraneous and dark, into a most
beautiful country, adorned with rivers and meadows, woods and plains, but
obscure, and not illuminated with the full light of the sun.  All the
days were cloudy, and the nights extremely dark, on account of the
absence of the moon and stars.  The boy was brought before the king, and
introduced to him in the presence of the court; who, having examined him
for a long time, delivered him to his son, who was then a boy.  These men
were of the smallest stature, but very well proportioned in their make;
they were all of a fair complexion, with luxuriant hair falling over
their shoulders like that of women.  They had horses and greyhounds
adapted to their size.  They neither ate flesh nor fish, but lived on
milk diet, made up into messes with saffron.  They never took an oath,
for they detested nothing so much as lies.  As often as they returned
from our upper hemisphere, they reprobated our ambition, infidelities,
and inconstancies; they had no form of public worship, being strict
lovers and reverers, as it seemed, of truth.

The boy frequently returned to our hemisphere, sometimes by the way he
had first gone, sometimes by another: at first in company with other
persons, and afterwards alone, and made himself known only to his mother,
declaring to her the manners, nature, and state of that people.  Being
desired by her to bring a present of gold, with which that region
abounded, he stole, while at play with the king’s son, the golden ball
with which he used to divert himself, and brought it to his mother in
great haste; and when he reached the door of his father’s house, but not
unpursued, and was entering it in a great hurry, his foot stumbled on the
threshold, and falling down into the room where his mother was sitting,
the two pigmies seized the ball which had dropped from his hand, and
departed, shewing the boy every mark of contempt and derision.  On
recovering from his fall, confounded with shame, and execrating the evil
counsel of his mother, he returned by the usual track to the
subterraneous road, but found no appearance of any passage, though he
searched for it on the banks of the river for nearly the space of a year.
But since those calamities are often alleviated by time, which reason
cannot mitigate, and length of time alone blunts the edge of our
afflictions, and puts an end to many evils, the youth having been brought
back by his friends and mother, and restored to his right way of
thinking, and to his learning, in process of time attained the rank of
priesthood.  Whenever David II., bishop of St. David’s, talked to him in
his advanced state of life concerning this event, he could never relate
the particulars without shedding tears.  He had made himself acquainted
with the language of that nation, the words of which, in his younger
days, he used to recite, which, as the bishop often had informed me, were
very conformable to the Greek idiom.  When they asked for water, they
said Ydor ydorum, which meant bring water, for Ydor in their language, as
well as in the Greek, signifies water, from whence vessels for water are
called ὑδζιαι; and Dûr also, in the British language, signifies water.
When they wanted salt they said, Halgein ydorum, bring salt: salt is
called ἁλ in Greek, and Halen in British, for that language, from the
length of time which the Britons (then called Trojans, and afterwards
Britons, from Brito, their leader) remained in Greece after the
destruction of Troy, became, in many instances, similar to the Greek.

It is remarkable that so many languages should correspond in one word, ἁλ
in Greek, Halen in British, and Halgein in the Irish tongue, the g being
inserted; Sal in Latin, because, as Priscian says, “the s is placed in
some words instead of an aspirate,” as ἁλς in Greek is called Sal in
Latin, ἑμι—semi—ἑπτα—septem—Sel in French—the _a_ being changed into
_e_—Salt in English, by the addition of _t_ to the Latin; Sout, in the
Teutonic language: there are therefore seven or eight languages agreeing
in this one word.  If a scrupulous inquirer should ask my opinion of the
relation here inserted, I answer with Augustine, “that the divine
miracles are to be admired, not discussed.”  Nor do I, by denial, place
bounds to the divine power, nor, by assent, insolently extend what cannot
be extended.  But I always call to mind the saying of St. Jerome; “You
will find,” says he, “many things incredible and improbable, which
nevertheless are true; for nature cannot in any respect prevail against
the lord of nature.”  These things, therefore, and similar contingencies,
I should place, according to the opinion of Augustine, among those
particulars which are neither to be affirmed, nor too positively denied.



CHAPTER IX
PASSAGE OVER THE RIVERS LOCHOR AND WENDRAETH; AND OF CYDWELI


THENCE we proceeded towards the river Lochor, {71a} through the plains in
which Howel, son of Meredyth of Brecheinoc, after the decease of king
Henry I., gained a signal victory over the English.  Having first crossed
the river Lochor, and afterwards the water called Wendraeth, {71b} we
arrived at the castle of Cydweli. {71c}  In this district, after the
death of king Henry, whilst Gruffydd son of Rhys, the prince of South
Wales, was engaged in soliciting assistance from North Wales, his wife
Gwenliana (like the queen of the Amazons, and a second Penthesilea) led
an army into these parts; but she was defeated by Maurice de Londres,
lord of that country, and Geoffrey, the bishop’s constable. {72}  Morgan,
one of her sons, whom she had arrogantly brought with her in that
expedition, was slain, and the other, Malgo, taken prisoner; and she,
with many of her followers, was put to death.  During the reign of king
Henry I., when Wales enjoyed a state of tranquillity, the above-mentioned
Maurice had a forest in that neighbourhood, well stocked with wild
animals, and especially deer, and was extremely tenacious of his venison.
His wife (for women are often very expert in deceiving men) made use of
this curious stratagem.  Her husband possessed, on the side of the wood
next the sea, some extensive pastures, and large flocks of sheep.  Having
made all the shepherds and chief people in her house accomplices and
favourers of her design, and taking advantage of the simple courtesy of
her husband, she thus addressed him: “It is wonderful that being lord
over beasts, you have ceased to exercise dominion over them; and by not
making use of your deer, do not now rule over them, but are subservient
to them; and behold how great an abuse arises from too much patience; for
they attack our sheep with such an unheard-of rage, and unusual voracity,
that from many they are become few; from being innumerable, only
numerous.”  To make her story more probable, she caused some wool to be
inserted between the intestines of two stags which had been embowelled;
and her husband, thus artfully deceived, sacrificed his deer to the
rapacity of his dogs.



CHAPTER X
TYWY RIVER—CAERMARDYN—MONASTERY OF ALBELANDE


HAVING crossed the river Tywy in a boat, we proceeded towards Caermardyn,
leaving Lanstephan and Talachar {73a} on the sea-coast to our left.
After the death of king Henry II., Rhys, the son of Gruffydd, took these
two castles by assault; then, having laid waste, by fire and sword, the
provinces of Penbroch and Ros, he besieged Caermardyn, but failed in his
attempt.  Caermardyn {73b} signifies the city of Merlin, because,
according to the British History, he was there said to have been begotten
of an incubus.

This ancient city is situated on the banks of the noble river Tywy,
surrounded by woods and pastures, and was strongly inclosed with walls of
brick, part of which are still standing; having Cantref Mawr, the great
cantred, or hundred, on the eastern side, a safe refuge, in times of
danger, to the inhabitants of South Wales, on account of its thick woods;
where is also the castle of Dinevor, {73c} built on a lofty summit above
the Tywy, the royal seat of the princes of South Wales.  In ancient
times, there were three regal palaces in Wales: Dinevor in South Wales,
Aberfrau in North Wales, situated in Anglesea, and Pengwern in Powys, now
called Shrewsbury (Slopesburia); Pengwern signifies the head of a grove
of alders.  Recalling to mind those poetical passages:

    “Dolus an virtus quis in hoste requirat?”

and

    “Et si non recte possis quocunque modo rem,”

my pen shrinks with abhorrence from the relation of the enormous
vengeance exercised by the court against its vassals, within the comot of
Caeo, in the Cantref Mawr.  Near Dinevor, on the other side of the river
Tywy, in the Cantref Bychan, or the little cantred, there is a spring
which, like the tide, ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours. {74a}
Not far to the north of Caermardyn, namely at Pencadair, {74b} that is,
the head of the chair, when Rhys, the son of Gruffydd, was more by
stratagem than force compelled to surrender, and was carried away into
England, king Henry II. despatched a knight, born in Britany, on whose
wisdom and fidelity he could rely, under the conduct of Guaidanus, dean
of Cantref Mawr, to explore the situation of Dinevor castle, and the
strength of the country.  The priest, being desired to take the knight by
the easiest and best road to the castle, led him purposely aside by the
most difficult and inaccessible paths, and wherever they passed through
woods, the priest, to the general surprise of all present, fed upon
grass, asserting that, in times of need, the inhabitants of that country
were accustomed to live upon herbs and roots.  The knight returning to
the king, and relating what had happened, affirmed that the country was
uninhabitable, vile, and inaccessible, and only affording food to a
beastly nation, living like brutes.  At length the king released Rhys,
having first bound him to fealty by solemn oaths and the delivery of
hostages.

On our journey from Caermardyn towards the Cistercian monastery called
Alba Domus, {75a} the archbishop was informed of the murder of a young
Welshman, who was devoutly hastening to meet him; when turning out of the
road, he ordered the corpse to be covered with the cloak of his almoner,
and with a pious supplication commended the soul of the murdered youth to
heaven.  Twelve archers of the adjacent castle of St. Clare, {75b} who
had assassinated the young man, were on the following day signed with the
cross at Alba Domus, as a punishment for their crime.  Having traversed
three rivers, the Taf, then the Cleddeu, under Lanwadein, {76a} and
afterwards another branch of the same river, we at length arrived at
Haverford.  This province, from its situation between two rivers, has
acquired the name of Daugleddeu, {76b} being enclosed and terminated, as
it were, by two swords, for cleddue, in the British language, signifies a
sword.



CHAPTER XI
OF HAVERFORD AND ROS


A SERMON having been delivered at Haverford {76c} by the archbishop, and
the word of God preached to the people by the archdeacon, whose name
appears on the title-page of this work, many soldiers and plebeians were
induced to take the cross.  It appeared wonderful and miraculous, that,
although the archdeacon addressed them both in the Latin and French
tongues, those persons who understood neither of those languages were
equally affected, and flocked in great numbers to the cross.

An old woman of those parts, who for three preceding years had been
blind, having heard of the archbishop’s arrival, sent her son to the
place where the sermon was to be preached, that he might bring back to
her some particle, if only of the fringe of his garment.  The young man
being prevented by the crowd from approaching the archbishop, waited till
the assembly was dispersed, and then carried a piece of the earth on
which the preacher had stood.  The mother received the gift with great
joy, and falling immediately on her knees, applied the turf to her mouth
and eyes; and thus, through the merits of the holy man, and her own faith
and devotion, recovered the blessing of sight, which she had entirely
lost.

The inhabitants of this province derived their origin from Flanders, and
were sent by king Henry I. to inhabit these districts; a people brave and
robust, ever most hostile to the Welsh; a people, I say, well versed in
commerce and woollen manufactories; a people anxious to seek gain by sea
or land, in defiance of fatigue and danger; a hardy race, equally fitted
for the plough or the sword; a people brave and happy, if Wales (as it
ought to have been) had been dear to its sovereign, and had not so
frequently experienced the vindictive resentment and ill-treatment of its
governors.

A circumstance happened in the castle of Haverford during our time, which
ought not to be omitted.  A famous robber was fettered and confined in
one of its towers, and was often visited by three boys, the son of the
earl of Clare, and two others, one of whom was son of the lord of the
castle, and the other his grandson, sent thither for their education, and
who applied to him for arrows, with which he used to supply them.  One
day, at the request of the children, the robber, being brought from his
dungeon, took advantage of the absence of the gaoler, closed the door,
and shut himself up with the boys.  A great clamour instantly arose, as
well from the boys within, as from the people without; nor did he cease,
with an uplifted axe, to threaten the lives of the children, until
indemnity and security were assured to him in the most ample manner.  A
similar accident happened at Chateau-roux in France.  The lord of that
place maintained in the castle a man whose eyes he had formerly put out,
but who, by long habit, recollected the ways of the castle, and the steps
leading to the towers.  Seizing an opportunity of revenge, and meditating
the destruction of the youth, he fastened the inward doors of the castle,
and took the only son and heir of the governor of the castle to the
summit of a high tower, from whence he was seen with the utmost concern
by the people beneath.  The father of the boy hastened thither, and,
struck with terror, attempted by every possible means to procure the
ransom of his son, but received for answer, that this could not be
effected, but by the same mutilation of those lower parts, which he had
likewise inflicted on him.  The father, having in vain entreated mercy,
at length assented, and caused a violent blow to be struck on his body;
and the people around him cried out lamentably, as if he had suffered
mutilation.  The blind man asked him where he felt the greatest pain?
when he replied in his reins, he declared it was false and prepared to
precipitate the boy.  A second blow was given, and the lord of the castle
asserting that the greatest pains were at his heart, the blind man
expressing his disbelief, again carried the boy to the summit of the
tower.  The third time, however, the father, to save his son, really
mutilated himself; and when he exclaimed that the greatest pain was in
his teeth; “It is true,” said he, “as a man who has had experience should
be believed, and thou hast in part revenged my injuries.  I shall meet
death with more satisfaction, and thou shalt neither beget any other son,
nor receive comfort from this.”  Then, precipitating himself and the boy
from the summit of the tower, their limbs were broken, and both instantly
expired.  The knight ordered a monastery to be built on the spot for the
soul of the boy, which is still extant, and called De Doloribus.

It appears remarkable to me that the entire inheritance should devolve on
Richard, son of Tankard, governor of the aforesaid castle of Haverford,
being the youngest son, and having many brothers of distinguished
character who died before him.  In like manner the dominion of South
Wales descended to Rhys son of Gruffyd, owing to the death of several of
his brothers.  During the childhood of Richard, a holy man, named
Caradoc, led a pious and recluse life at St. Ismael, in the province of
Ros, {79a} to whom the boy was often sent by his parents with provisions,
and he so ingratiated himself in the eyes of the good man, that he very
often promised him, together with his blessing, the portion of all his
brothers, and the paternal inheritance.  It happened that Richard, being
overtaken by a violent storm of rain, turned aside to the hermit’s cell;
and being unable to get his hounds near him, either by calling, coaxing,
or by offering them food, the holy man smiled; and making a gentle motion
with his hand, brought them all to him immediately.  In process of time,
when Caradoc {79b} had happily completed the course of his existence,
Tankard, father of Richard, violently detained his body, which by his
last will he had bequeathed to the church of St. David; but being
suddenly seized with a severe illness, he revoked his command.  When this
had happened to him a second and a third time, and the corpse at last was
suffered to be conveyed away, and was proceeding over the sands of
Niwegal towards St. David’s, a prodigious fall of rain inundated the
whole country; but the conductors of the sacred burthen, on coming forth
from their shelter, found the silken pall, with which the bier was
covered, dry and uninjured by the storm; and thus the miraculous body of
Caradoc was brought into the church of St. Andrew and St. David, and with
due solemnity deposited in the left aisle, near the altar of the holy
proto-martyr Stephen.

It is worthy of remark, that these people (the Flemings), from the
inspection of the right shoulders of rams, which have been stripped of
their flesh, and not roasted, but boiled, can discover future events, or
those which have passed and remained long unknown. {80}  They know, also,
what is transpiring at a distant place, by a wonderful art, and a
prophetic kind of spirit.  They declare, also, by means of signs, the
undoubted symptoms of approaching peace and war, murders and fires,
domestic adulteries, the state of the king, his life and death.  It
happened in our time, that a man of those parts, whose name was William
Mangunel, a person of high rank, and excelling all others in the
aforesaid art, had a wife big with child by her own husband’s grandson.
Well aware of the fact, he ordered a ram from his own flock to be sent to
his wife, as a present from her neighbour, which was carried to the cook,
and dressed.  At dinner, the husband purposely gave the shoulder-bone of
the ram, properly cleaned, to his wife, who was also well skilled in this
art, for her examination; when, having for a short time examined the
secret marks, she smiled, and threw the oracle down on the table.  Her
husband, dissembling, earnestly demanded the cause of her smiling, and
the explanation of the matter.  Overcome by his entreaties, she answered:
“The man to whose fold this ram belongs, has an adulterous wife, at this
time pregnant by the commission of incest with his own grandson.”  The
husband, with a sorrowful and dejected countenance, replied: “You
deliver, indeed, an oracle supported by too much truth, which I have so
much more reason to lament, as the ignominy you have published redounds
to my own injury.”  The woman, thus detected, and unable to dissemble her
confusion, betrayed the inward feelings of her mind by external signs;
shame and sorrow urging her by turns, and manifesting themselves, now by
blushes, now by paleness, and lastly (according to the custom of women),
by tears.  The shoulder of a goat was also once brought to a certain
person, instead of a ram’s—both being alike, when cleaned; who, observing
for a short time the lines and marks, exclaimed, “Unhappy cattle, that
never was multiplied! unhappy, likewise, the owner of the cattle, who
never had more than three or four in one flock!”  Many persons, a year
and a half before the event, foresaw, by the means of shoulder-bones, the
destruction of their country, after the decease of king Henry I., and,
selling all their possessions, left their homes, and escaped the
impending ruin.

It happened also in Flanders, from whence this people came, that a
certain man sent a similar bone to a neighbour for his inspection; and
the person who carried it, on passing over a ditch, broke wind, and
wished it in the nostrils of the man on whose account he was thus
troubled.  The person to whom the bone was taken, on examination, said,
“May you have in your own nose, that which you wished to be in mine.”  In
our time, a soothsayer, on the inspection of a bone, discovered not only
a theft, and the manner of it, but the thief himself, and all the
attendant circumstances; he heard also the striking of a bell, and the
sound of a trumpet, as if those things which were past were still
performing.  It is wonderful, therefore, that these bones, like all
unlawful conjurations, should represent, by a counterfeit similitude to
the eyes and ears, things which are passed, as well as those which are
now going on.



CHAPTER XII
OF PENBROCH


THE province of Penbroch adjoins the southern part of the territory of
Ros, and is separated from it by an arm of the sea.  Its principal city,
and the metropolis of Demetia, is situated on an oblong rocky eminence,
extending with two branches from Milford Haven, from whence it derived
the name of Penbroch, which signifies the head of the æstuary.  Arnulph
de Montgomery, {82a} in the reign of king Henry I., erected here a
slender fortress with stakes and turf, which, on returning to England, he
consigned to the care of Giraldus de Windesor, {82b} his constable and
lieutenant-general, a worthy and discreet man.  Immediately on the death
of Rhys son of Tewdwr, who a short time before had been slain by the
treachery of his own troops at Brecheinoc, leaving his son, Gruffydd, a
child, the inhabitants of South Wales besieged the castle.  One night,
when fifteen soldiers had deserted, and endeavoured to escape from the
castle in a small boat, on the following morning Giraldus invested their
armour bearers with the arms and estates of their masters, and decorated
them with the military order.  The garrison being, from the length of the
siege, reduced to the utmost want of provisions, the constable, with
great prudence and flattering hopes of success, caused four hogs, which
yet remained, to be cut into small pieces and thrown down to the enemy
from the fortifications.  The next day, having again recourse to a more
refined stratagem, he contrived that a letter, sealed with his own
signet, should be found before the house of Wilfred, {83} bishop of St.
David’s, who was then by chance in that neighbourhood, as if accidentally
dropped, stating that there would be no necessity of soliciting the
assistance of earl Arnulph for the next four months to come.  The
contents of these letters being made known to the army, the troops
abandoned the siege of the castle, and retired to their own homes.
Giraldus, in order to make himself and his dependants more secure,
married Nest, the sister of Gruffydd, prince of South Wales, by whom he
had an illustrious progeny of both sexes; and by whose means both the
maritime parts of South Wales were retained by the English, and the walls
of Ireland afterwards stormed, as our Vaticinal History declares.

