ing on towards Caerwys; and at the same time there are traces, along that line, of Roman occupation. Hawarden is spelt in Doomsday, Haordine, and seems to be Caerdin. Near Moel y Gaer, you have Croesstreet, the only name I can find at all significative of a Roman way. Between there and Northop is Castell; between Northop and Haordine is Ewloe Castle. To the north-west of Moel Crio you come (on the Ordnance map) upon a straight piece of road, which seems to begin from nowhere, if I may so say, passing between Craig Madog and Pwll Melyn; the eastern termination of the road seems to lead off the mountain, from the direction of Moel Crio; by this you may pass, leaving Ys Keiviog to the right, down into the present Mold and Denbigh road, near Maes Myunan, leaving Caerwys high up on the right, and so on to Bodfari, Pontryffydd, and Denbigh; from whence it might proceed through Henllan, to Llanefydd, passing there a large encampment on Mynydd y Gaer, and on to Bettws and Conway. I admit this is not a line the Romans would have chosen for a road, perhaps. Some parts lie too much in the valleys; still, if they found a route that way, I think they would use it. Such I conceive to be the case with Sarn Helen, which, as far as I have seen it, I cannot think was originally contrived by the Romans. I may mention, as some way giving probability to the conjecture, that, in an old edition of Oğilby's Road Book, now before me, dated 1720, I find the great Irish road from Chester taking pretty nearly this route, viz., Chester to Bretton (a village in Saltney); thence to Broughton; through Haordine, to Northop; from there over “Lagin Haggin Hill,” (which I cannot identify, except it be part of Halkin Mountain,) leaving Ysceifiog on the left, and Maes Mynan on the right, to Denbigb; thence through Henllan and Llanefydd, to Bettws and Conway. But this mere conjecture of the line of the Roman road is not confirmed by any discoveries on it; and I merely throw it out to call your attention to that line of country.”

H. L. J.

NEWTOWN CHURCH, MONTGOMERYSHIRE. As the old parish church of Newtown will, in all probability, have ceased to exist before the Association has had an opportunity of inspecting the antiquities of Montgomeryshire, I think it advisable, before it is too late, to leave a record of its existence in the pages of the Archæologia Cambrensis.

Nave, CHANCEL, AND AISLE.— The church belongs to a type common in the border counties of Wales, consisting of a nave and chancel, each with an aisle of equal or but little inferior breadth, or, if you please, a double nave and chancel, each with a compass roof. The real nave, which is on the north side, is distinguished in this instance by being somewhat broader than the aisle, by having the tower at the west end of it, and by the panelled roof of the chancel, which lies to the east. The aisle is divided from the main body of the church by a wooden arcade, of eight narrow bays. Octagonal pillars of oak, whose diameter east and west is somewhat greater than that from north to south, carry obtusely pointed arches of timber cut out of the solid. These support a wall-plate (if it is not a misnomer) from which spring the roofs of both the chancels and naves. At the centres of the arches there are pendants, and the capitals of the pillars exhibit a tendency to cinque-cento. Three bays are assigned to the chancel, and these are distinguished by a trifling change of detail. There is no chancel arch of

kind. The roofs (except that of the chancel) probably belonged to the class which the Association had an opportunity of observing in the Vale of Clwyd, viz., those which combine the hammer-beam with the forms so common in central Wales; but, as the church wardens of past ages have amused themselves by ceiling the roof between the timbers, the design is at present obscured. Hammer-beams there certainly are, and those in the south chancel are decorated with angels of remarkable

any kind.

a

size and rubicundity; those of the two naves have either lost them, or have never possessed them, although they were clearly designed to have them. The roof of the true nave has, in addition, tie-beams at intervals, a difference probably necessitated by its greater breadth. The chancel roof is, as usual, panelled; but the arch of the principals does not coincide with the section of the panelling; and they have hammer-beams, also adorned with angels. There is a south door and porch of no assignable date. The nave has two windows on the north side, in the second and fourth bays, and there is one in the fourth bay of the south aisle. These, with one in the second bay of the chancel, and one in the easternmost bay of the south chancel, are Late Perpendicular, square-headed, of two cinquefoiled lights; their reararches are segmental pointed. In the

