Part 4

In the year 1209, Madog, forgetting his duty to his country and to his prince, led his vassals and adherents to join the English army under King John, then lying at Oswestry {94c} (Wynne says at Chester {94d}); where he had assembled a great force, and with his usual violence and passion had resolved to execute the severest vengeance on the inhabitants of North Wales, and not to suffer a person to remain alive in the country. But such resolves are sooner made than executed; and Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, no sooner heard of these mighty preparations, and of the disaffection of some of his own countrymen, particularly of the Lord of Dinas Bran, than he issued his orders to his subjects in the counties of Denbigh and Flint, to remove all their cattle and moveable substance for a season, to the mountains of Snowdon; by which means, and by getting into the rear of the King’s army, now advanced as far as the Castle of Teganwy, he so straitened and harassed the English forces, that, after eating their horses, and being reduced to the greatest extremity, they were obliged to retrace their steps at that time in disgrace, and breathing revenge, which the King in some measure executed the next year. {96} But as I mean to confine myself to the history of the Lords of Dinas Bran, I will not deviate from my plan, by noticing matter which may be deemed extraneous.

When John by his maladministration had quarrelled with his great Barons, and thrown England into confusion, the vaccillating Madog, Lord of Dinas Bran, again swore fealty to his lawful Prince, Llewellyn, who politically overlooked his disaffection, and accepted his submission. This and some other accession of force enabled the Welch Prince successfully to assail the English, from whom he took all the castles the King had garrisoned, and most cruelly and unjustly put to death all their defenders in cold blood. This happened A.D. 1213. {97a} The remainder of the time of this factious man, Madog, was occupied in rapine, war, and slaughter; and he closed his turbulent life in Castell Dinas Bran, and was buried at his Abbey of Llan Egwest, or Valle Crucis, A.D. 1236, {97b} leaving his son Lord of Powis Fadog, Lord of Dinas Bran, and all his other signiorities.

Gryffydd Ap Madog, like his father, partook of the character of the times, and was fickle and turbulent. His father, Madog Ap Gryffydd Maelor, had generally resided at Wattstay, now Wynnstay; but Gryffydd Ap Madog made the Castell Dinas Bran his chief residence, and it is probable that his confidence in this almost inaccessible retreat might strengthen and encourage him in his waywardness.

I find him joining Prince Edward, the son of Henry III. then King of England, with all his forces, in the year 1257; and his disaffection is thus stigmatized by the old writers: {98a}—“But Gryffydd Ap Madog Maelor, Lord of Dinas Bran, a person of notorious reputation for injustice and oppression, basely forsook the Welch, his countrymen, and with all his forces went over to the Earl of Chester.” {98b}

The following year, Llewellyn the Prince, returning from an expedition into South Wales, met the Earl, and forced him to retreat with great precipitation, leaving the possessions of his unnatural allies at the mercy of the conqueror, who now resolved to be revenged on that ungrateful fugitive, the Lord of Dinas Bran. He therefore passed through Bromfeild, and miserably laid waste the whole country, and obliged Gryffydd to keep close in his Castle of Dinas Bran, which, being situated on the summit of a very steep hill, seemed impregnable to all the daring efforts that could be used against it. {99}

King Henry, being now much incensed against the Welch Prince Llewellyn, on account of the obstinate resistance he experienced, and having drawn together the whole strength of England, even from St. Michael’s Mount, in Cornwall, to the river Tweed, marched with his son Edward in great rage to North Wales, and without any opposition advanced as far as Teganwy; but Llewellyn having taken precaution, as was the practice of the Welch in cases of invasion, to have all manner of provision and forage carried over the river, and having secured the strait and narrow passages whereby the English might advance into the country, the King’s troops were in a short time so mortally harassed and fatigued, that they were obliged to return to England in haste, and with great loss.

Gryffydd Ap Madog, finding King Henry unable to protect his estate, submitted to his rightful Prince; and Llewellyn then passed to Powis, and banished Gryffydd Ap Gwenwynwyn, who had also joined the English, and took all the lands in the country of Powis into his own hands.

