this connection I will give one
instance of wise charity on the part of these monks from the end of
the twelfth century. Hugh, son of Robert of Llancarven, gives the
abbey some land in return for "four marks of silver and a young ox,
given to him in his great need by the Abbot." The monastery performed
some of the services of the modern bank.

Strata Florida presents some different characteristics. Like most
Cistercian houses, it lay off the beaten track. It was founded in 1164
by the Lord Rhys, near the site of an older monastery. It was endowed
with large expanse of lands, mostly mountain pastures, and the monks
soon began building their church and refectory and cloister. The
monastery was completed in 1201, when "the monks came to the new
church, which had been erected of splendid workmanship." The
architectural details of this church are peculiar and almost unique.
Mr. S. W. Williams notices especially the large amount of interlacing
work in the carving, which one sees in the old Celtic crosses, and
which is so characteristic of Celtic art. The convent seems to have
become very soon essentially Welsh. Nearly all the abbots have Welsh
names. It was the burial-place of the princes of South Wales; but as
they were, after the Lord Rhys, quite unimportant, its political
interest is connected with the princes of Gwynedd. When in the
thirteenth century the princes of North Wales were attracting the
allegiance of the South Welsh also they found Strata Florida a
convenient place for important political assemblies. It was here that
Llywelyn ap Iorwerth summoned all the Welsh chiefs to do homage to his
son David. The monastery suffered damage during the wars of Edward I.,
who in 1284 granted it L78 for repairs. But it suffered the worst
injuries during the rebellion of Owen Glyndwr, when the English troops
used it as a barracks, and stabled their horses in church and choir.

The patriotic tone of Strata Florida is expressed in the Welsh
chronicles written there. The later part of the _Annales Cambriae_ was
written there, and the Brut y Tywysogion. At Margam also a chronicle
was composed which has been preserved. When an abbey decided to begin
a chronicle, the first step was to borrow a chronicle from some other
house; thus Margam, founded by Robert of Gloucester, copied out the
Chronicle of William of Malmesbury, which was dedicated to Robert of
Gloucester. The monks of Strata Florida copied out the earlier portion
of the _A