Page images
PDF
EPUB

Williames Vaughan, Bart., of Nannau,) and its derivative branches, the Yales of Plas-yn-Yale, county Denbigh, and the Rogers-Wynns of Bryntangor in the same county; the former represented by the Lloyds of Plymog, and the latter by the Hughes' of Gwerclas in Edeirnion, county Merioneth, Lords of Kymmer-yn-Edeirnion, and Barons of Edeirnion. These families, co-representatives of the three Cambrian dynasties, all quarter, with the arms of South Wales and North Wales, the ensigns I have referred to as the hereditary bearings of the Lords of Glyndwrdwy. Independently of the adoption of these ensigns in the Welsh MSS. in the British Museum, College of Heralds, and other depositories, it may be mentioned that they are quartered in an ancient shield of the Vaughans of Corsygedol, suspended in the hall of Corsygedol, one of the finest and most picturesque mansions in the Principality,and that they appear in the splendid emblazoned Genealogy of the House of Gwerclas, compiled, in 1650, by Robert Vaughan, Esq., of Hengwrt, the Camden and Dugdale united of Wales. The arms in question are ascribed to the line of Bromfield and Glyndwrdwy, and, as quarterings to the families just named, by Mr. Burke's well known Armory, the first, and indeed only, work in conjunction with the Welsh genealogies in that gentleman's Peerage and Baronetage, and Landed Gentry, affording satisfactory, or any approach to syste

5 Of this celebrated antiquary, the author of British Antiquities Revived, and other valuable antiquarian works, the friend of Archbishop Ussher, Selden, Sir Simon d'Ewes, Sir John Vaughan, &c., it is observed in the Cambrian Register,-"In genealogy he was so skilled, and his knowledge on that subject derived from such genuine sources, that Hengwrt became the Heralds' College of the Principality, and no pedigree was current until it had obtained his sanction."

His MSS. and library, formerly at Hengwrt, have been transferred to Rûg in Edeirnion, the present seat of his representative, Sir Robert Vaughan of Nannau; and it may be confidently stated that in variety, extent, rarity and value, they surpass any existing collection of documents, public or private, relating to the Principality. Many of them are unique, and indispensable for the elucidation of Cambrian literature and antiquities; and their possessor, by entrusting to some gentleman competent to the task the privilege of preparing a catalogue raisonnée of them, would confer a public benefit which could not be too highly appreciated.

To the noble collections of Gloddaeth, Corsygedol, and Mostyn, now united at Mostyn, as also to those of Wynnstay, the same observation may be extended.

matic and complete, treatment of Cambrian heraldry and family history. Mr. Charles Knight also, highly and justly estimated no less for a refined appreciation of our historic archæology than for careful research, adopts these arms as the escutcheon of Owen in the beautiful artistic designs which adorn and illustrate the first part of the drama of King Henry IV., in his pictorial edition of Shakspeare.-(Histories, vol. i. p. 170.)

The shield of the Lords of Glyndwrdwy, as marshalled by Welsh Heralds, displays quarterly the arms assigned to their direct paternal ancestors, as successively adopted previous to the period when armorial bearings became hereditary. Thus marshalled, the paternal arms of Owen Glyndwr are as follows: 1st and 4th, "Paly of eight, argent and gules, over all a lion rampant sable," for Griffith Maelor, Lord of Bromfield, son of Madoc ap Meredith, Prince of Powys-Fadog; 2nd, "Argent a lion rampant sable" ("The Black Lion of Powys") for Madoc, Prince of Powys-Fadog, son of Meredith, Prince of Powys, son of Bleddyn, King of Powys; 3rd, "Or, a lion rampant gules,' for Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, King of Powys. None of these ensigns is referable to a period anterior to that within which armorial bearings are attributed to the Anglo-Norman monarchs.

