retreated the monks of the first Celtic monastery to
die and to be buried, and the soil is dense with their
PUFFIN ISLAND
3i
bones. The rabbits turn them up when burrowing.
Here, according to tradition, Maelgwn, king of
Gwynedd, was buried in 547. He was son of Cas-
wallon, who drove the Irish out of Anglesey.
Maelgwn was a remarkable man, tall and noble of
S. SEIRIOL. STAINED GLASS, PENMON
countenance, and a masterful prince. He incurred
the wrath of the ecclesiastics because he had once
been a monk and had thrown aside the cowl. He
was not particularly scrupulous about the rights of
sanctuary claimed by the saints, and he was imperious
in requisitioning meals of them when hunting in their
neighbourhood.
32 ANGLESEY
He was, however, large-hearted and liberal, and
when Caw, a prince of Strathclyde, and his sons came
helter-skelter into Gwynedd, flying from the Picts,
he generously received them and gave them lands in
Anglesey.
Somewhat later, Gildas the historian, one of the
sons of Caw, when himself safe in Brittany, wrote
his venomous letter on the Destruction of Britain,
and thus indecently and ungratefully attacked
Maelgwn, the protector of his family: ā
"Thou island dragon, first in wickedness, exceeding
others in power and in malice, liberal in giving, but more
prompt in sin, strong in arms, but stronger in what destroys
the soul, why dost thou wallow in such a black pool of
crimes? Why dost thou lade thy neck with such loads
of heavy crimes ? Thy conversion once on a time brought
as much joy as now thy accursed reversion to thy disgust-
ing vomit, like a sick dog, has caused sorrow. Thy ears
are not given to listen to sacred hymns, but to the bawling
of a rascally crew howling out lies and frothing phlegm, be-
spattering everyone round about."
Probably Maelgwn was not a good man, but the
family of Gildas owed every yard of land it possessed
to his munificence. By a word only does Gildas
allude to their indebtedness to him ; not an indication
appears of loving pity ā all is scurrilous abuse of the
most insulting description. He was a sixth-century
counterpart of Mr. Cutcliffe Hyne's Captain Owen
Kettle, a curious combination of narrow religious-
ness and foulmouthedness. No wonder that in
Brittany his symbol is a snarling cur. And the
meanness of the man is conspicuous throughout. So
PUFFIN ISLAND 33
long as his own skin was safe from the lash it de-
served, he gave no thought to his kinsmen living
under the protection of Maelgwn and other princes
against whom he inveighed ā with what unpleasant
consequences to them we shall see presently.
At Ruys, in the Morbihan, is a very beautiful
marble statue of him, set up by his tomb a few years
ago. It represents a young monk with angelic face,
and a mouth in which butter would not melt. It is
too funny for words to look at that idealised portrait
and read the Destruction of Britain.
And now the bones of Maelgwn lie in Ynys Seiriol.
In 1897 some excavations were made on the island
by Mr. Harold Hughes, who says : ā
" On removing the debris of centuries " ā near the ruined
church ā "with the aid of pick and shovel we have succeeded
in making a considerable clearing immediately to the east of
the structure. We discovered at about four feet from the
surface an ancient tomb. Beneath the rough clay, worn
slabs, and covered with shingle from the shore, lay within
a narrow inclosure, with feet to the east, the skeleton of a
man. Although portions of the skeleton had crumbled
away, many fragments remained, and these, after much
difficulty, I pieced together."
Was this, one may ask, the tomb of the famous
Maelgwn Gwynedd ?
From the island a reef runs into the sea, called
the Causeway of Seiriol, and it is supposed that it
was constructed by the saint as a means of com-
munication with Penmaen Mawr. It disappears
under the Dutchman's Bank, a sandy stretch that
obstructs the entrance to the Menai Straits. Hereon,
D
34 ANGLESEY
in 1831, the Rothesay Castle was cast, when a hundred
lives were lost. Miss Martineau, in her History of
the Thirty Years' Peace, tells a striking story of this
wreck : ā
" Two men, strangers to each other, found themselves
holding on to the same plank, which, it soon appeared, would
support only one. Each desired the other to hold on, the
one because his companion was old, the other because his
companion was young, and they quitted their grasp at the
same moment. By extraordinary accidents both were saved,
each without the knowledge of the other, and they met on
the shore in great surprise. Few greetings in the course of
human life can be so sweet and moving as must have been
that of these two heroes."
