Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/50

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32
ARCHITECTURAL REMAINS IN BRECKNOCKSHIRE.

general good repair. This interesting place is worthy of the best attention of archaeologists more especially, if they can by their influence aid in investigating the existing abuses, by which much good might be effected. The liberal inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood would, I am sure, come forward to second any movement for preservation, if not restoration. Some considerate influence within the last few years has very creditably restored some of the fine buttresses, and arrested the effects of the pressure of the great roof under which the north wall was bulging forward, and threatening to fall prostrate for a good third of its space, and if the accident had happened, total ruin would have been the consequence.

LLANDEAU CHURCH, BRECKNOCKSHIRE.

This very old and remarkable church is situated about two miles to the north-east of Brecon, in a most picturesque village. It was originally the residence of the Bishops of St. David's, and the name is said to be an abbreviation of Llandewi, or St. David's. Giraldus Cambrensis resided in the castle here; and the parish, there is reason to believe, formed a portion of the parish of St. David's, or Plewy-Dewi, in Brecknockshire. A chapel of ease existed here in which the Archdeacon of Brecon officiated, receiving tithes, and it is supposed to have been the mother church to the Priory of Dominican or Friars' preachers, now called Christ's College (the remains of which have been already noticed), before it was removed to Brecon. A small portion of the castle exists, and a considerable part of the wall, in which are some remains of an early English door, deserving of notice, and an arched fountain, apparently of Norman date, affording a supply on both sides of the wall, for the convenience of the villagers as well as of the inmates of the castle: this is still in use, and the water is of excellent purity. The Church is dedicated to St. David, and comprises a nave, rebuilt barbarously with brick, a chancel, and two transepts, over which a finely-proportioned Norman tower rises. The north transept has a peculiar feature, being lighted only by a long window splaying inwards, about two inches in width, like an oilet hole, and admitting only sufficient light to allow of gaining the foot of a staircase, a very ponderous con-