haps, once more raise the question how stones of such colossal size as would puzzle even the engineers of the present day to move, had been brought together. It was one of the largest existing cromlechs, and was included in the “Act for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments." Many churches dissimilar from the Flemish-towered churches of Castle Martin would be visited, and the week would very fitly close with the inspection of that grand old Cathedral to which many a pilgrimage of the learned and great had been directed. They were specially fortunate in having for their guide the venerable Dean, who loved St. David's so dearly, and who had so carefully presided over the restoration of that ancient church.

On the conclusion of his address, the President called on Mr. G. E. Robinson to read the Report of the Society for the past year.

REPORT.

"It was with some misgivings as to the capacity of the town of Fishguard to accommodate the members of our Association, that your Committee were induced to acquiesce in its selection as the place in which to hold the Thirty-eighth Annual General Meeting of the Society. Of its fitness in an archæologic sense there was never a doubt, but to most of us Fishguard-or Fiseguard, as an eminent historian thinks the more correct reading-and its vicinity were a terra incognita. Placed upon the western confines of the country, and from its geographic and somewhat isolated position difficult of access, it has not hitherto received attention commensurate with its merits; an attention which it is assuredly both the duty and the pleasure of our Association to render to all parts of that Principality they claim as peculiarly their own. The cordial manner of our reception, and the numerous and influential local committee formed to receive us and aid in our researches, are sufficient evidence that the selection is a good one, and your Committee desire to congratulate your members on their assembling for the fourth time in this most interesting and hospitable county of Pembroke, and under auspices so favourable.

"They venture confidently to anticipate their meeting here will be the means of eliciting further information concerning those megalithic remains which are so peculiarly abundant in this district, and it is hoped the researches and deliberations of the Association may in some measure determine what are the true origin and purpose of these ancient monuments.1

"The first duty of your committee is to direct attention to those changes in the official staff of the Association which have taken place since our last autumnal meeting, and to lay before the

The words "they venture", etc., to "monuments", were in Committee objected to by Mr. Barnwell, as the question alluded to had been determined forty or fifty years ago in the opinion of all the antiquaries of Europe. He proposed that they should be omitted; but no member seconded him. He therefore claims that his protest should be recorded.

members the names of those gentlemen who have been selected to fill the vacancies thus created. The foremost of these changes is the resignation of the presidential chair by Mr. Sandbach, and the election of his successor, Mr. Philipps of Picton Castle, who, for the second time, places the Association under a great obligation for his kindness in acting as President. Your Committee would suggest that in the course of the present Meeting a special vote of thanks be passed to Mr. Sandbach, the outgoing President, for his courteous and energetic exertions to render the meeting at Llanrwst a successful one. How well he succeeded, those who were present will not soon forget.

"The retiring members of the Committee are the Rev. Hugh Pritchard, Arthur Gore, Esq., and W. Trevor Parkins, Esq., and your Committee recommend the re-election of these gentlemen. A further vacancy occurs in the Committee through the death of the late Prebendary Davies; and, in accordance with Rule 4, it is competent for any member of the Association to nominate a candidate either to fill this vacancy or to vary the election of the gentlemen before named. The election will take place at the final evening meeting.

"Your Committee recommend that the name of the Right Hon. Lord Tredegar be added to the list of the patrons of the Society. They also recommend the following appointments of Local Secretaries be made in the respective counties, to fill vacancies caused by retirement:-In Glamorganshire, Chas. Wilkins, Esq., vice Rev. John Griffiths, Merthyr; in Pembrokeshire, E. Laws, Esq., Tenby; in Carmarthenshire, Rev. C. Childlow, Cayo, vice Rev. Aaron Roberts; in Anglesea, Mr. Lloyd Griffith, Bangor, in place of the late Rev. W.Wynn Williams, many years Local Secretary for the Island; in Carnarvonshire, H. Barker, Esq.; in Merioneth, R. H. Wood, Esq., F.S.A.; in Flintshire, Rev. M. H. Lee. The names of the following noblemen and gentlemen will come before you for confirmation of election at the final evening meeting:-South Wales: the Right Hon. Lord Tredegar; the Right Rev. Lord Bishop of Llandaff; Mrs. Thomas, Ysguborwen, Aberdare; Morton Thomas, Esq., Coity, Brecon; Alfred Chas. Jones, Esq., Trafalgar House, Swansea; the Library, Lampeter College; Morris T. Hancocke, Esq., Quay Street, Carmarthen; Wm. Bisset, Esq., Clive Road, Penarth, Cardiff. North Wales: General Blake, Bryn Gwalia, Denbighshire; S. Dew, Esq., Llanerchymedd, Anglesea; Rev. Llewellyn Nicholas, Flint; Rev. D. Edwards, Cefn Rectory, St. Asaph. Elsewhere: the University of Toronto; Owen Roberts, Esq., York Terrace, London; Miss Bevan, Hay Castle.

