Nooks and Corners of PembrokeshireTimmins, H. Thornhill (Henry Thornhill)
History
Nooks and Corners of Pembrokeshire
Timmins, H. Thornhill (Henry Thornhill)
Pembrokeshire (Wales) -- Description and travel
The way to Llandilo leads us through a hollow dingle, where a brawling
trout-stream rushes along beneath cool, shadowy beech woods: while every
here and there a glimpse of the purple hills adds variety to the scene.
Passing by Temple-Druid, the site of a now destroyed cromlech, we arrive
at Llandilo, where we search in vain for the church: for this
sparsely-peopled parish has been merged into that of Maenclochog, in
consequence of which the sacred edifice has been allowed to fall into
disrepair, and is now represented by a few crumbling walls smothered in
rank, untended ivy.
Crossing the stone stile that gives access to the churchyard, we espy
upon its southern side a slab of greenstone bearing, in rudely-chased
letters, the inscription: COIMAGNI FILI CAVETI. A similar stone near the
east end of the ruined chancel has also its superscription, which reads:
ANDAGELLI IACIT; with a fainter line, possibly FILI CNOI, below; and
over all a cross with tridented terminations.
But the pride of the place is 'St. Teilo's skull,' which is treasured at
the adjacent farmhouse. This curious relic was formerly held in high
esteem as a cure for all manner of sickness, water being drawn from the
saint's well, and drunk out of the skull. The virtue of the draught was
supposed to consist in its being administered by the eldest son of the
house of Melchior, then, as now, the hereditary custodian of St. Teilo's
skull. Onwards to Llangolman, the country is crumpled up into a
succession of hills and narrow, rocky dingles, whereby the numerous
streamlets that enliven this locality find an outlet from the foot-hills
of Precelly. In one of these dingles is St. Teilo's Well, a wayside
spring frequented by that saint in days of yore.
Llangolman Church, perched on its isolated monticle, presents a sorry
spectacle of desecration and decay; its windows battered and broken, its
roof open to the vault of heaven, while the rusty bell hangs cracked and
useless in the dilapidated turret.
As we approach Monachlogddu, the landscape assumes a thoroughly Welsh
appearance. A clear trout-stream, that comes rippling and dancing down
the glen from the dark brown ridge of the moorlands, is here put to turn
the wheel of a little flannel-mill. In response to our request, the
goodman describes in broken English the simple processes of manufacture,
and explains the movements of his archaic machinery. Then, after a
glance at the lowly parish church, dedicated to St. Dogmael, we bid
adieu to the village of the Black Monastery, and take to the road again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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