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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Baldwin's Itinerary Through Wales
+#2 in our series by Giraldus Cambrensis
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+The Itinerary of Archibishop Baldwin through Wales
+
+by Giraldus Cambrensis
+
+December, 1997  [Etext #1148]
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Baldwin's Itinerary Through Wales
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+This etext was prepared by David Price
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+
+The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales
+
+
+
+
+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 {1} 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 naive 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. {2}  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. {3}  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 sua 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 e 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. {4}  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." {5}  The romantic literature of
+England owes its origin to Geoffrey of Monmouth; {6} 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; {7} and John Richard
+Green has truly called Gerald himself "the father of popular
+literature." {8}  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
+mediaeval writers.  Of all English writers, Miss Kate Norgate {9}
+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, archaeology, 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 Coeur-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. {10}  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 Kambriae,
+Descriptio Kambriae, Gemma Ecclesiastica, Libellus Invectionum, De
+Rebus a se Gestis, Dialogus de jure et statu Menevensis Ecclesiae,
+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 sententiae, 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
+AEneid 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 Croesus? but where now shine the gold
+and silver of Croesus? whilst the world is instructed by the example
+and enlightened by the learning of the poor coenobite.  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 praetendit 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.
+
+
+
+
+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, {12} on Ash Wednesday (Caput
+Jejunii), accompanied by Ranulph de Glanville, privy counsellor and
+justiciary of the whole kingdom, and there met Rhys, {13} 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, {14}
+a monk of the abbey of Cluny, and then by Eineon, son of Eineon
+Clyd, {15} 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, {16} 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, {17} who had entered the church of
+Saint Avan (which is called in the British language Llan Avan), {18}
+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, {19} 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, {20} there is a staff of Saint Cyric, {21} 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, {22} is a portable bell,
+endowed with great virtues, called Bangu, {23} 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,
+{24} 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, {25} 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 {26} 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, {27} 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, {28} 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; {29} 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, {30} that the large lake, and the
+river Leveni, {31} which flows from it into the Wye, opposite
+Glasbyry, {32} 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 {33} 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, {34} 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, {35} 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, {36} 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, {37} the concubine of the rector incautiously sat down on
+the tomb of St. Osana, sister of king Osred, {38} 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, {39} 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, {40} 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; {41} 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 {42} led the life of a hermit at
+Llanhamelach, {43} 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 {44} was the first of the Normans who acquired
+by conquest from the Welsh this province, which was divided into
+three cantreds. {45}  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, {46} 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 saevissima tunc est
+Cum stimulos animo pudor admovet.
+- colllige, quod vindicta
+Nemo magis gaudet quam foemina.
+
+
+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, {47} in the castle of Brendlais, {48} 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, {49} 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:  {50} 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, {51} 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 country 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, {52} son of Rhys ap Tewdwr, held
+under the king one comot, namely, the fourth part of the cantred of
+Caoc, {53} 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 {54} (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; {55} on the southern, by that
+range, of which the principal is Cadair Arthur, {56} 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. {57}  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, {58} 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, {59} 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 {60} 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, {61} 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, {62} 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 aequa commoda mente pati;
+
+
+And again:
+
+
+"Creverunt opes et opum furiosa cupido,
+Et eum possideant plurima, plura petunt."
+
+
+And also the poet Horace:
+
+
+" - scilicet improbae
+Crescunt divitiae, tamen
+Curtae nescio quid semper abest rei.
+Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam
+Majorumque fames."
+
+
+To which purpose the poet Lucan says:
+
+
+" - O vitae tuta facultas
+Pauperis, angustique lares, o munera nondum
+Intellecta Deum!"
