Transcribed from the 1897? edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org [Picture: Book cover] A RECORD OF ST. CYBI’S CHURCH, HOLYHEAD * * * * * And the Sermon preached after its Restoration, 1879, by ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D., Dean of Westminster. * * * * * SIX ILLUSTRATIONS. [Picture: South View of St. Cybi’s Church, with the Chancel Aisle added 1897] A Record of St. Cybi’s Church THE old Church of St. Cybi, at Holyhead, which contains so many memorials of the devotion and piety of former generations, has been in this Jubilee year of the reign of Queen Victoria enriched by many precious gifts. A new South Aisle, capable of containing 50 or 60 worshippers, has been added to the Church as a memorial to Mr. and Mrs. W. O. Stanley of Penrhos; and the beautiful window at the east end has been placed there in memory of Mr. Watson, Chairman and Managing Director of the City of Dublin Co., by his sons. The connection of Mr. Stanley’s forefathers, the Owens of Penrhos, with the Church of St. Cybi, has been a very close one, and we are indebted to the archaeological lore and love of the locality which distinguished his family and himself, for the preservation of many beautiful traditions and interesting remains of long past ages. Holyhead Island is rich in old-world treasures which appeal not only to the archaeologist and the historian, but to the artistic mind and eye of men like Matthew Arnold and the author of “The Stones of Venice.” “Just on the other side of the Mersey,” Ruskin writes, “you have your Snowdon and your Menai Straits and that mighty granite rock beyond the moors of Anglesea, splendid in its heathery crest, and footplanted in the deep sea, once thought of as sacred—a divine promontory, looking westward; the Holy Head or Head Land, still not without awe when its red light glares first through storm.” On that same mountain of Holyhead are the circular hive-shaped dwellings, of unknown antiquity, called locally “Cyttiau Gwyddelod,” or “Irishmen’s Huts.” These are excavated to a depth of some feet below the surface, 15 feet to 20 feet in diameter inside, the sides of the interior being lined with stones to prevent the earth from falling, and the dome-shaped roof only being apparent above the surface of the ground. In addition to the above are the curiously shaped querns, mullers, and other stone implements indicating the past life of the dwellers in these rude huts.