"While your Committee congratulates the Association upon the satisfactory increase in the list of members, they cannot refrain from saying there is room for considerable improvement in the regularity with which the subscriptions of a large number of the members are paid. The subject of arrears has been an old-standing complaint of your executive; and it must be repeated with emphasis, in the hope that amendment will follow. It ought to be widely known that

laxity in this respect hampers the progress of the Society, and greatly impairs its usefulness.

"Your Committee desire to tender the very cordial thanks of the Association to those gentlemen who have contributed articles for pnblication in its Journal during the past year. The nature and value of these contributions will commend them to all archæologists. In an especial degree are the thanks of the Association due to Mr. G. T. Clark for his contribution towards the history of the earlier Lords of Glamorgan, issued to our subscribers as a supplemental volume for the current year, half the cost of publication being borne by Mr. Clark himself. Of the historic value of the work it is impossible to speak too highly. The thanks of the Association are also due to Mr. R. W. Banks for defraying the cost of the illustration which accompanies his account of the Charters of Brecon Priory. Your Committee suggest also a special vote of thanks to R. H. Wood, Esq., F.S.A., for presenting to the Association the impressions of the admirable likeness of Mr. Matthew Holbeche Bloxam, accompanying the short biographic notice of that learned and valued member of our Society.

"Your Committee can also point with satisfaction to another work as issued under the auspices of this Society, Y Cwtta Cyfarwydd, or the Journal of Peter Roberts, together with the Notebook of Thomas Rowlands. Both of them have been carefully edited by the Rev. Canon Thomas, the learned historian of the diocese of St. Asaph, and the thanks of the Association are due to him for his judicious and successful labours.

"Satisfactory in some respects as this retrospect of the work effected by, or under the auspices of, the Society must be, it is to the older and more tried members it is almost exclusively indebted. Contributions to the pages of the Journal from younger members of the Association are conspicuous by their absence. From whatever cause this apathy on their part arises, it is fraught with serious injury to the Society in the present, and if persisted in will bring about its eventual extinguishment. In a Society such as ours, dependent exclusively upon the voluntary efforts of but a few of its members, it is essentially necessary, as the ranks of the older ones become thinned from retirement, or other cause, that younger men should step forward to fill the blank. The field is ample; there yet remain great numbers of unrestored and most interesting churches, castles, monastic and domestic buildings, besides the numerous earthworks and other similar monuments, all worthy of careful and exact examination and illustration. And your General and Editorial Committee invite the serious attention of all who are interested in the well-being of this Society, to carefully consider this subject during the present meeting, with a view to the devising of some scheme for reaching the sympathies and enlisting the active cooperation of a succession of its younger members.

"It is with feelings of profound regret your Committee have to record the demise of two of our old and most valued members and

contributors, in the persons of the Rev. W. Wynn Williams and the Rev. Prebendary Davies. To the former, the Isle of Anglesea and the county of Carnarvon, as well as this Association, owe a lasting debt of gratitude for the series of able papers from his pen that enriched the earlier volumes of our Journal. The loss of the latter comes home to many of us, who remember the invariable courtesy and kindness which marked the expression of his opinions upon all occasions."

