{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_52261/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_52261","id":"gutenberg_52261","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52261","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Architecture","Category: History - British","Category: History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Sermons, English -- 19th century","St. Cybi's Church (Holyhead, Wales) -- History"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1897? edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org\n\n                          [Picture: Book cover]\n\n\n\n\n\n                             A RECORD OF ST.\n                              CYBI\u2019S CHURCH,\n                                 HOLYHEAD\n\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                      And the Sermon preached after\n                        its Restoration, 1879, by\n                      ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D.,\n                           Dean of Westminster.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\nSIX ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n [Picture: South View of St. Cybi\u2019s Church, with the Chancel Aisle added\n                                  1897]\n\n\n\n\nA Record of St. Cybi\u2019s Church\n\n\nTHE old Church of St. Cybi, at Holyhead, which contains so many memorials\nof the devotion and piety of former generations, has been in this Jubilee\nyear of the reign of Queen Victoria enriched by many precious gifts.  A\nnew South Aisle, capable of containing 50 or 60 worshippers, has been\nadded to the Church as a memorial to Mr. and Mrs. W. O. Stanley of\nPenrhos; and the beautiful window at the east end has been placed there\nin memory of Mr. Watson, Chairman and Managing Director of the City of\nDublin Co., by his sons.\n\nThe connection of Mr. Stanley\u2019s forefathers, the Owens of Penrhos, with\nthe Church of St. Cybi, has been a very close one, and we are indebted to\nthe archaeological lore and love of the locality which distinguished his\nfamily and himself, for the preservation of many beautiful traditions and\ninteresting remains of long past ages.\n\nHolyhead Island is rich in old-world treasures which appeal not only to\nthe archaeologist and the historian, but to the artistic mind and eye of\nmen like Matthew Arnold and the author of \u201cThe Stones of Venice.\u201d\n\n\u201cJust on the other side of the Mersey,\u201d Ruskin writes, \u201cyou have your\nSnowdon and your Menai Straits and that mighty granite rock beyond the\nmoors of Anglesea, splendid in its heathery crest, and footplanted in the\ndeep sea, once thought of as sacred\u2014a divine promontory, looking\nwestward; the Holy Head or Head Land, still not without awe when its red\nlight glares first through storm.\u201d\n\nOn that same mountain of Holyhead are the circular hive-shaped dwellings,\nof unknown antiquity, called locally \u201cCyttiau Gwyddelod,\u201d or \u201cIrishmen\u2019s\nHuts.\u201d  These are excavated to a depth of some feet below the surface, 15\nfeet to 20 feet in diameter inside, the sides of the interior being lined\nwith stones to prevent the earth from falling, and the dome-shaped roof\nonly being apparent above the surface of the ground.  In addition to the\nabove are the curiously shaped querns, mullers, and other stone\nimplements indicating the past life of the dwellers in these rude huts.\n\nThe great Cromlech at Trefignedd and the fine Monoliths at Plas Meilw\nalso bear silent record to the existence of men, who, but for this\nlasting evidence might well be deemed mythical.  At that great Cromlech,\noverlooking many miles of country, horrible scenes were enacted,\naccording to tradition, scenes too ghastly for description; and now,\ncattle graze and children play in the sunshine among those giant stones.\n\nHolyhead mountain has repeatedly been a witness to fierce struggles for\nmastery between the natives and invaders, who from time to time landed,\nand tried to make good their footing, on that wild picturesque coast,\nguarded as it is to the west by jagged rocks, and with only here and\nthere a creek into which a boat might be pushed in calm weather.  Even\nnow, with all the help that modern invention and careful thought can\ngive, there are tragic tales of shipwreck and loss of life on those cruel\nrocks; and what must it have been in ancient times, when there was\nnothing between daring men and death but their rough boats, which it\nwould take little to dash into a thousand atoms?\n\nDoubtless in those early days the island was wooded, as trunks of trees\nare found at low tide, half buried in the sand in Towyn-y-Capel Bay, on\nthe west coast.  Possibly, under cover of these trees, marauders were\nable to effect a landing unseen; but at present, when there is not a\nsingle stick or shrub of any kind, this is difficult to realise.  Still,\nthough the trees have perished, there remain the silent monuments of that\ngreat race, which are found in almost every land; the same cromlechs, the\nsame monoliths, as exist in our own island, are traceable on the\nContinent of Europe, especially in Brittany, and even in remotest India.\n\nIf to searchers after Druidical and Ante-Druidical remains Holyhead\naffords such rich results, yet higher interest still attaches to its\nearly Christian records.  In it, and in its neighbour Anglesey, are\ntraced some of the earliest evidences of the foundation of the Christian\nChurch, its collegiate bodies and its organization; and from this cradle\nof the Church proceeded the men whose teaching appears to have\neffectually superseded the dying religion of the Sun and the Serpent; for\nwe have evidence that a number of Druid priests were converted, and we\nhave no record of any bitter animosity against the preachers of the\nGospel.\n\nEarly legends affirm that James, the son of Zebedee, came with his mother\nSalome into Britain, six years after our Lord\u2019s Ascension, and preached\nthe Gospel to willing ears; others say St. Paul himself visited these\nIslands after his imprisonment by Nero.\n\nHow far these legends are literally true is not of great consequence; the\ncertainty remains that the Gospel was preached throughout the country,\nand that the fabric of the holy Church was raised and organized here\nafter the same manner as the Eastern Churches.\n\nAs a proof of Christians having visited the Island, a medal was found in\none of the Druid Mounds in Anglesey bearing the inscription, \u201cThis is\nJesus Christ the Mediator,\u201d and as the Romans had routed the Druids, this\nmedal must have been there before the demolishing of the mound by\nSuetonius Paulinus, thus verifying in part the words of Tertullian an age\nlater, who relates the sudden progress of the Christian Faith, which\nanticipated the Roman sword in the celerity of its conquests.\n\nThe first school of \u201cChristian learning\u201d to supply the province with\nclergy was apparently founded at Bangor, Anno Domini 182, and it is\nsupposed that according to the usual plan of organization there were\nseven bishops under an archbishop in this province of Britain.  Some of\nthese were bishops of endowed sees, others were consecrated \u201cSine\nTitulo.