Llewellyn, who was a politic prince, received the submission of the Lord of Dinas Bran, because he knew that inaccessible fortress could not be forced from him, and that it would not be safe to have an avowed enemy, with so strong a refuge for his disaffected subjects, in the rear of his operations; otherwise Gryffydd Ap Madog had merited banishment as much as his namesake of Powisland: nay, Gryffydd, Lord of Dinas Bran, married an English lady, {101} Emma, daughter of Lord Audley, whose father did much mischief and hurt to the Welch, by bringing from Germany a body of horsemen, who, by the uncommon size of their horses, and their unusual manner of fighting, terrified and easily defeated the Welchmen at the first; but when they had become more familiarized with their mode, they took their revenge upon them, even on Lord Audley’s own land. {102a}

All the nobility of Wales had solemnly sworn to defend their country till death against the invasion of the English, and not to relinquish or forsake one another; and the return of Gryffydd Ap Madog to his allegiance diffused through every breast the hope of better days. {102b}

From this time to the day of his death, I do not find that he again deserted his Prince, but attached himself to the fortunes of his country, although fears of the resentment of his countrymen for his former conduct made him keep close to his Castle of Dinas Bran, where he died in 1270, {103a} and was buried by the side of his father in the Abbey Church of Valle Crucis; leaving his country in the enjoyment of freedom and peace; the Welch having, by innate bravery and constancy, aided by the fastnesses of their country, and the good policy of their Prince, freed themselves for a time from the thraldom of their potent enemy.

Mr. Pennant gives a different account of his end. {103b} He says that “his wife, Emma, having alienated his affection from his own country, made him an instrument of its subjection, and of the destruction of his own family; for, as he took part with Henry III. and Edward I. against his natural Prince, the resentment of his countrymen was excited against him, and he was obliged to shelter himself from their rage in his Castle of Dinas Bran, where probably shame and grief put an end to his life.”

Be that as it may, Gryffydd Ap Madog, by his wife Emma, daughter of John, Lord Audley, left issue four sons, viz. Madog, Llewellyn, Gryffydd, and Owen. {104} Madog, the eldest, became Lord of Dinas Bran &c. He died, it is supposed, not long after his father, leaving two sons to inherit his property. {105a} The eldest, called Madog, had, by his father’s will, Bromfeild and Yale, the Castell Dinas Bran, &c.; the second son, Llewellyn, the Lordship of Chirk, &c. It should seem these children were not of age when their father died; for Edward I. King of England, took on him to appoint guardians to them both, and committed Madog, the elder, to the care of John, Earl of Warren, one of his favorites; and Llewellyn he intrusted to Roger Mortimer, son of Lord Mortimer, of Wigmore. {105b} These men well understood the nature of the appointment; and it is probable that Edward had maturely weighed in his mind the potency of their enmity, who could be such powerful friends, and having then but recently subjugated the country, he might wish out of his way two scions of a stock which had proved so stubborn and so valiant. It was well known that Warren and Mortimer had rid themselves of their respective charges, and had possessed themselves of their estates, which they were suffered to enjoy without an inquiry being instituted respecting them, or about the disappearance of their wards; but the manner of the murder of these two unfortunate children has but lately been discovered, in a manuscript in the Bodleian Library. {106} The guardian of the two boys caused them to be drowned under Holt Bridge; and no doubt from hence arose the origin of a fable which was long current in the country, of two fairies having been drowned in that place.

From the Earls of Warren the Castell Dinas Bran passed to the Arundel {107} and other families. In 1390, Myfanuy Fechan, a descendant of the house of Tudor, resided there, and was celebrated for her beauty in a long ode by Howel Ap Einion Lygliw, a celebrated bard of that time. The Castle was probably then held under the Earls of Arundel. It is now the property of Mrs. Myddelton Biddulph, of Chirk Castle. The period of its destruction is as completely unknown as the time of its foundation. Eagles and hawks in abundance used to breed, as some now do, in the neighbouring rocky ridge of the Eglwyseg, and

“Along the narrow valley you might see The wild deer sporting on the meadow ground, And here and there a solitary tree, Or mossy stone, or rock with woodbine crown’d. Oft did the cliffs reverberate the sound Of parted fragments tumbling from on high, And from the summit of that craggy mound The perching eagle oft was heard to cry, Or on resounding wing to shoot athwart the sky.”

