LA CRUCIS;
OR
THE PILLAR OF ELISEG.
—“The time draws on
When not a single spot of burial earth,
Whether on land, or in the spacious sea,
But must give back its long committed dust
Inviolate.”
The Pillar of Eliseg is supposed to be one of the oldest inscribed British columns now existing, and is erected in a field about three furlongs from the Abbey, standing in a delightful valley, to which it gives the name of Valle Crucis, or the Vale of the Cross. The spot on which it stands is a gentle elevation, and is called Llwyn y Groes, i.e. the Grove of the Cross. The pillar was twelve feet high, and inscribed all round with letters. It stood in its place until some of Cromwell’s fanatical soldiers overthrew and broke it.
The pillar remained cast down many years, until Trevor Lloyd, Esq. of Trevor Hall, reared its mutilated remains again into its base, which had not been removed, and placed upon it this Latin inscription:—
QUOD HUJUS VETERIS MONUMENTI
SUPEREST
DIU EX OCULIS REMOTUM
ET NEGLECTUM
TANDEM RESTITUIT
T. LLOYD,
TREVOR HALL,
MDCCLXXIX.
Translated as follows:—
“T. LLOYD, of Trevor Hall, at length, in the year 1779, restored what remains of this ancient Monument, which had been a long time removed from sight, and neglected.”
The Cross, or Pillar, for it seems never to have had the form of a Cross, is now little more than eight feet high. The old inscription, which time has rendered illegible, has been carefully copied by that great antiquarian, Mr. Edward Lloyd, [69a] and informs us nearly of the time of its erection, as under:—
“Concenn filius Cateli—Cateli [69b] filius Brockmail
Brochmail filius Eliseg—Eliseg filius Cnoillaine
Concenn itaque pronepos Eliseg edificavit hunc
Lapidem proavo suo Eliseg.”
Of which the following seems to be an exact translation:—