And Egerton G. B. Phillimore, Esq. George E. Robinson, Esq. H. F. J. Vaughan, Esq., vice, J. R. Cobb, Esq., who as Local Secretary for Breconshire continues to be a member of your Committee. Your Committee, at a Special Meeting held at Shrewsbury on April 23rd, decided that the Index should at once be put into the printer's hands, and appointed your Chairman of Committee, your Treasurer, and Mr. Romilly Allen, as a Sub-Committee to arrange about the printing of it. They also considered the revised rules, which have been printed, and will be presented to you for confirm ation. EXCURSION, FRIDAY, AUGUST 22ND. The last day of the Meeting was also the finest, so that there was no necessity for the use of a cloak like the one described in the Life of St. Winifred. Every year, on the Vigil of St. John the Baptist, St. Winifred sent a cloak to St. Beuno by placing it on a stone in the fountain, when it was immediately conveyed to him, floating down the stream on the stone. "The virtue of this cloak, on account of the merit of the virgin, was such that wheresoever St. Beuno might be clothed therewith, it neither got wet with rain, nor was its nap turned by the wind. From the event of such thing St. Beuno called the coat' Siccus'." There is a stone still to be seen beneath the water of St. Winifred's Well, which is called St. Beuno's Stone. This is, no doubt, the one that was formerly credited with such miraculous properties. Watt's Dyke.-Starting at 9.30 A.M., some of the party went to see a portion of Watt's Dyke, situated just outside the town of Holywell, on the north-east side; but the majority made straight for the Church and St. Winifred's Well which lies close to it. Watt's Dyke is an earthwork of the same description as Offa's Dyke. Nothing is known of its history. Its course is marked on the Ordnance Map, running in a south-easterly direction between Northop and Mold, nearly parallel with the shore of the estuary of the Dee, at a distance of from three to six miles from it, and then turning south at Hope towards Wrexham and Oswestry. Offa's Dyke runs parallel with Watt's Dyke, the latter being to the east of the former, and consequently further away from the foot of the Welsh Mountains, and nearer England. Holywell Church.-Holywell Church possesses hardly any interest for the antiquary. There are some tablets with inscriptions to the memory of members of the Mostyn and Pennant families in the interior, and a mutilated effigy of a priest with a maniple, holding a chalice against his breast. St. Winifred's Chapel and Well.-Adjoining the churchyard, and upon the same level with it, is the chapel above St. Winifred's Well, a building in the Perpendicular style, having a frieze of sculptured beasts forming a moulding running round the whole, similar to that already noticed at Mold Church. The Well lies immediately beneath the Chapel, the floor of the latter being supported by the vaulted ceiling of the former. The Well is approached by a flight of steps from the road. Camden says of it: "Under this place I viewed Holywell, a small town where there is a Well much celebrated for the memory of Winifred, a Christian virgin, ravished here and beheaded by a tyrant; also for the moss, it yields very sweet odour. Out of this Well a small brook flows (or rather breaks through the stones, on which are seen I know not what kind of red spots), and runs with such violent course that immediately it is able to turn a mill." Nothing is more astonishing than to see the enormous volume of water which rushes out from the stream, and the clacking of the wheel of the mill which Camden speaks of is still to be heard. It is not more than twenty yards from the spring. It is hardly necessary here to repeat all the legends connected with St. Winifred. Those who are interested in the subject may consult Rees' Cambro-British Saints, Bishop Fleetwood's Life and Miracles of St. Winefrede, Capgrave, Nor. Leg. Angl., and Vita SS., iv, 20, No. 3. The life of the Saint is said to have been written by the contemporary monk Elerius; but the earliest authentic account is that given in the twelfth century by Robert, Prior of Shrewsbury (MSS. in British Museum, Claud. A v, and in Bodleian Library, Oxford, Laud. 94). Ralph Higden, in his Polychronicon, has a curious Latin poem about St. Winifred, in which he tells us that the descendants of Caradoc, who beheaded St. Winifred, were condemned to bark like dogs until they came to bathe in the Well: "Qui scelus hoc putaverat Ac nati et nepotuli Latrant ut canum catuli The Well is rented by the Roman Catholics, and large numbers of pilgrims annually visit the place that they may take advantage of the reputed miraculous properties of the waters in order to be cured of various diseases. Suspended from different parts of the roof and walls of the Well are to be seen many ex voto