TYSILIO. While I am speaking of the monaftery of Bangor, and its eminent men, I ought by no means to leave this writer unnoticed. Tyfilio was a British bishop, the fon of Brochwel Yfythroc, prince of Powis, and was nearly contemporary with Nennius. He was the author of a British history intitled Brut y Bren hinoedd, or the traditions of the British bards. It commences with the defcent of the Trojan colony, and ends with the reign of Cadwaladr, the last king of the Britons. This hiftory, about the year 1150, fell into the hands of Galfrid Arthur, or Geoffry, archdeacon of Monmouth, and afterwards bishop of St. Afaph, who tranflated it into Latin, inferting in his tranflation all the monkifh fables that he could collect. In this ftate the work took the name of the tranflator, and has fuffered the most violent abufe by all the English, fince the time of Camden, that have written on the British history, and by various French and Dutch writers. This, however, has been done without any acquaintance with the original work in the British language, which is effentially different from the translation both in general matter, and in the statement of facts. Erddig.Wrexham.—Church and Monuments.-Anecdote of Elihw Tale.-Wrexham Fair.-Trade and Manufactories. İ LEFT Ruabon, and proceeded on my journey towards Wrexham. In order to pafs through the ? grounds of Erddig, belonging to Philip Yorke, efq.* I left the carriage-road, and went along a foot-path, over the meadows on the right. I obferved confiderable tafte difplayed at Erddig, but all the efforts of art are so infinitely inferior to the majestic operations of nature, which I had lately feen in fo much variety, that I cannot fay I derived much pleasure from thefe grounds.-Watt's Dyke runs through them; and not far diftant is the fragment of a wall, conjectured to have been part of a Roman fort. WREXHAM Is a populous market town, and of fuch fize and confequence as to have obtained the appellation of the metropolis of North Wales. The ftreets and. *The author of a valuable history of the Five Royal Tribes of North Wales. buildings buildings are in general good; and the adjacent country is fo beautiful, as to have induced many families to fix their refidence in its vicinity. The centre street, in which the market is held, is of confiderable length, and of unufual width for an ancient town. The common hall is a large and convenient building. This place was known to our Saxon ancestors by the name of Wrightesham, or Wrightlefham. A few centuries ago it was noted as the refort of buckler, or fhield makers*. The church was formerly collegiate, and is yet a most elegant structure. On the exterior it is richly ornamented with gothic fculpture. The tower, which is about a hundred and forty feet in height, is particularly beautiful. On three of its fides there have been statues as large as life, of no fewer than thirty faints: two have been destroyed by falling from their niches. Mifs Seward, in her verfes on Wrexham, has finely expreffed the elegance of this building t Her hallow'd temple there religion fhews, Whose nameless charms the Dorian claims efface, Wrexham, truly called Wrightlefham, is the only market town of Welsh Maelor, having a goodly church collegiate there longith no prebendes to it, though it be collegiated. There be fum merchauntes and good bokeler makers." Leland's Itin. 32. * 4 The The interior of the church is plain, but exceedingly neat, being devoid of the load of ornaments common in gothic churches. It contains, among other monuments, two of the elegant workmanship of Roubiliac. One of thefe, having the date of 1747, was erected to the memory of Mary, the daughter of fir Richard Middleton. A female figure is reprefented in the act of bursting from the tomb: the countenance is truly angelic, and the mixture of furprize and admiration is fo delicately, and at the fame time fo firmly expreffed, that after gazing for fome moments ftedfaftly on the face, I could almost have fancied it more than ftone. The fainted maid, Amid the burfling tomb Hears the laft trumpet fhrill its murky gloom, Against the wall, an ancient pyramid, a building, from its folidity, calculated to resist the efforts of time, is reprefented as falling into ruin. The ridiculous little figure blowing the trumpet might have been omitted without any derogation from the merit of the fculpture. On the whole, however, it is fo uncommonly beautiful, as to demand the admiration of every lover of the art.-The other piece of Roubiliac's performance, is a medallion containing two profile faces of the reverend Thomas Middleton, and Arabella his wife. Nearly oppofite to the former of these monuments there is a recumbent figure of Hugh Bellot, of the ancient family of Morton in Cheshire. He was bishop of Bangor, was afterwards tranflated to the fee of Chester, and died in the year 1596. Bellot was one of thofe divines who adhered to the monaftic aufterities long after both law and custom had rendered them unneceffary during the whole of his life he would never admit a female into his family *.-There is under the belfry an antique monument, which was fome years ago difcovered in the ground by the workmen who dug for a foundation for the iron gates of the church-yard. The figure is of a knight in complete armour; his feet rest on fome kind of animal, and round his fhield there is an infcription, but this is at prefent illegible. The altar-piece is a fine painting of the inftitution of the facrament. It was brought from Rome, and given to the church by Elihu Yale, efq. a native of America, who went on fpeculation to the East Indies. Of this person, it is recorded by one of the travellers in India, that he ordered his groom to be hanged for having ridden his horse on a journey of two or three days for the fake of his health: he was tried for this crime in the English courts, and efcaped with a high pecuniary punishment 1. He died in London in the year 1721, but was interred in this church-yard with the following infcription on his Harris's Collection of Voyages and Travels, i. 917. Porn |