From its
situation near the banks of the river Elwy, it derived the name of
Llanelwy, or the church upon the Elwy.
{179} Leaving Llanelwy, or St. Asaph, the archbishop proceeded to
the little cell of Basinwerk, where he and his attendants passed the
night. It is situated at a short distance from Holywell, on a
gentle eminence above a valley, watered by the copious springs that
issue from St. Winefred's well, and on the borders of a marsh, which
extends towards the coast of Cheshire.
{180} Coleshill is a township in Holywell parish, Flintshire, which
gives name to a hundred, and was so called from its abundance of
fossil fuel. Pennant, vol. i. p. 42.
{181} The three military expeditions of king Henry into Wales, here
mentioned, were A.D. 1157, the first expedition into North Wales;
A.D. 1162, the second expedition into South Wales; A.D. 1165, the
third expedition into North Wales. In the first, the king was
obliged to retreat with considerable loss, and the king's standard-
bearer, Henry de Essex, was accused of having in a cowardly manner
abandoned the royal standard and led to a serious disaster.
{182} The lake of Penmelesmere, or Pymplwy meer, or the meer of the
five parishes adjoining the lake, is, in modern days, better known
by the name of Bala Pool. The assertion made by Giraldus, of salmon
never being found in the lake of Bala, is not founded on truth.
{183} Giraldus seems to have been mistaken respecting the burial-
place of the emperor Henry V., for he died May 23, A.D. 1125, at
Utrecht, and his body was conveyed to Spire for interment.
{184} This legend, which represents king Harold as having escaped
from the battle of Hastings, and as having lived years after as a
hermit on the borders of Wales, is mentioned by other old writers,
and has been adopted as true by some modern writers.
{185} Some difficulty occurs in fixing the situation of the Album
Monasterium, mentioned in the text, as three churches in the county
of Shropshire bore that appellation; the first at Whitchurch, the
second at Oswestry, the third at Alberbury. The narrative of our
author is so simple, and corresponds so well with the topography of
the country through which they passed, that I think no doubt ought
to be entertained about the course of their route. From Chester
they directed their way to the White Monastery, or Whitchurch, and
from thence towards Oswestry, where they slept, and were entertained
by William Fitz-Alan, after the English mode of hospitality.
{186} By the Latin context it would appear that Reiner was bishop
of Oswestree: "Ab episcopo namque loci illius Reinerio multitudo
fuerat ante signata." Reiner succeeded Adam in the bishopric of St.
Asaph in the year 1186, and died in 1220. He had a residence near
Oswestry, at which place, previous to the arrival of Baldwin, he had
signed many of the people with the cross.
