“How many hearts have here grown cold,
That sleep these mouldering stones among!
How many beads have here been told!
How many matins here been sung!
But here no more soft music floats,
No holy anthems chanted now;
All hush’d, except the ring-dove’s notes,
Low murmuring from yon beachen bough.”
The Abbey of Llan Egwest, or Valle Crucis, so called from a very ancient inscribed pillar or cross, the mutilated remains of which stand in an adjacent field, and will next come under consideration, was built and founded by Madog Ap Gryffydd Maelor, Lord of Dinas Bran, as before related under the head of Dinas Bran.This Abbey was built in the year of our Lord 1200, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and belonged to a community of Cistercian Monks, an order founded in France in the year 1098. The remains of the Abbey Church are the most picturesque and entire part. It was built in the form of a cross, which was contrary to the form in common use before the twelfth century. [114]
This proves that Madog availed himself of the aid of skilful workmen, and it is probable that the fraternity called Free Masons were employed, as they were incorporated about this time, and were the chief undertakers of such works. Their government was regular, and they were wont to make an encampment of huts. A surveyor governed in chief; every tenth man being called a warden, and overlooking nine. They ranged from one country to another, as they found churches to be built. [115]
The Church is built in different styles of architecture. The east end seems the most ancient, and the three lancet-like arched windows have a very peculiar effect. It is situated at the foot of a lofty hill, called Fron Fawr, and a little stream runs at the back of the Abbey, skirting its gardens, and turning a corn-mill in its passage to the Dee. The view from the high bank beyond the rivulet (which is crossed by a rustic plank bridge) of the east end of the Church and Abbey, is particularly beautiful.On its front or west side rise the Berwyn Mountains; on the east, the Fron Fawr; and the whole is so enveloped in beautiful foliage that it is perhaps one of the most enchantingly secluded places in the kingdom. The west front of the Church affords some admirable specimens of ancient gothic architecture. The grand entrance has been through the ornamented pointed arch gateway at the west end; over which is a fine gothic window, consisting of three lancet-shaped arches, surmounted by a circular or rose window, of eight divisions; but it is too lofty to admit of close inspection, as is also the following mutilated inscription, which is above it:—
AD . . . ADAM . . . DMS fecit hoc opus. Pace beata quiescat. Amen.
MD . . .
The rest of the last line is obliterated. The following translation may not be unacceptable:—
AD . . . ADAM . . . DMS built (or rebuilt) this work. May he rest in happy peace. Amen.
MD . . .
The letters MD seem to have been meant as part of the date marking the time when the Church was repaired, and go far to prove the little veneration shown to this once elegant structure by the neighbouring people, and that its dilapidation was unusually rapid. Now, we will suppose that the inscription MD means 1500, and allow that it was then in complete repair, and that it was one of the first Abbeys dissolved, say in 1538; for I do not read that Henry VIII. began his reformation among the religious houses before that time; I find in Camden’s Britannia, speaking of this place, the following passage:—“Save onely a little Abbay, now wholly decaied, but standing most richly and pleasantly in a vale, which among the woody hils cutteth itself overthwart in manner of a crosse, whereupon it was called in Latin Vallis Crucis, that is, the Vale of the Crosse, and in British, Lhane Gwest.” [118a]
Camden’s great work, Britannia, was published in 1586; and from these facts I draw my conclusion that it was ransacked and destroyed soon after its dissolution, as I suppose it was—
In complete repair, A.D. 1500;
Dissolved by order of Henry VIII. A.D. 1538; [118b]Wholly decayed, as by Camden, 1586. [119]
Of the magnificence of this ancient Monastery no adequate description can now be given, and scarcely an idea formed of what it has been. The body and nave of the Church are disfigured, and nearly choked up with masses of ruins, and large and luxuriant forest trees, among which the ash and sycamore are most predominant. The length of the Church is about one hundred and eighty feet; the width I can only guess at, as the north side is wholly gone. An author before me says the nave was thirty-one feet broad, and the side aisle thirteen feet.In the north transept are the remains of a chapel, said by some to have contained the tomb of the founder. In a wall in the cloister stands a double benetoir, or vessel for holy water. The cloister is small and gloomy, whose
“Storied windows, richly dight,
Have shed a dim religions light.”
The solemnity of the place, and the stillness that reigns, aided by the subdued light of the moon, and by a vivid fancy, may conjure up strange ideas, and
“Still may imagination’s ardent eye
In the tall grove the sage’s form espy;
See him intent with sacred zeal to plan
Some moral lesson for ungrateful man.”
