;
ft w i.j -V'.M.Vr1,-**
f;t £< }: !•- i c I' ; I 1 I I .1 J 1
}•■ I*. I &.
1 f !" < *' ~
I
K. A: It- ^ i;> ,'•
p. "&' &':& & .& &
> i r i- I4 r
• I l i { ? i i i l * XI ( i V *> h- J I* I- I
J/V & t< f f* t {11
;
r. j ■
' . .."■' i
■
v. ft. it 1 .tf §l'/r ),■ I .1
* [for> r ii t: .!•/■ e a
■e- I, r c f l t 0 1/ "f r-'i I £. i r 4f
i I- f $ t i J' * * *
i
i i i
■.":' .. ' '*',.-: ■* ■ . ' .' i i |V. u "fc I 13 I I - ' ' '
J3:^:\: . ■ "it !• •
r V ^ s mi: i i ' i;i
■.....,■ w, ] :, o II j > 1 ■ I* ^ ,
' ,- : > . . i ■ ■ :' ' ' '
, . ■ I * i ■:■ '■ ■ ■ ■■ v '•■ i : : & ! "•, ", ■ ■ ■ i i ! >'i tf ' • : ' ^ ■■
li " . , ',. c i. ;» 8 i ■■■ ':. ' ^ ' : '■
• * » I - ■ ■ . .
, i j i
Gc
942.96501 J72h v.l 1299173
m. l:
BENEAtOGV COL
ACTION
1833 00727 0355
-
/Sa> > C;V<L
■
\%%<
i
A"b
A»Av
N
^v. XWi ^v(X> H^I-tV5 *A~ -JJVm^ WVW-VW.
"'
(WVU
r llvt ivi:
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2010 with funding from
Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/historyofcountyo01jone
HISTORY
OF
BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
ICHNOGRAPHY
c/'t//, Town if
Brecknock,
From a Flau try Mcmxlitk Jones (f/uri iu 1744
RE F £ REN CE .
/ SfJohn the Evangelist's j The J'noty House Cloisters f-r. 3 The Castle t Castle. Bridge
5 UpperBndge onD°
6 Lower D"
7 Struct Gale
6 /fttjh Street superior
g Town-Wall
10 SfMary's Chapel
a The Bulwark
12 High Street inferior
ri Ship Street
14 Wheat Street
lo S'Marys Street
Glamorganshire Street Captain's Watk Wattvn Cute
Wat/an
etc/ BowUng Green Water Cau Bridge Gate Usk Bullae
FskAliti Struel Lion Lane Church Street Heal rhydd The Postern Fen y dnf
A HISTORY
OF THE
COUNTY OF BRECKNOCK.
CONTAINING THE CHOROGRAPHY, GENERAL HISTORY, RELIGION, TAWS, CUSTOMS, MANNERS, LANGUAGE, SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURE, ANTIQUITIES, SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS AND INSCRIPTIONS, NATURAL CURIOSITIES, VARIA- TI< )NS OF THE SOIL, STRATIFICATION, MINERALOGY, LIST OF RARE AND OTHER PLANTS AND BIRDS, PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY, NAMES AND BIOGRAPHIES OF SHERIFFS AND MAYORS OF BRECKNOCK, ALSO THE GENEALOGIES AND ARMS OF THE PRINCIPAL FAMILIES PROPERLY COLOURED AND EMBLAZONED, TOGETHER WITH THE HISTORY OF EVERY PARISH, AND THE NAMES OF THE PATRONS AND INCUMBENTS OF ALL LIVINGS.
By THEOPHILUS JONES,
Deputy Registrar of the Archdeaconry of Brecon. Enlarged by the notes collected
By SIR JOSEPH RUSSELL BAILEY, BART., FIRST BARON GLANUSK
(Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire).
ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS, PORTRAITS, AND MAPS.
k
3-7^// VOLUME ONE.
BRECKNOCK : Published and Sold by Blissett, Davies & Co., 14 Bridge Street.
1909.
DEDICATED
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GODFREY CHARLES,
SECOND BARON AND FIRST VISCOUNT TREDEGAR,
IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS LORDSHIP'S
BENEVOLENT INTEREST IN ALL MATTERS AFFECTING
THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY,
AND OF THE GENEROUS
PATRONAGE HE HAS BESTOWED UPON THIS AND SIMILAR
WORKS ISSUED BY THE PUBLISHERS.
From a drawing made by Rev. Thos. Price ("Carnhuanawc'
In the possession of Miss G. E. F. Morgan, Brecon.
PREFACE.
"PXACTLY one hundred years have elapsed since Theophilus Jones published the final *-* volume of his History of Brecknockshire. His narrative closes practically, for general purposes, with the reign of King Henry the Eighth, though in the Parochial Section he carries the history forward to about the year 1800. In the latter department, therefore, more than a century awaits a chronicle.
Since the days when the talented Historian compiled his extensive and interesting work, Archaeology has been largely illustrated ; ancient Welsh Literature has been translated by a learned Society into the English tongue ; Geology has been written and re-written as facts have fallen into their places under the pen of the philosopher ; the finest maps the world has ever known have been issued by the Ordnance Survey, rendering a revision of County topo- graphy comparatively easy ; and Philology has become a new science. It will, therefore, not be necessary to enlarge upon those matters, for by the liberality of publishers the reader will find ready to his hand many books dealing with them.
But in the domain of purely county history, much remains to be added in order that it may be carried to the present period. Records of the county have been collated and arranged in a manner unknown in 1800. The iron industry of Brecknock has waxed, and alas ! waned ; steam has altered and vastly improved the communications with England, bringing Brecknock within a few hours' journey of the Metropolis and the great trading ports on the Mersey ; towns have sprung into being, and many of the largest houses in the county have been built during the 19th century ; people formerly unknown here have made it their home, and would fain record their modern fortunes after the great names of those who, in earlier times, moulded the history of the county.
The old bridle paths have given place to good roads laid in every direction throughout the county, making transit easy for man and beast ; waterways, established over a century ago, and for many years extensively used for the conveyance of merchandize, have been gradually but surely superseded by various railway systems ; elective bodies now control the business affairs of the county, for so many years managed exclusively by the magistrates, and tliis method of popular representative government has been extended to every town and almost every parish ; the criminal law is administered with strict regard to the cause of justice, and the punishment of offenders is no longer inflicted with barbarity ; there has been a gradual but gratifying abatement of serious crime ; a crude and limited system of education, in operation up to quite recent times, has been replaced by a more generous and perfect National code, rendering possible the admission of even the humblest into the Universities, to the learned professions, and the service of the Church and State ; our ancient Royal foundation, Christ College, rescued from the list of perishing and mismanaged institutions, equipped with new buildings and competent teachers, and placed under vigorous government, has developed into one of the most efficient educational establishments in Wales ; and added to this we have those various Secondary Schools provided under the Welsh Intermediate Educa- tion Act.
The enactment of laws relating to water and sanitation has materially added to the comfort, health, and happiness of the people. The old candle illuminating power, replaced by oil lamps, and subsequently by gas and electricity, no longer provides employment for the tallow chandler, in which business many families of respectability were engaged and amassed wealth
x PREFACE.
and influence ; and most, though not all, of the old woollen and milling factories have dis- appeared. Land cultivation has undergone a material change, rural populations have steadily decreased, leaving ruined cottages to mark the places where once resided families wholly engaged in agricultural pursuits. Increased activities in the coal and iron industries, employ- ment upon railways and the like, and migration into the towns in search of the larger wages offered, have undoubtedly been factors in promoting this general exodus from the land, but the fact remains that in many parts of the county the plough is rarely brought into use, the farmer contenting himself in too many instances with the task of rearing stock for the markets, and thereby diminishing the opportunities of employment for the agricultural labourer.
These are but some of the changes which have taken place since the first appearance of Theophilus Jones' work in 1809. The recital of them will give the reader some idea of the additional material needed to complete the narrative as between that period and the present.
From the preface to Jones' first volume, we learn that the work owed its origin to the perusal of the collections of a friend of his, whose talents, said Jones, were much better cal- culated to elucidate the subjects and record the events here treated of, than it had fallen to his lot to possess ; but a determination on the part of that friend not to appear before the public, and his wish that Jones should undertake a history of their native county, and the kind promise of his assistance, induced Theophilus Jones to commence and encouraged him to persevere in a labour which he described as " foreign to my profession, though congenial to my feelings and my pursuits."
But even this assistance and encouragement from his friend did not relieve the task of very grave responsibilities and difficulties. The Historian's enquiries and pursuit _ after knowledge evidently made him an object of suspicion to many, for we find him writing : " Should the Historian seek access to them [documents], and should that Historian unfortunately
be of the profession of the law, suspicion is alive and prudence bolts the door against
the intruder, who it is supposed can have no other motive for his inquiries than the discovery of objections to titles, the propagation of scandal, or the abrasion of old sores which have long cicatrized." But notwithstanding this, Jones was able to get together for publication a mass of information relating to Wales and Brecknockshire which found no rival in any work pub- lished in his time upon any other Welsh county.
With all the impediments encountered, Jones fortunately found many whom he was able to thank for their assistance. He pays a grateful tribute to the memory of the Duke of Beaufort of his day, who not only offered a liberal contribution towards the expenses of the work, but also immediately attended to his communications ; and he likewise acknowledges a similar obligation to Sir Charles Morgan, of Tredegar. " To some respectable noblemen," he adds, " whose time was so completely occupied in the service of the State, or the duties of the Senate, that it became inconvenient to them to return a written answer to my appli- cation, I am indebted for their good wishes, as well as their benevolent intentions of contributing a few eleemosynary guineas towards the expense of the publication and the support of the publisher, which have been occasionally most kindly communicated to me by their agents ; and to many of the gentlemen and inhabitants of the county who were really anxious that I should prosecute what they considered as a public utility, and who were ready to assist in the execution of it, I return my most unfeigned thanks."
The first volume was dedicated by Jones to the Rev. Thomas Payne, rector of Llanbedr and Partricio and vicar of Devynock in the county of Brecknock, "as an acknowledgment of the assistance he has received and in testimony of the friendship which he feels as proud thus publicly to avow as he is happy in private life to experience." This portion of the History was published in 1805 at £2 12s. 6d. to subscribers only.
The second volume, issued in two parts, was not published until 1809, at a cost of £4 to subscribers, making a total for the completed work of £6 12s. 6d. The preface to the second volume is principally devoted to answering criticisms of the first volume, but Jones finds
(Photographed from a book-plate in Lampeter Library).
The House in Lion Street where Theo. [ones lived and died
PREFACE. xi
opportunity to thank several gentlemen for assistance rendered, including Dr. Turton, Rev. Mr. Nares of the British Museum, Mr. Townsend of the Herald's Office, Mr. William Owen Pugh, the Rev. Walter Davies, Mr. Penry Williams of Peupont, Mr. L- W. Dillwyn, the Rev. Thomas Williams of Brecon, Miss Bird, and the Rev. James Donne of Oswestry.
This work of Jones's was the first real attempt at a county history within the Principality, and the first book above the size of a pamphlet ever printed and published within the county of Brecon, if we except a few Bibles from the Trevecca printing press. That typographical errors should appear is not to be wondered at, especially as the Author had had no experience in reading press proofs. Indeed, considering the primitive condition of the printing trade in Breconshire in those days, the marvel is that the book should have been so well produced. The second volume was dedicated by Jones in these words : " To the Rev. Edward Davies of Olveston, in the County of Gloucester, author of Celtic Researches, &c, the associate of his youth, the kind correspondent and assistant in his literary pursuits, the sincere friend in mature age, and oh ! may he add, in trembling hope, ' si nwdo digni crimus,' the partaker of a blissful eternity, this volume is gratefully inscribed by the author."
Miss G. E. F. Morgan, of Buckingham Place, Brecon, has written, ably and sympathetically, a Biography of Theoplulus Jones1, and we have extracted therefrom the following particulars relating to the County Historian.
Theophilus Jones was the only son of the Rev. Hugh Jones, Vicar of Llangammarch and Llywel, and Prebendary of Boughrood, Llanbedr Painscastle, whose father, another Hugh Jones, married Mary, daughter of Rees Lloyd, of Nantmel, a member of the family of Lloyd of Rhosferig and Aberannell. Our Historian was thus of the line of Elystan Glodrydd, Prince of Ferregs, whose descendants peopled the hundred of Builth, and through his paternal grand- mother he was connected with the Jeffreyses of Brecon and the Watkinses of Penoyre.
The Rev. Hugh Jones married Elinor, elder daughter of the Rev. Theophilus Evans, vicar of Llangammarch from 1738 to 1703, in which year he resigned the living in favour of his son-in-law, Mr. Hugh Jones ; Mr. Evans was also vicar of St. David's, Brecon, to which he was inducted 8th June, 1739. It is always interesting to note the hereditary influences which have helped to form the tastes and characters of remarkable men, and no account of Theophilus Jones's life would be complete that did not touch on the career of his maternal grandfather, who seems to have been a man of considerable ability, and is spoken of by his grandson with affectionate respect.
Theophilus Evans was the fifth son of Charles Evans, of Pen-y-wenallt, Cardiganshire, of the tribe of Gwynfardd Dyfed, whose father had suffered even to imprisonment for his loyalty to Charles I. He was born in 1694, ordained deacon in 1718, and priest in 1719, by the Bishop of St. David's. The friendship existing between his countrymen the Lloyds of Millfield and the Gwynnes of Glanbran, induced him to settle in this county.
Mr. Evans lived at Llwyn Einon, in Llangammarch (now a farmhouse), and on his death left the little estate to Theophilus Jones, who honoured the memory of his grandfather by a peculiar attachment to the place. The Rev. Theophilus Evans died September 11th, 1767, aged 73, and was buried in the Churchyard of Llangammarch, " near the stile entering from the east. "
Theophilus Jones was born in Brecon on 18th October, 1759, and on 8th November following he was baptized in the chapel of St. Mary in that town. His father was at that time curate of St. David's, Brecon, and lived in a charming old house in Lion Street (one of the many town residences of the county families, who used to come to Brecon for the Assizes and other gatherings), where Dr. George Bull, Bishop of St. David's, had died earlier in the
1 " Theophilus Jones, Historian : His Life, Letters, and Literary Remains. Biography by Miss G. E. F. Morgan. Letters, &e., compiled by Edwin Davies, of Brecon." Demy Svo", 7s. 6d. ; published by Davies & Co., 14 Bridge Street, Brecon. Portraits, &c.
xii PREFACE.
century. The future Historian passed some of his early years at Llwyn Einon, and, young though he was, there can be little doubt that his antiquarian tastes were awakened and fostered by his grandfather, from whom he inherited valuable materials for the History. The Rev. Thomas Price, who was born in the hundred of Builth less than a generation later, has left a graphic picture of the manners and customs of the inhabitants of that district : " Brought up, as I have been, in the remote parts of the Principality, often do I dwell with pleasure upon the recollections of my infancy : when in the winter's night I sat in the circle around the fire under the spacious chimney-piece, and listened to the songs and traditions of the peasantry, or to the poetry of David ab Gwilym read by the firelight ; and if but a harper should chance to visit us happy was the day, yea, I might say, earthly speaking,
blessed was the time About the year 1750 the young people in Wales were very
fond of dancing. They met together frequently in parties, and danced country dances, some of which had four and twenty variations, all of which were to be danced through ; and I think there were variations in the figure of the dance to correspond to those of the tune.
The introduction of Methodism made a great change in the habits of the people.
Dancing was altogether discouraged as profane."
Theophilus Jones was educated at Christ's College, Brecknock, which was then a large and flourishing school, attended by the sons of the surrounding country gentry, amongst whom he found many friends, and here began the life-long regard which existed between him and the Rev. Edward Davies, of Olveston, co. Gloucester, the learned author of Celtic Researches , Mythology of the British Druids, and other works. During the time he was at Christ's College, the Head Master was the Rev. David Griffith (grandfather of the late Rev. Charles Griffith, M.A., of Glyn Celyu, Brecon), an accomplished scholar, of whom he spoke in after years as "the respected and respectable preceptor of my youth." His parents having decided that he should become a lawyer, Theophilus Jones was articled to Mr. Penoyre Watkins, a solicitor in large practice then living in Brecon ; and having passed through this period with great credit, upon the expiration of his articles he entered the profession on his own account, and continued in it for many years, practising with equal reputation and success as a solicitor and attorney in his county town.
He married Mary, daughter of Rice Price, Esq., of Porth-y-Rhyd, in the county of Carmarthen (who was a member of the family of Price of Cilgwyu, a branch of the Prices of Glyidlech, in Ystradgunlais), by Mary, daughter of Daniel Williams, Esq., of Llwynwormwood. A vacancy occurring in the Deputy Registrarship of the Archdeaconry of Brecon, he was appointed to that office, which he held until his death. To this circumstance we are probably indebted for the History, which will be for ever associated with the name of Theophilus Jones. Amongst the documents committed to his care were the records of the various parishes for centuries past, in the perusal of which he must have obtained a great amount of the information he afterwards introduced into liis History. There is every reason to believe that he had no natural inclination for the profession to which he had been brought up, his chief delight being in literary studies and antiquarian research, but it was not until the year 1800 or 1801 that he seriously entertained the idea of writing the Histoiy of his native county.
His father, the Rev. Hugh Jones, died 2nd April, 1799 (and was buried in St. David's Church- yard with his wife Elinor, who died 24th July, 1786), and this circumstance may have had much to do with the determination he now formed. He found it was quite impossible to write the History and at the same time to carry on his other duties. On their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Theophilus Jones lived in a large and comfortable house in Mount Street, Brecon, now converted into an inn known as " The George," the rooms of which are oak-panelled and lofty, where they remained until his father's death, when they moved to the house in Lion Street, in which the History was written. In a letter, dated Oct. 4th, 1801, to the Rev. Edward Davies, he says :
" I've such a room ! such a study ! it is at the back part of the house, no noise or
interruption, except now and then a call into the office I laugh, I laugh at the
imps of gloominess." Having a small patrimony of his own, he determined, with his wife's
PREFACE. xiii
consent, to give up his practice, and live upon his private means, so that he might have time to prosecute his labours in compiling the History, which he succeeded in doing, though he lost upwards of £400 in the undertaking. He disposed of his practice to his partner, Mr. Samuel Church, of Ffrwdgrech, reserving to himself the Deputy Registrarship, which enabled him to have access to the various deeds, wills, &c, which were so important in his researches, though it was not until 1809 that he was able to write : " Done with the law ! "
Having now the leisure in which to pursue the great object of his life, he spared neither time nor expense in its execution. He personally visited every parish in the county ; he copied the mural and monumental inscriptions in every church (many of which have entirely disappeared during the ' ' restorations ' ' of recent years) ; he collected the folk-lore and legends from the aged inhabitants ; he gathered all the information that could be acquired, and industriously gleaned from every repository that was open to his inspection, the contents of such documents as might enlarge, illustrate, or enrich his work. His perfect acquaintance with the language of his country enabled him to employ them to the best advantage. He availed himself largely of Hugh Thomas's MS, " Essay towards a History of Brecknockshire," which is preserved at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and a portion of which is in the possession of Mr. George Hay, of Brecon. No man could have taken greater pains than Mr. Jones did, and we may be quite sure that whatever errors occur in the earlier part of his genealogies (and they are few), they are correct for at least one hundred years before the time he wrote, which period would include all his original work. So painstaking a man would have carefully recorded from the lips of the oldest members of the various families the names of their immediate ancestors, and any circumstances of interest connected with them. The orignal MS. of the History was in the late Mr. Joseph's library, and he bequeathed it to Mr. Buckley, of Bryn-y-Caerau, Carmarthenshire.
Theo. Jones's last illness is supposed to have arisen from the effect of gout upon a constitution much weakened by repeated attacks of the malady. He lingered for some time, and after severe suffering died 15th January, 1812, at his house in Lion Street, Brecon (now the property of Captain D. Hughes Morgan, J. P. for the County and Borough of Brecon, and H.S. in 1900, and the residence of Dr. T. Price Thomas), where his father, the Rev. Hugh Jones, had lived and died. He was buried at Llangammarch, in the same grave as his maternal grandfather, whose memory through life he held in the highest veneration. " When I am dead," he said, " let me be buried in the grave of my grandfather, and let my inscription be : ' Here lies Theophilus Jones, the grandson of Theophilus Evans.' " His widow erected in Christ's College Chapel, Brecon (where he had been educated when a boy, of which he had been for many years chapter clerk, and in the improvement of which he had ever taken the deepest interest), a white and grey marble tablet to his memory, with the following inscription1: — "To the memory of Theophilus Jones, Esq., late Chapter Clerk of this Collegiate Church, and Deputy Registrar of the Archdeaconry of Brecknock. He died January the 15th, 1812, aged 51. His remains, with those of his maternal grandfather, Theophilus Evans, Clk., lie interred in the Cemetery of Llangammarch. This marble but records his name — the History of this, his loved, his native County, will long survive and be his Monument. The above Theophilus Jones was the sou of the Rev. Hugh Jones, who was Prebendary of Boughrood, Llanbedr Painscastle, of this Collegiate Church."
