Volume 2

M0011725: Effigy of Rhys, Prince of Wales

Date:
1951
Reference:
WT/D/1/20/1/104/32
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: M0011725: Effigy of Rhys, Prince of Wales. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    128/523 (page 94)
    of which, called the Eagle Tower, Eleanor his Queen was brought to bed of a son: It is a grand and imposing object: its massive ar- chitecture, and want of windows, indicate that strength more than ornament were consulted in its construction. Over the portal is the sculptured effigy of its royal founder. On a gentle eminence above the river Seient, stood the Roman city of Segontium, of which very evident traces still exist. The area of the camp, which is of the oblong square form, with rounded angles (so generally adopted throughout Wales by the Romans in the construction of their forts), is inclosed by stone walls firmly cemented together with mortar and brick intermixed; and is in- tersected by the turnpike road leading from Caernarvon to Bedge- lert, leaving the greater part of the area on the south side: in a wall of a field adjoining the turnpike road is a stone bearing this inscrip- tion, S VC :s and in the fields S. E. of the camp, I picked up several pieces of the fine red glazed Roman pottery. There is a small square fort, inclosed by stone walls, nearer the river, and superim- pending its banks. The parish church of Llanbublic, distant nearly a mile from Monae insulae objicitur, hoc enim vocabulum denotat. Angusto admodum et fer& orbi- culari mcenium ambitu continetur haec urbecula, sed firmo; castrumque ostendit pul- cherrimum quod totum occidentale latus occupat. Privatis aedificiis pro more regionis satis pulcra, et civium humanitate praedicanda. Edwardum Primum conditorem, et Edwardum Secundum ejus filium hic natum, et de Caernarvon cognominatum, qui primus erat ex Anglico sanguine Walliae Princeps, summae sibi gloriae incolae ex- istimant.” s This inscribed stone was found in a subterraneous vault near the spot, and supposing the last letter to have been G, may have alluded to the Roman name of Segontium.