Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/141

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THE CHURCHES OF ANGLESEY.
123

edifices, sometimes against the northern, sometimes against the southern walls.

The gables appear to have been always topped with crosses, the pediments of which, commonly quadrangular with trifoliated canopies, still remain: but of the crosses themselves a considerable proportion have perished. Those at Llanvihangel, Llangoed, and Llansadwrn are the most remarkable[1].

The chancels and transepts seem to have been all added posterior to the conquest of Wales by the English, and their architecture indicates in general the style of the fourteenth century. The chancels are mostly of the same design: the transepts, if indeed they may be so called, have been only chapels added by the parochial gentry, as at Llangoed, Llandegvan, &c.

The following is a list of the ecclesiastical edifices in this commot:—

Ynys Seiriol, (St. Seiriol's Isle, Priestholme, or Puffin Island.) The tower of a small conventual church still remains here: and the foundations of part of the church, with perhaps part of the monastic cells, may be traced: it is exactly similar to the tower of Penmôn. This small conventual establishment is noticed both by Dugdale and Tanner, though they do not seem to have been aware of the existence of two distinct establishments, churches, &c., on the mainland at Penmôn, and on the island, the original name of which was Glannauch, or Ynys Lenach, "the Priest's Island." St. Seiriol, according to Rowland's Mon. Antiq., flourished with St. Cybi in the seventh century.

Penmôn, an Augustine priory. Here are to be found the conventual church, the refectory, part of the prior's lodgings(?), and some of the conventual farm buildings.
Compartment of Font. N. side.
With the house on Ynys Seiriol, it owes its foundation to Maelgwyn Gwynedd, king of Wales, in the sixth century, and was re-founded by Llewelyn ap Jorwerth, prince of Wales, at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The conventual church consists of

  1. The early and highly curious cross, or crossed stone, standing in the park at Penmôn, is not here taken into account.