The tombstone in Llangammarch Churchyard was restored in the year 1889, and there is also a memorial tablet in that Church.
Previous to 1898, Theophilus Jones's History was known to but few persons. Occasionally a copy was put up for sale at a public auction, and realized prices varying from £8 to £10 ; indeed a copy was sold for as much as £l± 14s. In that year, however, Mr. Edwin Davies of Brecon, undertook the publication of a complete re-print at a price which brought the book
1 There is some mistake as to his age, but the inscription is given as copied from the tablet. On his tombstone in Llangammarch Churchyard, the Historian's age is stated to be 52.
xiv PREFACE.
within the reach of a larger circle of readers. This new edition was speedily sold, and very many of the copies were subsequently bought up at enhanced prices for the American book market ; and in 1902 a third edition was projected.
Previous to this, the late Lord Glanusk, whose interest and activities ixr county matters were very great, began a collection of the materials necessary to continue the County History to his time, and some two years after the date of his lamented death on January 8th, 1906, his lordship's papers relating to this work were tabulated and arranged for publication. Where a particular parish had not been completed by Lord Glanusk, the materials have since been collected in harmony with the plan he adopted.
It appears to have been no part of his lordship's idea to interfere with the general scope of the old Historian's work, but rather to supplement it with such details as were needed to carry the General and Parochial History to a later date, and add thereto further notes upon the Sheriffs, Members of Parliament, the County families, and Mayors of Brecknock. His lordship also made copious extracts from the County Records, which shed a new light upon county history.
In another part of this work, some reference has been made to the many public services rendered to the county by the late Lord Glanusk, and it only remains to add here an expression of sincere regret that his lordship should have been removed by death before he had carried this third edition through the press. A conscientious effort has been made, at the expenditure of nearly two year's anxious labour, to produce this Edition on hues which were thought to be those intended by his lordship.
The work has been divided into four volumes, with an index to each. The thick paper copies are bound in four volumes, but the other copies are bound two volumes in one. Many of the numerous engravings now added are from photographs collected by Lord Glanusk, some have been obtained from persons interested in the work, and the others from photographs specially taken for the purpose. All the plates in the original edition have been reproduced.
Grateful acknowledgments are tendered to those ladies and gentlemen who have so kindly answered correspondence relating to this work, for amending and adding to family pedigrees, and in other ways assisting ; and especially to those noblemen, ladies, and gentlemen who have contributed to the publication by the addition of their names to the list of subscribers, which will be found printed at the end of the fourth volume.
14 Bridge Street, EDWIN DAVIES.
Brecon, July, 1909
*nJ0*-u-j;3
NORTH VIEW OF ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, BRECON. (Drawn about 1845).
INTERIOR OF PRIORY OF ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, BRECON. (Drawn about 1845).
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
CHAPTER I.
Of its ancient and present Name. Definition of both. — The District in which it formerly was and now is comprehended.— Boundaries described. — Extent in Length and Breadth.— Population. Principal Rivers. —Mountains and Vallies.— General Nature of the Soil.— Observations upon the Climate and Atmosphere. — Rainfall. — Place Names.
ANCIENT AND PRESENT NAME OF THE COUNTY.
BRECKNOCKSHIRE, now also called Breconsrtre, was anciently known by the name of Garth- marthrin, or Garthmadrin. Brecknock, on the authority of ancient manuscripts, is said to be identical with Garthmarthrin. The grandsire of Brychan is described as "King of Morganwg (Glamorgan), Gwent (Monmouth), and Garthmarthrin." " Brychan inherited from his mother the territory of Garthmarthrin, which he called after his own name Brycheiniog." The latter portion of the name GaTthmarthrin closely resembles the last syllables of C&evmarthen. The likeness becomes more striking as the first syllable of each is considered. Caer means a camp: Garth is akin to yard, garden, and the French jardin. It signifies a place guarded. On an old plan of Tintern Abbey the cloistered court is styled '"the Garth." The word occurs more than once in Brecknock as a hill name, and is found in composition in Tal-garth, Garth-brengy ; in Pembrokeshire it appears as Fish-guard. The entire name Garth-marthrin and Caer-marthrin seems to be nearly identical. South Wales was not divided into counties until the time of King Henry VIII., and it is very possible that the centre of the county of Brecknock and I he county of Caermarthen may in remote days have formed one district under the same rules and be known under names almost alike.
Brecknock, or Breconshire, as the County Council has decided to style the county in official docu- ments, is one of the many local names which have become the playground of writers on the subject. Some have ventured to assert that as Wrekin (the Salopian mountain) is derived from Gwrychin, a bristle, Brycheiniog may be a corruption of Gwrychiniog, in a land bristling with hills; they feel them- selves strengthened in this view by the fact that some neighbouring counties derive their names from physical characteristics — Pen-bro, the headland; Mor-gan-wy, land of the sea-song. No evidence exists in favour of this allegation. Brecknock, written to the varying orthography of the times. Brecheiniog Breckiniawg, and otherwise, but always in a manner suggesting a similar sound, has been the name of at least part of the county from very early flays. We who dwell within the county are content to believe that Brychan, a prince ruling 400 and 450 A.D., named his county after himself —Brycheiniog, the land of Brychan.
DEFINITION OF NAME.
The termination auc, awg, wg, or og, is adjectival. In the laws of the Welsh King, Howell the Good, bearing date 940 A.D., Taeog (-Ty-og) is used to mean a peasant, the inhabitant of a house (Ty). Though Brycheiniog is not therein mentioned, the syllable wg seems to have been common as a terri- torial termination, the first syllable being, at least sometimes, the rulers named: "South Wales is in three parts, Rheinwg, that is the county <</ Rhein, and Rielhvg, and Morganwg."
There is a very old chronicle of Wales, A>i>iuli.< Cambric?, the approximate date 12SS a.d. It is written in Latin, but is considered to have been translated from a Welsh manuscript, the Welsh names being given in the forms prevalent in early times. In this; it is three times stated that "the North- men" (meaning the Danes) "came and devastated Brecknock "--" Nordmani veneruni el vastaverunt Bricheniauc {Brecheinawc — Brechenaivc) ; — and the death of Rhys, son of Teudwr, at Brecknock, by the hands of the French, as the Normans were then called, is thus given : " 1091 Resus films Teudyr. rector dextratis partis a Francis Brechenawc occisus est" — Breckenawc being almost identical in sound with Brecknock.
2 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
In the Brut y Tywysogion (the " Chronicles of the Princes "), written in the 14th century, it is stated that " Ithel, King of Gwent, was slain a.d. 848 by the men of Bryeheinawg " ; it is also re- corded there, with a delicate appreciation of the relative importance of the neighbouring countries, that " in 894 the Northmen devastated England, Brecheiniog, Morganwg, Gwent, Buallt, and Gwenllwg." The name of the county, differing sometimes in a single letter, indicates throughout the book a pro- nounciation closely equivalent to Brecknock.
In Dugdale\i Monasticon, copies of ancient charters are given — "Carta ad Breckenocken.se Cceobium in Walliam." No. 1 begins : " Le premier conqueror des tres Cantrefs de la terre de Breckenock estayt Bernard de Newmarch." No. 3 is in Latin, and begins: " Sciant omnes quod ego dedi Deo et Ecclesio Sancti Johanis de Brecknock,'''' etc. (Know all men that I have given to God and the Church of St. John of Brecknock, etc.) Instances have now been given from Welsh, Norman, and Latin sources when translated from the Welsh, in all of which the name of the district, now the centre of the county, is Breckenawc and not Brecon.
To those who prefer English authorities, may be given Leland's Itinerary in the time of Henry VIII : " Then to Brekenok, when nere to I cam downe hilles," etc. ; " Usk Bridge at Brekenoc was thrown by the rage of Uske water ; it was not by rain, but by snow melted that cam out of the mountains." Elementary schools existed not in the middle ages, but men spelled as it seemed to them they heard. We may close our list of Authorities with Mr. William Shakespeare, who in his play " King] Richard Third " (Act 4, scene 2), makes the Duke of Buckingham say— " Oh, let me think of starting, and begone To Brecknock, while my fearful head is on." When, in the reign of King Henry VIII., South Wales was divided into counties, it was natural to enact that certain " Lordshipps," etc., " shall be reputed as membres of the counties or shire of Brekenok." Since that time " Brecon " appears in some Acts of Parliament, and it is now considered permissible to use Brecknock or Brecon at the pleasure of the writer.
THEOPHILUS JONES' REMARKS ON NAME, &C, OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
Theophilus Jones says : " For the time when this appellation (Garthmadrin) was assumed or con- ferred, the historian looks in vain ; not even the glimmering light of fable or tradition can he hope to receive or expect to conduct him in his researches. It is however, worthy of remark, that this name remained in Brecknockshire until the dissolution of religious houses in Great Britain, or at least until the attainder of the last Duke of Buckingham of the name of Stafford ; for in the rolls in the Aug- mentation Office, in the 17th of Queen Mary, among his possessions, are recited 'rents of assize amounting to £11 15s. 8d. from tenants at will in Garthmadryn,' within the lordship of Brecknock.
" This word is compounded of Garth and Madrin. The former in the British language, signifies a clift, or a precipitous, or abrupt eminence, and is a synonym with Allt or Oallt, though the latter is generally covered with wood. Madrin is an obsolete word for a fox, which has been since succeeded by Llwynog, or the inhabitant of the bushes ; and afterwards by Cadno, pronounced Canddo, the only name by which this nocturnal depredator is at present known in South Wales ; assuming therefore, (as we fairly may), that at a very remote period of antiquity, these animals prouled without controul or interruption through the woody brakes which covered the vallies of this country, until upon the approach of man they were driven into their fastnesses, where they resided for such a length of time as to characterize this part of the principality, and from whence they were driven and nearly des- troyed, by that favourite of the Deity, on whom was graciously conferred ' dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the face of the earth.1 The appellation of Garthmadryn, under such circumstances, must be admitted to be peculiarly appropriate to Breconshire. whose surface is a succession of undulations, and whose general description may be said with Leland, to be very mou- ld ni us.
" Brecknockshire derives its present appellation from a prince or regulus of that country, of the name of Brvehan, who ruled over it about the year of Christ 400, and died in 450, or thereabouts. From him,1 this part of the principality of Wales was called the Land of Brychan, which in the
1 It has been suggested, with some degree of plausibility, peculiarly applicable to these three shires, the etymology is novel,
that as Wrekin (perhaps from Crugyn, a hillock, or Gwrychin, not perfectly idiomatical. such a change in the initial letter
a bristle) means an abrupt or steep mountain ; Brecheiniog unusual, and as the concurring opinion of ages and authors who
may be a corruption of Wrekimog, or rather Cruginiog or Gwry- have written upon the subject have established the right of this
chiniog, full of mountains, or sharp ridges of hills, resembling British prince to give the name to Breconshire, he may as well be
the b.'istlos on a hog's back, which it is said is confirmed by the allowed to retainthat hunour in future (if such it be), and with
neighbouring counties being called Mor gan wg, the maritime due reference to the antiquarian, further conjectures may be
county ; Penfro, the head of the valley, or promontory on the said to be unnecessary. western extremity of this island ; but "though this definition is
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 3
British language has been written at different periods, and according to the differing orthography of the times. Brechiniawg. Breehiniog, and Brecheiniog.
'•Before the aet of Henry VIII.. which divided Wales into counties, the English with propriety called this tract of country Brecknock, or the dominion or lordship of Brecknock, which has a near resemblance in sound to Brechiniauc or Breehiniog. This termination auc, any. wg or og, ' is intended in the British tongue to give to proper names • a loci! habitation,' and generally signifies a region or territory, of which the preceding part of the word is descriptive. Since the statute above alluded to there is no error (as has been sometimes supposed) in calling this district Breconshire, quasi Brychan's shire ; and as custom has sanctioned the indiscriminate use of this latter appellation, as well as that of Brecknockshire, the reader will not lie surprized, or attribute it to inattention, if both these names occur in the course of this work.
'"Though we know not with any certainty the period when Britain, and particularly that part of it which lies westward of the Severn and the Doe, called formerly, and since by the natives Cymru, and now by the English Wales, was first, inhabited, yet it is clear from the Roman stations and forts, as well as their public roads and works, still visible in this country, that it must have been peopled (thinly, as has already been observed), before they invaded this island. The introduction of the troops and garrisons of this enemy into the more fertile parts of the kingdom, in all probability, drove many to settle in those mountainous regions, and the subsequent incursions added to their numbers ; though even as late as the 5th century, we find the region of which we are about to treat, still described by the name of Garthmadrin. Wales, however, even at that time, was divided into North and South ; the former was called by the Welsh. Gwynedd, or y Gogleddir, and the latter Deheubarth, (and some- times Dyfed), which the Romans latinized into Venedotia and Demetia, to which two provinces a third was afterwards added, called Powys.
SOUTH WALES DIVIDED.
" South Wales was again divided (but at what period it is difficult to determine, as will be seen by and by), into Syllwg or Siluria, and Dyfed or Demetia ; but etymologists are as much at a loss to define these words, as historians are to ascertain the boundaries of the two countries. Syllwg, says Edward Williams, means. ' a county abounding in beautiful prospects ; ' consequently the Syllwyr or Silures were men who delighted to look at beautiful prospects, or in other words, lovers of landscape. This is very ingenious, very pretty, and very poetical. The learned Dr. Whitaker, in his genuine history of the Britons, tells us that' Silures means ' Sil or ill ur, the great men, or they are great men.'
" Dyfed, says Baxter in his glossary, is derived from defaid, sheep, because this country abounded with pasturage for sheep ; and Rowland Jones of the Inner Temple, in his Origin of Languages and Nations (London, 1764) pronounces the word to have been originally Di-fyd, without habitation, abode, or livelihood ! Neither of t hese attempts at derivation arc int it led to the smallest attention, and the latter is absurd. Dyfed means precisely the same as the modern British word for South Wales, Deheubarth, which has superseded it ; indeed the latter may be said to be a corruption or alteration of Deheufod or Deaufod, the country on the right ; Bod being a common termination in that language, and signifying a place of residence, as Cwmbod or Cwmwd, now pronounced Comot, a residence in the vale ; and Hafod or Haf-bod, a summer retreat. It is indeed remarkable, that the Welsh have no other name for the South than Deheu, the right ; an inhabitant therefore of that country, when describing the four points of the compass, is supposed to stand in the West with his face towards the East, in which situation, he calls the North y Gogledd, (a radical Welsh word), y Gogledd-dir. or y Gogleddf od ; and the South and neighbouring regions, Deheu, Deheubarth, Deneu-dir, or Deheu-fod, the land on the right, or on the right hand. The East and West are called y Ddwyrain, and y Gorlewin ; two of the most beautiful and poetical words which any language Can boast of. The first may be translated the active or lively, and joyous arising, and reminds us of that sublime passage in the Psalms of David, in which it is said the sun ' cometh as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his course,' and the latter word means, a resting place on high ; both these expressions are now nearly obsolete, and the points are in South Wales generally described by the English names, even by those who speak the Welsh language. But to return to Dyfed (in which province we apprehend Breconshire was included, notwithstanding the general opinion is to the contrary)- Giraldus Cambrensis3 makes the province so called, to comprehend the whole of South Wales, while Sir John Price and Powel4 confine it to Pem-
1 Aug or eg at the pud of a word, also sometimes signifies the - A writer in the Cambrian Register (vol. 2. p. S) agrees in
inhabitant of a place or country, as Tv, a 1 se ; Taeawg or placing Breconshire among the Dimetse.
Taeog, the inhabitant of a house, a peasant, &c. [Hywel Dda's 3 Itm. passim. Cambriae descriptio.
laws.) In this it has an adjective quality, which cannot well be * I>.'« i ipti'.n of Wales, pretixed to Powel's history. Powel 3
translated into English, or at least not without much circuity. hist, of Wales.
4 THE HISTORY OP BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
brokeshire alone; others have supposed that it "consisted of Cardiganshire only:' and Warrington1 says, Monmouthshire and the whole of South Wales were in Demetia, excepting Radnorshire. Camden, upon the authority of Ptolomy, asserts, that the Dimetee inhabited Caermarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, and Cardiganshire. But let us see what Ptolomy says, (we use a translation published at Frankfort, in lli()5) :
Iterum sub dictis populis (Trinoantea aut Trinobantes) sunt metae aliter Dimetie in quibus urbes
Loventium.
Maridunum. His magis oritntalts Silyres sunt in quibus urbs
Bulleum. -
THB MISSING CITY OF LOVENTIUM.
" Here then we have one city with its ' muris coctilibus ' safe enough. The Muridunum or Maridunum of the ancients, has been universally admitted to be the modern Caermarthen ; but ask where Loventinum or Loventium was,
'Twas here, 'twas there,
At Nova Zembla, or the Lord knows where.
"If it was situate, as Camden conjectures, where Llangorse pool or Brecknock mere now is, there is an end of the difficulty at once, and Brecknockshire is part of Dyfed from the evidence of the author whom he himself quotes.3 One of Camden's annotators having heard of the discovery of some old ruins and bricks in Cardiganshire, has, from the similarity of the sounds, placed Lovantium as he calls it, at Llannio issa, in that county ; this is something like Fluellin's Macedon and Mon- mouth, for there are certainly Is in both ;4 but if every Llan in Wales be a Loventium, we shall have cities enough to supply the continent of Europe. But let us hear Camden's own words, for he certainly forgets that he is in Demetia, when he talks upon the subject. According to his arrange- ment, speaking of Llynsavaddan or Llangorse mere, he says,5 (and says truly), ' it hath been an antient tradition in this neighbourhood, that where the lake is now. there was formerly a city, which being swallowed up by an earthquake, resigned its place to the waters ; and to confirm this, they allcdge besides other arguments, that all the highways in this country tend to the lake ; which, if true, what other city may we suppose on the river Lleweny,6 but Loventium, placed by Ptolomy in this tract, which, though I have diligently searched for, yet there appears no where any remains of the name, ruins, or situation of it.' If therefore, Loventium was not here, it may be very safely asserted, that all vestiges of it elsewhere are totally effaced, and that all further attempts to ascertain its site can only end in idle conjecture and useless labour.
THE ANCIENT NAME OF BUILTH.
"Some of those who wish to support Camden's opinion, that Breconshire was part of Siluria, have said, that Builth in that county, was the antient Bulleum Silurum ; but though Builth has a greater resemblance to Bulleum, than Llannio issa to Loventium, it is the adjacent country or hundred of Builth only which has been called Buallt, or Gwlad Fuallt, the land of Boscage. The town which is not of the highest antiquity, has always gone by the name of Llanfair or Llanvair ymhuallt, Saint .Mary's in Builth ; and at this day, any one who says in the Welsh language, Yr ydwyfi'n byw ymhuallt, (I live in Builth,) is understood to mean that he lives in the country, and not in the town of Builth. Upon the authority therefore of Camden alone, supported or rather unsupported as he is, if not contradicted by the historian whom he quotes, rests the present general belief that the inhabitants of Breconshire were Silurcs, and that the country was not part of the province of Dyfed ; for we lay no great stress (as far as it regards this question) upon a dispute at a very early period, between a bishop of Llandaff and a bishop of Sahit David's about the lands of Ystradyw and Ewyas ; as it frequently happened formerly, as at present, that a diocese had possessions in two provinces. But if the conjecture as to Llangorse pool's being the site of Loventium be correct, or if Giraldus Cambrcnsis
i Warrington's hist, of Wales, vol. i. s vo. edit. p. 227. Europe, said " To the westward of Little Tartary is France, on
- Tins is a strange description. " much to the West of these the east of which is Switzerland."
(the Trinoantes or Trinobantes) are tin- Metse or Dimeta?, among :; Note in Camden's Britannia, or Cardiganshire.