\u201d\n\nThe clergy in general appear to have lived with their bishops, forming\ncollegiate bodies, and they were sent out by their superiors into various\ndistricts allotted to them as occasion required.\n\nIt does not appear that they had any settled parishes in Mona for many\nyears after this period nor were there many churches; but they \u201cassembled\nthe people together to hear the Word of God preached in some convenient\nplace, either at oratories or at the manor-houses of their respective\nLords and Masters, who probably had their own chapels for sacred use and\nservice.  Most of these churches and chapels were dedicated to such early\nChristian names as St. Mary, St. Peter, St. Michael, &c.\u201d (see \u201cMona\nAntiqua.\u201d)\n\nAfter the departure of the Romans in A.D. 390 the Picts tried to regain\ntheir former possessions, and the country was sorely ravaged by them\nuntil there stood up two families of eminent rank who laid claim to the\nBritish Sceptre.  The one was headed by Octavius, grandson of the Duke of\nCornwall; the other was descended from Cynetha Weledig, and nearly\nrelated to Constantine the Great.\n\nFor many years struggles continued between these rival Princes; but at\nlength the descendant of the Cornwall family gave up the contest and\nretired to the Duchy of Cornwall.  Cynetha\u2019s descendants having routed\nthe Picts who had invaded Mona, made head also against the Saxons.  For a\nlong time they withstood them victoriously, having secured all the\nancient \u201cBrittannia Secunda\u201d (now called Wales) from the ravages of these\ninvaders, and to them the poor Britons, and more especially the clergy,\nfled for protection.\n\nIt is difficult to trace the exact date of the foundation of the church\nof St. Cybi at Holyhead, but it appears to have been founded by Cybi the\nson of Selyt, or Solomon, about 550 A.D.  He afterwards, according to\ntradition, became Bishop of Anglesey.\n\nSir John Stanley upheld the theory that a Roman Temple originally existed\nwithin the present churchyard walls, and that on the departure of the\nRomans it was occupied or used as a church.  Whether this were so or not,\nit is clear that in the days of Caswallan Llaw Hir, Son of Cynetha, there\nwas a burial-place within the fort at Holyhead, inside the present walls\nencircling the churchyard.\n\nHere Caswallan routed and slew with his own hand Sirigi, the Irish giant,\nwho, with a following of Irish Picts, had a short time before forced a\nlanding and had built a place or town called first Llan-y-Gwyddel, then\nCaer Gybi, and now in English, Holyhead.  Within the enclosure where\nSirigi was slain stood a chapel, on the south side of the church, some\nremains of which (conspicuous among them a Gothic arch) are still extant,\nand here, it is affirmed, the Irish giant was buried.  This was called\nEglwys-y-Bedd, the Church of the Grave, and Capel Llan-y-Gwyddel, or the\nChapel of the Irishman.\n\nIt appears, from leases of the collegiate church, that this chapel was\nendowed with distinct revenues in the reign of Edward III.  Some of the\nruins were removed in the last century to render the entrance to the\npresent church more convenient, and in digging, a stone coffin was found\nunder an arch, on the north side of the chancel, containing bones of a\nlarge size, and this probably was the shrine of Sirigi, who was canonized\nby the Irish.  According to an old chronicle, they carried off his body\nand deposited it in their cathedral in Dublin; but the finding of the\ncoffin with the gigantic bones seems to render this part of the story\nimprobable.\n\nCaswallon had apparently a very fierce conflict with the Irish Picts\nbefore he gained his victory, and moreover could not have had much\nconfidence in his own men, for we read that he tied them together in\ncouples, with horse fetters, to prevent their breaking their ranks when\nfighting with Sirigi.  This prince settled himself after his victories at\nLlaneillan, and was submitted to as Chief or King of Anglesey.  There are\nremains of a strongly fortified camp near the summit of Holyhead\nmountain, still called Mur Caswallon or Caer-y-Twr.\n\nCaswallon\u2019s son was the famous Maelgwyn Gwynedd, the hero of many battles\nand the terror of the Saxons.  He erected the See of Bangor about the\nyear 550, where, a short time before, Daniel, the son of Dionothus, Abbot\nof Bangor-is-Coed, had built a college for North Wales clergy.  Maelgwyn\nGwynydd founded the college and the three canonries of Bangor, Penmon and\nCaer Gybi.  Others say that Llywarch-ap-Bran founded the Prebendaries.\nHis arms, the three crows, are in the porch of St. Cybi\u2019s Church, at\nHolyhead.\n\n        [Picture: South Doorway, Holyhead Church, Anglesey (1862)]\n\nTradition makes St. Cybi a contemporary of St. Seiriol, who lived at\nPenmon, while St. Cybi lived at Holyhead.  These saints met frequently in\nthe centre of the island to hold holy converse together.  They left their\nhomes early and parted at mid-day, so that the rising sun always shone on\nthe face of St. Cybi as he travelled eastwards in the morning, and he met\nthe rays of the setting sun as he journeyed homeward in the evening,\nwhile on St. Seiriol\u2019s face the sun never shone, hence St. Seiriol is\nrepresented as fair and white, while St. Cybi is depicted as dark and\nsunburnt. (\u201cGybi Felyn.\u201d)\n\nThis legend has been commemorated in the following verses by Mr. Matthew\nArnold:\u2014\n\n                                EAST AND WEST.\n\n    In the bare midst of Anglesea they show\n       Two springs which close by one another play,\n    And \u201cThirteen hundred years agone,\u201d they say,\n       Two saints met often where those waters flow.\n\n    One came from Penmon westward, and a glow\n       Whiten\u2019d his face from the sun\u2019s fronting ray;\n    Eastward the other, from the dying day,\n       And he with unsunn\u2019d face did always go.\n\n    \u201cSeiriol the bright, Cybi the dark!\u201d men said;\n       The seer from the east was then in light,\n    The seer from the west was then in shade.\n       Ah! now \u2019tis changed.  In conquering sunshine bright\n       The man of the bold west now comes array\u2019d;\n       He of the mystic east is touched with night.\n\nIt is highly probable that St. Cybi did found the church that bears his\nname, though the structure as it stands is no doubt of later date.  The\noriginal fabric was probably used as a school or college as well as for\npublic worship.  St. Cybi also founded other chapels: Capel-y-Llochwydd\n(meaning a desolate place), on the mountain, and Capel-y-Golles, at the\neast end of which there was a spring; and another at Towyn-y-Capel, on an\nartificial tumulus or mound by the sea-shore, about two and a half miles\nfrom Holyhead, called St. Fraid (or Capel Bridget).  The legend states\nthat St. Bridget, escaping from her persecutors, floated across from\nIreland on a green sod which, on her landing, became a firm hillock, on\nwhich the chapel was built.  Traces of a chapel can still be remembered,\nbut these have now disappeared, owing to the encroachment of the sea,\ntogether with the mound on which they were discernible.  There was also a\nfourth chapel in the hamlet of Criccist.