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Effigy in Bettws y Coed Church. Scale 1 in. to 1 ft.

Mr. Matthew Bloxam (Arch. Camb., 1874) remarks that sculptured effigies like this, represented in studded armour, are of extreme rarity.

Canon Morris read a short paper by Mr. Laws and Miss Edwards comparing this with the effigy in Llanuwchllyn Church, illustrated in Arch. Camb., 1885.

They are very similar to each other, and are peculiarly Welsh in character, both have Latin inscriptions in Longobardic lettering, that at Llanuwchllyn bearing date M. CCC. LXX—

Both warriors lie with head on a tilting-helm, and feet resting on a lion. Each wears the conical bascinet or helmet of the period, decorated with a four-leaved flower on either side, but the Llanuwchllyn figure has a further row of these flowers edging his bascinet, the latter may be an ornamented form of vervelles (or loops through which a thong passed attaching the bascinet to the chain tippet below). Each also wears the camail or mail tippet, and a shirt of mail, which is visible under the arms and below the jupon, or closefitting tunic. Both wear roundels of plate at shoulder and elbow, and their arms are defended by brassarts and vambraces of plate, the rivets being very clearly marked, but the Bettws y Coed effigy has epaulières of overlapping plate, while that at Llanuwchllyn has elbow-guards or coudières of conical form with scalloped divisions; the gauntlets of both figures have articulated fingers with conspicuous rivets. Over the right shoulder of the Llanuwchllyn effigy passes what appears to be a strap ornamented at intervals with four-leaved flowers. (This may be the guige or shield-strap, but it is not apparent from the drawing whether or no a shield was worn.) In both cases the armorial bearings are exhibited on the jupon, those of Gruffydd ap Davyd Goch at Bettws being a chevron and two oakleaves in chief, while in those of Johannes ap Gruffydd ap Madoc ap Jorwerth, the field appears to be divided by a chevron with five roses and a wolf's head enclosed, and four roses in chief. The latter jupon carries a scalloped edge. Both effigies are girdled with a bawdrick or belt, that at Bettws ornamented with square platteines centred by four-leaved flowers, and finished with a small shield carrying the wearer's arms as before (a chevron and two oakleaves in chief): the Llanuwchllyn bawdrick is shown on the engraving as plain in front, but having square platteines at the sides, it has probably been rubbed down: there seem also to be two other narrow belts of laminated rings or small circular plates round this figure, while a curious arrangement of straps depends in front. The thighs are in each case enclosed in cuisses of plate, genouillières cover the knees and jambs the legs, these latter are attached by straps passing behind the leg. Sollerets or shoes of laminated and scalloped plate cover the feet, spur-leathers only are shown at Llanuwchllyn, while Bettws y Coed has seven-pointed rowel spurs. A great many rivets are visible in both figures: those on the jambs of Johannes ap Gruffydd looking like large buttons.

We have effigies of this period in Pembrokeshire, two in St.

David's Cathedral, supposed to have been erected by one of the Corbet family in the latter part of the fourteenth century to the memory of the Lord Rhys and Rhys Gryg, the other at Upton Castle representing a Malefant; these are all of the English type, they differ from the Welsh examples in several particulars. They have no inscriptions. The St. David's figures are, from an artistic point of view, very superior work, and the Upton man, though not so commendable, has not that wooden look of his Welsh contemporaries. Our Pembroke effigies do not exhibit such a profusely riveted appearance as is notable in the Welsh, but they are much more highly padded. Edward the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral is the type of this fashion in armour.

The two-decker pulpit, with elaborate Jacobean carving, is inscribed o. w. E. 1697. Opinions were divided as to the date of the font, which was of a style apparently much later than "Early English."

Mounting the carriages, the party drove up the great Telford incline to Pentrevoelas, eager to inspect the much-debated Levelinus Stone. This was reached from the village by passing through the farmyard at the back of the old mansion of Voelas. Here is a tumulus, which, according to Pennant, is the site of a fort destroyed by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, who subsequently granted the land around (called as late as 1854 Tir yr Abad), to the Abbey of Aberconwy, which he founded.

A short way off from this tumulus, in a small clearing in a wood surrounded by a ditch, stands the Levelinus Stone, 8 ft. high, 2 ft broad, and 1 ft. thick. It is not in its original situation, for until 1790 it stood "at a green gate leading from the turnpike road to Voelas Old Hall." The inscription, which is on the middle of the narrower side, has long been a matter of dispute, the badly-cracked stone, a curious mixture of capital letters and minuscules, and the many abbreviations and ligatures, contributing to the difficulty of deciphering it satisfactorily.

Lewis Morris, in Notes on Some Inscribed Stones in Wales, (Add. MSS. 14,907, 188 b.) writes: "The inscription at Voelas, in the county of Denbigh, which is mentioned in Gibson's Camden, p. 686, but falsely copied and most whimsically read by Mr. Ed. Llwyd, was carefully copied in 1760 ["and again 1764" W. Davies' Miscell. II, 219] by my friend, the Rev. Evan Evans, from whose copy I have inserted it here."

EGO lohl INDOI I Alhuend
Foron Se BRAUDNEE 11 RUL
LavLior Priceps NOLIN

Lewis Morris' Copy of Inscription

In a letter to The Times, June 1, 1909, Mr. E. Williams B.
Nicholson, Bodley's Librarian, offered the following reading :-
In Xristo (monogram)

Est pro hoc lapide in Bal Emr[ys]
fortitudine brachii ce[le]br[is]
Lewelinus princeps Northw[allie]

i.e., quite literally translated

In Christ

Is in-front-of this stone-on the Mound of Emrys-
For might of arm celebrated

Lewelin Prince of Northwales.

"The Mound of Emrys must have been the name of the great neighbouring mound now called the Moel."

"The Northw of the last line (in which th is represented by the English thorn' character has been mis-read as Hic hu(matus) and the stone has been supposed to mark the burial-place of Llywelyn, son of Seisyllt, who died in 1021. The characters are, however, of a far later date, and the stone indicates the resting-place of the headless body of Edward I's antagonist, the Llywelyn who was killed in 1282 in a skirmish near Builth."

"He died under excommunication, which prohibited burial in consecrated ground. An effort was made post mortem to obtain the removal of the ban, but we have no record that it succeeded, nor any contemporary evidence that he was buried anywhere, but only that his head was cut off, paraded in London, and set on the Tower."

Llywelyn's grandfather was buried at Aberconwy, which he founded. The monastery, however, fell under the power and patronage of Edward I, who soon moved it to a site some miles off. The monks, out of regard for the grandson of their founder, may well have thought it safest to bury the body of the King's enemy in a distant corner of their property, the land of Pentre Foelas, which, though unconsecrated, was Church property, enjoyed a quasi consecrated character and was known as "Tir yr Abad," the Abbot's land.

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The stone is now surrounded by an iron railing, but the inscription, as Mr. Harrison suggested, needs protection from the weather and from injurious treatment by rubbings and markings. Canon Morris dealt, letter by letter, with the inscription as read by Mr. Nicholson, pointing out (1) the ligatured letters, as pr, de, em in the first line; or in the second line, and we in "Lewelinus"; (2) for in (first line), in Fortitudine, and in Lewelinus and princeps. (3) celebris would rather be, as Professor Sayce suggested, celeberrimus abbreviated, as there is clearly an m in the last word of that line. Professor Sayce, who expressed a decided opinion that Mr. Nicholson's reading was correct, was able to see distinctly two l's at the end of the last word, which he felt sure was Wallie.

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