A Powerful And Noble Personage, By Name Brachanus, Was In Ancient
Times The Ruler Of The Province Of Brecheinoc, And From Him It
Derived This Name.
The British histories testify that he had four-
and-twenty daughters, all of whom, dedicated from their youth to
religious observances, happily ended their lives in sanctity.
There
are many churches in Wales distinguished by their names, one of
which, situated on the summit of a hill, near Brecheinoc, and not
far from the castle of Aberhodni, is called the church of St.
Almedda, {49} after the name of the holy virgin, who, refusing there
the hand of an earthly spouse, married the Eternal King, and
triumphed in a happy martyrdom; to whose honour a solemn feast is
annually held in the beginning of August, and attended by a large
concourse of people from a considerable distance, when those persons
who labour under various diseases, through the merits of the Blessed
Virgin, received their wished-for health. The circumstances which
occur at every anniversary appear to me remarkable. You may see men
or girls, now in the church, now in the churchyard, now in the
dance, which is led round the churchyard with a song, on a sudden
falling on the ground as in a trance, then jumping up as in a
frenzy, and representing with their hands and feet, before the
people, whatever work they have unlawfully done on feast days; you
may see one man put his hand to the plough, and another, as it were,
goad on the oxen, mitigating their sense of labour, by the usual
rude song: {50} one man imitating the profession of a shoemaker;
another, that of a tanner. Now you may see a girl with a distaff,
drawing out the thread, and winding it again on the spindle; another
walking, and arranging the threads for the web; another, as it were,
throwing the shuttle, and seeming to weave. On being brought into
the church, and led up to the altar with their oblations, you will
be astonished to see them suddenly awakened, and coming to
themselves. Thus, by the divine mercy, which rejoices in the
conversion, not in the death, of sinners, many persons from the
conviction of their senses, are on these feast days corrected and
mended.
This country sufficiently abounds with grain, and if there is any
deficiency, it is amply supplied from the neighbouring parts of
England; it is well stored with pastures, woods, and wild and
domestic animals. River-fish are plentiful, supplied by the Usk on
one side, and by the Wye on the other; each of them produces salmon
and trout; but the Wye abounds most with the former, the Usk with
the latter. The salmon of the Wye are in season during the winter,
those of the Usk in summer; but the Wye alone produces the fish
called umber, {51} the praise of which is celebrated in the works of
Ambrosius, as being found in great numbers in the rivers near Milan;
"What," says he, "is more beautiful to behold, more agreeable to
smell, or more pleasant to taste?" The famous lake of Brecheinoc
supplies the country with pike, perch, excellent trout, tench, and
eels.
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