We were not sorry to leave this place as soon as it was light paying much
higher for our miserable entertainment than we had done at any place in
the island. First directed our steps along the turnpike to Llandrûgan,
{53} situated near Gwindy the halfway house between Beaumaris and
Holyhead our host having given us to understand there was a very ancient
stone near the church which many travellers went to look at but few could
read the inscription. He himself among the rest although he said he was
a good schollar having been clerk of Bodedern many years could (fol. 90)
make nothing of it. On arriving at the spot we found a flat tomb stone
to the right of the entrance door bearing the following lines legibly cut
on its surface:
Reader in me doe thou thyself behold
Wilome full hie but now full low in mould
Bodychens heyr I was my name was John
The second who that sirname fixt upon
Credit nor wealth nor friends I did not lacke
Heare dead and dust loe all doe me forsake
The day draws on when God me hence shall raise
Amongst his chosen his great name to praise.
On the side nearest the church door:
Obiit apud Bodechen decimo die Junii incarnationis milessimo sexto
centessimo tricessimo nono aetatis suae septuagesimo.
On the opposite side:
Moestissima uxor Margaretta monumentum hoc delectessimo conjugi piae
memoriae amoris ergo posuit vicessimo die Martii anno milessimo
sexgentessimo quadragessimo.
Though we copied the inscription being on the spot we did not think it
deserving a digression of three miles to read especially as we had so
much to perform before night.
[Picture: No. 41. Stone in Llantrisant Parish]
Hence we hastened forward to Llantrisant not without some apprehension in
being equally deceived in an ancient inscription we learnt was to be seen
there cut on the stone {54} of a gateway. On enquiring at a farm house
we found it had been taken up from the gate and placed in a kind of shed
as a block to chop sticks on. This intelligence conveyed through our
interpreter did not quiet our fears for the fate of the inscription,
however towards the place we went and fortunately found the stone lying
with the inscription downwards (fol. 92). On the edge was engraved Aroe
lapidibus in the manner I have shewn in my sketch. Having with the
assistance of four stout fellows turned the stone I traced as nearly as I
could the characters as they appear in my drawing. The stone was of a
lozenge form about six feet high and three wide, and I conjecture was
first of all employed by the Romans as a direction across the country, as
the words Aroe lapidibus to the stones of Aroe seem to imply. The second
inscription was probably cut some centuries after in monkish times as
appears by the words moribus disciplinae et sapientiae coming together in
the conclusion of the sentence. Indeed many of the upright pillars we
have met with in the island I imagine were intended as directions or
boundaries and not at all connected with druidical worship as Mr.
Rowlands seems to suppose. The day by this time being far advanced we
exerted ourselves as much as the country would (fol. 92_a_) allow to gain
Llanbabo church four miles distant in sufficient time to copy an ancient
stone dug up here in the reign of Charles the second bearing the effigies
of Pabo post Prid or Prince Pabo the support of Britain who flourished
about the year four hundred sixty and who is said to have built and to
have been buried in this church. His effigies are designed on a flat
stone resembling free stone, the figure crowned with a sceptre in its
right hand and a close garment down to its feet. On the edge of the
stone these characters are cut hic jacet Pabo post Prid the remainder is
very much defaced but I should read it qui edificavit hanc ecclesiam.
For my own part I cannot but think that the whole of this is some ages
later than Pabo’s time as both the sculpture and the formation of the
letters are those of the thirteenth or fourteenth century. We know that
in Roman catholic countries it is very common for the priests to preserve
(fol. 95) the effigies of their founders and benefactors in their
churches and monasteries and might not this have been presented to the
church by some rich family in the neighbourhood by way of acquiring the
favour of the sainted patron. The letters here noticed very much
resemble those I have copied from the monument in Bettws y Coed church in
Carnarvonshire. I took as perfect a drawing as my time would allow and
afterwards just sketched the entrance door and three uncooth and at
present whitewashed visages let into the stone above and on each side of
it. These are of such rude workmanship that I should rather attribute
them to the time of Pabo than the subject we have just considered. A
kind of waving line over the arch of the door as described in my sketch
is I conjecture no less antique. The church itself differs in no other
respect from the generality of Welsh buildings, and the parish is so
scattered that not above two houses are to be seen in any direction.
[Picture: No. 45. Stones in Llanfechell Parish]
From hence to Llanfechell we experienced a dirty swampy and fatiguing
walk (fol. 95_a_) of four miles and the termination of it was rendered
still more unfortunate as we found the public house so indifferent we
could not think of spending the night there accordingly we hastened by
the light of the moon to examine some stones and a cromlech about half a
mile beyond leaving our interpreter who seemed to be pretty well tired of
antique hunting to eat his dinner, in the interim the host of the public
house officiating in his stead. Under his guidance we first visited
three upright stones standing on a rising ground placed three paces
asunder forming an exact triangle. They were about seven feet high and
two feet and a half wide. These I make no doubt were intended as a
direction to travellers as they might be seen from every rising hillock
in the neighbourhood and also from the coast, we could not learn that
they were called by any particular name if it had sounded anything like
aroe it would have thrown some light upon the inscription in Llantrisant
parish.
From hence passing by an old (fol. 98) mansion named cromlech now
tenanted by a farmer we came to the spot where many large stones were
lying scattered promiscuously on the ground and one nearly square
measuring nine feet across leaning against some uprights about six feet
high. From the appearance of this place I should rather imagine that it
had been the interior or cistfaen of a carnedd and this opinion seems
somewhat confirmed by the accounts of the common people who remember
great quantities of stone having been removed to form a wall. Returning
to the public house we made a meal on bread and cheese and afterwards
procuring the key of the church we examined its interior. The font is
square having a double Saxon arch rudely carved on each face. Over the
communion table is a Latin inscription to Mr. Humphreys Rector of the
parish which we transcribed:
Cineribus sacrum
H. S. E.
(fol. 98_a_) ROBERTUS HUMPHREYS M.A.
vir eruditus perquam et modestus
Rei medicae
praesertim botanicae apprime gnarus
Praxique claruit
hujus ecclesiae per tria et amplius lustra
Extitit Rector
obiit XIII id Junii anno MDCCIX
Ætatis suae LVIII
Dnus dnus Ricardus Nicom. Bulkeley pro digno qui haberet defuncto
hoc positum voluit
[Picture: Llanfechell Church; Font, Llanfechell Church]
A long five miles walk brought us to Amlwch where with some little
difficulty (the hostess not admiring our pedestrian appearance) we gained
admittance, a good supper and comfortable sleeping appartments which
indeed were not a little refreshing after (fol. 101) the labours of the
day and the adventures of the preceeding night.