34 EXCURSION FROM DOLGELLE TO 



been a femi-circular door ; and, near this, there is 

 the mutilated head of a human figure. A large 

 plane-tree is now growing from among the ruins of 

 the weft-end of the building, whence it (hould feem 

 to have long been in a ruined ftate. From the 

 obfcurity of its fituaticn, and the want of that kind 

 of elegance ufual in monaftic ruins, this abbey is 

 fcarcely known even at Dolgelle. The tourift will 

 inquire for it in vain as Kemmer abbey, for the 

 Wellh people in general know it by no other name 

 than that of Y Vanner. 



It was founded about the year 1200 for fome 

 monks of the Ciftercian order, from Cwm Hir 

 abbey in Radnorfliire, by Meredith and Griffith, the 

 fons of Cynan ap Owen Gwynedd, prince of North 

 Wales *. " This feems (fays a Wellh writer) to have 

 been a colony of monks, fent olT by that monafteryj 

 as bees do when the hive is too full f." 



About thirty years after the fuppofed period of 

 its foundation, Kemmer abbey appears to have been 

 in a flourifhing (late. At this time, when Henry III. 

 v/as marching againft the Welfli, who had rifen, 

 under their prince, Llewelyn ap lorwerth, and 



* Vaugban's Sketch of McrionethiliiVe. Cam. Reg. i. 193. 

 Tanner's Notitia Moiiaftica. 



f Letter of Lewis Morris. Cam. Reg. ii. 493. This fee ros 

 to account for Dugdale's miftake in confounding this abbey with 

 that of Combehire, or Cwm Hir^ in Radnorfliire. In the Par- 

 colude Annals, Combehire is confidered the mother abbey to 

 Kemmer. 



attacked 



