DIOCESE OF HEREFORD. HEREFORDSHIRE. Kilpeck, C. (St. Mary & St. Da- Little Dewchurch,chapel to vid.) Dewchurch Magna, V. Pembrokeshire Lugwardine (St. Peter.) SUMMARY. 10 Glamorganshire It is remarkable that there is not one church or chapel, dedicated to St. David, in the whole of North Wales. The nationality of these churches will not be questioned, as the person, to whom they are dedicated, was the tutelar Saint of the country. Their antiquity appears from the fact that they are dispersed without reference to the petty conquests, or to the towns of later ages; and as they are to be found, in a certain quarter, beyond the borders of the Principality, they belong to an era when its limits were more extensive than at present. Their foundation is popularly ascribed to St. David himself; but in order to shew whether any of them can advance a plausible claim to so early a date, they must be submitted to the same kind of examination as the preceding; and the test is the more necessary, because, from the circumstance of his being canonized by the Pope in the twelfth century, he was adopted into the Romish Calendar, and several churches may have been dedicated to his memory in later times. Four endowments, in the list, are of the first class, having a plurality of chapels dependent on them; seven more have one chapel each; and most of these subordinate chapels are dedicated to St. David himself, or to Welsh Saints, his contemporaries. The chapels dedicated to St. David, and, for that reason, allowed a place in the front of the list, are subject to churches attributed to the same person, or to other Welsh Saints of contemporary or older date. Their relative situation would therefore show that both churches and chapels where founded in an age, when indiscriminate dedications had not become customary; for, according to Ecton, only one* of the chapels, dedicated to St. David, is subordinate to a church dedicated to one of the Apostles, and this exception does not occur within the present limits of Wales. Out of the thirteen chapelries assigned to St. David, eleven are parochial,t being a larger proportion than appears in the lists of those of St. Mary, or St. Michael. But it may be urged against the antiquity of the beneficed churches, that only four out of forty have endowments of the first foundation. A review of the list, however, compared with a map of the country, and some knowledge of its localities, will show that the majority of these benefices do not stand singly in their situations, but are joined by two, and sometimes by three together. Thus Whitchurch is contiguous to St. David's, Llanuchllwydog and Llanychaer are adjoining parishes, and the same may be said of Maenor Deifi and Bridell. Henfynyw and Llanddewi Aberarth are contiguous; so are Trallwng and Llywel; Maesmynys and Llanddewi'r Cwm; as well as Glascwm and Cregruna. The number of benefices, which stand alone and without chapels, is therefore reduced to twenty. To proceed, * Little Dewchurch, subject to Lugwardine, (St. Peter,) in the Diocese and county of Hereford. + Ascertained from the Population Returns for 1831, printed by order of the House of Commons. Brawdy and Whitchurch, though not contiguous, are nearer to each other than many detached chapelries. The same may be said of Henllan Amgoed and Llanddewi Felffre, and also of Llanddewi Brefi and Llanycrwys; Garthbrengi and Llanfaes are so situate with respect to each other,* that is probable they were first separated by the arrangements of the followers of Bernard Newmarch.t In Monmouthshire, Llanddewi Sgyryd and Llanddewi Rhydderch are near each other; as are also Trostre and Llangyniow; and the same rule will apply to the three churches in Herefordshire. The single churches which remain, are only nine; of which number, Prendergast, Hubberston, and Llanddewi in Gower, are situate in districts avowedly Flemish; so that it cannot be said what was the original extent of their endowments, and what churches might have been detached from them. Heyop and Whitton are so situated, that there is reason to suppose they were once subordinate to the neighbouring church of Llangynllo: their churches are very small, and belong to a district which was one of the first to become subject to the Lords Marchers. Blaenporth, Cardiganshire, and Llanddewi Fach, Monmouthshire, may perhaps be ancient, but they afford no criterion to prove their antiquity. The author of the "History of Brecknockshire” (Vol. II. p. 147.) gives his reasons for the supposition that Llanfaes was originally a chapel under Llanddew, a parish which intervenes between it and Garthbrengi. He further supposes Llanddew to be an abbreviation of Llanddewi; but while the connexion between the several parishes is admitted, there are certain objections to his etymology, into which it is at present unnecessary to enter. (See Appendix.) † A Norman adventurer, who took forcible possession of the county of Brecknock about A. D. 1090. The district around Whitton is included in the Survey of Domesday Book, and while the names of the surrounding churches are mentioned, that of Whitton is omitted; from which it may be inferred that the latter was founded after the Conquest, and the tract, assigned for its endowment, must have been taken from one of the adjoining parishes. The almost uniform disposition of these churches in clusters is too remarkable to be the effect of accident. From the analogy of other cases, there is reason to suppose that the parishes of each cluster formed originally a single endowment, in support of one, or perhaps two churches, to which the rest served as so many chapels; and the supposition is confirmed from the analogy of Glascwm, and other districts, where the chapels are dedicated to the same Saint as the mother church. But great light may be borrowed from the testimony of Gwynfardd Brycheiniog, a Bard, who is stated to have lived between the years 1160 and 1230. In a poem composed by him in honour of Dewi, or St. David, and inserted in the Welsh Archaiology, Vol. I. page 270, occurs a passage, which is thus translated by Williams in his "Dissertation upon the Pelagian Heresy." "DEWI the great of Menevia, the wise sage; And Dewi of Brefi near the plains; And Dewi is the owner of the superb church of Cyfelach, And Dewi owns the choir that is At Meidrym, a place affording sepulture to multitudes; And Abergwilly, containing mildness and modesty ; *The following is the original, adapted by Williams to the orthography now current in the principality. "Dewi mawr Mynyw, syw Sywedydd, A Dewi bien balch lan Gyfelach, A Bangor Esgor; a Bangeibyr Henllan, Llanarth, Llanadneu, churches of the Patron Saint; And Llanddewi of the Cross, with a new chancel; green mountain,) A lofty sylvan retreat, where sanctuary fails not; The rock of Vuruna fair is here, and fair its hilly pros pects; And Ystrad-fynydd, and its uncontrouled liberty." In these verses, the Bard considers St. David to be "the owner" of twenty churches, fifteen of which are ascribed to him in the foregoing list. But as not one of those enumerated happens to be a chapelry, it is probable the Bard mentions such out of every cluster as were endowed at the time the poem was written, and the rest, being chapels, are omitted. Thus the Cathedral church of St. David's, then called Mynyw or Menevia, is mentioned without Whitchurch and Brawdy; Llanddewi Brefi without its chapels; Maenor Deifi without Bridell; Abergwyli without its chapels; and Henfynyw without Llanddewi Aberarth. In the Brecknock cluster, the churches are more numerous; and there are two in the cluster of Radnorshire. But what is most remarkable is the fact, that with the exception of Brecknock, his native district, the Bard mentions nothing of the churches of those parts which, in that or the preceding generation, had been occupied by the En Llanarth, Llan-adneu, llannau llywydd; Nis arfeidd rhyfel Llanfaes, lle uchel; G A Thrallwng Cynfyn ger y dolydd ; |