hundreds of years before the tenth century the Norsemen possessed a distinctive and essentially national mythology, as relatively old and independent as that of any other race. "No reasonable man has ever said that the Northern mythology, any more than any other, was free from loans and intermixtures and developments. But the objection to Prof. Bugge's theory, is that it takes no account of parallels and survivals, and that his date for such large borrowings is simply and desperately impossible, as being so modern.'

"1

That there is a connection, and a very intimate one, between some of the stories of Wales and the mythology of the Norse is, I think, unquestionable; but to reason as to which should have priority, and be accounted the source of the other, is a fruitless piece of business if we depend solely on reference to documents. When Doctors, such as Thomas Stephens, Nash, Matthew Arnold, Skene, Prof. Rhys and others, disagree as to the periods in which our Welsh tales arrived at the growth in which we now find them; and whilst Prof. Stephens, Dr. Vigfusson, Prof. Bugge, and many other Northern scholars, differ as to the dates of the god-tales of the Norse, we must perforce leave them to their investigations. But although much of many myths, both Welsh and Norse, has been hopelessly lost, it does not seem an unreasonable proceeding to take what has been left to us, and to endeavour in the completer myth to find the source of that which is more fragmentary and unsatisfying; remembering that "many peculiar features of the Mabinogion (for instance) are doubtedly most easily explained if they are regarded as the mythic traditions of one race arbitrarily fitted into the historic traditions of another."

1 Prof. Stephens in Mémoires de la Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord, 1882-3, p. 410.

2 Nutt, in the Voyage of Bran, ii, 20.

EXPLORATION OF ST. NON'S CHAPEL,

NEAR ST. DAVIDS.

THE following letter was addressed to Mr. Edward Laws, F.S.A., with the intention that it should have been read at the Ludlow Meeting. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Laws was prevented through illness from being present at the meeting.

"DEAR MR. LAWS

"I have devoted three days to the examination of St. Non's Chapel. The exploration is difficult, since for a long time the chapel has been made use of as a place into which to throw all the pebbles picked off the field. To excavate it would require much more than a few days, and carts and horses would be necessary to remove hundreds of loads of stone.

"All that it was possible for me to do was to clear round the walls to their foundations, externally and internally on three sides, and to fill in after these foundations had been examined.

"The chapel points nearly N. and S., actually only a few points off due N. and S.

"The length of the chapel externally at base of walls is 38 ft. 9 ins. by 21 ft. 8 ins. at S. end, and 19 ft. 2 ins. N. end.

"Internally, the measures are 32 ft. 3 ins. by 16 ft. 2 ins. at S. end and 12 ft. 2 ins. at N. end.

"At N. end internally is a raised step, 3 ft. 9 ins. from the wall, 9 ins. above the old floor.

"The walls of the chapel are of two if not three periods. At the S. end there is very early and rude work at the base, to the height of 7 ft. 6 ins. at S.E. corner. This is set in earth. Above this, clearly distinguishable from it, is mediæval walling of flit

5TH SER., VOL. XV.

23

stones (mostly), laid in strong mortar. The earlier work shows internally as well as externally.

"The external wall at this end batters back about 2 ft. in 7 ft. The mediæval wall is from 2 ft. 3 ins. to 2 ft. 6 ins. in thickness.

"On the W. side is the doorway, 15 ft. 6 ins. from the N. angle, 3 ft. 3 ins. wide, with a slate step in it much

broken.

"The only remains of a window are to the E., 11 ft. from the S. angle, and here only one jamb remains.

"The N. wall is entirely of medieval building, so is that to the W., with the exception of a small portion of the base at the S. W. extremity.

"In the E. face of the building is set an early cross, not in place, that has already figured in Professor Westwood's Lapidarium Walliæ.

"The N. wall ends raggedly to the E., projecting beyond the present E. wall, into which it is not tied, and from which it differs wholly in character.

"This E. wall has been thrown down at some unknown date, from the remains of a window at the S. end; at that end the medieval wall has been built on the earlier foundation wall, so as to form an exact right angle, whereas in the earlier building the angle was incorrect, resulting in the building being 4 ft. narrower at the W. than at the S. end. The E. wall has been examined to its base internally, and is faced to the height of 1 ft. 6 ins. to 2 ft. inside as well as outside. Above that all is mere modern hedging, set up to retain the stones and pebbles thrown in from the field. The mediæval builders intended to widen the chapel to the N. or altar end by 4 ft.; whether they ever completed this reconstruction it is difficult to determine. The base of the present wall is not so cyclopean in character as the S. wall, and there is an apparent break 13 ft. from the S.E. angle; but the present E. wall undoubtedly remains on the line of the earliest wall, for it continues that of the portion of wall on which the later builders set their wall askew. At the N.E.

corner there are no traces of a turn or angle in the wall that projects, as though it had ever been finished

off.

'The walls of the chapel vary from 7 ft. 6 ins. to 3 ft. in height, and by the door have been completely broken down.

"The chapel does not appear ever to have had any other floor than the beaten earth.

"The altar-step and platform at the N.W. is of flat stones laid in mortar. About 3 ft. 6 ins. from the W. it is broken away, where the altar stood, and here some fragments of flooring tile were found, without ornament. Beyond this gap the platform was continued, but was composed of flat stones, not laid in mortar, and resembling the rude and earlier work. This portion was not so high as the other, but this may be due to its having been more liable to being broken down than that portion which was set in mortar.

"At 2 ft. 9 ins. from the N. W. angle, internally, was a small hole in the wall, 10 ins. wide, 6 ins. high, and cutting about a foot into the thickness of the wall. It had no sill or flooring.

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"It has been stated that the chapel was at one time converted into a dwelling-house; of this no evidence was forthcoming; not a particle of charcoal having been found, and the only pottery found, with the exception of the floor-tiles, was fragments of a penny jug" of modern make, at the top, among the pebbles collected off the field. Moreover, Mr. Watt Williams assured me that this bad not been the case in his father's time, or he would have known of it.

"In the Life of St. David, it is said that at his birth, in a thunderstorm, his mother, St. Non, laid her hand on a stone at her head, and left on it the impress of her fingers, and that this stone was laid under the altar. I was in hopes of finding it, and that the supposed finger-marks were the lines of an Ogam inscription. But clearly the platform under the altar has been tampered with, and the stone, if there, has been removed.

“The evidence of disturbance at that spot was very distinct. The altar may have been, and probably was, of stone, and was torn away and cast down.

"It is quite possible that the excavation of the central portion of the chapel would yield better results, but this will be a long and costly business.

"The Ecclesiastical Commissioners, to whom the land belongs, and Mr. Williams, of the Grove Hotel, the tenant, very readily and graciously consented to allow of the examination being made.

"I remain,

"Yours truly,

"S. BARING GOULD."