In our time, a person residing at the castle of Penbroch, found a brood
of young weasels concealed within a fleece in his dwelling house, which
he carefully removed and hid.  The mother, irritated at the loss of her
young, which she had searched for in vain, went to a vessel of milk that
had been set aside for the use of the master’s son, and raising herself
up, polluted it with her deadly poison; thus revenging, as it were, the
loss of her young, by the destruction of the child.  The man, observing
what passed, carried the fleece back to its former place; when the
weasel, agitated by maternal solicitude, between hope and fear, on
finding again her young, began to testify her joy by her cries and
actions, and returning quickly to the vessel, overthrew it; thus, in
gratitude for the recovery of her own offspring, saving that of her host
from danger.

In another place, an animal of the same species had brought out her young
into a plain for the enjoyment of the sun and air; when an insidious kite
carried off one of them.  Concealing herself with the remainder behind
some shrubs, grief suggested to her a stratagem of exquisite revenge; she
extended herself on a heap of earth, as if dead, within sight of the
plunderer, and (as success always increases avidity) the bird immediately
seized her and flew away, but soon fell down dead by the bite of the
poisonous animal.

The castle called Maenor Pyrr, {84} that is, the mansion of Pyrrus, who
also possessed the island of Chaldey, which the Welsh call Inys Pyrr, or
the island of Pyrrus, is distant about three miles from Penbroch.  It is
excellently well defended by turrets and bulwarks, and is situated on the
summit of a hill extending on the western side towards the sea-port,
having on the northern and southern sides a fine fish-pond under its
walls, as conspicuous for its grand appearance, as for the depth of its
waters, and a beautiful orchard on the same side, inclosed on one part by
a vineyard, and on the other by a wood, remarkable for the projection of
its rocks, and the height of its hazel trees.  On the right hand of the
promontory, between the castle and the church, near the site of a very
large lake and mill, a rivulet of never-failing water flows through a
valley, rendered sandy by the violence of the winds.  Towards the west,
the Severn sea, bending its course to Ireland, enters a hollow bay at
some distance from the castle; and the southern rocks, if extended a
little further towards the north, would render it a most excellent
harbour for shipping.  From this point of sight, you will see almost all
the ships from Great Britain, which the east wind drives upon the Irish
coast, daringly brave the inconstant waves and raging sea.  This country
is well supplied with corn, sea-fish, and imported wines; and what is
preferable to every other advantage, from its vicinity to Ireland, it is
tempered by a salubrious air.  Demetia, therefore, with its seven
cantreds, is the most beautiful, as well as the most powerful district of
Wales; Penbroch, the finest part of the province of Demetia; and the
place I have just described, the most delightful part of Penbroch.  It is
evident, therefore, that Maenor Pirr is the pleasantest spot in Wales;
and the author may be pardoned for having thus extolled his native soil,
his genial territory, with a profusion of praise and admiration.

In this part of Penbroch, unclean spirits have conversed, nor visibly,
but sensibly, with mankind; first in the house of Stephen Wiriet, {86a}
and afterwards in the house of William Not; {86b} manifesting their
presence by throwing dirt at them, and more with a view of mockery than
of injury.  In the house of William, they cut holes in the linen and
woollen garments, much to the loss of the owner of the house and his
guests; nor could any precaution, or even bolts, secure them from these
inconveniences.  In the house of Stephen, the spirit in a more
extraordinary manner conversed with men, and, in reply to their taunts,
upbraided them openly with everything they had done from their birth, and
which they were not willing should be known or heard by others.  I do not
presume to assign the cause of this event, except that it is said to be
the presage of a sudden change from poverty to riches, or rather from
affluence to poverty and distress; as it was found to be the case in both
these instances.  And it appears to me very extraordinary that these
places could not be purified from such illusions, either by the
sprinkling of holy water, or the assistance of any other religious
ceremony; for the priests themselves, though protected by the crucifix,
or the holy water, on devoutly entering the house, were equally subject
to the same insults.  From whence it appears that things pertaining to
the sacraments, as well as the sacraments themselves, defend us from
hurtful, but not from harmless things; from annoyances, but not from
illusions.  It is worthy of note, that in our time, a woman in Poitou was
possessed by a demon, who, through her mouth, artfully and acutely
disputed with the learned.  He sometimes upbraided people with their
secret actions, and those things which they wished not to hear; but when
either the books of the gospel, or the relics of saints, were placed upon
the mouth of the possessed, he fled to the lower part of her throat; and
when they were removed thither, he descended into her belly.  His
appearance was indicated by certain inflations and convulsions of the
parts which he possessed, and when the relics were again placed in the
lower parts, he directly returned to the upper.  At length, when they
brought the body of Christ, and gave it to the patient, the demon
answered, “Ye fools, you are doing nothing, for what you give her is not
the food of the body, but of the soul; and my power is confined to the
body, not to the soul.”  But when those persons whom he had upbraided
with their more serious actions, had confessed, and returned from
penance, he reproached them no more.  “I have known, indeed,” says he, “I
have known but now I know not, (he spake this as it were a reproach to
others), and I hold my tongue, for what I know, I know not.”  From which
it appears, that after confession and penance, the demons either do not
know the sins of men, or do not know them to their injury and disgrace;
because, as Augustine says, “If man conceals, God discovers; if man
discovers, God conceals.”

Some people are surprised that lightning often strikes our places of
worship, and damages the crosses and images of him who was crucified,
before the eyes of one who seeth all things, and permits these
circumstances to happen; to whom I shall only answer with Ovid,

    “Summa petit livor, perflant altissima venti,
       Summa petunt dextra fulmina missa Jovis.”

On the same subject, Peter Abelard, in the presence of Philip king of
France, is said to have answered a Jew, who urged these and similar
things against the faith.  “It is true that the lightning descending from
on high, directs itself most commonly to the highest object on earth, and
to those most resembling its own nature; it never, therefore, injures
your synagogues, because no man ever saw or heard of its falling upon a
privy.”  An event worthy of note, happened in our time in France.  During
a contention between some monks of the Cistercian order, and a certain
knight, about the limits of their fields and lands, a violent tempest, in
one night, utterly destroyed and ruined the cultivated grounds of the
monks, while the adjoining territory of the knight remained undamaged.
On which occasion he insolently inveighed against the fraternity, and
publicly asserted that divine vengeance had thus punished them for
unlawfully keeping possession of his land; to which the abbot wittily
replied, “It is by no means so; but that the knight had more friends in
that riding than the monastery;” and he clearly demonstrated that, on the
other hand, the monks had more enemies in it.

In the province of Penbroch, another instance occurred, about the same
time, of a spirit’s appearing in the house of Elidore de Stakepole, {88}
not only sensibly, but visibly, under the form of a red-haired young man,
who called himself Simon.  First seizing the keys from the person to whom
they were entrusted, he impudently assumed the steward’s office, which he
managed so prudently and providently, that all things seemed to abound
under his care, and there was no deficiency in the house.  Whatever the
master or mistress secretly thought of having for their daily use or
provision, he procured with wonderful agility, and without any previous
directions, saying, “You wished that to be done, and it shall be done for
you.”  He was also well acquainted with their treasures and secret
hoards, and sometimes upbraided them on that account; for as often as
they seemed to act sparingly and avariciously, he used to say, “Why are
you afraid to spend that heap of gold or silver, since your lives are of
so short duration, and the money you so cautiously hoard up will never do
you any service?”  He gave the choicest meat and drink to the rustics and
hired servants, saying that “Those persons should be abundantly supplied,
by whose labours they were acquired.”  Whatever he determined should be
done, whether pleasing or displeasing to his master or mistress (for, as
we have said before, he knew all their secrets), he completed in his
usual expeditious manner, without their consent.  He never went to
church, or uttered one Catholic word.  He did not sleep in the house, but
was ready at his office in the morning.

He was at length observed by some of the family to hold his nightly
converse near a mill and a pool of water; upon which discovery he was
summoned the next morning before the master of the house and his lady,
and, receiving his discharge, delivered up the keys, which he had held
for upwards of forty days.  Being earnestly interrogated, at his
departure, who he was? he answered, “That he was begotten upon the wife
of a rustic in that parish, by a demon, in the shape of her husband,”
naming the man, and his father-in-law, then dead, and his mother, still
alive; the truth of which the woman, upon examination, openly avowed.  A
similar circumstance happened in our time in Denmark.  A certain unknown
priest paid court to the archbishop, and, from his obsequious behaviour
and discreet conduct, his general knowledge of letters and quick memory,
soon contracted a great familiarity with him.  Conversing one day with
the archbishop about ancient histories and unknown events, on which topic
he most frequently heard him with pleasure, it happened that when the
subject of their discourse was the incarnation of our Lord, he said,
amongst other things, “Before Christ assumed human nature, the demons had
great power over mankind, which, at his coming, was much diminished;
insomuch that they were dispersed on every side, and fled from his
presence.  Some precipitated themselves into the sea, others into the
hollow parts of trees, or the clefts of rocks; and I myself leaped into a
well;” on which he blushed for shame, and took his departure.  The
archbishop, and those who were with him, being greatly astonished at that
speech, began to ask questions by turns, and form conjectures; and having
waited some time (for he was expected to return soon), the archbishop
ordered some of his attendants to call him, but he was sought for in
vain, and never re-appeared.  Soon afterwards, two priests, whom the
archbishop had sent to Rome, returned; and when this event was related to
them, they began to inquire the day and hour on which the circumstance
had happened?  On being told it, they declared that on the very same day
and hour he had met them on the Alps, saying, that he had been sent to
the court of Rome, on account of some business of his master’s (meaning
the archbishop), which had lately occurred.  And thus it was proved, that
a demon had deluded them under a human form.

I ought not to omit mentioning the falcons of these parts, which are
large, and of a generous kind, and exercise a most severe tyranny over
the river and land birds.  King Henry II. remained here some time, making
preparations for his voyage to Ireland; and being desirous of taking the
diversion of hawking, he accidentally saw a noble falcon perched upon a
rock.  Going sideways round him, he let loose a fine Norway hawk, which
he carried on his left hand.  The falcon, though at first slower in its
flight, soaring up to a great height, burning with resentment, and in his
turn becoming the aggressor, rushed down upon his adversary with the
greatest impetuosity, and by a violent blow struck the hawk dead at the
feet of the king.  From that time the king sent every year, about the
breeding season, for the falcons {90} of this country, which are produced
on the sea cliffs; nor can better be found in any part of his dominions.
But let us now return to our Itinerary.



CHAPTER XIII
OF THE PROGRESS BY CAMROS AND NIWEGAL


FROM Haverford we proceeded on our journey to Menevia, distant from
thence about twelve miles, and passed through Camros, {91a} where, in the
reign of king Stephen, the relations and friends of a distinguished young
man, Giraldus, son of William, revenged his death by a too severe
retaliation on the men of Ros.  We then passed over Niwegal sands, at
which place (during the winter that king Henry II. spent in Ireland), as
well as in almost all the other western ports, a very remarkable
circumstance occurred.  The sandy shores of South Wales, being laid bare
by the extraordinary violence of a storm, the surface of the earth, which
had been covered for many ages, re-appeared, and discovered the trunks of
trees cut off, standing in the very sea itself, the strokes of the
hatchet appearing as if made only yesterday. {91b}  The soil was very
black, and the wood like ebony.  By a wonderful revolution, the road for
ships became impassable, and looked, not like a shore, but like a grove
cut down, perhaps, at the time of the deluge, or not long after, but
certainly in very remote ages, being by degrees consumed and swallowed up
by the violence and encroachments of the sea.  During the same tempest
many sea fish were driven, by the violence of the wind and waves, upon
dry land.  We were well lodged at St. David’s by Peter, bishop of the
see, a liberal man, who had hitherto accompanied us during the whole of
our journey.



BOOK II


PREFACE


SINCE, therefore, St. David’s is the head, and in times past was the
metropolitan, city of Wales, though now, alas! retaining more of the
_name_ than of the _omen_, {94} yet I have not forborne to weep over the
obsequies of our ancient and undoubted mother, to follow the mournful
hearse, and to deplore with tearful sighs the ashes of our half-buried
matron.  I shall, therefore, endeavour briefly to declare to you in what
manner, from whence, and from what period the pall was first brought to
St. David’s, and how it was taken away; how many prelates were invested
with the pall; and how many were despoiled thereof; together with their
respective names to this present day.



CHAPTER I
OF THE SEE OF SAINT DAVID’S


WE are informed by the British histories, that Dubricius, archbishop of
Caerleon, sensible of the infirmities of age, or rather being desirous of
leading a life of contemplation, resigned his honours to David, who is
said to have been uncle to king Arthur; and by his interest the see was
translated to Menevia, although Caerleon, as we have observed in the
first book, was much better adapted for the episcopal see.  For Menevia
is situated in a most remote corner of land upon the Irish ocean, the
soil stony and barren, neither clothed with woods, distinguished by
rivers, nor adorned by meadows, ever exposed to the winds and tempests,
and continually subject to the hostile attacks of the Flemings on one
side, and of the Welsh on the other.  For the holy men who settled here,
chose purposely such a retired habitation, that by avoiding the noise of
the world, and preferring an heremitical to a pastoral life, they might
more freely provide for “that part which shall not be taken away;” for
David was remarkable for his sanctity and religion, as the history of his
life will testify.  Amongst the many miracles recorded of him, three
appear to me the most worthy of admiration: his origin and conception;
his pre-election thirty years before his birth; and what exceeds all, the
sudden rising of the ground, at Brevy, under his feet while preaching, to
the great astonishment of all the beholders.

Since the time of David, twenty-five archbishops presided over the see of
Menevia, whose names are here subjoined: David, Cenauc, Eliud, who was
also called Teilaus, Ceneu, Morwal, Haerunen, Elwaed, Gurnuen, Lendivord,
Gorwysc, Cogan, Cledauc, Anian, Euloed, Ethelmen, Elauc, Malscoed,
Sadermen, Catellus, Sulhaithnai, Nonis, Etwal, Asser, Arthuael, Sampson.
In the time of Sampson, the pall was translated from Menevia in the
following manner: a disorder called the yellow plague, and by the
physicians the icteric passion, of which the people died in great
numbers, raged throughout Wales, at the time when Sampson held the
archiepiscopal see.  Though a holy man, and fearless of death, he was
prevailed upon, by the earnest intreaties of his people, to go on board a
vessel, which was wafted, by a south wind, to Britannia Armorica, {96}
where he and his attendants were safely landed.  The see of Dol being at
that time vacant, he was immediately elected bishop.  Hence it came to
pass, that on account of the pall which Sampson had brought thither with
him, the succeeding bishops, even to our times, always retained it.  But
during the presidency of the archbishop of Tours, this adventitious
dignity ceased; yet our countrymen, through indolence or poverty, or
rather owing to the arrival of the English into the island, and the
frequent hostilities committed against them by the Saxons, lost their
archiepiscopal honours.  But until the entire subjugation of Wales by
king Henry I., the Welsh bishops were always consecrated by the bishop of
St. David’s; and he was consecrated by his suffragans, without any
profession or submission being made to any other church.

From the time of Sampson to that of king Henry I., nineteen bishops
presided over this see: Ruelin, Rodherch, Elguin, Lunuerd, Nergu,
Sulhidir, Eneuris, Morgeneu, who was the first bishop of St. David’s who
ate flesh, and was there killed by pirates; and he appeared to a certain
bishop in Ireland on the night of his death, shewing his wounds, and
saying, “Because I ate flesh, I am become flesh.”  Nathan, Ievan (who was
bishop only one night), Argustel, Morgenueth, Ervin, Tramerin, Joseph,
Bleithud, Sulghein, Abraham, Wilfred.  Since the subjugation of Wales to
the present time, three only have held the see: in the reign of king
Henry I., Bernard; in the reign of king Stephen, David II.; and in the
reign of king Henry II., Peter, a monk of the order of Cluny; who all, by
the king’s mandate, were consecrated at Canterbury; as also Geoffrey,
prior and canon of Lanthoni, who succeeded them in the reign of king
John, and was preferred to this see by the interest of Hubert, archbishop
of Canterbury, and afterwards consecrated by him.  We do not hear that
either before or after that subjugation, any archbishop of Canterbury
ever entered the borders of Wales, except Baldwin, a monk of the
Cistercian order, abbot of Ford, and afterwards bishop of Worcester, who
traversed that rough, inaccessible, and remote country with a laudable
devotion for the service of the cross; and as a token of investiture,
celebrated mass in all the cathedral churches.  So that till lately the
see of St. David’s owed no subjection to that of Canterbury, as may be
seen in the English History of Bede, who says that “Augustine, bishop of
the Angles, after the conversion of king Ethelfred and the English
people, called together the bishops of Wales on the confines of the West
Saxons, as legate of the apostolic see.  When the seven bishops {97}
appeared, Augustine, sitting in his chair, with Roman pride, did not rise
up at their entrance.  Observing his haughtiness (after the example of a
holy anchorite of their nation), they immediately returned, and treated
him and his statutes with contempt, publicly proclaiming that they would
not acknowledge him for their archbishop; alleging, that if he now
refused to rise up to us, how much more will he hold us in contempt, if
we submit to be subject to him?”  That there were at that time seven
bishops in Wales, and now only four, may be thus accounted for; because
perhaps there were formerly more cathedral churches in Wales than there
are at present, or the extent of Wales might have been greater.  Amongst
so many bishops thus deprived of their dignity, Bernard, the first French
[_i.e._ Norman] bishop of St. David’s, alone defended the rights of his
church in a public manner; and after many expensive and vexatious appeals
to the court of Rome, would not have reclaimed them in vain, if false
witnesses had not publicly appeared at the council of Rheims, before pope
Eugenius, and testified that he had made profession and submission to the
see of Canterbury.  Supported by three auxiliaries, the favour and
intimacy of king Henry, a time of peace, and consequent plenty, he boldly
hazarded the trial of so great a cause, and so confident was he of his
just right, that he sometimes caused the cross to be carried before him
during his journey through Wales.

Bernard, however commendable in some particulars, was remarkable for his
insufferable pride and ambition.  For as soon as he became courtier and a
creature of the king’s, panting after English riches by means of
translation, (a malady under which all the English sent hither seem to
labour), he alienated many of the lands of his church without either
advantage or profit, and disposed of others so indiscreetly and
improvidently, that when ten carucates {98} of land were required for
military purposes, he would, with a liberal hand, give twenty or thirty;
and of the canonical rites and ordinances which he had miserably and
unhappily instituted at St. David’s, he would hardly make use of one, at
most only of two or three.  With respect to the two sees of Canterbury
and St. David’s, I will briefly explain my opinion of their present
state.  On one side, you will see royal favour, affluence of riches,
numerous and opulent suffragan bishops, great abundance of learned men
and well skilled in the laws; on the other side, a deficiency of all
these things, and a total want of justice; on which account the recovery
of its ancient rights will not easily be effected, but by means of those
great changes and vicissitudes which kingdoms experience from various and
unexpected events.

