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Mr. Lloyd says: "I imagine the house was built by Howel ap Cynwrig, who gavelled his lands with his brother, Heilyn Vrych of Carwedd Vynydd and Berain: hence the saying, 'Cystal Howel a Heilyn' (Howel is as good a man as Heilyn)."

For further information on this subject, Mr. Lloyd refers us to the History of Powys Vadog, vol. iv, "Pryse of Plas Iolyn"; vol. v, "Wynn of Dyffryn Aled"; and vol. vi, "Voelas and Rhiwlas". We shall look forward to a paper by Mr. Lloyd on Plas Iolyn at no distant date.

J. ROMILLY ALLEN.

A CELTIC WEATHER SAINT.-Most countries possess their special weather saint, whose festival, according as it is dry or wet, decides the meteorological character of the following forty days. St. Swithin has now so long reigned supreme as the weather saint of Great Britain, that it would, perhaps, be vain to denounce him as the Saxon usurper of the rights of a Celtic weather saint, who presided over the rainfall of our country as far back as the time of King Arthur. Nevertheless, it seems probable that the honourable distinction of weather saint belongs rather to the Celtio "St. Cewydd of the Rain" than to the Saxon bishop of comparatively. modern times.

St. Cewydd was one of a remarkable family, being the son of Caw, lord of Cwm Cawlwyd or Cowllwg, who, according to Achau y Saint, was "deprived of his territories by the Gwyddyl Ffichti, or, as the general term may be interpreted, by the Picts and Scots; in consequence of which he and his numerous family retired to Wales. He settled at Twrcelyn, in Anglesey, where lands were bestowed upon him by Maelgwn Gwynedd; and it is also said that lands were granted to some of his children by Arthur in Siluria". Most of them distinguished themselves in one way or another, and founded churches, of which they became the patron saints. St. Cewydd's eldest brother, Hywel, was killed in a civil war by King Arthur; his brother Aneurin, otherwise known as Gildas, became the most celebrated scholar of the day; another brother, Aeddan, was first Bishop of Ferns; while his sister, Cwyllog, was married to King Arthur's nephew, the traitor Modred. Unfortunately, we know but little of the history of St. Cewydd himself, beyond the fact that he founded churches at Diserth, Aberedwy, in Radnorshire, and at Llangewydd, in Glamorganshire. Local nomenclature, however, would lead us to suppose that he lived in the neighbourhood of Diserth, for a farm in Llanfihangel Bryn Pabuan is still called Cil gewydd, i.e., the Cell of Cewydd, while a mountain-track above Llandeilo Graban, once trodden by the feet of the saint, perhaps, as he journeyed over the hills to visit his brother Maelog at his monastery of Llowes, yet bears the name of Rhiw Gewydd, i.e., Cewydd's Hill. But no tradition remains to tell us how the saint won his

1 See Rees' Essay on the Welsh Saints, p. 224.

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title of Cewydd of the Rain", as he is called in old Welsh writings, and we are indebted to Lewis Glyn Cothi for our knowledge of the popular superstition which connected the rainfall with the festival of the saint. In a poem, or rather an elegy, written by him on the death of Morgan, son of Sir David Gam, he compares the tears shed over the departed hero to the forty days' rain which fell after St. Cewydd's festival:

"Gwlad Vrychan am Vorgan vydd
Aili gawod wyl Gewydd.
Deugain niau davnau dwvr
Ar ruddiau yw'r aweddwvr.
Deugain mlynedd i heddyw

Yr wyl y beirdd ar ol y byw."

The said festival took place on July 1, O. S.; therefore, allowing for the difference between Old and New Style, it now occurs on July 13, two days before St. Swithin's. Until quite lately, a feast or wake was held in Aberedwy parish the second week in July in honour of Saint Cewydd. That the popular belief in St. Cewydd's power over the weather was not confined to the Welsh portion of Great Britain is proved by an old English proverb, which, altogether ignoring St. Swithin's claims, says:

"If the first of July be rainy weather,

'T will rain more or less for a month together."

M. L. DAWSON.

CHURCH RESTORATION.-At a Council meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of London, held on Wednesday, the 22nd of February, 1888, the President in the chair, it was resolved that the following memorandum, as drawn up by a special committee and approved by the Council, be read to the Society at its next meeting, and be communicated to the archbishops, bishops, and chancellors of dioceses, deans, archdeacons, and rural deans of the Church of England.

The destruction of ancient monuments and of interesting architectural remains by the process of modern church restoration is constantly being brought under the notice of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Although, unfortunately, so much irretriev able mischief has been done that remonstrance may appear too late, the Society is desirous of again calling the attention of those having authority in the Church to the needless destruction of relics of the past which has taken place and is still proceeding, and of enlisting, if possible, their sympathy and assistance in checking what all must acknowledge to be an evil.

restored" church it

It is constantly the case that on visiting a is found that monuments and painted glass, of which the existence is recorded in county histories, have not only been removed from their original positions, but are no longer forthcoming; that inscribed slabs from tombs have been used to bridge over gutters

or to receive hot-air gratings, or have been covered with tiles; that the ancient fonts have been removed, the old communion tables destroyed, the Jacobean oak pulpits broken up or mounted on stone pedestals, and not unfrequently the old and curious communion plate sold. The architectural features and proportions of the churches have in innumerable instances been modified, especially so far as regards the east windows, and the character of the chancels generally.

The Society cannot too strongly insist on the great historical value of our ancient parish churches, every one of which contains in its fabric the epitome of the history of the parish, frequently extending over many centuries. What would appear to the Society to be the duty of the guardians of these national monuments is, not to "restore" them, but to preserve them—not to pretend to put a church back into the state in which it may be supposed to have been at any given epoch, but to preserve, so far as practicable, the record of what has been its state during all the period of its history.

The Society does not overlook the necessity of adapting the buildings to the wants of the present day; but it contends that the greatest part of the mischief that has been done to our churches has not added to the convenience of the buildings, which is in no way aided by destroying the more recent portions of a church and rebuilding them in a style which imitates the older portions, nor by the destruction of furniture and monuments only because they are not of the date which is assumed to be that of the church. New work done to suit new wants, and not pretending to be other than it is, will carry on the history of the building in the same manner as did the old, and the Society has no wish to prevent that from being done. It only urges that the ancient record should not be wiped out to make room for the new, nor falsified by making the new a servile imitation of the old. Uniformity of style was very rarely a characteristic of our old churches, and a part of the building or a piece of furniture in it is to be judged, not by its conformity to this or that style, but by its fitness for its place and for the work it has to do.

It is feared that the use of the word restoration has itself been the cause of much mischief, and has made men think that the destruction of the later features of a building is a gain by itself; and the Society therefore urges that these later features are just as important in the history of the building as the older, for it is by them that its continuous history is recorded. To replace them by modern imitations of the earlier work not only destroys so much of the record, but discredits what is allowed to remain by confusing it with that which is not what it professes to be. Now that so much importance is attached to the continuity of the Church from the earliest times, it is well to remember that nothing will bring this home to men's minds so much as the visible evidence of it in the buildings in which they habitually worship.

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