The country for some distance west of Penmon is
commanded by Tin Sylwy or Bwrdd Arthur as it is
also called. It rises 500 feet above the sea and is
crowned by a fortification. The wall is of stone
unset in mortar, faced within and without with slabs
set on end, and within the area are faint traces of
cytiaa or circular huts of stone, such as are tradition-
ally attributed to the Irish. Some excavations have
been made here, but not on an extensive scale, and
Roman coins and Samian ware have been found ;
but the extant walling assuredly belongs to the
Gwyddyl invasion and occupation. Below the camp,
between it and the church of Llanfihangel, is a holy
well. In the graveyard may be noticed a token of a
change of- feeling towards the Welsh tongue. To
the date i860, or thereabouts, the inscriptions on
the tombstones are in English, after that date in
Welsh.
LLANIESTYN
OD
There is nothing in the church of Llaniestyn but
the very curious carved slab with a full-length figure
of the saint who founded the church. One very
similar and of the same period, the reign of
Edward III., is in Llanbabo Church. Iestyn was a
son of Geraint, the heroic king of Devon and Corn-
HOLY WELL, PENMON
wall, who fell at Langport, in Somersetshire, fighting
against invaders, about the year 522. Iestyn was
buried here. He seems to have travelled, and it is
probably of him that a pretty story is told.
He had gone to Brittany, and had found a deserted
habitation at Plestin, of which he took possession.
36 ANGLESEY
The hut had been constructed by an Irish settler
named Efflam, who had departed on a pilgrimage.
On his return Efflam found his cell in the occupation
of a stranger. The question arose as to which should
have it. This they decided to determine in the
following manner. Both seated themselves in the
cabin. The day was overcast, but the clouds were
breaking, and the sun was nearing its setting. He
on whom it first shone should retain the hovel.
Presently the clouds parted, and a golden ray shot
in through the little window and blazed on Efflam's
upturned face. Then Iestyn rose, bowed, and
withdrew, and ended his days in Mona. It is by
an artist's licence that on the monument Iestyn is
represented wearing a crown. He was, indeed, a
king's son, but he never bore the royal circlet.
The somewhat similar monument is at Llanbabo,
in the north-west of the island. Pabo, after long and
stubborn fighting against the Picts in North Britain,
was driven to take refuge in Wales, and was kindly
received by the prince of Powys. He bears the title
of " The Pillar of Britain."
On the north coast is Pentraeth, at the head of
Red Wharf Bay, and here may be seen the Three
Leaps, by which hangs a tale.
Einion, son of Gwalchmai, was lord of Trefeilir.
Now there was a young lady named Angharad,
daughter of Ednyfed Fychan, who was so beautiful,
and was an heiress of so much, that she had many
suitors. As she professed herself unable to decide
among such an embarras de ricliesses of nice young
men, her father proposed that she should marry
AMLWCH 37
the youth who could jump the furthest. She agreed.
When the suitors came to try their powers, Einion
surpassed the rest, for with a hop, skip, and a jump
he covered fifty feet. The hop, skip, and jump are
marked by three stones, which remain to this day
in the dingle of Plas Gwyn. So Einion became the
husband of Angharad.
His happiness was of short duration, for he was
summoned by Owen Gwynedd to assist in driving
the Flemings out of South Wales, who had been
settled there by Henry I. This was in n 37. Einion
was away for a good many years, constantly engaged
in fighting, and when he did return to Trefeilir he
found that on that day his wife had given her hand
to another suitor, supposing that Einion was dead.
Einion remained without and sent a servant within
to summon her to come forth, and then, striking his
harp, he sang a lay of reproach that has been pre-
served. Then he entered the house and ejected the
gentleman who had presumed to invade his premises.
The Parys Mountain rises to the height of 420 feet,
and is pretty completely honeycombed with mines,
as it is an almost solid lump of copper. It has been
worked continually since the times of the Romans,
and had probably been quarried at in the Bronze
Age before that.
The little town of Amlwch is dominated by this
mountain. It consists of two parts, the town proper
and the port, and a considerable manufacture of
chemical manures is carried on in it. Altogether
Amlwch is in itself not a particularly attractive place.
It has many spots of interest about it, and from it
.->
8 ANGLESEY
can be reached Bull Bay, where there are good sands,
and the place is growing in favour. To the east the
adjoining parish is Llaneilian, that possesses a quaint
and interesting church, which, however, has suffered
cruelly from unintelligent " restoration." Like the
majority of Welsh village churches, it has no side
aisles ; it is a cross church, with battlements and
a western tower, covered from top to bottom in a
panoply of slates. At the " restoration " the old oak
seats were cast forth to make room for deal benches
in preference, and the fine rood-screen with its loft
had all the dainty tracery stripped from its panels
and openings and destroyed, so that now it is a mere
skeleton.
