This rare addition may have served as a means of suspension.1

Of the first class of cinerary urns, namely, those that may be regarded as earliest in date, Anglesey has supplied another memorable example, the urn brought to light in 1813 in a cist on the banks of the river Alaw, traditionally regarded as having been the depository of the remains of Bronwen the Fair, sister of Brân the father of Caractacus, and consort of the discourteous Matholwch, an Irish prince, from whose insulting treatment she sought refuge in Mona. The spot where this interment was found is marked in the Ordnance Survey ; it is about a mile NE. of the village of Llantrisaint, and about five miles from the mouth of the Alaw, where its waters flow into the æstuary dividing Anglesey from Holyhead Island. The following particulars are extracted from a periodical, the Cambro-Briton, which may not be accessible to many of our readers.

"It is said, in the additions to Camden, edited by Gough, that, according to tradition, the largest of the numerous cromlechs in Anglesea is the monument of Bronwen, daughter of Llyr Llediaith, and aunt of Caractacus. The precise site of this noted pile is not stated; a local antiquary of the last century, Mr. Griffith, in a letter to Mr. Vaughan, of Hengwrt, speaking of Anglesea as the burial-place of many distinguished persons in ancient days, observes, as to Brownwen, the daughter of Leir, there is a crooked little cell of stone, not far west of Alaw, where, according to tradition, she was buried.'"

1 This unique relic of fictile art is figured Proceedings Royal Irish Acad., vol. iv, p. 35; see also vol. v, p. 131; and Sir W. Wilde's Catalogue of the Museum of the Academy, in which the cup is now preserved, p. 179. A little vessel of like dimensions and form, but without a handle, and less elaborate in workmanship, is figured Trans. Kilkenny Arch. Soc. vol. i, p. 136.

2 Vol. iii, p. 200, edit. 1806.

3 It may deserve notice, that the statement above cited as from Gough's additions to the Britannia, is derived from a letter from the Rev. John Davies, Rector of Newborough, to Bishop Gibson, and published in the translation of Camden's work by that learned prelate,

3RD SER., VOL. XIV.

16

The account of the discovery of the interment in 1813 was communicated by Mr. Richard Fenton, the historian of Pembrokeshire, to Sir Richard Colt Hoare, and by that distinguished antiquary to the Cambro-Briton. Its special interest was thus stated by Sir Richard :—

"During the long and minute examination of our numerous barrows in Wiltshire, and especially in the neighbourhood of Stonehenge, I had often reason to lament that, by their contents, we could form no conjecture either at what period, or to what personage, the sepulchral tumulus was raised. But, from the following record, this mysterious deposit seems to have been ascertained. A farmer living on the banks of the Alaw, a river in the Isle of Anglesea, having occasion for stones to make some addition to his farm buildings, and having observed a stone or two peeping through the turf of a circular elevation on a flat not far from the river, was induced to examine it, where, after paring off the turf, he came to a considerable heap of stones, or carnedd, covered with earth, which he removed with some degree of caution, and got to a cist formed of coarse flags canted and covered over. On removing the lid he found it contained an urn placed with its mouth downwards, full of ashes and half-calcined fragments of bone. The report of this discovery soon went abroad, and came to the ears of the parson of the parish, and another neighbouring clergyman, both fond of and conversant in Welsh antiquities, who were immediately reminded of a passage vol. ii, p. 810, second edition, 1722. This valuable communication regarding the antiquities of Mona refers (as above mentioned from the Cambro-Briton) to the letter of the then deceased antiquary, Mr. John Griffith, of Llan Dhyvnan (Llanddyfnan), concerning the "crooked cell" where Bronwen, according to tradition, was buried. "Crooked" seems, by the context, here used as by some old writers, not in the sense of awry, but of bunch-backed or gibbous. Compare Promp. Parv., "crokyd, curvus, refiexus."

1 Cambro-Briton, vol. ii, p. 71; October 1820.

Sir Richard has

also given an extract of this curious account (Ancient Wilts, vol. ii, p. 111). It has also been given Archæol. Journ., vol. vi, p. 237. The discovery is related, with a rough woodcut of the urn, in Angharad Llwyd's Hist. of Mona, 1833, p. 45.

in one of the early Welsh romances called the Mabinogion, or Juvenile Tales, the same that is quoted in Mr. Davis' Latin and Welsh Dictionary, as well as in Richards', under the word Petrual (square)

"Bedd petrual a wnaed i Fronwen ferch

Lyr ar lan Alaw, ac yno y claddwyd hi.”

"A square grave was made for Bronwen, the daughter of Llyr, on the banks of the Alaw, and there she was buried.

