the supposed scite of the Bovium, or Bonium, a Roman station, and
celebrated for the most ancient British monastery, which contained two
thousand four hundred monks: it has long retained its British name,
_Bangor_, or _Bancher_, signifying “a beautiful quire;” an appellation it
justly merits. The situation is deeply secluded, “far from the bustle of
a jarring world,” and must have accorded well with monastic melancholy;
for the Monks, emerging from their retired cells, might here indulge in
that luxurious melancholy, which the prospect inspires, and which would
sooth the asperities which the severe discipline of superstition
inflicted on them. The situation of Banchor appears more like a scene of
airy enchantment, than reality, and the residences of the canons are
endeared to the votaries of landscape by the prospect they command. On
the opposite shore, the town of Beaumaris is straggling up the steep
declivity, with its quay crowded with vessels, and all appeared bustle
and confusion; the contrast which the nearer prospect inspired, was too
evident to escape our notice, where the
Oak, whose boughs were moss’d with age,
And high top bald with dry antiquity,
afforded a seat for the contemplation of the wide expanse of the ocean,
which is seen beyond the little Island of Puffin, or Priestholm; so
called, from the quantity of birds of that species, which resort here in
the summer-months.
The cathedral has been built at different times, but no part very
ancient; it was made an episcopal see, about the time of the conquest:
the church was burnt down by Owen Glendwr, in the reign of Henry IV. the
choir was afterwards built by Bishop Henry Dene, {125a} between 1496 and
1500; the tower and nave by Bishop Skevington, 1532. The whole is Gothic
architecture, with no other particular ornament to distinguish it from a
common English parish church. There are, however, several bishops {125b}
buried in the choir. I could dwell with pleasure on the picturesque
beauties of this little episcopal see; but a repetition of the same
epithets _grand_, _beautiful_, _sublime_, _fine_, with a long catalogue,
which must necessarily occur, would appear tautologous on paper, though
their archetypes in nature would assume new colours at every change of
position of the beholder. From this retirement, a ferry-boat soon
conveyed us to