The city of St. Asaph stands on the declivity of a hill on the western
bank of the river Elwy, whence its ancient name “Llan Elwy,” and one mile
above the confluence of that river with the Clwyd. It consists of one
cheerful looking avenue climbing the brow of the hill, and is perhaps the
smallest city in Great Britain. The landscape of which it forms a part,
though not exactly suited to the pencil, is gratifying and beautiful.
Embowered in woods of luxuriant growth, adorning a pastoral scene of
exquisite beauty, the city peeps forth beneath the massive tower of its
sacred temple. At the foot of the little eminence the Elwy rolls its
crystal waters over a broad and pebbly bed, and passing beneath a bridge
of five elliptic arches, hastens to its union with the Clwyd and the sea.
The background is composed of lofty, undulating hills, broken by wooded
glens, and forming a beautiful termination to this happy, healthy,
arcadian prospect.
Centigern, Bishop of Glasgow and Primate of Scotland, being driven from
his home by persecution, fled into Wales, and obtained the protection of
Prince Cadwallon, who assigned Llan Elwy to him as a place of residence.
Here he built a monastery, and established an episcopal seat, which he
was the first to occupy, about the year 560. Soon after, being recalled
to Scotland, he appointed Asaph, or Asa, to succeed him, from whom the
church and city have derived their present names. Asaph was eminent for
his piety and learning, nine hundred monks were at one period congregated
in his college here, and his reputation for sanctity led to the invention
of those fabulous tales of miracles and cures, said to have been
performed by him.
Until within very few years a black stone was shown in the pavement of
the street, bearing the impression of a horse’s shoe. The indenture was
gravely said to have been caused by the hoof of St. Asaph’s horse when he
leaped, with his pious master on his back, from Onen-Assa {122} to this
spot, the moderate distance of two miles. In the year 1247 the Bishop of
St. Asaph was driven from his see, and supported by benevolent
contributions. The cathedral was consumed by fire after this period,
and, being rebuilt, was again destroyed in 1404, by Owain Glandwr. For
seventy years it continued a heap of ruins until restored by the zeal and
activity of Bishop Redman. During the protectorate the puritans
dispossessed the bishop, and the post-office was kept in the episcopal
palace, while the baptismal font in the cathedral was desecrated into a
watering trough, and calves were fed in the pulpit by the _sacrilegious_
postmaster. The cathedral consists of a choir, two lateral aisles, and a
transept. The great eastern window possesses much architectural beauty,
and the design of it was borrowed from the great window of Tintern Abbey.
It is now adorned with stained glass, executed by Eggington, the expense
of which was defrayed by Bishop Bagot and several gentlemen of the
principality, whose arms are emblazoned thereon. The same amiable
prelate re-edified the palace, and rendered it suitable to the opulence
of this antient see. In the cemetery, adjacent to the west door, is a
marble monument to the memory of Bishop Isaac Barrow, who died in 1680.
Few prelates have been more eminent for piety or conspicuous by good
works. When bishop of the Isle of Man he bought up all the
impropriations, and bestowed them on the church. He expended large sums
in educating the youth of that island, and founded three scholarships for
them in the university of Dublin. When translated to St. Asaph’s he
repaired the cathedral and the mill, founded almshouses for eight poor
widows, and performed many other works of benevolence and liberality.
Perhaps it was neither his least public service or least fortunate
exertion, to have been the instructor of Dr. Isaac Barrow, a man who had
he lived in any other age but that of Newton, his own pupil, would have
been honoured as the most solid mathematician, sound divine, and profound
general scholar, that had ever adorned the literature of his country, and
now decidedly occupies the next pedestal to his immortal scholar, in all
the great galleries of intellectual men throughout the civilized world.
Dr. William Beveridge, a learned and amiable prelate, was consecrated to
this see in the year 1704.
[Picture: South Stack Lighthouse (Holyhead); Corwen; Barmouth. London.
Published by T. T. & J. Tegg, Cheapside, Oct. 1st 1832]