therefore, no great effort of the imagination to realise the consoling and inspiring influence which would be exercised by a holy recluse, or by some devoted missionary, who pitched his humble oratory among such surroundings; or the peril of life at which he made his pious venture; indeed, the epithet "Merthyr" settles that point. A house of prayer, a holy counsellor, a sanctuary from civil and foreign strife, must have attracted many a pilgrim and sped him on his way, and so the humble oratory grew in reputation, in extent and influence. The mud walls and leafy covering (a-deil-ad) must have passed through many gradations of wattle and dab, of timber and of stone; but the site would be clung to as hallowed ground, for there was the altar with all its sacred and ever-accruing associations. At first, no doubt, it was dwelling and oratory all in one; but by degrees they were divided off; and when at last a room was raised above for the priest and his passing guests, the stone altar with its five crosses retained its old position; and its solemnity was increased by a shrine with either the figure of the founder or, as more likely, a statue of the Virgin. Not long after this, it is probable that the church was added on to its east wall, which was also pierced through with a hagioscope, through which the two altars could be seen from the western chapel and those within it could participate with those in the nave in the "privileges" of hearing mass and of witnessing the elevation of the Host.1

Indeed, the actual time when this took place appears to be fixed by the rare inscription on the font, "Menhir me fecit i' te'pore Genillin," for "Cynhyllyn, or

1 "Pump rinwedd offeren sul ynt y rei hynn. cyntaf o honunt yw bod yn hwy dy hoedyl. ar vod pob offeren vyth a wrandewych. Eil yw maddeu dy vwyt amryt or sul y gilydd. Trydydd yw maddeu dy van pechoden or sul y gilydd. Pedwerydd yw a gerddych y gyrchu offeren Sul. bot yn gytal itt. a phei as roddut o dref dy tat yn dirdawn y Dduw. Pymhet yw. ot a dyn yr Purdan gorffwys a geiff. yn gyhyt a phob offeren a wrandawo."Hengwrt MSS. xi, 295 and 296.

Cenhillyn Voel, was the only son and heir of Rhys Goch and Lord of Ystradyw; and this is remarkably confirmed by the record in the Book of Llandav that "In Ystrad Yw (Hereward, Bishop of Llandaff, 10551103) consecrated the church of Llanfihangel (Cwmdu) and the church of Llangenny and Llanbedr, and Merthyr Issiu; and he committed the cure of those churches to Madweith and to Isaac after him, and to Beatus the priest, whom the Bishop himself had ordained to the priesthood, and whom he continued to hold in all episcopal subjection in the time of King William, and of William the Earl and Walter de Lasci."2 Many points of interest are opened up in this statement.

1. We note that the consecration took place in the time of the independent native lords of Ystradyw, before it had been overrun by Bernard Newmarch and his Normans.

2. We see that up to this time it had been and was in the diocese of Llandaff, and that its transfer to St. David's must have followed after the Norman occupation.

3. We need not suppose that this "consecration' meant that there had been no churches in this part before; but we gather that they received a new and more definite ecclesiastical status. Most likely, indeed, they were rebuilt on a new or larger plan, and a definite cure of souls attached to them, where previously they had been served from the mother-church of Cwmdu, under the shadow of Cynhyllyn's castle at Tretower. In this particular instance it may have been a rebuilding in stone; for Giraldus Cambrensis, in describing

1 Jones's Brecknockshire, 2nd ed., p. 378.

24 Inistratyw consecravit ecclesiam sancti michaelis. et ecclesiam lann cetguinn et lannpetyr. et merthir issiu. et curam ecclesiarum illarum commendauit matgueith et isaac post illum. et beato presbitero quos ipse episcopus ordinaverat in presbiteros. et quos tenuit inomni episcopali subjectione tempore uuillelmi regis. et comitis uuillelmi. et uualteri delaci."-Book of Llandav, ed. 1893, p. 279. 3 It may be noted that Gwladus, the sister of Cynhyllyn, was the wife of Ynyr, King of Gwent.

Llanthoni a hundred years later, makes special mention of the material: "lapideo tabulatu pro loci natura non indecenter extructa"-" built of wrought stone, and, considering the nature of the place, not unhandsomely constructed."

4. The record on the font implies that the church had now at least the privilege of a "Capella baptismalis," and its designation as, not a vicarage but a "rectory annexed," supports this inference.

5. When, therefore, Bishop Herewald consecrated the church, did he re-dedicate it in the old name of "Ishow," or did he, as was so often the case, adopt a new dedication? I am led to conclude that he adopted the usual practice, and dedicated it in the name of the Virgin; or, even if the chancel were added later as a Lady-chapel, the same rule would apply to that addition. That there was a dedication to the Virgin is shown by the name of the stream which flows below it, Nant Mair (St. Mary's brook), and by the name of the roadside farm, "Llanfair"; but that this did not supersede the older one is testified, as already noticed, by the survival of the name of the Holy Well as "Ffynnon Ishow," and by the general appellation of the church and parish.