westernmost bay of the south chancel there is a Decorated window of two lights, whose head coincides with its own rear-arch, and corresponds in form to those of the others. The woodmoulding is rather curiously returned, in a manner that reminds one rather of the German stump-tracery. There is an extremely pretty little Decorated window, squareheaded, of two ogee lights, placed high in the north wall, between the nave and chancel, evidently to light the roodloft. The east window of the chancel is roundheaded, of three lights, without foliations, the mullions running straight up into the head, apparently the work of the seventeenth century. That of the south chancel is also of three lights, each trefoiled, and having two fenestellæ. The arch is obtusely pointed. The aisle has a west window, which has neither tracery nor any detail to enable us to determine its date.

The Tower stands at the west end of the nave, and occupies the full width of it. It is of a form extremely common in this part of Wales. The tower itself is extremely bulky, and rises but little above the ridge of the roof. Upon the top of it is placed a low wooden belfry, with a pyramidal capping. As this is only as wide as the interior of the tower, and the thick walls of the latter are sloped away and slated, it has the appearance of standing upon a truncated pyramid.

The Font consists of an octagonal basin, having its sides adorned with rudely executed quatrefoils, and standing on a slender shaft which appears to have supplanted the original support.

RooD-SCREEN.- This is an extremely elaborate specimen of its class, rich with carving and with gold and colour. It runs across both nave and aisle, and is divided into two compartments by one of the wooden piers. The projecting arched canopy, which formed the roodloft, is

, not so divided, but forms a single piece. It is now set upright on the top of the screen, and the open parapet, which originally surmounted it, is now fixed behind and concealed by it. The whole is of the latest Perpendicular, but bears no marks of cinque-cento.

It is commonly believed at Newtown that this screen was removed from Abbey Cwm Hîr, in Radnorshire. I do not know that any one has ever taken the pains to test the tradition by the simple process of measurement. Whether it fits the church at Abbey Cwm Hîr or not, there can be no doubt that it perfectly fits its present position, and that it was originally constructed either for it, or for another building of equal dimensions. Possibly another church of the same size may be found within twenty miles of Newtown, but it is on the whole easier to suppose that the screen was originally set up where we now find it. In all probability the Abbey Church of Cwm Hîr possessed a heavy stone screen, but, to judge from the parallel legend current at Llanidloes, its weight must have been enormous to have prevented tradition from transporting it, like the Santa Casa of Loretto, over the mountains into Montgomeryshire.

However, where it came from is just at present a less practical question than where it is to go to. The old church is condemned. In fact it is already executed, and is only waiting to be buried. Never was such a “slovenly unhandsome corse” of a building. One would

most of all desire to see it well repaired, and restored to its

proper use. But it appears that the good people of Newtown have enough and to spare of church accommodation, and are not likely to require a second church for some centuries to come. Besides, it is said that Sabrina occasionally retaliates the cruelty of her “enraged stepmother upon the unoffending parishioners, by completely deluging the old church and the adjoining houses. It is an awkward alternative, but if the church cannot be restored, the sooner it is destroyed the better, for a more deplorable appearance than it now presents it is impossible to conceive.

But then there is the rood-screen. I am glad to find that it retains the affection of some of the parishioners so far that they are desirous to preserve it in some shape or other. It is proposed to transfer it to the new church; but what part it is to play–when it has got there, I do not exactly see. These are not altogether days for screens and roodlofts, and although one would gladly see so beautiful a structure preserved in a proper place, the satisfaction would be considerably diminished if it should prove impossible to do so without interfering with the exigencies of Divine worship. In the meantime, I must put in one last appeal for the old church. Highly as the parishioners value their roodloft, they appear to set too little store by what, though less beautiful, is much more curious. I mean the extraordinary wooden arcade. Mr. Freeman has pointed out a parallel, though not altogether similar, instance, at Llandeilo Bertholey, in Monmouthshire, and I have no doubt that others are to be found in the eastern counties of the Principality, rich as they invariably are in timber work. The people of Newtown, as usual, undervalue their church : can no means be devised for its preservation ?

W. BASIL JONES. Gwynfryn, Oct. 10, 1854.