The spot where the church of St. David’s stands, and was founded in
honour of the apostle St. Andrew, is called the Vale of Roses; which
ought rather to be named the vale of marble, since it abounds with one,
and by no means with the other.  The river Alun, a muddy and unproductive
rivulet, {99a} bounding the churchyard on the northern side, flows under
a marble stone, called Lechlavar, which has been polished by continual
treading of passengers, and concerning the name, size, and quality of
which we have treated in our Vaticinal History. {99b}  Henry II., on his
return from Ireland, is said to have passed over this stone, before he
devoutly entered the church of St. Andrew and St. David.  Having left the
following garrisons in Ireland, namely, Hugh de Lacy (to whom he had
given Meath in fee) in Dublin, with twenty knights; Fitz-Stephen and
Maurice Fitzgerald, with other twenty; Humphrey de Bohun, Robert
Fitz-Bernard, and Hugh de Grainville at Waterford, with forty; and
William Fitz-Adelm and Philip de Braose at Wexford, with twenty; on the
second day of Easter, the king embarked at sunrise on board a vessel in
the outward port of Wexford, and, with a south wind, landed about noon in
the harbour of Menevia.  Proceeding towards the shrine of St. David,
habited like a pilgrim, and leaning on a staff, he met at the white gate
a procession of the canons of the church coming forth to receive him with
due honour and reverence.  As the procession solemnly moved along, a
Welsh woman threw herself at the king’s feet, and made a complaint
against the bishop of the place, which was explained to the king by an
interpreter.  The woman, immediate attention not being paid to her
petition, with violent gesticulation, and a loud and impertinent voice,
exclaimed repeatedly, “Revenge us this day, Lechlavar! revenge us and the
nation in this man!”  On being chidden and driven away by those who
understood the British language, she more vehemently and forcibly
vociferated in the like manner, alluding to the vulgar fiction and
proverb of Merlin, “That a king of England, and conqueror of Ireland,
should be wounded in that country by a man with a red hand, and die upon
Lechlavar, on his return through Menevia.”  This was the name of that
stone which serves as a bridge over the river Alun, which divides the
cemetery from the northern side of the church.  It was a beautiful piece
of marble, polished by the feet of passengers, ten feet in length, six in
breadth, and one in thickness.  Lechlavar signifies in the British
language a talking stone. {100}  There was an ancient tradition
respecting this stone, that at a time when a corpse was carried over it
for interment, it broke forth into speech, and by the effort cracked in
the middle, which fissure is still visible; and on account of this
barbarous and ancient superstition, the corpses are no longer brought
over it.  The king, who had heard the prophecy, approaching the stone,
stopped for a short time at the foot of it, and, looking earnestly at it,
boldly passed over; then, turning round, and looking towards the stone,
thus indignantly inveighed against the prophet: “Who will hereafter give
credit to the lying Merlin?”  A person standing by, and observing what
had passed, in order to vindicate the injury done to the prophet,
replied, with a loud voice, “Thou art not that king by whom Ireland is to
be conquered, or of whom Merlin prophesied!”  The king then entering the
church founded in honour of St. Andrew and St. David, devoutly offered up
his prayers, and heard mass performed by a chaplain, whom alone, out of
so large a body of priests, Providence seems to have kept fasting till
that hour, for this very purpose.  Having supped at St. David’s, the king
departed for the castle of Haverford, distant about twelve miles.  It
appears very remarkable to me, that in our days, when David II. presided
over the see, the river should have flowed with wine, and that the
spring, called Pistyll Dewi, or the _Pipe_ of David, from its flowing
through a pipe into the eastern side of the churchyard, should have run
with milk.  The birds also of that place, called jackdaws, from being so
long unmolested by the clergy of the church, were grown so tame and
domesticated, as not to be afraid of persons dressed in black.  In clear
weather the mountains of Ireland are visible from hence, and the passage
over the Irish sea may be performed in one short day; on which account
William, the son of William the Bastard, and the second of the Norman
kings in England, who was called Rufus, and who had penetrated far into
Wales, on seeing Ireland from these rocks, is reported to have said, “I
will summon hither all the ships of my realm, and with them make a bridge
to attack that country.”  Which speech being related to Murchard, prince
of Leinster, he paused awhile, and answered, “Did the king add to this
mighty threat, If God please?” and being informed that he had made no
mention of God in his speech, rejoicing in such a prognostic, he replied,
“Since that man trusts in human, not divine power, I fear not his
coming.”



CHAPTER II
OF THE JOURNEY BY CEMMEIS—THE MONASTERY OF ST. DOGMAEL


THE archbishop having celebrated mass early in the morning before the
high altar of the church of St. David, and enjoined to the archdeacon
(Giraldus) the office of preaching to the people, hastened through
Cemmeis {102a} to meet prince Rhys at Aberteive. {102b}  Two
circumstances occurred in the province of Cemmeis, the one in our own
time, the other a little before, which I think right not to pass over in
silence.  In our time, a young man, native of this country, during a
severe illness, suffered as violent a persecution from toads, {102c} as
if the reptiles of the whole province had come to him by agreement; and
though destroyed by his nurses and friends, they increased again on all
sides in infinite numbers, like hydras’ heads.  His attendants, both
friends and strangers, being wearied out, he was drawn up in a kind of
bag, into a high tree, stripped of its leaves, and shred; nor was he
there secure from his venomous enemies, for they crept up the tree in
great numbers, and consumed him even to the very bones.  The young man’s
name was Sisillus Esceir-hir, that is, Sisillus Long Leg.  It is also
recorded that by the hidden but never unjust will of God, another man
suffered a similar persecution from rats.  In the same province, during
the reign of king Henry I., a rich man, who had a residence on the
northern side of the Preseleu mountains, {103a} was warned for three
successive nights, by dreams, that if he put his hand under a stone which
hung over the spring of a neighbouring well, called the fountain of St.
Bernacus, {103b} he would find there a golden torques.  Obeying the
admonition on the third day, he received, from a viper, a deadly wound in
his finger; but as it appears that many treasures have been discovered
through dreams, it seems to me probable that, with respect to rumours, in
the same manner as to dreams, some ought, and some ought not, to be
believed.

I shall not pass over in silence the circumstance which occurred in the
principal castle of Cemmeis at Lanhever, {103c} in our days.  Rhys, son
of Gruffydd, by the instigation of his son Gruffydd, a cunning and artful
man, took away by force, from William, son of Martin (de Tours), his
son-in-law, the castle of Lanhever, notwithstanding he had solemnly
sworn, by the most precious relics, that his indemnity and security
should be faithfully maintained, and, contrary to his word and oath, gave
it to his son Gruffydd; but since “A sordid prey has not a good ending,”
the Lord, who by the mouth of his prophet, exclaims “Vengeance is mine,
and I will repay!” ordained that the castle should be taken away from the
contriver of this wicked plot, Gruffydd, and bestowed upon the man in the
world he most hated, his brother Malgon.  Rhys, also, about two years
afterwards, intending to disinherit his own daughter, and two
granddaughters and grandsons, by a singular instance of divine vengeance,
was taken prisoner by his sons in battle, and confined in this same
castle; thus justly suffering the greatest disgrace and confusion in the
very place where he had perpetrated an act of the most consummate
baseness.  I think it also worthy to be remembered, that at the time this
misfortune befell him, he had concealed in his possession, at Dinevor,
the collar of St. Canauc of Brecknock, for which, by divine vengeance, he
merited to be taken prisoner and confined.

We slept that night in the monastery of St. Dogmael, where, as well as on
the next day at Aberteivi, we were handsomely entertained by prince Rhys.
On the Cemmeis side of the river, not far from the bridge, the people of
the neighbourhood being assembled together, and Rhys and his two sons,
Malgon and Gruffydd, being present, the word of the Lord was persuasively
preached both by the archbishop and the archdeacon, and many were induced
to take the cross; one of whom was an only son, and the sole comfort of
his mother, far advanced in years, who, steadfastly gazing on him, as if
inspired by the Deity, uttered these words:—“O, most beloved Lord Jesus
Christ, I return thee hearty thanks for having conferred on me the
blessing of bringing forth a son, whom thou mayest think worthy of thy
service.”  Another woman at Aberteivi, of a very different way of
thinking, held her husband fast by his cloak and girdle, and publicly and
audaciously prevented him from going to the archbishop to take the cross;
but, three nights afterwards, she heard a terrible voice, saying, “Thou
hast taken away my servant from me, therefore what thou most lovest shall
be taken away from thee.”  On her relating this vision to her husband,
they were struck with mutual terror and amazement; and on falling asleep
again, she unhappily overlaid her little boy, whom, with more affection
than prudence, she had taken to bed with her.  The husband, relating to
the bishop of the diocese both the vision and its fatal prediction, took
the cross, which his wife spontaneously sewed on her husband’s arm.

Near the head of the bridge where the sermons were delivered, the people
immediately marked out the site for a chapel, {105a} on a verdant plain,
as a memorial of so great an event; intending that the altar should be
placed on the spot where the archbishop stood while addressing the
multitude; and it is well known that many miracles (the enumeration of
which would be too tedious to relate) were performed on the crowds of
sick people who resorted hither from different parts of the country.



CHAPTER III
OF THE RIVER TEIVI, CARDIGAN, AND EMELYN


THE noble river Teivi flows here, and abounds with the finest salmon,
more than any other river of Wales; it has a productive fishery near
Cilgerran, which is situated on the summit of a rock, at a place called
Canarch Mawr, {105b} the ancient residence of St. Ludoc, where the river,
falling from a great height, forms a cataract, which the salmon ascend,
by leaping from the bottom to the top of a rock, which is about the
height of the longest spear, and would appear wonderful, were it not the
nature of that species of fish to leap: hence they have received the name
of salmon, from _salio_.  Their particular manner of leaping (as I have
specified in my Topography of Ireland) is thus: fish of this kind,
naturally swimming against the course of the river (for as birds fly
against the wind, so do fish swim against the stream), on meeting with
any sudden obstacle, bend their tail towards their mouth, and sometimes,
in order to give a greater power to their leap, they press it with their
mouth, and suddenly freeing themselves from this circular form, they
spring with great force (like a bow let loose) from the bottom to the top
of the leap, to the great astonishment of the beholders.  The church
dedicated to St. Ludoc, {106a} the mill, bridge, salmon leap, an orchard
with a delightful garden, all stand together on a small plot of ground.
The Teivi has another singular particularity, being the only river in
Wales, or even in England, which has beavers; {106b} in Scotland they are
said to be found in one river, but are very scarce.  I think it not a
useless labour, to insert a few remarks respecting the nature of these
animals—the manner in which they bring their materials from the woods to
the water, and with what skill they connect them in the construction of
their dwellings in the midst of rivers; their means of defence on the
eastern and western sides against hunters; and also concerning their
fish-like tails.

The beavers, in order to construct their castles in the middle of rivers,
make use of the animals of their own species instead of carts, who, by a
wonderful mode of carnage, convey the timber from the woods to the
rivers.  Some of them, obeying the dictates of nature, receive on their
bellies the logs of wood cut off by their associates, which they hold
tight with their feet, and thus with transverse pieces placed in their
mouths, are drawn along backwards, with their cargo, by other beavers,
who fasten themselves with their teeth to the raft.  The moles use a
similar artifice in clearing out the dirt from the cavities they form by
scraping.  In some deep and still corner of the river, the beavers use
such skill in the construction of their habitations, that not a drop of
water can penetrate, or the force of storms shake them; nor do they fear
any violence but that of mankind, nor even that, unless well armed.  They
entwine the branches of willows with other wood, and different kinds of
leaves, to the usual height of the water, and having made within-side a
communication from floor to floor, they elevate a kind of stage, or
scaffold, from which they may observe and watch the rising of the waters.
In the course of time, their habitations bear the appearance of a grove
of willow trees, rude and natural without, but artfully constructed
within.  This animal can remain in or under water at its pleasure, like
the frog or seal, who shew, by the smoothness or roughness of their
skins, the flux and reflux of the sea.  These three animals, therefore,
live indifferently under the water, or in the air, and have short legs,
broad bodies, stubbed tails, and resemble the mole in their corporal
shape.  It is worthy of remark, that the beaver has but four teeth, two
above, and two below, which being broad and sharp, cut like a carpenter’s
axe, and as such he uses them.  They make excavations and dry hiding
places in the banks near their dwellings, and when they hear the stroke
of the hunter, who with sharp poles endeavours to penetrate them, they
fly as soon as possible to the defence of their castle, having first
blown out the water from the entrance of the hole, and rendered it foul
and muddy by scraping the earth, in order thus artfully to elude the
stratagems of the well-armed hunter, who is watching them from the
opposite banks of the river.  When the beaver finds he cannot save
himself from the pursuit of the dogs who follow him, that he may ransom
his body by the sacrifice of a part, he throws away that, which by
natural instinct he knows to be the object sought for, and in the sight
of the hunter castrates himself, from which circumstance he has gained
the name of Castor; and if by chance the dogs should chase an animal
which had been previously castrated, he has the sagacity to run to an
elevated spot, and there lifting up his leg, shews the hunter that the
object of his pursuit is gone.  Cicero speaking of them says, “They
ransom themselves by that part of the body, for which they are chiefly
sought.”  And Juvenal says,

    “—Qui se
    Eunuchum ipse facit, cupiens evadere damno
    Testiculi.”

And St. Bernard,

    “Prodit enim castor proprio de corpore velox
       Reddere quas sequitur hostis avarus opes.”

Thus, therefore, in order to preserve his skin, which is sought after in
the west, and the medicinal part of his body, which is coveted in the
east, although he cannot save himself entirely, yet, by a wonderful
instinct and sagacity, he endeavours to avoid the stratagems of his
pursuers.  The beavers have broad, short tails, thick, like the palm of a
hand, which they use as a rudder in swimming; and although the rest of
their body is hairy, this part, like that of seals, is without hair, and
smooth; upon which account, in Germany and the arctic regions, where
beavers abound, great and religious persons, in times of fasting, eat the
tails of this fish-like animal, as having both the taste and colour of
fish.

We proceeded on our journey from Cilgerran towards Pont-Stephen, {109a}
leaving Cruc Mawr, _i.e._ the great hill, near Aberteivi, on our left
hand.  On this spot Gruffydd, son of Rhys ap Tewdwr, soon after the death
of king Henry I., by a furious onset gained a signal victory against the
English army, which, by the murder of the illustrious Richard de Clare,
near Abergevenny (before related), had lost its leader and chief. {109b}
A tumulus is to be seen on the summit of the aforesaid hill, and the
inhabitants affirm that it will adapt itself to persons of all stature
and that if any armour is left there entire in the evening, it will be
found, according to vulgar tradition, broken to pieces in the morning.



CHAPTER IV
OF THE JOURNEY BY PONT STEPHEN, THE ABBEY OF STRATFLUR, LANDEWI BREVI,
AND LHANPADARN VAWR


A SERMON having been preached on the following morning at Pont Stephen,
{109c} by the archbishop and archdeacon, and also by two abbots of the
Cistercian order, John of Albadomus, and Sisillus of Stratflur, {109d}
who faithfully attended us in those parts, and as far as North Wales,
many persons were induced to take the cross.  We proceeded to Stratflur,
where we passed the night.  On the following morning, having on our right
the lofty mountains of Moruge, which in Welsh are called Ellennith,
{110a} we were met near the side of a wood by Cyneuric son of Rhys,
accompanied by a body of light-armed youths.  This young man was of a
fair complexion, with curled hair, tall and handsome; clothed only,
according to the custom of his country, with a thin cloak and inner
garment, his legs and feet, regardless of thorns and thistles were left
bare; a man, not adorned by art, but nature; bearing in his presence an
innate, not an acquired, dignity of manners.  A sermon having been
preached to these three young men, Gruffydd, Malgon, and Cyneuric, in the
presence of their father, prince Rhys, and the brothers disputing about
taking the cross, at length Malgon strictly promised that he would
accompany the archbishop to the king’s court, and would obey the king’s
and archbishop’s counsel, unless prevented by them.  From thence we
passed through Landewi Brevi, {110b} that is, the church of David of
Brevi, situated on the summit of that hill which had formerly risen up
under his feet whilst preaching, during the period of that celebrated
synod, when all the bishops, abbots, and clergy of Wales, and many other
persons, were collected thither on account of the Pelagian heresy, which,
although formerly exploded from Britain by Germanus, bishop of Auxerre,
had lately been revived in these parts.  At this place David was
reluctantly raised to the archbishopric, by the unanimous consent and
election of the whole assembly, who by loud acclamations testified their
admiration of so great a miracle.  Dubricius had a short time before
resigned to him this honour in due form at Caerleon, from which city the
metropolitan see was transferred to St. David’s.

Having rested that night at Lhanpadarn Vawr, {111} or the church of
Paternus the Great, we attracted many persons to the service of Christ on
the following morning.  It is remarkable that this church, like many
others in Wales and Ireland, has a lay abbot; for a bad custom has
prevailed amongst the clergy, of appointing the most powerful people of a
parish stewards, or, rather, patrons, of their churches; who, in process
of time, from a desire of gain, have usurped the whole right,
appropriating to their own use the possession of all the lands, leaving
only to the clergy the altars, with their tenths and oblations, and
assigning even these to their sons and relations in the church.  Such
defenders, or rather destroyers, of the church, have caused themselves to
be called abbots, and presumed to attribute to themselves a title, as
well as estates, to which they have no just claim.  In this state we
found the church of Lhanpadarn, without a head.  A certain old man, waxen
old in iniquity (whose name was Eden Oen, son of Gwaithwoed), being
abbot, and his sons officiating at the altar.  But in the reign of king
Henry I., when the authority of the English prevailed in Wales, the
monastery of St. Peter at Gloucester held quiet possession of this
church; but after his death, the English being driven out, the monks were
expelled from their cloisters, and their places supplied by the same
violent intrusion of clergy and laity, which had formerly been practised.
It happened that in the reign of king Stephen, who succeeded Henry I., a
knight, born in Armorican Britain, having travelled through many parts of
the world, from a desire of seeing different cities, and the manners of
their inhabitants, came by chance to Lhanpadarn.  On a certain feast-day,
whilst both the clergy and people were waiting for the arrival of the
abbot to celebrate mass, he perceived a body of young men, armed,
according to the custom of their country, approaching towards the church;
and on enquiring which of them was the abbot, they pointed out to him a
man walking foremost, with a long spear in his hand.  Gazing on him with
amazement, he asked, “If the abbot had not another habit, or a different
staff, from that which he now carried before him?”  On their answering,
“No!” he replied, “I have seen indeed and heard this day a wonderful
novelty!” and from that hour he returned home, and finished his labours
and researches.  This wicked people boasts, that a certain bishop {112}
of their church (for it formerly was a cathedral) was murdered by their
predecessors; and on this account, chiefly, they ground their claims of
right and possession.  No public complaint having been made against their
conduct, we have thought it more prudent to pass over, for the present,
the enormities of this wicked race with dissimulation, than exasperate
them by a further relation.



CHAPTER V
OF THE RIVER DEVI, AND THE LAND OF THE SONS OF CONAN


APPROACHING to the river Devi, {113a} which divides North and South
Wales, the bishop of St. David’s, and Rhys the son of Gruffydd, who with
a liberality peculiarly praiseworthy in so illustrious a prince, had
accompanied us from the castle of Aberteivi, throughout all
Cardiganshire, to this place, returned home.  Having crossed the river in
a boat, and quitted the diocese of St. David’s, we entered the land of
the sons of Conan, or Merionyth, the first province of Venedotia on that
side of the country, and belonging to the bishopric of Bangor. {113b}  We
slept that night at Towyn.  Early next morning, Gruffydd son of Conan
{113c} came to meet us, humbly and devoutly asking pardon for having so
long delayed his attention to the archbishop.  On the same day, we
ferried over the bifurcate river Maw, {113d} where Malgo, son of Rhys,
who had attached himself to the archbishop, as a companion to the king’s
court, discovered a ford near the sea.  That night we lay at Llanvair,
{114a} that is the church of St. Mary, in the province of Ardudwy. {114b}
This territory of Conan, and particularly Merionyth, is the rudest and
roughest district of all Wales; the ridges of its mountains are very high
and narrow, terminating in sharp peaks, and so irregularly jumbled
together, that if the shepherds conversing or disputing with each other
from their summits, should agree to meet, they could scarcely effect
their purpose in the course of the whole day.  The lances of this country
are very long; for as South Wales excels in the use of the bow, so North
Wales is distinguished for its skill in the lance; insomuch that an iron
coat of mail will not resist the stroke of a lance thrown at a small
distance.  The next morning, the youngest son of Conan, named Meredyth,
met us at the passage of a bridge, attended by his people, where many
persons were signed with the cross; amongst whom was a fine young man of
his suite, and one of his intimate friends; and Meredyth, observing that
the cloak, on which the cross was to be sewed, appeared of too thin and
of too common a texture, with a flood of tears, threw him down his own.