6. We do not know the exact date of the succession of Cenhillyn to his father, Rhys Goch's, lordship, but Herewald's episcopate began in 1056, and William's reign in 1066; and we may put down the institution, if not also the consecration, to soon after that event.

7. The institution of Madweith and his successors is extremely interesting, and is almost unique for its early date and the names of the individuals instituted. The churches put in charge represented practically the whole of the Lordship, and it was treated as one parish; and so, when a controversy arose later on between the 1 The Itinerary, p. 354.

2 The four altars (for there must have been one in the chancel) would still fall short of the five at Llanddewi Brefi; "Pym allawr breui."-Myf. Ar., p. 196.

Bishops of Llandaff and St. David's about the jurisdiction, P. Honorius describes the five lordships in dispute as so many parishes: "illas quinque plebes uidelicet Guoher. Chedueli. Cantre bachan. estrateu. Erchin."

In the first half of the following century a terrible revenge was taken in the upper part of this valley. The Welsh Chronicle informs us that "in 1135, Morgan ap Owen, a man of considerable quality and estate in Wales, remembering the wrong and injury he had received at the hands of Richard Fitz Gilbert, slew him, together with his son Gilbert." And Giraldus Cambrensis enables us to identify the spot where it took place as "the passage of Coed Grono," i.e., of the Wood on the Grwyney, or, as it was afterwards called, the "Wood of Vengeance" (Coed dial). This Richard [de Clare] had two castles in Cardiganshire, and was on his way thither when he met his death. "At the passage of Coed Grono, and at the entrance into the wood, he dismissed him (Brian de Wallingford, Lord of this province) and his attendants, though much against their will, and proceeded on his journey unarmed, from too great a presumption of security, preceded only by a minstrel and a singer, one accompanying the other on a fiddle. The Welsh awaiting his arrival, with Iorwerth, brother of Morgan of Caerlleon, at their head, and others of his family, rushed upon him unawares from the thickets, and killed him and many of his followers.3 This spirit of bitter retaliation, arising from the unscrupulous greed of the Normans, was strong in this district; as, indeed, it

1 Book of Llandav, p. 46.

2 Is this personal name, "Grono," the origin of the name of the river "Grwyney"? The transition from the full form "Goronwy" to Grwyney would be easy; but to have a river named after a person would be most unusual, and the river-name " Grwyney" may be the truer form of the word "Coed Gronwy," as it is sometimes called.

The Itinerary through Wales (Bohn), p. 365.

must have been wherever the Marcher Lords planted their invading foot. "The natives of these parts (ie., the mountains of Talgarth and Ewyas), actuated by continual enmities and implacable hatred, are perpetually engaged in bloody contests. Indeed, in the stanzas on "the characteristics of different parts of Wales" (Cynneddfau amryw o Barthau Cymru) we find these features stereotyped on this part of the Borderland,

"Brecknock is full of treason, and there is war in Ystrad Towey.

In Ewyas is found hatred and starvation;

"In Glyn bwch are mangling and sharp words;

"In Talgarth robbery and shame, bribes and lawyers."2

Some fifty years later in the century, Giraldus himself passed through, when in 1188 he accompanied Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, on his crusading mission through Wales. On their way from Llanddew,* near Brecon, to Abergavenny, they did not follow the shorter and easier route down the Usk Valley, but "took the road to Talgarth, a small village a little to the south-east of the road leading from Brecknock to Hay; from whence, climbing up a steep pitch, now called "Rhiw Cwnstabl," or the Constable's ascent, he crossed the Black Mountains of Llanelieu to the source of the Gronwy-fawr river, which rises in that eminence and

1 The Itinerary through Wales, p. 353.

2 "A Brycheiniog yn llawn brad a chad yn ystrad towri.

Cnawd

yn euas gas ac oerfel

Ynglyn bwch trwch trychu chwedel

A lledrad ynhalgarth a gwarth a gwerth a Chwnsel."

Myf. Arch. (Ed. 1870), p. 357.

3 This was Giraldus's own residence, of which he writes:"Collateralem & propinquum principali de Brecheinoc castro loculum habens & domicilium felici quadam mediocritate studiis idoneum atque labori. Quem suis semper delitiis plenum & æternitatis amicum Crosi divitiis longe præfero: quinimo cunctis que perire ac preterire possunt, incomparabiliter antepono.-Itin. Cambr., vol. i, p. 97.