The view from the Castle is not so extensive as might be expected from its elevation, being bounded, except towards the east, by more lofty mountains; yet the scenery is most truly grand and magnificent. According to the plan laid down in the beginning of this work, I leave my readers to their own observations; only informing them that the house which makes a distinguished figure to the westward is Dinbrin Hall, the residence of Richard Jones, Esq.

Descending on the west side of the hill, and proceeding on the old way to the Abbey Crucis, stands a neat house, called the Twr, i.e. Tower, which I conjecture, for I can obtain no written document on the subject, to have been a look-out or watch-tower belonging to the Castle; especially as it is placed on the side most easy of access. Some additions have been made to the Tower, and it is now a comfortable farm-house, inhabited by a very respectable lady, of the name of Price. It has been a square building, built of hewn stone, as evinced by the massive walls which now surround the old part converted into a parlour, and by an old spiral stone stair at the back of the room.

The old way from the Castle to the Abbey has been much intersected and crossed, especially by the branch of the Ellesmere Canal, and by roads made to recently erected retreats and farms; among which I must not, however, reckon the road to

Llantysilio,

Which is a place of great antiquity. It belonged of old time to the ancient family of the Cuppers of the North, {110} so called even in the time of King Henry II.; and by the marriage of a daughter of that family with a Mr. Jones, of Llanbothian, in Montgomeryshire, it became the heritage of the late possessor of that name, and is now inhabited by Major Harrison, who resides in the Hall, a large brick building, bearing a strong affinity to Trevor Hall in antiquity of erection. It is situated in a pleasant valley, watered by the river Dee, over which it enjoys a fine prospect.

The Church of Llantysilio is dedicated to a Welch saint, from whom the township takes its name. He was Prince of Powis, and was called St. Tysilio. It is a neat little edifice, with a very pleasant church-yard, and contains nothing very ancient in the monumental way; but there are around it many very venerable yew trees, with their wide spreading sombre foliage. I had the curiosity to measure one, and found it above twenty feet in girth. The inside of the Church is, like its neighbour at Llangollen, indebted for some of its decorations to the Abbey Crucis, which seems after its dissolution to have been considered as lawful plunder; and this circumstance in some measure accounts for its so speedy dilapidation. English service is performed in the Church of Llantysilio on the third Sunday in every month.

Vale Crucis ABBEY.

“How many hearts have here grown cold, That sleep these mouldering stones among! How many beads have here been told! How many matins here been sung! But here no more soft music floats, No holy anthems chanted now; All hush’d, except the ring-dove’s notes, Low murmuring from yon beachen bough.”

THE Abbey of Llan Egwest, or Valle Crucis, so called from a very ancient inscribed pillar or cross, the mutilated remains of which stand in an adjacent field, and will next come under consideration, was built and founded by Madog Ap Gryffydd Maelor, Lord of Dinas Bran, as before related under the head of Dinas Bran.

This Abbey was built in the year of our Lord 1200, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and belonged to a community of Cistercian Monks, an order founded in France in the year 1098. The remains of the Abbey Church are the most picturesque and entire part. It was built in the form of a cross, which was contrary to the form in common use before the twelfth century. {114}

This proves that Madog availed himself of the aid of skilful workmen, and it is probable that the fraternity called Free Masons were employed, as they were incorporated about this time, and were the chief undertakers of such works. Their government was regular, and they were wont to make an encampment of huts. A surveyor governed in chief; every tenth man being called a warden, and overlooking nine. They ranged from one country to another, as they found churches to be built. {115}

The Church is built in different styles of architecture. The east end seems the most ancient, and the three lancet-like arched windows have a very peculiar effect. It is situated at the foot of a lofty hill, called Fron Fawr, and a little stream runs at the back of the Abbey, skirting its gardens, and turning a corn-mill in its passage to the Dee. The view from the high bank beyond the rivulet (which is crossed by a rustic plank bridge) of the east end of the Church and Abbey, is particularly beautiful.

