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HISTORY OF THE VALE. I ———.———

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HISTORY OF THE VALE. I ——— ——— LLANTRITHYD PLACE. I ARTICLE XII. I INTERESTING AND ANCIENT LAND- I MARK. THE OLD HOME OF THE AUBREY I FAMILY. (3y Mr. T. M. PRICE, Late of Boverton). 1 The picturesque Vale of Glamorgan, with all its charming scenery and ancient glories, contains a considerable number of ancient dwelling-houses, some of which may originally have been castles. Others were only forti- fied houses, and others built after the acces- sion of the House of Tudor or the Stuart period, are constructed without reference to defence. At the head of these, in all re- spects. stands Old Beaupre, near Cow bridge, in a position justifying'its name. It was the seat of the older line of the Bassetts, and dates from the latter part of the 16th cen- tury. Some of the walls are still standing, including those of the fine old entrance court. There is a very curious eld porA of the Re- naissance period. Only a few miles away is Llantrithyd Place, a large ruined manor house, which was deserted by the Aubreys less than a century ago, and has been suffered to fall into decav. A STATELY OLD MANSION. The ancient ivy-covered ruins of Llantri- thyd Place, many centuries old, abound with much historical interest. The former stately historic old mansion of the Aubrey family at Llantrithyd (now in ruins) forms one of the most interesting and romantic landmarks in the pretty Vale of Glamorgan, and upon it are crowded, as in a pageant, some of the most interesting historical past events in the Vale. Surely there is no greater charm for the antiquarian and historian and the lover of antiquities thrn the remains of the ancient abbeys, castles, and old mansions of the middle ages, which speak so eloquently of the ideas which permeated the society of old Eng- land in the early centuries of her remarkable history. These ancient monuments and his- toric landmarks of the long past still remain as witnesses of å vigorous and im- aginative life of gentle deeds and noble con- cept. Several of the ancient abbeys, castles, and mansions are now in ruins, but a few still re- main very much as they were built; others ha.ve fallen into decay in the wake of time, and have unfortunately gradually been dis- mantled. such as Llantrithyd Place, which forms the subject of our present story. ITS PICTURESQUE ROMANTIC SIM. I LJantrithyd Place occupies a picturesque, romantic site in a green meadow, bordering the pretty old Parish Churchyard of St. Ilkyd's, Llantrithyd, on its western side. In bye-gone days Llantrithyd Place was the old seat and home successively for many genera- tions of the Bassetts, ManseIIs, and Aubreys. The latter family, whose' designation, when created baronets in 1600, was taken from this estate, but it is now called the Aubrey Fletcher Estate. A grand, stately old place was the mansdon in its palmy days, with its beautiful and charming environment. Some of its yener- able walls still stand and some of its stone casements, frpm which the glass has long since gone, are sheltered and thickly clad with ivy. Traces of the stately rooms may be 'seen within, but no roof remains. It is open alike to the calm and stormy sky. A picturesque site the old ivy-mantled ruins pre- sent in the rays of the setting sun; still more so in the pale mystic beauty of a moonlit night. Beyond, to the south front of the old man- sion, are slight traces of spacious gardens and orchards, where lfowers and fruit trees no longer flourish, and surrounding the old ruined mansion on either side may be seen signs of husbandry, with rich pasture lands, with here and there a quaint, old-fashioned farmstead or rustic cottage, surrounded by ricks and barns, village' houses, and lands, all, or nearly all, belonging to the Aubrey Fletcher family. I MALKIN'S INTERESTING REFERENCE. I Dr. Benjamin Heath Malkin, M.A., F.S.A., LL.D., the- famous South Wr.les historian, who visited Llantrithyd in 1803 and 1806, makes th? following interesting references to Llantrithyd Park and Llantrithyd Place, the old Aubrey mansion, which at that time was partly occupied by the Aubrey family, vol. 1. p.p. 175 and 176:— "LTAlntrithyd Park abounds in romantic and picturesque spots. It is finely timbered and its sylvan honours are unimpaired by the respectable and honourably descended pro- prietors. The house or mansion was built, according to a family tradition, in the time of Henry VI. (1422-1461). and the truth of this story is confirmed by the style of the ar- chitecture. The large stone-framed Gothic window of the dining-room is 12ft. square. The other windows are in general larI(re, and in the same style, in the two ancient wings. In addi- tion to these another suite of roms was built, fronting the east, close upon the Parish Churchyard, as it would seem by the archi- tecture, which is a mixture of Roman and Gothic, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, 1558- 1603, or soon after. The windows are of stone, with large l'utherns. (Luthern is a term applied to this kind of window in general). In the dictionaries it is derived through the French from the Latin lucerna. with some degree of violence, and at the same time without any distinctive application. I apprehend it to signify Lutheran, and that it is opposed to the "transom window" which had in it the representation of a cross. This was the favourite window of the Roman Catholics. Sash windows were in those days unknown. The great window of the prin- cipal parlour, looking into the churchyard is 12ft. wide, and 9ft. high. Another of the same room to the south is 9ft. square and has some fine painted glass in it. with coats of arms and other heraldic and splendid decor- ations. The house is a very fine specimen of the taste that prevailed in the age to which its building is ascribed, but the introduction of tawdry ornaments is a puerility in archi- tecture, from which the better instructed