94 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



perished in the sandy deluge, and Mar gam Abbey, secure upon 

 the hill, continued to survey the curious scene. 



It was Robert Earl of Gloucester, Fitz-Hamon's son-in- 

 law, who planted the white-robed Cistercians there, in an 

 abbey dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, about the year 1147. 

 Giraldus Cambrencis visited the house in 1188, and King John 

 was entertained there, for which hospitality, it is said, he 

 excepted the Cistercians of Margam from his extortions. But, 

 if the King's Ministers stayed their hand, it was far otherwise 

 with the wild ravaging Welshmen, concerning whom a pitiable 

 tale is told in the Abbey Chronicle of devastated farms, 

 buildings burnt, and men slain w.th the sword. The ven- 

 geance of Providence, however, sometimes followed. " Com- 

 busserunt Wallenses liorreum nostrum ; divina tamen vindicta 

 sequente." Then came the perverse people to waste the 

 farmstock upon which the labour-loving Cistercians set such 

 store. " Concremaverunt perversi homines oves nostras 

 plusquam mille, cum duabus domibus, in una septimana." 

 Sadder things were to follow. " Occiderunt Wallenses 



Mer-Honour, which flew Essex's flag in the Islands' Voyage, 

 1603. Afterwards he became Vice-Admiral of the Narrow 

 Seas, and he escorted Raleigh from London to Winchester to- 

 his trial, and was concerned in other notable events of 

 his time. 



The old house, which was built by Sir Rice Mansel when 

 he bought the place at the Dissolution of the monasteries, was 

 a long rambling building. The site chosen was in clo>e 

 proximity to the Abbey, and there is no dxibt the Abbey 

 suffered much at the hands of the builders of the new dwelling- 

 house. Tradition says tiie chapter house and cloisters were 

 used as servants' offices, and one corner still bears the name 

 of the "beer-cellar." Two interesting bird's-eye pictures have 

 been fortunately preserved at Mai yam, and give a very good 

 idea of the picturesque old house with its many gables and its 

 walled gardens, and also of the surrounding country as it was 

 200 years ago. This house was pulled down by the late Mr. 

 Thomas Talbot about the end of the eighteenth century, and 

 it is said he intended to buil'l a new one or. the top of the 



FACADE OF ORANGEkY. 



famulos nostros." But worse even than Welsh incursions 

 happened when the Abbey was dissolved and its possessions 

 distributed. It is interesting to know that its clear income at 

 the tirn^ was ^181 js. 4d. The site was granted to Sir Rice 

 Mansel of Oxwich Castle, in whose family it continued until 

 about 1750, when it passed through the female line, and the 

 late Mr. C. R. M. TalN.t, M.P., who died in 1890, father of 

 Miss Talbot, now of Margmi Park, was the descendant and 

 representative <>f the grantee. 



Sir Edward Mansel of Margam, who died in 1595, married 

 Lady Jane Somerset, youngest daughter of Henry Earl of 

 Worcester, and their younger son, Admiral Sir Robert Mansel, 

 who at one time spelt his name " Mansfeeld," was a great 

 seaman among the many great seamen of Elizabeth'^ day. 

 Through the Gamagts of O>ity he was related to Lord 

 Howard, the Lord Admiral, with whom it is said he first went 

 I" MM ; and he is believed to have served against the Armada 

 in 1588. In i :;</> he accompanied Howard and Essex lo Cadi/ 

 and was knighted for his services, and he was captain of the 



orangery (which he had already erected) in the Italian 

 style, and the entrance to which would have been through 

 the grove of orange trees ; but this idea was never carried 

 out, and the present mansion was built on a higher site 

 by the late Mr. C. R. M. Talbot about 1826. It has two 

 great facades and the tower as its principal features. 

 There is much originality in the treatment, and the 

 picturesqueness of the grouping of towers, turrets, and 

 chimneys is extremely attractive. Mr. Talbot was in 

 large degree his own architect. The effect is certainly 

 imposing, and the structure harmonises admirably with the 

 dark wooded hill. 



The fragments of the old Abbey are few, but are extremely 

 interesting, and are carefully preserved. The beautiful details 

 of the chapter house, of which the roof fell in in 1799, the 

 interesting groining of the cloisters, the fine features of 

 columns and mouldings, entitle the remains to be ranked 

 ;iMiong the most worthy of attention by the architect in South 

 Wales. The roofless Abbey mill still stands by the water, and 