CHAPTER VI
PASSAGE OF TRAETH MAWR AND TRAETH BACHAN, AND OF NEVYN, CARNARVON, AND
BANGOR


WE continued our journey over the Traeth Mawr, {115a} and Traeth Bachan,
{115b} that is, the greater and the smaller arm of the sea, where two
stone castles have newly been erected; one called Deudraeth, belonging to
the sons of Conan, situated in Evionyth, towards the northern mountains;
the other named Carn Madryn, the property of the sons of Owen, built on
the other side of the river towards the sea, on the head-land Lleyn.
{115c}  Traeth, in the Welsh language, signifies a tract of sand flooded
by the tides, and left bare when the sea ebbs.  We had before passed over
the noted rivers, the Dissenith, {115d} between the Maw and Traeth Mawr,
and the Arthro, between the Traeth Mawr and Traeth Bachan.  We slept that
night at Nevyn, on the eve of Palm Sunday, where the archdeacon, after
long inquiry and research, is said to have found Merlin Sylvestris.
{115e}

Beyond Lleyn, there is a small island inhabited by very religious monks,
called Cælibes, or Colidei.  This island, either from the wholesomeness
of its climate, owing to its vicinity to Ireland, or rather from some
miracle obtained by the merits of the saints, has this wonderful
peculiarity, that the oldest people die first, because diseases are
uncommon, and scarcely any die except from extreme old age.  Its name is
Enlli in the Welsh, and Berdesey {116a} in the Saxon language; and very
many bodies of saints are said to be buried there, and amongst them that
of Daniel, bishop of Bangor.

The archbishop having, by his sermon the next day, induced many persons
to take the cross, we proceeded towards Banchor, passing through
Caernarvon, {116b} that is, the castle of Arvon; it is called Arvon, the
province opposite to Môn, because it is so situated with respect to the
island of Mona.  Our road leading us to a steep valley, {116c} with many
broken ascents and descents, we dismounted from our horses, and proceeded
on foot, rehearsing, as it were, by agreement, some experiments of our
intended pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  Having traversed the valley, and
reached the opposite side with considerable fatigue, the archbishop, to
rest himself and recover his breath, sat down on an oak which had been
torn up by the violence of the winds; and relaxing into a pleasantry
highly laudable in a person of his approved gravity, thus addressed his
attendants: “Who amongst you, in this company, can now delight our
wearied ears by whistling?” which is not easily done by people out of
breath.  He affirming that he could, if he thought fit, the sweet notes
are heard, in an adjoining wood, of a bird, which some said was a
woodpecker, and others, more correctly, an aureolus.  The woodpecker is
called in French, _spec_, and with its strong bill, perforates oak trees;
the other bird in called aureolus, from the golden tints of its feathers,
and at certain seasons utters a sweet whistling note instead of a song.
Some persons having remarked, that the nightingale was never heard in
this country, the archbishop, with a significant smile, replied, “The
nightingale followed wise counsel, and never came into Wales; but we,
unwise counsel, who have penetrated and gone through it.”  We remained
that night at Banchor, {117} the metropolitan see of North Wales, and
were well entertained by the bishop of the diocese. {118a}  On the next
day, mass being celebrated by the archbishop before the high altar, the
bishop of that see, at the instance of the archbishop and other persons,
more importunate than persuasive, was compelled to take the cross, to the
general concern of all his people of both sexes, who expressed their
grief on this occasion by loud and lamentable vociferations.



CHAPTER VII
THE ISLAND OF MONA


FROM hence, we crossed over a small arm of the sea to the island of Mona,
{118b} distant from thence about two miles, where Roderic, the younger
son of Owen, attended by nearly all the inhabitants of the island, and
many others from the adjacent countries, came in a devout manner to meet
us.  Confession having been made in a place near the shore, where the
surrounding rocks seemed to form a natural theatre, {118c} many persons
were induced to take the cross, by the persuasive discourses of the
archbishop, and Alexander, our interpreter, archdeacon of that place, and
of Sisillus, abbot of Stratflur.  Many chosen youths of the family of
Roderic were seated on an opposite rock, and not one of them could be
prevailed upon to take the cross, although the archbishop and others most
earnestly exhorted them, but in vain, by an address particularly directed
to them.  It came to pass within three days, as if by divine vengeance,
that these young men, with many others, pursued some robbers of that
country.  Being discomfited and put to flight, some were slain, others
mortally wounded, and the survivors voluntarily assumed that cross they
had before despised.  Roderic, also, who a short time before had
incestuously married the daughter of Rhys, related to him by blood in the
third degree, in order, by the assistance of that prince, to be better
able to defend himself against the sons of his brothers, whom he had
disinherited, not paying attention to the wholesome admonitions of the
archbishop on this subject, was a little while afterwards dispossessed of
all his lands by their means; thus deservedly meeting with disappointment
from the very source from which he expected support.  The island of Mona
contains three hundred and forty-three vills, considered equal to three
cantreds.  Cantred, a compound word from the British and Irish languages,
is a portion of land equal to one hundred vills.  There are three islands
contiguous to Britain, on its different sides, which are said to be
nearly of an equal size—the Isle of Wight on the south, Mona on the west,
and Mania (Man) on the north-west side.  The two first are separated from
Britain by narrow channels; the third is much further removed, lying
almost midway between the countries of Ulster in Ireland and Galloway in
Scotland.  The island of Mona is an arid and stony land, rough and
unpleasant in its appearance, similar in its exterior qualities to the
land of Pebidion, {120a} near St. David’s, but very different as to its
interior value.  For this island is incomparably more fertile in corn
than any other part of Wales, from whence arose the British proverb, “Mon
mam Cymbry, Mona mother of Wales;” and when the crops have been defective
in all other parts of the country, this island, from the richness of its
soil and abundant produce, has been able to supply all Wales.

As many things within this island are worthy of remark, I shall not think
it superfluous to make mention of some of them.  There is a stone here
resembling a human thigh, {120b} which possesses this innate virtue, that
whatever distance it may be carried, it returns, of its own accord, the
following night, as has often been experienced by the inhabitants.  Hugh,
earl of Chester, {120c} in the reign of king Henry I., having by force
occupied this island and the adjacent country, heard of the miraculous
power of this stone, and, for the purpose of trial, ordered it to be
fastened, with strong iron chains, to one of a larger size, and to be
thrown into the sea.  On the following morning, however, according to
custom, it was found in its original position, on which account the earl
issued a public edict, that no one, from that time, should presume to
move the stone from its place.  A countryman, also, to try the powers of
this stone, fastened it to his thigh, which immediately became putrid,
and the stone returned to its original situation.

There is in the same island a stony hill, not very large or high, from
one side of which, if you cry aloud, you will not be heard on the other;
and it is called (by anti-phrasis) the rock of hearers.  In the northern
part of Great Britain (Northumberland) so named by the English, from its
situation beyond the river Humber, there is a hill of a similar nature,
where if a loud horn or trumpet is sounded on one side, it cannot be
heard on the opposite one.  There is also in this island the church of
St. Tefredaucus, {121} into which Hugh, earl of Shrewsbury, (who,
together with the earl of Chester, had forcibly entered Anglesey), on a
certain night put some dogs, which on the following morning were found
mad, and he himself died within a month; for some pirates, from the
Orcades, having entered the port of the island in their long vessels, the
earl, apprised of their approach, boldly met them, rushing into the sea
upon a spirited horse.  The commander of the expedition, Magnus, standing
on the prow of the foremost ship, aimed an arrow at him; and, although
the earl was completely equipped in a coat of mail, and guarded in every
part of his body except his eyes, the unlucky weapon struck his right
eye, and, entering his brain, he fell a lifeless corpse into the sea.
The victor, seeing him in this state, proudly and exultingly exclaimed,
in the Danish tongue, “Leit loup,” let him leap; and from this time the
power of the English ceased in Anglesey.  In our times, also, when Henry
II. was leading an army into North Wales, where he had experienced the
ill fortune of war in a narrow, woody pass near Coleshulle, he sent a
fleet into Anglesey, and began to plunder the aforesaid church, and other
sacred places.  But the divine vengeance pursued him, for the inhabitants
rushed upon the invaders, few against many, unarmed against armed; and
having slain great numbers, and taken many prisoners, gained a most
complete and bloody victory.  For, as our Topography of Ireland
testifies, that the Welsh and Irish are more prone to anger and revenge
than any other nations, the saints, likewise, of those countries appear
to be of a more vindictive nature.

Two noble persons, and uncles of the author of this book, were sent
thither by the king; namely, Henry, son of king Henry I., and uncle to
king Henry II., by Nest, daughter of Rhys, prince of South Wales; and
Robert Fitz-Stephen, brother to Henry, a man who in our days, shewing the
way to others, first attacked Ireland, and whose fame is recorded in our
Vaticinal History.  Henry, actuated by too much valour, and ill
supported, was pierced by a lance, and fell amongst the foremost, to the
great concern of his attendants; and Robert, despairing of being able to
defend himself, was badly wounded, and escaped with difficulty to the
ships.

There is a small island, almost adjoining to Anglesey, which is inhabited
by hermits, living by manual labour, and serving God.  It is remarkable
that when, by the influence of human passions, any discord arises among
them, all their provisions are devoured and infected by a species of
small mice, with which the island abounds; but when the discord ceases,
they are no longer molested.  Nor is it to be wondered at, if the
servants of God sometimes disagree, since Jacob and Esau contended in the
womb of Rebecca, and Paul and Barnabas differed; the disciples also of
Jesus disputed which of them should be the greatest, for these are the
temptations of human infirmity; yet virtue is often made perfect by
infirmity, and faith is increased by tribulations.  This island is called
in Welsh, Ynys Lenach, {123a} or the ecclesiastical island, because many
bodies of saints are deposited there, and no woman is suffered to enter
it.

We saw in Anglesey a dog, who accidentally had lost his tail, and whose
whole progeny bore the same defect.  It is wonderful that nature should,
as it were, conform itself in this particular to the accident of the
father.  We saw also a knight, named Earthbald, born in Devonshire, whose
father, denying the child with which his mother was pregnant, and from
motives of jealousy accusing her of inconstancy, nature alone decided the
controversy by the birth of the child, who, by a miracle, exhibited on
his upper lip a scar, similar to one his father bore in consequence of a
wound he had received from a lance in one of his military expeditions.
Stephen, the son of Earthbald, had a similar mark, the accident being in
a manner converted into nature.  A like miracle of nature occurred in
earl Alberic, son of Alberic earl of Veer, {123b} whose father, during
the pregnancy of his mother, the daughter of Henry of Essex, having
laboured to procure a divorce, on account of the ignominy of her father,
the child, when born, had the same blemish in its eye, as the father had
got from a casual hurt.  These defects may be entailed on the offspring,
perhaps, by the impression made on the memory by frequent and steady
observation; as it is reported that a queen, accustomed to see the
picture of a negro in her chamber, unexpectedly brought forth a black
child, and is exculpated by Quintilian, on account of the picture.  In
like manner it happened to the spotted sheep, given by Laban out of his
flock to his nephew Jacob, and which conceived by means of variegated
rods. {124}  Nor is the child always affected by the mother’s imagination
alone, but sometimes by that of the father; for it is well known that a
man, seeing a passenger near him, who was convulsed both behind and
before, on going home and telling his wife that he could not get the
impression of this sight off his mind, begat a child who was affected in
a similar manner.



CHAPTER VIII
PASSAGE OF THE RIVER CONWY IN A BOAT, AND OF DINAS EMRYS


ON our return to Banchor from Mona, we were shown the tombs of prince
Owen and his younger brother Cadwalader, {125a} who were buried in a
double vault before the high altar, although Owen, on account of his
public incest with his cousin-german, had died excommunicated by the
blessed martyr St. Thomas, the bishop of that see having been enjoined to
seize a proper opportunity of removing his body from the church.  We
continued our journey on the sea coast, confined on one side by steep
rocks, and by the sea on the other, towards the river Conwy, which
preserves its waters unadulterated by the sea.  Not far from the source
of the river Conwy, at the head of the Eryri mountain, which on this side
extends itself towards the north, stands Dinas Emrys, that is, the
promontory of Ambrosius, where Merlin {125b} uttered his prophecies,
whilst Vortigern was seated upon the bank.  There were two Merlins; the
one called Ambrosius who prophesied in the time of king Vortigern, was
begotten by a demon incubus, and found at Caermardin, from which
circumstance that city derived its name of Caermardin, or the city of
Merlin; the other Merlin, born in Scotland, was named Celidonius, from
the Celidonian wood in which he prophesied; and Sylvester, because when
engaged in martial conflict, he discovered in the air a terrible monster,
and from that time grew mad, and taking shelter in a wood, passed the
remainder of his days in a savage state.  This Merlin lived in the time
of king Arthur, and is said to have prophesied more fully and explicitly
than the other.  I shall pass over in silence what was done by the sons
of Owen in our days, after his death, or while he was dying, who, from
the wicked desire of reigning, totally disregarded the ties of
fraternity; but I shall not omit mentioning another event which occurred
likewise in our days.  Owen, {126} son of Gruffyth, prince of North
Wales, had many sons, but only one legitimate, namely, Iorwerth Drwyndwn,
which in Welsh means flat-nosed, who had a son named Llewelyn.  This
young man, being only twelve years of age, began, during the period of
our journey, to molest his uncles David and Roderic, the sons of Owen by
Christiana, his cousin-german; and although they had divided amongst
themselves all North Wales, except the land of Conan, and although David,
having married the sister of king Henry II., by whom he had one son, was
powerfully supported by the English, yet within a few years the
legitimate son, destitute of lands or money (by the aid of divine
vengeance), bravely expelled from North Wales those who were born in
public incest, though supported by their own wealth and by that of
others, leaving them nothing but what the liberality of his own mind and
the counsel of good men from pity suggested: a proof that adulterous and
incestuous persons are displeasing to God.



CHAPTER IX
OF THE MOUNTAINS OF ERYRI


I MUST not pass over in silence the mountains called by the Welsh Eryri,
but by the English Snowdon, or Mountains of Snow, which gradually
increasing from the land of the sons of Conan, and extending themselves
northwards near Deganwy, seem to rear their lofty summits even to the
clouds, when viewed from the opposite coast of Anglesey.  They are said
to be of so great an extent, that according to an ancient proverb, “As
Mona could supply corn for all the inhabitants of Wales, so could the
Eryri mountains afford sufficient pasture for all the herds, if collected
together.”  Hence these lines of Virgil may be applied to them:—

    “Et quantum longis carpent armenta diebus,
    Exigua tautum gelidus ros nocte reponet.”

    “And what is cropt by day the night renews,
    Shedding refreshful stores of cooling dews.”

On the highest parts of these mountains are two lakes worthy of
admiration.  The one has a floating island in it, which is often driven
from one side to the other by the force of the winds; and the shepherds
behold with astonishment their cattle, whilst feeding, carried to the
distant parts of the lake.  A part of the bank naturally bound together
by the roots of willows and other shrubs may have been broken off, and
increased by the alluvion of the earth from the shore; and being
continually agitated by the winds, which in so elevated a situation blow
with great violence, it cannot reunite itself firmly with the banks.  The
other lake is noted for a wonderful and singular miracle.  It contains
three sorts of fish—eels, trout, and perch, all of which have only one
eye, the left being wanting; but if the curious reader should demand of
me the explanation of so extraordinary a circumstance, I cannot presume
to satisfy him.  It is remarkable also, that in two places in Scotland,
one near the eastern, the other near the western sea, the fish called
mullets possess the same defect, having no left eye.  According to vulgar
tradition, these mountains are frequented by an eagle who, perching on a
fatal stone every fifth holiday, in order to satiate her hunger with the
carcases of the slain, is said to expect war on that same day, and to
have almost perforated the stone by cleaning and sharpening her beak.



CHAPTER X
OF THE PASSAGE BY DEGANWY AND RUTHLAN, AND THE SEE OF LANELWY, AND OF
COLESHULLE


HAVING crossed the river Conwy, {128a} or rather an arm of the sea, under
Deganwy, leaving the Cistercian monastery of Conwy {128b} on the western
bank of the river to our right hand, we arrived at Ruthlan, a noble
castle on the river Cloyd, belonging to David, the eldest son of Owen
{129a} where, at the earnest invitation of David himself, we were
handsomely entertained that night.

There is a spring not far from Ruthlan, in the province of Tegengel,
{129b} which not only regularly ebbs and flows like the sea, twice in
twenty-four hours, but at other times frequently rises and falls both by
night and day.  Trogus Pompeius says, “that there is a town of the
Garamantes, where there is a spring which is hot and cold alternately by
day and night.” {129c}

Many persons in the morning having been persuaded to dedicate themselves
to the service of Christ, we proceeded from Ruthlan to the small
cathedral church of Lanelwy; {129d} from whence (the archbishop having
celebrated mass) we continued our journey through a country rich in
minerals of silver, where money is sought in the bowels of the earth, to
the little cell of Basinwerk, {129e} where we passed the night.  The
following day we traversed a long quicksand, and not without some degree
of apprehension, leaving the woody district of Coleshulle, {129f} or hill
of coal, on our right hand, where Henry II., who in our time, actuated by
youthful and indiscreet ardour, made a hostile irruption into Wales, and
presuming to pass through that narrow and woody defile, experienced a
signal defeat, and a very heavy loss of men. {130}  The aforesaid king
invaded Wales three times with an army; first, North Wales at the
above-mentioned place; secondly, South Wales, by the sea-coast of
Glamorgan and Goer, penetrating as far as Caermarddin and Pencadair, and
returning by Ellennith and Melenith; and thirdly, the country of Powys,
near Oswaldestree; but in all these expeditions the king was
unsuccessful, because he placed no confidence in the prudent and
well-informed chieftains of the country, but was principally advised by
people remote from the marches, and ignorant of the manners and customs
of the natives.  In every expedition, as the artificer is to be trusted
in his trade, so the advice of those people should be consulted, who, by
a long residence in the country, are become conversant with the manners
and customs of the natives; and to whom it is of high importance that the
power of the hostile nation, with whom, by a long and continued warfare,
they have contracted an implacable enmity and hatred, should be weakened
or destroyed, as we have set forth in our Vaticinal History.

In this wood of Coleshulle, a young Welshman was killed while passing
through the king’s army; the greyhound who accompanied him did not desert
his master’s corpse for eight days, though without food; but faithfully
defended it from the attacks of dogs, wolves, and birds of prey, with a
wonderful attachment.  What son to his father, what Nisus to Euryalus,
what Polynices to Tydeus, what Orestes to Pylades, would have shewn such
an affectionate regard?  As a mark of favour to the dog, who was almost
starved to death, the English, although bitter enemies to the Welsh,
ordered the body, now nearly putrid, to be deposited in the ground with
the accustomed offices of humanity.



