Welsh Journals

GWERNFYDA, LLANLLUGAN. By Archdeacon THOMAS, F.S.A. PASSING one day in July with the Rural Dean (the Rev. W. Morgan, Rector of Manafon), to inspect the Church, Records and Plate at Llanllugan, the driver made the remark that there was said to be some old carving in this house." We at once alighted and went to see, and we found much more than we expected. The house is a somewhat dilapidated timber building, lying east and west, with the farm buildings adjoining in a continuous line westwards; the whole covered over with boards and the dwelling portion thatched with heather, very thick and of long standing. It looked very unpromising; but inside it was most interesting. The door opened on the main room of the house; at the crossing of the chamfered oak beams, the boss was carved with an owl with a human face, which may have been the cognizance of the original builder the floor was now laid with fresh tiles, but had been originally of hardened clay. The chief feature is the great fireplace or inglenook, measuring externally 9 feet by 9 feet, and though now modernised internally, still indicative of the open hearth fire with its cosy settles, where on winter evenings the family nestled together and discussed the news of the time or listened to weird stories of ghosts and apparitions, to the tune of the howling winds outside. The mantle-beam of this inglenook consists of a single solid piece of oak, 9ft. 9ins, long by 15ins. high, and the same depth at the top, but shelving inwards below. The face is carved with a series of figures, human, animal and geometrical, in high relief, roughly wrought, but very expressive. At the right hand is a Crucifix. The