The Very Rev. the Dean of St. David's moved the adoption of the Report. On his way there that day, with a relative, he had been shown two very fine Ogham stones which had never been described. He had no doubt that during the present meeting they would find objects of very great interest, such as would help towards forming material for a supplement to Professor Westwood's most valuable work on the Sculptured Stones of Wales. It would give him great pleasure to see the members of the Association once more at St. David's.

Professor Westwood, in seconding the motion, said there were some things to which he would have thought it necessary to call attention, had they not been mentioned in the Report. One thing he thought that especially required mention was the want of contributions from the younger members of the Association.

The report was then adopted.

Professor Babington moved a vote of thanks to the President for his address; and the motion was seconded by the Ven. Archdeacon of St. David's, who thought it was an excellent thing that people should take a pride in the works of their ancestors. Babington put the motion, which was carried unanimously.

Professor

The Secretary for South Wales, Mr. G. E. Robinson, then announced the particulars of the next day's arrangements, and the meeting separated.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 14TH.

The first halt was at the Church of Letterston, which takes its name from Lettard, one of the followers of the Lords of Cemmaes, a member of which family granted the church to the Commandery of Slebech. The present church was built two years ago, and consists of nave, chancel, and a western porch.

The so-called effigy of St. Leotard, whose name is not in the list of British Saints, is that of a female of the latter part of the fourteenth century or of the early part of the fifteenth. The figure has suffered much from rough treatment, but sufficient details are left to fix its date. In Fenton's time it was within the altar rails, but this probably was not its original position. When the church was rebuilt it was placed near the font, where it now is, but it will probably be removed to a more suitable position during the course of the present

improvement being carried out. During the rebuilding the very curious piscina was transferred to the porch, but will be replaced in its proper position when funds are supplied. About £300 are required to complete the good work. What gives an especial interest to this piscina is the cross issuing which surmounts it, the stem and arms of which are, in heraldic phrase, ragulé. No similar one is known to exist. The chalice with the paten cover is Elizabethan, and is inscribed "Poculum Eclesie de Leterstoun." At a short distance of about a mile is a place called "Heneglwys", probably an earlier site of the church; and near it "Dolychwareu", "the field of sports",—one of which, according to local tradition, was a race to Trefgarn and back, a distance of seven miles. Nearer to the church is the earthwork called the Castell, a circular space of about twelve yards in diameter, protected by a rampart of earth thrown up from the encircling ditch.

The next place visited was a farm-house called Trefgarn Fach. Here the members examined a stone, described by Mr. J. R. Allen, in Arch. Cambrensis, vol. vii, 4th series, pp. 54, 55, and Professor Rhys, Lectures on Welsh Philology, p. 295. There are two inscriptions, one in debased Latin characters, and the other in Oghams. Near Trefgarn Fach is a humble farm-house still retaining portions of a superior building, the windows of which have chamfered mouldings. Owen Glyndwr is reported to have either been born or at one time resided here. We believe there is no authority for such a statement.

Spittal, once a hospice belonging to the Knights Commanders of Slebech, to whom it was granted, together with Rudbaxton Church, by Alexander Rudebac, another of the Norman retainers, shows but little evidence of its former importance. A small enclosure within walls about ten feet high, now used for farmyard purposes, with a few indications of other walls, some of which were pulled down about fourteen years ago to build the adjoining house, is all that now remains of the hospice. The church, however, has more of interest; near its south porch stands the inscribed stone, described and illustrated by the Rev. H. L. Jones, Arch Camb., 1861, p. 302. Professor Rhys, in his Lectures on Welsh Philology, p. 406, gives the inscription as "Evali Fili Dencui Cuniovende Mater Ejus". Internally, the nave and chancel are divided by a narrow pointed arch, which has on either side a hagioscope. The turret of the Sanctus bell marks the junction externally. The western gable has a turret with two bells. A recess in the north wall of the chancel seems to have once contained a tomb. The chalice, which here likewise is Elizabethan, has the name omitted. The font is noticeable as a specimen of the type which appears to be the most prevalent in the district, namely a square top with cushion sides, supported by a round pillar standing on a square base. The church of New Moat, St. Nicholas, has much of interest, but appears to be little cared for. In form it is a double parallelogram with a good Pembrokeshire tower. The chancel,