There is a curious little chapel at the south-east
end of the church, differently orientated, and with a
covered passage to it from the chancel.
This chapel has a well-preserved and good carved
oak roof, which the present rector has saved from
destruction by damp. Here is the base of the shrine
of S. Elian. It is of wood, and the panels were
formerly carved, but the tracery is gone. Into this
people crawled, and if they succeeded in turning
themselves about within, believed that they would get
cured of any disease they might have, or, according
to another version, would have their lives extended
by five years.
A painting of S. Elian by an Italian artist of the
seventeenth century is kept in the church, but it is
devoid of merit and is in bad preservation. There
is also a pair of wooden gefail gwn, or dog-tongs,
bearing the date 1748.
LLANBADRIG
39
3
Above Llaneilian rises the hill on which was
Caswallon's llys, or court. The story goes that
Caswallon promised to Elian as much land as a
stag he was hunting could run round in the day,
and the deer's spring, a leap over a rent in the
rocks, is shown to this day, but it is not any
longer in the parish of the saint.
BASE OF SHRINE, LLANEILIAN
A late rector of Llaneilian, John Jones, who died
in 1870, and had been curate of the parish for twenty
years and after that rector for thirty-three, kept his
harper and also a pack of hounds.
To the west of Amlwch, in a bold situation, is
Llanbadrig. The church was founded, not by the
Apostle of the Irish, but by a namesake who lived
later and was a member of S. Cybi's monastery at
40 ANGLESEY
Holyhead. According to legend, when he was on
his way back from Iona, where he had visited
S. Columba, his frail boat was wrecked on Ynys
Badrig, or the Middle Mouse, an islet off the coast.
Patrick succeeded in making his way to the land,
drank of a fountain near the shore, and scrambled
up the rock, in which the marks of his feet are still
to be seen, to where is the church which he planted
on the edge of the precipice in commemoration of his
providential escape.
Within the church is a very rude cross that may
well date from the time of S. Patrick. The niche at
the east end of the chancel that now contains a repre-
sentation of " Salvator Mundi " has twisted serpents
on the pedestal, and formerly contained a figure of
the patron saint, who was confounded with the Apostle
of Ireland.
The parish of Llanddona is in evil repute, as a
nest of witches. The story goes that a boat came
ashore in Red Wharf Bay without rudder or oars,
containing women and men in a condition of great
destitution. They were Irish. Now it was a common
custom in Ireland to punish malefactors by putting
them in a wicker-work coracle, covered by a single
hide, without allowing them oars or rudder. So
when S. Patrick converted Maughold, the robber, he
bade him drift oarless on the sea, his feet chained
together. He was swept by the winds and waves to
the Isle of Man, and eventually became bishop there.
Now when the good people of Llanddona saw this
boat come ashore thus unprovided with the necessary
apparatus for its guidance, they concluded that those
LLANDDONA
4i
on board were criminals, and would have nothing to
do with them. They would have sent them adrift
again had not a spring of clear water burst forth on
the sands where the coracle had come ashore. The
spring still flows. This was decisive as a token that
CROSS AT LLANBADRIG
Heaven accepted the punishment of the crew, and
desired them to rest where they had landed.
So these strangers remained, and were suffered to
build cottages, but for generations they continued
apart from the Welsh inhabitants, and they main-
tained their evil propensities. The men lived by
42 ANGLESEY
smuggling, and the women supported themselves by
the exercise of witchcraft. It was not possible to
overcome the smugglers in a fray, for they carried
about with them a black fly tied in a knot of their
kerchief, and the moment that the knot was undone
the fly flew at the eyes of their opponents and
blinded them. The women, old and young, were
dreaded for the power they possessed of cursing those
who refused them whatsoever they asked ā a fowl, a
loaf of bread, eggs, part of a pig. If this were
denied them, they would imprecate the most awful
curses, of which here is one : ā
" May he wander for ages
And find at each step a stile,
And at every stile find a fall,
And at every fall a broken bone ;
Not the largest, nor the least bone,
But the chief neck bone, each time."
If the Llanddona witches attended a market, and
bid for anything, no one ventured to bid against
them. But are not most Welsh girls witches ? ā
witches, however, that win and do not revolt like
those of Llanddona.
