BREDWARDINE.

2 feet 10 inches.

feet 7 inches. 10 inches.

3 feet 6 inches. inches, and externally

At Kilpeck the circumference internally is 8 feet 6 10 feet 3 inches. Externally it increases in size from the top downwards in an elegant convex form.

Leaving Bredwardine Church, the condition of the weather did not admit of more than a hurried run over the lawn, and a glance at the grounds of Bredwardine Vicarage, charmingly situated on the right bank of the Wye, with the Quinta, the residence of Mr. Peter Giles, opposite, and commanding a view of the pretty Bredwardine brick bridge.

There are some handsome trees in the Vicarage grounds, including Pinus Cephalonica, a tall Salisburia Adiantifolia, more commonly known as the Ginkgo, after its name in Japan (see Transactions, 1890, Fungus Foray, p. 99), an Abies either pendula or merinda, and a Cedar of Lebanon, aged 68 years, which now measures, below its first bough, 13 feet 10 inches, being an increase of 22 inches in circumference during the last thirteen years, or since it was measured by this Club. See Transactions, 1878, p. 105. It should be mentioned here that the Lysimachia thyrsiflora, which was stated in the programme to be found near the site of Bredwardine Castle, must not be considered a wild plant. The plant referred to grows in the garden of the vicarage, and upon examination is pronounced to be the Lysimachia ciliata.

From Bredwardine Church the members crossed the Wye over Bredwardine Bridge, thence passed the Quinta, and within a hundred yards of the old parish Church of Brobury, of which the ruinous walls have been taken down, the chancel being fitted up for divine service. It contains a curious font, and a canopied tomb of the 14th century. Onwards through Monnington Wood surmounting Brobury Scar, and through the avenue of Sweet Chestnut trees terminating in Scotch Firs and Yew trees, the total length of which is nearly one mile, to meet the carriages at the lodge near Moccas Bridge. This avenue is called Monnington Walk. Judge Cooke, in his continuation of Duncumb's History of Herefordshire, informs us that this "ornamental planting was made as an approach to Monnington Court through Bredwardine Ford in 1623, to commemorate the success of James Tomkyns as M. P. for Leominster.

It hardly ceased raining all day, but, nevertheless, the enthusiasts, headed by the President, stuck to their work with their usual well-known pertinacity. The time was now 5.30, and it is to be regretted that both the wet weather and want of time prohibited a visit to Monnington Church. Near the porch of this Church is the traditional gravestone of Owen Glendower (Archæological Journal, 1877, Vol. 34, No. 136, p. 501).

THE BURIAL PLACE OF OWEN GLENDOWER.

THE Rev. Thomas Thomas, in his Memoirs of Owen Glendower, published in 1822, gives (page 169), an extract from the Harl. MSS., 6832, notifying that when the Monnington Church was re-built in 1680, a large gravestone, without any inscription, was found about a foot below the surface of the ground whilst removing the trunk of a Sycamore tree in the churchyard. Upon the removal of the gravestone "there was discovered at the bottom of a well-stoned grave the body (as 'tis supposed) of Owen Glendwr, which was whole and entire, and of goodly stature. But there were no tokens or remains in the coffin. When any part of it was touched, it fell to ashes. After it had been exposed two days Mr. Tomkins ordered the stone to be placed over it again, and the earth to be cast in upon it."

It may be remarked that the inhabitants of the locality of Monnington Straddle in the Golden Valley, near Vowchurch, believe that Owen Glendower was buried in their district, deriving their conjectures perhaps from Mr. Thomas' statement that his second daughter, Elizabeth, according to some, Alicia, was married to Sir John Scudamore, of Ewyas and Holme Lacy, and proprietor of Kentchurch, not many miles distant (page 51).

We find, on reference to page 51 of Rev. Thomas Thomas's Memoirs of Owen Glendower, that "his fifth and youngest daughter, Margaret, was married to Roger Monington, of Monington, in the county of Hereford. Mr. Pennant says that he had the pleasure of seeing at his house two ladies, owners of Monington, and direct descendants from the daughter of Glyndwr." From the same authority we also learn that "Janet, his third daughter, was married to John Crofts, of Croft Castle, in the same county of Hereford."