"I i are situated tin cities of Loventium and Maridunum, ' Since the above was written, we have 1 n informed that there
Ac." To the westward of the Trmoantes or Trinobantes (the are evidently the remains of the works of the Romans at Llannio ;
inhabitants of Middlesex and Essex) were tin- Catieuchlani, or we are by no means inclined to deny that that people had a station,
inhabitants <>f Buckinghamshire; then proceeding westward, and perhaps a very eonsul.Talile one in this place, but we are not
tin- Attivliat.-s, ,,r inhabitants of Berkshire; then the Dobuni, prepared to admit the inference, that it must be the site of
or in. 'ii .it Gloucestershire; then the Sihu-es, or men of Mon- Loventium.
mouthshire, Glamorganshire, and Herefordshire ; and lastly, •"> Camden's Brecknockshire,
westward of nil these were tin- Dimetse ; so that tins is pretty <5 Llevenni, is pronounced Llynvy. Surely there is more of
much to the same effect as if a geographer describing modern Loventium in the name of this river than in Llannio issa.
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 5
be accurate, though he proves rather too much, Camden must be wrong ; and as the mistake of so respectable an author, first raised and has since continued tins error, so that it is now become inveterate, and perhaps after all, incorrigible, we trust it will not be necessary to apologize, if tics subject should require some further discussion, as well as consideration.
RELIGIOUS HOUSES IN DYFED.
"Among the laws of Hywel Dda (an authority infinitely superior to Ptolomy or Camden upon this subject) we have an account of the religious houses in Dyfed, belonging to the see of St. David's, among which, are Llandegemman and Llangeneu ; but as the book is rather scarce, though to be had in most public libraries, we shall quote the words:
Am saith ysgopty Dyfed.' Concerning the seven religious hous.-s of Demetia.
Saith ysgopty sydd yn Nyfed, on yw Mynyw yn eisteddfa There are seven religious houses ,u Dyfed. one i^ at Menevia,
arbennig, a Mynywyw'r penna ynghymru ; ail yw egiwys [smael ; the cathedral, on. I this i^ the first 10 all Wales ; another is Saint
trydydd yw Llandegemman; pedwerydd yw Llanussylld ; Ismael ; the third is Llandegemman ; the fourth is Llanussylld ;
pymmed Llandeilaw ; ehweehed Llandyflydog ; saithfed yw the fifth Llandeilaw ; the sixth Llandeflydog ; and the seventh,
Llangenau. Llangenau a Llanussylld rhydd ynt o ebediweu, Llangenau. Llangenau ami Llanussylld are exempt from
eanys nid oes tyr eglwys uldynt. mortuaries, as they have no church lands belonging to them.
"Llandegemman is the name of a farm in Saint .Michael Cwmdu, in tin- hundred of Crickhowell, formerly Ystradyw ; and though there is now no appearance of a religious house or monastery there, this may be easily accounted for. when we hear that the revenues attached to it were so small as not to be sufficient for its repairs. Llangenau now spell Llangeney, is a parish in the same hundred, near the eastern boundary of this county, and adjoining to .Monmouthshire; no other place called Llandegemman is known in South Wales, and it is certain that there is no other parish called Llan- genau. either in Demetia or Siluria. Add to this, that the dialect of Breconshire and Carmarthenshire is nearly similar, while that of Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire is very different from that of the two first counties.
" From the quotation just made by Hywel Dda, as well as from his conduct towards Morgan hen, or the old. who was king or prince of Glamorgan at the same time that Hywel governed Dyfed as well as Gwynedd, it seems clear that the latter potentate considered Ystradyw as part of his dominions: and he and his successors always possessed it, until it was taken from them by the Norman invaders on the conquest of Brecon, and though his evidence cannot be said to be perfectly disinterested, he must be allowed to have had more and better information upon the subject than we can now possess. We find him publicly asserting his right in his book of laws, compiled by the wisest men of his day, anion;/ whom mix the archdeacon of Llandaff, and we know he enjoyed the whole of Breconshire as part of Dyfed, without interruption, utiles;, the entry in the Liber Landavensis is entitled to implicit credit ; but before that is admitted, it must be examined and considered, and we shall then perhaps discover that it is impossible it can be correct. Cradoc of Llancarvan. though a Glamorganshire man and a monk, certainly paid no attention to it, although he, as well as his translator Powel, must have seen it : the public, however, shall hear the story, and those who feel themselves interested in the question, may decide upon it.
CANTREDS IN THE LORDSHIP AND BISHOPRIC OF MORGANWG.
" 2Be it known to all the people of Britain, that there are seven cantreds (or hundreds) in the lordship and bishopric of Morganwg ; the first is Cantreff Bychan ; the second, Gower and C'ydweli ; the third, Gorwenit ; the fourth, Cantreff Penuchen ; the filth, Gwentlhvg and Edeligion ; the sixth, Gwent is coed; and the seventh, Gwent uch coed. Ystradyw and Ewyas arc called the two sleeves ot Gwent uwch coed. When Edgar was king in England, and Hywel Dda, the son of Cadell, was prince of South Wales, which was one of the three kingdoms into which that country was divideu. Morgan hen reigned in peace over all Morganwg, until Hywel Dda endeavoured to deprive him cf Ystradyw and Ewyas.
"When Edgar heard this, he sent to Hywel Dda and Morgan lien, and Owen his son, and desired them to come to his court at London, and he heard the story, and the dispute which was between them; whereupon >t was determined by the lawful judgment of his court, that Hywel Dda had wrongfully dispossessed Morgan hen and Owen his son. and therefore it was adjudged that Hywel Dda should give up Ystradyw ami Ewyas for ever. Afterwards king Edgar granted and, gavi to Owen the son of Morgan hen. Ystradyw and Ewyas, within the bishopric of Llandaff; and confirmed them to him and his heirs by instruments in writing, attested by all the archbishops, bishops, carls and barons of England and Wales; a curse was denounced upon any one who should attempt to deprive
1 Lib. 2. cap. 0. published bv Wooton, London, 1730. - Myfyrian Archaeology, vol. 2. p. 612. London, 1801.
6 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
the parish of Teilaw of these lands, and a blessing invoked on all those who should thereafter con- tribute to preserve them to the lawful owner. Thus did Edgar, and the record of the proceedings is kept in the chapter house of Llandaff.1
" Not a tittle do we hear of this now famous award, made in the presence of all the archbishops, bishops, earls and barons of England and Wales, in the English, any more than in the Welsh histories, and unluckily for the credit of the Cwtta Cyfarwydd, there is a small anachronism, which will perhaps consign it to ' the family vault of all the Capulets.' Hywel Dda died A.D. 958, and Edgar did not begin his reign until 959, so that the truth probably was, that an old dispute between the bishops of Llandaff and Saint David's was revived some time in the tenth century, and the monk who related it, not satisfied with asserting the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the see of Llandaff over Ystradyw and Ewyas, called in the help of Edgar, and proceeded to maintain the temporal power of his prince, in order to secure more effectually his support when it should be wanted.
' ' We will only add a few words more and then proceed to take a hasty tour round the county of Brecon, and mark its boundary, as it is now known. A Latin MS. in the Oottonian library, (Domitian A, i. Fo. 13. 157.) is styled Cognacio Brychan unde Brechenawc dicta est, Pars Demelice. This writing, which appears from the spelling, as well as some other circumstances, to be as old as the reign of Hywel Dda, if not older, is an additional proof that we have been wrongfully classed among the Silures, and that anciently we were considered to be in the same province with Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire ; and to which, with Baxter, we think Radnorshire, or at least the greatest part of it, ought to be added."
BOUNDARIES IN THE 19TH CENTURY.
Brecknock is bounded on the East by Monmouth and Hereford ; on the North-East and North by Radnor ; on the North- West by Cardigan ; on the West by Carmarthen : on the south by Glamorgan and Monmouth. Since the beginning of the 19th century an ever-improving series of Ordnance maps have been published, on which are carefully laid down the boundaries of counties. It is therefore scarcely necessary now to follow Theophilus Jones in his beautiful walk over mountains and by rivers to trace the present boundaries of the county. Yet it should be noted that certain alterations have taken place. At the date of his writing, the hamlet of Glasbury, south of Wye, was in the county of Radnor; it has since been placed in Brecknockshire, and was in 1884 by an Order in Council amalgamated with Tregoyd and Velindre. Therefore the centre of the Wye is now the north-east boundary of Brecknock from Hay to its junction with the river Elan. Note also in passing that the Parish of Llandefalle reaches Wye at Tre-ricket between Llyswen and Crickadarn : it is omitted from the list by Jones. The Elan, from the point where it joins the Wye to that where the Clairwen joins, afterwards the Clairwen, until its junction with the Brwyno, "the rushy brook," and from that spot the Brwyno form the northern boundary of Brecknock. On these brooks there have been con- structed lakes to supply Birmingham with fresh water ; the boundary therefore will be in future years an imaginary line, drawn across the sea of waters, representing the original course of the boundary brooks. On the southern boundary, while the geographical and Parliamentary county is still as described by Jones, an administrative county has been formed of slightly differing area. After the passing of the Public Health Act of 1874, the southern portions of the parishes of Llangynidr and Llangattock were constituted part of the Local Board Districts of Rhymney, Tredegar, and Ebbw Vale. By the Local Government Act of 1888, the whole of an Urban District is placed within that county where the majority of its inhabitants reside ; these portions of the two parishes, therefore, passed into the administrative county of Monmouth, the boundary being marked with stones across the mountain. Similarly a small portion of the parish of Aberystruth, formerly in the county of Mon- mouth, was placed in the Urban District of Brynmawr ; it passed into the administrative county of Brecknock under the Act of 1888. These places have since, under the subsequent legislation of 1894, been elevated into separate parishes under the names of Llechrhyd, Dukes Town, and Rassa, formerly in the parish of Llangynidr, and Beaufort, formerly in the parish of Llangattock, all of which now form part of Urban Districts within the administrative county of Monmouth, and Aberystruth, Bryn- mawr-Urban, formerly in the county of Monmouth but now included within the administrative county of Brecknock.
1 This is a translation of a ropy of the Liber Landavensis ; Ystradvw is now supposed to comprise the hundred of Crick-
Thia document is called Cwtta Cyfarwydd Forganwg, a brief state- howelConly : but the word imports the vale of Usk, or the vale
nii'iit of the rights <it Morganwg. Edgar gave the lands in dispute of water. "This squabble may therefore have related only to the
to the biehoprick of Llandafl ; the word in the British, is the lands about Abergavenny, where the reguli of Breconshire having
parish of Llandaff. In the early ages of Christianity, what we unjustifiably pushed their boundaries too far Eastward, pre-
now call tlie cathedral, was the only church in the diocese. vented the communication of the Gwentians with Ewyas and
Kcnnet's case o/ impropriations. After all it is extremely un- Erging, in Herefordshire, certain how far this claim of the princes of Gwent extended.
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 7
BOUNDARIES IN THEO. JONES' TIME.
And now let us give the ancient Boundaries as described by Theophilus Jones. He says : — " Breconshire is bounded on the East by Monmouthshire and Herefordshire ; on the North, by Radnorshire ; on the North West, by Cardiganshire, on the West by Carmarthenshire and on the South by Glamorganshire and part of Monmouthshire. To describe its boundary, I begin Eastward, where a small brook called Baiden falls into the Usk on the South side of the river; follow the same down- wards in the middle of the river, until the conflux of another brook on the North, called Gwenffrwd : up this rivulet, proceeding North or North East, having Llanwenarth in .Monmouthshire on the right, and Llangenny in Breconshire on the left. Cross the turnpike road from Abergavenny to Brecon, where there is a shire stone placed between Sunny Bank and a farm house, called from its situation, Cydiad y ddwy shire, or the boundary of the two counties, up to the source of the Gwenffrwd, on the North side of the Sugar Loaf hill. From thence, crossing the mountain in a direction rather more to the East, but leaving the high summit to the right, we come to a brook called Cwmbwch or Nant y ffin ; pursue the course of this brook downwards to its fall into the Grwyne fawr ; up the middle of that river, Llanbedr in Breconshire, on the left, and Llanwenarth and afterwards Llandilo-Pertholeu, in Monmouthshire, on the right, until we come to a bridge leading from Llanvihangel Cilcornel to Crick- howell, called the Coal-pit road : proceeding still Northward up along Grwyne fawr ; Partrishaw, Breconshire, on the left, Llandilo-Pertholeu, Monmouthshire, on the right, we come to a small brook, called Nantddu, which falls on the Monmouthshire side into the Grwyne, near a blacksmith's shop, where the insulated hamlet of Ffwddog, in Cwmyoy,1 Herefordshire, is on the right. Here recross the Grwyne to half the river; proceed upwards in the same direction Northwards to a bridge, called Pont-yscub, (correctly Pont-Escob), or the bishop's bridge, upon the road leading from Patrishaw to Cwmyoy : Patrishaw, on the left, Cwmyoy, Herefordshire, on the right. Still along the Grwyne upwards when a brook called Nant y ffin falls in on the West, which brook divides Patrishaw from the hamlet of Grwyne fawr in Talgarth, and the hundred of Crickhowell from the hundred of Talgarth in Brecon- shire. After which, Sychnant, Brwvnant, Cwmddoinant, and Cwmnant y bedd brooks fall in upon the Western or Breconshire side : cross Grwyne fawr where Cwmnant Trethin falls in on the East ; proceed up this brook in a direction Eastward, having Talgarth, Breconshire. on the North, and Cwmyoy, Monmouthshire, on the South : pass over a hill called the Van, turning towards the North to a river called Honddu, where we have Cwmyoy, Monmouthshire, again on the right : along the Honddu to Cappel y ffin, from thence to a cottage near the confluence of two brooks ; one rising on the Western or Breconshire. side, and the other on the Eastern : follow the latter up to the Hatterell hills, to a spot where a third prill rises, which falls into the Olchon, in the parish of Clodoek, until the source of this third prill, where, however, there is no boundary, mere stone, or mark ; Cwmyoy in Monmouth- shire, afterwards Clodoek, Herefordshire, on the right, and Llanigon, Breconshire, on the left : proceed from this spot Northward, along the brow or summit of the hill on the Herefordshire side, to a place called Rhyw'r Daran, where there is a mere stone called Carreg Lwyd, being the boundary between Llanigon and Hay, Breconshire, on the right, the latter of which parishes continues along the boundary on that side, 'till the Dulas empties itself into the Wye ; excepting only a mill, and two meadows, insulated within the Hay parish, called Llangwaithan mill and meadows, but which are part of Llanigon.
*' From Carreg Lwyd we proceed down the hill in a North Easterly direction to a cottage, called Syke's cottage, where another prill rises and divides Clodoek and Cusop parishes in Herefordshire ; the latter of which follows the boundary on the Herefordshire side to the Wye. Along the prill above mentioned, called Creigieu brook, we come to its fall into the Dulas ; the boundary to its conflux into the Wye, near Hay : here turn, and proceed Westward up the middle of the latter river, which is tin- boundary between Radnorshire on the North and Breconshire on the South, for three or four miles : Clyrow and Llowes parishes on the right, upon the left Hay : about a feu hundred 3'ards above or South Westward of Llowes church, Radnorshire, cross the Wye and the turnpike road leading from Brecon to Hay, between two farms, called Fford fawr and Llwyne bach, but nearer to the latter : from thence we proceed about half a mile from the river Wye, in a Southerly directio7i : then turn, and proceed for the like distance from East to West ; turn almost angularly from South to North, proceed in that direction by Glazbury churchyard, leaving this church a few yards, and that part of the parish which is in Radnorshire all the way to the left. Recross the turnpike road to Brecon, and through the great meadows, called the Stonces, into the middle of the river Wye, which now becomes the boundary between Breconshire and Radnorshire, until the conflux or fall of the Elan, about two miles below Rhayader.
! All the maps of Herefordshire and Monmouthshire, hitherto published, have erroneously placed the Ffwddog. as surrounded
by Breconshire, instead of Monmouthshire.
8 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
' ' From the place where the boundary line returns to the Wye, near Glazbury, we have the hamlet of Pipton, then the parishes of Llyswen, Crickadarn, Gwenddwr (on the Western boundary or confines of which last parish, we quit the hundred of Talgarth, and enter the hundred of Builth), Alltmawr, Llandewi'r cwm, Llanfair in Builth, Llanfihangel-bryn-pabuan, Llysdinam, and Llanwrthwl, in Brecon- shire, on the left or South, and on the other, or Northern side, Glazbury, Boughrwd, Llandilo-graban, Aberedw, Llanfareth, Llanelwedd, Disserth, Llanyre, and Llanfihangel-helygen, in Radnorshire.
' ' From the fall of the Elan into the Wye, we quit the latter river and proceed up the middle of the former, in a direction nearly from East to West, 'till it receives the Claerwen : up this river turning a little towards the South, 'till the Brwyno falls in, running nearly from North to South. Follow this river to its source, near which it receives a supply from the lake of Llyngynnon, in Cardiganshire : Llanddewi brevi, in that county, all this %vhile on the right, and Llandewi abergwessin, in Breconshire, on the left. From the source of the Brwyno, proceed from North West to South East, for about three miles along a wet bog (where the boundary line is not precisely ascertained) to the Tawe, not far from its source, follow this river down 'till it runs opposite to and near Ystrad y ffin. From the Tawe, near Ystrad y ffin, we come to the top of Hirgwm ; here he have Llanfair ar y brin, Caermarthenshire, on the right, and Llanwrtyd, Breconshire, on the left. Down Hirgwm proceeding South East, to a common called Llwydlo faeh, in the same direction to Owmcrychan : thence to the source of the river Gwenol, which follow to its fall into the Gwydderig. Up this river, turning from West to South East, until we come opposite to a brook running into it, on the Southern side, about four miles and a half from Trecastle, in Breconshire, called Nant y meirch ; which trace upward from North to South West. Turn near a white stone to the Westward, leaving this stone in Caermarthen- shire ; cross the old turnpike road over Trecastle mountain to Llandovery, to Cors Pendaulwyn ; then to a brook, called Hen wen ; down the same in a course nearly from West to East, 'till it falls into the Usk. Up the Usk turning from North to South East, to its source between the two Vans or Bannau ; thence South South East to the river Twreh, which follow in nearly the same direction 'till it empties itself into the Tawe.
"From Llwydlo faeh to Gwydderrig, we have Tyr yr abad, or Llandulas, in the hundred of Builth, and afterwards Llandilo'r fan, in the hundred of Merthyr in Breconshire, on the left, and Llanfair ar y bryn, Caermarthenshire, on the right. From the fall of Nant y meirch into the Gwyd- derig, we have the parish of Llywel in the hundred of Devynnock, in Breconshire, on the left, and Myddfe and Llanddoisant parishes, in Caermarthenshire, on the right, and from the spot where we reach the Tawe downwards to its fall, the parish of Llanguke or Llanguik, Glamorganshire, adjoins on the right, and Ystradgynlais, Breconshire, on the left. Upon coming to the Tawe, we proceed upward along the middle of the river from West to East, to Abercynlais : then cross a common called Cefn y bryn. Southwards to Nant y quarrel; then to Bryn y rhedin, near Goitre Genfford y Drain, and so to a brook called Nant y Pebyll Bedw : thence to the river Dulas, along which to Corslwyn du ; from thence to the river Pyrddin, which follow in a direction from West to East to its fall into the Neath, which unites itself with the Mellte at Pont neat hfechan. From the fall of the Twrch into the Tawe, to the meeting of the streams of the Neath, and the Mellte, we have Llanguke and Cadox- tone parishes, Glamorganshire, on the right, and Ystradvellte, Breconshire, on the left. From Pont- neathvechan a few yards below the bridge, we proceed up the Mellte, having the hamlet of Rhygocs, in the parish of Ystradyvodog, Glamorganshire, on the right, and Ystradvellte, on the left, until we come to Dinas rock, in Penderin, in Breconshire ; here we cross the Mellte, and proceed from North to South up a brook, called Sychryd : then cross the Cynon river, a little above Hirwam furnace ; Penderin, on the left, and Aberdare parish, in Glamorganshire, on the right ; down the Cynog, 'till a brook called Nant hir falls into it on the North or North Eastern side ; which trace upwards, pro- ceeding from South West to North East, 'till we come to another brook, called Pistill Nant y derin : then to a brook, called Nant y ffrwd, which follow to its fall in the Taaf fawr, a little above Coed y cymer. Follow the Taaf downwards, 'till it receives Taaf fechan on the North: here cross the former river where we have Vainor, in the hundred of Penkelley, in Breconshire, on the left, and on the right, Merthyr Tidvil, Glamorganshire. At the fall of the Taaf fechan, or lesser Taaf, turn from South to North, and proceed up this river to three stones in the river, called Yr hen steppau, about 300 yards below Pontstieill : here cross the river, and from thence we come in a direction from East to West to Bwlch issa, then to Castell y nos, then to Pwll morlais, thence to Pwll lhvch mere, thence to Cam y clyn dwr, thence to Cam helig, and from thence to Rhyd y milwyr. From Taaf fechan, we have Llanddetty, Breconshire, on the left and Merthyr Tidvil, and Gellygare, Glamorganshire, on the right.
