SACRED WELLS IN WALES.[1]
WHEN I suggested, some time ago, that I did not know that the habit of tying rags and bits of clothing to the branches of a tree growing near a holy well existed in Wales, I was, as I have discovered since, talking in an ignorance for which I can now find no adequate excuse. For I have since then obtained information to the contrary; the first item being a communication received last June from Mr. J. H. Davies of Lincoln College, Oxford, relating to a Glamorganshire holy well, situated near the pathway leading from Coychurch to Bridgend. It is the custom there, he states, for people suffering from any malady to dip a rag in the water, and to bathe the affected part of the body, the rag being then placed on a tree close to the well. When Mr. Davies passed that way, some three years previously, there were, he adds, hundreds of such shreds on the tree, some of which distinctly presented the appearance of having been placed there very recently. The well is called Ffynnon Cae Moch; and a later communication from Mr. Davies embodies his notes of a conversation which he had about the well, on the 16th of December, 1892, with Mr. J. T. Howell of Pencoed, near Bridgend, which notes run thus:—"Ffynnon Cae Moch, between Coychurch and Bridgend, is one mile from Coychurch, 1¼ from Bridgend, near Tremains. It is within twelve or fifteen yards of the high road, just where the pathway begins. People suffering from rheumatism go there. They bathe the part affected with water, and afterwards tie a piece of rag to the tree which overhangs the well. The
- ↑ Read before a joint meeting of the Cymmrodorion and Folk-lore Societies, held in the Cymmrodorion Library, Lonsdale Chambers Chancery Lane, W.C, on Wednesday, January 11th, 1S93.
