第55章 Footnotes(11)

{140}Leland thus speaks of Ystrad Fflur or Strata Florida:

"Strateflere is set round about with montanes not far distant,except on the west parte,where Diffrin Tyve is.Many hilles therabout hath bene well woddid,as evidently by old rotes apperith,but now in them is almost no woode -the causes be these.First,the wood cut down was never copisid,and this hath beene a cause of destruction of wood thorough Wales.Secondly,after cutting down of woodys,the gottys hath so bytten the young spring that it never grew but lyke shrubbes.Thirddely,men for the monys destroied the great woddis that thei should not harborow theves."This monastery is situated in the wildest part of Cardiganshire,surrounded on three sides by a lofty range of those mountains,called by our author Ellennith;a spot admirably suited to the severe and recluse order of the Cistercians.

{141}[Melenydd or Maelienydd.]

{142}Leaving Stratflur,the archbishop and his train returned to Llanddewi Brefi,and from thence proceeded to Llanbadarn Vawr.

{143}Llanbadarn Fawr,the church of St.Paternus the Great,is situated in a valley,at a short distance from the sea-port town of Aberystwyth in Cardiganshire.

{144}The name of this bishop is said to have been Idnerth,and the same personage whose death is commemorated in an inion at Llanddewi Brefi.

{145}This river is now called Dovey.

{146}From Llanbadarn our travellers directed their course towards the sea-coast,and ferrying over the river Dovey,which separates North from South Wales,proceeded to Towyn,in Merionethshire,where they passed the night.[Venedotia is the Latin name for Gwynedd.]

{147}The province of Merionyth was at this period occupied by David,the son of Owen Gwynedd,who had seized it forcibly from its rightful inheritor.This Gruffydd -who must not be confused with his great-grandfather,the famous Gruffydd ap Conan,prince of Gwynedd -was son to Conan ap Owen Gwynedd;he died A.D.1200,and was buried in a monk's cowl,in the abbey of Conway.

{148}The epithet "bifurcus,"ascribed by Giraldus to the river Maw,alludes to its two branches,which unite their streams a little way below Llaneltid bridge,and form an aestuary,which flows down to the sea at Barmouth or Aber Maw.The ford at this place,discovered by Malgo,no longer exists.

{149}Llanfair is a small village,about a mile and a half from Harlech,with a very simple church,placed in a retired spot,backed by precipitous mountains.Here the archbishop and Giraldus slept,on their journey from Towyn to Nevyn.

{150}Ardudwy was a comot of the cantref Dunodic,in Merionethshire,and according to Leland,"Streccith from half Trait Mawr to Abermaw on the shore XII myles."The bridge here alluded to,was probably over the river Artro,which forms a small aestuary near the village of Llanbedr.

{151}The Traeth Mawr,or the large sands,are occasioned by a variety of springs and rivers which flow from the Snowdon mountains,and,uniting their streams,form an aestuary below Pont Aberglaslyn.

{152}The Traeth Bychan,or the small sands,are chiefly formed by the river which runs down the beautiful vale of Festiniog to Maentwrog and Tan y bwlch,near which place it becomes navigable.

Over each of these sands the road leads from Merionyth into Caernarvonshire.

{153}Lleyn,the Canganorum promontorium of Ptolemy,was an extensive hundred containing three comots,and comprehending that long neck of land between Caernarvon and Cardigan bays.Leland says,"Al Lene is as it were a pointe into the se."{154}In mentioning the rivers which the missionaries had lately crossed,our author has been guilty of a great topographical error in placing the river Dissennith between the Maw and Traeth Mawr,as also in placing the Arthro between the Traeth Mawr and Traeth Bychan,as a glance at a map will shew.

{155}To two personages of this name the gift of prophecy was anciently attributed:one was called Ambrosius,the other Sylvestris;the latter here mentioned (and whose works Giraldus,after a long research,found at Nefyn)was,according to the story,the son of Morvryn,and generally called Merddin Wyllt,or Merddin the Wild.He is pretended to have flourished about the middle of the sixth century,and ranked with Merddin Emrys and Taliesin,under the appellation of the three principal bards of the Isle of Britain.

{156}This island once afforded,according to the old accounts,an asylum to twenty thousand saints,and after death,graves to as many of their bodies;whence it has been called Insula Sanctorum,the Isle of Saints.This island derived its British name of Enlli from the fierce current which rages between it and the main land.The Saxons named it Bardsey,probably from the Bards,who retired hither,preferring solitude to the company of invading foreigners.

{157}This ancient city has been recorded by a variety of names.

During the time of the Romans it was called Segontium,the site of which is now called Caer Seiont,the fortress on the river Seiont,where the Setantiorum portus,and the Seteia AEstuarium of Ptolemy have also been placed.It is called,by Nennius,Caer Custent,or the city of Constantius;and Matthew of Westminster says,that about the year 1283the body of Constantius,father of the emperor Constantine,was found there,and honourably desposited in the church by order of Edward I.

{158}I have searched in vain for a valley which would answer the deion here given by Geraldus,and the scene of so much pleasantry to the travellers;for neither do the old or new road,from Caernarvon to Bangor,in any way correspond.But I have since been informed,that there is a valley called Nant y Garth (near the residence of Ashton Smith,Esq.at Vaenol),which terminates at about half a mile's distance from the Menai,and therefore not observable from the road;it is a serpentine ravine of more than a mile,in a direction towards the mountains,and probably that which the crusaders crossed on their journey to Bangor.