+
+
+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, {63} 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 {64} 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 {65} 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, {66} 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, {67} 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 praeda 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, {68} 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. {69}
+
+It seems worthy of remark, that the people of what is called Venta
+{70} 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, {71} who faithfully accompanied us through
+his diocese, were signed with the cross; Alexander archdeacon of
+Bangor {72} 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. {73}
+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 {74} 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, {75} 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, {76} 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, {77} situated on the banks of the river
+Taf.  In the neighbourhood of Newport, which is in the district of
+Gwentluc, {78} there is a small stream called Nant Pencarn, {79}
+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, {80} who,
+besides that castle, possessed by hereditary right all the province
+of Gwladvorgan, {81} 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. {82}  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, {83} 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 {84} 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, {85}
+a discreet and good man.  The word Landaf {86} 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 {87} to the noble Cistercian monastery of Margan. {88}  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, {89} 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 {90} 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, {91} we spent the night at the
+castle of Sweynsei, {92} 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
+{Greek text which cannot be reproduced}; and Dur also, in the
+British language, signifies water.  When they wanted salt they said,
+Halgein ydorum, bring salt:  salt is called {Greek text} 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, {Greek} 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
+{Greek} in Greek is called Sal in Latin, {Greek} - semi - {Greek} -
+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, {93} 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, {94} we arrived at the castle of Cydweli. {95}  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. {96}  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 {97} 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 {98}
+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,
+{99} 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. {100}  Not far to the north of Caermardyn, namely
+at Pencadair, {101} 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, {102} 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, {103} 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, {104} 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, {105} 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 {106} 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, {107} 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 {108} 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. {109}
+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 aestuary.  Arnulph de Montgomery, {110} 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, {111} 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, {112} 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, {113} 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, {114} and afterwards in the house of William Not; {115}
+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, {116} 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 {117} 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, {118} 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. {119}  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, {120} 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, {121} 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
+{122} 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 {123} 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, {124} 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. {125}  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. {126}  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 {127} to meet prince Rhys at Aberteive.
+{128}  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, {129} 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, {130} 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, {131} 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, {132} 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, {133} 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, {134} 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, {135} 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; {136} 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,
+{137} 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. {138}  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, {139} by the archbishop and archdeacon, and also by two
+abbots of the Cistercian order, John of Albadomus, and Sisillus of
+Stratflur, {140} 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, {141} 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, {142} 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, {143} 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 {144} 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, {145} 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. {146}  We slept that night at Towyn.  Early
+next morning, Gruffydd son of Conan {147} 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, {148} 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, {149} that is the
+church of St. Mary, in the province of Ardudwy. {150}  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, {151} and Traeth
+Bachan, {152} 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. {153}  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, {154} 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. {155}
+
+Beyond Lleyn, there is a small island inhabited by very religious
+monks, called Caelibes, 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 {156}
+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, {157} that is, the castle of Arvon; it is called
+Arvon, the province opposite to Mon, because it is so situated with
+respect to the island of Mona.  Our road leading us to a steep
+valley, {158} 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, {159} the metropolitan see of North Wales, and
+were well entertained by the bishop of the diocese. {160}  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, {161} 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, {162} 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, {163} 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, {164} 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, {165} 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, {166} 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, {167} 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, {168} 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. {169}  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, {170} 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 {171} 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, {172} 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, {173} or rather an arm of the sea,
+under Deganwy, leaving the Cistercian monastery of Conwy {174} 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 {175} 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,
+{176} 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." {177}
+
+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; {178} 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, {179} 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, {180} 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. {181}  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,
+{182} 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, {183} 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. {184}  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,
+{185} 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, {186} 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, {187} 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, {188} 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. {189}  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, {190} 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." {191}
+
+From Wenloch, we passed by the little cell of Brumfeld, {192} 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 {193}
+
+
+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, {194} 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:
+
+
+{1}  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.
+
+{2}  "Mirror of the Church," ii. 33.
+
+{3}  "Social England," vol. i. p. 342.
+
+{4}  Published in the first instance in the "Transactions of the
+Cymmrodaian Society," and subsequently amplified and brought out in
+book form.
+
+{5}  Introduction to Borrow's "Wild Wales" in the Everyman Series.
+
+{6}  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.
+
+{7}  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.
+
+{8}  Green, "Hist. Eng. People," i. 172.
+
+{9}  "England under the Angevin Kings," vol. ii. 457.
+
+{10}  Project Gutenberg 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.
+
+{12}  New Radnor.
+
+{13}  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.
+
+{14}  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.
+
+{15}  In the Latin of Giraldus, the name of Eineon is represented by
+AEneas, and Eineon Clyd by AEneas Claudius.
+
+{16}  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-crug, from its
+situation on a rocky eminence.  Cruker is a corruption, probably,
+from Crug-caerau, the mount, or height, of the fortifications.
+
+{17}  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.
+
+{18}  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.
+
+{19} 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.
+
+{20}  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.
+
+{21}  Several churches in Wales have been dedicated to Saint Curig,
+who came into Wales in the seventh century.