" At Rhyd y Milwyr, or the soldiers' ford, upon the brook called Nant y milwyr, the lordship and hundred of Penkefly, and of Tretower, in the hundred of Crickhowel, in Breconshire, and the
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 9
lordship of Sanghenydd, in Clamorganshire meet near the source of the Romney or Rhymny ; which river follow downwards nearly from West to East, for 568 perches, where the counties of Brecon and Monmouth unite, at the fall of a brook called Nantmelin into the Rhymny ; near this spot (in Brecon- shire) iron works have been lately erected : Nantmelin divides Llangynider, in Breconshire, from Beciwellte, in Monmouthshire: proceeding up this brook North East for 144 perches, we cross over it, and continue our course North Eastward for two hundred perches more ; having the lordship of Coed meredith, on the right hand, until we come to the source of a brook, called Nant y bwch ; down this brook, 'till it falls into the Sorwy or Sirhowy, where we have Llangunider, in Breconshire, on the left, and Bedwellte still on the right. Prom Sirhowy, proceed Eastward to the river Ebwy fawr, which cross by a cottage called John Goodluck's : here we have a very small spot of ground on the South or South Eastern side, in Breconshire. Then down the middle of the river Ebwy fawr to Blan Ebwy, where we have Beaufort iron works close upon the boundary line, on the left in Breconshire : from thence, follow the stream quite round the works ; then proceed to Gwar y Cae coal works ; then to the outside of Wain dew, where we have Aberystruth, Monmouthshire, on the right ; and Llan- gattock, on the left : from thence to Carreg y ffin, to Carreg Wain y Bwlch, to Carreg croes blan y Llammarch, to Pound y Wain wen, to Carreg cefn earn yr erw, to Blan Dar fawr, to Carreg Maen y Tarw, to Carreg clawdd y mwyn, to Carreg Pen Garn lwyd, to Carreg Pen rchyw winau, to a mountain ash, to Bedd y gwr hir, to Pwll Carreg and from thence down the brook Baiden to its fall into the Usk, where this tour commenced ; haying Llanelly, Breconshire, on the left, and Llanwenarth, Mon- mouthshire, on the right.1
" Within this circle, (for such it nearly is, except on the north Eastern and South Western boundary, which is elongated and protrudes about four or five miles at each point) are contained 800 square miles, or 512,000 acres of land ; and 300 acres of water, besides the space occupied by rivers and brooks- This county is a radius of thirty miles; in the center of which, as nearly as art or design could place it (though it may be doubted whether it is to be attributed to either), is situated the town of Brecknock ; from whence the traveller, proceeding along either of the four main roads, inter- secting the county, and leading to Monmouthshire, Carmarthenshire, Radnorshire or Herefordshire, finds himself on the confines of the county of Brecon at the end of fifteen miles, and the same thing may be said, as to the distance from Brecon towards Merthyr Tidvil, in Glamorganshire, on the South, although the present road has rather increased it, by taking a circuitous sweep to avoid the inequalities and other natural difficulties of the old one."
AREA AND POPULATION AS DESCRIBED IN 1891.
The area of the ancient county of Brecknock was 475,224 acres, that of the newly formed adminis- trative county (certain Urban districts having under recent legislation passed into Monmouth) is 469,894 acres. The uninclosed land in the county is 115,106 acres, or nearly a quarter of the whole.
A return of the population of the county of Brecknock in 1673, "as appears from a return made by the Churchwardens to the Archbishop of Canterbury," gives the total at 13,311, of which Papists 156 and Dissenters 682. Several parishes were entirely omitted : these having been added give a total of 13,496. This return must, however, be discarded as absolutely incorrect. The religious statistics, if true, would be a curious contribution to Church history, for " Papists and Dissenters " would perhaps not have selected Churchwardens to give a favourable estimate of their numbers. From 1792 to 1801 the baptisms were transcribed by Theophilus Jones from the registers: in 1792 the number of persons born was 771 ; in 1801 it had sunk to 643. Assuming the number of births to be the same per thou- sand, as later experience has shown, this gives a population approaching 28.000 — such an increase, from 13,311 in 28 years, is quite impossible. Amongst the country people an idea holds that the population in ancient days was larger than at the present time ; there does not appear the slightest reason for such a supposition. The few ruins of cottages in agricultural parishes, which may have given rise to the idea, being easily accounted for by the desertion of old houses as new and better ones were built : in any case they are not sufficient to affect materially the general result.
1 These are the boundaries of the county of Brecon in 1800 ; fawr, from whence the boundary line crossed Southward to
but there are strong reasons for supposing that in very early ages, Llandebie, and followed the Loughor to its fall into the sea.
and particularly in the time of Brychan Brycheiniog (who will This will account for the claim and possession of Gower, by the
soon be introduced to the reader), Garthmadrvn, or the posses- descendants of Bernard Newmarch, who supposed they had
sions over which this prince ruled, were of considerably greater a right to all the lands of which they had robbed Bleddin ap
extent to the Westward. At Duffryn Cydrych, in the parish of Maenarch.
Llanddoisant. in Carmarthenshire, were formerly considerable - Clarke's General View of the Agriculture of the county of
ruins and excavations, called Llys Brychan. or the court of Brecon ; published by the Board of Agriculture in 1794. 831
Brychan, where this regulus probably resided occasionally: square miles, or 467 according to Smith's maps. See Gent,
and if so, we conceive his territory comprehended the whole of the Mag. for July, 1S04. country on the East side of the Towy, as far down as Llandilo
10 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
In country parishes, purely agricultural, the accurate deconnial census from 1801 to 1891 show that the population has decreased, or at best remained stationary. The people have shared the tendency observed throughout England and Wales to leave the country and flock into the towns. The corollary of this proposition is that towns have steadily increased their number. Brecon, with a population in 1801 of 2,700, has in 1891 over 6,000 inhabitants. Builth from 347 has increased to 1,114, to which must be added nearly 200 due to the building of Oaklands, a small suburb in the parish of Llan- dewi cwm. Hay has grown from a population of 1,170 to 2,154. Talgarth and Devynock have increased, though to lesser amount; Llanwrtyd has felt the value of a railway, and has sprung from 457 to 847. Crickhowell, the only town still without railway communication, but within the influence of the iron district, increased from 566 in the year 1801 to 1,561 in 1861, receding since that to 1.246 in 1891 in sympathy with depression in the neighbouring mineral industry. Lastly Brynmawr, now the most populous town in the county, came into existence in answer to the demand for labour at the works at Nantyglo. Since the cessation of manufacture at Nantyglo, Brynmawr has been saved from extinction by the railways, which enable the inhabitants to seek their living at Ebbw Vale and other centres of industry. This town is still an increasing place.
The most remarkable increase has been in parishes formerly agricultural, since worked for coal or iron. Llanelly in 1673 is credited with 86 persons ; in 1800 it had increased to 937 ; in 1861 to 9,600 ; and even now, after the failure of the Clydach works, there is still a population of nearly 7,060 persons. Llangattock increased from 1,000 in the year 1801 to over 5,700 in 1861, since which time it has somewhat fallen back. Llangynidr has had a continuous increase from 775 in 1801 to 3,625 in 188] ; Penderyn has grown from 1,000 to 2,800 ; and the lower part of Ystradgunlais from 709 to 3,600. The general effect on the county has been as follows: In 1801 the population was 32,325. The making of the railways of England between 1840 and 1860 made also the fortune of Brecknock. The population nearly doubled in 50 years, the culminating point being reached in 1861 when Brecknock showed a population of 61,627 ; since that time it has again dropped to 57,031.
The whole of the above remarks apply to the ancient, geographical, and parliamentary county. When in 1888 the Local C4overnment Act formed "administrative counties," an urban district partly in one county and partly in another was placed in the county where a majority of its population resided. The Urban Districts of Brynmawr with part of Aberystruth ; of Beaufort, Rassa, and Llech- ryd, had become portions of Urban Districts : Brynmawr being within the county of Brecon for Parliamentary and administrative purposes ; and Aberystruth in Brecon for administrative and Mon- mouth for Parliamentary purposes. While the other places- mentioned, Beaufort, Rassa, Dukestown, and Llecbryd are in Monmouth for administration ; in Brecknock for Parliamentary representation ; in Monmouth for sanitation ; in Brecknock for Pour Law ; in Brecknock for Elementary and in Monmouth for Secondary Education — a complicated arrangement which can scarcely continue. Out of modern legislation has thus come the Administrative County of Brecknockshire, with a population in 1891 of 51,393, which will probably be the initial figure with which future calculations will be compared.
POPULATION AND AREA IN 1800.
And here let us add Theophilus Jones' remarks on this subject. He says: — "The population of this county, from the returns made to Parliament in 1802, may be estimated at 32,300. From these documents, it appears that the inhabitants then consisted of 31,633; but the regular and supple- mentary militia, amounting to 500 men, being then out of the county, and those in the army and navy not being included, they may be fairly said to exceed 32,000. This population has varied of course here, as it has in all other counties, at different periods. At the beginning of the 17th century, when there was a considerable manufacture in woollen cloths in Brecon, and the neighbourhood, there are reasons to believe, that the inhabitants were much more numerous than after the restoration. In 1673, returns were made, in obedience to a commission from the Archbishop of Canterbury, by which we find that the population of Breeonshire then amounted to about 14,000. Since that time, we see they have increased to more than double the number. Both the tables (that formed from the returns in 1(17.'!. and that from those of 1802), may be confided in and are as nearly correct as the course of human affairs will permit : for it is impossible to be precisely accurate on this subject. But the calculations from the parish registers, which was the mode resorted to, prior to the passing of the act of t] George 3d, directing those returns to be made, were extremely fallacious. I have taken the trouble of minuting down the aggregate number of births and burials, from the transcripts of the registers of this county returned into my office for the last 100 years ; little information is to be derived from them in this respect. It should seem that the population in this county was decreasing in the years 1800 and 1801. Those years were certainly sickly, the seasons unhealthy, and the bread then eaten extremely bad, which, of course, occasioned disorders, and an extraordinary mortality : but 1 doubt very much whether it can be safely inferred from thence, that the number of births
THE HTSTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 11
during those periods was not equal to many of the preceding years. The increase in the sect of
anabaptists accounts in some measure for the deficiency apparent in the registers, and there are
many other causes to which it may lie attributed too tedious to be here discussed, though they may form a subject of inquiry hereafter."
THE RIVERS OF THE COUNTY.
The principal rivers of Brecknock are the Usk and the Wye. These alone will be described in
this chapter, leaving their tributaries and the smaller streams. Town, Hepste, Mellte, Talf. and others until their several localities are reached. The Usk rises among the mountains on the Western border of the countv. and. after flowing northwards for three miles, bends sharply to the East past Brecon and Crickhowell, a course of 34 miles through the centre of the county, and so on through the county of Monmouth until it reaches the Severn Estuary at Newport. Immediately above Brecon, it feeds the Brecon and Newport Canal. The Usk is justly celebrated for its fishing, both of trout and salmon. Eels, too, give excellent sport to the rising generation; who pursue them diligently with a steel fork as spear in low water, and in Hood time in summer with a clot of worms. By this latter method a hundred or more may be caught in an afternoon. These generally run small, eight or ten to the pound, though a monster of a pound and a half in weight has been occasionally jerked to grass. By more ambitious methods eels of three and four pounds" weight have been captured. The small river lamperns and the larger lamprey are sometimes taken. Sewin are not often found. The trout of the 1'sk are numerous and when in prime condition most excellent eating ; they are smaller than in some English rivers. A basket when' the fish are like brothers, each of the family weighing half a pound, forty in number, weighng in all twenty pounds, will send the angler home tired but happy. The largest trout taken in Glanusk waters 'weighed 31b. 12oz. The season commences on February 15th and ends October 2nd. The best months are March and April.
THE USK AS A SALMON RIVER.
As a salmon river, owing to its short length, the small number of nets at its mouth, the entire absence of inland nets, the removal of every obstruction, and an excellent system of preservation, the Usk has been greatly improved. A weir at Trostre at one time prevented the fish ascending; it was first taken by some patriotic gentleman, and finally bought by public subscription and destroyed. The Usk is largely dependent upon floods : a wet year' will be a good fishing season, a dry year a bad one. Thus in 1891 the rods captured 4,(131 salmon weighing an average of about lOlbs. each fish; in 1808 only 518 were taken, their average weight 121bs. Over series of years the average weight is lOlbs. Mr Robert Crawshay, some years back, landed one of 44lbs. weight, and fish of 20lbs. to 301bs. are not very uncommon, 'in 1891, the take of salmon by rods in Buckland water was 650 fish, Mr Alfred Craw'shay taking with his one rod three hundred and twenty-four fish, weighing 3.513lbs. ; in spite of a month's absence in Scotland from September 25th till October 26th. This is perhaps as good sport as has been recorded in the waters of Britain.
The Wye rises in Plinlhnmon and flowing past Rhayader, becomes, after its junction with the Elan, the north east boundary of the county, dividing Brecknock from Radnor. As it flows by Brecknock its waters are augmented from tlie north by the Ithon, the Eddw, and other smaller streams. On the Brecknock side it receives, a mile and a half below Rhayader, the Elan ; which with its tributary, the Clairwen, have been formed into great lakes to supply Birmingham with water. The next important tributary, the Yrvon, enters Wye half a mile or so above Builth. The Yrvon itself receives from the north' several not inconsiderable brooks, the (iwessin, the < Vrdin, the Camddwr, the Cammards, the Dulas, and the Chwefru, while from the south shorter streams reach it from the almost precipitous slopes of the Eppynt hills.
It was in contemplation in 1898 to form in the vale of Yrvon a lake 9 miles in length to supply the metropolis with water. After its reception of the Yrvon, the Wye flows past the town of Builth, a mile eastward of which it is joined by the Dihonow, whose head waters furnish by gravitation the water supply of Builth. Several smaller streams are passed before we arrive at the Llynfi, a stream flowing through Llangorse Lake, by means of which hi* the future the waters of the Usk may also find their way to London. At Hay a brook named Dulas enters Wye. which from that point leaves our county, 'flowing through the counties of Hereford and Monmouth till it reaches the Severn Estuary at Chepstow. The countv of Brecknock is thus the most important water collecting area in Britain, supplying not only local requirements, but the vast city of Birmingham, and probably in the future the still vaster and ever increasing population of London,
THE FISH OF THE WYE.
In the Wye are found salmon, trout, pike, and other fish. For the pleasure of salmon fishing, sportsmen from a distance fill the hotels and rents the houses near the river, for their own enjoyment
12 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
and to the benefit of local trade. Since 1861 the Legislature has passed several enactments for the improvement of the Salmon Fisheries. A Board of Conservators has been formed, to whose care the interests of the river as a whole have been confided. Water bailiffs patrol the banks to protect the spent fish returning to the sea; the capture of many young salmon, known as "pink," and by other names, has been forbidden. Certain modes of fishing, the spear, the gaff, and still more fatal lime, have been made illegal ; the minimum mesh of nets has been fixed by law, and on annual close time established to ensure peace for the breeding fish ; while a weekly close time, during which the nets may not fish, gives a chance for a certain amount of salmon to attain in safely the upper reaches of the river.
The life history of a Wye salmon may be thus described. In the autumn the salmon travel up the Wye and Usk for breeding purposes. Net fishery closes with the end of August ; after which, even if the law permitted, few salmon are in condition fit for sale. The hen fish grows dark in colour, and it is full of spawn ; the cock fish gradually becomes as hideous as can well be imagined — his colour a dirty red, blotched with orange and purple spots, and his head being large and body thin. The bulk of the fish deposit their spawn about Christmas, after which they return, as best they can, to the sea. In a very exhausted state they may be seen under bush or other sheltered place, while many die of disease or combat; at this time, if unprotected by law, the "spent" fish would fall an easy prey to spear or gaff. They gradually reach their great sanatorium the sea, hanging about the lower reaches of the rivers till the late spring. The eggs remain hidden in the gravel bed of the river for about 140 days; those that escape the ravages of water insects hatch out in May. On hatching they resemble tadpoles with a bag of nutriment attached, on which they subsist for two or three weeks, when they assume the form of fishes, and are known as "fry," or "salmon pink." The received opinion is that the salmon remains a full year in this stage, wearing a coat with finger marks on it, whence some have called him a " fingerling." He now, in the second April, assumes the silvery scales of the adult fish, wearing his new apparel over his old jacket ; he is now called a " smolt," and with the first flood starts on his journey to the sea. In the salt water it is believed that the smolt grows very rapidly, entering the sea with a weight of five or six ounces and returning to his native river, in three months time, a "grilse," locally called a "botcher," of from 41bs. to 71bs. in weight. What natural instinct it is which induces the salmon to run up the rivers in spring and summer is unknown ; some think they are prompted by desire to escape from marine enemies or parasitic insects.
Some few salmon run up the Wye in February, and in March there enter the river those which are locally known as "March gillins," a nice looking plump fish of from 81bs. to 121bs. in weight, but these are not in any quantities. In the Wye Estuary the salmon do not start to run in any numbers until the end of April ; when fresh from the sea these are bright looking fish with a fair amount of large ones amongst them. If the river is in fair condition all these fish are constantly on the move towards the Upper Wye and its tributaries ; if the water is unsuitable, they may be seen lying, moping about the pools in the middle parts of the river, quickly becoming discoloured and slimy. The grilse run in June ; they are lively fish, and being smaller than the full grown salmon can ascend into the smaller streams where there would be no shelter for the larger fish. The largest fish recorded as taken in the Wye was captured by Messrs Miller in June, 1895, a male in prime condition, measuring 55 inches in length, with a girth of 28 inches; it weighed 631bs. In 1898, the largest turned the scale at 511bs.
THEOPHILUS JONES' DESCRIPTION OF THE RIVERS.
On the subject of the rivers and their fish, Theophilus Jones says: — "The principal rivers in this county are the Wye, the Usk, the Irvon and the Tawe. The Taaf also rises in this county, but it does not become considerable 'till it receives the lesser Taaf, and enters Glamorganshire. The Wye, with a trifling exception at Glazbury (as has been seen), washes the Northern boundary of this county, and divides it from Radnorshire for thirty-three or thirty-four miles in length, when it enters Hereford- shire, near Hay, and afterwards falls into the. Severn below Chepstow. In this river are found salmon, trout, graylings, pike, perch, last-springs samlet, or salmon pink, chub, dace, loach, gudgeons, eels, lampreys, roaches, bullheads, minnows, shad cray fish, and muscles. The salmon and the pike of this river are remarkably good. The trout are not in equal estimation amongst epicures : the flesh is white, and they have neither the firmness, colour, or flavour of those of the Usk. It is remarkable that the cray fish or fresh water lobster is found in many brooks running into the Wye ; but seldom, if ever, in those which fall into the Usk or Irvon. Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to remove them into the rivers of Caermarthenshire and Glamorganshire and even into some brooks communicating with the Irvon. which empties itself into the Wye ; but when thus conveyed, they soon disappear. They are not found dead, nor is the shell ever seen ; they, consequently, either emigrate, or are destroyed and totally devoured by the indigenous inhabitants of the stream, to which they are
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 13
thus unnaturally introduced and who perhaps dislike the company of these intruders. The sewin, (a fish in high estimation in part of South Wales) is not found in any of the rivers of Breconshire, except the Tawe. And here another observation occurs, though perhaps it has seldom if ever hern attended to. The sewin is not seen in any river running in tins county from Fast to West, but in all those flowing in a contrary direction, as the Teivi, the Towey, in Carmarthenshire and Cardigan- shire, and the Neath, the Avon, the Ogmore and other rivers. I leave this circumstanci t<> the natural philosopher to account for ; the fact is. as 1 have stated.
