east Kent the yew-trees are to this day called palms. It is therefore more than probable that the palms were no other than the branches of yew-trees, which are not only always green, but ufually in bloom about this time; and one or two trees," the number usually found in each church-yard, would be amply fufficient for the purpose *. Yew-trees may also have been confidered emble matical of the state of mankind. The leaves having a moft poisonous quality, may have been thought reprefentative of mortality; whilst the durable foliage, and the long period through which they flourish, of two or three centuries, are not unaptly fignificant of immortality and eternity. BANGOR ISCOED Is fomewhat more than two miles beyond Overton. It is fituated on the banks of the Dee, which here flows under an elegant stone bridge of five arches. This place has its chief celebrity from having been the fite of the most ancient monaftery in Britain, founded, as the old writers affert, by Lucius, the son of Coel, and first Christian king of Britain, fomewhat prior to the year 180 t. Lucius formed *Gent. Mag. vol. 49 Speed's Chronicle, i. 207. According to the account left us by Rowlands, Lucius was converted to the Chriftian faith from the preaching of Timothy, the fon of Claudia Ruffina, a British female of diftinction, who had been a disciple of St. Paul. Mona Antiqua, 178. it an univerfity, for the increase of learning, and the prefervation of the Christian faith in this realm; and it produced for an age fo unenlightened many learned men. It is faid by fome writers to have been converted into a monaftery about the year 530 by Cynwyl or Congelus, who was created the first abbot *. Others fay that Pelagius the monk, a native of Wales, who had ftudied here in his youth, after having travelled through France, Italy, Egypt, Syria, and various other countries, was made a bishop, and on his return to England converted this house t. The monaftery of Bangor was rich in manufcripts, and univerfally celebrated for its valuable library: and Speed states, that from its great age, and the number of its learned men, it was acknow. ledged to be the parent of all the other monafteries in the world. At the arrival of Auguftine, who was miffioned about 596, from pope Gregory I., to convert the English Saxons to Christianity, this monastery appears to have been in a very flourishing ftate. There were at this time as many as 2400 monks: a hundred of these, in turns, paffed one hour in devotion, fo that the whole twenty-four hours of every day were employed in facred duties 1. Bede fays there * Jones's Welsh Bards, p. 11. ↑ Holinfhed, i. 26. 148. Rowlands, 179. Some writers have afferted that Pelagius was never in this kingdom. Speed, i. 206. VOL. II. K 4 were were just so many, that being divided into feven parts, each of these contained three hundred men, which, with their proper rulers, paffed their time alternately in prayer and labour". The monks of Bangor were diffenters from the Romish church; and, on a conference betwixt Augustine and its governors, the imperious monk demanded of them that they should keep the feaft of Easter at the fame time the papists did; that they fhould adminifter baptifm according to the ceremonies of the church of Rome; and "preach the word of life with him and his fellows." In other things, he faid, they would be allowed to retain their ancient customs, infolently concluding, that "if they would not accept of peace with their brethren, they fhould receive war from their enemies, and by them, without referve, fhould fuffer death t." They refused obedience to his injunctions, and refolutely maintained the original rites of their church. Shortly after this period followed the dreadful maffacre of above twelve hundred of the monks by Ethelfrid, king of Northumbria, at the memorable battle of Chefter. This unmanly flaughter the British annals and fongs afcribe to the inftigations of Augustine. Not long after this event the monaftery became neglected, and went entirely to decay. William of Malmsbury, who lived fhortly after the Norman con * Bede, lib. ii. c. 2. p. 111-113. Holinfhed, i. 15. quest queft, afferts, that even in his time, there remained only fome relics of its ancient magnificence: there were, he says, fo many ruined churches, and fuchTM immense heaps of rubbish, as were not elsewhere to be found *.-Leland fays of it, in the reign of Henry VIII., that its fite was in a fertile valley on the fouth fide of the Dee; but that the river having fince changed its course, then ran nearly through the middle of the ground on which it ftood. The extent of its walls, he fays, was equal to that of the walls round a town; and the two gates, the names of which had been handed down by tradition, had been half a mile afunder. Within the memory of perfons then living, the bones of the monks, and pieces of their clothes, had been ploughed up, in the cultivation of the ground, as well as pieces of fquared ftones, and fome Roman money †. GILDAS NENNIUS, A difciple of Elbod, bishop of North Wales, was abbot of Bangor in the feventh century. This early writer was the author of a history of the Britons in Latin, copies of which are yet extant. All the copies in the public libraries under the name of Nennius, Gildas Minor, Gildas Nennius, &c. owing to the ignorance of transcribers, are, however, faid to be extremely inaccurate.-This history, with several others, was published by Dr. Gale in 1691; but his Scriptores poft Bedam, 294. K 2 + Leland's Itin. v. 30. copy 132 EXCURSION FROM RUABON copy was very incorrect, and the notes and various readings, it is faid, tend more to confound than inftruct. The editor left alfo feveral parts of the work unpublish-. ed, on account of the facts there related being found in the history written by Ranulph Higden, an author five hundred years fubfequent to Nennius. This was improper, and, to the character of Nennius, unjust. Some hiftorians have fuppofed that the work was commenced by Gildas, the author of the epistle "De Excidio Britanniæ," and that it was only continued by Nennius; for it is quoted under the name of Gildas by Tyfilio, and many of the English hiftorians. In the preface Nennius declares it to be his own entire compofition, from traditions, writings," and ancient British monuments, as well as from the works of foreign authors.-It appears that the name of this writer, before he became abbot, was Gildas, but on his preferment he took that of Nennius. The latter, therefore, was probably only his ecclesiastical name; and the various titles of Gildas Nennius, Gildas Minor, Gildas Sapiens, &c. appear to have been intended, by the transcribers, to distinguish his work from the works of Gildas ap Law, the North Briton. This circumftance obtained for him by Polydore Virgil, and others, the appellation of Pfeudo Gildas, or The Falfe Gildas, without the leaft apparent confideration that there might have been two ancient writers of the fame name, TYSI |