offerings of crutches, etc., left by grateful persons who have been healed at the Well. The feast of St. Winifred is on November 3. The structure over the Well is a very beautiful specimen of Perpendicular architecture, erected by Margaret, Countess of Rich "Historiæ et Anglicanæ Scriptores XX", by Thomas Gale. Oxford, 1691. P. 190. mond, the mother of Henry VII; to whose generosity we also owe the churches of Mold and of Northop. A plan of the Well is given in the Archaeological Journal, vol. iii, p. 148, and general views will be found in Penuant's Tours in Wales and Buck's Views, vol. ii, Pl. 395. The shape of the basin of the Well is an eight-pointed star, having angles of 90 and 135 degrees. Vertical mullions or pillars rise from each corner of the star to sup port the vaulted roof, and the spaces between were originally filled in with tracery (now gone) which screened the Well off from the passage running round it. The chamber in which the Well is enclosed is square, having no openings in the walls, except in the front, which is pierced by three low-pointed arches, and a door in one of the side-walls. There are flights of steps within the chamber on each side of the basin of the Well, in front, leading down to the bottom. The bosses of the vaulting are ornamented with the arms of the Stanley family, Catherine of Arragon, and others. There is a very large cylindrical, pendent boss over the centre of the Well, covered with elaborate sculpture. Outside the Well is a large bath, open to the air. Under the water, at one corner, is St. Beuno's Stone, already mentioned. Basingwerk Abbey.-Leaving St. Winifred's Well and its mediæval associations with much regret, a drive of a mile down the road along the west side of the gorge formed by the stream which issues from the Well, brought the party to Basingwerk Abbey. The ruins are situated on rising ground on the east side of the entrance to the valley, about a quarter of a mile south of the Holywell Railway Station. Papers on Basingwerk have been published in the Archa ologia Cambrensis, vol. i, p. 97, and in the Journal of the British Archæological Association, vol. xxxiv, p. 468, by Mr. E. P. Loftus Brock. Buck's Views (vol. ii, Pl. 389) may be referred to as showing how much of the ruin has been destroyed during the present century. Giraldus Cambrensis lodged a night at Basingwerk (A.D. 1188) when in the train of Archbishop Baldwin on his progress through Wales to preach the Crusade. He calls it "Cellula de Basingwerk", which does not seem to favour the idea that there was a large monastery there at that time. Ranulph, second Earl of Chester (A.D. 1131), was one of the greatest benefactors to the Abbey, and possibly its founder. The style of the architecture of what remains of the Abbey is very late transitional Norman or perhaps Early English. The north side of the nave, north transept, and choir, are completely gone, although their position might be ascertained, no doubt, by excavation. The west wall of the nave is standing to a height of 8 ft., and the south wall to a height of 2 ft. 6 in. The west and south walls of the south transept are complete, and the triple lancetwindow in the south gable is the most prominent feature in all the views of the Abbey. The pointed arch leading from the south aisle of the nave into the south transept is still perfect. The width of the aisle may be fixed by the respond of the nave-arcade. The springing of the arches of the central tower can be seen at the top of the south-west pier, the only one now standing. To the south of the south transept are the ruins of a long range of buildings on the east side of the site of the cloisters. The east walls are the most perfect. When Buck's View was taken the west walls also were in existence. The lower story was occupied by the sacristy, chapterhouse, fratry, etc.; and the upper story, the holes for the floorbeams and rows of lancet-windows of which are not yet destroyed, was used as the monks' dormitory. Part of the chapter-house forms a chamber lighted by lancet-windows, adjoining the east side of the range of buildings, and entered from it through two round arches springing from a pillar in the centre of the opening. On the south side of the site of the cloisters is the refectory, which is perfect with the exception of the roof, and contains some good Early English architectural details. One good result of the visit of the Cambrian Archeological Association to Holywell will be that there is a chance of the ruins of Basingwerk Abbey being systematically excavated. Mr. T. Vaughan Hughes has commenced to dig some trenches on the site of the north transept, and has discovered several encaustic tiles. Mr. Hughes has, unfortunately, no special knowledge as to how such a work should be undertaken; but he has promised that he will do nothing further without