On the further side of Red Wharf Bay, where, by
the way, there is an hotel, and where lodgings may be
had, is Llanfair Mathafarn Eithaf. There are three
parishes of the name of Llanfair in the island. Llan-
fair means the Llan or Church of S. Mary, the M in
combination becoming/^ as Llanfihangel signifies the
Church of Mi[chael] the Angel.
This Llanfair Mathafarn was the birthplace of
Goronwy Owen, the poet. He was born in 1722 of
GORONWY OWEN 43
extremely poor parents, went to Oxford through
help of Edward Wynne, of Bodewryd. Subsequently
Mr. Wynne despatched him to Jesus College, Oxford,
and maintained him there. From an early age he
gave indications of poetic genius, and he proved
himself to be a ripe scholar in the classic tongues.
He was ordained in 1745, and his great ambition
was to obtain a Welsh curacy and settle down in it.
Lewis Morris did his best for him, but all he could
get was a temporary appointment to his native parish
Llanfair, where the curacy chanced to be vacant.
But- he had been there only three weeks when he
received notice from the Bishop of Bangor that he
must turn out to make way for a young clergyman
of large independent fortune ; so Goronwy was
obliged to depart. He sought curacies in Wales, but
could get no bishop to touch him with the ends of
his fingers, as he had no connections and no fortune.
That he was deeply pious, earnest, a scholar, an
eloquent Welsh preacher, and a poet of singular
merit counted as nothing. Unhappily, though
Goronwy was a genius, he was given to drink, and
could never remain long anywhere. At length he
obtained a curacy at Oswestry, and there he married.
From Oswestry he was removed to Donnington, in
Shropshire, where his rector was a Scotchman and
an absentee, but being a Douglas, rich and with the
means of pushing himself, having neglected his
duties as parish priest, he managed to get himself
nominated and consecrated Bishop of Salisbury.
Lewis Morris did his best to save the poet from his
unfortunate vice, but failed.
44 ANGLESEY
At Donnington poor Goronwy Owen not only acted
as curate to the great absentee rector, but also as
master of the grammar school, and received twenty-
six pounds as his stipend. Thence he shifted, first
into Cheshire and then to Northolt, near London. In
1756 he was living in a garret in town vainly soliciting
employment in his sacred calling, and undergoing
with his family the utmost privations. His Welsh
accent in English stood in his way, and his brilliant
Welsh qualifications were not wanted in Wales. But,
indeed, poor Goronwy, with all his gifts, was not the
man to do much spiritual work.
At length Lewis Morris obtained for Goronwy
Owen the mastership of a Government school at
Williamsburg, in Virginia. Thither he went, and
there he died about the year 1770.
As Lewis Morris has been mentioned in connec-
tion with poor Goronwy Owen, a few words must
be devoted to him.
" Lewis Morris," says George Borrow, " was born at a
place called Trev y Beirdd, in Anglesey, in the year 1700.
Anglesey, or Mona, has given birth to many illustrious men,
but few, upon the whole, entitled to more honourable men-
tion than himself. From a humble situation in life, for
he served an apprenticeship to a cooper at Holyhead, he
raised himself by his industry and talents to affluence and
distinction, became a landed proprietor in the county of
Cardigan, and inspector of the royal domains and mines in
Wales. Perhaps a man more generally accomplished never
existed; he was a first-rate mechanic, an expert navigator, a
great musician, both in theory and practice, and a poet of
singular excellence. Of him it was said, and with truth,
LEWIS MORRIS 45
that he could build a ship and sail it, frame a harp and make
it speak, write an ode and set it to music. Though self-
taught, he was confessedly the best Welsh scholar of his age,
and was well versed in those cognate dialects of the Welsh ā
the Cornish, Armoric, Highland Gaelic, and Irish. ... It
was he who first told his countrymen that there was a youth
in Anglesey whose genius, if properly encouraged, promised
fair to rival that of Milton ; one of the most eloquent letters
ever written is one by him, in which he discants upon the
beauties of certain poems of Goronwy Owen, the latent
genius of whose boyhood he had observed, whom he had
clothed, educated, and assisted up to the period when he
was ordained a minister of the Church, and whom he finally
rescued from a state bordering on starvation in London,
procuring for him an honourable appointment in the New
World."
Lewis Morris made a collection of Welsh MSS.,
consisting of about eighty volumes, which are now
in the British Museum. He died in 1765 and was
buried at Llanbadarn Vawr, in Cardiganshire.
