Moestissima uxor Margaretta monumentum hoc delectessimo conjugi piae memoriae amoris ergo posuit vicessimo die Martii anno milessimo sexgentessimo quadragessimo.
Though we copied the inscription being on the spot we did not think it deserving a digression of three miles to read especially as we had so much to perform before night.
Hence we hastened forward to Llantrisant not without some apprehension in being equally deceived in an ancient inscription we learnt was to be seen there cut on the stone [54] of a gateway. On enquiring at a farm house we found it had been taken up from the gate and placed in a kind of shed as a block to chop sticks on. This intelligence conveyed through our interpreter did not quiet our fears for the fate of the inscription, however towards the place we went and fortunately found the stone lying with the inscription downwards (fol. 92). On the edge was engraved Aroe lapidibus in the manner I have shewn in my sketch. Having with the assistance of four stout fellows turned the stone I traced as nearly as I could the characters as they appear in my drawing. The stone was of a lozenge form about six feet high and three wide, and I conjecture was first of all employed by the Romans as a direction across the country, as the words Aroe lapidibus to the stones of Aroe seem to imply. The second inscription was probably cut some centuries after in monkish times as appears by the words moribus disciplinae et sapientiae coming together in the conclusion of the sentence. Indeed many of the upright pillars we have met with in the island I imagine were intended as directions or boundaries and not at all connected with druidical worship as Mr. Rowlands seems to suppose. The day by this time being far advanced we exerted ourselves as much as the country would (fol. 92a) allow to gain Llanbabo church four miles distant in sufficient time to copy an ancient stone dug up here in the reign of Charles the second bearing the effigies of Pabo post Prid or Prince Pabo the support of Britain who flourished about the year four hundred sixty and who is said to have built and to have been buried in this church. His effigies are designed on a flat stone resembling free stone, the figure crowned with a sceptre in its right hand and a close garment down to its feet. On the edge of the stone these characters are cut hic jacet Pabo post Prid the remainder is very much defaced but I should read it qui edificavit hanc ecclesiam.
For my own part I cannot but think that the whole of this is some ages later than Pabo’s time as both the sculpture and the formation of the letters are those of the thirteenth or fourteenth century. We know that in Roman catholic countries it is very common for the priests to preserve (fol. 95) the effigies of their founders and benefactors in their churches and monasteries and might not this have been presented to the church by some rich family in the neighbourhood by way of acquiring the favour of the sainted patron. The letters here noticed very much resemble those I have copied from the monument in Bettws y Coed church in Carnarvonshire. I took as perfect a drawing as my time would allow and afterwards just sketched the entrance door and three uncooth and at present whitewashed visages let into the stone above and on each side of it. These are of such rude workmanship that I should rather attribute them to the time of Pabo than the subject we have just considered. A kind of waving line over the arch of the door as described in my sketch is I conjecture no less antique. The church itself differs in no other respect from the generality of Welsh buildings, and the parish is so scattered that not above two houses are to be seen in any direction.
From hence to Llanfechell we experienced a dirty swampy and fatiguing walk (fol. 95a) of four miles and the termination of it was rendered still more unfortunate as we found the public house so indifferent we could not think of spending the night there accordingly we hastened by the light of the moon to examine some stones and a cromlech about half a mile beyond leaving our interpreter who seemed to be pretty well tired of antique hunting to eat his dinner, in the interim the host of the public house officiating in his stead. Under his guidance we first visited three upright stones standing on a rising ground placed three paces asunder forming an exact triangle. They were about seven feet high and two feet and a half wide. These I make no doubt were intended as a direction to travellers as they might be seen from every rising hillock in the neighbourhood and also from the coast, we could not learn that they were called by any particular name if it had sounded anything like aroe it would have thrown some light upon the inscription in Llantrisant parish.
From hence passing by an old (fol. 98) mansion named cromlech now tenanted by a farmer we came to the spot where many large stones were lying scattered promiscuously on the ground and one nearly square measuring nine feet across leaning against some uprights about six feet high. From the appearance of this place I should rather imagine that it had been the interior or cistfaen of a carnedd and this opinion seems somewhat confirmed by the accounts of the common people who remember great quantities of stone having been removed to form a wall. Returning to the public house we made a meal on bread and cheese and afterwards procuring the key of the church we examined its interior. The font is square having a double Saxon arch rudely carved on each face. Over the communion table is a Latin inscription to Mr. Humphreys Rector of the parish which we transcribed:
Cineribus sacrum
H. S. E.
(fol. 98a) Robertus Humphreys M.A.
vir eruditus perquam et modestus
Rei medicae
praesertim botanicae apprime gnarus
Praxique claruit
hujus ecclesiae per tria et amplius lustra
Extitit Rector
obiit XIII id Junii anno MDCCIX
Ætatis suae LVIIIDnus dnus Ricardus Nicom. Bulkeley pro digno qui haberet defuncto hoc positum voluit