\n\nThe following account of Capel-y-Llochwydd, from the pen of the late\nBishop Stanley, will be of interest.  (\u201cBlackwood\u2019s Magazine,\u201d 1830.)\n\n    \u201cA singular fissure, cleaved in a direct line from the summit to the\n    base, forms, or rather did form, a passage of communication, of no\n    small celebrity in ancient days, and retaining its odour of sanctity\n    till a very recent date.  It is known by the name of Ogof Llochwyd,\n    \u2018Ogof\u2019 signifying a cave.  A spring of crystal water, filtering\n    through the deep strata, formed a deep well at the bottom of this\n    chasm.  Situated just at the higher opening of the gorge was a chapel\n    for the accommodation of pilgrims, called Capel-y-Llochwyd, which\n    name a considerable remnant of ruins at the head of the gorge still\n    retains.  Till within 60 years the lonely chapel and its well were\n    from time unknown the resort of the lads and lassies of the island,\n    who, at a certain annual festival called \u2018Suliau-y-Creiriau\u2019, or \u2018The\n    Sundays of the relics,\u2019 corresponding to the wakes of the northern\n    counties of England, and held during three successive Sundays in\n    July, assembled in troops to ascertain the contingencies awaiting\n    them.  Each diviner into futurity descended the chasm to the well,\n    and there, if after having taken a mouthful of holy water and grasped\n    two handfuls of sand from the charmed font, he or she could\n    accomplish the re-ascent with them safely, each would obtain the wish\n    of their heart before the close of the year.  About 60 years ago\n    (1770) the chapel was reduced to ruins, and the well was concealed by\n    filling it up with rubbish, but till twenty years ago (1810) the\n    walls to the height of seven or eight feet remained sufficiently\n    entire to convey a tolerable idea of the perfect building, which is\n    represented to have been a substantial though rude and simple\n    edifice, composed of unhewn stones, cemented with mortar, the windows\n    and door-frames excepted, which were well wrought by the chisel, with\n    considerable labour, from some very obdurate material, the whole\n    apparently consisting of one chamber of oblong form not exceeding a\n    few yards in length.  Of the well, however, not a trace was left,\n    though its existence was proved beyond a shadow of doubt, a few years\n    ago, by a party who landed and at length succeeded in detecting the\n    spot from which, after removing a quantity of sand and loose stones,\n    again gushed the fountain of pure water in its pristine vigour and\n    doubtless inherent virtues!\u201d\n\nHolyhead or St. Cybi became the centre for all these chapels, and there\npriests and holy men could assemble in conference and also preach the\nWord of God.  \u201cMost of these saints had their Nauddvan or Sanctuaries, in\nancient times supported by certain tenures and lands which were held of\nneither Prince nor Lord, but of certain saints or patrons of churches\ncalling themselves abbots.  Of these there were seven in Anglesey that\nwere entitled (_in capite_) to several tenures, viz.: St. Beuno, St.\nCybi, St. Cadwallader, St. Peirio, St. Cyngar, St. Marcutus or Mechell,\nSt. Elian, this last being largely endowed in land.  These tenures were\nso bestowed in order that places of refuge or sanctuaries might be\nprovided, and that the persons taking refuge therein might have their\nprivileges and rights preserved and kept inviolate.\u201d  (See \u201cMona\nAntiqua.\u201d)\n\n     [Picture: Collegiate Church Holy head, Anglesea (June 1, 1772)]\n\nAfter the dissolution of the monasteries the revenues of Holyhead,\nBodedern, Llandrygarn, and Bodwrog parishes came to Dr. Thomas Gwynn,\nwhose heir, about A.D. 1648, gave them to Jesus College, Oxford.\n\nGrose, in his \u201cAntiquities of England and Wales,\u201d in 1786, writes:\n\n    \u201cSt. Cybi, the Collegiate Church of Holyhead, stands at the extreme\n    western corner of Holyhead Island, in a quadrangle measuring 220 feet\n    by 130 feet, three sides of which are enclosed by strong walls,\n    seventeen feet high and six thick.  The fourth side is open to the\n    sea, having only a parapet, but is defended by steep rocks.  At each\n    corner of the wall is an oval tower (two of which are seen in the\n    accompanying view).  The entrance to this area is through a rude\n    stone gate, the masonry of which, and also of the walls and towers,\n    is said by Mr. Pennant to be \u2018evidently Roman.\u2019  \u2018Along the walls,\u2019\n    he adds \u2018are two rows of round holes, about four inches in diameter,\n    which penetrate them.  They are like those of Segontium (Caernarvon),\n    and nicely plaistered within.\u2019  The church is dedicated to St. Cybi.\n    It is a handsome embattled edifice, built in the form of a cross.\n    The inside of the porch and the outside part of the transept are\n    rudely ornamented with grotesque figures.  On the outside of the last\n    are dragons, and a man leading a bear with a rope, or as some suppose\n    it, Balaam and his Ass, with other now shapeless sculptures.\u201d\n\n    \u201cMaelgwyn Gwynedd, who lived about A.D. 580, is said to have founded\n    a college here.  This Prince was styled \u2018Draco Insularis.\u2019  Perhaps\n    the dragon engraven on the church may allude to him.  Others assert\n    that the founder of this college was Hwfa Cynddelew, Lord of Llys\n    Lliven in this island, and of one of the fifteen tribes who lived in\n    the time of Griffith-ap-Conan, Prince of North Wales, and Owen, his\n    son, about the former part of the twelfth century.  It certainly was\n    in being before the year 1291, because it was rated in the Lincoln\n    taxation.\u201d\n\n    \u201cThe head of the college was called Penclos, or Pencolas, and was one\n    of the three spiritual Lords of Anglesey.  The Archdeacon of the\n    Isle, and the Abbot of Penmon were the two others.\u201d\n\n    \u201cThe Latin title of the superior of this college was Rector, as\n    appears by an ancient seal inscribed \u2018Sigillum Rectoris et capituli\n    ecclesia de Caer Gybi.\u2019  The number of prebendaries of which this\n    college consisted is not known; but it is certain there were twelve\n    at least, that number being found in the Pension List in 1553 at \u00a31\n    each.  Before the dissolution, the Rector, or Provost, for so he is\n    also styled, had thirty-nine marks; one chaplain had eleven, and the\n    other two the same between them.  At the dissolution (26 Henry VIII.)\n    the whole revenues were valued at no more than \u00a324, as stated by both\n    Dugdale and Speed.\u201d\n\n    \u201cThe King had the gift of the Provostship, which Edward III. bestowed\n    on his chaplain, Thomas de London, under the denomination of the\n    \u2018Provostship of his free chapel of Caer Cybe,\u2019 for which the King, in\n    1351, dispensed with him for services to himself.  This college was\n    granted, 7 James I., by that King to Francis Morris and Francis\n    Phillips.  It became afterwards the property of Rice Gwynn, Esquire,\n    who, in 1648, bestowed it on Jesus College, Oxford, the great tithes\n    for the maintenance of two fellows and as many scholars; and since\n    that time the parish has been served by a curate nominated by the\n    college.  