TO BANGOR ISCOED. I31 



quell, aflerts, that even in his time, there remained 

 only fome relics of its ancient magnificence : there 

 were, he fays, fo many ruined churches, and fuch 

 immenfe heaps of rubbifh, as were not elfewhere to 

 be found *. — Leiand fays of it, in the reign of 

 Heni*y VIII., that its fite was in a fertile valley on 

 the fouth fide of the Dee ; but that the river having 

 lince changed its courfe, then ran nearly through 

 the middle of the ground on which it flood. The 

 extent of its walls, he fays, was equal to that of the 

 walls round a town ; and the two gates, the names 

 of which had been handed down by tradition, had 

 been half a mile afunder. Within the memory of 

 perfons then Hving, the bones of the monks, and 

 pieces of their clothes, had been ploughed up, in 

 the cultivation of the ground, as well as pieces of 

 fquared Hones, and fome Roman money f. 



GiLDAS Nennius, 



A difciple of Elbod, bifhop of North Wales, was 

 abbot of Bangor in the feventh century. This early 

 writer was the author of a hldory of the Britons in 

 Latin, copies of which are yet extant. All the copies 

 in the public libraries under the name of Nennius, 

 Gildas Minor, Gildas Nenniup, &c. owing to the 

 ignorance of tranfcribers, are, however, faid to- be 

 extremely inaccurate. — This hiflory, with fever a 1 

 others, was pubhlhed by Dr. Gale in 1691 ; but his 



* Scriptores pofl Bednm, 294. f Leiand's Itin. v. 30. 

 K 2 copy 