"In the Usk, the same fish are caught as in the Wye, except the pike, the grayling, the perch, the gudgeon, the cray fish and the muscle: but this river is celebrated princpially for its trout, which certainly is equal in flavour to any in the kingdom; it is in season from the beginning of March to the middle of July, and if not destroyed by poachers, who take them at every period in the year, and of all sizes, and particularly with a kind of net called a. perch net. which is suspended upon a long pole, by means of horn rings and is used in the night, they would form a. much more abundant, and of course a cheaper article of food, for a fourth of the year: but the pernicious and infamous practice of throwing unslaked lime into brooks, where it is known they resort to deposit their spawn, destroys them by myriads and does more mischief than can be well calculated at the same time that the fish thus killed are scarcely eatable.
FISH AND THEIR PRESERVATION.
" Geraldus Cambrensis, speaking of Breconshire, says,1 flxivialibua quogue Piscibus abundai quos hinc Osca inde Vaga ministrat ; Salmonibus etiam ct Trutis utraque,- sed plus Mis I aga phis istis Osca fcecunda est. In this, as in most other instances (when he has not a miracle in view) he is perfectly correct ; how highly then are we indebted to Providence who has formed in our rivers these abundant store houses for our use ' The benefits are obvious : but sufficient care is not taken to preserve and multiply the advantages which we might derive from so plenteous a source. We have seen and felt years of scarcity and are continually complaining of the high prices of provisions, at the same time that the ocean which surrounds our shores offers a never failing supply to our wants, and our rivers may considerably contribute to the same purpose ; yet man, weak and erring man, either neglects to use or endeavours to intercept the bounties of his Creator and to prevent his fellow creatures from par- ticipating in the blessings he bestows upon them. Foreigners, either more necessitous or more attentive to their interest, are permitted to avail themselves of our indolence and to deprive us of those riches which industry might make our own, while our rivers are obstructed with weirs to prevent us from receiving a supply evidently intended for the general good of the inhabitants of those lands through which they flow, and this in order to produce or promote a monopoly.3 The salmon are induced to ascend rivers for three purposes,4 safety from the porpus and other marine adversaries, in search of food or to deposit their spawn ; in the two first cases, the fish are in general active and healthy, and the flesh is, of course, firm and palatable, or (as it is called) in season. In this state, they frequently during floods in the spring and early part of the summer, travel to an amazing distance from the ocean in pursuit of their food, which is most abundant at this time of the year, consisting prin- cipally of the young of the trout and other fresh water fishes, as well as insects ; if the salmon, however, are obstructed when they quit the sea from either of these first mentioned motives, a very small obstacle drives them back again, and they perhaps never return. I say return, because it is very well known that the same fish always frequent the same rivers, and even the young fry are partial to the stream which first conveyed them to the sea. This is one among many of the serious mischiefs occasioned by these weirs, independent of the opportunities they afford the proprietors of increasing the scarcity and raising the prices at their pleasure ; but this is not the only mode which the selfishness of man has discovered to lessen the stores graciously sent him by the merciful Giver of all good things. The fish coming up to spawn are not deterred by ordinary difficulties, or prevented from their purposes by trifling impediments ; it is indeed wonderful to relate or consider what obstacles they will surmount to accomplish the great end of nature, but when they have made their way against the swiftest currents and even successfully resisted the force of cataracts, they are still frequently unable to escape from man, their greatest and most indefatigable adversary. Upon their
1 Itin. 1. 1. cap. 2. community, that all weirs should be abolished, and a satisfaction
2 " And there is salmons in both," says Fluellin. Was made to the proprietors by the inhabitants of the parishes in the Shakespeare thinking of Ger. Cambrensis 's description of Brecon- neighbourhood through which the rivers run. empowering them, shire, when he put this speech in the mouth of a character sup- at the same tune that the streams are free to all. under certain posed to be of that county ? regulations, to punish those who may be detected in taking
3 We would not be understood here to quarrel with the rights the fish with destructive net, or engines and at improper of fishery in the possession of individuals which they are clearly seasons.
and legally intitled to enjoy as freely and fully as any other * The fish are also infested with vermin at certain seasons,
species of property, but merely to submit it to the consideration which it is said they get rid of upon coming into fresh water, of the legislature whether it would not be for the good of the
14 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
approaching the source of rivers where the stream is shallow or diminished, their pursuer watches them near a narrow gully, and either in the day time, or by burning a bundle of straw at night, by the light of which they are attracted, strikes them with a spear formed for this purpose and drags them from their element at a time when the flesh is nauseous, if not unwholesome ; although the death of a single lisii is frequently attended with the destruction of millions in embryo, who would otherwise have contributed to the common Mock of the adjacent county. It is true, it may be said, that there are at present laws against their destruction in this manner and at this season of the year ; but these laws are become a dead letter, the unthinking peasant laughs at those penalties which he knows will never be enforced, and while the law sleeps, claims a right to exercise that avocation which good sense and sound policy, as well as the ordinance of the legislature, prohibit. A few words more upon this subject and it is concluded ; probably it will not be generally considered as of that serious import it deserves, but at a time when an additional number of mouths is introduced into the country and the neighbourhood,1 few if any of whom raise the twentieth part of the fruits of the earth they consume, any hint tending to promote the increase of provisions is of consequence and ought to be attended to." In the county of Brecon may be found at least 1,000 acres of land which either are or may be covered with water at a trifling expence and which are unfit for the general purposes of agriculture ; the number of brooks intersecting it in all directions and the quantity of water they convey is amply sufficient for forming a reservoir or pond in almost every farm within this district, which if stocked with fish would furnish a ready supply for the tables of private families or for sale in the public markets, and yet none of our farmers and few of our gentry seem to be fully sensible of these advantages. It is surely unnecessary to point them out or to observe at how cheap a rate they may be obtained and secured ; they lack neither labour or manure and the husbandman derives from them a never failing annual crop without the trouble of sowing or the expence of seed. Surely then I may be permitted to recommend to my countrymen that they would avail themselves of those capabilities" (not everywhere attainable) of adding to their stores and multiplying their resources, when this end can with so much facility be prompted and with so little difficulty be preserved."2
THE MOUNTAIN RANGES.
The county is intersected by four ranges of mountains. (1) A range in the extreme north of the county running east and west,' dividing the parish of Llanwrthwl from the Vale of the Yrvon. Amongst these mountains are found slate and lead, and on the north slopes are the mineral springs of Llanwrtyd and Llangammarch. Much of the north slope has been acquired by Birmingham. The highest point is Drygarn (Druids rock), 2,120 feet above the sea.
(2) The Epynt (ascent), a name familiar to English ears in Epping Forest. This line runs from Carmarthenshire across Brecknock from west to east, terminating in the Vale of Wye at Llyswen ; to the north of this range lies the hundred of Builth and the Vale of Yrvon; to the south the great Central Valley of the Usk, the ancient Brecheiniog, from which the modern county takes its name. The top of the Epynt presents no notable peak to the eye ; it is rather a plateau of great extent, having a sharp escarpment to the north ; the southern slope more gradual forming a series of dingles each with its brook flowing to the fertile valley of the Usk.
(3) The third, or Beacon range, runs from the Carmarthen Beacon on the west through the entire length of the county in an easterly direction forming the southern wall of the great Usk Valley, dividing the agricultural old red sand stone from the iron and coal basin. On their south slope are the Brecknock parishes of Ystradgunlais, Ystradfellte, Penderyn, and Vaynor, heads of mineral valleys, the lower parts of which are in Glamorgan. Still on the southern slope, but further eastward, are the parishes of Llechrhyd, Dukestown, Rassa, and Beaufort, in the geographical county of Brecknock, but placed in 1888 within the administrative county of Monmouth ; beyond them again is Brynmawr, in Brecknock, at the extreme south east, after which the range of mountains passes to the county of Monmouth. Towering amongst his gigantic neighbours rises the Brecknock Beacon, 2,900 feet in height, for sublime grandeur difficult to surpass. The great mass of mountain is old red sand stone. To the west the southern slope is carboniferous lime stone which crossing the hill on the Llangynidr side of the Dyffryn Crawnon dingle, forms, that magnificent escarpment on the north side of the mountain which is so notable a feature in the Vale of Crickhowell.
(4) The fourth and last range, rising at Buckland. north of the Yale of the Usk, here only a mile in breadth, stretches over six miles northward, having on the west Lake Llangorse, and on the east the Valley of Cwmdu. Here, turning on the mountain Mynnyddtroed as on a pivot, and sinking for a moment to the pass of Pen-y-cefn ffordd, only a thousand feet above the sea, the range continues
1 In the Iron Manufactories. 2 The Irvon lias nearly the same fish as the Wye.
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSH 1 1; K. 15
further ten miles to the north east, presenting a grand cliff from Talgarth to Hay, and throwing out to the south subsidiary ranges which enclose the Valleys of Cwmdu, Gwryne fechan, and Gwryne fawr, and others, which being in the counties of Monmouth and Hereford, are beyond the limits oi the present volume.
MOUNTAINS AS DESCRIBED BY JONES.
Theophilus Jones' description of the mountains is as follows : — " This county is intersected on the North and South by two long ranges of mountains, the one goes by the general name of Epynt, an obsolete word for hill, an ascent or slope : it begins on the West, on the confines of Carmar- thenshire, terminates on the East at Llyswen in Breconshire and divides for the greatest part of the line the hundred of Builth from the remainder of the county. The district tailed Gwlad Faullt or the country of Builth lies on the Northern side of Epynt ; the upper or Western part anciently belonged to the princes of Dinas fawr, now Dinevor, and in 1164 was granted by Rhys ap Griffith to the abbey of Strata Florida or Ystradfllur in Cardiganshire, and the vale of lrvon as wed as the Cwm or dingle through which the Whefri runs, together with the lands bordering on the Wye, were at different times parcel of the possession of the princes of Fferreg, 1 Fferregs, or Fferlex, the princes of Powis and the lords of Elvel : it was not 'till long after the conquest by Bernard Newmarch that it was considered as part of Brecknockshire. Philip de Breos was the first lord of Brecknock who united this tract, which he acquired by conquest, to those dominions he possessed in right of his wife, yet it was afterwards frequently dissevered from them by the Mortimers, and sometimes it formed part of the lordship of Melenydd in Radnorshire: nature indeed seems to have placed a formidable barrier between it and the more Southern parts of the county, from which it differs materially in soil and considerably in climate. The soil of those parts adjoining Caermarthenshire and Cardiganshire, consisting of what is commonly called mountain land, is mostly peat and full of bogs, while that of the vales is argil- laceous and has some resemblance in colour to the bark of an ash, the remainder of Breconshire is reddish sand or sandy loam upon a substratum of gravel, and wants a due proportion of clay to render it sufficiently tenacious for the general purposes of vegetation ; and the atmosphere of Builth. - which is much higher is of course colder than the greatest part of the hundreds of Talgarth, Merthyr, Penkelley and Crickhowel.
"The other range of mountains, dividing Glamorganshire and afterwards Monmouthshire from Breconshire, commences on the West with Bannau Shir-Gaer, or the Carmarthenshire beacons, from whence they run in a line nearly parallel with the Epynt hills, though inclining as they proceed more towards the South, and terminate in Monmouthshire ; having the vale of Usk on the North. Along this bleak and otherwise barren tract of high ground runs a vein of limestone, the course of which is minutely and accurately described in a curious old MS. lately published in (lie second volume of the Cambrian Reg'ster, supposed to have been wr'tten by George Owen, esq.3 The lime is first discovered in Pembrokeshire, it then crosses Carmarthenshire and enters Breconshire on the West at Twyn melyn, in the hamlet of Palleg. in the parish of Ystradgynlais, from thence it proceeds eastward to Cribarth, Penwyll or Pannau and to Carnau Gwynnion, in Ystradfelltc, soon after which it trends to the South East with the mountains, leaves the Brecknock beacons to the North, is again seen in Glyn-collwm and Pen-rhiw-calch and afterwards in Llanddetty, Llangynidr. Llangattock and Llanelly, when it enters into Monmouthshire. Upon our approach to this latter county, we have in Brecknockshire the vein of coal which supplies us principally as well as part of Radnorshire with that article ; to convey which, a canal has been lately cut to the town of Brecon, and in the neighbourhood of these collieries, iron works have been established and arc continually increasing, but these subjects will be more properly treated upon when I come to the description of the places or parishes where they are situated.
THE BLACK MOUNTAINS.
" Between the two ridges of mountains thus hastily travelled over, a third commences abruptly, at or near Talgarth, and is known in different places by the names of the Black mountains in Breck- nockshire and the Hatterell hills, in Hereforashire. From these another line brandies across in a direction from North to South about eight miles below Brecon, divining the hundred of Crickhowell
1 Rhosfferreg, now called Rhosferig, in Llanfihangel-bryn- vein of limestone from Pembrokeshire into Caermarthenshire
pabuan, was one of the mansions ,.f Klv.-tim ( il< idrydd, prince and so into Breconshire, he brings it from Blancollwm to Llan
of Fferreg, in 1010, and is now (1800) the property of one of las grwyne, " where it crosses the t'sk to Tavern Haeshir, further
lineal descendants. than tvhich (says he) 1 have not learned the course oi the said
- The neighbourhood of the town of Builth must here be vayne. " We were in hopes indeed we should have been able to
excepted, for near that place and from theme downward on the have treated this subject more aci ntat.lv as well as scientifically,
banks of the Wye, vegetation is as forward as in any part of but the gentleman to "1 i we were referred refused the requested
the county. * information, nol merely with abruptness, but rudeness, from an
3 Lord'of Kemeys in Pembrokeshire; he lived in the 17th apprehension (we presume) that «• were endeavouring to pilfer
century and left several MSS. behind him: after tracing the the secrets of his trade, in order to apply them to his prejudice
16 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
from the hundreds of Talgarth and Penkelley. In that portion of the county lying Eastward of this hill, the air is perceptibly milder and vegetation more forward than on the Western side of the pass called Bwlch ; it is however remarkable that though the quantity of rain falling in Brecon is nearly double that which falls in London in the same space of time, yet the atmosphere there is not much colder than that of the metropolis, though rather more variable. The great excess of rain observable on a comparison with a London meteorological journal may be easily accounted for, by the vicinity of Brecon to the Southern range of hills, and particularly to the Bannau Brecheiniog. The great height of the beacons frequently intercepts the clouds charged with watery particles in their passage from the South or South West, from whence the rainy wind generally blows ; thus separated or dis- persed they descend in rain, and it must be admitted that when these mountains are covered with snow, we occasionally feel —
The icy fang And churlish chiding of the winter's wind, Which bites and blows upon our bodies, Ev'n till we shrink with cold.
" But these inconveniences (if such they be) are amply compensated for by the advantages we derive from them : the rough blast that sweeps their tops brings with it ruddy health into our vallies and dissipates or drives before it those pestilential exhalations or fumes, which either nature or the works or wants of mankind produce to the prejudice of animal life ; hence epidemic disorders are seldom known, and never so fatal here as in large towns in England, and to these hills we may in a great measure attribute our protection from accidents by lightening, which are rarely heard of in their vicinity. Imagination can scarcely paint objects more sublime and picturesque than the three lofty peaks of those nearly precipitous elevations, and continued as they are by a long range of mountains, which is terminated by the conical Sugar-loaf near Abergavenny, they form such an outline as can only be described by the pencil ; the reader therefore is referred to the sketch at the bottom of the map of the county.
THE RAINFALL OF BRECKNOCK.
In considering the rainfall of Brecknock, the three years 1895, 1896, 1897, have been taken; these are the latest observations available at the time of writing. During those years, schemes to supply Birmingham and London with pure water from the mountains of Brecknock have excited intense interest, and the ranks of meteorologists, both professional and amateur, within the county, have been largely recruited. For the sake of comparison it may be stated that during the three years mentioned, gauges variously placed at Greenwich Observatory have shown readings varying from 13 inches to ■2-2. The driest parts of England have an average rainfall of about 21 inches; 30 inches may be an average for England and the more important agricultural districts of Scotland. Brecknock, exposed to the damp south west winds of the Atlantic, and opposing to them lofty mountains reducing the temperature to the point of saturation, has as large a rainfall as any found south of the Cumberland Lake country. The gauge at Nant y Car, in the parish of Llanwrthwl, with a mountain altitude of over 1,500 feet, gave in L897 a fall of 90 inches; further down the valley, at Nantgwilt, a point now submerged by the Birmingham reservoir, the gauge registered (Hi inches. In the Yrvon Valley, soon perhaps to be acquired for London, the high valley of Abergwessin has a rainfall varying from 60 to 75 inches ; at Builth, 500 feet lower, the fall is from 30 to 40 inches. In the south of the county, the gauge placed at Taff Vechan has registered the enormous total of over 101 inches, at an altitude of 2,100 feet. At Brecon, the fall has varied from 30 inches to 48 inches. At Crickhowell, the south side of the valley, influenced by the propinquity to the hills of Llangynidr, has a rainfall slightly higher than is found north of the Usk, the gauges registering 37 to 50 inches. The driest record in the county is at Gwernyfed, near Hay, which is sheltered by mountains to the south, and where the rainfall has been as low as 20 inches, and has not exceeded 40. For good or for ill, the destinies of Brecknock must be largely influenced by its rainfall ; to the mountains that cause it, to the rivers which are its result, we are indebted for the beauty of the scenery, for sheep pasturage, and for the sport of fishing. Yet it is a' heritage which has attracted the cupidity of great cities, which covet the water for domestic and commercial purposes, until it seems likely that in the immediate future fair valleys will be submerged beneath deep lakes. With what effect upon the future of the county ? Who can say !
READINGS OF INCHES OF RAIN WITH DECIMALS.
|
/•'( i t filmn |
Sea. |
Name of Station. |
1S95. |
1896. |
1897. |
|
|
1545 |
Llanwrthwl-Nant y C |
ar |
65. 15 |
78.85 |
90.45 |
|
|
1250 |
Clairwen |
46.65 |
62.05 |
62.95 |
||
|
764 |
Nantgwilt |
53.36 |
56.59 |
66.13 |
||
|
904 |
Yrvon-Abergwessin |
60.35 |
65.23 |
73.08 |
||
|
430 |
Builth |
31.03 |
30.87 |
40.20 |
|
74.54 |
101.54 |
|
55.05 |
75.87 |
|
32. G5 |
44.79 |
|
34.94 |
49.23 |
|
26 . 88 |
34.11 |
|
ve ground. |
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 17
Feet above Sea. Name of Station. 1895. 1890. 1897
South of the County.
2099 Tafi Vechan (No. 6) ' 88.65
860 Pentwyn Reservoir 60.89
447 Brecon Barracks 30.11
330 Crickhowell-Penmyarth 37.77
350 Gwernyfed— Hay 32.46
Diameter of all gauges, 5 inches, placed 1 foot
PLACE-NAMES OF BRECKNOCK.
Though archaeologists have here and there found what they deem to be indications of a previous race, the Celts are the earliest historical people of Wales. Starting, it is supposed, from the temperate regions of Central Asia, they have travelled across Europe, and are now to he found in the extreme West : in Ireland, Scotland! the Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany. The only method of tracing their place of origin is in a eomparity study of languages, from which a, well known Welsh professor has shown what manner of men they were. They lived in houses with doors, were possessed of cattle, horses, sheep and dogs ; they wore clothing of wool, from which is inferred their home was in a climate somewhat cold. Passing over the Continent, they have left behind them Celtic place- names, from which their journeying can he reconstructed. Here we arc only concerned with the subject so far as it is illustrated by the place-name's of the county of Brecknock.
The place names of Wales, a standing joke amongst those in whose ears they have an unaccus- tomed sound, are generally words "I much beauty, never without signification, conveying with accuracy the position of the place indicated, or the natural character which prevailed when the name was given, preserving the memory of historical events which have passed from the written records of the nation ; even, as has been above stated, enabling the student to dive into the dim recesses of the past and say, with an approach to certainty, of our primeval ancestors whence they came and what manner of men they were. Thus from a study of its names, we may view our own county again a land of moor and woodland untouched by the hand of man. replenish its valleys with wolf and deer, and connect our own people with their Eastern forefathers whose migrations it is beyond our purpose here to follow, but which may become clear to any enquirer who will note on the map of Europe names Celtic in origin, and possessing the same root as those which we find around us in Brecknock.