The living is a donative, not in charge, the certified\n    value \u00a335.\u201d\n\nSince Mr. Grose described the Church of St. Cybi with pen and pencil 111\nyears ago many changes have taken place.  The shore below the church has\nbeen reclaimed from the sea, the lower churchyard has been added to the\noriginal enclosure, a broad road separates it from the present harbour,\nand where the tide once flowed, under the old churchyard wall, the\nextensive buildings of the London and North Western Railway Company now\nstand.  Steamers and trains laden with passengers and merchandise passing\nto and from Ireland and America crowd the once lonely shore; and the town\nand its population have grown with the growth of trade.  The very aspect\nand dress of the people have changed, the picturesque high-crowned hats\nand long cloaks have disappeared, only the Welsh language remains, \u201cYr\nhen iaith Gymraig,\u201d nor does it diminish its hold on the affections of\nthe people.\n\nThe successive changes which the country has undergone have left their\nmark on St. Cybi\u2019s Church, the most enduring of all the buildings in Caer\nGybi.  It was rebuilt during the 14th century, during the reign of Edward\nIII., as appears by the arms of England and France cut out in a stone\nnear the porch, and stones are in the walls worked as if belonging to a\nformer building.  The east window is of that date.  The church was\npractically rebuilt again in the time of Henry VII., though the beautiful\nplan then conceived was not fully carried out.  The Tudor cognizances are\ncarved on the frieze of the church, under the battlements, with St.\nCybi\u2019s name, and the inscription on the north side is still quite\nlegible, \u201cSanctus Kebius ora pro nobis.\u201d  The steeple was rebuilt in the\n17th century.  The choir in 1713, when the tomb of Roderic ap Owen was\ndiscovered, and on the coffin a small brass bell curiously wrought\nthrough network; the date of his death was 1175. {16}\n\nThe ruins of the chapel (Capel Llan-y-Gwyddel) mentioned as standing\nsouth of St. Cybi\u2019s Church, within the enclosure, were converted into a\npublic school by Chancellor Edward Wynn, LL.D., of Bodewryd in Anglesey,\nwho by bond, bearing date November 25th, 1748, endowed it with a capital\nof \u00a3120; \u201cthe interest whereof is to be paid annually on the 24th\nNovember to a schoolmaster, who is to teach six poor boys of the town to\nread and write.\u201d\n\n      [Picture: Collegiate Church, Holy Head.  Pl. 2 (Nov. 6, 1785)]\n\nLight is thrown upon the wants and difficulties of the last century, in\nmatters of education, by some letters from the Rev. T. Ellis, Rector of\nHolyhead, to Chancellor Wynn\u2019s sister, Madame Owen of Penrhos.\n\nIn January, 1745, he writes:\u2014\u201cThere\u2019s nothing my heart is so much set\nupon as seeing ye Chancellor\u2019s school brought to perfection, which I hope\nin God, it will be soon, thro\u2019 yr means, and I really believe it would be\nye best work that has been done in ys county for perhaps three hundred\nyears past . . .\n\n\u201cThe following old proverbs will be admitted for my excuse,\u2014\u2018Ple caffo y\nCymro, y cais.\u2019  \u2018Y neb a fo ddi gwylydd, a fydd ddi golled.\u2019  My humble\nrequest is that you\u2019ll be so kind as to send orders pr bearer to finish\nye floor of the School, and to plaster and whitewash ye walls, (which\nlook exceeding ugly at present) and to make a large oak table for\nwriting, wch will make ye place quite compleat to the Chancellor\u2019s\nliking, wn he comes to view it (as I hope he will) after his return from\nHereford.  I\u2019d not be so bold a beggar and put on ye Irishman in this\nmanner, but for my real concern for ye swarm of children, wch grow in a\nmanner wild for want of schooling, who I hope will thro\u2019 yr means be put\nin a way of serving God and man. . . . \u201d\n\nJanuary, 1746:\u2014\u201cAs the school is always uppermost in my head and heart, I\ncan\u2019t forbear mentioning it to you, who are so good as to sympathise wth\nye Parish and me on its account.  I fear the Chancellor thinks me\ntroublesome and is offended at my frequent applications, else I would\nhave been wth you long agoe.  What to do I don\u2019t know, I must not speak\nto him about it, it seems, tho\u2019 as it were ready to burst, in spight of\nall the patience I preach to myself and others. . . .  It is time to give\nan account of my stewardship of yr four guineas you entrusted to my care\nfor the benefit of this Parish.  Out of the first two guineas there went\nfor the Bible \u00a31 4 0, for the folio Common Prayer-book 13s.\u201d\n\nLater, Mr. Ellis writes to Madam Owen thus:\u2014\u201cI shew\u2019d T. Edwards yr\nmemorandum of yr Brother\u2019s promising the sum of two hundred pounds to ye\nSchool dated May ye 1st, 1745. . . .  Please to present my respects to ye\nChancellor and to ask him if he would be offended at a Volunteer Master\u2019s\nbeing put in ye School to take his chance till Providence sends an\nendowment.\u201d\n\n\u201c. . . I\u2019ve sent the Chancellor herewith a present of 2 London\ndiscourses.  I\u2019m employed by ye Society for promoting Xtian Knowledge to\nprocure subscriptions towds printing ye 15,000 Welch Bibles, wch are now\nin ye Press.  As Anglesey is call\u2019d of old \u201cMam Cymru\u201d or Mother of\nWales, she\u2019ll set her daughters (viz. ye other Counties) a good example\non ys excellent occasion, wch will otherwise be a great reproach to ye\nWelch, who but for ye charity of ye English wd in a few years have scarce\nany such things as a Welch Bible among them.\u201d\n\nJanuary, 1747:\u2014\u201cPlease tell the Chancellor that I acquainted the Society\nwith his \u00a310 subscription and communicate to him the following good news,\nwch will give him pleasure, viz.: that the Society has at last got in\nbenefactions enough to defray the whole expence of the impression of the\nWelch Bibles (except ye binding), and yt is expected it will be finished\nbefore Lady Day next.  According to ye good old custom I heartily wish\nyou all a happy new year and many.  Your obliged servant to command,\nThos. Ellis.\u201d\n\nThe successive owners of Penrhos were closely connected with the fortunes\nof Holyhead.  Sir John Stanley, afterwards first Lord Stanley of\nAlderley, his brother, the accomplished Bishop of Norwich and their sons,\nthe Honorable W. O. Stanley, and Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of\nWestminster, took the keenest interest in chronicling the facts and\nlegends connected with the venerable church, and in the preservation of\nits fabric.\n\nDuring the last months of Mrs. Stanley\u2019s life it was her great interest\nto plan a complete restoration of the church, to complete the clerestory\nleft unfinished in Tudor times, and to render the dilapidated building\nonce more a worthy sanctuary for the prayers and praises which had echoed\nwithin its walls for over thirteen centuries.  Mrs. Stanley\u2019s plan\nincluded the erection of a monument to the husband she had loved so well,\nand whose life had been devoted to the welfare of Holyhead.