Part 36
The Church of Manorbeer stands upon a high slope, fronting the south side of the Castle, and forms an interesting feature in the landscape. It is of Norman architecture, consisting of a tall square tower, chancel, and nave, divided by a row of massive and rudely-fashioned pillars. In the north side of the chancel is the monument of a Crusader--one of those enthusiastic knights, perhaps, who, having heard the preaching of Archbishop Baldwin, obeyed the summons and followed his lion-hearted Sovereign to the Holy Land. The effigy, reposing under a plain canopy, represents a warrior in ring and plate armour, the legs croisés, and the shield charged with the Barri arms. An effigy is also pointed out on the same side as that of Giraldus Cambrensis, or Barri, whose life and literary merits we have so often had occasion to notice. On the south side of the church are the remains of a “Chantry or Collegiate building,” erected probably by one of the Barri family, who, in 1092, joined Fitz-Hamon in his marauding enterprise against a native prince of the country, and afterwards, as we have seen, divided the conquered land, in Seigneuries , among his twelve knights and retainers.
The Founder of Manorbeer, so far as we have ascertained, does not make any distinct figure in history. He was one of the mass of Norman warriors, who, by their collective strength, personal courage, and vaulting ambition, made themselves alternately the dread and the support of Royalty; and who--each in his feudal demesne, within the gates of his own castle--were absolute sovereigns. And yet few will deny, that out of the accumulated evils, that like clouds collected and darkened for a time the apparent destiny of Wales, permanent good was elicited. In the words of a great poet:--
“Still the ramparted ground With a vision my fancy inspires, And I hear the trump sound, As it marshalled our Chivalry’s sires. On each turf of that mead, Stood the captors of England’s domains, That ennobled her breed, And high mettled the blood in her veins! O’er hauberk and helm-- As the sun’s setting splendour was thrown-- Thence they look’d o’er a realm, And the morrow beheld it their own!”
Wherever they were victorious in battle, there they built a stronghold. What was gained by violence, was to be held by the same means: while superior knowledge--superior tactics--the confidence of men accustomed to victory--of plausible designs and refined policy--were more than a match for mere “abettors in a good cause,” who could oppose nothing to the practised arms of the invader but the brute force of undisciplined hordes, whose indomitable love of home and freedom furnished them with courage to vindicate their country; and where that failed, with resolution to perish in the attempt. But we need not here enlarge upon the merits of a struggle which was protracted for centuries; and if at last the Norman made good his footing within the Welsh border, it was only after numerous checks and discomfitures, at a cost which no other nation could have incurred, and by a system of warfare in which success was often the result of accident, and where the laws of humanity were too often trampled under foot.
Giraldus Cambrensis was born at Manorbeer about the year 1146. He was sent on three different occasions to France, for the sake of improvement; and prosecuted his studies with so much diligence and success, as to give him an honourable position among the learned men of that early period. He obtained great reputation in rhetoric, which soon brought him into notice; and he was successively promoted, to a canonry in the cathedral of Hereford, and to the archdeaconry of Brecon. In the thirtieth year of his age he was elected, by the Chapter of St. David’s , bishop of that see; but the King’s approbation being withheld, he resolved to make another journey into France, and resume his studies in the University of Paris. On his return home, a few years afterwards, he found the whole country in a state of violent excitement, the canons and archdeacon of Menevia having joined with the inhabitants in driving out the bishop of that see, the administration of which was committed to Barri by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Under this authority he governed the see of St. David’s for three or four years, and made many reformations in it.
The next event in his life was the King’s command, in 1185, to attend the young Prince John into Ireland. Two years afterwards he returned to Wales, and employed most of his time in writing and revising his Topographia , to which, after putting the last hand, he proceeded to Oxford, and read it in a public audience of the University.[395] But the incident in his life which more particularly entitles him to a notice in this place, is the fact of his having accompanied Archbishop Baldwin in his progress through Wales, and with him, also, visited and described the principal features of the country.
The object of this progress--as above noticed--was to preach a crusade for the recovery of the Holy Land, for which the lion-hearted Richard , accompanied by the flower of his nobility, had already set out. Giraldus, smit with the same enthusiasm which he endeavoured to kindle in others, took up the Cross . On his departure for the Holy Land, the King left the chief government of the realm in the hands of William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, and appointed Giraldus to act with him in the commission; but this could not be valid until he obtained a dispensation from the Pope’s legate for discontinuing the voyage.
