On the fortieth day from the birth of Myvig's son, the Princess, persuading herself that Owen's curse was merely an idle threat, summoned all her family and friends to a great banquet in honour of the young prince's birth. On the appointed day the great hall of the palace was full. The feast was at its height, and wine was flowing freely, when four guards entered, leading the venerable Sub-Prior.

The Prince taunted him with the non-fulfilment of his prophecy, but he only repeated that vengeance was at hand unless the guilty ones repented. The Prince ordered that he be shut up in the topmost room of the watch-tower, which should then be burnt to the ground. And this was done.

Father Aeddan, now Prior, heard of what had happened, and from the monastery above watched the town and flames of the burning tower shoot up towards the sky. After the tower had fallen, a mist came down upon the valley and hid the town. While the Prior prayed the mist gradually rose, and the valley was seen entirely filled with a vast lake. No trace of the lost town ever appeared save a cradle containing a sleeping child, the infant son of Myvig, the last of the princes of Savaddan.

Lifting the child from its cradle, Father Aeddan bore it to the monastery. Naming it Gastayn, he taught it all that the good monks could teach. Gastayn afterwards expressed a desire to embrace the ascetic life, and built a hut on the lake's edge in a sheltered spot. There he spent a life of great piety and rigour, in continual prayer for the souls of his wicked progenitors. His holiness and learning was so famed that one of the royal princes of South Wales entrusted his sons to Gastayn's care. Following in the footsteps of their pious tutor, they became renowned for the purity and sanctity of their lives, some of them, indeed, even obtaining the glorious crown of martyrdom. Gastayn, at his death, was buried in his hermitage, where in after years a church was built which to this day bears the name of the "Church of St. Gastayn."

Such is the legend told by the country folk in the neighbourhood, who still gravely tell you that on a calm summer's day it is possible to see the church tower through the waters of

[This version of the legend of the origin of the lake of Savaddan (Llyn Syfaddon), commonly known as Llangorse Lake in Brecknockshire, has been received from Mr. Isaac C. Hughes, of Treharris, Glamorganshire, who states that it is given as told. to him by an old resident.

It is an interesting variant of the version given in Rhys's Celtic Folklore, i. 73, which is taken from the Brython for 1863, pp. 114, 115, and purports to be derived from a MS. of Hugh Thomas in the British Museum. The following are the principal points of difference:

(1) The names of the Princess and the murderer, her lover, are here given as Gwenonwy and Gruffydd, son of Prince Meigyr.

(2) The murdered man is described as the Prior of Bryn-yrAllt, on a height overlooking the lake.

(3) The curse is given by the Sub-Prior of the monastery when called in to perform the marriage, and not by certain mysterious voices heard by the murderer when he went out to "lay the ghost."

(4) It is to have effect in the fourth, and not the ninth generation.

(5) Its fulfilment immediately follows on the martyrdom of the Sub-Prior who had originally pronounced it.

(6) The name of the child of the fourth generation who escaped, his cradle being found floating on the lake, is Gastayn, who afterwards became a saintly hermit. This connects the legend with the Church of Llangasty, on the shores of the lake.

Sir J. Rhys also alludes to the quite different story given by Walter Mapes, which, it may be noted, refers to a prince named Gwestin of Gwestiniog (Wastinus Wastiniauc). He also holds that there are signs of Goidelic influence in this neighbourhood. Perhaps some support may be lent to this opinion by the name Aeddan, that of the Prior of Bryn-yr-Allt, who witnessed the catastrophe. ED.]

THE FEAST OF ST. WILFRID.

Procession and Races Sixty Years Ago.

(PLATE XIII.)

IN the Illustrated London News of Aug. 24, 1844, appeared the following account of the Feast of St. Wilfrid at Ripon and the races held there on the feast-day. The account was accompanied by two illustrations, the first of the procession of St. Wilfrid and the second of the races. That of the procession is here reproduced with the kind consent of the Proprietors of the Illustrated London News.

"The Feast of St. Wilfrid, at Ripon, in Yorkshire, always falls on the Sunday following Lammas-day.

"Ripon owes its rise to the Saint (Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, in the seventh century) in whose honour the feast is held, and whose return from exile to his favourite monastery of Ripon, so long as twelve centuries ago, is still commemorated in the fashion we have more palpably shown in the engraving. A jolly Dr. Syntax looking effigy, with cocked hat, black coat, and top boots, having nothing clerical about him, except the bands dangling from his chin, is manufactured by some labourers in the town, and carried from house to house, tied on a cart horse; and accompanied by a fife and a fiddle, and a host of children, who greet the oblations to the Saint with shrill huzzas. The good old folks haste into the street to shake hands with the founder of their town; and the proprietors of the effigy (sometimes a 'wick Wilfray' as the children style him) retire at dusk to divide the proceeds, and wind up with a 'jollification.'

"Then the feast commences in earnest. The Cathedral bells ring out merrily on the Sunday morning following, the Mayor and Corporation proceed in gowned solemnity to service at the minster; the city is crowded with strangers, and those natives, from a distance, who come to visit friends and relatives; there is a gathering in the sylvan glades of Studley Park; and the ivy grown, venerable walls of the 'mighty carcase' of the abbey of Fountains echoes with the music of glad voices, and smiles blandly in the glorious sunshine on the merry pilgrims gathered