title="p. 8" id="pgepubid00008"/>tombstone.  The sill of the little unglazed niche looking from the room at the end of the dormitory into it has been part of an incised slab.  The present rough roof of the dormitory is modern, but the water tables in the south transept gable show that it is of the same pitch as the original one.  The door in the south side of the refectory is an unusual feature.  It was probably for hoisting up the trusses of straw for the monks’ beds, and for the passage of articles which could not be brought up the narrow day stairs.  Several rectangular apartments are indicated, and it is probable that the refectory extended north and south.  Just a trace of a wall at right angles to the day-room going west may be traced among the farm appliances at this corner, and also an angle buttress.  All the walls are constructed of their dark blue slaty stone, with dressings of reddish freestone, all of great durability and excellent workmanship.  The main windows of the church are not rebated for glass, and it is probable that they were filled in with stained glass secured to the iron stanchion bars, which have been numerous, and wedged into the stonework.  Since these would not be furnished with open casements, the ventilation of the building has been assisted by several small square apertures, the original putlog holes of the builders, but which are formed quite through the walls.  The income of Valle Crucis at the dissolution was £188 clear, and £214 3s. 5d. gross, and the largest of any Cistercian house in Wales; that of the parent abbey of Ystrad Marchel was only £64 14s. 2d.  The surrender was in the twenty-sixth Henry VIII., and was thus among the lesser monasteries.”

Commenting upon the foregoing, a lady well versed in the history of the Abbey writes that “Valle Crucis Abbey was founded, in 1199, by Madoc ap Gruffydd Maelor, Lord of Bromfield and Yale, for Cistercian monks.  Powell, in his History of Wales, makes no mention of its having any connection whatever with Strata Marcella, founded by his ancestor, Owen Cyfeiliog, Prince of Powis, fifty years or more previously; and no remark is made of Valle Crucis having had any of its revenues, as none of the charters of Valle Crucis prove in any way that such was the case.  It would take thirty years at least to build it, and, of course, changes would occur in that time.  The architecture is in this case an authority to go by: the east end is the first transition from Norman to Early English; and a few alterations have been made in the Church, the circular window at the west end being of a later date and put in by, Adam the Abbot about 1340.  The lancet window in the south aisle has had tracing put in subsequently, but not in the fifteenth century.  What remains of the conventual buildings is the Chapter-House, and the whole barn, and one of the dormitories.  The Cloisters which formed the square in front are all destroyed.  The Kitchen, Refectory, and Guest Hall were on the south side of the Cloisters, which are also destroyed.  The Abbey was purchased by Mathew Trevor in 1620–1625, not from such a person as Cneifiwr Glâs, whom Mr. Pennant calls a low-lived partizan of Cromwell’s (I don’t believe that Cromwell, as Protector of England, would have companionship with such a low fellow).  I have seen the conveyance for purchase between Sir Thomas Trevor, his Majesty (James I.), Lord Chief Justice, and Mathew Trevor, of Trevor.  I have this moment the panels of the pew doors in Llantysilio Church, dated M.T. 1630, in my possession.  The Abbey was not dissolved before 1538, and it was destroyed at the same time.”

By the removal of the rubbish in 1851, under the praiseworthy superintendence of Viscount Dungannon, by which the whole of the area was cleared, leaving the pavement and sides as they formerly existed, some interesting discoveries were made; among others, the tombs of benefactors buried in