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CAKDIGANSHIRE GRAVESTONES
CARDIGANSHIRE GRAVESTONES
stone, and the border is of the same foliage pattern as on 01792 and 01796. The
two angels, which are also in low relief to match the border (all the other angels
of Style 2 being of simple incised lines), are dwarfed by the rest of the design.
Similar draped urns are found on 01792 and 01800. The other stones with Style 2
angels are 01777, 01794, 01796 and 01801. These angels are in many ways
similar to those of Style 5.
Style 4 (1787)
This is a unique angel, on C1787a (Pl. XII), a small headstone lying loose in
Llansanffraid churchyard. The lettering of the inscription is typical of Group C,
but the angel has wings indicated by cross-hatching and a halo or very thick hair
completely surrounds its head. There is a prominent bib or collar of feathers,
perhaps not so unlike some of those on angels of Style 2. In the top corners of the
stone are small fan-motifs, first seen in this group on CI784 and re-appearing on
a number of the nineteenth-century stones in more elaborate form (it is indeed one
of the commonest motifs on nineteenth-century stones of all kinds in the county).
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Style 3(1781-1796)
This style of angel, found on only four stones, is so completely different fmm and
yet contemporary with Style 2 that I assume they are the work of a different
craftsman, although presumably in the same workshop. The angels are standing in
profile, very human in form, wrth flowing hair, sometimes with small wings, and
blowing lopg trumpets from which suitable words emerge. They stand in pairs,
facing each other at the top o£ the stones. Two of the stones, 01781 and 01798
(Pl. X), are outdoor slabs and unfortunately rather worn, with the finer details of
the sculpture partly lost. The left-hand angel stands on an open coffin, and the
right-hand one stands on the lid of the coffin (on 01798 the nail-holes can be seen
on the coffin-lid); an inscribed plaque separates them. 01792 (Pl. XI), although
nearly a quarter of its surface is broken away, has the remaining parts of
sculpturing and lettering extremely well-preserved. The angels, nude and wingless,
are separated by the same kind of draped urn as has already been noted on 01790.
The stone is a headstone, and was set in a mortared frame of roughly trimmed
stones that has now partly disintegrated. Framing of headstones was a common
practice in the county in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, C1794a
and 01811 being other examples in this group, and many eacamples can be seen in
Group E. 01792 has its inscription entirely in Welsh• no stones in Group A or B
have the main part of the inscription in Welsh, and indeed the only Welsh in
Group A is the verses quoted on A1750a and A1763. Similar Welsh quotations are
found on a number of Group B stones, but almost all of them date from after 1800.
The only other Group C stones entirely in Welsh are Gi791 and 01796. All the
Welsh on Group C stones, even the occasional verse such as that on 01784 (the rest
o£whose inscription is in typical cursive script), is in ordinary minuscule letters.
Ci792a (Pl. XI) is a memorial slab mounted high on the west wall of the nave
inside Llanychaearn church and is worth seeing in better light than is normally
available. It is in magnificent condition and retains what is presumably its original
colouring. The lettering on the almost black background is picked out in white, and
the border (Pattern 6) is black and silver; the flesh-coloured angels, swathed in
thin red bands, stand on pale blue pedestals against a deep blue ground. The angels
are separated by a pale blue plaque with white lettering, and they wear golden
crowns and blow golden trumpets from which deep olive-green streamers emerge
proclaiming the last judgement. This is the only stone of the group to show any
colouring, and it is so similar in design to the three outdoor stones of Style 3 (and
01781 and 01792, at least, must always have been outdoors, judging by the stone
structures supporting them) that it seems probable that they may originally have
been coloured too.
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Style 5(1811-1830)
These angels are invariably asymmetrical and paired, usually with outspread
wings, similar in general form to those of Style 2 but drawn with more poise and
less expression. All the stones of Group C dating from 1808 onwards will be
considered here because, as with the nineteenth-century stones of Group B; they
tend to be rather homogeneous in design; they are characterised not only by the
Style 5 angels but also by border Pattern 9. In almost every case Gothic lettering
is used for the opening word ofthe inscription, which is otherwise in the conventional
minuscule lettering of the period. Indeed, the monotonous uniformity ofstyle seems
to become annually more widespread throughout the county during the first three
decades of the century, and it is usually only the angels and the border pattern
that make certain stones stand out for mclus~on in this group. There must have
been many less elaborate stones produced by the Group C workshop that I have
been unable to recognise, and i£ only the right criteria for recognising them could
be found a lot more could doubtless be added to my rather unsatisfactory list.
Even a stone such as the slab at Ysbyty Cyufyn commemorating Richard Jones
(d. 1809), so similar to 01815 nearby, I have thought best not to include although
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it very probably comes from the same source.
Two stones with Style 5 angels are in exceptionally good condition. 01815
(Pl. X) is a large mauve slate altar slab with a border of Pattern 9, and 01811
(PI. XII), at Ilanychaeam, is a delightful small slate headstone built into a rough
mortared stone frame. The other stones with angels are C1811a, 01814, C1815a,
01816, 01818 and 01828. There is also an undated slab at Llanbadarn Fawr
commemoraring five children of Thomas James, close by the porch, that has two
angels at the top. The left-hand angel has a short neck like some of those of Style 2,
but both have the rather complacent expression characteristic of Style 5, rather than
the anxious, alert expression of Style 2; I suspect this slab to be contemporary with
the Style 5 stones. 01769 has three inscriptions on it, with the dates 1769, 1783
and 1821; all three aze identical in style, and the lettering and border, ofPattern 9,
suggest that the stone was made at the time of the last date.
The general problem o£ recognising Group C stones that lack the prominent
characteristics of the group is further complicated in the second quarter of the
nineteenth century by the presence o£ a number of stones that do have these
characteristic Features, but that also have other, quite alien, elements. A small
headstone near the south-east gate of Llanbadarn Fawr churchyard, to Edward
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