60 



the confluence of the two rivers, the victor perishing in the moment of his success 

 from the poisonous breathing of the dying dragon. Such is the popular story of the 

 Dragon of Mordiford, which, like others of a similar description, although inter- 

 spersed with fable, may possess some fact for its origin. After the advowson 

 was given to the Abbey of Gloucester, its priory of St. Guthlac, in Hereford, 

 frequently provided priests for the services of the parish. The armorial bearings 

 of this priory, in the 14th century, were : — Gu a wyvern pass : wings displayed, 

 tail nerved, or, on a relief 3 mullets, or : and a wyvern bearing a resemblance to 

 a dragon ; it is probable that the supposed ravenous beast derives its existence 

 from this heraldic device painted by the monks on the walls of the Church, and 

 protected through this legendary fable by generations of credulous rustics." 



Robinson suggests that the fatal miasma that rose from the stagnant water 

 at the confluence of the rivers Wye and Lugg found embodiment at a later date 

 in the legendary dragon, whose poisonous breath destroyed all that came within 

 its range. Dingley, in his history in marble, gives a lively sketch of the 

 monster : — This drawing was made in the latter end of the 17th century. There 

 must have been in England, at some period, a " survivor " of the great Saurian 

 family. The Icthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, and others were marine monsters, but 

 the Dinosaurs, or gigantic land-Saurians were eminently fitted for terrestrial 

 life. Of these, the iguanodon attained the length of 60 or 70 feet, and 

 was massive in proportion. The hylseosaurus reached to barely half that 

 length — both of these were herbivorous, that is, they fed on forest trees amongst 

 other dainties — but the megalosaurus, or gigantic lizard, was of enormous 

 magnitude, and highly carnivorous. There were also jiterosauria — winged lizards 

 — with great bony heads, long jaws, and many sharp-pointed teeth, with 20 feet 

 expanse of wing ; and many other creatures of huge jjroportions and enormous 

 strength. Although there is no jsroof that these creatures existed after the glacial 

 epoch, yet, inasmuch as representatives of the chelonia of the Trias; the crocodilia 

 of the Lias ; the laoertilia and batrachia of the Oolites ; and the ophidia of the 

 Tertiaries, exist at the present time, it may have been possible for some lonely 

 monster of the Saurian family to have outlived all others of its species, and made 

 its home in the swamps of the Lower Lugg, or the outlet of the Woolhope Valley, 

 until a period far more distant than can be reached by the earliest inkling of 

 history, but still within the misty range of remote tradition : and that was "The 

 Dragon of Mordiford " ! 



