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punishment of his sacrilege, and that the family had never prospered since; that therefore he cleaned it out, and left it empty, pulled down the beast-house, and often promised to repair the Chapel, but the top is now quite fallen to the ground, and the walls will shortly follow it. To this place the young people of the town did use to come every May Day, and have many sports and diversions, I suppose from an abuse of a devout custom of visiting the Church in former times, but this is now quite laid aside. The land, for maintaining a Priest to say Mass in it, is now in the possession of Sir Edward Williams, Knt., of Gwernyfed."

It was a common belief that a curse fell on those

who touched Church property. When Stukeley visited Glastonbury in 1776, he says: "I observed frequent instances of the townsmen being generally afraid to make such purchases [of stone from the ruins], as thinking an unlucky fate attends the family where these materials are used, and they told me many stories and particular instances of it.'

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In an old map in the writer's possession (of a property belonging to her in the parish of Llanhamlach), one field is called "Close S. Ailed." This may have been land given towards the maintenance of the chapel, or it may have been the place to which the saint fled on being refused shelter at Llechfaen. No Heol S. Alud can be traced at the present time. The chapel once standing at Llechfaen may have been dedicated to her.

A charming sonnet on St. Elyned was written by the late Mr. John Lloyd of Dinas: a poet who was worthy of the wider fame which he has missed.

ELYNED.

"Fair Elyned, this window doth command
A low flat hill, whereon tradition says
Thy life was freely rendered, in the days
When yet the cross on this benighted land
Had feeble hold, by persecution's hand
Fiercely assailed: oh! while secure we raise
Temple and altar, well becomes us praise,
And recollections of the martyr band:

1 Itinerarium Curiosum, Iter. VI,

Nor least of thee, for of a princely race,
And sex ill-form'd such pang to undergo,
That thou hast won in history a place

Is proof thy spirit quail'd not from the blow.
Would that the conquerors of the earth could trace
Such proud escutcheon, such desert might shew."
JOHN LLOYD, of Dinas.

St. Alud's Chapel is a little more than one mile from the town of Brecon, and is reached by Cerrigcochion Lane, which, as its name suggests, is a rugged walk cut in the red rock, overhung with oaks and hazels, bordered with blackberry brambles and ferns and harebells. This ancient "Pilgrims' Way" leads to the site of the chapel, and was the "St. Ellan Layne” mentioned in an account of the revenue of the Priory, 28 Hen. VIII. It was the direct route from St. Alud's, by what is now Wellington Place and King Street to the Monastery. The land now belongs to Lord Tredegar, and on the Ordnance Map is marked as "site of St. Elyned's Chapel." Sir Richard Colt Hoare visited the spot one hundred years ago, and was able to trace some small vestiges of the building.

To-day the spot may be identified by a fine old yew tree, about 6 ft. in diameter, spreading its branches over a well, now almost choked by mud and weeds. The following is an account of a visit paid to the Saint's shrine a few years ago, by Mr. Butcher and Mr. George Hay, of this town :—

"On ascending from the well to the hedge there is a small mound, and on its summit may clearly be traced an oblong square, on which " Capel St. Alud" once stood. The spot is now completely grass-covered, and not even a solitary stone appears above the surface. At a short distance is what might have been the churchyard; there are clusters of plants growing in it at irregular intervals, with leaves resembling the common sorel, and these, according to tradition, mark out the graves of those who were buried here. On leaving the field, and taking the lane in the direction of Slwch farm-house, we noticed that many of the stones, forming a wall on the right side of the lane, were dressed, and we were informed that these had been taken from the ruins of the adjoining church. Mr. George Hay here

discovered two very interesting stones, one in which a groove was cut for fastening the hinge of a door. On reaching Slwch farm-house, a dressed stone that had been removed from the wall in the lane, and now used as a curb-stone for the fold-yard, was pointed out to us. It was originally the cill-stone of a window, neatly chamfered, and formed the base of the mullion.

If some of our local antiquaries could be persuaded to undertake the work of making excavations on the site of St. Elyned's, some interesting information might be obtained."

So, to-day, not one stone is left upon another to tell us of the faith and devotion of a past age. A yewtree alone marks the spot where the sainted martyr gave her soul to God; a green mound alone recalls the memory of the chants of praise and prayer, which, ascending to Heaven through the long centuries, broke the silence of that lonely height.

Priest and chapel, and the local veneration of the Saint, have passed away; but, standing on this holy ground, we may lift our eyes to the eternal hills and remember, that the Faith once delivered to the saints is still ours, and is of the things which abide for ever.

NOTE ON

A PERFORATED STONE AXE-HAMMER FOUND IN PEMBROKESHIRE.

BY J. ROMILLY ALLEN, ESQ., F.S.A.

My attention was first called to the existence of the perforated stone axe-hammer which forms the subject of the following note, by Mr. Edward Laws, F.S.A., the learned author of Little England beyond Wales. In the work just referred to, Mr. Laws describes the

[graphic]

Fig. 1.-Perforated Stone Axe-Hammer from Llanrhian, Pembrokeshire.
Scale, linear.

axe-hammer in question as having been found near the Longhouse cromlech in North Pembrokeshire. When the members of the Cambrian Archæological Association visited the Longhouse cromlech during the Fishguard Meeting in 1883, the possessor of the axehammer, who lived in the neighbourhood, exhibited it at the cromlech, and Mr. Worthington G. Smith made a drawing of it which is now in the volumes of his sketches in the Shrewsbury Museum and Library. After this, it appears to have been lost sight of, and it was not until the end of last year (1902) that I ascertained its whereabouts. The axe

1 Vol. v, p. 205.

hammer is now in the possession of Mrs. Marychurch, of Cardiff; and it is my pleasant duty now to thank her, in the name of the Association, for her kindness in allowing this remarkably beautiful little object to be illustrated in the Archæologia Cambrensis.

[graphic]

Fig. 2.-Perforated Stone Axe-Hammer from Llanrhian, Pembrokeshire. Scale, linear.

Whilst the axe-hammer was temporarily lent to me to be photographed, I took it to the Museum of Practical Geology, in Jermyn Street, London, to find out what material it was made of. The courteous Curator, after submitting it for inspection to his petrologist (who

[graphic]

Fig. 3.-Perforated Stone Axe Hammer from Llanrhian, Pembrokeshire. Scale, linear.

kindly refrained from knocking a chip off it), informed me that it was of diorite, a very hard volcanic rock composed of hornblende and feldspar; or, in other words, granite without any quartz in it.

The hammer-axe is 3 ins. long by 1 in. wide by 14 in. deep at the axe end, 1 in. deep at the hammer end, and in. deep at the socket, which is not in the

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