The island itself is daily falling a prey to the inroads of the sea, considerable portions being sometimes washed away; and since the soil is of a diluvial nature, filled with boulders, it is likely in future times to be entirely destroyed. As it is, the graves of persons buried on the surface, for the whole of it forms the church-yard, are frequently laid open, and their remains dispersed by the waves. No efforts appear to be made to stop this dilapidation; nor, indeed, could they be permanently successful when the peculiar geographical position of the spot is taken into account. This little island may, perhaps, have served, like others on the Welch coast, for a retreat for the Saint, after whom the church is named, Cwyfen, son of Brwyno Hên ab Dyfnog; only the circumstance of the endowment being a chapelry instead of a rectory, and therefore not constituting the mother church, militates, according to Professor Rees's learned hypothesis, against this supposition. The church itself consisted, until lately, of a nave, or principal aisle, with a chapel, or subsidiary aisle, added on to it upon the northern side, but the latter was lately taken down because it wanted repair. This aisle, no doubt, was of the perpendicular style, inasmuch as the pier arches, which are embedded, remain in what is once more the northern wall of the church, and are of the same style as those at Aberffraw and Gwalchmai, with flattened arches, unusually short piers, and rude double bases. The principal aisle is about the end of the fourteenth century; for, though the eastern window is rather earlier in style, the southern doorway is of good early perpendicular work. (See plate.) The dimensions of this small edifice are only forty-eight feet by eighteen feet, externally; the walls are twelve feet high, and the gable to the summit is only eighteen feet. At the west end is a single bell-gable, with an ogee-curved top; two small single-light windows, the easternmost cinquefoiled, occur in the southern wall, and one like the latter in the northern; while the eastern window is of two lights trefoiled, with a quatrefoil above in the head of the arch, the tracery being of one order, and is a pure specimen of the decorated style. The font is of uncommon design, from the ornamentation of the angles of its base, but it is probably not of earlier date than the nave in which it stands.1 Against the northern wall near the altar, is a modern monumental slab 1 See Plate of Fonts in No. I.

TREF GWALCHMAI, or, as it is more commonly called, Gwalchmai, is a chapelry dependent on the rectory of Hên Eglwys; and the only building of the middle ages within the rocky district over which it extends, is the small church. This was in a state of great dilapidation until, in 1845, the

placed upright.

(Orientation E. by N. Cwyfen; 7th century. Fest. Jun. 3.)

incumbent of Hên Eglwys, after restoring the principal church, determined on thoroughly repairing this also. The same judicious plan was observed of adhering, in all details, to the exact style of the date of the original building; but some excellent improvements were introduced-such as the removal of the unsightly pews and decayed benches that encumbered the interior; and the destruction of a most obnoxious gallery, built across the middle of the principal aisle in modern times, and completely destroying the internal effect of the edifice. At the same time, the eastern window from Hên Eglwys was brought here to replace a very small one of the same date, and even the latter was again used in another portion of the church where it was wanted. The walls and roof were thoroughly repaired, all the windows reset, the inside furnished with new benches of good workmanship and proper design; and this little building, from having been one of the most neglected, is now one of the most effective churches in the island. The whole was done at a moderate cost, and under the sole superintendance of the incumbent, the Rev. J. Wynne Jones.

This church consists of a principal aisle of the late decorated period, probably the end of the fourteenth century; and of a second aisle, or chapel, in the perpendicular style of the fifteenth century, added on at the north-eastern end. This chapel is separated from the main aisle by piers and two flattened arches similar to those at Aberffraw and Llangwyfen. The principal aisle is forty-three feet six inches long by twelve feet nine inches broad, internally; and the chapel sixteen feet long by fourteen feet broad. The walls are from two feet to two feet ten inches thick, and not more than eight feet high; there is a single bell-gable at the western end, a cross and a fleur de lys on the gables at the east. The southern door way of the nave, round-headed and of the decorated period as is common in Anglesey, has been blocked up and partially turned into a window, this being rendered necessary from the exposure of that side to the Atlantic gales; so that the principal entrance is on the northern side. There are two small decorated windows in the southern wall of the nave, and at the eastern end is the window from the mother church, of three cinquefoiled lights, with flowing tracery in the head, while at the eastern end of the chapel is a perpendicular window, eight feet high by