Before dealing with the names of our own county, a word as to Wales collectively may not be without interest. In nearly every country the people call themselves "the people"; strangers, not understanding this speech, give them some name by which the fact is emphasised. The Germany amongst themselves are "Deutsche" the people: to the French they arc " Alle Manni," other men. To the Creeks the tongue of foreigners sounded an inarticulate " Ha Ha." so they termed them barbaroi. The Welsh call themselves "Cwrnri," the compatriots, while the Teutons, to whose each the foreign tongue sounded an inarticulate Wa-W'a, styled the land Wales a foreign place. Conveying the same idea are other words. Walnut, the foreign nut, the German word waller to wander, from which wallet, the sack of the wandering pilgrim. The name can be traced round the whole circuit of Teutonic occupancy. Walschland is their name for Italy; the Germans of Heme call their Southern neighbour Canton Wallis. Nearer home is Corn-wall, the last syllable of which was originally Wales.
The Teutonic W and the Celtic C being convertible letters, we get by mutation of the first letter the root "Gal," our l'rince of Wales becoming in France Le Prince de Galles. The same rule being applied to the name of Wales, it becomes connected with Gaul, with Cal-Edoreia, Gal-way and Galla- wav : possibly with Ar-gyle, with Donegal, and with Portu-gal.
RIVER NAMES, LOCAL AND GENERAL.
Of special value in the investigation of primeval history are river names. Over the greater part of Europe we find villages with appellations of later date standing by streams still bearing Celtic names. Throughout England there is scarcely a river name that is not Celtic; nearly the sole evidence that survives of a once universal Celtic occupation of the land. River names are divided into two classes. (I) words signifying water, (2) adjectives marking the nature of the stream, smooth or swift, clear or mudilv. glassv or black, and so on. Six Celtic words meaning water give names to the principal rivers in Europe — Wysg, Wye, Dwr, Rhin, Don, Afon ; of these the two first are of primary importance to us. Wysg water and the related Gwy. a channel, will be recognised as the Usk and Wye, round which two rivers are grouped the main features of the county of Brecknock. The names indicate that to our untravelled ancestors these two rivers were to them "the water" to the exclu- sion of all others. Besides the Usk there is in this county the Eskir, from the same root. To it, also,
18 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
etymologists refer the Exe, with its towns of Ex-eter and Ex-mouth. The Axe, giving its name to Ax-minster ; Uxbridge conveys a hint that the Colne on the Roman Colonia, on which it stands, may once have home the name of Ux. The Ocke joins the Thames near Oxford, while Thames itself, Tam-isis the broad water, bears in its latter syllables the same word. Wisford, Wisley, Wiston, and the. Wash in the East of England own the same parentage, while the waters of them all may be diluted with whiskey, or usque bach, under which names of water the Scotch and Irish delicately con- ceal the strong drink of their country. Abroad there are, in Spain the Esca ; in France the Ose ; in Germany, Ise and Axe ; in Italy the Issa ; in Southern Austria, Istria (Is-terra) a country half land and half water, with its capital Trieste. Tre-este, the same word compounded with Tre, a town, word common with us, and meaning the town by the sea. From the closely related word Guy or Wy, we get the Wye, which forms the North Eastern boundary of Brecknock. There is a river Wey in Hamp- shire, Dorset, and Surrey ; it occurs in combination in Con-way and Vryn-wy, both in Wales. In the Solent, formerly Ye wyth, the channel, is the Isle of Wight (Ynys y Wyth) possibly still preserving the name. Similar river names exit in France and Germany.
Dwr is a third word signifying water ; it does not occur within the county as a river name, though Gwen-ddwr (" white water ") is the name of a parish. Amongst the English lakes the same combina- tion occurs in Derwet-water. In the neighbouring county of Hereford the brook Dore gave its name to Abbey-Dore. Miswritten by the Normans Abbey Dor, the Abbey of Gold, it gave rise to the faulty translation "The Golden Valley." The word is common in all parts of the British Isles, in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, where the Douro is great amongst the rivers of Europe.
The two great rivers of the county being thus the water and the river, smaller streams need a closer and more accurate description, that people may know at once what stream is meant. The colour of the water appeals to the eye for beauty or picturesqueness. The Romans loved to call the Tiber " Flavus," the yellow river. The Zankins had a similar meaning. With us Nant-melyn, the yellow stream, rises amongst the high lands of Llanwrthwl. Nant-gwyn is the white brook. Du-ar, black water, a stream at Llanelly. Du-las at Hay (Du-glas) black green, may be followed elsewhere in the patronymic Douglas ; perhaps in the name of another stream Bran, the raven, the same idea is expressed. It would be ungrateful in the present writer to omit Nant-y-glo, the Coal Brook, to whose black diamonds the South East corner of the county owed, half a century ago. its sudden burst of prosperity.
The swift flowing mountain streams may be indicated in Flan. " the hind," northern boundary of Brecknock ; into the same valley flows Nant Garw, the rough stream, a name which may possibly be traced in Grwyne-Garw-wye ; more certainly in Garway in Hereford, and elsewhere in the Garry, the Yarrow, and the Garonne. Nant-garw, another of the names at Swansea, was well known as a manu- factory of porcelain. In the south of the county flows the Mellte, the darting stream (melten, a thunderbolt); in Llangynidr the Vail ( >. Hual strong water) once gave its name to a church; in the same neighbourhood the same rapid may be rendered by Crawnant (Cryw-nant). the Bucks brook, near to which Buckland has borne its name from early times. Bwch, the Buck, gives its name to a second stream, and Cray, a deer, to yet another. Nant y flaiddast, brook of the wolf, and Nant-y-hebog, the hawks brook, still indicate the mildness of the scenery, or perhaps preserve the memory of a savage fauna now extinct.
THE LLYNFI BROOK.
In opposition to their mountain torrents let us place Llynfi, the brook from Llyn (the lake), in old books the stream is written Leveni ; lefu (smooth) being appropriate to a lake, and giving its name alike to the mountain tarn, haunt of teal and wild duck ; and to the stiller pools of Wye, where the salmon, tired with travel from the sea, may rest awhile ere he continue his laborious ascent. The reader need scarcely be reminded of Loch Leven in Scotland, and may possibly observe the same root in the Irish Lean; the Lain in Cornwall; the Lincoln; Kings Lynn; Linlcthgow ; Linton, and so on. The more graceful aspect of our rippling streams is further illustrated in Cledau, the sheltered brook and the pebbly bed of Nant-y-gro. Generally this may be worthy of note, that amongst the steep valleys of Northern Brecknock, the names of brooks generally indicate tumultuous descent. To those that have been mentioned may be added Nant y Rhostir, brook of the Moorland, from Rhos y Moor, we may pluck " rush " the moorland plant. Nant-rhydd-coch, the brook of the red ford, seems also to tell of mountain and heather ; Yrfon is derived by Jones from Yr mawn, oozing from peat. Dihonow, entering Wye a mile below Builth, is Du-nawn-Wye, the black swift water. The Llogan lake and brook (from halogan corrupted) mark one and all the nature of the landscape. On the southern slope of the Beacon range the limestone rock, worn by the water drop of ages into caves and crevice, will sometimes conceal its stream, now tumbling headlong into sub- terranean chasm, now burrowing amidst boulders ; whence, while the bed is dry beneath the foot of
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 10
the traveller, can be heard the murmuring of the hidden brook, remarkable features leading to char- acteristic nomenclature. One brook is Turch (a hog) from it- burrowing propensity; another Eepste (dried tip), he-pin meaning a ewe which gives no milk; Sych Rhyd (the dry turd) conveys a similar idea. It would !>■• interesting to search for names of similar meaning at Adelsburg in South Austria, where the same natural features exist on a far larger seale
STREAMS IN THE COUNTY
The water plant in lied or on bank may give the name of its parent stream. Brwynog, the rushy; Nant v craft', pool of garlic, the scent of which is strong in the nostril of the fisherman as he eats his frugal meal by Wye side; Pull berrw, the pool of water cress; Cerdin, the mountain ash; and many another, bring back to the memory scenes of beauty amongst which is east the lot of them who love the gentle craft. In a county so justly esteemed by the angler, the enquiry might be pushed further, each likely spot where the salmon will rise, each stream noted for trout has its proper name. Two mile- below "Builth, where the Wye for about half a mile surges through a narrow cleft in the rock, there are in succession Ffrwd wen' the white stream ; next Hell hole, the danger of which is conveyed by its name; Cavarn hir, the long caravan; Graig ddu, whose "black rock "rears its angry head above the waters, after which Wye. delivered from its arduous passage, flows into Llyn hen,' the Old pool, mentioned in history as being near the residences of the Welsh princes at Aberedw. Similiarly on the Usk are the Dwfnant, the deep stream; Nant y fin (tin is a boundary), where the parishes' meet ; and Cam pull, where Usk makes a bent elbow a mile and a half above Crickhowell. Cam-bent is a common word in brook names. The Cam at Cambridge gives the names in its simple form. Arms "a kimbo " gives the bent arm of the defiant roysterer. In Scotland, an ill-favoured chieftain of Loehiel has given to a elan the name of Cam-eron, wry-nosed, while amongst us the squint-eve of the brave David Llewelyn (the Fluelyn of Shakespeare) has left his better known soubroi- quet of' David Gam (" squinting David ") as a name Games, honourably borne in the 10th century by many a good man and true.
Towns, farms, and houses, are very commonly named from the position they occupy with regard to the rivers on which they stand. The amphitheatre of hills from which each streamlet flows is .ailed a " cum." Anglicised to Combe it is well-known as Ilfra-combe, Wy-combe, and perhaps in Cum-berland. Here, in nearly every valley is a house bearing the name Cwm-onney ; Cwm-elan, the Cu-mdu, the black valley; Llandewi yr Cw'm, St. David's in the vale, separates the parish from others named after the same Bishop.
Blaen, the foremost part gives its name to places facing the brook. The ruined Castle of Blaen- llvnn faces Llynfi ere it flows into Llangor.se; Blaena and Blaenavon are well-known neighbouring towns. Gian, '"on the banks of," gives name to one or more houses by every river. Cynimer, the meeting of two brooks, gives its name to Cofn-Coed-Cymmer, the town placed at the spot where the greater" and lesser Taf mingle their waters. Of Aber. "the mouth," where brook falls into river, or river into sea, it is hardly necessary to give instances. For health, we seek Aber-ystwith, or Bar- mouth, name corrupted from Aber-mowddog ; we sing of the bells of Aber-dovey ; we trade at Aber- gavenny • while our country town ol Brecon is still in the Welsh tongue Aberhonddu, where the brook Honddu joins the I'sk.
MOUNTAIN NAMES.
Mountain names must be treated at less length than those of rivers. Pen, a head, is common through Wales. Cornwall, and elsewhere. The top of Crickhowell hill has two peaks, respectively Pen- eerrig-calch and Pen-cloch-Piboa (the Piper's .lock). Pen-pont is a parish near Brecon. For a county, Pem-broke, the head of the land ; in Scotland. Ben Nevis, and others ; abroad, the Pen-nine Alps, and the A-penn-ines. Bryn. a brow, we know well ; Bryn-mawr, the great brow, is our one mining town; abroad wc hear of Bran-denbug ; and those who' have travelled in the Tyrol will remember the Bren-ner pass. Cefn, a ridge, gives its name to Cefn-coed, once a wooded ridge, now teaming with a mining population. Pen y genffordd, (Pen-y-cefn ffordd). head of the ridge road, occurs twice within the limits of the count v.' Coed, a wood, the second component in Cefncoed, used throughout the county with car (a field); Coed-car, the rough field enclosed from the mountain and attached to nearly every hill side farm. Nearly allied is Maes, a field; Tal-y-maes, the head of the field; Maes- derwvn oak field: Maes-celyn, holly field; Gwlydd vacs, corrupted into Gliffacs, the dewy field, between Myarth hill and Usk. where the mist of the river, penned in a narrow valley, has fallen in excessive moisture since it first bur.' the name in the .lavs of Giraldus Cambrensis ; Erw, an acre; Gil, a corner; and dol, a meadow; will each occur to everyone as an ordinary prefix, bul space will not admit or examples. Garth has been dealt with in discussing the ancieni name of Garthmadryn. Talgarth is the front of the Garth; Taly-bont the head of the "bridge ; Tal-yllyn, the front of the lake; Hay is a
20 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
place hedged around, and is the name of the frontier town bewixt Wales and England, commonly prefixed by the definite article ; here we speak of the Hay as in France they have La Haye Sainte. It is the same as the German words " hag." a town, and " hagen " to hedge ; it is contained in the ha-ha fence, and haw thorn is the beautiful hedge flower.
Dinas, a fortress, occurs several times in the county. Amongst the northern hills the slate quarries of Alt Dinas; at Llanwrtyd, Dinas, place of origin of I he Lloyd family, who have named after it their house of Dinas, near' Brecknock. South of Talgarth is the manor of Dinas, taking its name, perhaps, from Dinas Castle, perched on a lofty ridge, commanding the pass from Crickhowell to the north. We hear the altic root, dun. a hill fortress, in Lon-don. and abroad in Thun and Au-tun, once August! dunum, the fortress of Augustus. Caer is the Celtic equivalent to Castra, a camp. Gaer at Cumdu is said to have been the summer quarters of a legion. Gaer as Aberyskir is more clearly marked, the square with a cemetery at one corner being characteristic of the abiding place of a Roman army. If other Caers you seek, journey to Caer-marthen, Caerphilly, or Car-drff (Caer-taff). Let us mention a few historical names, and have done. The Dinas and the Gaer tell of Briton or Roman, the Castle of Norman or later Welsh prince ; yet in every case the name is des- criptive, the builder has passed from mortal ken ; here and there some battle of bygone days is hinted at. Rhos-y-beddau, "the moorland graves," at Llanwrthul, tell of an old time slaughter: at Cefn-y-bedd, "the ridge-grave," Llewelyn, last Prince of Wales, met his death. Ynys y marchog, " Knicht's island," recalls the ancient days of chivalry. Battle was a cell to Battle Abbey. Tir-abbot, "abbot's land;" Wern y mynael, "monk's meadow:" Monaehty, "the Monk's dwelling;" Chaunter's Wood " the spital or hospice," Pont escob, " the Bishop's bridge," speaks of a day when ecclesias- tics possessed a goodly slice of the land; Nantyrarian, "the brook of silver," near Builth, reminds us that when the plague raged, in its cleansing waters was placed the money due to country folk for food supplied the stricken town. To those who care to make the attempt, the place names of nearly every parish would provide research of much interest, but want of space prevents our pursuing the subject further.
CHAPTER II.
History continued from the Invasion of the Romans during their stay in Britain and after their departure, to the Reign and Death of Brychan Brycheiniog about the year of Christ 450.
ROMAN INVASION OF THE COUNTY.
NOTWITHSTANDING what has been said in the former chapter, writes Theophilus Jones', "concerning the division of South Wales into Sylhvg or Owenl and Dyfed may seem sufficient perhaps tedious to the reader, it is absolutely necessary, before I proceed t<> notice the Roman invasion of this country, to dwell a few minutes longer upon the same subject.
"From the authorities already mentioned, as well as several others which might be collected, it is clearly seen that the inhabitants of South Wales consisted of two several tribes, the one calling themselves by the names of Syllwyr, Rssyllwyr or Gwenhwyswyr, and the other Dyfedwyr or Gwyr Dyfed. The current tradition of a very remote period (which in this instance is entitled to nearly equal credit with historic documents) has conveyed to posterity the distinction and the difference of dialect, as well as manners, between the men of Gwent and Morganwg and those of Dyfed, in Brecon- shire and Carmarthenshire, at this day confirms the fact : but however well known this might have been to the natives, it is by no means clear that the early Roman authors wire acquainted wit 1 1 the circumstance; on the contrary it will be evident that Tacitus and all other foreign waiters before Ptolomy. describe the whole of South Wale- as (he country of the Silures. I will not now take upon me to determine, nor could it perhaps pertinently be discussed, whether the British word Syllwyr travelled from Wales into England and from thence to Rome, where ii became the parent of Silures, or whether the latter appellation was not immediately applied to this region by the Romans, upon their first bird's eye view from .Malvern or some other commanding eminence on the borders of Wales, as peculiarly descriptive of the general appearance of the Southern part of the principality, at that time entirely covered with wood.
THE LAND OF THE SILURES.
"Pliny, speaking of Ireland, says it is distant only thirty miles from the country of the Silures; here it is clear that by the latter he meant Pembrokeshire, evidently part of Dyfed to every British reader. Tacitus ' mentions only the Silurum (ions as conquered by Julius Frontinus, though it is certain that the greatest part of South Wales was overrun by that victorious commander Mr. Pinkerton con- ceives the term Silures to have been rather generic than confined: 'the whole South of England (says he) was possessed by the ]'>elg;e. save Devonshire and Cornwall, in which and in the South half of Wales dwelt the Silures. a numerous people in two nations; the Dumnonii Southmost and the Demetas in South Wales.'
"That the Dumnonii were Silure; (continues lie) appears (dear from this, that Tacitus says the Silures lived opposite to Spain and the Dumnonii were in fact the only people opposite to Spain: the chief of the Scilly islands is called Silura by Solinus and the present name seems to spring from it, besides the Silures are mentioned as a vast people, like the Belgce and Cimbri, and must of course have had various tribes, for if they were only one tribe in South Wales, as supposed. Tacitus would not have mentioned them as a distinct race, for they would have been loo minute for notice: we may therefore very fairly conclude with Mr Pinkerton, that however the natives described and sub- divided themselves, under the generic term Silures, the It an historian meant when he spoke of the
conquest by Frontinus, the whole circuit of South Wales or Deheubarth, the inhabitants of which uniting in one common cause and probably led on by one tijwysog, leader or general en chef, were naturally enough regarded ami spoken of by foreigners as one people.
OSTOEIUS SCAPULA, FIRST ROMAN GENERAL TO PENETRATE SOUTH WALES. "The first Roman general, whom we know with any certainty to have penetrated into South Wales was Ostorius Scapula, who came into Britain in the year of Christ 51 ; for though his predecessor Plautius had several battles with Caradoc or Caractacus, yet whether Caractacus made incursions into what were then considered a- the Roman territories ,,r was attacked in his own does not appear; that he was a very troublesome neighbour is evident for Tacitus says " non atrocitate non dementia mutabatur, quin bellum exceret eastrisque legionum premendo foret." For nine years did Caractacus with
22 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
his half-armed, undisciplined and almost naked troops defy the veteran Roman legions, cased in armour and accustomed to victory. The author of Drych y prif Oesoedd, or the mirror of former times, saj's, he fought thirty battles and that though he did not come off with a whole skin in all of them, he acquired much glory anil great credit to himself for his personal valour, as well as his skill as a general. The Silures, however, under his conduct, were unfortunately attacked and overpowered by the Romans in Shropshire, in the neighbourhood of Knighton (as 1 conceive), and victory at last, after a hard contest, declared in favour of the assailants, by which the entry of Ostorius into South Wales was facilitated, though it by no means effected an entire conquest. The writer1 of the Welsh work just mentioned, whose patriotism may be admired, though his zeal cannot always be com- mended, speaking of Caractacus, says ' Efe a ymgyrchodd naw mlynedd a holl gadernid Rufain, ac a allasai ymdoppi naw eraill, oni bu'sei ei fradychu ef gan langces ysgeler o'i wlad ei hun a elwir Curtis fin-ddu. Ei araith tuag at annog ei sawdwyr. a gosod calon ynddynt, oedd at yr ystyr hvn ; L byd- dwch bybur a nerthol, 0 Frutaniaid ! yr ydym yn ymladd ym mhlaid yr achos goreu yn y byd ; i amddiffvn ein gwlad an hciddo a'n rhvdd-did rhac Carn-Ladron a Chwiw-gwn. Atgofiwch wroldeb eieh teidau yn gyrru Iul Caesar ar ifo ; Caswallon, Tudur bengoch. Gronw gethin, Rhydderch wyneb- glawr, 'a Madoc benfras.' Ar ol ei fradychu i ddwylo ei elynion, fe a ddycpwyd yn rhwym i Rufain, lie bu cymaint o orfoledd a Llawenydd, a dawnsio a difvrrwch, o ddal Caradoc yn garcharwr, a phe buasid yn gorthtreehu gwlad o Gewri," (For nine years he opposed the whole force of the Romans, and he could have resisted them nine years longer if he had not been betrayed into their hands by a dirty drab, though one of his own country women, of the name of black-faced Curtis.2 His address, to encourage and inspirit his soldiers, was to this effect : ' Britons ' Be valiant. Be firm. We are fighting in the noblest cause in which we can be engaged in life : in defence of our country, in the protection of our property and for the preservation of our liberty against a horde of highway- men and hirelings.3 Call to mind the valour of your forefathers Cassibelaun, Tudor the red hair'd, Gronw the terrible, Roderick Broad-face and Madoc Stout-head, who made Julius Caesar turn his back upon our island.' When Caractacus was taken prisoner, he was sent bound to Rome, upon which event there was as much singing, rejoicing, dancing and merry making, as if a nation of giants had been conquered.) The speech of the unfortunate Briton before the emperor Claudius, is now so well known and has been so often repeated by the English historians, as to become familiar to most readers ; but it is very extraordinary, that not a syllable is mentioned in the Welsh chronicle of Tyssilio about this battle, or the hero who stood so high in the opinion even of his enemies.
