may I say by youe. I have in all shewed my selfe youre ffreinde, in soe much, as yf I had not pointed youe the waye with my finger, youe had beene styll Vicar of Llanrhayder. Youe pleade conscience when youe should give, and make no bones to receave curtesie of youre ffreindes. Nether was the losse of the thynge that I regard a dodkyn, but your unkinde dealinge. Hitt shall lesson me to expect noe sweete fruite of a sower stocke. Youre verball love I esteeme as nothinge; and I make noe doubt (with God's good favour) to live to be able to pleasure youe, as much as youe shall me, et é contrá.' Sir John then enumerates the various benefits he had conferred on plain William Morgan, who, when he became a great dignitary, remembered no more thereof, then that I had lent him my geldynge to go to Llandda, and had sent hym a fatt oxe att hys fyrst comynge to St. Assaphe. Which ys to strayne a gnatt and swallow a camell.'*

The diocese of St. Asaph contains the whole of Flintshire, with the exception of the following parishes-Hanmer, Hawarden, Bangor, Orton-Madoc, and Wortenbury, which are annexed to the see of Chester. It includes the whole county of Denbigh, with the exception of the deanery of Dyffryn Clwyd, the chapelries of Holt and Iscoed, comprehended in the see of Chester, and Penley in that of Lichfield and Coventry; about half the county of Merioneth,— namely, the hundred of Mowddy, Penlyn, and Edeirnion; three parishes in Caernarvonshire, thirty-seven in Montgomeryshire; with eleven churches and chapels in the county of Salop; comprising in the whole one hundred and thirty churches and chapels, all of which, except seven, are in the gift of the bishop, whose revenues, as charged in the King's books, amount to 1877. 11s. 8d., but the estimated value is from three to four thousand pounds per annum, to which may be added a most extensive patronage.

The town of St. Asaph itself contains few or no objects of interest to induce the tourist to pay it more than a passing visit.

* Royal Tribes of Wales, p. 139, 41.

The buildings erected are in general low and small, built of brick, and disposed in one long, uniform street. According to some returns made to Parliament, it consists of two hundred and seventy-two houses, with a population scarcely amounting to two thousand. But the surrounding views, from several points, fully suffice to attract the steps of the pedestrian, and more than compensate for any want of interest in the place. Besides the prospect already mentioned, there are others scarcely less inviting; that on the road from St. Asaph, along the common called the Row, is full of beauty; the vale is seen watered by the Elwy, which runs beneath lofty and richly wooded banks, and at its extremity the noble bridge appears to great advantage. The river there takes a new direction, running west and then north, along most romantic dingles, varied with meadows, woods, and cavernous rocks.

Neither is it destitute of antiquities. Y fynnon-fair, or our Lady's well, is a fine spring inclosed in an angular wall; there are the ruins of a cross-shaped chapel, finely overgrown with ivy, and highly picturesque as they appear from a deeply wooded bottom, not far from the bridge; thither, in the days of pilgrimage, resorted devotees of every rank and age, bearing offerings of their gratitude, or soliciting aid in distress. On the eminence above, appears the seat of the Lloyds, descended, according to Mr. Pennant, from one of the fifteen tribes, in whose right they enjoy the ancient seat of Hafodynos. The most splendid view, however, of these picturesque glens is from Pencraig, on the grounds of Galt-vaenan; thence you discover an innumerable variety of beauties—the milder and more softened features of the country.

At Llanerch, also, the Wanderer paused to admire the delicious view of the vale, with the majestic boundary between the Clwyd and Flintshire. The intervening grounds and inclosures running high up the hills, and various portions seen glowing with the purple flowers of the heath to the setting sun, and a succession of churches, hamlets, and seats, give at once relief and repose to

the whole scene. On ascending high above Llanerch, the entire valley breaks upon the eye, with the far western boundaries, and the tracts of the lofty Snowdon beyond. Midway from end to end, the prospect is enriched with towns and castles; and towering above the rest, frowns the rock of Denbigh, the shattered fragments of its castle crowning the summit of its isolated hill. Towards the north might be discerned the remains of the fallen Rhuddlan,-whither the Wanderer was now turning his steps,and, in the distance, the dark receding mountains, perpendicular rocks, and the still mightier boundary of the ocean.

Proceeding across the country by Bodygan, Yrhiallt, Combe, Newmarket, Meliden, nearly to the coast, the traveller at length approached the ancient, war-famed site of Rhuddlan. This once grand station, with its palace-fortress, he beheld dwindled into an insignificant village. Its castle, the residence of royalty, was erected before the Norman conquest, by Llewellyn ap Sitsylt, early in the eleventh century. His son Gryffydd, having given umbrage to Edward the Confessor, was overthrown by Harold, who took the castle and burnt the palace. They were restored, under William the Conqueror, by Robert, a nephew of Hugh Lupus, who fortified the place with new works, and carried on a system of depredation upon the natives. It was partly destroyed by the warlike Gryffydd ap Cynan; but, in 1157, was once more restored by Henry II. In the wars of the country it frequently exchanged masters, and we have related how the siege was once raised by an army of itinerant minstrels, fiddlers, tinkers, and mountebanks. Earl Randle rewarded his deliverer by appointing him to the singular office of Magisterium Omnium peccatorum et meretricum totius Cestreshire.' By virtue of this legal instrument, we are told, the descendants of Hugh Dalton, in the reign of Henry VII., when the rights of Welshmen were allowed, preferred their claim to an annual payment of four-pence from every female of a certain notoriety within the county of Chester; and ordered all the minstrels exercising their profession to appear before them, or

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their stewards, annually on the festival of St. John the Baptist. Neither were they to appear with unfurnished hands nor empty. purse; each was to bring a lance, four flaggons of wine, and pay four-pence half-penny for a licence granted to protect him in the exercise of his calling. This privilege being annexed to certain estates, the custom was continued for centuries; and the anniversary, when modern minstrels went in procession to hear divine service in St. John's church, was observed till the year 1758.

The castle, it is recorded, was built of the red sand-stone found in the adjacent rocks. The form is nearly that of a square, and the walls are flanked by six round towers, three of which continue almost entire. The fosse is wide and deep, and on both sides the excavation is faced with stone. The steep escarpement to the river side was secured by walls, in which were placed square bastions, one of which is yet standing. The walls embrace a spacious octagonal area, round which were ranged different apartments. In one of these, while the English court was spending their Christmas at Rhuddlan, the consort of King Edward is stated to have given birth to a daughter. But according to tradition, the event took place at a private palace of the King, and an old house, still the property of the Crown, is supposed to have been the place of the queen's accouchement.

At a short distance from the castle, a Monastery of Black Friars was founded sometime previous to the year 1268; for in that year Anian, the prior, was preferred to the see of St. Asaph. It suffered in the frequent conflicts for possession of the castle; yet it subsisted, it appears, till the general suppression of religious houses, though no mention is made by Dugdale or Speed of its annual revenues.

Rhuddlan was made a free borough by Edward I., who conferred upon it numerous other privileges. The charter which he granted was signed at Flint. It appointed the constable of the castle to be mayor, and two bailiffs, elected by the burgesses, on Michaelmasday, were to appear before him for administering of the customary oaths. The corporation were allowed the power of trial and im