Cylchgronau Cymru

^wfcmlirijia Camfrrmk FOURTH SERIES.—No. XXV. JANUARY, 1876. A BRIEF MEMOIR OF HENRY DE GOWER,1 bishop of st. david's in the fourteenth century, with brief notices of his works. "De Gower has left, on the whole, more extensive traces of his mind at St. David's, than any Bishop who has occu¬ pied the See either before or since."—Jones and Freeman. Henry de Gower, the eminent building prelate of St. David's in Wales, may justly be compared with his almost contemporary brother, William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, in England. Both were men of original genius, cultivated taste, great wealth, ample opportunity, and large performance. He was, there are good reasons for believing, a native of Swansea, the chief town of the Lordship Marcher of Gower, whence he took his cognomen, and which forms the south-western extremity of the county of Glamorgan. In earlier times this district was claimed for Caermarthenshire in Deheubarth. Here had been located for ages an ancient family of considerable preten¬ sions, from whose chief, GryfTydd Gwyr (Griffith Gower), many a good family are yet content to trace their pedi¬ grees.2 As coat armour they bore the following blazonry, 1 Read at the Caermarthen Meeting, August 19th, 1875. 2 John Gower, the poet, has been claimed by Kent as well as by- Yorkshire and Staffordshire, notwithstanding the diYect assertion of his eminent printer,. Caxton, who, personally intimate with him, declares that he was a native of Wales. 4th ser., vol. vii. 1