Another correspondent to the Gentleman’s Magazine gives the following information respecting the sect: “That they are not a distinct sect, but Methodists, of the same persuasion as the late Mr. Whitfield; for though there are several congregations of the Wesleyan Methodists in this country, there is no such custom amongst them. But jumping during religious worship is no new thing amongst the other party, having (by what I can learn) been practised by them for many years past. I have seen some of their pamphlets in the Welsh language, in which this custom is justified by the example of David, who danced before the ark; and of the lame man, restored by our blessed Saviour, at the gate of the temple, who leaped for joy.” How far this gentleman’s account may be accurate, I leave for others to decide: it is certainly to be lamented, in a country where the Christian religion is preached in a style of the greatest purity and simplicity, that these poor ignorant deluded wretches should be led to a form of worship so dissonant to the established church of England, and indeed by a poor ignorant fellow, devoid of education and common sense.
The same road we had so much admired the preceding Saturday soon brought us to
BANGOR,
the oldest episcopal see in Wales; being founded in 516.
The situation is deeply secluded, “far from the bustle of a jarring world,” and must have accorded well with monastic melancholy; for the Monks, emerging from their retired cells, might here indulge in that luxurious gloominess, which the prospect inspires, and which would soothe the asperities inflicted upon them by the severe discipline of superstition. The situation of Bangor appears more like a scene of airy enchantment than reality; and the residences of the Canons are endeared to the votaries of landscape by the prospect they command. On the opposite shore, the town of Beaumaris was seen straggling up the steep declivity, with its quay crowded with vessels, and all appeared bustle and confusion; the contrast, which the nearer prospect inspired, was too evident to escape our notice, where the
“Oak, whose boughs were moss’d with age,
And high top bald with dry antiquity,”
afforded a seat for the contemplation of the wide expanse of the ocean, which is seen beyond the little island of Puffin, or Priestholm; so called from the quantity of birds of that species, which resort here in the summer months.
The cathedral has been built at different times, but no part very ancient; the church was burnt down by Owen Glendwr, in the reign of King Henry IV.; the choir was afterwards built by Bishop Henry Dene, (or Deane), between the years 1496 and 1500; the tower and nave by Bishop Skevington, in 1532. The whole is Gothic architecture, with no other particular ornament to distinguish it from a common English parish church. There are, however, several bishops [185] buried in the choir. I could dwell with pleasure on the picturesque beauties of this little episcopal see; but a repetition of the same epithets, grand, beautiful, sublime, fine, with a long catalogue, which must necessarily occur, would appear tautologous on paper, though their archetypes in nature would assume new colours at every change of position of the beholder.
This bishopric owes the chief of its revenues and immunities to Anian, bishop of the diocese, in the reign of Edward the First; who being in high favour with that monarch, and having had the honour of christening the young prince, born at Caernarvon, afterwards Edward the Second, had, as a compensation for the temporalities confiscated in the reign of King Henry the Third, various manors, ferries, and grants from the revenues of the principality allotted to the see.
Mr. Evans, in his valuable work, the Topography of North Wales, has clearly refuted the improbable charge made against Bishop Bulkely, of having sold the cathedral bells; and, on the contrary, proves from documents, that the cathedral was indebted to him for considerable repairs, and that likewise by his will he was a benefactor to it; this falsehood, which originated with Godwin, in his Treatise, entitled “De Presulibus,” as a piece of scandal against the church, met with but too ready a belief from former tourists, whose false records, Mr. Evans deserves great credit for refuting.