+
+{22}  Glascum is a small village in a mountainous and retired
+situation between Builth and Kington, in Herefordshire.
+
+{23}  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.
+
+{24}  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.
+
+{25}  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.
+
+{26}  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.
+
+{27}  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.
+
+{28}  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.
+
+{29}  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.]
+
+{30}  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.
+
+{31}  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.
+
+{32}  A pretty little village on the southern banks of the Usk,
+about four miles from Hay, on the road leading to Brecknock.
+
+{33}  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.
+
+{34}  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.
+
+{35} 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.
+
+{36}  David Fitzgerald was promoted to the see of Saint David's in
+1147, or according to others, in 1149.  He died A.D. 1176.
+
+{37}  Now Howden, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
+
+{38}  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.
+
+{39}  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.
+
+{40}  Winchelcumbe, or Winchcomb, in the lower part of the hundred
+of Kiftsgate, in Gloucestershire, a few miles to the north of
+Cheltenham.
+
+{41}  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.
+
+{42}  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.
+
+{43}  Lhanhamelach, or Llanamllech, is a small village, three miles
+from Brecknock, on the road to Abergavenny.
+
+{44}  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.
+
+{45}  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.
+
+{46}  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.
+
+{47}  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.
+
+{48}  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.
+
+{49}  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.
+
+{50}  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.
+
+{51}  The umber, or grayling, is still a plentiful and favourite
+fish in the rivers on the Welsh border.
+
+{52}  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.
+
+{53}  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.
+
+{54}  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.
+
+{55}  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.
+
+{56}  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.
+
+{57}  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.
+
+{58}  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.
+
+{59}  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.
+
+{60}  The titles of mother and daughter are here applied to the
+mother church in Wales, and the daughter near Gloucester.
+
+{61}  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.
+
+{62}  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.
+
+{63}  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.'"
+
+{64}  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.
+
+{65}  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.
+
+{66}  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.
+
+{67}  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.
+
+{68}  Landinegat, or the church of St. Dingad, is now better known
+by the name of Dingatstow, or Dynastow, a village near Monmouth.
+
+{69}  [For the end of William de Braose, see footnote 34.]
+
+{70}  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.
+
+{71}  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.
+
+{72}  Alexander was the fourth archdeacon of the see of Bangor.
+
+{73}  Once at Usk, then at Caerleon, and afterwards on entering the
+town of Newport.
+
+{74}  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.
+
+{75}  [Geoffrey of Monmouth.]
+
+{76}  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.
+
+{77}  Cardiff, i.e., the fortress on the river Taf.
+
+{78}  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.
+
+{79}  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.
+
+{80}  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.
+
+{81}  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.
+
+{82}  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.
+
+{83}  So called from a parish of that name in Glamorganshire,
+situated between Monk Nash and St. Donat's, upon the Bristol
+Channel.
+
+{84}  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 pounds 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 pounds].
+
+{85}  William de Salso Marisco.
+
+{86}  The see of Llandaff is said to have been founded by the
+British king Lucius as early as the year 180.
+
+{87}  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.
+
+{88}  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.
+
+{89}  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.
+
+{90}  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.
+
+{91}  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.
+
+{92}  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."]
+
+{93}  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.]
+
+{94}  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."
+
+{95}  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.
+
+{96}  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.]
+
+{97}  The castle of Talachar is now better known by the name of
+Llaugharne.
+
+{98}  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 Mur 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.
+
+{99}  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.]
+
+{100}  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.
+
+{101}  Pencadair is a small village situated to the north of
+Carmarthen.
+
+{102}  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 Hen, 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 Walliae primus fundator;" and
+in his Itinerary, mentions it as a convent of Bernardynes, "which
+yet stondeth."
+
+{103}  Saint Clears is a long, straggling village, at the junction
+of the river Cathgenny with the Taf.  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.
+
+{104}  Lanwadein, now called Lawhaden, is a small village about four
+miles from Narberth, on the banks of the river Cleddeu.
+
+{105}  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.
+
+{106}  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.]
+
+{107}  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.
+
+{108}  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.]
+
+{109}  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.
+
+{110}  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.
+
+{111}  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.
+
+{112}  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.
+
+{113}  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.
+
+{114}  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.
+
+{115}  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.]
+
+{116}  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.
