{162} The spot selected by Baldwin for addressing the multitude,
has in some degree been elucidated by the anonymous author of the
Supplement to Rowland's Mona Antiqua.
He says, that "From tradition
and memorials still retained, we have reasons to suppose that they
met in an open place in the parish of Landisilio, called Cerrig y
Borth. The inhabitants, by the grateful remembrance, to perpetuate
the honour of that day, called the place where the archbishop stood,
Carreg yr Archjagon, i.e. the Archbishop's Rock; and where prince
Roderic stood, Maen Roderic, or the Stone of Roderic." This account
is in part corroborated by the following communication from Mr.
Richard Llwyd of Beaumaris, who made personal inquiries on the spot.
"Cerrig y Borth, being a rough, undulating district, could not, for
that reason, have been chosen for addressing a multitude; but
adjoining it there are two eminences which command a convenient
surface for that purpose; one called Maen Rodi (the Stone or Rock of
Roderic), the property of Owen Williams, Esq.; and the other Carreg
Iago, belonging to Lord Uxbridge. This last, as now pronounced,
means the Rock of St. James; but I have no difficulty in admitting,
that Carreg yr Arch Iagon may (by the compression of common,
undiscriminating language, and the obliteration of the event from
ignorant minds by the lapse of so many centuries) be contracted into
Carreg Iago. Cadair yr archesgob is now also contracted into Cadair
(chair, a seat naturally formed in the rock, with a rude arch over
it, on the road side, which is a rough terrace over the breast of a
rocky and commanding cliff, and the nearest way from the above
eminences to the insulated church of Landisilio. This word Cadair,
though in general language a chair, yet when applied to exalted
situations, means an observatory, as Cadair Idris, etc.; but there
can, in my opinion, be no doubt that this seat in the rock is that
described by the words Cadair yr Archesgob." [Still more probable,
and certainly more flattering to Giraldus, is that it was called
"Cadair yr Arch Ddiacon" (the Archdeacon's chair).]
{163} This hundred contained the comots of Mynyw, or St. David's,
and Pencaer.
{164} I am indebted to Mr. Richard Llwyd for the following curious
extract from a Manuscript of the late intelligent Mr. Rowlands,
respecting this miraculous stone, called Maen Morddwyd, or the stone
of the thigh, which once existed in Llanidan parish. "Hic etiam
lapis lumbi, vulgo Maen Morddwyd, in hujus caemiterii vallo locum
sibi e longo a retro tempore obtinuit, exindeque his nuperis annis,
quo nescio papicola vel qua inscia manu nulla ut olim retinente
virtute, quae tunc penitus elanguit aut vetustate evaporavit, nullo
sane loci dispendio, nec illi qui eripuit emolumento, ereptus et
deportatus fuit."
{165} Hugh, earl of Chester. The first earl of Chester after the
Norman conquest, was Gherbod, a Fleming, who, having obtained leave
from king William to go into Flanders for the purpose of arranging
some family concerns, was taken and detained a prisoner by his
enemies; upon which the conqueror bestowed the earldom of Chester on
Hugh de Abrincis or of Avranches, "to hold as freely by the sword,
as the king himself did England by the crown."
{166} This church is at Llandyfrydog, a small village in Twrkelin
hundred, not far distant from Llanelian, and about three miles from
the Bay of Dulas. St. Tyvrydog, to whom it was dedicated, was one
of the sons of Arwystyl Glof, a saint who lived in the latter part
of the sixth century.
{167} Ynys Lenach, now known by the name of Priestholme Island,
bore also the title of Ynys Seiriol, from a saint who resided upon
it in the sixth century. It is also mentioned by Dugdale and
Pennant under the appellation of Insula Glannauch.
{168} Alberic de Veer, or Vere, came into England with William the
Conqueror, and as a reward for his military services, received very
extensive possessions and lands, particularly in the county of
Essex. Alberic, his eldest son, was great chamberlain of England in
the reign of king Henry I., and was killed A.D. 1140, in a popular
tumult at London. Henry de Essex married one of his daughters named
Adeliza. He enjoyed, by inheritance, the office of standard-bearer,
and behaved himself so unworthily in the military expedition which
king Henry undertook against Owen Gwynedd, prince of North Wales, in
the year 1157, by throwing down his ensign, and betaking himself to
flight, that he was challenged for this misdemeanor by Robert de
Mountford, and by him vanquished in single combat; whereby,
according to the laws of his country, his life was justly forfeited.
But the king interposing his royal mercy, spared it, but confiscated
his estates, ordering him to be shorn a monk, and placed in the
abbey of Reading. There appears to be some biographical error in
the words of Giraldus - "Filia scilicet Henrici de Essexia," for by
the genealogical accounts of the Vere and Essex families, we find
that Henry de Essex married the daughter of the second Alberic de
Vere; whereas our author seems to imply, that the mother of Alberic
the second was daughter to Henry de Essex.
{169} "And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel,
and of the chesnut tree, and peeled white strakes in them, and made
the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods, which
he had peeled, before the flocks in the gutters in the watering
troughs, when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive
when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods,
and brought forth cattle speckled and spotted." - Gen. xxx.
{170} Owen Gwynedd, the son of Gruffydd ap Conan, died in 1169, and
was buried at Bangor. When Baldwin, during his progress, visited
Bangor and saw his tomb, he charged the bishop (Guy Ruffus) to
remove the body out of the cathedral, when he had a fit opportunity
so to do, in regard that archbishop Becket had excommunicated him
heretofore, because he had married his first cousin, the daughter of
Grono ap Edwyn, and that notwithstanding he had continued to live
with her till she died.
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