On its front or west side rise the Berwyn Mountains; on the east, the Fron Fawr; and the whole is so enveloped in beautiful foliage that it is perhaps one of the most enchantingly secluded places in the kingdom. The west front of the Church affords some admirable specimens of ancient gothic architecture. The grand entrance has been through the ornamented pointed arch gateway at the west end; over which is a fine gothic window, consisting of three lancet-shaped arches, surmounted by a circular or rose window, of eight divisions; but it is too lofty to admit of close inspection, as is also the following mutilated inscription, which is above it:—

AD . . . ADAM . . . DMS fecit hoc opus. Pace beata quiescat. Amen. MD . . .

The rest of the last line is obliterated. The following translation may not be unacceptable:—

AD . . . ADAM . . . DMS built (or rebuilt) this work. May he rest in happy peace. Amen. MD . . .

The letters MD seem to have been meant as part of the date marking the time when the Church was repaired, and go far to prove the little veneration shown to this once elegant structure by the neighbouring people, and that its dilapidation was unusually rapid. Now, we will suppose that the inscription MD means 1500, and allow that it was then in complete repair, and that it was one of the first Abbeys dissolved, say in 1538; for I do not read that Henry VIII. began his reformation among the religious houses before that time; I find in Camden’s Britannia, speaking of this place, the following passage:—“Save onely a little Abbay, now _wholly decaied_, but standing most richly and pleasantly in a vale, which among the woody hils cutteth itself overthwart in manner of a crosse, whereupon it was called in Latin Vallis Crucis, that is, the Vale of the Crosse, and in British, Lhane Gwest.” {118a}

Camden’s great work, Britannia, was published in 1586; and from these facts I draw my conclusion that it was ransacked and destroyed soon after its dissolution, as I suppose it was—

In complete repair, A.D. 1500;

Dissolved by order of Henry VIII. A.D. 1538; {118b}

Wholly decayed, as by Camden, 1586. {119}

Of the magnificence of this ancient Monastery no adequate description can now be given, and scarcely an idea formed of what it has been. The body and nave of the Church are disfigured, and nearly choked up with masses of ruins, and large and luxuriant forest trees, among which the ash and sycamore are most predominant. The length of the Church is about one hundred and eighty feet; the width I can only guess at, as the north side is wholly gone. An author before me says the nave was thirty-one feet broad, and the side aisle thirteen feet.

In the north transept are the remains of a chapel, said by some to have contained the tomb of the founder. In a wall in the cloister stands a double benetoir, or vessel for holy water. The cloister is small and gloomy, whose

“Storied windows, richly dight, Have shed a dim religions light.”

The solemnity of the place, and the stillness that reigns, aided by the subdued light of the moon, and by a vivid fancy, may conjure up strange ideas, and

“Still may imagination’s ardent eye In the tall grove the sage’s form espy; See him intent with sacred zeal to plan Some moral lesson for ungrateful man.”

The part of the Abbey now remaining is inhabited by a farmer, who will show the premises on proper application. There, is a Saxon or semicircular arched gateway in the farm-yard, adjoining a very curious gothic window, well worthy attention. The dormitory or sleeping cells were formerly entered by stone stairs from the outside, which have been removed within the last two years. The floor of the dormitory is supported by low massive pillars; and the arches which spring from their capitals form vaulted rooms, in which the family reside. There are many beautiful features in this interesting ruin, to amply repay the attention of the curious, and the research of the antiquarian. The front seems to have been extensive, and before it gurgles up a very pure spring of water. The Abbot’s apartments were contiguous to the church, and there opened from one of them a small space, where he might stand, and hear the holy services performed below.

The venerable ruin is lessened by every succeeding tenant, and some of the recently erected buildings exhibit stones with mutilated devices and inscriptions worked up in the walls. In one of the farmer’s bedchambers a stone forms part of a chimney-piece, which is carved with running foliage, and contains this imperfect inscription:—

“Hic jacet Arvrvet.”