\n\nThe restoration of the church was carried out after her death from the\nplans of Sir Gilbert Scott, mainly at the expense of Mr. Stanley, in\n1879.  By the removal of the earth accumulated within the building, the\nbases of the pillars long buried were brought to light, and the church\nrevealed once more in the beauty of its original proportions.  And now\nMrs. Stanley\u2019s last wish has been fully carried out, as regards her\nhusband\u2019s monument, by its erection in a fitting shrine by one who,\nhaving filled a daughter\u2019s place in the home at Penrhos, has put her\nwhole heart into the perfecting of a work which she regarded as a sacred\ntrust bequeathed to her.\n\n[Picture: Monument to The Honble. William Owen Stanley (d. 1884), erected\n                      by desire of Ellin, his wife]\n\nThe south chancel aisle was completed and unveiled on Sunday, the 20th\nJune, 1897, the 60th anniversary of the Queen\u2019s Accession.  The carved\nfigures on the outside representing St. Seiriol and St. Cybi, are from\nthe designs of Mr. Hamo Thornycroft; the steps, of green serpentine\nmarble, are taken from the Rhoscolyn Quarry, Holyhead Island, by the\nkindness of Colonel Hampton Lewis of Bodior.\n\nMr. Arthur Baker, who carried out the restoration of 1877 under Sir\nGilbert Scott, has been the architect of the present addition; but to the\ndeep regret of all who knew him, he has passed away this year, and we owe\nthe perfecting and completion of the work to the devoted personal\nsuperintendance of his partner, and son-in-law, Mr. Harold Hughes, of\nBangor.\n\nThe monument itself is of Carrara marble, designed by Hamo Thornycroft,\nR.A.  It consists of a life-size recumbent figure with watching angels at\nthe head and the feet.  With the help of Mr. Watts, R.A., and his\nknowledge of the original, the sculptor has produced a wonderful\nlikeness, recalling to all who knew him the characteristics of Mr.\nStanley\u2019s fine head and impressive features.  Mr. Watts, who has himself\nfollowed the progress of the memorial for many years with keen interest,\nconsiders it one of the finest works of art of modern times.\n\nThe inscription runs thus:\u2014\n\n    William Owen Stanley of Penrhos, Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey, for 34\n    years a Member of the House of Commons, twin son of the 1st Lord\n    Stanley of Alderley and his wife Lady Maria Josepha Holroyd.  Born\n    1802, Married 1832, Ellin, daughter of Sir John Williams, Baronet, of\n    Bodelwyddan.  Died 1884, and buried in this Church, whereof he\n    restored the fabric.  A scholar and an antiquary, he dwelt among his\n    own people in the Island of Holyhead, and gave a long life to their\n    welfare.\n\n    Erected by the desire of Ellin, for 44 years his devoted wife.\n\nOver the arch of the recess behind the tomb are engraved these words:\n\u201cTill the day dawn and the shadows flee away.\u201d\n\nMrs. Stanley\u2019s wish that there should be no monument to herself has been\nrespected, but the effigy of her husband has been encircled with wrought\nironwork, entirely formed of her initials E and S intertwined, an idea\nsuggested by St. Anselm\u2019s Chapel in Canterbury Cathedral.  The stained\nglass windows were designed by Sir E. Burne Jones and executed by William\nMorris, and one of them bears the inscription: \u201cTo the dear memory of\nEllin Stanley, died at Penrhos, November, 1876.\u201d\n\nThis aisle, as a tribute to their joint memories, is now dedicated to the\nglory of God, and given by Jane H. Adeane to that church which has, on\nits rock beside the sea, stood firm for over thirteen centuries.\n\n                    \u201cThe foundation of God standeth sure.\u201d\n\nOutside the aisle is carved the following Welsh inscription:\u2014\n\n    CHWANEGWYD YR CAPEL NEWYDD YMA\n    AT HEN EGLWYS GYBI SANT (SEILWYD\n    ODDEUTU Y FLWYDDYN O.C. 550) YN Y\n    DRIUGEINFED FLWYDDYN O DEYRNASIAD\n    Y FRENHINES VICTORIA O.C. 1897.\n\n    DY ORSEDD DI O DDUW SYDD BYTH AC\n    YN DRAGYWYDD.\n\nOf which the following is an English translation:\u2014\n\n    To this Ancient Church, founded by St. Cybi about A.D. 550, this\n    Chapel was added in the 60th year of the reign of Queen Victoria,\n    A.D. 1897.\n\n                 \u201cThy throne, O Lord, is for ever and ever.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nChurch of St. Cybi.\nSERMON\n\n\n        Preached on the Reopening of St. Cybi\u2019s Church, Holyhead,\n                       after Restoration, 1879, by\n                      ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D.,\n                           Dean of Westminster.\n\n    \u201cLook unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit\n    whence ye are digged.\n\n    \u201cLook unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you.\u201d\n\n                                                          Isaiah li. 1, 2.\n\nWE have been reading for several Sundays in church the history of the\nPatriarchs.  The words of the Prophet which I have taken for my text give\nus the key to that history.  We all know the value of the graces and\ngifts we derive from our families.  Who is there that does not recognise\nin himself or in those about him what has come to him and them from\nfather, mother\u2014nay, it may even be grandfather or great-grandfather,\nuncle and aunt\u2014or what may be breathed again into him by brother, sister,\ncousin.  These, if anything in the world, are gifts to us from without.\nThese, if anything, are gifts from God.  What we drink in, as we say,\nwith our mother\u2019s milk our mother\u2019s tongue, our mother\u2019s faith and\nprayers, it may be, our mother\u2019s character; what we have had impressed\nupon us of our father\u2019s spirit, of our \u201cfatherland,\u201d of our father\u2019s\nblood\u2014the innocent joys, the tragical sorrows of home and\nhousehold;\u2014these are the materials out of which our souls and spirits are\nfashioned.  We may have our own personal character besides, but without\nthese our characters would not be what they are.\n\n       [Picture: View of Harbour from the upper Church-yard, 1822]\n\nNow, what is thus true of the family in respect of individuals, is true\nof races of men in respect both of nations and individuals; and this is\none lesson which those early chapters in the Book of Genesis impress upon\nus.  They tell us of the family.  But, over and above this, they tell us\nof the race; they tell us of the immense importance to the Israelites,\nand through them to us, of the fact that they sprang from no ignoble or\ncommonplace nation, but from those whom God had specially selected for\nHis work on earth\u2014from the tribe of Jacob, from the seed of Abraham, from\nthe race of Shem.  This is the true \u201cpredestination\u201d of God\u2019s counsels;\nthis is the true \u201celection\u201d of the chosen vessels.  Race and nationality,\nas well as family, are the precious gifts of God, to be used and\nrecognised and taken account of as amongst the mighty moving powers of\nthe world.  If we wish to see what work we or others are called to do, we\nmust not forget to look back to the ancient rock from whence we are hewn,\nand the deep pit from whence we are digged.