66

Happening to be in Anglesea soon after this discovery, I could not resist the temptation of paying a visit to so memorable a spot. I found it in all local respects exactly as described to me by the clergyman above mentioned, and as characterised by the passage cited from the romance. The tumulus raised over the venerable deposit was of considerable circuit, elegantly rounded but low, about a dozen paces from the river Alaw. The urn was presented entire, with the exception of a small bit out of its lip, was ill-baked, very rude, and simple, having no other ornament than little pricked dots, in height from about a foot to fourteen inches, and nearly of the following shape. When I saw the urn the ashes and half-calcined bones were in it. The lady, to whom the ancient tale ascribes them was Bronwen, daughter of Llyr Llediaith (of foreign speech), and sister to Brân the Blessed, as he is styled in the Triads, the father of Caractacus. By the romance, her adventures are connected with Ireland, where she was ill-treated by Matholwch, then king of that country, in consequence of which she left it, and, landing in Wales, the romance tells us she looked back upon Ireland, which,

The following note is here added by the Editor of the CambroBriton, "this spot is still called Ynys Bronwen, or the islet of Bronwen, which is a remarkable confirmation of the genuineness of this discovery."

2 A representation of the urn was given in the Cambro-Briton, of somewhat questionable accuracy, having been supplied by Mr. John Fenton partly from his father's sketch, "and from having seen some scores of the same urns which are uniform in their proportions or shapes, whether found in Wales, Wiltshire, or elsewhere."

freshening the memory of the indignity she had met with there, broke her heart. To confirm the fact of the affront given her one of the Triads (that very ancient and singular Welsh chronicle by Threes) records it as one of the three mischievous blows (with the palm of the hand) of Britain, viz., the blow of Matholwch, the Irishman (Gwyddelian) given to Bronwen, the daughter of Llyr."

In 1821 the urn was in the possession of Richard Llwyd, the "Bard of Snowdon," then living in Chester." It was subsequently presented to the British Museum through the late Dr. Owen Pughe, the Welsh lexicographer; a letter from his son, Aneurin Owen, dated October 15th, 1834, preserved in the correspondence of the Department of Antiquities, announces that the valuable relic had actually been despatched to London.

The so-called "Urn of Bronwen" is here figured. (Fig. 6). Its dimensions are-height, 12 inches; dia

Fig. 6.-Urn, as supposed, of Bronwen, daughter of Llyr. Date of her death, about A.D. 50. 1leight, 12 inches; diameter, at the mouth, 9 ins. British Museum.

1 See the "Three fatal Slaps," Cambro-Briton, vol. ii, p. 10. 2 Note in Cambro-Briton, vol. ii, p. 371. Miss Angharad Llwyd (Hist. of Mona, 1833, p. 45) observes that the urn "is now in the possession of one of the most ingenious of the bards of Mona, who resides in Chester."

meter of the widest part, 11 ins.; of the mouth, 9 ins. It is shown here in the inverted position in which it was stated to have been found; the ornament consists of a few diagonal markings irregularly impressed, and, as Mr. Franks pointed out, somewhat peculiar, such as might be produced by the angular edge of a blunt foursided implement. Within the mouth the lip is slightly curved; the hollow bears two rows of roughly impressed markings as on the outside. On recent examination. there appeared amongst the incinerated contents a paper inscribed-" Bones from Bronwen's urn, August 24, 1813;" also a portion of a cranium that had not been exposed to fire, and a few fragments of a second sepulchral vessel of pale brown ware, elaborately ornamented, and obviously relics of a "drinking cup," of the type already noticed under the fourth class of mortuary fictilia. It is probable that a small portion only of this remarkable urn having been preserved, its discovery has remained unrecorded in the accounts that have been given. The fragments, which have been re-adjusted by the skilful hand of Mr. Franks, were wrapped in a paper that had hitherto escaped observation amongst the pieces of bone, and upon which was found written-" Portions of Bronwen's urn sent to the British Museum. See Cam. Briton." This peculiarly decorated vase bears some resemblance to one of similar form disinterred by Sir R. C. Hoare in a barrow at Beckhampton, Wilts, with a skeleton placed in a cist, the legs drawn up; the cup lay close to the head. Amongst the numerous varieties of the "drinking cup" may also be cited a specimen elaborately decorated, found by Mr. Bateman on Alsop Moor, Derbyshire. No example, however, equals in the curious intricacy of design that which formed so

2

1 Ancient Wilts, vol. ii, p. 93, pl. 35. No other relics accompanied the deposit. Compare also vol. i, plates 17, 18, pp. 164, 168.

2 Vestiges, p. 59. Ten Years' Diggings, p. 285. The skeleton, in a contracted position, lay in a cavity in a rock under a mound. The cup was placed near the head, with a ball of pyrites and flint weapons. There were also barbed arrow-heads and bone implements.