CHAPTER IV
HOLYHEAD
The Menai Straits to Holyhead ā Llangadwaladr ā The story of
Cadwallon ā Cadwaladr ā Plague in 664 ā Ruskin on Holyhead ā
The old caer ā Chapel of the Irishman ā Story of S. Cybi ā The
menhir of Clorach ā Cybi and Elian ā Church of Caergybi ā Chapel
of Llochwyd ā Holy well ā Chapel of S. Brigid ā Breakwater ā
The South Stack ā Sea-birds ā Their eggs ā Cytiau'r Gwyddelod ā
Old villages ā Camp ā Construction of the huts ā A conservative
people that votes Liberal.
THE line from Bangor to Holyhead, after cross-
ing the Menai Straits, runs through country
that does not impress the traveller with an opinion
that it is fertile or beautiful. The land is for the most
part flat, or slightly undulating ; there are no trees,
much waste land, no mountains ā only hills, and these
away to the north. The surface of the island is
speckled with little white houses with whitewashed
roofs, as though a giant's wedding had taken place
there, and it was sprinkled over with the rice cast at
the bride.
The line traverses the Malldraeth Marsh, and
beyond Bodorgan station skirts Llyn Coron, a tarn
with no picturesque surroundings, through which
trickles the River Ffraw, that flows to the Aber, where
46
LLANGADWALADR 47
once stood the residence, probably of timber, of the
kings of Gwynedd.
Near the Llyn is Llangadwaladr, that takes its name
from the last British prince who bore the title of
King of All Britain. He was the son of Cadwallon
ab Cadfan, and in the church is preserved the stone
that bears the sententious inscription to inform the
world that King Cadfan was " the wisest, the most
renowned of all kings."
The screen at Llaneilian has been already spoken
of. It was delivered over to a joiner, who restored it
by daubing over the paintings that decorated it, by
hacking away the tracery that enriched it. Critics
treat history in much the same fashion. They efface
all the warm colouring that fancy has laid on, and
eliminate all the detail which adorns it, leaving us
but the naked scaffolding of fact.
If we deal in this way with the story of Cadfan
and his grandson Cadwaladr, we arrive at very
meagre and uninteresting outlines. We will there-
fore take the story much as we find it. Ethelfrid was
king of Northumbria, and he sent away his wife,
probably a British woman, and she took refuge with
King Cadfan in Mon. There, shortly after her arrival
at the court of Cadfan, the discarded queen became a
mother, and bore a son to whom she gave the name
of Edwin. About the same time the queen of
Gwynedd bore one also, who was named Cadwallon.
The two boys were sent to be fostered in Brittany
to King Solomon (there happened to be no king there
of that name till two centuries later, but we will not
be hypercritical).
48 HOLYHEAD
In due course, when they were grown to man's
estate, the youths returned to Mona, and remained
either there or at Deganwy till Cadfan died. Then
Cadwallon assumed the crown of Gwynedd and the
title of King of All Britain. Edwin went to
Northumbria, where he was chosen king, and first of
all the invading Angles and Saxons adopted a circlet
of gold as symbol of sovereignty. Now one day
Cadwallon was with his nephew Brian by the River
Dulas when, overcome with the heat of the day, he
laid himself down to sleep, with his head on
Brian's lap.
As he slept, Brian's mind turned to the wrongs
and sorrows that his countrymen had endured at the
hands of the Teutonic invaders, and his tears ran
down, and fell on Cadwallon's face. The king was
disturbed in his sleep by the falling drops, and, half
asleep and half awake, he said, " It rains ! It rains ! "
Then he opened his eyes and saw that the sky
above was blue as a corn-flower, and he remarked,
" It is strange. There has been a shower, and the sun
is shining. But where is the rainbow?"
Then Brian said, " Uncle, on the head of Edwin."
Cadwallon looked in his nephew's face and saw
that his eye-lashes were heavy with tears, and he
asked the reason.
Thereupon Brian told him all that was in his heart,
and Cadwallon rose up and vowed that he would
make a desperate effort to recover the land for the
British people.
So he made war on Edwin, but met with defeat after
defeat, and was finally obliged to escape into Ireland.
CADWALLON 49
There he resolved on seeking the assistance of the
Armoricans, so he took ship and sailed for Brittany,
but encountered a storm and was wrecked on an
island, probably Ouessant, and all on board were lost
save only Cadwallon and Brian.
Through distress at the death of his followers, and
dearth of food, the king fell into a fit of profound
dejection.
Brian was troubled for his uncle, whose heart
seemed to be broken. He went about the island
seeking for food, but could find naught. The sea-
fowl had been disturbed by the gale, and the season