Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

During Sir Benjamin's absence, Lady Hall was also kept busy superintending the preliminary preparations for a week of festivities at Llanover, culminating in the marriage of Augusta Charlotte,14 their only surviving child, to John Arthur Jones,15 the heir of Llanarth,16 Treowen17 and Penllwyn.18 The young couple had known each other since childhood, and the parents were lifelong friends. It was not only a love match, but eminently suitable from a worldly point of view, in uniting two great neighbouring estates-yet Sir Benjamin and his wife could not feel entirely happy over it. Close friendship with Roman Catholic families was one thing. The marriage of their only daughter, who was eager to embrace the religion of her husband, and the prospect of her children being brought up as Roman Catholics, was quite another thing, and could not but cast a shadow on their joy at seeing their beloved daughter so happy, even if they, and the equally uneasy Mrs. Waddington, 19 would not allow a hint of this to mar her wedding day. This was no quiet family affair, such as their wedding had been. Both houses at Llanover, and the mansions of Llanarth and Clytha,20 were overflowing with guests for a week beforehand, and there were balls every evening at Llanover, attended by all the neighbouring families. It was a very large crowd of relatives and friends that assembled at Llanover at 9 a.m. on the morning of 12 November, and formed into a procession, headed by a large escort of Llanover tenants on horseback, riding two and two, and each carrying a small white flag, escorting the radiant bride, with her hair of the authentic 'ruddy gold' of the heroines of the old Celtic folk-tales. Four miles from Llanarth, they met a similar cavalcade, escorting the bridegroom and his uncle, the Earl of Fingall,21 and Octavius Morgan22 who, with the Llanarth tenantry on horseback, led the way to the private chapel beside the mansion, where they were received by Dr. Brown,23 the Roman Catholic Bishop of the recently- formed diocese of Wales, Lady Harriet Jones, 24 mother of the bride- groom, his grandmother, the aged Mrs. Jones25 of Llanarth, and a large party representing the numerous branches of the Llanarth family. Immediately after the Roman Catholic ceremony, the procession re-formed and made its way to Llanover church, being joined on the way there by so many carriages and four, which had arrived from all parts of the neighbourhood during the service at Llanarth, that the procession extended for a whole mile, and many of the guests had to wait outside the church, as the Protestant ceremony was performed by Dr. Connop Thirlwall,26 Bishop of St. David's, who was assisted by the Rev. Bernard Port,27 Vicar of Ham, the seventy-year-old grand-uncle of the bride, and the Vicars of Abergavenny,28 Llanover29 and Nevern.30 Even the famous hospitality of Llanover must have been strained to the utmost to entertain so many, but it proved equal to the formidable task.