\n\nThere is also the lesson which all such inquiries bring before us, and\nwhich is specially impressed upon us by these early records of the\nBible\u2014the advantage of being transported to remote ages and scenes wholly\nunlike our own.  In those stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob there is a\nfreshness as of the dew of the womb of the morning.  We feel younger as\nwe read; they refresh us in the weary pilgrimage of life; we catch the\nearly fragrance of the first dawn of the human race.  There had been many\ngreat epochs and many great men in Israel since the time of Abraham and\nSarah: there had been Jacob, or Israel, from whom they derived their name\nand some of the chief elements of their character; there had been Moses,\nunder whom they had won their freedom and their laws, and Joshua, by\nwhose prowess they had conquered the Promised Land, and David, with all\nthe line of kings and prophets that followed.  But still there was a\ncharm about their first ancestor, Abraham, and their first mother, Sarah,\nwhich they could find in no later times.  There was a delight in seeing\nthe peculiar blessings which they had gained from those old primitive\npatriarchs, and for which they were to be ever thankful to God, through\nwhom these and all other gifts had come.\n\nI.  May I take up the Prophet\u2019s words and the lessons of the Book of\nGenesis, and give them a special application which this day suggests.  We\nare met to celebrate the reopening of one of the most ancient churches of\nthe Welsh people.  Most of the building has stood for five hundred\nyears\u2014one aged arch, we are told, for a thousand years. {27}  Let us\nthen, Englishmen or Welshmen, who are assembled here, ask, in no spirit\nof boastfulness or rivalry, but of thankfulness to God, what are the\nspecial gifts for good which the British Celtic race has contributed to\nour common country?  As the Israelites had for their ancestors Abraham\nand Sarah, before their own special patriarch Israel or Jacob\u2014ancestors\nby whom they were connected with other races besides their own, Edomite,\nArabian, Mesopotamian\u2014so we were Britons before we were Englishmen; and\nwe by that Celtic parentage are made one in blood with that old original\npeople which is parent alike to the Welsh, the Irish, the Scottish, and\nthe French nations.\n\nWhat, then, are the best peculiarities of the Welsh people?\n\n(1)  To the ancient Cambrian British race we owe that distant atmosphere\nof romance, of sentiment, of poetry, which neither Saxon nor Norman have\ngiven or could have given us.\n\nThese mountains and vales and creeks and bays, the refuge of the ancient\ninhabitants retreating before the invader, have retained, even in their\nvery names and forms, a poetic inspiration which has elsewhere passed\naway.\n\nThe four Welsh dioceses each of them speak of this poetic, mystic past.\nThat marvellous cathedral of St. David\u2019s, in its secluded basin at the\nvery extremity of the land, shut out from the world and enclosed as\nwithin a natural sanctuary, with its craggy coast and headland and island\nand glistening shore and purple cliff, every spring and bay and inlet\nteeming with some strange legend of those primitive days of David and Nun\nand Lily; or, again, that lovely cathedral of St. Teilo, on the banks of\nthe Taff, in its green vale, with its crystal stream and its solemn yews;\nor, again, that lesser cathedral of St. Asaph, founded by the most\nromantic of all the saints of the Celtic race of the north\u2014the darling\nMungo of the Scottish nation\u2014founded as he wandered to and from his own\nGlasgow on the Clyde; or, again, this diocese in which we are now\nassembled, with Snowdon as the guardian mount that stands round about its\nsmall Jerusalem, this ancient refuge of the Druids and Bards of old from\nthe Roman conqueror, this Holy Mount of the Holy Island of Mona,\nstretching out its arms to the neighbouring shore of Ireland, another\nIsle of Saints:\u2014Look at all these ancient sanctuaries, east and west,\nnorth and south.  Look at the rock from which we were hewn and the deep\npit from which we were digged.  Despise not these feelings which God by a\nthousand marks has stamped with His own peculiar approval.  Cherish these\nvenerable ruins and monuments of early times.\n\nThere is a legend which tells us that if we take a clod of turf from St.\nDavid\u2019s churchyard, and stand upon it by the shore of that western sea,\nwe shall see rising in the distant waters the green islands of the\nfairies, the vision of a land, not indeed of heaven, but still not of\nthis earth.  It is by taking our stand on that old British soil that we\ncan catch for ourselves a glimpse of a higher, more romantic, ideal world\nthan any other part of English history can show.  The Bards, indeed,\nthemselves have perished\u2014\n\n    Cold is Cadwallo\u2019s tongue\n    That hush\u2019d the stormy main;\n    Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed;\n    Mountains, ye mourn in vain\n    Modred, whose magic song\n    Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head.\n\nBut the world which they created still lives in that marvellous cycle of\nlegends which gather round the name of King Arthur, and which, in our own\nday, has given to the first of our living poets the worthiest subject\nwhich our island could furnish\u2014the career of the stainless king and his\ngallant knights, which our children and our children\u2019s children will read\nwith their souls more and more raised to nobler and higher thoughts.  The\nrocks and seas on which we look from Holyhead\u2014\u201cthe shaggy top of Mona\nhigh,\u201d\u2014the wide bay \u201cwhere Deva spreads her wizard stream,\u201d inspired in\nMilton some of his wildest and most pathetic strains in speaking of his\nloved companion Lycidas, who was lost off these very coasts.  The solid\nprosaic sense of the Saxon is necessary; the energy and enterprise of the\nNorman is useful; have been indispensable to the greatness of Britain;\nbut do not forget the romance and the song and the sentiment of the\nmountains and the minstrels of Wales.  Leave a corner in your minds for\nthe visions of other days.  Remember that there are things in heaven and\nearth more than our plain homely English philosophy has dreamed of.  Such\ninnocent, beautiful stories and thoughts, from whatever quarter they\ncome, though not in themselves religious, yet smooth and purify the\ncourse of life.  They prepare us for the poetry of parables like the\nPilgrim\u2019s Progress\u2014they prepare us for the poetry of the Psalms and of\nthe Prophets of the Bible.  As these mountains, these bays, these rocks,\nwhich gave to us in their early days our poetic and romantic thoughts,\nhave, in these later days, given to us our quarries and our harbours and\nour lighthouses and our piers, so it is that out of every generous and\ninspiring thought there may come at last the most solid, the most useful,\nthe most comprehensive materials of God\u2019s glory and man\u2019s usefulness.\n\n(2)  There is another aspect of this element in the national character of\nthe old Celtic races.\n\nI have said that the names of the old Welsh saints remind us of the\nantique poetic phase of the national British Church.  