The lion rampant is common to all branches of the line of Powys; but the bearing peculiar to its last monarch, Madoc ap Meredith, "The Black Lion of Powys," without a difference, has been transmitted exclusively to the Hughes, Baronial Lords of Kymmer-yn-Edeirnion, and the other descendants of Owen Brogyntyn, Lord of Edeirnion, younger son of Madoc; of whom,

6 The golden lion on a red field may have been displayed on the standard of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, but, from analogy to the arms assigned to the English monarchs of a corresponding period, it can, as armorial bearings, be only regarded, it is apprehended, as attributive. Of the armorial bearings of the English monarchs of the House of Normandy, if any were used by them, we are left totally without contemporary evidences. The arms of William the Conqueror, which have been for ages attributed to him and the two succeeding monarchs, are taken from the cornice of Queen Elizabeth's monument, in the north aisle of Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster. The arms assigned to Stephen are adopted on the authority of Nicholas Upton, in his treatise De Militari Officio, b. iv. p. 129, printed in 1654. For those of Henry II., there is no earlier authority than the cornice of Queen Elizabeth's monument, and it is on the second seal used by Richard I. after his return from captivity, that, for the first time, we find his shield distinctly adorned with the three lions passant guardant in pale, as they have been borne by subsequent English monarchs.-(Willement's Regal Heraldry.)

with the exception of the family just named, it is presumed there is no existing male branch. The same arms were borne by Iorwerth Goch, Lord of Mochnant, also a younger son of Madoc, but they are now only borne subordinately in the second quarter by that chief's descendant, Sir John Roger Kynaston, of Hardwick, Bart., and by the other branches of the Kynastons; the first quarter having been yielded to the arms of (Touchet) Lord Audley, assumed by Sir Roger Kynaston of Hordley, Knt., after the battle of Blore in 1459, at which Lord Audley is said to have fallen by the hand of Sir Roger. As already stated, Griffith Maelor, Madoc's eldest son, bore the black lion differenced, as did also the twin sons of the latter, viz. Cynric Efell, Lord of Eglwys Egle, ancestor of the distinguished line of Davies of Gwysaney in Flintshire, whose ensigns were "Gules on a bend, argent, a lion passant sable;" and Einion Efell, progenitor of the Edwards of Ness Strange, and of other North Wallian families who bore "Party per fess, sable and argent, a lion rampant counterchanged." The ancestor of the Vaughans of Nannau, Barts., Cadwgan (designated by Camden "the renowned Briton") younger son of Blyddyn, King of Powys, sometime associated in the sovereignty with his elder brother Meredith, exhibited, it is stated, on his banner an azure lion on a golden ground; ensigns transmitted to the early Lords of Nannau and their descendants, with the exception-probably the only oneof the Vaughans of Wengraig and Hengwrt, represented paternally by the Vaughans of Nannau and Hengwrt, Baronets, who transferring these arms to the middle of the shield, bear “Quarterly, or and gules, four lions rampant counterchanged with a lion rampant, azure on the middle of the shield." The Wenwynwyn branch of the dynasty of Powys continued, or at a later period resumed, the red lion rampant on a gold ground, ascribed to Blyddyn ap Cynfyn; and it is not a little interesting, that recently a beautiful silver seal, in perfect preservation, of Hawys Gadarn, heiress of that princely line, who by the gift of Edward II. became the wife of John de Cherlton, was found near Oswestry, representing her standing, holding two shields: the one in her right hand charged with her own arms, the lion rampant; that in the left with two lions passant. The legend around the seal is "s'HAWISIE DNE DE KEVEOLOC."

7 These two lions passant are accounted for in the following extract from a letter from the highest living authority on the genealogy of Wales and Shropshire, Mr. Joseph Morris of Shrewsbury, published in the Journal of the Archæological Society of Chester, 1852, part ii. p. 173:-"Johanna, mother of Hawise Gadarn, was the only sur

The original seal, now it is presumed in the possession of Mr. Penson, of Oswestry, Architect, by whose workmen it was found, was exhibited at a meeting of the Archæological Society of Chester, by the Rev. William Massie, one of the Corresponding Secretaries of the Society. Of this venerable relic I possess an impression in wax; and of the great and privy seals of Owen Glyndwr, beautiful casts in sulphur.

Inner Temple.

JOHN AP WILLIAM AP JOHN.