This is the only remain of any tomb discovered. In digging a few months ago in the farm-yard, to make a drain, at a short distance from the surface were dug up the remains of eleven men, in a very small compass of ground, which goes far to prove that this was the common cemetery of the Abbey; and also a wedge-like stone, having carved on its front a hand, holding a vine or olive branch, bearing fruit. The stone is now at Plas Newydd.

I have in my account of Castell Dinas Bran recorded that Madog Ap Gryffydd Maelor was buried in this Abbey, A.D. 1236; and his son, Gryffydd Ap Madog Maelor, Lord of Dinas Bran, A.D. 1270.

Having thus given the best account I can of the present state of this once noble Abbey, I now proceed to state what I can collect from authentic sources of its Abbots and its endowments.

Reyner, Bishop of St. Asaph, who died in 1224, bestowed on this Abbey half the tithes of Wrexham. Abraham, his brother, succeeded him in the Bishoprick in 1227, and gave the remaining half. {124a}

Howel Ap Ednyfed, successor to Abraham, gave to it the Church of Llangollen. {124b} The monks also obtained, besides these endowments, the patronage of several other livings, as Wrexham, Ruabon, Chirk, Llansanfraid, and Llandegla.

The freemen of Llangollen made a grant in part of the river near their town of a fishery to the monks of Valle Crucis; and, for want of a seal of their own, affixed the seal of the founder of the Abbey to the grant. {124c}

The landed endowments were, in the year 1291, near the Abbey, a grange, with three ploughlands, {125} a mill, and other conveniences, probably the donations of the founder Madog; the granges of Bodhange, Tregam, Rudryn, and Baketon. I have no means of ascertaining who were the donors of the farms, but I find they had also the dairy farm of Nante; the grange of Nostroyz, Convenet, and Grennychamt; also the grange of Wyrcessam, consisting of one ploughland and some pasture, with thirty cows, valued in those days at only thirty shillings.

All these estates were vested in the Abbot for the time being, and formed no inconsiderable revenue; but the title of the monks to several of the livings was disputed by a succeeding Bishop of St. Asaph, called Y Brawd Du O Nannau, or the Black Brother of Nanny, who obtained a decision in his favour. The third of the tithes of Bryn Eglwys, or Egwestl, was, however, allotted to them, in lieu of the patronage of Llandegla.

The monks had also a dispute with the freemen of Llangollen respecting the fishery, the former having erected works on the river, whereby they caught more fish than the Llangollen folks thought came to their share, or than abstemious monks could require. However, the affair was referred to the Prince of Wales, and the fishery was confirmed to the Abbey in 1234.

I will now lay before my readers a short account of some of the Abbots.

Dafydd Ap Ivan Jorwerth is highly celebrated by a bard in the year 1480, who says of him, and of his successor, Ivan, or John, that they lived in great splendour, that they had four courses every day served on bright silver dishes, and they drank claret, &c. He also commends the piety of the house, and says that he was so happy as to be blessed by Abbot John, who had three of his fingers covered with rings. The last Abbot was John Herne, who received an annuity of 23_l._ per annum on his surrender. In 1553 this annuity, and others to some of the surviving monks, to the amount of 10_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ were the whole of the remaining charges. {127}

This is said to be the first Abbey that was dissolved in Wales, and it remained in the crown until the ninth of James I. who then granted it to Edward Wotton, created Lord Wotton. In 1654, Margaret Wotton was in possession. She was a recusant, and Cromwell then put it under sequestration to Edward Davies, the Cneifwr Glâs of Eglwyseg.

The last possessor, Mrs. Thomas, of Trevor Hall, built a kind of summer-house at the back of the Abbey, adjoining to a pond abounding with trout. Here was a charming field for the display of taste; but, as in the hut at the top of Dinas Bran, the opportunity has been lost.

Leaving the Abbey, let us now proceed through the adjoining meadow to the Pillar of Eliseg, from which the valley takes its name.

La Crucis; OR THE PILLAR OF ELISEG.

—“The time draws on When not a single spot of burial earth, Whether on land, or in the spacious sea, But must give back its long committed dust Inviolate.”