But they also\nremind us of its devotional emotions and fervent enthusiasm.  We know but\nlittle of St. Cybi or St. Seiriol\u2014those gaunt hermits, wrapped up in\nshaggy goat-skins, with their sacred bells and their favourite animals.\nBut we know thus much\u2014that they were amongst the enthusiastic spirits who\nappeared in those dark times to keep up by a strange unearthly presence\nthe sense of things unseen.  And such as they were, with their childish\nvisions and their solitary musings, such was the old British Church\naltogether\u2014hardly ever leaving a permanent impression on the great\npractical world without, though producing now and then a holy prelate\nlike St. David, now and then a holy anchorite like St. Cybi, now and then\na holy heresiarch like Pelagius.  And so in later times, the same\npassionate religious sentiment has shown itself in the fervour with which\nthe Welsh people received the ministrations and the influence of John\nWesley and George Whitefield, and the affection with which they clung to\nthe hymns of their own rude Methodist poets.  Amidst much folly and much\nobstinacy and much waywardness, all honour to those old saints who\nachieved what the Norman prelates could not achieve,\u2014to those Methodist\nteachers who reached classes which perhaps could not have been reached by\nbetter and wiser men.\n\nSuch enthusiasm is not sufficient by itself to produce true religion; it\nis compatible with a very imperfect morality and a very low stage of\nChristianity.  Still it belongs to the great central fires which keep the\nhuman soul alive, and it has in various forms been God\u2019s special gift to\nthe Celtic races of mankind, especially in this country.  If we were to\nremove it out of our national existence England would not be the great\nnation that she now is, and the English Church would lose one powerful\nmeans of raising the spiritual energies of the people.  \u201cProve all\nthings,\u201d says the Apostle, and \u201chold fast that which is good\u201d; but in the\nsame breath, he says, \u201cQuench not the spirit,\u201d \u201cDespise not\nprophesyings.\u201d  Quench not enthusiasm, despise not strong emotions:\nlabour only to turn them into proper channels, so that they may help to\nmake men more pure and more truthful\u2014more near to God, more like to\nChrist.  It is not only in the worship and teaching of our country that\nthis enthusiasm shows itself.  Listen to the account of the gallant deeds\nof Welsh soldiers, in the letter of an English officer writing to a\nfriend, {32} describing the defence of Rorke\u2019s Drift:\u2014\n\n    \u201cPrivate John Williams was posted, together with Private Joseph\n    Williams and Private William Harrison, in a further ward of the\n    hospital.  They held it for more than an hour\u2014so long as they had a\n    round of ammunition left.\n\n    \u201cWhen communication was for a time cut off, the Zulus were enabled to\n    advance and burst open the door.  A hand-to-hand conflict then\n    ensued, during which Private Joseph Williams and two of the patients\n    were dragged out and assegaied.\n\n    \u201cWhilst the Zulus were occupied with the slaughter of those\n    unfortunate men, a lull took place, which enabled Private John\n    Williams (who with two of the patients were the only men left alive\n    in the ward) to succeed in knocking a hole in the partition and\n    taking the two patients with him into the next ward, where he found\n    Private Henry Hook.\n\n    \u201cThese two men together, one man working whilst the other fought and\n    held the enemy at bay with his bayonet, broke through three more\n    partitions, and were thus enabled to bring eight more patients\n    through a small window into the inner line of defence.\n\n    \u201cIn another ward facing the hill Private William Jones and Private\n    Robert Jones had been placed.  They defended their post to the last,\n    and till six out of seven patients had been removed.\n\n    \u201cCorporal William Allen and Frederick Hitch must also be mentioned.\n    It was chiefly due to their courageous conduct that communication\n    with the hospital was kept up at all, holding together at all costs a\n    most dangerous post, raked in reverse by the enemy\u2019s fire from the\n    hill.  They were both severely wounded, but their determined conduct\n    enabled the patients to be withdrawn from the hospital, and when\n    incapacitated by their wounds from fighting, they continued, as soon\n    as their wounds were dressed, to serve out ammunition to their\n    comrades through the night.\u201d\n\nWelshmen all of them.\n\nThat is the determined enthusiasm which all Welshmen ought to show not\nonly in the battlefield, but against our worst foes at home\u2014the foes of\nintemperance and dishonesty and hypocrisy and deceitfulness.\n\n(3)  There is one more addition which the Welsh people, the British\nelement of our race, has made to the course of English history.  There is\nsomething in the Celtic blood, something in the Cambrian stock, which,\nmingling with the Saxon and Norman races, has unquestionably produced a\nlarger result, such as without it would, humanly speaking, have been\ndifficult or impossible.  That poetic refinement, that spiritual fervour,\nof which I have already spoken, has, for the most part, been nourished by\nseclusion from the active world.  Yet there was one channel in which the\nold British character displayed itself that directly bore on practical\nlife\u2014namely, the quick temper, the vivacious intelligence, which impart\nto other useful qualities exactly the stimulus they most need.  Not\nseldom can we trace in families the sudden turn given to a sluggish,\nsteady, stagnant stock of purely English extraction by contact with the\nimaginative, lively, mercurial character of Welsh or Celtic parentage.\nAnd what is thus seen in private life may be also faintly traced in the\ngreat course of our national history.\n\nI will not speak of individuals, though I might mention that two of the\nmost stirring characters who ever filled the office of Dean of\nWestminster were Welshmen: one was Gabriel Goodman, one of the\ntranslators of the Bible, friend of Lord Burleigh; the other was John\nWilliams, who in his earlier days was twice committed to the Tower, once\nby the King, and once by the Parliament, who defended the Castle of\nConway against the army of the Commonwealth, and who now after his stormy\nlife reposes in the lovely church of Llandegai, the last ecclesiastical\nLord Keeper of Great Britain.\n\nBut there is a more general influence which has left its permanent mark\non England.  Within that old cathedral of St. David, of which I just now\nspoke, the most conspicuous tomb which rises in the midst of it, and\nwhich, according to the tradition of the place, saved the cathedral\nitself from destruction, is that of Edmund Tudor, father of Henry VII.\nand grandfather of Henry VIII., who, for its sake, spared the venerable\nchurch where it stands.  This very church of Holyhead was in great part\nrebuilt in the time of Henry VII. son of that Edmund Tudor.  The rose of\nthe Tudor family is visible to this day on its walls.  Owen Tudor, the\nancestor of them all, was a native of this island of Anglesey.  