GWRAGEDD ANNWN.-THE DAMES OF ELFIN LAND.

A LEGEND OF LLYN BARFOG.

AMIDST the lofty and picturesque hills of Merioneth that rise to a great height immediately behind Aberdovey, and shield that interesting place of summer resort from the cold winds of the north, is a small mountain lake called Llyn Barfog, "The Bearded Lake," a visit to which will amply repay the trouble incurred. The shortest way to it is to go along the Machynlleth road for two miles, then turning at Abergroes up the defile of Tafolgraig, and ascending Cefnrhosucha a mile, the visitor will be rewarded by a view of this interesting specimen of a mountain lake, mirroring the blue canopy above. So snugly is it situated, its surface seldom ruffled by a ripple, that it seems to repose like a babe of innocence on the bosom of beauty. Shut out from the world it is a retreat such as a recluse would seek, and still more remarkable must have been the solitude of its deep dark

viving child of Sir Robert Corbet, of Moreton, co. Salop, Knt., by Catherine, daughter of John, Lord Strange of Knockin. Thomas Corbet, brother of Johanna, avoiding the single raven of his family, bore for arms, 'or, 6 ravens, 3, 2 and 1 proper, a canton gules, thereon two lions passant argent.' He died s. p. before his father, and the Corbet estates having passed to the issue of Sir Robert's second marriage, Hawise appears to have followed her uncle's example, and to have adopted, in conjunction with the arms of her father (or, a lion rampant, gules), those of Strange, avoiding the Corbet arms altogether. This seal is very valuable, as it explains with certainty the intermarriage of her paternal line with the Corbet family, as to which almost every pedigree of ancient date differs: they all state the mother of Hawise to have been a Corbet, but differ as to her christian name and the names of her parents."

ARCH. CAMB., NEW SERIES, VOL. IV.

2 D

waters when the primeval forest clothed this upland dell, and furnished it with that beard of ample growth which fringed its borders, and rendered its name then as truly characteristic as it is now the reverse. The roots and remains of trees imbedded in the surrounding soil bear testimony to the existence of its once waving woods, though the high and unrelieved upland at present makes the visitor on a hot summer day wish that the all but universal clearing from our Welsh hills had not extended thus far. However, let us be thankful for the other more enduring characteristics which remain, and which it is to be hoped will one day tempt some person of taste to restore its lost beard by replanting, and to erect here one of those mountain sanitariums which will be found in many a highland nook, as soon as the advancing intellect of man shall have taught him how much more wise it would be to make due use of the natural advantages we possess at home for the cure of disease, in applying variety of aspect and different grades of elevation and climate as sanitary media, rather than seek in alien lands and climes for benefits often doubtful, and inconveniences most sure. The lovers of Cambrian lore are aware that the Triads in their record of the deluge affirm that it was occasioned by a mystic Afanc y Llyn, crocodile of the lake, breaking the banks of Llyn Llion, the lake of waters; and the recurrence of that catastrophe was prevented only by Hu Gadarn, the bold man of power, dragging away the Afanc by aid of his "Ychain banawg," or large horned oxen. Many a lakelet in our land has put forward its claim to the location of Llyn Llion; amongst the rest this lake. Be that as it may, King Arthur and his war horse have the credit amongst the mountaineers here of ridding them of the monster, in place of Hu the Mighty, in proof of which is shown an impression on a neighbouring rock bearing a resemblance to those made by the shoe or hoof of a horse, as having been left there by his charger when our British Hercules was engaged in this redoubtable act of prowess, and this impression has been given the name of Carn March Arthur, the hoof of Arthur's horse, which it retains to this day. It is believed to be very perilous to let the waters out of the lake, and recently an aged inhabitant of the district informed the writer that she recollected this being done during a period of long drought, in order to procure motive power for Llyn Pair Mill, and that long continued heavy rains followed. No wonder our bold but superstitious progenitors, awe-struck by the solitude of the spot-the dark sepial tint of its waters, unrelieved by the flitting apparition of a single fish, and seldom visited by the tenants of the air-should have established it as a canon in their creed of terror that the lake

« PreviousContinue »