+
+{117}  Ramsey Island, near St. David's, was always famous for its
+breed of falcons.
+
+{118}  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.
+
+{119}  The remains of vast submerged forests are commonly found on
+many parts of the coast of Wales, especially in the north.  Giraldus
+has elsewhere spoken of this event in the Vaticinal History, book i.
+chap. 35.
+
+{120}  Giraldus, ever glad to pun upon words, here opposes the word
+NOMEN to OMEN.  "Plus nominis habens quem ominis."  He may have
+perhaps borrowed this expression from Plautus.  Plautus Delphini,
+tom. ii.  p. 27. - Actus iv., Scena iv.
+
+{121}  Armorica is derived from the Celtic words Ar and Mor, which
+signify on or near the sea, and so called to distinguish it from the
+more inland parts of Britany.  The maritime cities of Gaul were
+called "Armoricae civitates - Universis civitatibus quae oceanum
+attingunt, quaeque Gallorum consuetudine Armoricae appellantur." -
+Caesar.  Comment, lib. vii.
+
+{122}  The bishops of Hereford, Worcester, Llandaff, Bangor, St.
+Asaph, Llanbadarn, and Margam, or Glamorgan.
+
+{123}  The value of the carucate is rather uncertain, or, probably,
+it varied in different districts according to the character of the
+land; but it is considered to have been usually equivalent to a
+hide, that is, to about 240 statute acres.
+
+{124}  This little brook does not, in modern times, deserve the
+title here given to it by Giraldus, for it produces trout of a most
+delicious flavour.
+
+{125}  See the Vaticinal History, book i. c. 37.
+
+{126} Lechlavar, so called from the words in Welsh, Llec, a stone,
+and Llavar, speech.
+
+{127}  Cemmeis, Cemmaes, Kemes, and Kemeys.  Thus is the name of
+this district variously spelt.  Cemmaes in Welsh signifies a circle
+or amphitheatre for games.
+
+{128}  [Cardigan.]
+
+{129}  There is place in Cemmaes now called Tre-liffan, i.e. Toad's
+town; and over a chimney-piece in the house there is a figure of a
+toad sculptured in marble, said to have been brought from Italy, and
+intended probably to confirm and commemorate this tradition of
+Giraldus.
+
+{130}  Preseleu, Preselaw, Prescelly, Presselw.
+
+{131}  St. Bernacus is said, by Cressy, to have been a man of
+admirable 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.
+
+{132}  The "castrum apud Lanhever" was at Nevern, a small village
+between Newport and Cardigan, situated on the banks of a little
+river bearing the same name which discharges itself into the sea at
+Newport.  On a hill immediately above the western side of the parish
+church, is the site of a large castle, undoubtedly the one alluded
+to by Giraldus.
+
+{133}  On the Cemmaes, or Pembrokeshire side of the river Teivi, and
+near the end of the bridge, there is a place still called Park y
+Cappel, or the Chapel Field, which is undoubtedly commemorative of
+the circumstance recorded by our author.
+
+{134}  Now known by the name of Kenarth, which may be derived from
+Cefn y garth - the back of the wear, a ridge of land behind the
+wear.
+
+{135}  The name of St. Ludoc is not found in the lives of the
+saints.  Leland mentions a St. Clitauc, who had a church dedicated
+to him in South Wales, and who was killed by some of his companions
+whilst hunting.  "Clitaucus Southe-Walliae regulus inter venandum a
+suis sodalibus occisus est.  Ecciesia S. Clitauci in Southe Wallia."
+- Leland, Itin., tom. viii. p. 95.
+
+{136}  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.
+
+{137}  Our author having made a long digression, in order to
+introduce the history of the beaver, now continues his Itinerary.
+From Cardigan, the archbishop proceeded towards Pont-Stephen,
+leaving a hill, called Cruc Mawr, on the left hand, which still
+retains its ancient name, and agrees exactly with the position given
+to it by Giraldus.  On its summit is a tumulus, and some appearance
+of an intrenchment.
+
+{138}  In 1135.
+
+{139}  Lampeter, or Llanbedr, a small town near the river Teivi,
+still retains the name of Pont-Stephen.
