Einion, son of Gwalchmai, was lord of Trefeilir. Now there was a
young lady named Angharad, daughter of Ednyfed Fychan, who was so
beautiful, and was an heiress of so much, that she had many suitors.
As she professed herself unable to decide among such an _embarras de
richesses_ of nice young men, her father proposed that she should
marry the youth who could jump the furthest. She agreed. When the
suitors came to try their powers, Einion surpassed the rest, for with
a hop, skip, and a jump he covered fifty feet. The hop, skip, and jump
are marked by three stones, which remain to this day in the dingle of
Plas Gwyn. So Einion became the husband of Angharad.
His happiness was of short duration, for he was summoned by Owen
Gwynedd to assist in driving the Flemings out of South Wales, who had
been settled there by Henry I. This was in 1137. Einion was away for a
good many years, constantly engaged in fighting, and when he did return
to Trefeilir he found that on that day his wife had given her hand to
another suitor, supposing that Einion was dead. Einion remained without
and sent a servant within to summon her to come forth, and then,
striking his harp, he sang a lay of reproach that has been preserved.
Then he entered the house and ejected the gentleman who had presumed to
invade his premises.
The Parys Mountain rises to the height of 420 feet, and is pretty
completely honeycombed with mines, as it is an almost solid lump of
copper. It has been worked continually since the times of the Romans,
and had probably been quarried at in the Bronze Age before that.
The little town of Amlwch is dominated by this mountain. It consists of
two parts, the town proper and the port, and a considerable manufacture
of chemical manures is carried on in it. Altogether Amlwch is in itself
not a particularly attractive place. It has many spots of interest
about it, and from it can be reached Bull Bay, where there are good
sands, and the place is growing in favour. To the east the adjoining
parish is Llaneilian, that possesses a quaint and interesting church,
which, however, has suffered cruelly from unintelligent “restoration.”
Like the majority of Welsh village churches, it has no side aisles; it
is a cross church, with battlements and a western tower, covered from
top to bottom in a panoply of slates. At the “restoration” the old oak
seats were cast forth to make room for deal benches in preference, and
the fine rood-screen with its loft had all the dainty tracery stripped
from its panels and openings and destroyed, so that now it is a mere
skeleton.
There is a curious little chapel at the south-east end of the church,
differently orientated, and with a covered passage to it from the
chancel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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