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health after migrating for a season "to their mother's lap." The monk of Llanthony, also, though evidently intending to enhance the devotion of the first founders by investing the locality with gloom and solitudinous horrors, cannot refrain from casting a bright eye upon the silver rills, which, trickling down the mountain-side, fall into the river in the vale below, where there is an abundance of fish-nor does he forget to mention the fruitful pastures among the spacious mountains, and the rich meadows for feeding cattle; so that, "if there were no corn in this wilderness, neither fish nor beeves were lacking." The inhabitants of the vale of Ewyas are painted in colours most unattractive; savage, without religion, thieves, vagabonds, and migrating according to their own caprice and the state of the weather. But, we should remember, the worthy monk, whose are these epithets, may be reasonably supposed to be prejudiced against the Welch, who were neither attached to the usurpation of the Church of Rome, nor to the inroads, whether civil or ecclesiastical, of the Norman conquerors of England, upon their border.

Giraldus speaks of the valley, as "about an arrow-shot broad, encircled on all sides by lofty mountains." "And it is between one and three of the clocke, or thereabout, in a faire cleere daye, ere they can see heere the bodye of the sunne, so much adoe hath he to get above the hill-tops by that time."-(Camden's quaint translation.) Giraldus could never make a mistake of that kind, because his own eyes would have undeceived him, even though some garrulous member of the fraternity should have attempted to play upon the credulous archdeacon.

The passage in the original stands thus: "Horâ vero diei quasi inter primam et tertiam super montium cacumina vix emergens, et sereno tempore, corpus hic solare primo conspicitur." Sir R. Colt Hoare always thought this passage obscure and inexplicable. But on referring to the various MS. copies of Giraldus, in the British Museum, he found the meaning fully solved by the following alteration of the Latin text: "Circa primam vel parum ante."

Giraldus has received a large amount of ridicule for pretending that the sun could not be seen in the vale of Ewyas till between one and three in the afternoon; whereas it is very probable he meant to say, that in fine weather the sun generally climbs above the mountains between six and nine

o'clock in the forenoon, or according to Sir R. Colt Hoare's emendation, about six o'clock, or a little before. And this is the fact; in the winter the sun is upon the abbey about half-past nine o'clock, and in the summer about half-past five; varying, from an hour to an hour and a half, after the proper time for its appearance above the horizon. On the opposite side of the valley there is a farm-house, called Cwm Buchan, about a quarter of a mile from the church, upon which the sun never shines for three months in the year, that is for six weeks preceding and following the shortest day. Giraldus evidently uses the Roman computation of time, according to which, the first hour of the day is our six o'clock in the morning.

II. We now proceed to speak of the FOUNDATION AND HISTORY OF THE PRIORY.-The monk of Llanthony, upon the authority of "sure tradition of old," assigns to St. David the honour of first investing the vale of Ewyas with a devotional character. "Here St. David had a chapel in the most retired part of the valley. It was a poor building, surrounded with moss and ivy, and covered with thickets-scarcely habitable either for man or for beast; but it is celebrated in fame, and we have sure tradition of old that St. David did here retire from the conversation of men, and lived a solitary life for many years." Giraldus, speaking of the Priory church, also adopts the tradition, for he says, "it stood on the very spot where the humble chapel of St. David was formerly decorated only with moss and ivy." But in his life of St. David he makes no mention of the saint having withdrawn himself, at any time, from the world into the vale of Ewyas; although he is very minute in his account of his birth, education, and habits. Indeed, from the minuteness with which the several portions of his life are described, it is impossible that the saint could have passed "many years," as he is represented, in the vale of Ewyas. He might have visited the spot, and might have erected a chapel and hermitage for periodical seasons of retirement and devotion; for undoubtedly he was much addicted to contemplation and solitude; and this prevailing trait of his character is assigned as a reason why he should have transferred the seat of the archbishoprick from Caerleon to the vale of Rhôs, at Menevia,. in Pembrokeshire. It may be taken for granted, then, that an incident so remarkable in the life of the patron saint of

Wales, rests for its truth upon the tradition mentioned by the monk of Llanthony, and feebly corroborated by Giraldus. All the other amplified relations of the same circumstance may be traced up to this source. Drayton, in his Poly-olbion, as will appear from the lines in Italics given in the following quotation, had read in Giraldus, that St. David once inhabited a cell amongst the Hatterell Hills; he, therefore, either permitted his poetic imagination to invent a probable cause for the custom of the Welch wearing leeks in their caps on St. David's day, drawn from this traditionary story; or added more than Giraldus knew.

"The Britains, like devout, their messengers direct

To David, that he would their ancient right protect.
Mongst Hatterills loftie hills, that with the clouds are crown'd,
The valley Ewias lies, immers'd so deep and round,
1As they below that see the mountains rise so hie,

Might think the stragling Heards were grazing in the skie:
Which in it such a shape of solitude doth beare,
As Nature at the first appointed it for pray'r:
Where, in an aged cell with mosse and ivie growne,
In which, not to this day the Sunne hath ever showne,
That reverent British Saint in zealous ages past,
To contemplation liv'd; and did so truly fast,
As he did onlie drink what crystall Hodney yeelds,
And fed upon the LEEKS he gather'd in the fields-
In memorie of whom, in the revolving yeere,

The Welchmen on his day that sacred herbe do weare."

