The see of Bangor extends over all Anglesea, and parts of Caernarvonshire, Denbigh, and Montgomery. It was most probably founded, or at all events a monastic establishment was formed here, in the year 525, by St. Deiniol, who was at first abbot, and afterwards bishop. The name Bangor may signify “the White Choir,” or the “High Choir,” and is found applied to an ecclesiastic institution in Flintshire, as well as to a famous religious house in the County of Down, in the North of Ireland. The subject of this description was distinguished by the prefix “Fawr,” or great, to mark its superiority. The original church existed to the time of the Saxon intrusion, when it was wholly demolished by that fierce and relentless people. In the year 1212 it was restored in a style of much magnificence by John, King of England, but it was again much injured in 1247, during the contentions between Henry the Third of England and the Welsh nobles. The demon of destruction once more visited this sacred edifice in the year 1402, when it was wholly reduced to ashes by a violent conflagration. This occurred in the civil wars, kindled by the brave and artful chieftain, Owain Glandwr. For ninety years there was no resuscitation of the embers; no pious prelate wore the wealthy mitre of this see, who preferred the honour of the church to all earthly considerations, until the reign of Henry the Seventh, when the learned and amiable Bishop Deane commenced the reedification of the cathedral, by erecting the present beautiful choir at his own expense. From an inscription over the western entrance, it appears that the tower and nave were added by Bishop Skiffington, in 1532, whose heart was deposited in Bangor Cathedral, but his body removed to the Cistercian monastery of Beaulieu in Hampshire, of which he had previously been abbot. The conduct of Bishop Bulkeley has afforded matter of much disputation amongst ecclesiastical writers: it is asserted, on one side, that this prelate dishonoured the mitre, which should have graced his brow, by spoliating the see of its estates, and the cathedral of its plate and bells; others assure us, with great earnestness, that Bulkeley did not alienate or abstract the property of the see, but that, on the contrary, he was a benefactor of the church and diocese, and that this was a calumny raised against the church by Godwin, who thought proper to direct his venomous shaft against the establishment through the character of this respectable prelate.
Dr. Warren re-edified and improved the whole structure; and during the long incumbency of Dr. Majendie, still farther decorations were accomplished. The choir is handsome, though wanting height, and is lighted by a noble pointed window with stone mullions. The eastern transept serves as a parish church, in which Welsh service is performed; and the nave has lately been converted into a place of worship, for the celebration of the service in English, the choir being found inconveniently small during the summer season. Though several prelates were interred here, no monumental honours have been paid them. Morgan requires neither brass or marble to make his fame endure; he has erected a more eternal monument, and established a more immortal name by his learned and laborious translation of the Bible into his native tongue. An effigiated tomb, occupying an intermural canopy in the south transept, is, by some unaccountable tradition, said to belong to Owain Glandwr: if so, it can only be a cenotaph, as that chieftain was entombed at Monington, in Herefordshire, where he expired. The most likely appropriation of this ancient monument is to Owain Gwynedd, who was interred here with his brother Cadwalader, in the year 1169. The investigation of this little historic fact exposes to the light the unrelenting spirit of fanaticism and bigotry. Owain Gwynedd had displeased the hierarchy by marrying his own cousin-german, for which offence his very bones were pursued with the maledictions and hatred of Thomas à Becket, who ordered his remains to be disinterred and removed from the chancel into the cemetery of the cathedral. His servants appear to have possessed a more tender and christian feeling than the great pontiff himself, and in the execution of their pitiful task caused a subterranean passage to be made from the vault into the earth without, thereby evading in some degree the sacrilegious charge of exhumation. In the year 1831 a white marble tablet, bearing a latin inscription, written with much spirit and feeling, was erected here to the memory of Goronwy Owen, a Welsh bard, who flourished in the last century. He was born in the county of Anglesea in the year 1722, and the little story of his life is beautifully and briefly told in the concluding words of his epitaph.
“Nullus eum patronus exciperet, id quod sui negârunt,
Apud exteros quærens perfugium in Transatlanticis terris,
Obscurus vixit, ignotus obiit.”
Which may be translated,
At home he felt no patronising hand,
Then sought its warmth in Transatlantic land,
Where bowed with poverty, by years o’ergrown,
He sunk neglected, as he lived unknown.
DOLWYDELLAN CASTLE.
Few parts of ancient Britain, so consecrated by historic recollections, and endowed with so many natural graces, appear to be less known than the vale and castle of Dolwydellan. The former is nearly a Welsh cwm, or hollow, but more expansive than that term in general implies, bounded on all sides by hills of fanciful and picturesque forms, and sheltered on the west by the beautiful leaning pyramid of Moel Siabod, at whose base the little village reposes in tranquillity. Little rocky eminences, covered with copse-wood or stunted oak, decorate the enclosure of the vale, while a scene of simple greatness envelopes the whole.
In the centre of the valley, and on the summit of an isolated rock, on one side precipitous and inaccessible, and on the other easily defensible, stand the remains of the ancient British castle of Dolwydellan. It was a royal residence, and a place of defence, though now “its walls are desolate; the gray moss whitens the stones; the fox looks out from the window; and rank grass waves round its head.” The castle consisted of two square towers, each containing three stories, connected by a centre, and enveloped by a curtain wall, enclosing the whole superior surface of the rock. The style of building resembles that discoverable in Dolbadarn and the other British castles, the counter-arches being pointed, and of flat shingle. The verdant area encompassing the ruins is usually browsed by a few head of cattle, forming a happy combination, and resembling the compositions of Bergham and other great masters of like style, in whose pictures cattle and ruins are made to lend their graces to each other.
Jorwerth Drwyndwn, or Edward, sirnamed “Broken Nose,” son of Owen Gwynedd, by the Lady Gwladys, was lord of Dolwydellan Castle about the year 1169, and here Llewellyn ap Jorwerth, better known to the historian as Llewellyn the Great, was born. His father’s claims to the throne of Wales were disallowed in consequence of the deformity of his countenance, but the martial daring of the son obtained for him the possession of that diadem which the barbarity and folly of the times had withheld from the father. Llewellyn was acknowledged sovereign prince of Wales A.D. 1184; and after a brilliant, glorious, and eventful reign of fifty-six years, embittered only by domestic calamities, was released from the cares of this world, and interred with great ceremony in the abbey of Conway in the year 1240. Amongst the grants made during the usurpation of the Duke of Glo’ster, is found one of Dolwydellan Castle to Sir Ralph Berkinnet, of the county of Chester, knight, chamberlain of North Wales. In the third year of King Henry the Seventh, an act of resumption was passed, whereby all the grants of Richard the Third were recalled, except the lease of the (ffrydd) fryth of Dolwydellan. At this time lived Meredydd ap Jevan ap Robert, who had been enriched by a bequest of Crug in Caernarvonshire, from his foster father, and who had farther augmented his treasures by a marriage with the daughter of William Gryffydd ap Robin. This child of fortune, after a short residence on his newly acquired estate of Crug, removed into his native country of Cessailgyfarch, and there purchased the lease of the castle and frydd [34] of Dolwydellan from the executors of Sir Ralph Berkinnett, part of the castle being then in a habitable condition. After many years residence in the old castle, Meredydd erected a small, but exceedingly substantial house, in the close valley or cwm of Penanmen, the walls, staircase, and roof of which are at this day in good preservation, and afford a comfortable dwelling to the tenantry of his descendants.