I believe that all classes, including the Nonconformists, have a real
love for the old Parish Church and its grey tower, beneath the
shade of which so many of their ancestors are laid. Here at
Michaelston-y-Vedw we have a fine historic building, erected about
1130. I may tell you that one of its old parish registers contains an
interesting entry. It is that "Godfrey Charles Morgan was baptised
here on May 4th, 1828."
_Eisteddfod, Cefn-Mably,
September 15th, 1897._
[Illustration: "_Godfrey Charles Morgan was baptised here on May 4th,
1828._"]
I always take more interest in these historical little rural parish
churches than I do in a brand new Church erected in some populous
district. Of course, the Church is really more necessary there than
among the small Communities; still, there is the sentiment, the old
association of the old Parish Church and the churchyard in which "the
rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." Those lines of the poet Gray:
"The cock's shrill clarion, nor the echoing horn,
No more shall raise him from his lonely bed,"
often strike me, because the little Church is so closely connected
with the Llangibby family. The Llangibby and Morgan families have been
associated very often before in the long vista of history, but you
have amongst you now a relation of mine, come to live amongst you, and
who will look after this little Church.