This is certainly a more elegant, if not more faithful, solution of the natural emblem than Shakspere's.

"Fluellen. Your Majesty says very true: if your Majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did goot service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which your Majesty knows, to this hour, is an honourable padge of the service; and, I do believe, your Majesty takes no scorn to wear the LEEK upon Saint Tavy's day."-[King Henry V. act iv. scene 7.]

Mr. Southey extends the legend beyond all bounds, with a poetical license extraordinary, leading us to believe that St. David passed the greatest part of his life on this spot.

"Here was it, stranger, that the patron Saint

Of Cambria, pass'd his age of penitence,

1 Montium vertices quasi cœlum tangentes ipsasque plerumque feras (quarum hic copia est) in summo pascentes, tanquam in ultimo visas horizonte prospiciunt. (Gir. Cam. Itin. cap. iii.)

A solitary man; and here he made
His hermitage; the roots his food, his drink
Of Honddy's mountain stream."

[Inscription for a monument in the vale of Ewyas, by R. Southey, Esq.]

From St. David's supposed connection with the place, it was in after-times known by his name. Giraldus takes great pains to set us right as to the real derivation and signification of the word "Lanthoni." He says, "From Hodeni (the river Honddy) it was called Lanhodeni, for Lan signifies an ecclesiastical place. This derivation may appear far-fetched, for the name of the place in Welch is Nanthodeni. Nant signifies a running stream, from thence this place is still called by the inhabitants, Landewi Nanthodeni, or the Church of St. David upon the river Hodeni. The English, therefore, corruptly call it Lanthoni; whereas, it should either be called Nanthodeni, that is, the brook of Hodeni, or Lanhodeni, the church upon the Hodeni."

The monk of Llanthony coincides in the main with Giraldus, but charges the corruption of the term upon a criticism, rather than a misapprehension. "The Franks, according to their pleasant conceits, fancy that the place was called Lanthony from being composed of two words, Land and Hodeney. But the last name is the name of a river; the former word is Lan, and signifies in Welch, a church-place: the Welch name, however, is Nanthotheni; and, therefore, it is more probably derived from Nant, signifying a river, because the Welch call the place Landevvi Nanthotheni, that is, the church of David on the river Hotheni." Leland preserves the most ancient name Nanthonddye. The stream is now written

thus, Honddu-the black water.

For some centuries St. David's chapel and cell were deserted, and lay in ruins. A singular instance of sudden conversion from the military to the eremitical life, revived the sanctity of the place, and prepared the way for greater fame. In the reign of William Rufus, a kinsman and retainer of Hugh de Lacy, a knight, whose simple name WILLIAM is only preserved, found his way during the chase, into the secluded and wild vale of Ewyas. The monk of Llanthony tells us how the awfully profound character of the scenery produced a corresponding impression upon the soldier's mind, and disposed him to reflection upon the vanity

of all worldly pursuits, when compared with the heavenly peace of days spent in religious contemplation among those rocks and woods. Having taken his determination, he dismissed his attendants and hounds, and repaired the cell of St. David, in such a rude manner, as to make it habitable, sufficiently at least for a recluse. "He lays aside his belt," continues the monk, "and girds himself with a rope; instead of fine linen he covers himself with hair-cloth; and instead of his soldier's robe, he loads himself with weighty iron; the suit of armour which did before defend him from the darts of his enemies he still continues for a garment, to harden him against the soft temptations of his old enemy the devil. In this manner, therefore, he crucified himself, and continued his hard armour on his body, until it was worn out with rust and age. And this is affirmed for a certain truth."

William is also reported to have taught himself letters in the wilderness, and to have profited so greatly by study and meditation, as to have qualified himself for orders, which he received at the hands of his Diocesan.

The fame of the hermit-knight travelled far and wide; the reputation of his sanctity was confirmed by his perseverance; and at last it reached the ears of the Court, where at that time resided a man of sanctity, who had formerly been a recluse at Edegaresly, near the forest of Canothus, but was then chaplain to Maude, the Queen of Henry the first. The monk of Llanthony calls him Ernisius, Giraldus Cambrensis, Ervistus; the catalogue of the Priors of Llanthony, in Wharton and Browne Willis, and in other authorities, retains the former of these names. Some years had elapsed, when, in 1103, Ernisius resolved upon visiting the hermit in the vale of Ewyas, to see with his own eyes, and to hear with his own ears, whether vulgar report were true or false. He sought an interview with William, and persuaded him to receive him as a companion and partner in St. David's cell.

The two anchorites set about to build a small homely, mean church, in the place of their hermitage, which probably by this time was very ruinous. In the year 1108 the building was completed, and, says the monk of Llanthony, "by the blessing of heaven, was consecrated by Urban, bishop of the diocese, and Rameline, bishop of Hereford, and was solemnly dedicated to the honour of St. John the Baptist, whose patronage was thought most proper for that wilderness, where his due fame will be celebrated to all ages."

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