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
About this time, Gerald joined with Archbishop Baldwin to preach the
Crusade throughout South Wales; when he kept a diary of his proceedings
which has proved of no little entertainment to after-comers.
During his long and eventful career Gerald de Barri paid three several
visits to Rome, in order to push his interests at headquarters. He
accompanied Henry II. to France, and was entrusted by that monarch with
the education of his promising son John, of Magna Charta fame. Upon the
death of his uncle the Bishop, Gerald made strenuous efforts to obtain
the coveted appointment of his native see, refusing all other
preferments; but, failing of success, he retired in dudgeon from active
life, and spent the rest of his days in writing those literary 'remains'
that have afforded so much interest to antiquaries.
Gerald de Barri appears to have been a man of studious temperament. He
became, as Lambarde quaintly puts it, 'wel learned and, as tyme served,
eloquent.' He was, moreover, a great writer, and being much given to
disputation, called together the literary _élite_ of Oxford and read his
own works to them. He next proceeded to feast his learned critics into a
satisfactory state of good humour with things in general, and his own
literary effusions in particular; an event which he himself describes as
'a magnificent affair, a return of the Golden Age, an unparalleled
event, in England at all events.'
In person Gerald is portrayed as remarkably tall, his face being
strongly marked by large, shaggy eyebrows; and it has been well said
that, in spite of certain undeniable defects of character, he was
probably inspired with a genuine love for the land of his birth, and a
desire to upraise therein an independent Kymric Church owning
allegiance to the Bishop of St. Davids as its spiritual head.
[Illustration: DE BARRI TOMB, MANORBERE.]
Gerald de Barri was gathered to his fathers, at a ripe old age, in the
year 1220. He is reputed to have been buried in St. Davids Cathedral;
where _at least one_ tomb is pointed out as the last resting-place of
this great ecclesiastic.
Little is recorded of the subsequent history of Manorbere Castle. The
place appears to have been abandoned at an early period; its hanging
woods and vineyards were abandoned to decay, whilst its dismantled walls
and subterranean vaults harboured bands of lawless freebooters, who
haunted these coasts a century ago. Wild work went forward at Manorbere
in those half-forgotten days. It is related how a certain famous
smuggler, notorious for his desperate enterprises, eluded the vigilance
of the revenue men by running his vessel ashore near the headland
ycleped the Priest's Nose; and conveying his illicit cargo, under cover
of night, to the cellars with which the neighbourhood abounded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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