The Island Of Mona Contains
Three Hundred And Forty-Three Vills, Considered Equal To Three
Cantreds.
Cantred, a compound word from the British and Irish
languages, is a portion of land equal to one hundred vills.
There
are three islands contiguous to Britain, on its different sides,
which are said to be nearly of an equal size - the Isle of Wight on
the south, Mona on the west, and Mania (Man) on the north-west side.
The two first are separated from Britain by narrow channels; the
third is much further removed, lying almost midway between the
countries of Ulster in Ireland and Galloway in Scotland. The island
of Mona is an arid and stony land, rough and unpleasant in its
appearance, similar in its exterior qualities to the land of
Pebidion, {163} near St. David's, but very different as to its
interior value. For this island is incomparably more fertile in
corn than any other part of Wales, from whence arose the British
proverb, "Mon mam Cymbry, Mona mother of Wales;" and when the crops
have been defective in all other parts of the country, this island,
from the richness of its soil and abundant produce, has been able to
supply all Wales.
As many things within this island are worthy of remark, I shall not
think it superfluous to make mention of some of them. There is a
stone here resembling a human thigh, {164} which possesses this
innate virtue, that whatever distance it may be carried, it returns,
of its own accord, the following night, as has often been
experienced by the inhabitants. Hugh, earl of Chester, {165} in the
reign of king Henry I., having by force occupied this island and the
adjacent country, heard of the miraculous power of this stone, and,
for the purpose of trial, ordered it to be fastened, with strong
iron chains, to one of a larger size, and to be thrown into the sea.
On the following morning, however, according to custom, it was found
in its original position, on which account the earl issued a public
edict, that no one, from that time, should presume to move the stone
from its place. A countryman, also, to try the powers of this
stone, fastened it to his thigh, which immediately became putrid,
and the stone returned to its original situation.
There is in the same island a stony hill, not very large or high,
from one side of which, if you cry aloud, you will not be heard on
the other; and it is called (by anti-phrasis) the rock of hearers.
In the northern part of Great Britain (Northumberland) so named by
the English, from its situation beyond the river Humber, there is a
hill of a similar nature, where if a loud horn or trumpet is sounded
on one side, it cannot be heard on the opposite one. There is also
in this island the church of St. Tefredaucus, {166} into which Hugh,
earl of Shrewsbury, (who, together with the earl of Chester, had
forcibly entered Anglesey), on a certain night put some dogs, which
on the following morning were found mad, and he himself died within
a month; for some pirates, from the Orcades, having entered the port
of the island in their long vessels, the earl, apprised of their
approach, boldly met them, rushing into the sea upon a spirited
horse.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 67 of 103
Words from 35151 to 35715
of 54608
