Their skin, and brittle bones, and shanks,

Will the descendant of Einion break;

In every part of Chester

He will slay a thousand men with his ashen spear.

With his ashen spear, piercing a villain's rib,

Will the descendant of Einion punish the spoiler of my wardrobe;
The spoiler- his violence was iniquitous,

When he carried away all my furniture.

May the mark of Reinallt's nails, the mark of his fiery spearmen, upon the roofs of the traitors' houses;

Be

The mark of his fist, which would slay men

In the vicinity of the city, as well as the defenders of the fortress."

The bard, it appears did not petition Reinallt in vain, for Yorke (in his "Royal Tribes of Wales") says, that "Reinallt, being ripe for the enterprise, collected his people, went to Chester, and put the citizens, as many as fell into his hands, to the sword."

Reinallt was a Lancastrian, and, according to Yorke, one of the six gallant captains who defended Harlech castle in 1468, against Edward IV. In two pedigrees at Nannau, however, it is recorded that he died in 1466, at Llanddervel, near Bala, before the surrender of Harlech by David ab Ieuan ab Einion. He is said to have been only twenty-eight years of age at the time of his death.

Reinallt seems to have died without issue. He, however, had a brother, Sion, ancestor of the Wynnes of Tower, who inherited the property. In the time of Leland the house was inhabited by John Wynn ap Robert; and when Pennant visited it, Dr. William Wynne was the occupier.

The line of the Wynnes terminated with Roger Wynne, Esq., of Tower. Dying issueless, this gentleman devised Tower to his widow, from whom it passed to her niece, the wife of the Rev. Hope Wynne Eyton, of Leeswood. It is now in the possession of his eldest son, John Wynne Eyton, Esq., of Leeswood.

H. L. J. J. W.

MONA MEDIÆVA.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE MEDIEVAL BUILDINGS AND MONUMENTS OF THE ISLE OF ANGLESEY.

CANTREF OF ABERFFRAW.

No. I.

CWMMWD OF MALLTRAETH.

This ancient division of the isle of Anglesey contains the two Cymmydau or commots of Malltraeth and Llyfon, of which the former is thus parochially subdivided:

Aberffraw (Rect.); Llangristiolus (Rect.) with Cerrig Ceinwen (Chap.)'; Hên Eglwys (Rect.) with Tref Gwalchmai (Chap.); Trefdraeth (Rect.) with Llangwyfen (Chap.); Llanbeulan (Rect.) with Tal y llyn (Chap.); and Llangadwaladr (Rect.)

ABERFFRAW. The architectural remains of the Middle Ages extant in this parish are limited to the parochial church; no traces of the palace of the princes of Wales, n this their ancient royal residence, being now discoverable. A faint tradition is preserved by the inhabitants of ancient foundations and walls having been long ago visible in the field north of the church; but the antiquary will seek for them in vain. It is also said in the parish that subterraneous passages and caves still exist, marking out the site of the royal palace; and the ordnance maps even assign a position to an ancient building, on the western side of the church. On enquiring, however, into this matter upon the spot, no sufficiently accurate information has been found attainable. The parish itself derives its name from being situated at the mouth and on the ford of the little river Ffraw, which coming from Llyn Coron (the lake of the crown) runs through a low sandy plain, by which it seems in danger of being absorbed, into the sea a little below the village or town. The shifting sands, which have long been extending their ravages on this part of the coast of Anglesey, may probably have covered up some ancient buildings of which not even any tradition is now preserved. This place is stated to have been fixed on as a royal residence by Roderic the Great, A.D. 870; and we 1 Omitted by Rowlands, in his List of Parishes. Mon. Antiq. Rest. Edit. 1723.

know that Llewelyn, the last prince of North Wales, had a palace here at the time of his death, A.D. 1282.

The church, which stands on a rising ground at the south western extremity of the village, consists of two equal aisles, the internal dimensions of which are each 54ft. by 16ft., separated from each other by a range of three piers and four arches. There is a porch over a doorway on the south side near the western end, and a corresponding doorway, now blocked up, is on the north side. The whole edifice has been lately repaired, new-roofed, and in various respects altered, so that some of its original features are now scarcely to be conjectured. At the western end of the south aisle, which was no doubt the principal aisle, or nave, there used to be a bellgable; but the two gables of the aisles have now been made to run up into one, and a single bell-gable has been superadded. In the western wall of the south aisle is a richly ornamented circular-headed doorway, which must once have been the chief entrance, and which is the earliest portion of the building as it now stands. This doorway, which is 7ft. 2in. wide by 8ft. 8in. high, and is probably of the twelfth century, has an arch of three orders; that of the inner order is worked into a deeply moulded bowtelled zigzag ornament, and rests on square jambs; that of the middle order is sculptured into a series of twenty-five grotesque animals' heads, and rests on circular shafts with simply formed capitals and bases; that of the third and outer order is worked into a plain moulding, and is stopped by the prolonged abacus of the shafts. This doorway lay totally concealed and unsuspected in the walls of the church until the present rector, the Rev. John Wynne Jones, detected its existence during the late repairs, and had it most judiciously uncovered. The southern doorway is of the early pointed period, with an arch of two orders and simply chamfered edges. The eastern windows of both aisles are of the decorated period, of three lights each, trifoliated, and the arch heads filled with flowing tracery, moulded in one order. The side windows of the aisles, of which there are three on the south and two on the north, were probably of the decorated period; they are square-headed, but their monials have been removed, and there are no traces left by which to judge accurately of their dates. The four arches which separate the aisles are of a design which is repeated in two other buildings in this cwmmwd, (Llangwyfen and