THE ROUTE OF OSTORIOUS.
" It is impossible to trace with anything like accuracy, the route of Ostorius after this engage- ment. Much must depend upon conjecture, yet if that maj' be permitted, it should seem that he crossed over into Herefordshire and from thence into Caerleon in Monmouthshire, then through Glamorganshire along the sea coast and the line where one branch of the Julia Strata afterwards ran, to Caermarthen, and that he returned through Breconshire : in which case, he passed the sites of the stations, Magnis, Gobannitfm, Burrium, Isca Legionum, Bovium, Nidum, Leucarum, Maridunum, or Muridunum, Bannium or Bannio ; now called Kentehester, Abergavenny, Usk, Caerleon, Boverton, Neath, Loughor, Caermarthen, Caer near Brecon, and also Gaer in Cwmdu, the Roman name of which is lost. In this circuit, he employed his cohorts either to repair, to fortify, or to erect some of these military strong-holds on or near the sites of British camps, or else (as I am more inclined to believe) he must after the defeat of Caractacus, have crossed Radnorshire, from East to West, into the heart of Brecknockshire, by a British intrenchment then called Caer-van or Caer-bannau, where he built the station now called Gaer, and from thence he proceeded to Caermarthen ; further than this place (says Camden4) Antoninus continues not his journey,5 and further Westward I do not apprehend the Roman arms penetrated in the time of Ostorius, nor indeed for many years after-
1 The Rev. Theophilus Evans, formerly vicar of Llangammarch, of the. human species, who comes and goes, fetches and carries, in Breconshire. The hook was published at Shrewsbury in 1740, upon being whistled to.
and reprinted at Merthyr Tydvil in 1803: The quotation is given l Britannia.
in his own language, because he had a remarkable peculiarity of 5 Richard of Cirencester, after Leucarum, (omitting Muri-
style, which most of his countrymen admired. dunum) adds Vigessimum and Menapia, supposed to be Narberth
2 It is not necessary to inform the Welsh render that this is and Saint David's, but these two latter stations were certainly not a literal translation, any more than the speech of Caractacus not built in the time of Ostorius ; and if his route was that which as given by Mr Evans, ran he supposed to he the very words We have laid down, the intermediate fortress of Bravinio and delivered by the hero to his troops, " vocabatque nomina Magnis, or Kentehester and Ludlow, and perhaps Ariconium majorum " is the phrase of Tacitus. Curtis fun ddu, is a fanciful or Wroxeter, were not erer-ted till the time of Suetonius Paulinus, Wallicism fur Cartismandua. or the conquest of the Ordovices by Agricolo, in the year of
3 Chwiwgi it Whiwgi, of which Chwiwgwn is the plural, can- Christ 79, when they were raised to support and protect the not he literally translated as it is here understood, lint as nearly communications between the Roman settlements in North and as it can be explained in English, it means a contemptible animal South Wales.
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 23
wards. From Caermarthen he turned Eastward through Glamorganshire to Caerleon, which then became the beau quarters of the second legion.
If this was the mute that Ostorious pursued, the road or line of communication between Oaer in Breconshire and Caerleon in Monmouthshire was not established, or the stations of Gaer in Cwmdu, Gobannium, and Burrium erected till after the irruption into Wales ; at the same time it is highly probable that most of the Roman fortresses in this county were built during the life of this general, for we learn from Tacitus, that lie placed troops in them to defend his conquest,1 who were after- wards attacked with such success by the inhabitants, that he broke his heart when he perceived he was unable to complete their subjugation.
REMARKS ON BRITISH FORTRESSES.
" Before I proceed to notice the oldest station in Breconshire admitted to be Roman, the reader will excuse the digression, if I say a few words upon British fortresses ; a subject so well and so learnedly discussed by Mr. King, in his first volume of Monumenla antiqua, that 1 should not have presumed to follow him, if fortune, in recompense for the superior abilities he possesses, had not bestowed upon me one advantage in which he is deficient ; my countrymen will probably anticipate the observation 1 am about to make. The knowledge of the Welsh language (which inclination as well as residence in the country has induced and enabled me to attain) is so absolutely necessary to a traveller among British antiquities, that without it he cannot take three steps without the risk of breaking his neck. The want of this knowledge has actually occasioned the fall of the learned writer I have just named, though he will rise 1 make no doubt of it, with little or no injury. This defect has precipitated him headlong in the beginning of his journey, from one of the highest hills in Eng- land. He proceeds to climb it with great caution ; looks to the right, then to the left, and after assigning various reasons why Malvern cannot be a Roman, a Danish, a Saxon, or a Norman en- trenchment, he concludes that it is a British fortress, and the retreat of Owen Glyndwr. In the latter conjecture, he is not supported by history or tradition ; in the inference preceding he may in some measure be correct, because this naturally strong hold may have frequently served for the pur- pose of defence ; hut if he had been conversant in the British tongue, he would have known that the principal and earliest use to which the summit of the hill was appropriated was the assemblage of the Druids, when they acted in the three-fold capacities of legislators, priests, and judges. Malvern. with very little alteration, is Moel y yarn : these words arc pure Welsh, and signify the high court or seat of judgment.
'"The original British fortress was nothing more than an almost inaccessible or precipitous rock or natural wall. To these heights men were at first driven for safety from wolves and other wild beasts, when the country was thinly inhabited and the low-lands entirely covered with wood ; thither they retired at night for rest, and from thence they sallied forth in the day time in search of food. These therefore were not originally intended so much for defence against man, as against the brute creation, though they were afterwards used as stations, from whence they might more effectually annoy or with greater security resist the attacks of enemies of their own species. This most ancient and always natural British fortification, was called Dinas, — and here again, 1 am sorry to observe, King has been misled by a Welshman. Dinas (says he. upon the authority of Rowland in his Mi, nn Antiqua) is derived from dinesu, from men's associating together. There is no such word in the Welsh language as dinesu. Nesu. or as we write it in South Wales, nesau, is (it is true) to draw near or to approach ; but di-nesu, if the word could lie justified, instead of associating or bandying, or rather banding to- gether, would be to retire, to retreat, or (Unhand. Dinas is derived from the old Celtic word Pun, pronounced nearly like Deen in Knglish, and is frequently found in the names of places in Scotland ; it signifies a lofty fortification or strong hold.
"When the Dinas became too small for the family, it was necessary thai part of them should seek for other Dinasoedd ; but as these impregnable rocks could not be everywhere met with, still preferring elevated situations, they settled upon the Bannau or summits of hills ; here however they were obliged to supply by their labour what nature had denied, as the approach to these situations was less difficult and consequently more liable to the incursions of an enemy, they found it prudent to protect themselves with high ditches, or ramparts of earth and stone. The inclosures within these intrenchments were called Caer or Gaer, in the plural Caerau or Gaerau, from the verb Can or Caued, to shut up, to inclose or surround with a fence, ditch or wall. For several centuries, the word Gaer has been most commonly applied to signify a military station or inclosure, but it is in many parts of
1 Aiinal. Li I.. 12. cap. 8.
24 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
Wales used synonymously with Cae, a field : thus in a humorous song attributed (I believe) to Lewis Morris, called Caniad Bugail Tregaron, or the song concerning the pastor of Tregaron :
Ac wrth ei bwys v gryimai'r llawr, And the earth shook with his weight,
Trwy Gaerau mawr Tregaron. A3 lie ran o'er the large inclosures of Tregaron.
So also in Edward Richard's Bugeilgerdd or pastoral :
Mae llawer un lliwus, er byw yn helbulus, Fall oft the peasant's cheek we view,
Na pluoli hwyil Masus a melus i'r rain, (Tho' poor his fare) of roseate hue ;
A'i fwthin di-foethau heb fel nag afalm. What tho' no dainties grace his board,
Na chnai yn ei Oaerau nag eirin. Nor sloes or nuts his fields afford.
Although no honey fills his hives, Nor near his cot the apple thrives ; Content supplies his scanty store With ruddy health ; nor seeks he more.
THE l'.ENNI CAERBANNI NEAR BRECON.
" One of these Caerbannau1 or hill entrenchments, is seen on an eminence now corruptly called Benni, about two miles North West of Brecon, and about half a mile South East of the confluence of the Eskir into the Usk.
"The original name of this fortress must have been Cacrvan.2 Near to this camp, but still nearer to the fall of the Eskir into the Usk, the Romans erected a station, which from the British Han, they called Bannio,3 Castrinn Bannii, or Bonium ami Castrum Bonii. The genitive case of this Latinized British word produced the present name of Benni, by which the hill is now known ; at its foot is a village softened according to a rule continually occurring and well understood in Welsh, into Venni. the modern name for Abergavenny.
JONES' EXPLANATION OF BANNIO.
' ' Bomium Nidus and Abone4 (says Horsley in his essay upon the Chorographer of Ravenna)
must, I doubt.be fished3 out of the two names Jupannia and Albinunno, if we find them at all.
Isca and Bannio are doubtless Caerleon and Abergavenny, and Bannio put for Gobannio in the Itinerary.' Gently, gently, good sir! a little scepticism is allowable upon this occasion. The Roman dress has certainly made a wonderful alteration in the appearance of our Welsh ladies, and it must be admitted that those who have introduced them to us, have made them dance the hay in a very ridiculous manner : those however who have brought them up in the same school from infancy, may possibly be able to identify them even under their disguises, and may succeed (though with difficulty) in restoring them to their proper places, at least I trust the attempt will be considered as commend- able. Under Bannio. therefore, I recognize the features of Ban, Bannau, Benni and Venni, as I do also of Go-bannau, the lower or lesser Bannau or Venni in Gobannio, which has undergone a still further state of disfiguration in Jupannia, supposed to he Caerdiff, by Mr Baxter of happy conjecture,
(as Mr Harris,5 whether j isely or seriously, I protest 1 am not able to discover, most happily calls
him). Baxter, indeed, has bestowed upon us so much learning, so much Greek, so much Latin, and so much knowledge of the religions and languages of the Armenians, and the Egyptians, and the Teutones, and the Samothracians, &c, &c. ; and above all. has introduced so many happy conjectures to demonstrate that Caer ar daaf6 abbreviated into Caerdaaf and Cardiff, means Jupapannia (here the rogue has slily interpolated two letters to support his hypothesis) that I can scarcely prevail upon myself to attempt to deprive him of the benefits of his great labour, and I am only comforted with the recollection, that even if I fail, it is probable his Greek and Latin will be read when my ephemeral lucubrations, anil consequently the folly of this attack, will lie forgotten. In justice, however, to Richard of Cirencester and Stukely his commentator, 1 cannot help agreeing with them that Caerdiff was in all probability Tibia Amnis ; and to me it seems clear that Caerdydd7 the main prop of
1 When the Caerau increased, the Dinas was considered as Glamorganshire, in the last century; he appears to have been the metropolis, or residence of the tywysog, the general or leader a man of great learning and abilities, which we fear were not of the whole country; thus for several centuries afterwards, we find sufficiently rewarded.
the courts of t lie princes of North and South Wales called i; Taaf-wy, Tawe and Teivi, from whence Tibia means the same
Dinasoedd (though they were no longer rock fortresses) as thine, ;. 6. the winding water: in Taaf. the word wy or water
Dinas Aberffraw, Dinas Murthrafael, Dinas Pengwern and Dinas is .hopped, though it is preserved 111 some measure 111 both the
fawr or Dinevor. other rivers; Thames is of the same family, with the addition of
2 The v here is used to accommodate the eyes and ears of the sibillating Saxon s. The r or / and m are continually English readers, the modem way of writing the word is Caerfan, changing places, and are as it were equivocal 111 the old British, though Mr. Owen in his dictionary and other publications is This, by the assistance of a valuable and ingenious friend, will endeavouring to restore the v, which certainly was in use in the be more fully shown hereafter.
13th century. " " Caerdyf Britannice, hodie Cacrdiidh vocatur sed corrupte,"
3 Anonymous Chorography of Ravenna. says the annotator on Giraldus Cambrensis's Itinerary, cap. 6. So
4 Horsley's Brit. Rom. Lib. 3. Jupannia seems also to have been a corruption of Gobannau or
5 He was a prebendary of Llandaff, and curate of Caerau, in Gobannio, Abergavenny.
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 25
Baxter's conjecture, from whence he would wish us to believe it was Jupiter's town) is a corruption long subsequent to the time of the Romans.
THE CiAER NEAR BRECKNOCK.
"But to return to Gaer near Brecon. Mr. Harris,1 in a letter to the Society of Antiquarians, supposes this fortification to have hern the Magnis2 of Antoninus (Magna of Richard of Cirencester). Horsley lias satisfactorily proved that there was no Roman station at Old Radnor, though the learned had agreed for some time that this was the scite of Magnis ; yet though this station is thus blown out of Radnorshire if the latter part of the 12th Iter of Antoninus, or the l.'ith of Richard of Ciren- cester, be correct, there is no more reason for placing Magnis at Gaer, than at Caerffili It is totally out of the line from Abergavenny to Wroxeter in Shropshire, and then Kentchester will be admitted to be as Horsley has suggested (notwithstanding Harris's assertion that it is universally allowed to be Ariconium) the lost fort Magnis. Harris's confirmations of his opinions (I say it with reluctance, but with great confidence) are extremely futile, and such as we should not have expected to have heard from him. He thinks, that because Gaer in two or three charters of Bernard Newmarch and Roger earl of Hereford to the monks of Brecon, is called vasta Civitas, it follows it must be the Civitas Magna. Bernard Newmarch, soon after his arrival in Brecknockshire, raxed Gaer, then called Caervong or Caervon, to the ground, and brought- the materials, or at least such as were worth carrying, to Brecon.
"The vastuni or vastatum Civitatem, mentioned in these charters, meant nothing more than the ruined or ruinated city, or site of a city, called Gaer. It is observable that in one of these, it is called Carneys, a corruption of Carnau, or heap of stones.
THE BUILDING OF ABERHONDDU.
"This removal of the materials of the city thus destroyed by Bernard to ' Aberhonddi,' is mentioned in an old MS. in the British Museum. 'Inasmuch (continues the MS.)3 as he liked this place better for fortifications, because of the straits." In another MS. in the Bodleian Library, Oxon.,4 it is called Caervona; vawr Brevi ; and in another in the Bodleian Library, it is written Caervong : the V thus retained in all these MSS. must lie rejected, as we have no such termination in the Welsh as ong. Here then we have the Caervon, or rather Caervan vawr, the greater or higher Bannau or Bannio in Brecknockshire, and following the course of the Usk downwards the next station but one, in the line of communication from thence to the head quarters of the second legion at Caerleon, is Gobannio, from the British Go-bannau, the lesser or lower Bannau or Bannio in Monmouthshire.
" Having established as satisfactorily (1 trust) as the nature of this subject will admit, that Gaer near Brecknock is the site of the Bannio of the Romans, I proceed to follow their footsteps in that county ; but here I have to lament the want of correct information and the nearly total deficiency of authentic documents, to enable me to trace them. To Tacitus, principally, if not solely, we are indebted for the history of the events in Britain in the first century. Tyssilio's chronicle at the same time that it pretends to inform us of the transactions which passed long prior to this period, and to introduce to us such men in buckram, as 'Eneas Whiteshoulder, Brutus Greenshield, Belinus, Brennus, Androgeus and a cloud of kindred spirits, with their equally visionary queens and daughters, Ignoge, Kstrildis, Sabrina and Genuissa, very rarely condescends to give us even the names of the Roman generals; so that the historian of the present day can do little more than arrange the few facts he may be able to collect, and the produce of his labours can at last only be considered as a connected, but meagre table of chronology.
THE BRITONS IN THE TIME OF AULTJS DIDIUS.
"• Ostorius was succeeded by Aulus Didius, whose utmost exertions were directed not to retain the Silures in subjection,5 but merely to restrain their incursions into that part of Britain which the Romans called their own provinces, so that South Wales seems at this period to have been almost, if not altogether evacuated by the enemy. Indeed we are told by Tacitus that not long after the partial conquest by Ostorius, the legionary camp master and cohorts who were left there to build forts, were completely surrounded by the Britons, and though the greatest part were rescued upon assistance being sent them, yet the camp master and eighty centurions were slain, the foragers also put to death, and in the continued skirmishes that occurred, the inhabitants from their knowledge of the country were generally successful. These barbarians, we are told, had a remarkable turn of thinking : the emperor
i Axchseologia, vol. 2. p. 1. Leucarura, Bomium. Nidus, Isoa Legionum, Gob
-' St. Agnes in Cornwall, savs Mr. Polwhele, in history of that Cornwall, county, vol. 1. p. 207. Though I presume to know some- 3 Harl. Coll. No. 6870.
thing more of Roman ways than what I have acquired from my 4 Rawlinson. No. 1220.
Camden, 1 am compleatly silenced when this historian places ■• Tacitus's Annals, Lib. 12.
26 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
Claudius1 had threatened them, that like the Sugambri or Sieambri (who were almost exterminated and the remainder of them carried into Caul) the name and memory of the Silures should not remain upon the earth. He had called to them, no doubt, by the mouth of his governors, propraetors and praetors, and had commanded them to come peaceably to Rome to be killed. Proclamation after proclamation most likely followed to the same effect : but such was their peculiar obstinacy (says Tacitus) praripua Silurum pervicacia, that they would not submit to have their throats cut quietly. This tenaciousness of life, which is observable in eels and some few animals not endowed with the faculty of rea°oning, may perhaps be excused in the uncivilised natives of South Wales. There are those, I am satisfied, who will not be surprised at their stubbornness on this occasion, or think them to blame in their determination, and their descendants may be permitted even to applaud their spirit, when they learn that soon after the death of Ostorius they defeated a legion, under the command of Manlius Valens ; so that the Romans were obliged to carry on a kind of defensive war with the British inhabitants for nine or ten years, until the arrival of Suetonius Paulinus. During this period the invaders were so un- comfortably situated that their historian Tacitus is compelled thus to acknowledge their fallen con dition : — 'Our veterans were slaughtered, our settlements burnt, and our armies surrounded; we then contended only for our lives : it was not till some time afterwards that we had any thoughts of making conquests.'
JULIUS FEONTINUS COMES INTO BRITAIN.
" It does not appear that Suetonius Paulinus ever entered South Wales ; his arms were directed against the Ordovices and the inhabitants of Anglesea. His victories there however had the effect of frightening the Silures into a temporary inactivity, with which his three successors, Petronius Turpil- ianus,2 Trebellius Maximus and Vettius or Vectius Bolanus, seem to have been perfectly satisfied. Petilius Cerealis, who followed their sleeping governours, was a formidable enemy, but the Brigantes (the inhabitants of Yorkshire and some of the adjoining counties) found him ample employ, though he ultimately subdued them. After him came a truly great and able man, to whose talents and superior knowledge in the art of war, more than to his valour, or that of his troops, may be attributed the completion of the conquest, for which Ostorious had only cleared the road.
" In what year of Christ Julius Frontinus came into Britain is not precisely ascertained ; his arrival may with tolerable accuracy be dated about the year 71 », as he was succeeded by Agricola in 78. He brought with him to Caerleon the second legion of Augustus, called Victrix, and from thence he com- menced his expedition into the interior of Wales : as to the particulars of his campaigns and the battles he fought, history is entirely silent ; all we learn is that he completely subdued the Silures.
ROMAN ROADS IN THE COUNTY.