advice from some competent authority. It would be better to leave the thing altogether untouched than to do it badly. By kind permission of the Council of the British Archæological Association, and with the author's sanction, we are enabled to reprint Mr. E. P. Loftus Brock's paper (vol. xxxiv, pp. 468-76):— "The site of these ruins testifies to the truth of what we are able to glean from the history, at present obscure, of this building, that it was not founded for Cistercian monks. There is here no secluded dell shut in from the surrounding world by high hills, and lying on low ground close to a stream. There are several such in this immediate neighbourhood; but they were set aside, and the site selected for this house is higher ground than other positions near it. It overlooks the country on almost every side, while on the north and west is a broad and extensive panorama of the estuary of the Dee, with the long lines of the Cheshire hills beyond. The site has probably been an inhabited one from long prior to its use by a colony of monks, since to the south-west stretches the line of Watt's Dyke, which after its lengthy course terminates close to here, and apparently in connection with the old fortification, Basingwerk Castle, the traces of the foundation of which are at no great distance. The presence of a fortification in close proximity to a Cistercian house is a great anomaly, since these monks, as a general rule, sought for the most secluded spots, far away from the traffic of men. We may accept it as confirmation enough of the meagre history that the Cistercians came late to this site, which was formerly occupied by other monks, and is additional evidence beyond what we have from the elevated rather than the secluded position. The only example known to me of a Cistercian establishment on high ground is at Scarborough, close to the approaches of the Castle, and the same arrangement may have occurred here. The history and the site, however, confirm one another, and we may consider it is determined that the Cistercians were not the first monks to settle here, but we have no record of their arrival. The entry of the foundation does not occur in either of Mr. W. de Gray Birch's two lists; and the Brut y Tywysogion does not aid us, although mention is made of the adjacent Castle. "The charter of King Henry makes no mention of the Order of monks; and the fact of the dedication to St. Mary, universal in Cistercian abbeys, does not help us, for it is shared by other and older bodies. We have certain evidence, which has often been referred to, of the existence of a religious settlement here in early times, prior to the year 1119, since in that year Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, being on his way to the Well of St. Winifred, was attacked by the Welsh, and sought refuge in an Abbey in the neighbourhood, which was undoubtedly on the site of the present building. We may safely conclude that the original foundation was by one of the early princes of Wales, since the charters of Llewelyn ap Iorwerth and David his son speak of donations having been given by their predecessors. This evidence is conclusive that the original monks must have been an older body than the Cistercians; but there is no record when, and under what circumstances, the latter became the possessors.2 "It is not my intention to go closer into the present meagre documents, from which all that is known at present of the history is derived. These have frequently been passed under review, and it may be better to leave them until they can be better traced by the light of some probable future discoveries. I will not also attempt to solve the discussion as to whether the charter already referred to was granted by Henry II or Henry III. Two points may, however, be glanced at,- -one is that the building whose ruins we now see could not have existed (except some small part) in 1188, since Giraldus Cambrensis in that year stayed here for one night, and he speaks of the Monastery simply as a small cell' ('Celula de Basingwerk'). 1 It may be noted, however, that Scarborough was but a cell attached to a foreign house, and has nothing whatever of the usual Cistercian plan. 2 These charters are of later date than the time of Henry II, but no mention is made of any charter of this King. This absence of usual custom rather favours my belief that it was Henry III, and not Henry II. King Henry's confirmation is but a grant of gifts to the Monastery, and therefore no preceding charters (if any) had occasion to be referred to. The Chapel of Basingwerk is given by the King, and described as being that in which the monks first dwelt, and we may therefore infer that some new buildings were either erected or in progress. The bulk of the ruins cannot be ascribed to Henry II; but the time of Henry III would do very well. |