of the Monasteries is also deserving of the most careful reading.

We now enter upon the second stage in the history of Charterhouse-the historical and domestic period. After the final departure of the monks, the buildings for some time remained unoccupied, except as storehouses for the king's "hales and tents", or tents and pavilions. Pennant says the site was granted in 1542 to John Bridges and Thomas Hall for their joint lives, but they appear to have retained it for only a short time, as the king presented the land and buildings to Sir Thomas Audley, Speaker of the House of Commons, from whom the whole property passed to Sir Edward North in 1545. He at once commenced the demolition of the buildings; the monks' cells and the church also were entirely destroyed, with the exception of the south and end walls. Other parts of the buildings were also pulled down, the ground cleared, and laid out as a garden. He converted other portions of the monastery into a dwelling-house, and built many additional rooms. The present entrancegateway is considered to be his work. Queen Mary created him Baron North, as a reward for his services to her. Upon the accession of Princess Elizabeth to the throne in 1558, she stayed here for several days, the guest of Lord North, on her way from Hatfield to London; and three years later she again visited Charterhouse, and remained four days. Lord North died in 1564, and the year following his son Roger sold Charterhouse to the Duke of Norfolk for £2,820. This Duke made Charterhouse his residence until he got into trouble through engaging in the conspiracy for restoring Mary Queen of Scots to her throne, upon which he was committed to the Tower; and though released after some months' detention, he again conspired and resumed his schemes for marriage with the Queen of Scots; but his secret correspondence and papers being discovered, he was summarily dealt with by being once more confined in the Tower, and executed in 1572. Charterhouse then became forfeited to the Crown, but after the death of the Queen of Scots, Elizabeth re-granted Charterhouse, with the other estates of the Norfolks, to such members of the

1897

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family as were then living, and Charterhouse became the possession of Lord Thomas Howard, the second son of the deceased Duke. From this nobleman, who resided here, the house became known as Howard House, and to him and his father, the Duke just mentioned, are due many of the alterations in the old buildings to fit them for the purposes of a nobleman's mansion of the Elizabethan days. Thus, the grand staircase is a fine example of the style of the period. The tapestry-chamber is considered to be the work of the Duke of Norfolk (1565 to 1571). The great hall (formerly the prior's guestenhall) was considerably altered at the same period, the galleries, the screen, and the arched and panelled hammer-beam roof being of that date.

This Lord Howard, who was Earl of Arundel in right of his mother, died in 1590, and Howard House became the property of his brother, the Earl of Suffolk, who, a few years later, in 1611, sold it to the man whose name is inseparably connected with the great institution he so generously founded, the still-existing hospital and school of Charterhouse, Thomas Sutton, for the sum of £13,000. The original foundation was for eighty poor men and forty poor boys, but the generous founder was not spared to see what success would be the result of his noble institution, for, only a few weeks after executing his deed of gift, in December of the same year, 1611, he died. An elaborate monument in the chapel is erected to his memory over his last resting-place (for he is buried there), as the most appropriate spot for his interment, in the opinion of his executors, to whom he left the disposal of his body by his will: "to be buried where and in what sort it should seem meet and convenient to them, and with the least pomp and charge that might be."

VALLEY.

BY LADY PAGET.

(Read at the Conway Congress, August 23rd, 1897.)

T was only in the winter of 1897 that the writer was told that there were caves and a passage under the prehistoric fortress of Pen-y-Gaer, situated in the Conway valley. Accordingly, with Mr. John Jones, of Hafod-y-Rhiw, Dwygyfylchi, as interpreter, she drove to Taly Bont, a small inn on the Trefriw road from Conway, and was there met by another quarryman from Llanbedr (in which parish Pen-y-Gaer is situated), who knew from boyhood about the caves, and the remains of other old buildings at the base of the mountain.

At a short distance from the inn, the mountain stream from Llyn Dulyn, running on the south side of Pen-yGaer, was crossed; and then by passing through a gate on the left-hand side a rough pathway led to the site of the old "castell", part of which has been converted into a cottage. This cottage, at the present time, contains under the hearthstone an entrance into a subterraneous passage connected with the lower cave, which has its opening on the south side of Pen-y-Gaer by the side of the mountain stream. The water being high, an entrance into the cave was with difficulty made by the two quarrymen, who on measuring the cave found that it was 23 yards 6 ins. long, 1 yard and 1 ft. wide, with a circular

hole in the floor apparently of some depth, though only one yard in circumference. Water being in this cave prevented the men from examining the farthest end, and they returned with a plentiful supply of young bats that they found in the interior of the cave.

The second cave, situated near the waterfall, could not be reached on account of the quantity of water after the late rains. But the writer remembers that in the year 187-, being a dry summer, she was able to stand on the rocks above the waterfall and see the entrance to the upper cave under the fortress of Pen-y-Gaer, to which, unfortunately, she did not attach the same interest that she now feels sure they deserve.

The position of these caves, with the long underground passages, situated under an old fortress, is surely somewhat similar to the recent discovery at Stranocum, in the county of Antrim, as well as those of other caves which are connected by long passages under most of the ancient hill-forts both in Ireland and Wales. It would be interesting to have this point thoroughly established. In Wales, at the base of these hill-forts, the remains of, or traditional existence of, the chieftain's "castell", where his wife and family resided, is to be found. The "castell" is always on the side of the fortress where trees would best flourish, though at the present time the place is often only recognised by the word Coed (a wood), annexed to the name of some cottage raised by the side or on the site of the old "castell". It is in this way that a few stones remaining of the old "castell", with the cottage of Tyddyn-y-Coed, mark the site and secluded abode of the chieftain's family at the foot of Pen-y-Gaer. Passing from this spot northwards, the Holy Well of "Ffynon Pedr" was reached. Half-way through a large turnip field, by a hedge on the east side, a single yew tree was seen which marked the place of the sacred well, which, with the steps leading down to the water, is now entirely covered with soil; for, during late years, a practical farmer managed to drain through a pipe the water from this holy well into the adjoining field, and then covered the well, with the steps, with sufficient soil for agricultural purposes.

This well is not very far from the present old church of Llanbedr-y-Cennin, built on the site of the older Celtic church, and now dedicated to St. Peter. It is a curious fact that all the churches and chapels connected with the Celtic Pedr have been dedicated to St. Peter; and the usual remark in North Wales, if a man says his name is Peter, is for his companions to reply, "Oh! then you come from Llanbedr!"

Owing to the shortness of a winter's day, no farther investigations could be made.

Lady Paget regrets that when she wrote the Paper about "Some Ancient Stone Forts", in which Pen-y-Gaer is particularly mentioned, she was not aware of the lower cave and subterranean passage being connected with the fortress.