330 



Again, Camden also writes : " Wy is not gone full three miles from hence,* 

 but he intercepteth by the way the river Lug, who, running down a maine out of 

 Radnor hils with a still course, passeth through the mids of this country from the 

 North-West to the South-East. At the first entrance it seeith a farre off 

 Brampton Brian Castle, which a famous family named hereof de Brampton, 

 wherein the surname was usually Brian, held by continual succession unto the 

 time of King Edward the First, but now by the female heiress it is gone to R. 

 Harlie. Neere at hand it behyldeth Wigmore, in the English Saxon's tongue 

 Winginga Mere, repaired in elder times by King Edward the Elder, afterward 

 fortified by William, Earle of Hereford, with a castle." 



But to return to Presteign. On entering the churchyard at its south side 

 the base and two or three feet of shaft of the old cross are visible. In the church 

 the nave has six bays on five octagonal plain columns, with the exception of one 

 column at the western end on the north side which is circular. The chancel is 

 large and wide, having a large and handsome monument on its northern wall, in 



memory of Evan Davies, of Llandewy Ystradenny, died 1672, and of Lewis, 



Canon Residentiary of Hereford, rector of this parish, died August 7th, 1G84. 

 Upon the western wall of the south aisle is a large piece of tapestry in a remark- 

 ably good state of preservation, both in substance and in colour, representing the 

 Entry of Christ into Jerusalem. It is said to have originally formed an altar 

 piece. It was presented by Richard Owen, of Brampton Parva, in the year 1737. 



In the vestry is a massive flagon, plain, with an inscription denoting its 

 presentation by Littleton Powell, Armiger, 1692. 



There are a pair of patens, the gift of Thomas Owen de Brampton Parva, 

 1706. The Parish Registers record events embracing periods as follows— No. 1 

 embraces from 1561 to 1646 ; No 2 1646 to 1685 ; No. 3 commences 1685. Some 

 events dealing with historical connections have been interpolated, but unfor- 

 tunately not contemporaneously, as they bear the date 1793. Page 40 of the year 

 1670 is in the Latin language, and historical. From the numerous entries made in 

 the years 1593, 1610, 1636, and 1637, it is manifest that Presteign was visited by 

 some plague or epidemic which caused a great mortality. 



The "Radnorshire Arms," Elizabethan, dated 1617, is a handsome 

 building of that period. At the western end of the town is an eminence, the 

 site of one of the ancient castles of the Marches. This ground was presented to 

 the town by Edward, fifth Earl of Oxford, is called "The Warden," and is used 

 as a pleasure ground or " Hyde Park." Opposite, upon another eminence, called 

 " Silia," is a collection of plants and shrubs presenting a grand botanical garden, 

 in which rare foreign plants occasionally meet the eye in juxtaposition with 

 varieties of our beautiful cottage garden or even wild English plants. It is a 

 little paradise, especially for birds. One would have to travel far to find any 

 collection of Conifers which would bear comparison with those which are here so 

 thickly— aye, too thickly— luxuriating upon "Silia." The proprietor, fully aware 

 that the fiat must go forth to thin out the trees, shrinks from pronouncing the 

 decree which must sacrifice some rare and handsome specimens. He has been kind 

 '(Hereford.) 