The part of the Abbey now remaining is inhabited by a farmer, who will show the premises on proper application. There, is a Saxon or semicircular arched gateway in the farm-yard, adjoining a very curious gothic window, well worthy attention. The dormitory or sleeping cells were formerly entered by stone stairs from the outside, which have been removed within the last two years. The floor of the dormitory is supported by low massive pillars; and the arches which spring from their capitals form vaulted rooms, in which the family reside. There are many beautiful features in this interesting ruin, to amply repay the attention of the curious, and the research of the antiquarian. The front seems to have been extensive, and before it gurgles up a very pure spring of water. The Abbot’s apartments were contiguous to the church, and there opened from one of them a small space, where he might stand, and hear the holy services performed below.
The venerable ruin is lessened by every succeeding tenant, and some of the recently erected buildings exhibit stones with mutilated devices and inscriptions worked up in the walls. In one of the farmer’s bedchambers a stone forms part of a chimney-piece, which is carved with running foliage, and contains this imperfect inscription:—
This is the only remain of any tomb discovered. In digging a few months ago in the farm-yard, to make a drain, at a short distance from the surface were dug up the remains of eleven men, in a very small compass of ground, which goes far to prove that this was the common cemetery of the Abbey; and also a wedge-like stone, having carved on its front a hand, holding a vine or olive branch, bearing fruit. The stone is now at Plas Newydd.
I have in my account of Castell Dinas Bran recorded that Madog Ap Gryffydd Maelor was buried in this Abbey, A.D. 1236; and his son, Gryffydd Ap Madog Maelor, Lord of Dinas Bran, A.D. 1270.
Having thus given the best account I can of the present state of this once noble Abbey, I now proceed to state what I can collect from authentic sources of its Abbots and its endowments.
Reyner, Bishop of St. Asaph, who died in 1224, bestowed on this Abbey half the tithes of Wrexham. Abraham, his brother, succeeded him in the Bishoprick in 1227, and gave the remaining half. [124a]
Howel Ap Ednyfed, successor to Abraham, gave to it the Church of Llangollen. [124b] The monks also obtained, besides these endowments, the patronage of several other livings, as Wrexham, Ruabon, Chirk, Llansanfraid, and Llandegla.
The freemen of Llangollen made a grant in part of the river near their town of a fishery to the monks of Valle Crucis; and, for want of a seal of their own, affixed the seal of the founder of the Abbey to the grant. [124c]
The landed endowments were, in the year 1291, near the Abbey, a grange, with three ploughlands, [125] a mill, and other conveniences, probably the donations of the founder Madog; the granges of Bodhange, Tregam, Rudryn, and Baketon. I have no means of ascertaining who were the donors of the farms, but I find they had also the dairy farm of Nante; the grange of Nostroyz, Convenet, and Grennychamt; also the grange of Wyrcessam, consisting of one ploughland and some pasture, with thirty cows, valued in those days at only thirty shillings.
All these estates were vested in the Abbot for the time being, and formed no inconsiderable revenue; but the title of the monks to several of the livings was disputed by a succeeding Bishop of St. Asaph, called Y Brawd Du O Nannau, or the Black Brother of Nanny, who obtained a decision in his favour. The third of the tithes of Bryn Eglwys, or Egwestl, was, however, allotted to them, in lieu of the patronage of Llandegla.
The monks had also a dispute with the freemen of Llangollen respecting the fishery, the former having erected works on the river, whereby they caught more fish than the Llangollen folks thought came to their share, or than abstemious monks could require. However, the affair was referred to the Prince of Wales, and the fishery was confirmed to the Abbey in 1234.
I will now lay before my readers a short account of some of the Abbots.Dafydd Ap Ivan Jorwerth is highly celebrated by a bard in the year 1480, who says of him, and of his successor, Ivan, or John, that they lived in great splendour, that they had four courses every day served on bright silver dishes, and they drank claret, &c. He also commends the piety of the house, and says that he was so happy as to be blessed by Abbot John, who had three of his fingers covered with rings. The last Abbot was John Herne, who received an annuity of 23l. per annum on his surrender. In 1553 this annuity, and others to some of the surviving monks, to the amount of 10l. 13s. 4d. were the whole of the remaining charges. [127]
This is said to be the first Abbey that was dissolved in Wales, and it remained in the crown until the ninth of James I. who then granted it to Edward Wotton, created Lord Wotton. In 1654, Margaret Wotton was in possession. She was a recusant, and Cromwell then put it under sequestration to Edward Davies, the Cneifwr GlÂs of Eglwyseg.
The last possessor, Mrs. Thomas, of Trevor Hall, built a kind of summer-house at the back of the Abbey, adjoining to a pond abounding with trout. Here was a charming field for the display of taste; but, as in the hut at the top of Dinas Bran, the opportunity has been lost.
Leaving the Abbey, let us now proceed through the adjoining meadow to the Pillar of Eliseg, from which the valley takes its name.