moderns must totally dissent." I MR. G. T. CLARK'S DESCRIPTION. I According to the late Mr. G. T. Cliark. F.S.A.. Talygarn, the eminent and distin- guished antiquarian and historian, who gives a very accurate description of the old mansion in 1866, the old house or mansion of the Aubrey family at Llantrithyd was a Tudor structure, without traces of anything earlier, and it was a very fine example of the dwelling plncv of a wealthy Welsh squire during the reign of the House of Tudor. Its plan is a "Greek II." composed of a body and two wings, forming three sides of a court open towards the west or principal and entrance front. The wings are single, as is the body, that is occupied by rooms extending across tiheir breadth, and therefore opening the one from the other but behind the east of the body is a projection containing the staircase and dining room and on the first floor a wide drawing room. The court is 68ft. deep, by 53ft. broad, including the wings. The depths of the court are 26ft. broad. The body of the mansion is 74ft. long by 26ft. broad, exterior dimensions, and the eastern building is 28ft. broad by 6ft. long. Thus the house proper covered 7,000 superficial feet. THE MAIN APPROACH AND ENTRANCE I GATEWAY. The main approach and entrance gateway to Llantrithyd Place from the public high- way. which is situated to the north of the mansion, lies between a pair of heavy stone pillars, which a,re still in a good state of pre- servation, and may be seen to the left-hand side of the roadway, on the crest of the hill near the Parish Church leading from the eastern to the western extremity of the par- ish. The two massive stone caps and the large-. massive white doors, called in Welsh "Drws Gwyn," were removed many years ago and an old wooden gateway has taken the place of the once stately entrance gateway to the mansion. A broad shaded drive led up to the large court-yard of the mansion, where there was a fine old entrance porch of two stories. The main entrance dcor beneath, on the ground floor, opened direct into the spacious entrance hall. I FEATURES OF THE ENTRANCE HALL. The stately old entrance hail was a spacious apartment, 43fv. long by 22ft. broad, and 14ft. in height, having a fiat ceiling, sup- ported by three heavy massive cak beams. The walls of this apartment were plastered and well panelled with oak from the floor to the ceiling, büt. the soffits of the windows were in fine embossed plaster work, forming a pleasing contrast to the dark oak panelling. To the north side of the mansion was a grand window of six lights and 12ft. opening, and on the west side were two windows of 6ft. opening, looking into the court yard, \> hic-h were placed between the entrance door and a door leading into the lower parlour in the north wing of the building. In the eas- tern wall was a large fire place of 7ft. open- ing, between a door of 6ft. opening, leading upon the staircase, and a large window of four lights looking towards St. Illtyd's Parish Church. In the south wall a door led into the inner hall. This was a chamber measur- ing 20ft. by 22ft., having a large window of 14ft. opening in its south wall, and a four- light window, looking towards the court, and in the east wall a door from the dining-room. The entrance and inner hall of these two apartments occupied the whole length and breadth of the body of the mansion, and im- mediately above was the grand gallery, which was a magnificent apartment. THE PARLOUR. I The pa.rlour, which was in the northern wing, opened from the upper end of the spa- cious entrance halt. This apartment was 20ft. square, also oak panelled, and a flat ceil- ing similar to the entrance hall, having large windows to the east of 8ft. and to the north side of 6ft. opening, and a semi-circular oriel window of 10ft. diameter with eight lights projecting into the court yard. The parlour probably had a fire place in the west wall, in which was a passage opening to the garden in the north front. The other portion of this wing appears to have contained steward's offices and a back staircase. It had a door- way into the courtyard, and another doorway closed up in the soutJI gable of the mansion. THE DINING ROOM. I Occupying the east side of the stately old entrance hall was the dining room and grand oak staircase. The dining room was a spa- cious apartment measuring 30ft. long by 20ft. wide, with a sub basement or cellar lighted from the south side. The first lfoor of the dining room opening from the inner hall and the staircase had a window of 6ft., opening towa,rds the south side, and another very large window of 25ft. opening towards the east side of the mansion overlooking the an- cient Parish Church and pretty old grave- yard adjoining. The fireplace was probably in the west wall at the back of the inner hall, and near this apartment was a doorway con- necting the two rooms. THE STAIRCASE TOWER. I The staircase tower at Llantrithyd Place, which was' 20ft. square inside, contained' a no- table oak staircase 7ft. broad, with a landing at each angle. The cellar floor in the base- ment communicated by two arches with the cellar, underneath the dining room, which was reached by an unseen stair under the main staircase in the north east angle of the tower. At the foot of the oak stairs on the ground floor a window of nearly 6ft. opened from the dining room, and another doorway of 6ft. opened from the entrance hall. On the second landing of the staircase, a doorway in the north wall opened upon the high ground outside, which was the private way leading to the Parish Church. The fourth landing of the stairs was at the level of the grand gallery and in front of its entrance, but the staircase was further continued-by three more landings, making probably a total of seven landings in order to reach the attics of the mansion. The staircase was lighted, both from the north and east in the top exterior walls of the building. (TO BE CONTINUED.)

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