compartment beyond this are carved the hammer, the reed, with hyssop, like a club and spear. The whole is a specimen of very rude carved work of the fifteenth, or early part of the sixteenth, century" (vol. ii, p. 42).

If this panel was ever placed above the screen, it was a very unusual form of the rood, the figures of which stood out clear to the eye, the figure of the

Saviour on the Cross being also on a larger scale than

1 A characteristic distinction between screen work of an earlier date than the fifteenth century and screen work of that period, will be found to consist in the slender cylindrical shafts (often annulated) with moulded bases, and capitals which pertain to the early work of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with the mullion-like and angular edged bars, often faced with small buttresses, which form the principal vertical divisions in that of the fifteenth century (Ibid., 1, 260).

the others; and if, on the other hand, it was affixed to the screen, it was a very uncommon position for it.

There are, however, in the Powysland Museum two figures, the one of Our Lord, and the other of the Virgin Mother, from Mochdre Church, presented by a former vicar, F. W. Parker (1863-1870), which were undoubtedly parts of the rood, and stood upon the screen; the third figure, St. John, is missing. We do not know when they were removed from their proper position; but perhaps it was in 1789, when the vestry "Agreed to build a new gallery from the singing gallery across the church, to join the old gallery; perhaps earlier. At all events, they had been stowed away on the top of the wall-plate, and found there during the restoration of the church in 1867. The Cross to which the figure of Our Lord was attached is gone, and the figure itself is somewhat mutilated and decayed. The height of the figure is 19 ins. ; the arms and feet are gone. The head, with its crown of thorns, is bent forward; the hair full, the brow deeply furrowed, and an expression of pain rests upon the face. The carving is roughly executed, but the general effect is expressive and sad. The figure of the Virgin is 1 ft. 3 ins. high, and stands on a pedestal 11 ins. She is represented in a long flowing robe, with a long veil falling down her back, and a cloak gathered round the shoulders. She appears to have worn a crown, but the wood is much worm-eaten and decayed, and the hands and nose are gone. The whole shows remains of colouring in white, gold, and vermilion.

Having now traced the general history of these gems of ecclesiastical art, and seen the vicissitudes and perils to which they have been subjected, we are in a better position to appreciate their value, and, I hope, will be more keen to admire the beauty of their design and the extreme delicacy of their workmanship. We in this neighbourhood are fortunate in having preserved to us some excellent specimens, such as those of Montgomery, Llanwnog, Newtown, Llangynyw, and

Pennant Melangell; and I propose now to treat of them individually and in detail. And it may be as well to say at the outset that of the two faces of the rood-loft, the one looking east towards the altar is, as a rule, more elaborate than the one facing the nave ; and to add that the general tradition of their transfer from some dissolved monastic church is not borne out by their own story (except in that of Montgomery); nor is it likely that they who destroyed them in the one place, would go to the great cost of transferring them to another church. The true solution would appear to be that the skilled artists who produced them were members, conversi or lay brethren, of some neighbouring abbey, such as Strata Marcella, Cwm Hir, or Strata Florida, and that in that sense they may have come from thence.

LLANWNOG.

The earliest reference I have found to this rood-loft is a brief record in the Rev. Walter Davies's " History of the Parish," which appeared first in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, 1829 (and was reprinted in vol. iii of Gwaith Gwallter Mechain, 1868), which states that "the church contains an ancient relic in a most exquisitely carved rood-loft" (p. 76). In 1830, the Rev. John Parker, then vicar of Llanmerewig, visited the church and made a most careful and artistic drawing of this rood-loft and its details, as well as of the painted glass figure of St. Gwynog; which drawings, through the courtesy of Mr. Stanley Leighton, his nephew, were reproduced, by photo-lithography, to illustrate Mr. D. Walker's account in the Collections for 1871. The present illustrations are from excellent photographs by Mr. John Owen, of Newtown.

Lewis's Topographical Dictionary, 1833, gives somewhat fuller note:

a

"The church. . . . contains some beautiful specimens of ancient sculpture: the screen and rood-loft are exquisitely carved, and in a state of excellent preservation; the chancel

window is embellished with stained glass, in which the Patron Saint is represented in episcopal vestments, with a mitre on his head and a crosier in his hand, and underneath the figure is the inscription, Sanctus Gwynocus cujus animæ propitietur Deus. Amen.""

This glass, which has been removed from the east window to one on the rood-loft stair1 in the north wall, is not described quite accurately. The name is

Rood Screen and Loft in Llanwnog Church: West Side.
(Photograph by Mr. J. Owen.)

not given in the nominative but in the vocative case : "See (Sancte) Gwinnoc (e)," and the invocation, "cujus animæ propitietur Deus" must have belonged to some other figure, now lost. The figure of the Saint stands within a crocketed canopy of tabernacle work; and he is vested in an alb, over which is a stole with fringed orphrey, a chasuble and cope. The head is encircled with an aureole, the right hand is raised in blessing,

1 The steps are formed of rude square blocks of wood.

and the left holds a pastoral staff, richly ornamented, and with the crook turned inwards.

Sir Stephen Glynne,' who visited the church in 1855, mentioned as "its great feature the fine rood-loft in fair condition, of Late Perpendicular character, with much panelling and open work to the rood-loft itself;" adding that it "somewhat resembled that at Llananno, in Radnorshire;" and again in 1866, after the partial restoration of the church, he added that "the rood-loft and screen remain complete, though rather rickety. The loft has the usual vine-leaf cornices with Tudor flower, and has panelling, alternately plain and sculptured; below the loft is open tracery, and the quasi roof with ribs and bosses, the latter have letters. The overlapping cornice is supported on wood posts; in the centre is the door with pierced spandrels. The west side is the richest, but the east has also panelling.”

Still later, in 1871, Mr. David Walker, of Liverpool, contributed to the fourth volume of the Montgomeryshire Collections an elaborate account, with illustrations, from which I make the following extract :

"The position of the screen, which extends the entire width. of the nave, is at the distance of about one-third the length of the church, from the east end, and is placed so as effectually to mark the line of demarcation between the nave and the chancel; a rude stair, formed within the thickness of the north wall, on the west side of the screen, leads to the rood-loft, formerly occupied by the choir, the internal dimensions of which are 24 ft. by 7 ft. wide.

"The eastern face indicates an entirely different treatment in several details to the other face; for instance, the front of the loft is spaced for panels of a different degree of richness and character to those on the west front, and the details of the cornices generally are dissimilar, although all have undoubtedly been executed by the same hand, with the exception of the panels on the west front of the rood-loft, which are an unfortunate modern innovation, without an approach to the style of the old work. Admirable in treatment and spirited in execution as this rood-screen undoubtedly is, its denuded

1 Notes on Old Churches (Arch. Camb., 6th Ser., vol. i, p. 145).