Unwillingly we must confess that, after submitting this traditional question to our historian, Judge Cooke, our long-cherished confidence in these statements of Rev. Thomas Thomas has been shattered. Judge Cooke asserts that at the time of Owen Glendower's rebellion, and for many years afterwards, Monington-on-Wye was never possessed by an owner named Monington. Reference to pages 131 et seqq, of his continuation of Duncumb's History proves that Monington was in the possession of the Audley family at the period of Owen Glendower's rebellion, and for many years afterwards, until 1525. The visitation of 1634, he adds in a footnote on page 137, “contains a pedigree of Monington commencing in 1385, yet does not include a marriage with a daughter of Owen Glendower." Judge Cooke thus proves the tradition of Monington-on-Wye being the burial place of Owen Glendower to be only founded on prominent credulity during four centuries! (p. 135).

How conflicting are the pages of history! On page 39 of MS. of the late Rev. J. Webb, of Tretire, now in the Hereford Cathedral Library, we read:"There is a record in the Tower of London, published by Mr. Rymer; in Fædera Tom. viii., pages 608 and 753: Tom. ix., pages 283 and 330. Browne Willis, Esq., in his history of the Bishop of Bangor, says :-Owen Glendower died, and was buried at Monington, the 20th September, 1415, etc."

Judge Cooke suggests the probability (p. 137) that "his remains may be covered by a stone in the churchyard on the south side of Corwen Church, and known as Owen Glyndwr's sword. It is a cross on an old coffin-shaped stone, not uncommon in many churchyards."

Mr. Moore has seen the stone referred to, and has corresponded with the Rev. Canon Wm. Richardson, for many years Vicar of Corwen. All that can be said is that there is a cross on an old coffin-shaped stone over what is called the Priest's door on the south side of Corwen Church. It is generally called Owen Glendower's dagger, and the guide books give the absurd tradition that Owen Glendower, in an act of rage, threw his dagger against it from the heights above. The stone was, in all probability, an old gravestone. Mr. Ferrey, architect for the late restoration of Corwen Church, gave its date as 11th century. The shaft of a cross at the western side of the churchyard is supposed to be of earlier date.

The neighbourhood of Corwen abounds with associations of Owen Glendower. About three miles distant, on the road to Llangollen, is pointed out the site of his palatial residence near Carrog úcha, a large tumulus from the heights of which he surveyed miles of his country, and a huge oak table in the kitchen of the neighbouring farm house which is said to have been used by him. Opposite the farm of Penybont, and close to Carrog Railway Station is a field called the "Parliament field." Mr. Jones, of Penybont, possesses a fragment of a skull which has been dubbed the skull of one of Owen's chieftains!! On the opposite bank of the Dee, in the parish of Llansantfraid Glendwrdy, is still to be seen the prison, called Cachardy Owen Glendwrdy where he confined his captives; it is modernised into a habitable cottage, at present perilously near the river bank. * But as to the place of Owen Glendower's burial, it still remains unknown.

When the party re-assembled, the seats in the carriages were resumed, the return journey to Hereford being carried out under a series of showers of rain, with few intervals of intermission, and those of short duration, insomuch that for once, and it is worthy of being chronicled, the ardour of the majority had become so damped, after four hours exposure to rainfall, that they would not run further risk of lumbago, bronchitis, influenza, and a host of other maladies, no, not even in the pursuit of the structure of antiquity, which had recently been unearthed on the premises of the New Weir, only a few feet distant from the exposed section of a road buried nearly two feet below the ground level.

The situation of this buried masonry, or well of five steps, is at a distance of fifty yards below masses of masonry which some believe to have been the abutment of an ancient bridge across the Wye, leading from Gobannium (Abergavenny), through Stone Street, in the parishes of Madley and Eaton Bishop, to the Roman station of Magna Castra, now called Kenchester, and

As this volume is passing through the Press, in June of this year, 1893, large masses of oak timbers mortised with wooden pegs, evidently fragments of a roof, have been discovered in the River Dee, below Carrog Bridge, by Mr. Hugh Jones, of Penybont. The timbers are too large to have passed through the arches of the bridge; the date inscribed upon the bridge is 1661. There is every reason to believe from their scantling, shape, and length, that these beams are fragments of the roof of the ancient Church, which traditionally existed about 500 yards higher up the river, on a site a little above Glendower's Prison.

thence on to Uriconium (Wroxeter).

Our reasons for declining to believe this masonry to have been an abutment of a bridge, and in favour of its being an ancient wharf, are due to no discovery having ever been made of piers of the bridge in the river, nor on the opposite bank thereof.