six feet broad, of three lights with ogec heads, and vertical tracery, similar in design to some that occur at Holyhead. The font at the western end was originally circular, fifteen inches high by twenty-five inches in diameter; but it has been altered during the late repairs. On the north side of the altar is a niche for a figure, and there is a stoup in the wall on the eastern side of the north door. Over the eastern gable of the principal aisle is the date 1674. (Orientation, E. by S. Invocation St. Morhaiarn; + VII. Cent. Fest. Nov. 1.)

LLANGADWALADR. This is a rectory with the chapelry of Llanfeirion attached; the mother church is one of the most remarkable in the island, but the dependant chapel is destroyed, and only the site of its yard can now be discerned. The church of Llangadwaladr consists of a nave and chancel, with north and south chapels attached to the latter. The nave and chancel, forming one aisle, when taken together, are seventy-five feet long by sixteen feet broad; the northern chapel is seventeen feet by twenty feet; and the southern, fourteen feet six inches by nineteen feet six inches. The general character of the nave is of the late decorated or early perpendicular style; it has a two light square-headed window in both the northern and southern walls, and is entered by a door-way under a porch on the southern side. A stoup occurs on the eastern side of this doorway within the church, and the font, of the same date as this part of the building, (see plate of Fonts in No. I.) stands in the middle against the partition of the vestry; a doorway in the northern wall has been turned into a window for the use of this room. The western wall supports a gable pierced for three bells, a circumstance of unusual occurrence in Anglesey, indicative of the importance of the parish. A modern screen, or division, extending from the porch across the nave, cuts off all the western portion of the church from the eastern; but the chapels have no screen, and open into the body of the building, the southern by a wide arch, the latter by a plain removing of the main wall. The east window of the chancel is of three cinquefoiled lights running up in the head of the arch into flowing tracery, with a central portion of eight foliations, the mouldings being of one order; the design of good decorated character; and the whole similar to the windows at Hên Eglwys,

Trefdraeth, and Llanfechell. The northern chapel is lighted by a modern Gothic window of barbarous design. Against its eastern wall is a black marble slab, with the following inscription in raised gilt letters:

THIS CHAPPELL WAS

BUILT BY RICHD MEYRICKE, Eqs.
ANO 1640, AND THE VAULT

UNDERNEATH BY HIS GREAT

GRANDSON OWEN MEYRICK, Esq.
ANNO 1730.

THIS CHAPEL WAS REBUILT BY

OWEN PUTLAND MEYRICK, Esq., 1801.

The southern chapel is not valuable as an architectural model, but is of high interest in the history of architecture in this country, inasmuch as it was erected A.D., 1660, in the pointed style, and being closely copied from existing models, though with a few incongruous additions, shows that a true and discerning taste for the beauties of the national style lingered, in a debased age, in this sequestered corner of the land. There is in the eastern wall, and also in the southern, a large and lofty window, copied from one of late perpendicular design, consisting of four trefoiled lights, divided into two equal compartments by battlemented transoms; the head of the arch being filled with tracery of good design, divided by a battlemented transom high up towards the point of intersection. The mouldings are of three orders, and the southern window forms a square bay, or projection from the line of the wall, with buttresses of two stages at the angles, answering to similar buttresses at the angles of the chapel. Between this bay and the outer buttresses occurs, on either side, a low square-headed window of two trefoiled lights; and the bay itself is surmounted by a gable, ornamented with a fleur-de-lys at the summit, and obelisk-pinnacles at the lower ends of the coping; the other gables have borne crosses. An elliptical-headed doorway, under a rectangular drip-stone, is in the western wall, with the date 1660 above it. All the workmanship of this chapel is exceedingly good, and though the mouldings are deficient in boldness of profile, there is a delicacy and purity of execution about them which the architect observes with pleasure.

The church and the chapel have been noticed at some length by Browne Willis, in his History of Bangor Cathedral, ARCHEOL. CAMB. VOL. I.]

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