第53章 Footnotes(9)

{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.