+
+{140}  Leland thus speaks of Ystrad Fflur or Strata Florida:
+"Strateflere is set round about with montanes not far distant,
+except on the west parte, where Diffrin Tyve is.  Many hilles
+therabout hath bene well woddid, as evidently by old rotes apperith,
+but now in them is almost no woode - the causes be these.  First,
+the wood cut down was never copisid, and this hath beene a cause of
+destruction of wood thorough Wales.  Secondly, after cutting down of
+woodys, the gottys hath so bytten the young spring that it never
+grew but lyke shrubbes.  Thirddely, men for the monys destroied the
+great woddis that thei should not harborow theves."  This monastery
+is situated in the wildest part of Cardiganshire, surrounded on
+three sides by a lofty range of those mountains, called by our
+author Ellennith; a spot admirably suited to the severe and recluse
+order of the Cistercians.
+
+{141}  [Melenydd or Maelienydd.]
+
+{142}  Leaving Stratflur, the archbishop and his train returned to
+Llanddewi Brefi, and from thence proceeded to Llanbadarn Vawr.
+
+{143}  Llanbadarn Fawr, the church of St. Paternus the Great, is
+situated in a valley, at a short distance from the sea-port town of
+Aberystwyth in Cardiganshire.
+
+{144}  The name of this bishop is said to have been Idnerth, and the
+same personage whose death is commemorated in an inscription at
+Llanddewi Brefi.
+
+{145}  This river is now called Dovey.
+
+{146}  From Llanbadarn our travellers directed their course towards
+the sea-coast, and ferrying over the river Dovey, which separates
+North from South Wales, proceeded to Towyn, in Merionethshire, where
+they passed the night.  [Venedotia is the Latin name for Gwynedd.]
+
+{147}  The province of Merionyth was at this period occupied by
+David, the son of Owen Gwynedd, who had seized it forcibly from its
+rightful inheritor.  This Gruffydd - who must not be confused with
+his great-grandfather, the famous Gruffydd ap Conan, prince of
+Gwynedd - was son to Conan ap Owen Gwynedd; he died A.D. 1200, and
+was buried in a monk's cowl, in the abbey of Conway.
+
+{148}  The epithet "bifurcus," ascribed by Giraldus to the river
+Maw, alludes to its two branches, which unite their streams a little
+way below Llaneltid bridge, and form an aestuary, which flows down
+to the sea at Barmouth or Aber Maw.  The ford at this place,
+discovered by Malgo, no longer exists.
+
+{149}  Llanfair is a small village, about a mile and a half from
+Harlech, with a very simple church, placed in a retired spot, backed
+by precipitous mountains.  Here the archbishop and Giraldus slept,
+on their journey from Towyn to Nevyn.
+
+{150}  Ardudwy was a comot of the cantref Dunodic, in
+Merionethshire, and according to Leland, "Streccith from half Trait
+Mawr to Abermaw on the shore XII myles."  The bridge here alluded
+to, was probably over the river Artro, which forms a small aestuary
+near the village of Llanbedr.
+
+{151}  The Traeth Mawr, or the large sands, are occasioned by a
+variety of springs and rivers which flow from the Snowdon mountains,
+and, uniting their streams, form an aestuary below Pont Aberglaslyn.
+
+{152} The Traeth Bychan, or the small sands, are chiefly formed by
+the river which runs down the beautiful vale of Festiniog to
+Maentwrog and Tan y bwlch, near which place it becomes navigable.
+Over each of these sands the road leads from Merionyth into
+Caernarvonshire.
+
+{153}  Lleyn, the Canganorum promontorium of Ptolemy, was an
+extensive hundred containing three comots, and comprehending that
+long neck of land between Caernarvon and Cardigan bays.  Leland
+says, "Al Lene is as it were a pointe into the se."
+
+{154}  In mentioning the rivers which the missionaries had lately
+crossed, our author has been guilty of a great topographical error
+in placing the river Dissennith between the Maw and Traeth Mawr, as
+also in placing the Arthro between the Traeth Mawr and Traeth
+Bychan, as a glance at a map will shew.
+
+{155}  To two personages of this name the gift of prophecy was
+anciently attributed:  one was called Ambrosius, the other
+Sylvestris; the latter here mentioned (and whose works Giraldus,
+after a long research, found at Nefyn) was, according to the story,
+the son of Morvryn, and generally called Merddin Wyllt, or Merddin
+the Wild.  He is pretended to have flourished about the middle of
+the sixth century, and ranked with Merddin Emrys and Taliesin, under
+the appellation of the three principal bards of the Isle of Britain.
