Fig. 16 illustrates the remains of a most interesting crucifix. The same figure, carved in almost identical lines, appears on the front and back faces of the stone. The heads are missing. The figures are thick-set. The arms were extended on separate stones (now missing), dowelled to the main stem. The heads appear to have reclined on the right shoulders. The ends of the flowing hair fall over either shoulder. The drapery about the loins is knotted on the right side. The feet are placed side by side. The stone is laminated, and,

I FOOT

Fig. 16.-Remains of Crucifix in Cwm Church, Flintshire.

as necessary in works of this nature, the beds are vertical, and therefore specially liable to deterioration. The stone was built in a wall in the vicarage garden, exposed to all weathers. It has now being placed on a bracket inside the church, against the west wall.

The old coffer, Fig. 17, is solidly constructed, with bottom, ends, front, back, and top of solid oak boards, bound together with wrought-iron straps, and strengthened, at a later date, by strips of lighter iron. The top is in two divisions: one having a small slit, evidently intended as a money-receiver. The two halves have been provided with locks, but originally the lids

9

would have been secured, either by separate padlocks through the three staples, or by means of an iron bar inserted through the staples and secured at the end. Large scaled details of the knuckle of the hinge, the staple and flap, are given. The chest would probably be of seventeenth-century workmanship. Fig. 18 represents the key of the south door, showing a shank of unusual length.

During the carrying out of the recent repairs, the workmen came across a brick vault under the northern portion of the sanctuary. Within it lay three lead coffins. According to tradition, a former Vicar and his

Fig. 18.-Key of South Door of Cwm Church,
Flintshire.

two wives are said to have been buried in this position. The vault and coffins were not disturbed.

The font is an inaccurately-worked four-sided bowl. The lower external edge is chamfered. The base and stem are modern.

Of ancient church plate, there is a chalice bearing the inscription:

66

'RHODD KICHARD PARRY, ESQ., i'w eglwys BLWYF

Y CWM, 1647."

In the care of the Vicar is an old pewter pot with hinged lid and handle, holding roughly speakingtwo pints, formerly used at funerals as a loving-cup, to hold the spiced ale.

A fact in connection with the history of the Register Books shows how careful those who are privileged to be custodians of property of national or public interest should be of the treasures placed in their charge. A few years past, the Rev. T. Major Rees received a letter from a gentleman in London, of whom he had no knowledge, asking if he had missed one of the old Registers of Cwm Church. He had seen, he added, one book for sale in a second-hand bookshop in London. The Vicar looked through the old Registers, and found one volume missing. He reported the matter to the Archdeacon, now Bishop of Bangor, who warmly took the subject up, with the result that finally the missing volume was recovered.

Archdeacon Thomas, in his History of the Diocese of St. Asaph, p. 287, mentions that three four-cornered bells are stated to have been discovered on the hill near the church, and to have been called respectively, The yellow bell of Cwm," "The white bell of Abergele,' and "The blue bell of Llanddulas."

Such is the history we may gather from an examination of the fabric and the treasures it contains. We have a series of links connecting us with the inhabitants of Cwm and the worshippers in its church during each century, from the fourteenth onward to our own time.

239

CAERWENT.

BY M. L. DAWSON.

THE recent explorations at Caerwent have resulted in such interesting discoveries, that all antiquaries must regret that so little is known of the early story of the place. History is all but silent with regard to Caerwent, and the only description of the ancient city which has come down to us is contained in the verses attributed to St. Tathan, who lived there in the sixth century:

"Urbs bona, fertilis, ardua, nobilis, Guentoniensis,
Sors mea, dedita gratia celica civibus istis.
Sedula subveniat, que vos defendere curat,
Et nos defendat, qui defendenda gubernat."

Which may be thus translated :—

A city that is good, fruitful, lofty, noble-situated
in Gwent,

Which is my lot, and granted by heavenly favour
to its citizens;

And which constantly affords succour, being careful

to defend you,

And it defends us, and governs those who are to be

defended.

But though history, in the strict sense of the word, tells us little or nothing about the place, we find in the lives of the Welsh Saints so many incidental notices of Caerwent, that by collecting them together we are able to form a very tolerable idea of the place as it was in those early days. After the departure of the Romans, it would appear that Caerwent, like many another Roman town, continued to be a place of importance, and there the kings of Gwent fixed their royal residence and capital. It was probably here that the exiled royal family of Armorica found an asylum at the court