30 LLANDDWYN 



of destiny by means of the leaping of fish (they leap 

 still bass, I think I have watched them by the 

 hour from the rocks), and the appearance of the 

 water of a well, stilled called Ffynnon Vair, or St. 

 Mary's well probably the one now choked with 

 stones. 



In Henry IV's time, the income of this monastery 

 was greater than that of any other religious house in 

 North Wales; and in Henry VIII.'s survey it was 

 the richest prebend in the Principality. Now, not 

 only does the place that knew it know it no more, 

 *but the very spot where it stood is itself unknown. 

 " Soon after the Reformation," we are told, "it was 

 despoiled of its timber and lead, which the neigbour- 

 ing families converted to domestic uses." So the new 

 fury drove out the old, and if the priests before the 

 Reformation despoiled the people, the latter were 

 afterwards not so reformed but they used the occa- 

 sion to despoil the priests. How little the Welsh in 

 their most representative class had been influenced 

 by the moving principle of the Reformation, I had 

 ample opportunity of observing when present upon 

 several occasions at mission services conducted by 

 the revivalist, Mr. Evan Roberts, about this time in 

 the court-yard of the ruined castle at Beaumaris. 



A great concourse of people, largely of the lower 

 middle and peasant classes, took place, many coming 

 in from distant parts of Anglesey, and from the main- 

 land. Many English visitors, too, were present, 

 and were said to exercise a restraining influence 

 upon the excitement that had had freer course at 

 previous gatherings in other places. Even so, the 

 scene I witnessed there is paralleled in my memory 



