I'd harness thee, my steed of grey, To "HARAFY AMSER HAF," &c. In summer I love on my charger to roam, 1 A graphic description of this venerable fortress is given in Gibson's edition of Camden, vol. ii. p. 804. But idly my shield on my shoulder I wear, For my love's unrequited,— I've loved and despair! Keridwen slender, graceful maid, Than word of coldness welcomes me. Shall a pilgrim again to the trysting tree hie? M. C. LL. ECCLESIOLOGICAL ANTIQUITIES AT CILCAIN, FLINTSHIRE. THE very judicious restorations and reparations which have lately taken place in the Church of Cilcain, near Mold, have brought to light several interesting remains of antiquity. I will not here speak of the splendid carved oaken roof, ordinarily stated to have been brought from Basingwerk Abbey, as that, I trust, will receive what it so richly deserves, a separate illustration and description in the Archeologia Cambrensis. My intention is rather here to notice several lapidary monuments which have been brought to light during the repairs. The first of these is the Ancient Font, which not only in its form, but also in its sculptured ornaments, is especially worthy of notice. This was found in the ground, buried about a yard deep, beneath the pulpit on the south side of the church. It is much the worse for the bad usuage it has 1 The floors of the apartments of even the higher orders were, in former times, strewn with rushes. See an interesting note in the Mabinogion, by Lady Charlotte Guest, No. 1, p. 101, where mention is made of Davydd ab Owain. ARCHEOL. CAMB. VOL. 1.] 3 E been subjected to; but when entire, formed a square basin in its upper part, the external measure of which is about eighteen inches. The lower part of the basin has the angles cut off, so as to form an octagon, standing upon an octagonal base not quite so large as the rectangular upper part. I have no where met with such a curious formed font in my ecclesiological rambles, nor is there such a shaped one represented in Vanvoorst's work on Fonts. The interior forms an ob-conical basin, having a small circular hole at the base for the discharge of the water. I believe therefore, that in this respect the font is also remarkable, as it is, thirdly, in the character of the ornamentation of the exterior surface. This, when the font was entire, consisted of twelve groups of trifoliations at the top, the lower part composed of five lines variously disposed, so as to form festoons and angulated patterns, quite unlike anything I have ever met with either in stone work or in MSS., with the single exception of the font in the dilapidated Church of Llanidan, in Anglesey, whereof a figure has been published by the Rev. H. L. Jones in the supplement to the third number of the Archæologia Cambrensis. This pattern, it will be seen, partakes in no way of the Gothic style of ornament, but rather approximates to the Norman, so that we shall perhaps be not far wrong in assigning the twelfth century as its date. It is to be hoped that it will be repaired and placed in the church, instead of the present font, which is destitute of architectural character. Another relic, of which I also subjoin a sketch, is the head of a coffin lid, ornamented with a cross fleuri of a very simple but extremely elegant and characteristic design.1 This stone now stands in the adjoining garden of the clergyman of Cilcain, but it ought, as well as some other of the monuments subsequently noticed, to be imbedded into the wall of the church, and so secured from further danger. The fracture across the stone is indicated by the dotted lines, the lower part of the pattern being here added from the design of the upper part; probably the stem of the cross was attached as represented by dots. Another coffin-lid or grave stone (from which, unfortunately, the head has been broken off) is also at Cilcain. It bears the bust of a man, with the hands crossed on the breast, executed in a very rude style of art, and with an inscription round the edge of the lower half of the stone, to the following effect: IERWERTH. X HIC IACET MARREDT: From the style of these letters I presume this stone to be of the thirteenth, or early part of the fourteenth, century; but 1 I found somewhat similar coffin-lids used for the step of the western doorway in the Church of Tremeirchion, and also for the step into the western gate of the church-yard at Diserth. I may mention that these coffin-lids or grave stones, marked with incised crosses, more or less ornamented, are much commoner in South than in North Wales. must leave the inquiry as to the Meredith Iorwerth, whom it commemorates, to the Welsh antiquaries In addition to the preceding, it is to be mentioned that an early inscribed and ornamented coffin-lid has been found to have been used for the lintel of the doorway into the vestry at the west end of the church, with the face downwards. Another early stone, with a very rampant lion and part of an inscription in characters similar to those of Meredith Iorwerth's stone, is also built into the south wall of the church, in the inside, near the pulpit; and a fifth, with the effigy, in low relief, of a female, in a very rude but interesting style of art, is still used as the coping stone of one of the buttresses on the north side of the church. It is much to be wished that it may be displaced from its present situation, and fixed in a more fitting one, to which its singularity alone ought to entitle it; indeed, I trust, that a figure of it will find its way into a future number of the Archæologia Cambrensis. The church-yard also contains the plain slender shaft of a fifteenth century church-yard cross, of which the head is probably buried in the ground near the shaft. Hammersmith, 20th July, 1846. J. O. WESTWOOD. |