In 1190, the Bishop of Ely and the Pope’s legate offered him the see of Bangor; and again, the following year, Prince John offered him the bishopric of Llandaff; both of which he declined, in hopes that the see of St. David’s, on which he had set his heart, might one day fall to his lot. The following year Girald retired from court; and, removing to Lincoln, wrote several works which bear his name. Here he continued until the death of Peter, Bishop of St. David’s, in 1198, when he was nominated to the vacant see, but rejected by Herbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent a mandate to the Canons to elect and admit Geoffrey , Prior of Llanthony , for their bishop. Girald appealed to the Pope and the Canons by letter, entreating his Holiness to consecrate him. He took a journey to Rome, and there presented the letter in person. The Prior of Llanthony, furnished with letters from the Archbishop, did the same; and the Pope, seeing no likelihood of the cause being speedily determined, appointed Giraldus administrator, both in spiritualities and temporalities of the bishopric of St. David’s, and sent him home.
But in November, 1202, Giraldus was induced to make a third visit to Rome, where he continued until the 15th of April following; on which day the Pope gave a definitive sentence in the cause, and vacated the claims of both candidates. In the month of August, Giraldus returned home to solicit a new election; but in spite of the opposition, Geoffrey of Llanthony was elected by the Canons. Giraldus finding it useless to oppose the Archbishop, resigned all further pretensions to the see of St. David’s; and shortly after resigned the archdeaconry of Brecon to his nephew. The remainder of his life seems to have been spent in retirement, where he composed many works. But there is no evidence of his having taken an active part in any public affairs, political or ecclesiastical; and as he was subsequently offered the bishopric of St. David’s [in 1215], it was on conditions which compelled him to reject the very see to which he had so ardently aspired. The year of his death is not mentioned: but in 1220, as we ascertain from contemporary documents, he was still living.
With a very excusable partiality for his native place, he has transmitted to posterity the following description of its beauties, natural and artificial:--
“ Maenorpyrr is distant about three miles from Penbroch. The Castle is excellently well defended by turrets and bulwarks. On the right hand a rivulet[396] of never-failing water flows through a valley, rendered sandy by the violence of the winds.”... “The country is well supplied with corn, seafish, and imported wines, and is tempered by a salubrious air. Demetia --or territory of St. David’s, with its seven cantreds--is the most beautiful as well as the most powerful district of Wales: Penbroch is the finest province of Demetia, and the place I have now described is the most delightful part of Penbroch. It is evident, therefore, that Maenorpyrr is the Paradise of all Wales.”
NEATH ABBEY,
Glamorganshire .
“So fares it with the things of earth Which seem most constant: there will come the cloud That shall enfold them up, and leave their place A seat for emptiness. Our narrow ken Reaches too far, when all that we behold Is but the havoc of wide-wasting Time-- Or what he soon shall spoil.”
WE learn from Bishop Tanner, that Richard de Grainville , and Constance, his wife, gave their chapel,[397] in the Castle at Nethe , the tithes belonging to it, a large tract of waste land, and other possessions, in the time of Henry I., to the abbot and convent of Savigny, near Lyons, that they might build an abbey here in Wales. And a very fair abbey, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was built accordingly on the west side of the river, a little below the town of Neath, for monks of the order of Savigny, or Fratres Grisei , who soon afterwards became Cistercians.
Notwithstanding the original gift to Savigny, as we learn from the same authority, he did not find any proof that this house was ever subject to that foreign abbey, or accounted as an alien priory. Being an abbey, it could not be a cell; and appears rather to have been a daughter-house to Savigny, in the same way as already described in our account of the two Llanthonys--mother and daughter. In the Appendix to the Monasticon may be seen the founder’s charter, with two subsequent charters of confirmation from King John.[398] From a manuscript notice in Benet’s College, Cambridge, we learn that, at the time of the dissolution, there were only eight monks in Neath Abbey. In the twenty-sixth of Henry VIII., the gross revenue of the house amounted to £150. 4s. 9d., the clear income to £132. 7s. 7-1/4d. The site was granted to Sir Richard Williams, alias Cromwell,[399] in exchange.
The Seal of the abbey represented the Blessed Virgin, crowned and standing, holding in her right hand a lily, in her left the infant Jesus; in a base, a shield with the arms of Grainville the founder--namely, three clarions: the legend--“Sigillvm. Comvne. Monaster. Beate. Marie. de Neth.” A very imperfect impression of this seal is to be seen in the Augmentation Office.
In Moore’s Monastic Remains, it has been observed, in a passage quoted from Leland, that Neath Abbey was ‘once the fairest in all Wales;’ and, from the ruins still remaining, much credit may be given to this description. The west end, excepting the great arch, was tolerably perfect in 1788; but previously to that time the east end and principal part of the nave had been demolished, while the lateral aisles remained covered with ivy. In addition to these, several apartments of the abbey were still standing on the south side of the church.
