conquest of Glamorganshire, returned to Wales about A.D. 1111. He had visited the Holy Sepulchre, and brought with him from Palestine a man eminent in the art of construction, named Lalys, to whose skill the most noted structures in the county, both of a sacred and military character, have been attributed. The relation adds that he built Lalyston, called after his name, and, that having gone to London, he became architect to Henry I., and taught his art to many of the Welsh and English[1]. The remains of Neath abbey, founded, as Mr. Francis supposes, about the year 1129, are considerable: he has given an interesting plan of the conventual church and adjacent buildings. Their aspect is not of that picturesque character which attracts notice to many monastic ruins, but the vestiges of the structure, which, as Leland remarks, "semid to him the fairest abbay in all Wales," well merit attention. In the year 1803 some excavations were, with Lord Dynevor's permission, undertaken by the Rev. H. Knight, and part of the eastern end of the church having been cleared, a pavement of decorative tiles was brought to light, of which Mr. Francis has enabled us to submit a representation to our readers. This pavement cannot be regarded as coeval with the Norman founder; its character is that of the period, termed, in regard to architectural remains. Decorated: and it supplies a pleasing example of design in the general arrangement, which may be attributed to the times of Edw. II. Lewis Morganwg, a poet of the latter part of the reign of Hen. VII., has described in glowing terms the painted glass, the richly decorated ceiling, and floor "wrought of variegated stone," which were then to be seen in the abbey church. His ode, addressed to Lleision, abbot of Neath, is included amongst the collections printed by Mr. Francis.
Seal of the Abbey of Neath.
The tiles exhibit the single bearing of England, with those of Clare, earl of Gloucester, Turbervile, and Mowbray, or, possibly, Fitz-hamon. John de Mowbray, lord of Gower, granted to the abbey a charter of confirmation, A.D. 1334, given by Mr. Francis from a document in the possession of Mr. Thomas Faulkner, and the connection of the Turbervile family with the affairs of the monastery, about the same period, is clearly shewn. The patronage of the abbey was in the great family of the Clares, earls of Gloucester and lords of Glamorgan, and the three chevronels were, doubtless, displayed in various decorations. The arms attributed to de Granavilla, three rests, which appear on the common seal of the abbey, those also of Le Despenser and Montacute (?) have occurred on tiles, found at Neath by Mr. Dillwyn.
- ↑ See Sir Richard Hoare's Notices of Neath, in his edition of Giraldus, Itin. i. 162.