CHAPTER XI
OF THE PASSAGE OF THE RIVER DEE, AND OF CHESTER


HAVING crossed the river Dee below Chester, (which the Welsh call
Doverdwy), on the third day before Easter, or the day of absolution (holy
Thursday), we reached Chester.  As the river Wye towards the south
separates Wales from England, so the Dee near Chester forms the northern
boundary.  The inhabitants of these parts assert, that the waters of this
river change their fords every month, and, as it inclines more towards
England or Wales, they can, with certainty, prognosticate which nation
will be successful or unfortunate during the year.  This river derives
its origin from the lake Penmelesmere, {131a} and, although it abounds
with salmon, yet none are found in the lake.  It is also remarkable, that
this river is never swollen by rains, but often rises by the violence of
the winds.

Chester boasts of being the burial-place of Henry, {131b} a Roman
emperor, who, after having imprisoned his carnal and spiritual father,
pope Paschal, gave himself up to penitence; and, becoming a voluntary
exile in this country, ended his days in solitary retirement.  It is also
asserted, that the remains of Harold are here deposited.  He was the last
of the Saxon kings in England, and as a punishment for his perjury, was
defeated in the battle of Hastings, fought against the Normans.  Having
received many wounds, and lost his left eye by an arrow in that
engagement, he is said to have escaped to these parts, where, in holy
conversation, leading the life of an anchorite, and being a constant
attendant at one of the churches of this city, he is believed to have
terminated his days happily. {132}  The truth of these two circumstances
was declared (and not before known) by the dying confession of each
party.  We saw here, what appeared novel to us, cheese made of deer’s
milk; for the countess and her mother keeping tame deer, presented to the
archbishop three small cheeses made from their milk.

In this same country was produced, in our time, a cow partaking of the
nature of a stag, resembling its mother in the fore parts and the stag in
its hips, legs, and feet, and having the skin and colour of the stag;
but, partaking more of the nature of the domestic than of the wild
animal, it remained with the herd of cattle.  A bitch also was pregnant
by a monkey, and produced a litter of whelps resembling a monkey before,
and the dog behind; which the rustic keeper of the military hall seeing
with astonishment and abhorrence, immediately killed with the stick he
carried in his hand; thereby incurring the severe resentment and anger of
his lord, when the latter became acquainted with the circumstance.

In our time, also, a woman was born in Chester without hands, to whom
nature had supplied a remedy for that defect by the flexibility and
delicacy of the joints of her feet, with which she could sew, or perform
any work with thread or scissors, as well as other women.



CHAPTER XII
OF THE JOURNEY BY THE WHITE MONASTERY, OSWALDESTREE, POWYS, AND
SHREWSBURY


THE feast of Easter having been observed with due solemnity, and many
persons, by the exhortations of the archbishop, signed with the cross, we
directed our way from Chester to the White Monastery, {133a} and from
thence towards Oswaldestree; where, on the very borders of Powys, we were
met by Gruffydd son of Madoc, and Elissa, princes of that country, and
many others; some few of whom having been persuaded to take the cross
(for several of the multitude had been previously signed by Reiner,
{133b} the bishop of that place), Gruffydd, prince of the district,
publicly adjured, in the presence of the archbishop, his cousin-german,
Angharad, daughter of prince Owen, whom, according to the vicious custom
of the country, he had long considered as his wife.  We slept at
Oswaldestree, or the tree of St. Oswald, and were most sumptuously
entertained after the English manner, by William Fitz-Alan, {133c} a
noble and liberal young man.  A short time before, whilst Reiner was
preaching, a robust youth being earnestly exhorted to follow the example
of his companions in taking the cross, answered, “I will not follow your
advice until, with this lance which I bear in my hand, I shall have
avenged the death of my lord,” alluding to Owen, son of Madoc, a
distinguished warrior, who had been maliciously and treacherously slain
by Owen Cyfeilioc, his cousin-german; and while he was thus venting his
anger and revenge, and violently brandishing his lance, it suddenly
snapped asunder, and fell disjointed in several pieces to the ground, the
handle only remaining in his hand.  Alarmed and astonished at this omen,
which he considered as a certain signal for his taking the cross, he
voluntarily offered his services.

In this third district of Wales, called Powys, there are most excellent
studs put apart for breeding, and deriving their origin from some fine
Spanish horses, which Robert de Belesme, {134a} earl of Shrewsbury,
brought into this country: on which account the horses sent from hence
are remarkable for their majestic proportion and astonishing fleetness.

Here king Henry II. entered Powys, in our days, upon an expensive, though
fruitless, expedition. {134b}  Having dismembered the hostages whom he
had previously received, he was compelled, by a sudden and violent fall
of rain, to retreat with his army.  On the preceding day, the chiefs of
the English army had burned some of the Welsh churches, with the villages
and churchyards; upon which the sons of Owen the Great, with their
light-armed troops, stirred up the resentment of their father and the
other princes of the country, declaring that they would never in future
spare any churches of the English.  When nearly the whole army was on the
point of assenting to this determination, Owen, a man of distinguished
wisdom and moderation—the tumult being in some degree subsided—thus
spake: “My opinion, indeed, by no means agrees with yours, for we ought
to rejoice at this conduct of our adversary; for, unless supported by
divine assistance, we are far inferior to the English; and they, by their
behaviour, have made God their enemy, who is able most powerfully to
avenge both himself and us.  We therefore most devoutly promise God that
we will henceforth pay greater reverence than ever to churches and holy
places.”  After which, the English army, on the following night,
experienced (as has before been related) the divine vengeance.

From Oswaldestree, we directed our course towards Shrewsbury
(_Salopesburia_), which is nearly surrounded by the river Severn, where
we remained a few days to rest and refresh ourselves; and where many
people were induced to take the cross, through the elegant sermons of the
archbishop and archdeacon.  We also excommunicated Owen de Cevelioc,
because he alone, amongst the Welsh princes, did not come to meet the
archbishop with his people.  Owen was a man of more fluent speech than
his contemporary princes, and was conspicuous for the good management of
his territory.  Having generally favoured the royal cause, and opposed
the measures of his own chieftains, he had contracted a great familiarity
with king Henry II.  Being with the king at table at Shrewsbury, Henry,
as a mark of peculiar honour and regard, sent him one of his own loaves;
he immediately brake it into small pieces, like alms-bread, and having,
like an almoner, placed them at a distance from him, he took them up one
by one and ate them.  The king requiring an explanation of this
proceeding, Owen, with a smile, replied, “I thus follow the example of my
lord;” keenly alluding to the avaricious disposition of the king, who was
accustomed to retain for a long time in his own hands the vacant
ecclesiastical benefices.

It is to be remarked that three princes, {136} distinguished for their
justice, wisdom, and princely moderation, ruled, in our time, over the
three provinces of Wales: Owen, son of Gruffydd, in Venedotia, or North
Wales; Meredyth, his grandson, son of Gruffydd, who died early in life,
in South Wales; and Owen de Cevelioc, in Powys.  But two other princes
were highly celebrated for their generosity; Cadwalader, son of Gruffydd,
in North Wales, and Gruffydd of Maelor, son of Madoc, in Powys; and Rhys,
son of Gruffydd, in South Wales, deserved commendation for his
enterprising and independent spirit.  In North Wales, David, son of Owen,
and on the borders of Morgannoc, in South Wales, Howel, son of Iorwerth
of Caerleon, maintained their good faith and credit, by observing a
strict neutrality between the Welsh and English.



CHAPTER XIII
OF THE JOURNEY BY WENLOCH, BRUMFELD, THE CASTLE OF LUDLOW, AND
LEOMINSTER, TO HEREFORD


FROM Shrewsbury, we continued our journey towards Wenloch, by a narrow
and rugged way, called Evil-street, where, in our time, a Jew, travelling
with the archdeacon of the place, whose name was Sin (_Peccatum_), and
the dean, whose name was Devil, towards Shrewsbury, hearing the
archdeacon say, that his archdeaconry began at a place called
Evil-street, and extended as far as Mal-pas, towards Chester, pleasantly
told them, “It would be a miracle, if his fate brought him safe out of a
country, whose archdeacon was Sin, whose dean the devil; the entrance to
the archdeaconry Evil-street, and its exit Bad-pass.” {137}

From Wenloch, we passed by the little cell of Brumfeld, {138} the noble
castle of Ludlow, through Leominster to Hereford leaving on our right
hand the districts of Melenyth and Elvel; thus (describing as it were a
circle) we came to the same point from which we had commenced this
laborious journey through Wales.

During this long and laudable legation, about three thousand men were
signed with the cross; well skilled in the use of arrows and lances, and
versed in military matters; impatient to attack the enemies of the faith;
profitably and happily engaged for the service of Christ, if the
expedition of the Holy Cross had been forwarded with an alacrity equal to
the diligence and devotion with which the forces were collected.  But by
the secret, though never unjust, judgment of God, the journey of the
Roman emperor was delayed, and dissensions arose amongst our kings.  The
premature and fatal hand of death arrested the king of Sicily, who had
been the foremost sovereign in supplying the holy land with corn and
provisions during the period of their distress.  In consequence of his
death, violent contentions arose amongst our princes respecting their
several rights to the kingdom; and the faithful beyond sea suffered
severely by want and famine, surrounded on all sides by enemies, and most
anxiously waiting for supplies.  But as affliction may strengthen the
understanding, as gold is tried by fire, and virtue may be confirmed in
weakness, these things are suffered to happen; since adversity (as
Gregory testifies) opposed to good prayers is the probation of virtue,
not the judgment of reproof.  For who does not know how fortunate a
circumstance it was that Paul went to Italy, and suffered so dreadful a
shipwreck?  But the ship of his heart remained unbroken amidst the waves
of the sea.



CHAPTER XIV
A DESCRIPTION OF BALDWIN, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY {139}


LET it not be thought superfluous to describe the exterior and inward
qualities of that person, the particulars of whose embassy, and as it
were holy peregrination, we have briefly and succinctly related.  He was
a man of a dark complexion, of an open and venerable countenance, of a
moderate stature, a good person, and rather inclined to be thin than
corpulent.  He was a modest and grave man, of so great abstinence and
continence, that ill report scarcely ever presumed to say any thing
against him; a man of few words; slow to anger, temperate and moderate in
all his passions and affections; swift to hear, slow to speak; he was
from an early age well instructed in literature, and bearing the yoke of
the Lord from his youth, by the purity of his morals became a
distinguished luminary to the people; wherefore voluntarily resigning the
honour of the archlevite, {140} which he had canonically obtained, and
despising the pomps and vanities of the world, he assumed with holy
devotion the habit of the Cistercian order; and as he had been formerly
more than a monk in his manners, within the space of a year he was
appointed abbot, and in a few years afterwards preferred first to a
bishopric, and then to an archbishopric; and having been found faithful
in a little, had authority given him over much.  But, as Cicero says,
“Nature had made nothing entirely perfect;” when he came into power, not
laying aside that sweet innate benignity which he had always shewn when a
private man, sustaining his people with his staff rather than chastising
them with rods, feeding them as it were with the milk of a mother, and
not making use of the scourges of the father, he incurred public scandal
for his remissness.  So great was his lenity that he put an end to all
pastoral rigour; and was a better monk than abbot, a better bishop than
archbishop.  Hence pope Urban addressed him; “Urban, servant of the
servants of God, to the most fervent monk, to the warm abbot, to the
luke-warm bishop, to the remiss archbishop, health, etc.”

This second successor to the martyr Thomas, having heard of the insults
offered to our Saviour and his holy cross, was amongst the first who
signed themselves with the cross, and manfully assumed the office of
preaching its service both at home and in the most remote parts of the
kingdom.  Pursuing his journey to the Holy Land, he embarked on board a
vessel at Marseilles, and landed safely in a port at Tyre, from whence he
proceeded to Acre, where he found our army both attacking and attacked,
our forces dispirited by the defection of the princes, and thrown into a
state of desolation and despair; fatigued by long expectation of
supplies, greatly afflicted by hunger and want, and distempered by the
inclemency of the air: finding his end approaching, he embraced his
fellow subjects, relieving their wants by liberal acts of charity and
pious exhortations, and by the tenor of his life and actions strengthened
them in the faith; whose ways, life, and deeds, may he who is alone the
“way, the truth, and the life,” the way without offence, the truth
without doubt, and the life without end, direct in truth, together with
the whole body of the faithful, and for the glory of his name and the
palm of faith which he hath planted, teach their hands to war, and their
fingers to fight.



FOOTNOTES:


{0a}  It is a somewhat curious coincidence that the island of Barry is
now owned by a descendant of Gerald de Windor’s elder brother—the Earl of
Plymouth.

{0b}  “Mirror of the Church,” ii. 33.

{0c}  “Social England,” vol. i. p. 342.

{0d}  Published in the first instance in the “Transactions of the
Cymmrodaian Society,” and subsequently amplified and brought out in book
form.

{0e}  Introduction to Borrow’s “Wild Wales” in the Everyman Series.

{0f}  Geoffrey, who ended his life as Bishop of St. Asaph, was supposed
to have found the material for his “History of the British Kings” in a
Welsh book, containing a history of the Britons, which Waltor Colenius,
Archdeacon of Oxford, picked up during a journey in Brittany.

{0g}  Walter Map, another Archdeacon of Oxford, was born in
Glamorganshire, the son of a Norman knight by a Welsh mother.  _Inter
alia_ he was the author of a Welsh work on agriculture.

{0h}  Green, “Hist. Eng. People,” i. 172.

{0i}  “England under the Angevin Kings,” vol. ii. 457.

{0j}  LibraryBlog has released “The Description of Wales” as a
separate eText—David Price.

{11}  Giraldus has committed an error in placing Urban III. at the head
of the apostolic see; for he died at Ferrara in the month of October,
A.D. 1187, and was succeeded by Gregory VIII., whose short reign expired
in the month of December following.  Clement III. was elected pontiff in
the year 1188.  Frederick I., surnamed Barbarossa, succeeded Conrad III.
in the empire of Germany, in March, 1152, and was drowned in a river of
Cilicia whilst bathing, in 1190.  Isaac Angelus succeeded Andronicus I.
as emperor of Constantinople, in 1185, and was dethroned in 1195.  Philip
II., surnamed Augustus, from his having been born in the month of August,
was crowned at Rheims, in 1179, and died at Mantes, in 1223. William II.,
king of Sicily, surnamed the Good, succeeded in 1166 to his father,
William the Bad, and died in 1189.  Bela III., king of Hungary, succeeded
to the throne in 1174, and died in 1196.  Guy de Lusignan was crowned
king of Jerusalem in 1186, and in the following year his city was taken
by the victorious Saladin.

{12a}  New Radnor.

{12b}  Rhys ap Gruffydd was grandson to Rhys ap Tewdwr, prince of South
Wales, who, in 1090, was slain in an engagement with the Normans.  He was
a prince of great talent, but great versatility of character, and made a
conspicuous figure in Welsh history.  He died in 1196, and was buried in
the cathedral of St. David’s; where his effigy, as well as that of his
son Rhys Gryg, still remain in a good state of preservation.

{12c}  Peter de Leia, prior of the Benedictine monastery of Wenlock, in
Shropshire, was the successful rival of Giraldus for the bishopric of
Saint David’s, vacant by the death of David Fitzgerald, the uncle of our
author; but he did not obtain his promotion without considerable
opposition from the canons, who submitted to the absolute sequestration
of their property before they consented to his election, being desirous
that the nephew should have succeeded his uncle.  He was consecrated in
1176, and died in 1199.

{12d}  In the Latin of Giraldus, the name of Eineon is represented by
Æneas, and Eineon Clyd by Æneas Claudius.

{13}  Cruker Castle.  The corresponding distance between Old and New
Radnor evidently places this castle at Old Radnor, which was anciently
called Pen-y-craig, Pencraig, or Pen-crûg, from its situation on a rocky
eminence.  Cruker is a corruption, probably, from Crûg-caerau, the mount,
or height, of the fortifications.

{14a}  Buelth or Builth, a large market town on the north-west edge of
the county of Brecon, on the southern banks of the Wye, over which there
is a long and handsome bridge of stone.  It had formerly a strong castle,
the site and earthworks of which still remain, but the building is
destroyed.

{14b}  Llan-Avan, a small church at the foot of barren mountains about
five or six miles north-west of Buelth.  The saint from whom it takes its
name, was one of the sons of Cedig ab Cunedda; whose ancestor, Cunedda,
king of the Britons, was the head of one of the three holy families of
Britain.  He is said to have lived in the beginning of the sixth century.

{14c} Melenia, Warthrenion, Elevein, Elvenia, Melenyth, and Elvein,
places mentioned in this first chapter, and varying in their orthography,
were three different districts in Radnorshire: Melenyth is a hundred in
the northern part of the county, extending into Montgomeryshire, in which
is the church of Keri: Elvein retains in modern days the name of Elvel,
and is a hundred in the southern part of the county, separated from
Brecknockshire by the Wye; and Warthrenion, in which was the castle built
by prince Rhys at Rhaiadyr-gwy, seems to have been situated between the
other two.  Warthrenion may more properly be called Gwyrthrynion, it was
anciently one of the three comots of Arwystli, a cantref of Merioneth.
In the year 1174, Melyenith was in the possession of Cadwallon ap Madawc,
cousin german to prince Rhys; Elvel was held by Eineon Clyd and
Gwyrthrynion by Eineon ap Rhys, both sons-in-law to that illustrious
prince.

{15a}  The church of Saint Germanus is now known by the name of Saint
Harmans, and is situated three or four miles from Rhaiadyr, in
Radnorshire, on the right-hand of the road from thence to Llanidloes; it
is a small and simple structure, placed on a little eminence, in a dreary
plain surrounded by mountains.

{15b}  Several churches in Wales have been dedicated to Saint Curig, who
came into Wales in the seventh century.

{16a}  Glascum is a small village in a mountainous and retired situation
between Builth and Kington, in Herefordshire.

{16b}  Bangu.—This was a hand bell kept in all the Welsh churches, which
the clerk or sexton took to the house of the deceased on the day of the
funeral: when the procession began, a psalm was sung; the bellman then
sounded his bell in a solemn manner for some time, till another psalm was
concluded; and he again sounded it at intervals, till the funeral arrived
at the church.

{16c}  Rhaiadyr, called also Rhaiader-gwy, is a small village and
market-town in Radnorshire.  The site only of the castle, built by prince
Rhys, A.D. 1178, now remains at a short distance from the village; it was
strongly situated on a natural rock above the river Wye, which, below the
bridge, forms a cataract.

{16d}  Llywel, a small village about a mile from Trecastle, on the great
road leading from thence to Llandovery; it was anciently a township, and
by charter of Philip and Mary was attached to the borough of Brecknock,
by the name of Trecastle ward.

{17}  Leland, in his description of this part of Wales, mentions a lake
in Low Elvel, or Elvenia, which may perhaps be the same as that alluded
to in this passage of Giraldus.  “There is a llinne in Low Elvel within a
mile of Payne’s castel by the church called Lanpeder.  The llinne is
caullid Bougklline, and is of no great quantite, but is plentiful of
pike, and perche, and eles.”—_Leland_, _Itin._ tom. v. p. 72.

{18a}  Hay.—A pleasant market-town on the southern banks of the river
Wye, over which there is a bridge.  It still retains some marks of
baronial antiquity in the old castle, within the present town, the
gateway of which is tolerably perfect.  A high raised tumulus adjoining
the church marks the site of the more ancient fortress.  The more modern
and spacious castle owes its foundation probably to one of those Norman
lords, who, about the year 1090, conquered this part of Wales.  Little
notice is taken of this castle in the Welsh chronicles; but we are
informed that it was destroyed in 1231, by Henry II., and that it was
refortified by Henry III.

