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The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
Archaeologia Cambrensis 1849 Page 1 is in Archaeologia Cambrensis 1849.
Crynnog Fawr [Map].—A curious cromlech upon a rising ground in a farm call'd Bachwen, with near a hundred shallow cavities running in oblique but almost parallel lines along its surface, three much larger than the rest in a triangular Postion; it is supported by four strong bearers, and in ength 4 cubits, in breadth 3; its inclination towards the setting sun! The ruins of a large carnedd & 2 small ones near it. The low arch'd stone at the distance of 30 yards. To the westward, on Penyr allt farm, 3 small cromlechs in ruin. The Table Stones, and under props of two carried away for the use of the farm, one to be seen in the wall of the barn. In another field, call'd Cae'r Goetan, an elegant entire monument of the pyramidical sort, one of its bearers hath given way; by the drawing, this seems to be a cromlech supported by 4 pillars: the short pillar, &c, set hard by it. In the next inclosure, call'd Cae'r Beudy Coch, an upright column, 3 cubits high; at the distance of 5 cubits another, 3 cubts- & -J long; 300 paces off, a large near entire cromlech, 4 cubits long & 3 broad, supported by 4 stones.
Note 1. The engraving is from a drawing most kindly made for us by Mrs. Robert Williams, the lady of the present vicar of Clynnog Fawr. The following are the dimensions of the cromlech with which Mrs. Williams has favoured us: Total height of eastern end 5ft. 5in.; do. supporting stone 3ft. 6in.; thickness of cromlech at eastern end 1ft. 11in.; total height of western end 4ft. 3in.; do. 0. ‘upporting stone 3ft. 9in.; thickness of western end of cromlech 6in.; whole length of upper stone 8ft. 6in.
Clynnog Fawr, to distinguish it from Clynnog Fechan in Anglesey, founded by St. Beuno, circa an: 616, from Clun, and Awg Water, &c.
Cefn Ystym Cegid [Map] & Dolbenmaen Monumts-—Cefn is a farm on the right hand of the road leading from Clynnog to Dolbenmaen; to the west of the house a most stately beautiful cromlech, neither alter'd by time nor injured by any accidental violence. Its superficies gibbous, underneath flat, having 5 strong supporters; it is call'd the Goetan, &c. Ystym Cegid stands opposite to this, on the other side of the river Cegid; and in a stone wall that runs from the house to the rock above it, stand 3 uncommon columns, whose tops resemble javelin points; one is 2 cubits in length & 1 in breadth; the other, 2 cubits & -J high & 3 broad; the third, 3 cubits in length and 2J in breadth, &c. Not far from these, on a rising ground called Bryn y gogo, i. e. The Hill of Prayer, stands the grand triple cromlech called Coetan Arthur. The largest table stone is triangular, & in length 8 cubits, in breadth 5, supported by six pillars. The 2d, which rest upon it an un trapezium, in length 5 cubits, breadth 2, stands upon three pillars. The 3d roofstone, a flat quadrilateral shiver, 3 cubits long and 2^ broad, stands upon 4 pillars. The ends of the middle covering stone rest Mrs. Eobert Williams, the lady of the present vicar of Clynnog Fawr. The following are the dimensions of the cromlech with which Mrs. Williams has favoured us: Total height of eastern end 5ft. 5in.; do. supporting stone 3ft. 6in.; thickness of cromlech at eastern end 1ft. llin.; total height of western end 4ft. 3in.; do. Oi upporting stone 3ft. 9in.; thickness of western end of cromlech 6in.; whole length of upper stone 8ft. 6in. upon the other two. In the way to it appears a directing stone. In the field adjoyning it, a tall pillar, another lying on the ground very near it. A little distance to the west, the low arch'd stone, &ec., farther on in the bottom, several carnedds remov'd, and an oval 12 paces one way & 17 the other. The inclination of the triple cromlech is to the north. In the way to Dolbenmaen, in a hedge row, stands a lonely pillar, in height 4 cubits, in breadth 2. To the left of the road, in a field calld Rhyd y Cawg, are 2 pillars, sloping different ways; in another field, to the east, the remains of a Druid cirque. In the Parson's garden a pillar, 4 cubits long old. Between the church and Dolwgan stands the famous Maen Arthur, or rather Maen Sigl, being a vast round orb, now off its axis; it faces the accomplish'd Oval of Cwm Mawr. The author supposes Dolbenmaen to derive its name from this stone. Ystym Cegid, anciently calld Cefn y Fan; tradition says that John ap Meredydd's house stood in a field call'd Cae y Mur Poeth.
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