We are\nthus reminded of the fact, which we sometimes forget, that, after Saxon\nand Norman and Plantagenet had done their best and passed away, a Welsh\nand British dynasty at last was seated once more on the throne of\nBritain, and swayed the destinies of the whole empire.\n\nWhen in Westminster Abbey we pass from the tombs of the earlier kings to\nthe magnificent chapel of King Henry VII., it is a striking thought to\nany one, especially to any one who has a drop of the ancient Welsh blood\nin his veins, that he enters there on a new field of the history of\nEngland, inaugurated by a succession of princes whose boast it was to be\ndescended, not from Edward the Confessor or William the Conqueror, but\nfrom Arthur and Llewellyn, and that about the tomb of the first Tudor\nsovereign, intertwined with the emblems of his English descent, is to be\nseen the Red Dragon of Cadwallader.\n\nThat Tudor race, in their quick understanding, in their fiery temper, the\ntrue representatives of their ancient Celtic lineage, were the\ninstruments raised up by God\u2019s providence at the critical season of the\nnew birth of England in the Reformation, for guiding, stimulating,\nfreshening the Church and the nation to the performance of new duties,\nthe fulfilment of new hopes, the application of new truths.\n\nThe sharpness of wit and liveliness of mind which were amongst the\nprecocious gifts of Henry and Edward and Elizabeth, were common to them\nwith their Welsh ancestors, and contributed in no small degree to the\nfresh start which England then made in the movements of that moving age.\nThese qualities, whenever found, though they are not the highest of\ngifts, are inestimable for enlivening, cheering, enkindling the more\npowerful and the more highly civilised to action and to enquiry.  Cherish\nthem, even if they sometimes outrun discretion; correct them, if so be,\nnot by repressing them, but by striving to develop the opposite gifts\nwhich are needed to balance and to chasten them.\n\nII.  And this leads us to two general remarks in conclusion.\n\n(1)  First let us remember that these graces of the Cambrian or Celtic\ncharacter, which our Heavenly Father has thus vouchsafed to us, are also\nby His good providence blended in the English race with exactly those\nqualities which furnish their counterpoise\u2014with that self-control, that\nmoral discipline, that solid steadiness of purpose, without which poetic\nsentiment, religious fervour, mental vivacity are often useless, or worse\nthan useless.\n\nThe old hermit in his solitude, the preacher in his fervid appeal, was\ngood; but the honest, manly Christian, doing his duty faithfully and\ntruthfully in his own station of life, is better.  The sailor who\nremembers on the broad sea that God\u2019s eye is always upon him; the workman\nor tradesman who endeavours to render to his Maker the best of all\nservices, the offering of honest labour, the offering of unadulterated\nfood, the offering of an upright conscientious traffic; the railway\nofficial or partner who cheers and encourages friendless travellers by a\nkindly word or by a helping hand, not for reward, but for love of his\nfellow creatures,\u2014these are the modes by which, far more than by sudden\nconversion or enthusiastic hymns, we can fulfil God\u2019s goodwill towards\nus.\n\n(2)  Another remark, still more obvious, but one of which we sometimes\nlose sight in speaking of the good influences of race and nationality, is\nthat the power of religion, of the Christian religion, though coloured by\nthese several influences, is yet above and beyond and independent of them\nall.  I spoke before of the old story which tells how he who stands on\nthe turf from St. David\u2019s churchyard and looks out on the western sea was\nbelieved to see in the distance the green island of the fairies.  But\nthere is a still better thing that can be done by each one of us, Saxon\nor Celt, Englishman or Briton, old and young, rich and poor.  Take your\nstand on any good religious lesson, learnt from whatever quarter\u2014any\npiece of fresh fragment of knowledge, cut out of your inner experience\u2014a\ngood text from your Bible, a good prayer from your prayer-book, a good\nhymn from your hymn-book, a good counsel, or example of friend or teacher\nanywhere, which has enabled you better to know yourself, and better to\nknow what God is,\u2014stand fast upon it, and look out over the wide sea of\nyour future years, and the still wider ocean of eternity beyond, and from\nthat green turf of duty or of knowledge you will see in the distance the\nislands, not of the fairies, but something far better\u2014the islands of the\nblessed, of the eternal shores across the stormy waves of this\ntroublesome world.\n\nSuch an example, such a memory, such a life {39} you have had in the\nrecollection of her who devoted her life to the welfare of the people of\nHolyhead, who loved the Welsh nation with a constant love, who spoke\ntheir tongue as her own, who cherished all their traditions, who longed\nfor the restoration of this venerable church, whose heart\u2019s desire has\nbeen on this day fulfilled by its reproduction in all its antique\nsimplicity, in all its gracious adaptation to our living needs.  She was\na Welshwoman to the heart\u2019s core; but she was also a generous, loving,\nwise, Christian spirit; and when we stand round her grave, and in this\nchurch which is the monument of her goodness, we stand as it were on the\nfragment of St. David\u2019s turf, and we look out beyond a wider than any\nearthly sea to those islands of the better land where she and the great\nfamily of God\u2019s servants have gone before; the islands of eternal\nrest\u2014the islands where truth and holiness have \u201croom and verge enough\u201d to\nflourish undisturbed by earthly tempests, unwarped by the winds of\nearthly cares\u2014in the haven where they and we would all be, through the\ngrace of God and the power of His Spirit in our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nOn a granite cross standing upon rocky ground near Llanfawr, is engraven\nthe following inscription by Dean Stanley.\n\n    To the dear memory of Ellin, forty-four years the beloved and loving\n    wife of the Honble. William Owen Stanley of Penrhos, Lord Lieutenant\n    of Anglesey.  The constant friend of the poor and afflicted of her\n    native Wales, with which, from youth to age, she was one in heart and\n    speech, in word and deed.  Born Nov. 9th, 1809.  Died Nov. 24th,\n    1876.  This was erected by her sorrowing husband.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES.\n\n\n{16}  Within the last half century, the old church of St. Cybi proved no\nlonger sufficient for the needs of the parish; a second church was\ntherefore built in 1857, dedicated to St. Seiriol, so that the memory of\nboth Saints still survives in the minds of their people.\n\n{27}  The Saxon Arch opening into the Belfry at west end of the Nave of\nSt. Cybi\u2019s Church.\n\n{32}  This Sermon was preached in the Spring of 1879, during the Zulu\nwar.\n\n{39}  The Honble. Mrs. W. O. Stanley.","title":"A record of St. Cybi's Church, Holyhead : $b and the sermon preached after its restoration, 1879","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":9382}