{18b}  Llanddew, a small village, about two miles from Brecknock, on the
left of the road leading from thence to Hay; its manor belongs to the
bishops of Saint David’s, who had formerly a castellated mansion there,
of which some ruins still remain.  The tithes of this parish are
appropriated to the archdeaconry of Brecknock, and here was the residence
of our author Giraldus, which he mentions in several of his writings, and
alludes to with heartfelt satisfaction at the end of the third chapter of
this Itinerary.

{18c}  Aberhodni, the ancient name of the town and castle of Brecknock,
derived from its situation at the confluence of the river Hodni with the
Usk.  The castle and two religious buildings, of which the remains are
still extant, owed their foundation to Bernard de Newmarch, a Norman
knight, who, in the year 1090, obtained by conquest the lordship of
Brecknock.  [The modern Welsh name is Aberhonddu.]

{19a}  Iestyn ap Gwrgant was lord of the province of Morganwg, or
Glamorgan, and a formidable rival to Rhys ap Tewdwr, prince of South
Wales; but unable to cope with him in power, he prevailed on Robert
Fitzhamon, a Norman knight, to come to his assistance.

{19b}  This little river rises near the ruins of Blanllyfni castle,
between Llangorse pool and the turnpike road leading from Brecknock to
Abergavenny, and empties itself into the river Usk, near Glasbury.

{19c}  A pretty little village on the southern banks of the Usk, about
four miles from Hay, on the road leading to Brecknock.

{19d}  The great desolation here alluded to, is attributed by Dr. Powel
to Howel and Meredyth, sons of Edwyn ap Eineon; not to Howel, son of
Meredith.  In the year 1021, they conspired against Llewelyn ap Sitsyllt,
and slew him: Meredith was slain in 1033, and Howel in 1043.

{19e}  William de Breusa, or Braose, was by extraction a Norman, and had
extensive possessions in England, as well as Normandy: he was succeeded
by his son Philip, who, in the reign of William Rufus, favoured the cause
of king Henry against Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy; and being
afterwards rebellious to his sovereign, was disinherited of his lands.
By his marriage with Berta, daughter of Milo, earl of Hereford, he gained
a rich inheritance in Brecknock, Overwent, and Gower.  He left issue two
sons: William and Philip: William married Maude de Saint Wallery, and
succeeded to the great estate of his father and mother, which he kept in
peaceable possession during the reigns of king Henry II. and king Richard
I.  In order to avoid the persecutions of king John, he retired with his
family to Ireland; and from thence returned into Wales; on hearing of the
king’s arrival in Ireland, his wife Maude fled with her sons into
Scotland, where she was taken prisoner, and in the year 1210 committed,
with William, her son and heir, to Corf castle, and there miserably
starved to death, by order of king John; her husband, William de Braose,
escaped into France, disguised, and dying there, was buried in the abbey
church of Saint Victor, at Paris.  The family of Saint Walery, or Valery,
derived their name from a sea-port in France.

{21} A small church dedicated to Saint David, in the suburbs of
Brecknock, on the great road leading from thence to Trecastle.  “The
paroche of Llanvays, Llan-chirch-Vais extra, ac si diceres, extra muros.
It standeth betwixt the river of Uske and Tyrtorelle brooke, that is,
about the lower ende of the town of Brekenok.”—_Leland_, _Itin._ tom. v.
p. 69.

{22a}  David Fitzgerald was promoted to the see of Saint David’s in 1147,
or according to others, in 1149.  He died A.D. 1176.

{22b}  Now Howden, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

{22c}  Osred was king of the Northumbrians, and son of Alfred.  He
commenced to reign in A.D. 791, but was deprived of his crown the
following year.

{23a}  St. Kenelm was the only son and heir of Kenulfus, king of the
Mercians, who left him under the care of his two sisters, Quendreda and
Bragenilda.  The former, blinded by ambition, resolved to destroy the
innocent child, who stood between her and the throne; and for that
purpose prevailed on Ascebert, who attended constantly on the king, to
murder him privately, giving him hopes, in case he complied with her
wishes, of making him her partner in the kingdom.  Under the pretence of
diverting his young master, this wicked servant led him into a retired
vale at Clent, in Staffordshire, and having murdered him, dug a pit, and
cast his body into it, which was discovered by a miracle, and carried in
solemn procession to the abbey of Winchelcomb.  In the parish of Clent is
a small chapel dedicated to this saint.

{23b}  Winchelcumbe, or Winchcomb, in the lower part of the hundred of
Kiftsgate, in Gloucestershire, a few miles to the north of Cheltenham.

{24}  St. Kynauc, who flourished about the year 492, was the reputed son
of Brychan, lord of Brecknock, by Benadulved, daughter of Benadyl, a
prince of Powis, whom he seduced during the time of his detention as an
hostage at the court of her father.  He is said to have been murdered
upon the mountain called the Van, and buried in the church of Merthyr
Cynawg, or Cynawg the Martyr, near Brecknock, which is dedicated to his
memory.

{25a}  In Welsh, Illtyd, which has been latinised into Iltutus, as in the
instance of St. Iltutus, the celebrated disciple of Germanus, and the
master of the learned Gildas, who founded a college for the instruction
of youth at Llantwit, on the coast of Glamorganshire; but I do not
conceive this to be the same person.  The name of Ty-Illtyd, or St.
Illtyd’s house, is still known as Llanamllech, but it is applied to one
of those monuments of Druidical antiquity called a cistvaen, erected upon
an eminence named Maenest, at a short distance from the village.  A rude,
upright stone stood formerly on one side of it, and was called by the
country people Maen Illtyd, or Illtyd’s stone, but was removed about a
century ago.  A well, the stream of which divides this parish from the
neighbouring one of Llansaintfraid, is called Ffynnon Illtyd, or Illtyd’s
well.  This was evidently the site of the hermitage mentioned by
Giraldus.

{25b}  Lhanhamelach, or Llanamllech, is a small village, three miles from
Brecknock, on the road to Abergavenny.

{26a}  The name of Newmarche appears in the chartulary of Battel abbey,
as a witness to one of the charters granted by William the Conqueror to
the monks of Battel in Sussex, upon his foundation of their house.  He
obtained the territory of Brecknock by conquest, from Bleddyn ap
Maenarch, the Welsh regulus thereof, about the year 1092, soon after his
countryman, Robert Fitzhamon, had reduced the county of Glamorgan.  He
built the present town of Brecknock, where he also founded a priory of
Benedictine monks.  According to Leland, he was buried in the cloister of
the cathedral church at Gloucester, though the mutilated remains of an
effigy and monument are still ascribed to him in the priory church at
Brecknock.

{26b}  Brecheinoc, now Brecknockshire, had three cantreds or hundreds,
and eight comots.—1. Cantref Selef with the comots of Selef and
Trahayern.—2. Cantref Canol, or the middle hundred, with the comots
Talgarth, Ystradwy, and Brwynlys, or Eglyws Yail.—3. Cantref Mawr, or the
great hundred, with the comots of Tir Raulff Llywel, and Cerrig
Howel.—Powel’s description of Wales, p. 20.

{27}  Milo was son to Walter, constable of England in the reign of Henry
I., and Emme his wife, one of the daughters of Dru de Baladun, sister to
Hameline de Baladun, a person of great note, who came into England with
William the Conqueror, and, being the first lord of Overwent in the
county of Monmouth, built the castle of Abergavenny.  He was wounded by
an arrow while hunting, on Christmas eve, in 1144, and was buried in the
chapter-house of Lanthoni, near Gloucester.

{28a}  Walter de Clifford.  The first of this ancient family was called
Ponce; he had issue three sons, Walter, Drogo or Dru, and Richard.  The
Conqueror’s survey takes notice of the two former, but from Richard the
genealogical line is preserved, who, being called Richard de Pwns,
obtained, as a gift from king Henry I., the cantref Bychan, or little
hundred, and the castle of Llandovery, in Wales; he left three sons,
Simon, Walter, and Richard.  The Walter de Clifford here mentioned was
father to the celebrated Fair Rosamond, the favourite of king Henry II.;
and was succeeded by his eldest son, Walter, who married Margaret,
daughter to Llewelyn, prince of Wales, and widow of John de Braose.

{28b}  Brendlais, or Brynllys, is a small village on the road between
Brecknock and Hay, where a stately round tower marks the site of the
ancient castle of the Cliffords, in which the tyrant Mahel lost his life.

{29a}  St. Almedha, though not included in the ordinary lists, is said to
have been a daughter of Brychan, and sister to St. Canoc, and to have
borne the name of Elevetha, Aled, or Elyned, latinised into Almedha.  The
Welsh genealogists say, that she suffered martyrdom on a hill near
Brecknock, where a chapel was erected to her memory; and William of
Worcester says she was buried at Usk.  Mr. Hugh Thomas (who wrote an
essay towards the history of Brecknockshire in the year 1698) speaks of
the chapel as standing, though unroofed and useless, in his time; the
people thereabouts call it St. Tayled.  It was situated on an eminence,
about a mile to the eastward of Brecknock, and about half a mile from a
farm-house, formerly the mansion and residence of the Aubreys, lords of
the manor of Slwch, which lordship was bestowed upon Sir Reginald Awbrey
by Bernard Newmarche, in the reign of William Rufus.  Some small vestiges
of this building may still be traced, and an aged yew tree, with a well
at its foot, marks the site near which the chapel formerly stood.

{29b}  This same habit is still (in Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s time) used
by the Welsh ploughboys; they have a sort of chaunt, consisting of half
or even quarter notes, which is sung to the oxen at plough: the
countrymen vulgarly supposing that the beasts are consoled to work more
regularly and patiently by such a lullaby.

{30a}  The umber, or grayling, is still a plentiful and favourite fish in
the rivers on the Welsh border.

{30b}  About the year 1113, “there was a talke through South Wales, of
Gruffyth, the sonne of Rees ap Theodor, who, for feare of the king, had
beene of a child brought up in Ireland, and had come over two yeares
passed, which time he had spent privilie with his freends, kinsfolks, and
affines; as with Gerald, steward of Penbrooke, his brother-in-law, and
others.  But at the last he was accused to the king, that he intended the
kingdome of South Wales as his father had enjoied it, which was now in
the king’s hands; and that all the countrie hoped of libertie through
him; therefore the king sent to take him.  But Gryffyth ap Rees hering
this, sent to Gruffyth ap Conan, prince of North Wales, desiring him of
his aid, and that he might remaine safelie within his countrie; which he
granted, and received him joiouslie for his father’s sake.”  He
afterwards proved so troublesome and successful an antagonist, that the
king endeavoured by every possible means to get him into his power.  To
Gruffyth ap Conan he offered “mountaines of gold to send the said
Gruffyth or his head to him.”  And at a subsequent period, he sent for
Owen ap-Cadogan said to him, “Owen, I have found thee true and faithful
unto me, therefore I desire thee to take or kill that murtherer, that
doth so trouble my loving subjects.”  But Gruffyth escaped all the snares
which the king had laid for him, and in the year 1137 died a natural and
honourable death; he is styled in the Welsh chronicle, “the light, honor,
and staie of South Wales;” and distinguished as the bravest, the wisest,
the most merciful, liberal, and just, of all the princes of Wales.  By
his wife Gwenllian, the daughter of Gruffyth ap Conan, he left a son,
commonly called the lord Rhys, who met the archbishop at Radnor, as is
related in the first chapter of this Itinerary.

{31}  This cantref, which now bears the name of Caeo, is placed,
according to the ancient divisions of Wales, in the cantref Bychan, or
little hundred, and not in the Cantref Mawr, or great hundred.  A village
between Lampeter in Cardiganshire and Llandovery in Caermarthenshire,
still bears the name of Cynwil Caeo, and, from its picturesque situation
and the remains of its mines, which were probably worked by the Romans,
deserves the notice of the curious traveller.

{32}  The lake of Brecheinoc bears the several names of Llyn Savaddan,
Brecinau-mere, Llangorse, and Talyllyn Pool, the two latter of which are
derived from the names of parishes on its banks.  It is a large, though
by no means a beautiful, piece of water, its banks being low and flat,
and covered with rushes and other aquatic plants to a considerable
distance from the shore.  Pike, perch, and eels are the common fish of
this water; tench and trout are rarely, I believe, (if ever), taken in
it.  The notion of its having swallowed up an ancient city is not yet
quite exploded by the natives; and some will even attribute the name of
Loventium to it; which is with much greater certainty fixed at
Llanio-isau, between Lampeter and Tregaron, in Cardiganshire, on the
northern banks of the river Teivi, where there are very considerable and
undoubted remains of a large Roman city.  The legend of the town at the
bottom of the lake is at the same time very old.

{33a}  That chain of mountains which divides Brecknockshire from
Caermarthenshire, over which the turnpike road formerly passed from
Trecastle to Llandovery, and from which the river Usk derives its source.

{33b}  This mountain is now called, by way of eminence, the Van, or the
height, but more commonly, by country people, Bannau Brycheinog, or the
Brecknock heights, alluding to its two peaks.  Our author, Giraldus,
seems to have taken his account of the spring, on the summit of this
mountain, from report, rather than from ocular testimony.  I (Sir R. Colt
Hoare) examined the summits of each peak very attentively, and could
discern no spring whatever.  The soil is peaty and very boggy.  On the
declivity of the southern side of the mountain, and at no considerable
distance from the summit, is a spring of very fine water, which my guide
assured me never failed.  On the north-west side of the mountain is a
round pool, in which possibly trout may have been sometimes found, but,
from the muddy nature of its waters, I do not think it very probable;
from this pool issues a small brook, which falls precipitously down the
sides of the mountain, and pursuing its course through a narrow and
well-wooded valley, forms a pretty cascade near a rustic bridge which
traverses it.  I am rather inclined think, that Giraldus confounded in
his account the spring and the pool together.

{34a}  The first of these are now styled the Black Mountains, of which
the Gadair Fawr is the principal, and is only secondary to the Van in
height.  The Black Mountains are an extensive range of hills rising to
the east of Talgarth, in the several parishes of Talgarth, Llaneliew, and
Llanigorn, in the county of Brecknock, and connected with the heights of
Ewyas.  The most elevated point is called Y Gadair, and, excepting the
Brecknock Van (the Cadair Arthur of Giraldus), is esteemed the highest
mountain in South Wales.  The mountains of Ewyas are those now called the
Hatterel Hills, rising above the monastery of Llanthoni, and joining the
Black Mountains of Talgarth at Capel y Ffin, or the chapel upon the
boundary, near which the counties of Hereford, Brecknock, and Monmouth
form a point of union.  But English writers have generally confounded all
distinction, calling them indiscriminately the Black Mountains, or the
Hatterel Hills.

{34b}  If we consider the circumstances of this chapter, it will appear
very evidently, that the vale of Ewyas made no part of the actual
Itinerary.

{35}  Landewi Nant Hodeni, or the church of St. David on the Hodni, is
now better known by the name of Llanthoni abbey.  A small and rustic
chapel, dedicated to St. David, at first occupied the site of this abbey;
in the year 1103, William de Laci, a Norman knight, having renounced the
pleasures of the world, retired to this sequestered spot, where he was
joined in his austere profession by Ernicius, chaplain to queen Maude.
In the year 1108, these hermits erected a mean church in the place of
their hermitage, which was consecrated by Urban, bishop of Llandaff, and
Rameline, bishop of Hereford, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist:
having afterward received very considerable benefactions from Hugh de
Laci, and gained the consent of Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, these
same hermits founded a magnificent monastery for Black canons, of the
order of St. Augustine, which they immediately filled with forty monks
collected from the monasteries of the Holy Trinity in London, Merton in
Surrey, and Colchester in Essex.  They afterwards removed to Gloucester,
where they built a church and spacious monastery, which, after the name
of their former residence, they called Llanthoni; it was consecrated A.D.
1136, by Simon, bishop of Worcester, and Robert Betun bishop of Hereford,
and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

{36a}  The titles of mother and daughter are here applied to the mother
church in Wales, and the daughter near Gloucester.

{36b}  William of Wycumb, the fourth prior of Llanthoni, succeeded to
Robert de Braci, who was obliged to quit the monastery, on account of the
hostile molestation it received from the Welsh.  To him succeeded
Clement, the sub-prior, and to Clement, Roger de Norwich.

{38}  Walter de Laci came into England with William the Conqueror, and
left three sons, Roger, Hugh, and Walter.  Hugh de Laci was the lord of
Ewyas, and became afterwards the founder of the convent of Llanthoni; his
elder brother, Robert, held also four caracutes of land within the limits
of the castle of Ewyas, which king William had bestowed on Walter, his
father; but joining in rebellion against William Rufus, he was banished
the kingdom, and all his lands were given to his brother Hugh, who died
without issue.

{41}  This anecdote is thus related by the historian Hollinshed: “Hereof
it came on a time, whiles the king sojourned in France about his warres,
which he held against king Philip, there came unto him a French priest,
whose name was Fulco, who required the king in anywise to put from him
three abominable daughters which he had, and to bestow them in marriage,
least God punished him for them.  ‘Thou liest, hypocrite (said the king),
to thy verie face; for all the world knoweth I have not one daughter.’
‘I lie not (said the priest), for thou hast three daughters: one of them
is called Pride, the second Covetousness, and the third Lecherie.’  With
that the king called to him his lords and barons, and said to them, ‘This
hypocrite heere hath required me to marry awaie my three daughters, which
(as he saith) I cherish, nourish, foster, and mainteine; that is to say,
Pride, Covetousness, and Lecherie: and now that I have found out
necessarie and fit husbands for them, I will do it with effect, and seeks
no more delaies.  I therefore bequeath my pride to the high-minded
Templars and Hospitallers, which are as proud as Lucifer himselfe; my
covetousness I give unto the White Monks, otherwise called of the
Cisteaux order, for they covet the divell and all; my lecherie I commit
to the prelats of the church, who have most pleasure and felicitie
therein.’”

{44a}  This small residence of the archdeacon was at Landeu, a place
which has been described before: the author takes this opportunity of
hinting at his love of literature, religion, and mediocrity.

{44b}  The last chapter having been wholly digressive, we must now recur
back to Brecknock, or rather, perhaps, to our author’s residence at
Landeu, where we left him, and from thence accompany him to Abergavenny.
It appears that from Landeu he took the road to Talgarth, a small village
a little to the south east of the road leading from Brecknock to Hay;
from whence, climbing up a steep ascent, now called Rhiw Cwnstabl, or the
Constable’s ascent, he crossed the black mountains of Llaneliew to the
source of the Gronwy-fawr river, which rises in that eminence, and
pursues its rapid course into the Vale of Usk.  From thence a rugged and
uneven track descends suddenly into a narrow glen, formed by the torrent
of the Gronwy, between steep, impending mountains; bleak and barren for
the first four or five miles, but afterwards wooded to the very margin of
the stream.  A high ledge of grassy hills on the left hand, of which the
principal is called the Bal, or Y Fal, divides this formidable pass (the
“Malus passus” of Giraldus) from the vale of Ewyas, in which stands the
noble monastery of Llanthoni, “montibus suis inclusum,” encircled by its
mountains.  The road at length emerging from this deep recess of Coed
Grono, or Cwm Gronwy, the vale of the river Gronwy, crosses the river at
a place called Pont Escob, or the Bishop’s bridge, probably so called
from this very circumstance of its having been now passed by the
archbishop and his suite, and is continued through the forest of Moel,
till it joins the Hereford road, about two miles from Abergavenny.  This
formidable defile is at least nine miles in length.