+
+{156}  This island once afforded, according to the old accounts, an
+asylum to twenty thousand saints, and after death, graves to as many
+of their bodies; whence it has been called Insula Sanctorum, the
+Isle of Saints.  This island derived its British name of Enlli from
+the fierce current which rages between it and the main land.  The
+Saxons named it Bardsey, probably from the Bards, who retired
+hither, preferring solitude to the company of invading foreigners.
+
+{157}  This ancient city has been recorded by a variety of names.
+During the time of the Romans it was called Segontium, the site of
+which is now called Caer Seiont, the fortress on the river Seiont,
+where the Setantiorum portus, and the Seteia AEstuarium of Ptolemy
+have also been placed.  It is called, by Nennius, Caer Custent, or
+the city of Constantius; and Matthew of Westminster says, that about
+the year 1283 the body of Constantius, father of the emperor
+Constantine, was found there, and honourably desposited in the
+church by order of Edward I.
+
+{158}  I have searched in vain for a valley which would answer the
+description here given by Geraldus, and the scene of so much
+pleasantry to the travellers; for neither do the old or new road,
+from Caernarvon to Bangor, in any way correspond.  But I have since
+been informed, that there is a valley called Nant y Garth (near the
+residence of Ashton Smith, Esq. at Vaenol), which terminates at
+about half a mile's distance from the Menai, and therefore not
+observable from the road; it is a serpentine ravine of more than a
+mile, in a direction towards the mountains, and probably that which
+the crusaders crossed on their journey to Bangor.
+
+{159}  Bangor. - This cathedral church must not be confounded with
+the celebrated college of the same name, in Flintshire, founded by
+Dunod Vawr, son of Pabo, a chieftain who lived about the beginning
+of the sixth century, and from him called Bangor Dunod.  The Bangor,
+i.e. the college, in Caernarvonshire, is properly called Bangor
+Deiniol, Bangor Vawr yn Arllechwedd, and Bangor Vawr uwch Conwy.  It
+owes its origin to Deiniol, son of Dunod ap Pabo, a saint who lived
+in the early part of the sixth century, and in the year 525 founded
+this college at Bangor, in Caernarvonshire, over which he presided
+as abbot.  Guy Rufus, called by our author Guianus, was at this time
+bishop of this see, and died in 1190.
+
+{160}  Guianus, or Guy Rufus, dean of Waltham, in Essex, and
+consecrated to this see, at Ambresbury, Wilts, in May 1177.
+
+{161}  Mona, or Anglesey.
+
+{162}  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).]
+
+{163}  This hundred contained the comots of Mynyw, or St. David's,
+and Pencaer.
+
+{164}  I am indebted to Mr. Richard Llwyd for the following curious
+extract from a 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 caemiterii 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, quae tunc penitus elanguit aut vetustate evaporavit, nullo
+sane loci dispendio, nec illi qui eripuit emolumento, ereptus et
+deportatus fuit."
+
+{165}  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."
+
+{166}  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.
+
+{167}  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.
+
+{168}  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.
+
+{169}  "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.
+
+{170}  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.
+
+{171}  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.
+
+{172}  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.
+
+{173}  The travellers pursuing their journey along the sea coast,
+crossed the aestuary of the river Conway under Deganwy, a fortress
+of very remote antiquity.
+
+{174}  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.
+
+{175}  [David was the illegitimate son of Owen Gwynedd, and had
+dispossessed his brother, Iorwerth Drwyndwn.]
+
+{176}  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.
+
+{177}  See before, the Topography of Ireland, Distinc. ii. c. 7.
+
+{178}  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.
+
+{179}  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.
+
+{180}  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.
+
+{181}  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.
+
+{182}  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.
+
+{183}  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.
+
+{184}  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.
+
+{185}  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.
+
+{186}  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.
+
+{187}  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.
+
+{188}  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.
+
+{189}  This expedition into Wales took place A.D. 1165, and has been
+already spoken of.
+
+{190}  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,
+"linguae 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.
+
+{191}  Malpas in Cheshire.
+
+{192}  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.
+
+{193}  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.
+
+{194}  Giraldus here alludes to the dignity of archdeacon, which
+Baldwin had obtained in the church of Exeter.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg eText The Itinerary of Archbishop
+Baldwin through Wales by Giraldus Cambrensis
+