CHIRBURY:

ITS VICINITY AND RECOLLECTIONS.

By T. MORGAN OWEN.

THERE are many quiet country villages in England and Wales which a traveller would pass unconcernedly by, and if, by accident or out of mere curiosity, or for want of other occupation, he should happen to note any peculiarities in the natural or artificial features in their vicinity, no doubt the observations would soon be forgotten; and that, far from arousing any recollections of the past, or exciting the imagination to conjure up and clothe again the crowd of beings who once took a prominent part in the affairs of the country, it would have no effect upon the mind of the observer, and so deprive it of food for reflection, if not for guidance and instruction.

Such a village is that of Chirbury, which is situated on the extreme border of Montgomeryshire, and within a stone's throw of the county of Salop, on the high road that connects the towns of Shrewsbury and Montgomery, and about three miles from the latter. This road was once frequented by the coach that ran between Shrewsbury and Aberystwyth; and those of our readers who have had the good fortune of travelling by that pleasant conveyance must have enjoyed the scenery through which they passed, and which consisted not of rugged mountains clothed in parts with towering pine or stunted fir, in other parts bare, bleak, and looking stern and gloomy, with large and small loose

stones and jagged rocks; not of lakes hemmed in by hills, with their shores shrouded by the willow, ash, and poplar tree, as though they would fain nestle far away from the resorts of man, and be undisturbed save by the fish that lived in their waters and the wild fowl that throve upon the same; not of the occasional glimpses of a river rushing on its way from the tiny mountain spring to the ocean's wave; not of widelyextended plains, with their painful sameness,-but of glorious fields of great fertility, of wooded heights, of moss-clad hills, which stretch away on either side towards the north and the south, and of gently undulating vales, with an occasional oak, venerable, bowed down, and decayed, like a veteran that had outlived his age -trees which, in their prime, had witnessed the forces of the Celtic prince who had so often vanquished the foe, and whose machinations, in conjunction with those of the fiery Hotspur, had been frustrated by the waters of the Severn ;-trees whose fathers, if we may so term them, had witnessed the constant struggle that had taken place between Celt and Norman, and Celt and Saxon-trees whose grandsires' topmost branches were lit up by the huge glare that flooded the sky with light upon the destruction of the city, which became the capital of the Celts, after the warlike and manly-spirited had retired towards the west before the ever-increasing Saxon hordes, and which witnessed the hurried flight of the survivors with their families, their household goods and cattle; as though nature were preparing the traveller for the more wild and striking scenes of North Wales.

If an inquisitive character made inquiries concerning any evidences or recollections of the words and doings of those who occupied this village or lived in its neighbourhood years and years ago, most probably his zeal would be damped at the scanty information his inquiries would bring to light. He would, no doubt, be told that a well near the village was called Llanffynnon-wen, that is, the Church of the White-well; that the name of the brook which flows underneath

the bridge on the Montgomery side of the village was called Blackford-brook; that the name of the small and old cottage, the last building in the village, on the left hand side of the road leading to Montgomery, was dignified with the high-sounding but sadly inappropriate name of "The Temple". But his surprise would doubtless be great when informed that the rising ground opposite "The Temple", on the other side of the road, was called, with a certain amount of emphasis, "The King's Orchard". It would be difficult to determine which name is the more confusing and the less apt to remind the uninformed or unread observer of the causes which led to such designations as "The Temple" and "The King's Orchard". The one is a straw-thatched cottage, and of so feeble an appearance as to cause the humane beholder to dread, on account of its occupants, the next stiff gust of wind that occasionally sweeps along the valley of Churchstoke. What connection, therefore, could such a building possibly have with a name of such significance? The other is an elevated piece of ground about 70 yards square, but not even the stump of an apple tree is to be seen upon it. In the present day it has the appearance of not being a natural elevation, but gives indications that at one time man's ingenuity and strength had had something to do with its formation. Its side facing the village, from which it is separated by Blackford-brook, is somewhat abrupt, as is also, though to a less degree, the side facing Montgomery. The side facing Fordenhill slopes considerably; and, as the high road bounds the fourth side, which looks towards the mountain. ridge known by the name of Corndon, we cannot determine its original nature.

Happily, historical records and historical remains come to our aid and conjointly enable us to connect together certain links of evidence, and to determine the significance of such appellations as "The Temple", "The King's Orchard", "Llan-ffynnon-wen", and "Blackford Brook".

At one time, the parish of Chirbury was in part a boggy jungle, and in other parts covered with stately trees, for it was situated in the midst of a large forest, which extended, with occasional open spaces, from the borders of Wales to the North Sea. In these glades were erected forts, around which clustered a certain number of huts, with a ditch and palisaded mud wall around them, and which collectively were designated a Burgh or Bury by the Anglo-Saxons.

This forest was a fit abode for the Saxon wolf-head,1 and the ever-restless Celt-men who rivalled the wolf in ferocity and unbending hostility. There were several fortified places not far from Chirbury, as evidenced by their names, which have been handed down to the present day, as Owlbury, Norbury, Lydbury. Remnants of the great forest were to be seen up to the 17th century, and many a sturdy oak was laid low in order that its hard grained timber might be used in the repair of the castle and town walls of Montgomery.2 The Roman legions did not penetrate its gloomy depths, consequently the Celts were at liberty to attend to all their civil and religious rights. And it will be recollected that the place set apart for religious rites and sacrifices was deemed particularly holy. What more probable, therefore, than that the cottage called "The Temple" stands upon one of those places where the mysterious and bloody solemnities of the Druids were enacted, and that the place that gave birth to an Earl of Hereford had listened to the voices of beings more powerful than any nobleman of whatever degree, while the neighbouring trees re-echoed with the shrieks of the victims of a gory superstition, whose dying sobs were 1 This term was applied to those who had been outlawed on account of some grievous crime.-Wilkin's Collect., Legum et Consilior. passim. 2 Pennant's Tours.

3 There are Druidical remains still to be seen on Middleton Hill, about three miles from Chirbury, in the shape of eleven broken stones, which enclose a plot of ground about ninety feet in diameter --probably there were originally twelve stones.

4 Local tradition.

carried along by the waters of the neighbouring brook, then a stream of such width and depth as not to be crossed, except in certain places, as may be determined from the name of Black Ford, by which a farmhouse on the Forden side of the village is designated and well known.

Time passed on, and with it Druidism passed away, but its memory has been handed down to the present day. And the song of praise and the voice of prayer succeeded the despairing cry and the wild invocation; for there arose in the land a band of brave Celtic missionaries who caused churches, made of wood or of wicker work and mud, to be raised in different places, and, according to the custom of the Celts, each church was named after some local and natural feature. Hence, at Chirbury was reared up a building which was called Llan-ffynnon-wen, after a famous spring of water which still exists, and which is still looked upon by those who are acquainted with it with a certain amount of respect, not simply on account of the qualities of its waters, but also because of its antiquity and name.

Years rolled on, and the time came when the struggling Celts and the victorious Saxons were alike attacked in various quarters at once by bands of fierce men, who had crossed the tempestuous northern seas and had thrown themselves upon England and Wales in resistless fury. These men were so godless as to believe that their deities, Wodin and Thor, recompensed them according to their deeds of daring, and the number of warriors, and even women and children, that had perished by their means. Can we, under these circumstances, feel surprised that they were called "Black Pagans"? In the Welsh chronicle, "The Brut-y-Tywysogion," we read that "The Black Normans", that is, the Danes, had visited Tre-Valdwin, the town of Baldwin, afterwards called Montgomery, in the year 890. We are also informed by the

VOL. VIII.

1 Saxon Chronicle.

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