LLANTYSILLIO, or LLANDYSILIO (LLAN-TYSILIO), a parish, in the union of CORWEN, hundred of YALE, county of DENBIGH,
NORTH WALES, 2 miles (N. W. by W.) from Llangollen; containing 921 inhabitants. This parish derives its name from the
dedication of its church to St. Tysilio, a canonised prince of Powys, who was descended from St. Pabo, called Post
Prydai*, "the Pillar of Britain," and who, having devoted himself to a life of religions seclusion, flourished as a writer
till the middle of the seventh century. It is pleasantly situated on the river Dee, which forms its southern boundary; and
is skirted on the north by the stream Mer Enka, which divides it from the palish of Bryn-Eglwys; on the west it is bounded
by the parish of Corwen; on the east by a small river running through the Vale of Crud% by which it is separated from the
parish of Llangollen; and on the south by the parish of Llansentfraid- GlynCeriog. The surface is boldly undulated, and is
some parts mountainous; and the surrounding scenery is strikingly diversified, and in many parts beautifully picturesque.
A chain of mountains of romantic appearance and rich in mineral wealth runs through the centre of the parish, which is
also intermeted by the turnpike-road leading from Llangollen to Rutkm. The soil, though various, is in general fertile,
and the chief produce is grain and wool: the rateable annual value of the pariah has been returned at £2617. Slate is
found in abundance, and some extensive quarries are now being worked, in which about seventy men find constant employment.
Lime-works upon a large scale are also carried on adjacent to the canal, and on the banks of the river Dee, which in this
part of its course flows over a rocky and rugged bed between two lofty crags that scarcely afford a breadth of chaanel
sufficient for the passage of its stream. By means of a weir this river is here made to afford a feeder for the supply of
the Ellesmere canal, which is carried along the northern bank of the Dee to the main canal at Pont. y-Crisylitan, a
distance of six miles, throughout the whole of which it is navigable, affording great foci. lities for bringing in coal
for the supply of the neighbourhood, and for conveying the elates from the quarries and the .produce el the lime-works to
their several destinations. The living is a perpe. teal curacy, endowed with £400 private benefaction, £800 royal bounty,
and £1500 parliamentary grant; net income, £112; patron and impropriator, Sir W. W. Wynne, Bart. The church is an ancient
edifice, with a cupola, and contains accommodation for about 250 persons. Abut 30 children are taught in a day school, at
the expense of their parents; and 16 others are educated by the bounty of Sir W. W. Wynne, Lord Tottenham, Bishop of
Clogher, and the curate; the first contributing £5, the second £3, and the third £2 per annum. There are also two Sunday
schools, in one of which, kept in the church, 86 attend; the other, appertaining to Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists,
affords gratuitous instruction to about 50 males and females. Mrs. Jane Roberta, of Rhkdonnen left £80 to the poor,
secured upon a tenement called Tknewydd, the interest of which, at 6 per cent., being £4. 16., is paid to the overseers
annually on St. Thomas's-day; and the interest of four other benefactions of £10 each, with a bequest of 20s. a year,
left by Edward Parry, and arising from a tenement named Pen-y-Bryn, is in like manner dispensed to the poor at stated
times. A bequest of the Rev. Vaughan Jones, of £24, was some years ago unduly appropriated by the parochial officers to
procuring substitutes for militia men, and the charity is therefore lost. . About a mile to the north-east of the village,
but within the parish, and in a highly romantic per. don of the Vale of Eglwyseg. are the venerable and picturesque ruins
of the ancient abbey of LienEgwest, or Valle Crucis. This beautiful edifies was originally founded about the year 1200,
for bre. thren of the Cistercian order, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, by Madoe ab Grufydd Maelor, lord of
Bromfield, and of the neighbouring fOrtress of Castell Dines Mtn, who so richly endowed it, that a native Welsh poet of
the fifteenth century, in celebrating the hospitality of the abbot, describes him as living in the most sumptuous style.
At the diemlution its revenue was estimated at £214. 3. 5.: it continued in the hands of the crown till the 9th of James
I., when the site and remains were granted to Edward Wotton. The present remains consist principally of part of the
abbey church, originally an elegant cruciform structure, chiefly in the early style of English architecture, though
erected at different periods, and consequently containing portions of the decorated and later English styles; and also of
a small portion of the conventual buildings, now own., pied as farm offices. Among the most entire parts of this
interesting rain is the west front of the church, remarkable for the beauty of its finely arched entrance, surmounted by a
decorated window of elegant design, enriched with flowing tracery, above which is a marigold window of still more
exquisite workmanship. The east end of the church is also in good preservation, forming an elegant specimen of the early
Englitih style, with narrow knout-shaped windows. The interior is overgrown with grass; and some stately ask and sycamore
trees which had taken deep root within the walls of the roofless edifice, have lately been cut down by Miss Thomas, the
owner of the property. The pilasters of the interior are clustered, and have elegantly carved capitals; the transept
contains a small cloister of two arches, and a mural sepulchral arch. A portion of the abbey has long been converted into
a farm-house; and in one part of the conventual buildings, now occupied as a cow-shed, is a fine Norms!' arch, near which
is a beautifully pointed window; other portions of the remains also exhibit some elegant specimens of the more highly
finished and later periods of the Norman, verging into the earlier period of the early English style. In front of the
inhabited portion is a large pointed window reaching to the ground, with mullions and elegant tracery; and a room which
once formed the dormitory is supported by three rows of groined arches, resting on circular pillars. The various buildings
are chiefly composed of the schistose materials that every where abound in the vicinity; but the doorways, window frames,
and other decorated portions, are all of freestone brought from a considerable distance. Within the abbey were interred
its founder, his son Grufydd ab Madoc, and several of its abbots; but their tombs can no longer be distinguished among
the mouldering ruins of this once stately and still venerable pile. At no great distance from these highly picturesque and
interesting remains, opposite the second milestone from Llangollen, is a monumental pillar of very remote antiquity,
raised upon a small tumulus, in which on its being opened, was discovered a cistvaen, or stone chest, containing human
bones; it is commonly supposed to have been erected as a cross, and from it the abbey of Valle Crucis most probably
derived its name. This singular piece of antiquity, commonly called the pillar of Eliseg, appears, from an inscription now
obliterated, but which was transcribed by Edward Llwyd, the celebrated Welsh antiquary, while it was still legible, to
have been erected by Concen, to the memory of his great-grandfather Eliseg, the sixth in descent from Brochmael, Prince of
Powys, who was slain in a battle fought with the Saxons near Chester, in the year 607. During the civil commotions in the
reign of Charles I. this monument was broken and thrown down, and the only legible inscription which it now bears is a
modern one in Latin, stating that T. Lloyd, Esq. of Trevor Hall, having found it in that ruined state, restored it in the
year 1789. It consists of a round column, standing on a square plinth, with a richly carved, but greatly mutilated,
capital; the original height is said to have been twelve feet, though at present its elevation is only eight feet two
inches.