This monastery is said to have been so extensive, that seven preachers might hold forth at the same time in different parts of the building, without being mutually heard; but in the present day the crypt is the only characteristic feature that is left. The ruins, however--spread over an extensive area--still afford accommodation for numerous workmen employed in the famous iron-works of the place. It was in the Abbey-house of Neath, where he had taken refuge, that the unfortunate King Edward the Second was arrested:--
“Whither,” says the Chronicle, in a passage at once pathetic and picturesque,--“whither, in the meane space, doth woeful Edward flye? What force, what course, what way takes he, poore Prince? Oh! fearful condition of so great a monarche’s state, when a wife, a son, a kingdome are _not_ trusted; and those only _are_ trusted, who had nothing strong but a will to live and die with him!”... “The Queen, passing from Oxford to Gloucester, onward to the siege of Bristol Castle, grew all the whyle in her strength like a rouled snowball, or as a river, which spreads still broader from the fountaine to the ocean--‘_vires acquirit eundo_.’ For thither repayred to her, for the love of the young Prince, the Lord Percy, the Lord Wake, and others, as well out of the North, as the Marches of Wales. But Edward, having left the Earle of Winchester, and the elder Lord Spenser, in the Castle of Bristol, for the keeping thereof, meditates flight with a few into the isle of Lundie, in the Severne sea, or into Ireland; and while he wandereth about, not finding where to rest safe, his royall credite, name, and power--like a cliffe which, falling from the top of some huge rocke, breakes into the more pieces the further it rolles--are daily more and more diminisht as they scatter, till now at last they are come to a very nothing.
“After a week, therefore, spent upon the sea, Sir Thomas Blount forsaking him, and comming to the Queene he came on shore in Glamorganshire, where, with his few friends, he entrusted himself to God, and the faith of the Welsh, who indeed still loved him, lying hidden among them in the Abbey of Neath .
“ The King not appearing, proclamations were every day made in the Queene’s army, declaring that it was the common consent of the realme that he should returne and receive the government thereof, so as he would conform himself to his people. This--whether stratagem or truth--not prevailing, Henry, Earle of Lancaster, the late Earle’s brother, Sir William de la Zouch, and Rhese-ap-Howell, a Welshman--who all of them had lands in that quarter where the Kinge concealed himselfe--were sent with coyne and forces to discover and take him.
“What will not money, diligence, and faire words doe, with corrupt dispositions--everting of all bonds of either religious or civil duties? By such means, therefore, the desolate, sad, and unfortunate Kinge fell into his cousen of Lancaster’s hands, in the Abbey-house of Neath;” [or, according to others, in the Castle of Llantrissant, a place of great strength; but as the gates were thrown open by treachery, neither the strength of the Castle nor the courage of those around him could avail the royal victim,[400] doomed to expiate, it was supposed, the ruthless cruelty of his father in massacring the bards.
“Weave the warp, and weave the woof, The winding-sheet of Edward’s race; Give ample room and verge enough, The characters of Hell to trace. Mark the year, and mark the night, When Severn shall re-echo with affright, The shrieks of death, through Berkeley’s roof that ring-- Shrieks of an agonizing King!”]
Richard de Greenvile ,[401] the reputed founder of Neath Abbey, and lord of the adjoining Castle, is thus noticed in the ‘Baronage of England:’--“In the fourth of William Rufus, Jestin, the son of Gurgunt, being lord of Glamorgan, Rees-ap-Theodore, prince of South Wales, made war upon him; and that Jestin, discerning himself to be unable to make defence, sent one Enyon, his servant, to Robert Fitz-Hamon,[402] then a knight of the privy chamber to the King, for his aid, with large promises of reward for his help. And that hereupon Robert, having retained twelve knights, marched with what power they could all make into Wales ; and so joining with Jestin, slew Rees, and Conan, his son. Furthermore, that after this victory, demanding his reward according to the agreement so made with Enyon, and Jestin refusing to perform his promise, the difference came to be tried by battle; and that Jestin being therein slain, this Robert Fitz-Hamon had full possession of all that territory.
“ Whereupon , for reward to those twelve knights, with other his assistants, he gave unto them divers castles and manors; and, as second on the list, he gave to Richard de Greenvile the lordship of Nethe .”
Subjoined is a view of the Crypt of this once magnificent Abbey , which, though long exposed to the wasting hand of Time, and the depredations of enemies, is still a monument of early piety, upon which few pilgrims will look unmoved, and no archæologist can survey without admiration.
KIDWELLY CASTLE,
Carmarthenshire .