{45}  In the vale of the Gronwy, about a mile above Pont Escob, there is
a wood called Coed Dial, or the Wood of Revenge.  Here again, by the
modern name of the place, we are enabled to fix the very spot on which
Richard de Clare was murdered.  The Welsh Chronicle informs us, that “in
1135, Morgan ap Owen, a man of considerable quality and estate in Wales,
remembering the wrong and injury he had received at the hands of Richard
Fitz-Gilbert, slew him, together with his son Gilbert.”  The first of
this great family, Richard de Clare, was the eldest son of Gislebert,
surnamed Crispin, earl of Brion, in Normandy.  This Richard Fitz-Gilbert
came into England with William the Conqueror, and received from him great
advancement in honour and possessions.  On the death of the Conqueror,
favouring the cause of Robert Curthose, he rebelled against William
Rufus, but when that king appeared in arms before his castle at
Tunbridge, he submitted; after which, adhering to Rufus against Robert,
in 1091, he was taken prisoner, and shortly after the death of king Henry
I., was assassinated, on his journey through Wales, in the manner already
related.

{46}  Hamelin, son of Dru de Baladun, who came into England with William
the Conqueror, was the first lord of Over-Went, and built a castle at
Abergavenny, on the same spot where, according to ancient tradition, a
giant called Agros had erected a fortress.  He died in the reign of
William Rufus, and was buried in the priory which he had founded at
Abergavenny; having no issue, he gave the aforesaid castle and lands to
Brian de Insula, or Brian de Wallingford, his nephew, by his sister
Lucia.  The enormous excesses mentioned by Giraldus, as having been
perpetrated in this part of Wales during his time, seem to allude to a
transaction that took place in the castle of Abergavenny, in the year
1176, which is thus related by two historians, Matthew Paris and
Hollinshed.  “A.D. 1176, The same yeare, William de Breause having got a
great number of Welshmen into the castle of Abergavennie, under a
colourable pretext of communication, proposed this ordinance to be
received of them with a corporall oth, ‘That no traveller by the waie
amongst them should beare any bow, or other unlawful weapon,’ which oth,
when they refused to take, because they would not stand to that
ordinance, he condemned them all to death.  This deceit he used towards
them, in revenge of the death of his uncle Henrie of Hereford, whom upon
Easter-even before they had through treason murthered, and were now
acquited was the like againe.”—Hollinshed, tom. ii. p. 95.

{48}  Landinegat, or the church of St. Dingad, is now better known by the
name of Dingatstow, or Dynastow, a village near Monmouth.

{49a}  [For the end of William de Braose, see footnote 34.]

{49b}  Leland divides this district into Low, Middle, and High Venteland,
extending from Chepstow to Newport on one side, and to Abergavenny on the
other; the latter of which, he says, “maketh the cumpace of Hye
Venteland.”  He adds, “The soyle of al Venteland is of a darke reddische
yerth ful of slaty stones, and other greater of the same color.  The
countrey is also sumwhat montayneus, and welle replenishid with woodes,
also very fertyle of corne, but men there study more to pastures, the
which be well inclosed.”—_Leland_, _Itin._ tom. v. p. 6.  Ancient
Gwentland is now comprised within the county of Monmouth.

{50a}  William de Salso Marisco, who succeeded to the bishopric of
Llandaff, A.D. 1185, and presided over that see during the time of
Baldwin’s visitation, in 1188.

{50b}  Alexander was the fourth archdeacon of the see of Bangor.

{50c}  Once at Usk, then at Caerleon, and afterwards on entering the town
of Newport.

{51}  Gouldcliffe, or Goldcliff, is situated a few miles S.E. of Newport,
on the banks of the Severn.  In the year 1113, Robert de Candos founded
and endowed the church of Goldclive, and, by the advice of king Henry I.,
gave it to the abbey of Bec, in Normandy; its religious establishment
consisted of a prior and twelve monks of the order of St. Benedict.

{53}  [Geoffrey of Monmouth.]

{54}  The Cistercian abbey here alluded to was known by the several names
of Ystrat Marchel, Strata Marcella, Alba domus de Stratmargel, Vallis
Crucis, or Pola, and was situated between Guilsfield and Welshpool, in
Montgomeryshire.  Authors differ in opinion about its original founder.
Leland attributes it to Owen Cyveilioc, prince of Powys, and Dugdale to
Madoc, the son of Gruffydh, giving for his authority the original grants
and endowments of this abbey.  According to Tanner, about the beginning
of the reign of king Edward III., the Welsh monks were removed from hence
into English abbeys, and English monks were placed here, and the abbey
was made subject to the visitation of the abbot and convent of Buildwas,
in Shropshire.

{56a}  Cardiff, _i.e._, the fortress on the river Taf.

{56b}  Gwentluc—so called from Gwent, the name of the province, and llug,
open, to distinguish it from the upper parts of Wentland, is an extensive
tract of flat, marshy ground, reaching from Newport to the shores of the
river Severn.

{56c}  Nant Pencarn, or the brook of Pencarn.—After a very attentive
examination of the country round Newport, by natives of that place, and
from the information I have received on the subject, I am inclined to
think that the river here alluded to was the Ebwy, which flows about a
mile and a half south of Newport.  Before the new turnpike road and
bridge were made across Tredegar Park, the old road led to a ford lower
down the river, and may still be travelled as far as Cardiff; and was
probably the ford mentioned in the text, as three old farm-houses in its
neighbourhood still retain the names of Great Pencarn, Little Pencarn,
and Middle Pencarn.

{57}  Robert Fitz-Hamon, earl of Astremeville, in Normandy, came into
England with William the Conqueror; and, by the gift of William Rufus,
obtained the honour of Gloucester.  He was wounded with a spear at the
siege of Falaise, in Normandy, died soon afterwards, and was buried, A.D.
1102, in the abbey of Tewkesbury, which he had founded.  Leaving no male
issue, king Henry gave his eldest daughter, Mabel, or Maude, who, in her
own right, had the whole honour of Gloucester, to his illegitimate son
Robert, who was advanced to the earldom of Gloucester by the king, his
father.  He died A.D. 1147, and left four sons: William, the personage
here mentioned by Giraldus, who succeeded him in his titles and honours;
Roger, bishop of Worcester, who died at Tours in France, A.D. 1179;
Hamon, who died at the siege of Toulouse, A.D. 1159; and Philip.

{58a}  The Coychurch Manuscript quoted by Mr. Williams, in his History of
Monmouthshire, asserts that Morgan, surnamed Mwyn-fawr, or the Gentle,
the son of Athrwy, not having been elected to the chief command of the
British armies, upon his father’s death retired from Caerleon, and took
up his residence in Glamorganshire, sometimes at Radyr, near Cardiff, and
at other times at Margam; and from this event the district derived its
name, quasi Gwlad-Morgan, the country of Morgan.

{58b}  St. Piranus, otherwise called St. Kiaran, or Piran, was an Irish
saint, said to have been born in the county of Ossory, or of Cork, about
the middle of the fourth century; and after that by his labours the
Gospel had made good progress, he forsook all worldly things, and spent
the remainder of his life in religious solitude.  The place of his
retirement was on the sea-coast of Cornwall, and not far from Padstow,
where, as Camden informs us, there was a chapel on the sands erected to
his memory.  Leland has informed us, that the chapel of St. Perine, at
Caerdiff, stood in Shoemaker Street.

{59}  So called from a parish of that name in Glamorganshire, situated
between Monk Nash and St. Donat’s, upon the Bristol Channel.

{60}  Barri Island is situated on the coast of Glamorganshire; and,
according to Cressy, took its name from St. Baruc, the hermit, who
resided, and was buried there.  The Barrys in Ireland, as well as the
family of Giraldus, who were lords of it, are said to have derived their
names from this island.  Leland, in speaking of this island, says, “The
passage into Barrey isle at ful se is a flite shot over, as much as the
Tamise is above the bridge.  At low water, there is a broken causey to go
over, or els over the shalow streamelet of Barrey-brook on the sands.
The isle is about a mile in cumpace, and hath very good corne, grasse,
and sum wood; the ferme of it worth a £10 a yere.  There ys no dwelling
in the isle, but there is in the middle of it a fair little chapel of St.
Barrok, where much pilgrimage was usid.”  [The “fair little chapel” has
disappeared, and “Barry Island” is now, since the construction of the
great dock, connected with the mainland, it is covered with houses, and
its estimated capital value is now £250,000].

{61a}  William de Salso Marisco.

{61b}  The see of Llandaff is said to have been founded by the British
king Lucius as early as the year 180.

{61c}  From Llandaff, our crusaders proceeded towards the Cistercian
monastery of Margam, passing on their journey near the little cell of
Benedictines at Ewenith, or Ewenny.  This religious house was founded by
Maurice de Londres towards the middle of the twelfth century.  It is
situated in a marshy plain near the banks of the little river Ewenny.

{62}  The Cistercian monastery of Margam, justly celebrated for the
extensive charities which its members exercised, was founded A.D. 1147,
by Robert earl of Gloucester, who died in the same year.  Of this
once-famed sanctuary nothing now remains but the shell of its
chapter-house, which, by neglect, has lost its most ornamental parts.
When Mr. Wyndham made the tour of Wales in the year 1777, this elegant
building was entire, and was accurately drawn and engraved by his orders.

{65}  In continuing their journey from Neath to Swansea, our travellers
directed their course by the sea-coast to the river Avon, which they
forded, and, continuing their road along the sands, were probably ferried
over the river Neath, at a place now known by the name of Breton Ferry,
leaving the monastery of Neath at some distance to the right: from thence
traversing another tract of sands, and crossing the river Tawe, they
arrived at the castle of Swansea, where they passed the night.

{66}  The monastery of Neath was situated on the banks of a river bearing
the same name, about a mile to the westward of the town and castle.  It
was founded in 1112, by Richard de Grainville, or Greenefeld, and
Constance, his wife, for the safety of the souls of Robert, earl of
Gloucester, Maude, his wife, and William, his son.  Richard de Grainville
was one of the twelve Norman knights who accompanied Robert Fitz-Hamon,
and assisted him in the conquest of Glamorganshire.  In the time of
Leland this abbey was in a high state of preservation, for he says, “Neth
abbay of white monkes, a mile above Neth town, standing in the ripe of
Neth, semid to me the fairest abbay of al Wales.”—_Leland_, _Itin._ tom.
v. p. 14.  The remains of the abbey and of the adjoining priory-house are
considerable; but this ancient retirement of the grey and white monks is
now occupied by the inhabitants of the neighbouring copper-works.

{67a}  Gower, the western district of Glamorganshire, appears to have
been first conquered by Henry de Newburg, earl of Warwick, soon after
Robert, duke of Gloucester, had made the conquest of the other part of
Glamorganshire.

{67b}  Sweynsei, Swansea, or Abertawe, situated at the confluence of the
river Tawe with the Severn sea, is a town of considerable commerce, and
much frequented during the summer months as a bathing-place.  The old
castle, now made use of as a prison, is so surrounded by houses in the
middle of the town, that a stranger might visit Swansea without knowing
that such a building existed.  The Welsh Chronicle informs us, that it
was built by Henry de Beaumont, earl of Warwick, and that in the year
1113 it was attacked by Gruffydd ap Rhys, but without success.  This
castle became afterwards a part of the possessions of the see of St.
David’s, and was rebuilt by bishop Gower.  [The old castle is no longer
used as a prison, but as the office of the “Cambria Daily Leader.”  It is
significant that Swansea is still known to Welshmen, as in the days of
Giraldus, as “Abertawe.”]

{71a}  Lochor, or Llwchwr, was the Leucarum mentioned in the Itineraries,
and the fifth Roman station on the Via Julia.  This small village is
situated on a tide-river bearing the same name, which divides the
counties of Glamorgan and Caermarthen, and over which there is a ferry.
“Lochor river partith Kidwelli from West Gowerlande.”—_Leland_, _Itin._
tom. v. p. 23.  [The ferry is no more.  The river is crossed by a fine
railway bridge.]

{71b}  Wendraeth, or Gwen-draeth, from gwen, white, and traeth, the sandy
beach of the sea.  There are two rivers of this name, Gwendraeth fawr,
and Gwendraeth fychan, the great and the little Gwendraeth, of which
Leland thus speaks: “Vendraeth Vawr and Vendraith Vehan risith both in
Eskenning commote: the lesse an eight milys of from Kydwelli, the other
about a ten, and hath but a little nesche of sand betwixt the places wher
thei go into the se, about a mile beneth the towne of Kidwely.”

{71c}  Cydweli was probably so called from cyd, a junction, and wyl, a
flow, or gushing out, being situated near the junction of the rivers
Gwendraeth fawr and fychan; but Leland gives its name a very singular
derivation, and worthy of our credulous and superstitious author
Giraldus.  “Kidwely, otherwise Cathweli, i.e. Catti lectus, quia Cattus
olim solebat ibi lectum in quercu facere:—There is a little towne now but
newly made betwene Vendraith Vawr and Vendraith Vehan.  Vendraith Vawr is
half a mile of.”—_Leland_, _Itin._ tom. v. p. 22.

{72}  The scene of the battle fought between Gwenllian and Maurice de
Londres is to this day called Maes Gwenllian, the plain or field of
Gwenllian; and there is a tower in the castle of Cydweli still called Tyr
Gwenllian.  [Maes Gwenllian is now a small farm, one of whose fields is
said to have been the scene of the battle.]

{73a}  The castle of Talachar is now better known by the name of
Llaugharne.

{73b}  Much has been said and written by ancient authors respecting the
derivation of the name of this city, which is generally allowed to be the
Muridunum, or Maridunum, mentioned in the Roman itineraries.  Some derive
it from Caer and Merddyn, that is, the city of the prophet Merddyn; and
others from Mûr and Murddyn, which in the British language signify a
wall.  There can, however, be little doubt that it is derived simply from
the Roman name Muridunum.  The county gaol occupies the site of the old
castle, a few fragments of which are seen intermixed with the houses of
the town.

{73c}  Dinevor, the great castle, from dinas, a castle, and vawr, great,
was in ancient times a royal residence of the princes of South Wales.  In
the year 876, Roderic the Great, having divided the principalities of
North and South Wales, and Powys land, amongst his three sons, built for
each of them a palace.  The sovereignty of South Wales, with the castle
of Dinevor, fell to the lot of Cadell.  [The ruins of Dinevor Castle
still crown the summit of the hill which overshadows the town of
Llandilo, 12 miles from Carmarthen.]

{74a}  There is a spring very near the north side of Dinevor park wall,
which bears the name of Nant-y-rhibo, or the bewitched brook, which may,
perhaps, be the one here alluded to by Giraldus.

{74b}  Pencadair is a small village situated to the north of Carmarthen.

{75a}  Alba Domus was called in Welsh Ty Gwyn ar Daf, or the White House
on the river Taf.  In the history of the primitive British church, Ty
Gwyn, or white house, is used in a sense equivalent to a charter-house.
The White House College, or Bangor y Ty Gwyn, is pretended to have been
founded about 480, by Paul Hên, or Paulius, a saint of the congregation
of Illtyd.  From this origin, the celebrated Cistercian monastery is said
to have derived its establishment.  Powel, in his chronicle, says, “For
the first abbey or frier house that we read of in Wales, sith the
destruction of the noble house of Bangor, which savoured not of Romish
dregges, was the Tuy Gwyn, built the yeare 1146, and after they swarmed
like bees through all the countrie.”  (Powel, p. 254.)—Authors differ
with respect to the founder of this abbey; some have attributed it to
Rhys ap Tewdwr, prince of South Wales; and others to Bernard, bishop of
Saint David’s, who died about the year 1148.  The latter account is
corroborated by the following passage in Wharton’s Anglia Sacra: “Anno
1143 ducti sunt monachi ordinis Cisterciensis qui modo sunt apud Albam
Landam, in West Walliam, per Bernardum episcopum.”  Leland, in his
Collectanea, says, “Whitland, abbat.  Cistert., Rhesus filius Theodori
princeps Suth Walliæ primus fundator;” and in his Itinerary, mentions it
as a convent of Bernardynes, “which yet stondeth.”

{75b}  Saint Clears is a long, straggling village, at the junction of the
river Cathgenny with the Tâf.  Immediately on the banks of the former,
and not far from its junction with the latter, stood the castle, of which
not one stone is left; but the artificial tumulus on which the citadel
was placed, and other broken ground, mark its ancient site.

{76a}  Lanwadein, now called Lawhaden, is a small village about four
miles from Narberth, on the banks of the river Cleddeu.

{76b}  Daugleddeu, so called from Dau, two, and Cled, or Cleddau, a
sword.  The rivers Cledheu have their source in the Prescelly mountain,
unite their streams below Haverfordwest, and run into Milford Haven,
which in Welsh is called Aberdaugleddau, or the confluence of the two
rivers Cledheu.

{76c}  Haverford, now called Haverfordwest, is a considerable town on the
river Cledheu, with an ancient castle, three churches, and some monastic
remains.  The old castle (now used as the county gaol), from its size and
commanding situation, adds greatly to the picturesque appearance of this
town.  [The old castle is no longer used as a gaol.]

{79a}  The province of Rhos, in which the town of Haverfordwest is
situated, was peopled by a colony of Flemings during the reign of king
Henry I.

{79b}  St. Caradoc was born of a good family in Brecknockshire, and after
a liberal education at home, attached himself to the court of Rhys Prince
of South Wales, whom he served a long time with diligence and fidelity.
He was much esteemed and beloved by him, till having unfortunately lost
two favourite greyhounds, which had been committed to his care, that
prince, in a fury, threatened his life; upon which Caradoc determined to
change masters, and made a vow on the spot to consecrate the remainder of
his days to God, by a single and religious life.  He went to Llandaff,
received from its bishop the clerical tonsure and habit, and retired to
the deserted church of St. Kined, and afterwards to a still more solitary
abode in the Isle of Ary, from whence he was taken prisoner by some
Norwegian pirates, but soon released.  His last place of residence was at
St. Ismael, in the province of Rhos, where he died in 1124, and was
buried with great honour in the cathedral of St. David’s.  We must not
confound this retreat of Caradoc with the village of St. Ismael on the
borders of Milford Haven.  His hermitage was situated in the parish of
Haroldstone, near the town of Haverfordwest, whose church has St. Ismael
for its patron, and probably near a place called Poorfield, the common on
which Haverfordwest races are held, as there is a well there called
Caradoc’s Well, round which, till within these few years, there was a
sort of vanity fair, where cakes were sold, and country games celebrated.
[Caradoc was canonised by Pope Innocent III. at the instance of
Giraldus.]

{80}  This curious superstition is still preserved, in a debased form,
among the descendants of the Flemish population of this district, where
the young women practise a sort of divination with the bladebone of a
shoulder of mutton to discover who will be their sweetheart.  It is still
more curious that William de Rubruquis, in the thirteenth century, found
the same superstition existing among the Tartars.

{82a}  Arnulph, younger son of Roger de Montgomery, did his homage for
Dyved, and is said, by our author, to have erected a slender fortress
with stakes and turf at Pembroke, in the reign of king Henry I., which,
however, appears to have been so strong as to have resisted the hostile
attack of Cadwgan ap Bleddyn in 1092, and of several lords of North
Wales, in 1094.

