Wild Wales: The People, Language, & SceneryBorrow, George
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Wild Wales: The People, Language, & Scenery
Borrow, George
Borrow, George, 1803-1881 -- Travel -- Wales; Wales -- Description and travel
The miller presently joined me, and we proceeded farther down the hill.
Our way lay between stone walls, and sometimes over them. The land was
moory and rocky, with nothing grand about it, and the miller described it
well when he said it was tîr gwael—mean land. In about a quarter of an
hour we came to the churchyard into which we got, the gate being locked,
by clambering over the wall.
The church stands low down the descent, not far distant from the sea. A
little brook, called in the language of the country a frwd, washes its
yard-wall on the south. It is a small edifice with no spire, but to the
south-west there is a little stone erection rising from the roof, in
which hangs a bell—there is a small porch looking to the south. With
respect to its interior I can say nothing, the door being locked. It is
probably like the outside, simple enough. It seemed to be about two
hundred and fifty years old, and to be kept in tolerable repair. Simple
as the edifice was, I looked with great emotion upon it; and could I do
else, when I reflected that the greatest British poet of the last century
had worshipped God within it, with his poor father and mother, when a
boy?
I asked the miller whether he could point out to me any tombs or
grave-stones of Gronwy’s family, but he told me that he was not aware of
any. On looking about I found the name of Owen in the inscription on the
slate slab of a respectable-looking modern tomb, on the north-east side
of the church. The inscription was as follows:
Er cof am Jane Owen
Gwraig Edward Owen,
Monachlog Llanfair Mathafarn eithaf,
A fu farw Chwefror 28 1842
Yn 51 Oed.
_i.e._ “To the memory of Jane Owen wife of Edward Owen, of the monastery
of St. Mary of farther Mathafarn, who died February 28, 1842, aged
fifty-one.”
Whether the Edward Owen mentioned here was any relation to the great
Gronwy, I had no opportunity of learning. I asked the miller what was
meant by the monastery, and he told me that it was the name of a building
to the north-east near the sea, which had once been a monastery, but had
been converted into a farmhouse, though it still retained its original
name. “May all monasteries be converted into farm-houses,” said I, “and
may they still retain their original names in mockery of popery!”
Having seen all I could well see of the church and its precincts I
departed with my kind guide. After we had retraced our steps some way,
we came to some stepping-stones on the side of a wall, and the miller
pointing to them said:
“The nearest way to the house of Gronwy will be over the llamfa.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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