“For some brief passion Are centuries of high splendour laid in dust, And that eternal honour, which should live Sun-like above the rock of mortal fame, Changed to a mockery and a by-word.”
fortified old Kidwelly with a wall and castle to it, which now for very age is growen to decay, and standeth, as it were, forlet and forlorne: for the inhabitants, having passed over the little river Vendraeth-Vehan, built a new Kidwelly , enticed thither by the commodity of the harbour, which, notwithstanding being at this day choked with shelves and barres, is at this present of no great use. While Maurice de Londres,” continues the Chronicle, “invaded these parts, [Gwenliana,[403]] the wife of Prince Gruffin--a stout and resolute woman in the highest degree--_ultimæ audaciæ mulier_--in order to recover the losses and declining fortunes of her husband, came, with displaied banner, into the field, and assailed him, but the successe of her enterprise not answering to her courage, she, with her sonne Morgan, and other men of especial note, was slaine in battle.
“By Hawes, or Avis, the daughter and heire of Sir Thomas de Londres, this passing faire and large patrimony, together with the title of Lord Ogmoor and Kidwelly, came unto Patrick Chaworth, and by his son Patrick’s daughter, unto Henrie, Earle of Lancaster. Now the heires of the said Maurice of London, as we learn from an old inquisition, for this inheritance were bound to this service--namely, that if their sovereign lord the King, or his Chiefe Justice, came into the parts about Kidwelly with an armie, they should conduct the foresaid army, with their banners and their people, through the mids of Nethland, as far as to Loghar.”
The Castle is in a more perfect state than any other ruin in the Principality: “meately well kept up,” says old Leland, “and veri faire and double waullid;” having been repaired by Alice de Londres, wife of one of the Dukes of Lancaster, and lastly in the reign of Henry the Seventh. Its appearance is literally grand and imposing. The ruins comprise a quadrangular area, enclosed by strong walls, defended by massive circular towers at the angles, and also by bastions in the intervals--as shown in the accompanying illustrations. The principal entrance, which is at the west side, is under a magnificent gateway, flanked by two round towers, and is still in good preservation. Many of the state apartments are almost entire. Of these the groined ceilings, in some instances, with other portions of the edifice, display many interesting features of the early style of English architecture. The chapel is sufficiently indicated in the engraving by its lancet-pointed windows, and forms a noble and characteristic feature of this truly majestic edifice.
Kidwelly is strongly situated, having on two sides a precipitous descent to the river Gwendraeth, and few things are finer than the first view of its massive and turreted bulwarks ranging along the summit of the cliff. The principal entrance was on the west, by means of a gateway, flanked by round towers, one of the most perfect and beautiful in the kingdom. This, however, is now closed, and the visitor, after clambering up the steep old street on the other side of the bridge, is conducted to an entrance in the rear of the building, communicating with a “pleasaunce,” or terrace promenade, now overgrown with noble trees. On entering the interior, the extent and massiveness of the remains create a feeling of astonishment. There were three courts divided by walls and towers; and in the centre is a building defended by four other towers, the grouping of which surpasses that of any other interior in Wales, unless, perhaps, that of Pembroke.
“We then clambered on the ramparts, entered the chapel, adorned with delicate lancet-pointed windows, and looked down from a dizzy height upon the river Gwendraeth, which rolls its melancholy stream through the marshy valley below. Altogether we were quite unprepared for the extent and preservation of this magnificent fortress, and regretted much that previous arrangements had left us so little time for its exploration.”[404]
The view from the ramparts is extensive: the valley of the Gwendraeth--the old town and its spire--the distant marshes and the sea--all blend together, and form a grand but melancholy picture, which harmonises with the feeling inspired by the aspect of the whole place and neighbourhood--
“How grand, and beautiful, and vast, Fortress and hall of ages past! With battlement and turret crown’d, And iron ramparts girdled round; Whose shadow, stretching o’er the land, Whose bulwarks, desolately grand, Whose chambers, voiceless and forsaken, A tide of mingled thoughts awaken, And dreams of fancy that restore The Barons and the Bards of yore, When trumpet-peal, from turret wall, Proclaimed the knightly festival.”--_MS._
The air of the place is considered salubrious and the town healthy; but the importance which it formerly derived from its situation on the banks of a fine navigable river, within half a mile of its influx into the great bay of Carmarthen, has ceased--a reverse occasioned by an accumulation of sand, which has formed a dangerous bar across the mouth of the river. Its commerce, once flourishing, has consequently declined; while the opening of collieries, and the establishment of copper-works at Llanelly--to which port that of Kidwelly is a creek--have transferred the trade to that place.