The following is a list of the members and visitors who attended this, the fourth Field Meeting this year :-Mr. F. Bainbridge, Mr. H. C. Beddoe, Mr. C1 P. Bird, Mr. C. G. Blathwayt, Colonel Linley Blathwayt, Mr. R. Clarke, Mr. G. Cresswell, Mr. G. Davies, Rev. F. Dunn, Mr. C. Fortey, Mr. G. H. Hadfield, Rev. A. W. Horton, Mr. T. Hutchinson, Rev. A. G. Jones, Rev. Preb. Lambert, Rev. Augustin Ley, Mr. C. J. Lilwall, Dr. S. R. Matthews, Rev. H. B. D. Marshall, Rev. W. Bagnall Oakeley, Dep. Surgeon-General W. Perry, Mr. G. H. Phillott, Mr. W. Pilley, Rev. T. Prosser Powell, Mr. Warre Prescott, Rev. F. S. Stooke-Vaughan, Mr. H. G. Sugden, Rev. R. H. Warner, Rev. M. G. Watkins, Mr. A. W. Weyman, Dr. J. H. Wood, Mr. H. C. Moore (Honorary Secretary), and Mr. J. B. Pilley (Assistant Secretary), with the following visitors: -Mr. C. J. G. Bird, Mr. W. R. Diamond, Rev. E. R. Firmstone, Mr. W. B. Giles, Mr. R. Lewis, Rev. W. R. Lloyd, Rev. G. O. K. O'Neill, Rev. Wm. Henry Purchas, Rev. W. Moyle Rogers, Mr. C. Whatmore, Mr. B. G. Wood, and Mr. H. E. Wood.

At this meeting Mr. Philip Baylis, of Ledbury, and the Rev. Charles Black, of Colwall, were elected members, and the name of Mr. Wm. B. Giles, of Newport House, was proposed to be balloted for at the next meeting.

By the Rev. Sir GEO. H. CORNEWALL, Bart., President.

MOCCAS disputes with the banks of the Gwain, near Fishguard, the honour of being the birthplace of St. Dyffryg or Dubricius, who lived about the year 470, perhaps later, began by being Bishop of Llandaff, and was afterwards Archbishop of Caerleon-the greatest representative of that ancient British Church, which some have supposed was founded by St. Paul. The chronicler in the Liber Landavensis describes Dubricius as dwelling for some time in a corner of the island of Euerdil, his mother's name, at Moch-rhos, so called because an angel of the Lord appeared to him and bade him build an oratory to the Holy Trinity, where a white sow was lying with her pigs. As it seems to me, a more suitable interpretation of the name than this convenient monkish legend would lie in the fact that the neighbourhood of Moccas is peculiarly favourable to the growth of the oak, and, therefore, to the feeding of large herds of swine-moch, in Welsh, signifying a pig, and rhos, a large uncultivated space or moor. That which would seem to fix the dwelling place of Dubricius on the banks of the Wye, rather than on the banks of the Gwain, is the fact that four churches in Herefordshire are dedicated to him, and none in either Pembrokeshire, Monmouthshire, or Breconshire. As regards the date of the building of the present Church of Moccas we have no record, and as the Liber Landarensis is not considered trustworthy, any hints that might be gleaned from it are hardly worth explaining as far as fixing a date is concerned. It was probably built before 1100. It is related in the Lives of Welsh Saints that St. Cadoc, at the close of his life, visited Brittany and built a "basilica" on an island in the archipelago of Morbihan. St. Cadoc was contemporary with Dubricius. They were both important personages in the Court of King Arthur. Have we here any clue to the building of our "basilica " at Moccas? You will find in the neighbouring Church of Bredwardine traces of very early work, and an interesting Norman doorway. The original Church of Bredwardine may have been built at nearly the same period as Moccas-the tympana over north and south doors would seem to be early; its basilical form and proportions have also been considered to point it out as very early Norman. At the time of the Domesday survey Moccas (spelt Moches) appears to have been divided between St. Guthlac's Priory and Nigel, the physician. Many explanations have been given of the Norman Tympana; and De Caumont, who enters at some length into the question of sculptured tympana, remarks that they commonly manifest an Eastern origin. A tree of life in the centre, and monsters of various kinds on either side. There appears to be this tree of life in the tympanum over the south door, partly altered into a cross, to which human beings are holding while exposed to the attacks of beasts. Mr. Barnewell, of the Cambrian Archæological Society, who described it in this manner, was unwilling to extract any further allegorical meaning from this strange piece of sculpture. The north door, the door of the Evil Spirit, is also adorned with a tympanum, which is supposed to represent the