{82b}  Walter Fitz-Other, at the time of the general survey of England by
William the Conqueror, was castellan of Windsor, warden of the forests in
Berkshire, and possessed several lordships in the counties of Middlesex,
Hampshire, and Buckinghamshire, which dominus Otherus is said to have
held in the time of Edward the Confessor.  William, the eldest son of
Walter, took the surname of Windsor from his father’s office, and was
ancestor to the lords Windsor, who have since been created earls of
Plymouth: and from Gerald, brother of William, the Geralds, Fitz-geralds,
and many other families are lineally descended.  The Gerald here
mentioned by Giraldus is sometimes surnamed De Windsor, and also
Fitz-Walter, _i.e._ the son of Walter; having slain Owen, son of Cadwgan
ap Bleddyn, chief lord of Cardiganshire, he was made president of the
county of Pembroke.

{83}  Wilfred is mentioned by Browne Willis in his list of bishops of St.
David’s, as the forty-seventh, under the title of Wilfride, or Griffin:
he died about the year 1116.

{84}  Maenor Pyrr, now known by the name of Manorbeer, is a small village
on the sea coast, between Tenby and Pembroke, with the remaining shell of
a large castle.  Our author has given a farfetched etymology to this
castle and the adjoining island, in calling them the mansion and island
of Pyrrhus: a much more natural and congenial conjecture may be made in
supposing Maenor Pyrr to be derived from Maenor, a Manor, and Pyrr the
plural of Por, a lord; _i.e._ the Manor of the lords, and, consequently,
Inys Pyrr, the Island of the lords.  As no mention whatever is made of
the castle in the Welsh Chronicle, I am inclined to think it was only a
castellated mansion, and therefore considered of no military importance
in those days of continued warfare throughout Wales.  It is one of the
most interesting spots in our author’s Itinerary, for it was the property
of the Barri family, and the birth-place of Giraldus; in the parish
church, the sepulchral effigy of a near relation, perhaps a brother, is
still extant, in good preservation.  Our author has evidently made a
digression in order to describe this place.

{86a}  The house of Stephen Wiriet was, I presume, Orielton.  There is a
monument in the church of St. Nicholas, at Pembroke, to the memory of
John, son and heir of Sir Hugh Owen, of Bodeon in Anglesea, knight, and
Elizabeth, daughter and heir of George Wiriet, of Orielton, A.D. 1612.

{86b}  The family name of Not, or Nott, still exists in Pembrokeshire.
[The descendants of Sir Hugh continued to live at Orielton, and the title
is still in existence.]

{88}  There are two churches in Pembrokeshire called Stackpoole, one of
which, called Stackpoole Elidor, derived its name probably from the
Elidore de Stakepole mentioned in this chapter by Giraldus.  It contains
several ancient monuments, and amongst them the effigies of a
cross-legged knight, which has been for many years attributed to the
aforesaid Elidore.

{90}  Ramsey Island, near St. David’s, was always famous for its breed of
falcons.

{91a}  Camros, a small village, containing nothing worthy of remark,
excepting a large tumulus.  It appears, by this route of the Crusaders,
that the ancient road to Menevia, or St. David’s, led through Camros,
whereas the present turnpike road lies a mile and a half to the left of
it.  It then descends to Niwegal Sands, and passes near the picturesque
little harbour of Solvach, situated in a deep and narrow cove, surrounded
by high rocks.

{91b}  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.

{94}  Giraldus, ever glad to _pun_ upon words, here opposes the word
_nomen_ to _omen_.  “_Plus nominis habens quàm ominis_.”  He may have
perhaps borrowed this expression from Plautus.  Plautus Delphini, tom.
ii. p. 27.—Actus iv., Scena iv.

{96}  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 “Armoricæ
civitates—Universis civitatibus quæ oceanum attingunt, quæque Gallorum
consuetudine Armoricæ appellantur.”—_Cæsar_.  _Comment_, lib. vii.

{97}  The bishops of Hereford, Worcester, Llandaff, Bangor, St. Asaph,
Llanbadarn, and Margam, or Glamorgan.

{98}  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.

{99a}  This little brook does not, in modern times, deserve the title
here given to it by Giraldus, for it produces trout of a most delicious
flavour.

{99b}  See the Vaticinal History, book i. c. 37.

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

{102a}  Cemmeis, Cemmaes, Kemes, and Kemeys.  Thus is the name of this
district variously spelt.  Cemmaes in Welsh signifies a circle or
amphitheatre for games.

{102b}  [Cardigan.]

{102c}  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.

{103a}  Preseleu, Preselaw, Prescelly, Presselw.

{103b}  St. Bernacus is said, by Cressy, to have been a man of admirable
sanctity, 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.

{103c}  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.

{105a}  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
circumstance recorded by our author.

{105b}  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.

{106a}  The name of St. Ludoc is not found in the lives of the saints.
Leland mentions a St. Clitauc, who had a church dedicated to him in South
Wales, and who was killed by some of his companions whilst hunting.
“Clitaucus Southe-Walliæ regulus inter venandum a suis sodalibus occisus
est.  Ecciesia S. Clitauci in Southe Wallia.”—_Leland_, _Itin._, tom.
viii. p. 95.

{106b}  The Teivy is still very justly distinguished for the quantity 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.

{109a}  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.

{109b}  In 1135.

{109c}  Lampeter, or Llanbedr, a small town near the river Teivi, still
retains the name of Pont-Stephen.

{109d}  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.

{110a}  [Melenydd or Maelienydd.]

{110b}  Leaving Stratflur, the archbishop and his train returned to
Llanddewi Brefi, and from thence proceeded to Llanbadarn Vawr.

{111}  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.

{112}  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.

{113a}  This river is now called Dovey.

{113b}  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 passed the
night.  [Venedotia is the Latin name for Gwynedd.]

{113c}  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.

{113d}  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 æstuary, which flows down to the sea at
Barmouth or Aber Maw.  The ford at this place, discovered by Malgo, no
longer exists.

{114a}  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.

{114b}  Ardudwy was a comot of the cantref Dunodic, in Merionethshire,
and according to Leland, “Streccith from half Trait Mawr to Abermaw on
the shore XII myles.”  The bridge here alluded to, was probably over the
river Artro, which forms a small æstuary near the village of Llanbedr.

{115a}  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 æstuary below Pont Aberglaslyn.

{115b} 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.

{115c}  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.”

{115d}  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.

{115e}  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 principal bards of
the Isle of Britain.

{116a}  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.

{116b}  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 Æstuarium 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.

{116c}  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.

{117}  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 Guianus, was at this time bishop of this see, and died in
1190.

{118a}  Guianus, or Guy Rufus, dean of Waltham, in Essex, and consecrated
to this see, at Ambresbury, Wilts, in May 1177.

{118b}  Mona, or Anglesey.

{118c}  The spot selected by Baldwin for addressing the multitude, 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
multitude; 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 pronounced,
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).]

{120a}  This hundred contained the comots of Mynyw, or St. David’s, and
Pencaer.

{120b}  I am indebted to Mr. Richard Llwyd for the following curious
extract from a Manuscript 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 cæmiterii vallo locum sibi e longo a
retro tempore obtinuit, exindeque his nuperis annis, quo nescio papicola
vel qua inscia manu nulla ut olim retinente virtute, quæ tunc penitus
elanguit aut vetustate evaporavit, nullo sane loci dispendio, nec illi
qui eripuit emolumento, ereptus et deportatus fuit.”

{120c}  Hugh, earl of Chester.  The first earl of Chester after the
Norman conquest, was Gherbod, a Fleming, who, having obtained leave from
king William to go into Flanders for the purpose of arranging some family
concerns, was taken and detained a prisoner by his enemies; upon which
the conqueror bestowed the earldom of Chester on Hugh de Abrincis or of
Avranches, “to hold as freely by the sword, as the king himself did
England by the crown.”

{121}  This church is at Llandyfrydog, a small village in Twrkelin
hundred, not far distant from Llanelian, and about three miles from the
Bay of Dulas.  St. Tyvrydog, to whom it was dedicated, was one of the
sons of Arwystyl Glof, a saint who lived in the latter part of the sixth
century.

{123a}  Ynys Lenach, now known by the name of Priestholme Island, bore
also the title of Ynys Seiriol, from a saint who resided upon it in the
sixth century.  It is also mentioned by Dugdale and Pennant under the
appellation of Insula Glannauch.

{123b}  Alberic de Veer, or Vere, came into England with William the
Conqueror, and as a reward for his military services, received very
extensive possessions and lands, particularly in the county of Essex.
Alberic, his eldest son, was great chamberlain of England in the reign of
king Henry I., and was killed A.D. 1140, in a popular tumult at London.
Henry de Essex married one of his daughters named Adeliza.  He enjoyed,
by inheritance, the office of standard-bearer, and behaved himself so
unworthily in the military expedition which king Henry undertook against
Owen Gwynedd, prince of North Wales, in the year 1157, by throwing down
his ensign, and betaking himself to flight, that he was challenged for
this misdemeanor by Robert de Mountford, and by him vanquished in single
combat; whereby, according to the laws of his country, his life was
justly forfeited.  But the king interposing his royal mercy, spared it,
but confiscated his estates, ordering him to be shorn a monk, and placed
in the abbey of Reading.  There appears to be some biographical error in
the words of Giraldus—“Filia scilicet Henrici de Essexia,” for by the
genealogical accounts of the Vere and Essex families, we find that Henry
de Essex married the daughter of the second Alberic de Vere; whereas our
author seems to imply, that the mother of Alberic the second was daughter
to Henry de Essex.

{124}  “And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel, and of
the chesnut tree, and peeled white strakes in them, and made the white
appear which was in the rods.  And he set the rods, which he had peeled,
before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs, when the flocks
came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.  And
the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle speckled
and spotted.”—Gen. xxx.

{125a}  Owen Gwynedd, the son of Gruffydd ap Conan, died in 1169, and was
buried at Bangor.  When Baldwin, during his progress, visited Bangor and
saw his tomb, he charged the bishop (Guy Ruffus) to remove the body out
of the cathedral, when he had a fit opportunity so to do, in regard that
archbishop Becket had excommunicated him heretofore, because he had
married his first cousin, the daughter of Grono ap Edwyn, and that
notwithstanding he had continued to live with her till she died.  The
bishop, in obedience to the charge, made a passage from the vault through
the south wall of the church underground, and thus secretly shoved the
body into the churchyard.—_Hengwrt_.  _MSS._  Cadwalader brother of Owen
Gwynedd, died in 1172.

{125b}  The Merlin here mentioned was called Ambrosius, and according to
the Cambrian Biography flourished about the middle of the fifth century.
Other authors say, that this reputed prophet and magician was the son of
a Welsh nun, daughter of a king of Demetia, and born at Caermarthen, and
that he was made king of West Wales by Vortigern, who then reigned in
Britain.

{126}  Owen Gwynedd “left behind him manie children gotten by diverse
women, which were not esteemed by their mothers and birth, but by their
prowes and valiantnesse.”  By his first wife, Gladus, the daughter of
Llywarch ap Trahaern ap Caradoc, he had Orwerth Drwyndwn, that is, Edward
with the broken nose; for which defect he was deemed unfit to preside
over the principality of North Wales and was deprived of his rightful
inheritance, which was seized by his brother David, who occupied it for
the space of twenty-four years.

{128a}  The travellers pursuing their journey along the sea coast,
crossed the æstuary of the river Conway under Deganwy, a fortress of very
remote antiquity.

{128b}  At this period the Cistercian monastery of Conway was in its
infancy, for its foundation has been attributed to Llewelyn ap Iorwerth,
in the year 1185, (only three years previous to Baldwin’s visitation,)
who endowed it with very extensive possessions and singular privileges.
Like Stratflur, this abbey was the repository of the national records,
and the mausoleum of many of its princes.

{129a}  [David was the illegitimate son of Owen Gwynedd, and had
dispossessed his brother, Iorwerth Drwyndwn.]

{129b}  This ebbing spring in the province of Tegeingl, or Flintshire,
has been placed by the old annotator on Giraldus at Kilken, which
Humphrey Llwyd, in his Breviary, also mentions.

{129c}  See before, the Topography of Ireland, Distinc. ii. c. 7.

{129d}  Saint Asaph, in size, though not in revenues, may deserve the
epithet of “paupercula” attached to it by Giraldus.  From its situation
near the banks of the river Elwy, it derived the name of Llanelwy, or the
church upon the Elwy.

{129e}  Leaving Llanelwy, or St. Asaph, the archbishop proceeded to the
little cell of Basinwerk, where he and his attendants passed the night.
It is situated at a short distance from Holywell, on a gentle eminence
above a valley, watered by the copious springs that issue from St.
Winefred’s well, and on the borders of a marsh, which extends towards the
coast of Cheshire.

{129f}  Coleshill is a township in Holywell parish, Flintshire, which
gives name to a hundred, and was so called from its abundance of fossil
fuel.  Pennant, vol. i. p. 42.

{130}  The three military expeditions of king Henry into Wales, here
mentioned, were A.D. 1157, the first expedition into North Wales; A.D.
1162, the second expedition into South Wales; A.D. 1165, the third
expedition into North Wales.  In the first, the king was obliged to
retreat with considerable loss, and the king’s standard-bearer, Henry de
Essex, was accused of having in a cowardly manner abandoned the royal
standard and led to a serious disaster.

{131a}  The lake of Penmelesmere, or Pymplwy meer, or the meer of the
five parishes adjoining the lake, is, in modern days, better known by the
name of Bala Pool.  The assertion made by Giraldus, of salmon never being
found in the lake of Bala, is not founded on truth.

{131b}  Giraldus seems to have been mistaken respecting the burial-place
of the emperor Henry V., for he died May 23, A.D. 1125, at Utrecht, and
his body was conveyed to Spire for interment.

{132}  This legend, which represents king Harold as having escaped from
the battle of Hastings, and as having lived years after as a hermit on
the borders of Wales, is mentioned by other old writers, and has been
adopted as true by some modern writers.

{133a}  Some difficulty occurs in fixing the situation of the Album
Monasterium, mentioned in the text, as three churches in the county of
Shropshire bore that appellation; the first at Whitchurch, the second at
Oswestry, the third at Alberbury.  The narrative of our author is so
simple, and corresponds so well with the topography of the country
through which they passed, that I think no doubt ought to be entertained
about the course of their route.  From Chester they directed their way to
the White Monastery, or Whitchurch, and from thence towards Oswestry,
where they slept, and were entertained by William Fitz-Alan, after the
English mode of hospitality.

{133b}  By the Latin context it would appear that Reiner was bishop of
Oswestree: “Ab episcopo namque loci illius Reinerio multitudo fuerat ante
signata.”  Reiner succeeded Adam in the bishopric of St. Asaph in the
year 1186, and died in 1220.  He had a residence near Oswestry, at which
place, previous to the arrival of Baldwin, he had signed many of the
people with the cross.

{133c}  In the time of William the Conqueror, Alan, the son of Flathald,
or Flaald, obtained, by the gift of that king, the castle of Oswaldestre,
with the territory adjoining, which belonged to Meredith ap Blethyn, a
Briton.  This Alan, having married the daughter and heir to Warine,
sheriff of Shropshire, had in her right the barony of the same Warine.
To him succeeded William, his son and heir.  He married Isabel de Say,
daughter and heir to Helias de Say, niece to Robert earl of Gloucester,
lady of Clun, and left issue by her, William, his son and successor, who,
in the 19th Henry II., or before, departed this life, leaving William
Fitz-Alan his son and heir, who is mentioned in the text.

{134a}  Robert de Belesme, earl of Shrewsbury, was son of Roger de
Montgomery, who led the centre division of the army in that memorable
battle which secured to William the conquest of England, and for his
services was advanced to the earldoms of Arundel and Shrewsbury.

{134b}  This expedition into Wales took place A.D. 1165, and has been
already spoken of.

{136}  The princes mentioned by Giraldus as most distinguished in North
and South Wales, and most celebrated in his time, were, 1. Owen, son of
Gruffydd, in North Wales; 2. Meredyth, son of Gruffydd, in South Wales;
3. Owen de Cyfeilioc, in Powys; 4. Cadwalader, son of Gruffydd, in North
Wales; 5. Gruffydd of Maelor in Powys; 6. Rhys, son of Gruffydd, in South
Wales; 7. David, son of Owen, in North Wales; 8. Howel, son of Iorwerth,
in South Wales.

1.  Owen Gwynedd, son of Gruffydd ap Conan, died in 1169, having governed
his country well and worthily for the space of thirty-two years.  He was
fortunate and victorious in all his affairs, and never took any
enterprise in hand but he achieved it.  2. Meredyth ap Gruffydd ap Rhys,
lord of Caerdigan and Stratywy, died in 1153, at the early age of
twenty-five; a worthy knight, fortunate in battle, just and liberal to
all men.  3. Owen Cyfeilioc was the son of Gruffydd Meredyth ap Meredyth
ap Blethyn, who was created lord of Powys by Henry I., and died about the
year 1197, leaving his principality to his son Gwenwynwyn, from whom that
part of Powys was called Powys Gwenwynwyn, to distinguish it from Powys
Vadoc, the possession of the lords of Bromfield.  The poems ascribed to
him possess great spirit, and prove that he was, as Giraldus terms him,
“linguæ dicacis,” in its best sense.  4. Cadwalader, son of Gruffydd ap
Conan, prince of North Wales, died in 1175.  Gruffydd of Maelor was son
of Madoc ap Meredyth ap Blethyn, prince of Powys, who died at Winchester
in 1160.  “This man was ever the king of England’s friend, and was one
that feared God, and relieved the poor: his body was conveyed honourably
to Powys, and buried at Myvod.”  His son Gruffydd succeeded him in the
lordship of Bromfield, and died about the year 1190.  6. Rhys ap
Gruffydd, or the lord Rhys, was son of Gruffydd ap Rhys ap Tewdwr, who
died in 1137.  The ancient writers have been very profuse in their
praises of this celebrated Prince.  7. David, son of Owen Gwynedd, who,
on the death if his father, forcibly seized the principality of North
Wales, slaying his brother Howel in battle, and setting aside the claims
of the lawful inheritor of the throne, Iorwerth Trwyndwn, whose son,
Llewelyn ap Iorwerth, in 1194, recovered his inheritance.  8. Howel, son
of Iorwerth of Caerleon, appears to have been distinguished chiefly by
his ferocity.

{137}  Malpas in Cheshire.

{138}  It appears that a small college of prebendaries, or secular
canons, resided at Bromfield in the reign of king Henry I.; Osbert, the
prior, being recorded as a witness to a deed made before the year 1148.
In 1155, they became Benedictines, and surrendered church and lands to
the abbey of St. Peter’s at Gloucester, whereupon a prior and monks were
placed there, and continued till the dissolution.  An ancient gateway and
some remains of the priory still testify the existence of this religious
house, the local situation of which, near the confluence of the rivers
Oney and Teme, has been accurately described by Leland.

{139}  Baldwin was born at Exeter, in Devonshire, of a low family, but
being endowed by nature with good abilities, applied them to an early
cultivation of sacred and profane literature.  His good conduct procured
him the friendship of Bartholomew bishop of Exeter, who promoted him to
the archdeaconry of that see; resigning this preferment, he assumed the
cowl, and in a few years became abbot of the Cistercian monastery at
Ford.  In the year 1180, he was advanced to the bishopric of Worcester,
and in 1184, translated to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury.  In the
year 1188, he made his progress through Wales, preaching with fervour the
service of the Cross; to which holy cause he fell a sacrifice in the year
1190, having religiously, honourably, and charitably ended his days in
the Holy Land.

{140}  Giraldus here alludes to the dignity of archdeacon, which Baldwin
had obtained in the church of Exeter.





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