"To secure his conquest, and to establish a free intercourse and communication through the country, he repaired and rebuilt the forts erected by Ostorius, then in ruins, and caused the military road to be made, from him called the Julia Strata.3 This road has been traced with much diligence, and I conceive with great accuracy, by Williams and Coxe, in their histories of Monmouthshire : the latter has given a map or sketch of its course from Bath to the Severn, from thence to the Caerwent, Caer- leon, Cardiff, Boverton, Neath, and Loughor, where he unaccountably makes it stop. Whereas I con- ceive, it proceeded Westward to Caermarthen, from thence it turned to the East up the Vale of Towy to Llys firychan in Llandoissant, the site of a station as T conjecture (for at present there are no remains of it, though several Roman coins were some years ago found here, which were sold to a watchmaker in Llywel, who melted them down), then to Tal y sarn, the head or highest part of the military way ; from thence it came down on the Southern side of the Usk to Hhyd y briw ; here it crossed the river, and near this place (as Mr. Strange observes in one of the volumes of the Arrhre- ologia, not now by me) it was perfectly visible some time back ; from hence it continued in the same direction to some ford near the site of the bridge at Aberbran ; here again it recrossecl the river Usk for the last time and proceeded to Caer. being intersected at this spot by what is now called Sarn Helen ; another Roman road leading from Neath to Chester.
1 Annal. Lib. 14. attribute to a Briton a work evidently Roman. He supposes
2 Tacitus, speaking of this man, (Annal. lib. 14.) says" Is non the Julia Strata to take its name from Saint Julian "a Saint irritato hoste neque lacessitus honestum pacis nomen segni otio (says ho) much known in that country ; " he is mistaken ; he is
(Satisfied at n- >t being attacked by the- enemy, lie not much known in the country through which the greatest part
refrained form hostilities on his side, and dignified a life of of the Julia Strata runs; and if it had been named from him, it
la/mess and indolence with the honourable name of peace.) would have been called Strata Juliana, and not Julia. Cressy
'■> It is difficult to conceive why Horsley in his essay on gives us a Julius who suffered martyrdom in the third century :
Antonine's Itinerary, should wish to deprive Julius Frontinus of he was (says he) " a citizen of Caerleon." No person who has
the credit of planning and constructing this road, so absolutely read the history either of England or Wales, ever dreamt of
necessary to the preservation of his authority over a country attributing this road to Julius Caesar, as Horsley has inti-
ha had aequued by the sword, or why lie should be desirous to mated.
THE HTSTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE 27
"From Gaer, the Strata Julia continued Eastward to Brecknock, passed across a street, since called from this circumstance the Slraet, a corruption of street or stratum : from thence it proceeded under and on the South side of an eminence known by the name of Slweh, to another at Llanham- lach, called Ty llltid. where there is a Cromlech, and formerly was an Rxploratorium or Arx specula? toria, as I conceive. From hence it ran in the same direction, above Scethrog House, under the hill called Allt yr yscrin, keeping in a higher line than the present turnpike road from Brecon to Aberga- venny, and ascending to the pass called Bwlch, which it crossed, and then pursued the course or track of the old Bwlch road, where the remains of it are still visible. Prom thence down into the vale of Cwmdu, by a house called the Gaer, where there was. I am firmly persuaded, a Roman station of vast extent, though not at present known to antiquarians, but of which a plan and description will here- after be given; from thence it passed to Tretower, to the ruinated chinch or chapel of Llanfair, near which we again meet with a mound, probably an Kxploratorium: from thence to Crickhowel, and so on in nearly a straight line to Abergavenny, from which station it followed the course of the river Usk, keeping the whole of the way on the North side to the towns of Dsk and Caerleon. At this latter place, the link united, and proceeded in one line to Caerwent and Bath.
SECTIONAL ROMAN ROADS.
" As soon as the Romans had firmly seated themselves in Britannia Secunda, it is natural to suppose they would wish to establish several vicinal or cross roads between the two chains; accordingly we find one. running nearly North and South, from CaerdifE to Caerbannau. This road proceeds from CaerdiS to Caerphili, though its track thus far is not easily discerned, hut from the latter place, leaving Bedwas on the right, it proceeds in the same direction to Pont yr Ystrad. on a hiLrh ridge between the rivers Sirhowy and Rhymny and enters Breconshire at Brynoer, fifteen or sixteen miles from Caerphili; it is known to the inhabitants by the name of Sarn-hir, the long causeway. Its track during the whole or the greatest part of this distance is perfectly discernible, kirb stones occasionally appear on the sides; it is about ten feet wide, and whenever it crosses bogs, large flat stones have been laid down as a foundation for the superstrata of smaller gravel and earth. After entering Breconshire. it still retains the same direction along the Trevil ddu, or Tyr foel ddu. to Blancrawnon, Penrhiw-calch, down Glyncollwm, from thence to I.lanfrynach, where from' the discovery of some Roman baths, there seems to have been a Roman general's villa, or perhaps a campus aastivus. From thence it followed north- ward, crossed the Usk somewhere near Brecon and joined the other branch of the Julia Strata leading to Gaer. At Brynoer, about half way on this road from Cardiff to Brecon, Roman cinders are now frequently found." Where a blomery seems formerly to have been established, at. Llanfrynach, the iron was probably brought down to be manufactured; at this latter place, there is now a field called Closy Gefailion, or the smith's held, or the lield of the smiths' forges.
" I am also strongly inclined to believe from the appearance of an antient road on Llwydlo fach, in the parish of Tyr yr abad in Breconshire, discovered a few years hack in digging turf, resembling in its materials and formation the works of the Romans, that another of their military ways connected Muridunum with the station of Cwm in Radnorshire. This stratum or sarn began, as I apprehend, at Carmarthen; proceeded from West to East on the north side of the Towy up to a farm now called Ystrad, to Llandovery and Llanvair-y-brin church, where some antiquarians are of opinion there was a station; from thence near Glanbran to Llwydlo fach, on which common its track is now visible, crossed the In on at Llancamddwr into Llangammareh ; passed Caerau, the site of an Arx speculatoria, hut not of a station as I conceive, though the contrary has been asserted by sc,me authors, and they are in some measure justified in their conjecture by the name which this place still retains ; from thence it proceeded through the parishes of Llanafan fawr and Llanvihangel-bryn-pabuan, crossed the Wye some- where near the New bridge, entered Radnorshire and joined the Sarn Helen or Chester road at Cwm in Llanyre.
"Mr. Harris observes very properly in his letter to the Antiquarian Society, that in order to curb more effectually the Silures, the Romans formed tiro chain* of garrisons (though in fact, as has been just mentioned, they are only a link in a line, as will he seen in the annexed ma])). Both, says he, began at Caerleon: one ran through the south part of the country, which lies near the Severn sea and the other north, along the river Usk : these last he explains to he Burrium, Gobannium, and as he con- jectures, Magnis, where he also halts ; hut without a doubt there must have been a communication between the upper Bannio or Caervan-vawr 1 am informed that upon the confines of Carmarthen- shire, westward of the river Saw due in the hamlet of Dyffrin Cydrich, and in the parish of Llangadock, there were formerly remains of another Roman station ; and it the load from thence forwara, in the same direction, could he traced, perhaps another could be found below Golden Grove. The town ol Trecastlehas a mound indeed of considerable height, which, if the Roman road ran here, on that side of the river might have been the site of a smaller tower of Ar.x speculatoria ; hut there are no remains
28 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
of entrenchments or fortifications to induce us to suppose this place ever to have been a respectable military station, and T have reasons for believing this eminence was collected and thrown together after the time of the Romans.
THE SAEN LLEON AND JULIA STRATA.
"At Gaer, near Brecon, as I have before observed, the Strata Julia was crossed by the Sarn Lleon or Via Helena, leading from Neath to Chester. This road, the tradition of the inhabitants attributes to Helen, the mother of Constantine ; it might with equal truth, be said to be the work of Helen of Troy. Our Helen (the daughter of old king Coel, or Coel Godebog), as the British historians call her, though there are considerable doubts as to her birth, parentage, and education, must have been a wonderful roadmaker indeed, if all those in Britain called Vise Helena1, are of her construction : she must certainly not only have been the first, but the most active surveyor general ever born in this kingdom. But Sarn Helen here, is only a corruption of Sarn Lleon or Sarn Lleon Gawr. When or where this hero of antiquity lived, I presume not to determine; the chronicles of Tyssilio says he was contemporary with Solomon king of Israel, and speaks thus briefly of him :* ' Bryttys Darianlas a drigiod gyda ei Dat, ac ev a wledychod wedy y Dat deng mlyned, ac ar ei ol y by Leon Gawr y vab ynte ; a gur da vy hwnnw y rwydhaws llywodraeth y Dyrnas ac adailiwys yn y part draw yr Gogled o ynis Brydain Dinas a elwir Caerlleon ar amser hwnnw ydoed Selyv ap Dafyd yn adailiat Temyl Iessu Grist yngharissalym.' (Brutus Greenshield remained with his father, and he governed the country ten years; after him followed his son Lleon, the mighty, and he was a good man, and a king who encouraged truth and justice. And this Lleon established and reformed the government of the kingdom, and built a city in the northern part of the island of Britain, called Caerleon.2 by some said to be Carlisle, and at this time Solomon, the son of David, built the temple of Jesus Christ at Jerusalem.)
"From a chieftain of the name of Lleon, Chester was called Caer-Lleon ; and from its leading to that city from Nidus or Nedd (now spelt Neath), this road was called by the Britons, Sarn Lleon, or the Chester road, which was Latinized into Strata Leona, afterwards corrupted into Strata or Via Helena, though I must take the liberty, with great deference to Owen, to believe that here and there a Via Helena may be a corruption of Sarn y Lluon,3 an anomalous plural of Liu an army or multitude, which may be translated almost literally into English, by the military way or road.
"At Neath, the Sarn Lleon is discernible on the marsh, on the north side of the river Neath, opposite to the castle, to which it evidently led ; from thence it proceeded east by north, and is dis- covered at Lletty'r Afel ; it then ascends a hill called Cefn-hir-fynidd and so to Gelly-ben-uchel, Banwen, and Ton y vildra, where it enters Brecknockshire, and its formation appears as perfect as when first made, excepting its slight coat of turf and grass. A little south eastward of Ton y vildra it crosses a brook called Nant-hir, pursues the same direction to Blan-nedd by Cefn-uchel-dref, leaving that farm and also the lime kilns at Carnau-gwynion in Ystradfellte to the south, keeps a course parallel with the road from Pontneathvaughan to Brecon for near a mile ; passes close by a stone of about nine feet high, called Maen Llia, and instead of proceeding as the present road floes to the head of that nearly precipitous diuge, called Cwmdu, it may be traced gradually descending on the south side of the river Senni and vale. From this place it is now no longer visible for a considerable distance, but it pro- bably passed above Blan-senni house, where the mclosures and the plough have completely effaced or concealed it, until we come near Blangwrthid, in the parish of Llanspyddid, where it is again seen. Near Blangwrthid is an artificial mound, on which formerly perhaps was an Exploratorium, though afterwards converted into a small fort or keep (according to the tradition of the country) by Maud de St. Valeri, wife of William de Breos. who lived in the reign of King John. Here we lose it, and we can only conjecture that it descended into the vale of Usk, near Bettws, or Penpont chapel, where it joined the Julia Strata and proceeded with it to Gaer ; from thence northward, I have not hitherto been able to trace it with accuracy, though I believe I observe here and there some remains of it.
' ' Having given the general outline of the works and the track of the roads made by the Romans in Brecknockshire, little more can be said of them until I come to the parochial history of the county. when the lesser and more minute features will be described. The inhabitants of this part of the principality
1 Myf. Arch. vol. 2. p. 124. the one case it will be Cash-urn Legionum magna, and in the
2 Pennant, in his tour in Wales, (vol. 1. p. 111.) supposes other Castrum Legionum Principia.
Caerlleon or Chester to mean the camp of the Legion, and calls :j It would be dangerous to refer the reader to Richard's
it Cae'r lleon vawr ar Dvfrdwv, the camp of the great and dictionary, who says the plural of Lleng a Legion, is Lleon.
twentieth legion of the Dee. Ih> is not aware thai Lleon, if it " 1' ■ plodding Richards (says that Cawr Goronwj Owen) Ins
applies at all to Legion, must be plural ; but the city is called book will be of no service to the next compiler, or indeed to any
Caerlleon gawr, and not. vawr, in all old English MSS. He shall, body else." (.'inn1'. Rruistcr, vo' . 2. p. 505. I humbly beg leave
however, have his choice of Caerlleon vawr, or Caerlleon gawr ; in to acknowledge my obligations to him, and to admit his utility.
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 29
either submitted quietly from henceforward to the yoke of their masters, or if any material events occurred during their stay in this country, the memorials of them have perished in the lapse o) ages.1
"About 150 years after the establishment of the Rinnans in Britain, the emperor Severus divided his territories there into two provinces, Britannia Prima and Britannia Secunda : the latter compre- hended the whole (it North and Smith Wales Constantine in about hall a century afterwards, again divided them into six provinces, distinguished by the names of Britannia Prima, Britannia Secunda, Flavia, Maxima. Valentia and Vespasiana, and a regular itinerary (the first perhaps of Britain) was drawn up by Lollius of the whole.8
DISCOVERY OF ROMAN BATH AND COINS.
"From several coins of Alectus, Carausius, Constantius and Constantine, having been found at a place called Carnau bach in Llanfrynach, in Breconshire, when1 a Roman hath, and other works of that people wire discovered some years back, it should seem that the legions remained in that country during the reigns of those emperors, and until Maximus in the year 383 carried them to- gether with the flower of the British youth, into Gaul, never to return, leaving behind him a feeble and enervated race, accustomed to a life of inactivity and indolence, fondly attached to the luxuries introduced by their conquerors; corrupted by their vices, but possessing neither their virtues nor their valour, and totally incapable of protecting themselves against the attacks of an enemy: until from the repeated incursions of the Scots and Picts, and afterwards of their merciless foe the Saxons. they were once more compelled to learn the use of arms, and to habituate themselves to a life of warfare.
REFERENCE TO WELSH AUTHORITIES. "Thus far, I am indebted to the authors of Rome and the Empire for the information I have been enabled to collect. I am now obliged to have recourse to the MSS. of the Arwydd feirdd, or heralds of our country, and though this source of intelligence may be scanty, perhaps incorrect, and consequently not to be as implicitly relied upon as the authors I have hitherto quoted, they are intitled to considerable attention. They arc systematically arranged, cautiously selected and carefully preserved, by those parochial or provincial officers whose duty it was to record the exploits and pedigrees of our ancestors. Should it be necessary to add another argument, there is one still behind, which will justify my reference to them — thci/ are the onjij ilonniiiiit-: In be jinnx/ that treat of that part of the principality now called Brecknockshire. n In one of these MSS. we are informed, that about the latter end of the first century, and before the conclusion of those calamitous wars which terminated, as has been seen, so fatally to Sibirean liberty, there lived a king, or rather regulus of Brecknockshire (then called Garthmadryn), whose name was Gwraldeg,4 and according to this account, Meurig or Marius, now governed Britain, as Brenhin Prydain oil, or monarch of the whole island. In his reign the territories of Albania or Scotland were invaded by a captain or leader who came from Egypt, though by birth a Grecian, of the name of Gedalus. This adventurer, with a chosen band of friends and accompanied by his wife Scota. possessed himself of that part of the country, from him since called Gadelway or Galloway. Among his attendants in this expedition, was a young man. named Teithall or Tathall, son of Annwn Ddu or Antoninus Niger. Tin- Teithall was remark- able for his amiable disposition and the suavity of his manners, and being introduced into the British Court, he had the good fortune to attract the notice of King Meurig. by whose interest he obtained in marriage Morvytha (Morfydd), only daughter and heiress of Gwraldeg, king or rather regulus of Garthmadryn. Unfortunately for the credit of this legend, there is a trifling anachronism in the talc, which will send captain Gadelus, his lady and their followers, into the company of (Eneas White- shoulder. Brutus Greenshield and the other doubtful heroes of antiquity; for whose acquaintance, we arc indebted to Tyssilio or Geoffrey of .Monmouth. Gadelus, as some old Scottish authors tell us, married Scota, a daughter of Pharaoh Cenchres, king of Egyyt, and made himself master of that part of Great Britain, in honour of his consort called Scotland."' Now this conquest of Scotland by Gathelus or Gadelus (which by the by has long since been exploded by the more learned and respectable historians of thai nation) is supposed to have taken place at a period very little sub- sequent to the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt; whereas Meurig. king of Britain, in whose time Gwraldeg is said to have lived, did not begin his reign till the year 7"2 of the Christian era.
1 The loss of a volume by Animiamis Mareellinus, which it is Mus. -MS. lilns. ditto. .MS. 2289, ditto.
said, contained a history of tl ;curences in Britain during part 4 For his descendants continued by a female who married
of the time the Romans remained there, i-. particularly t.i b< regretted.
- Whit. hist, of Manchester, vol. 1.
s MS. Rawl. 1220. Bodl. Lib. .MS. Had. Coll. 6870, Brit
|
Br |
.ehan Brvi |
■heiniog hereaftei |
• mentis |
.nod. see Appendix |
|
No |
. V. |
|||
|
> Fordun's 1 |
listorv of Scotland |
. lib. 1. |
cap. s. Maj<-r do Great, |
|
|
Sec |
■ t. lib. 1. f. |
,lio 17. Girald. Ca |
nib. |
30 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
Be this as it may. and whether Teithall was of Greek, Roman or British origin, the MSS. inform us that by this marriage he had issue Teithin or Tydheirn, who succeeded his father in the government of Garthmadryn, and left issue, as some say, Trith y blawd, who was followed by his son, Teidfallt or Teithphaltim, though others omit this Irith the mealrmn.
■■Teidfallt or Teithphaltim is reported to have encroached upon his neighbours, and to have been the first who assumed the title of king of Garthmadryn. Hugh Thomas1 supposes this to have been effected by his joining forces with the Irish, Picts and Scots, in their invasions of South Wales. If so, this places him, and consequently his ancestor, Gwraldeg, much later than he is stated to be in this MS., as the incursions of the barbarians did not take place until nearly the period when the Romans were about to quit Britain ; probably therefore, this prince lived in the time of the com- motions mentioned by Julius Firmicus, which' brought the emperor Constans into Britain2 in the middle of a tempestuous winter ; the particulars of which (says Echard)3 are recorded in that volume of Ammianus Marcellinus which is now unfortunately missing. Indeed it is highly probably that Hugh Thomas and those MSS. which place Gwraldeg in the year 230, are correct, as the seven persons here named, can hardly be supposed to have lived so long as from the middle of the first to the beginning of the fifth century.
"Teidfallt4 was succeded by his son Tewdrig,5 Tydyr or Tudor. According to the computa- tion of Hugh Thomas, he was contemporary with the emperor Valentinian, and acted in conjunction with the Picts, Saxons, Scots and Attacotti. The continual squabbles for empire, the licentiousness and turbulence of the Roman soldiers and the wars with the Germans, the Alemanni and other inhabitants of the Continent, fully employed the attention of the Roman emperors and generals at this time, and though we do not know that any resolution had yet been formed of quitting Britain, their possessions here were now only considered as a secondary object. The consternation, however, which these, barbarians had spread throughout the provinces by their savage, and ferocious acts of cruelty, not only along the coasts, but in the interior of the island, at last compelled the emperor to send his general Theodosius to expel the enemy, and to reduce the rebellious natives to obedience. It is supposed, says Thomas, that upon the restoration of peace by that officer, the votive Altar found at Gaer or Caerfan, and removed to the priory of Brecon some years back, was erected.
"Tewdrig had issue only one daughter, whose name was Marchell or Marcella,6 who married Aulach, Anllech, Afalach or Olave, said to have been a son of Corineog, king of the Brigantes or Britains of Dublin, though he was most probably of that part of Ireland now called Wexford. This Corineog, in a MS. in the library of Jesus College. Oxford, written about 500 years ago and quoted by Hugh Thomas, is called Cormac mac Eurbre Gwyddel ; of his son's marriage with the heiress of Garthmadryn, we have a strange tale or legend in Latin in the Cottonian library, entitled " Cognacio Brychan hide Brechenawc dicta est, pars Demetise in S. Wallia." It is as follows:7
THE BIRTH OF BRYCHAN.
"Tewdrig, king of Garthmadryn, with his captains and elders, and all his family, removed to Bryncoyn8 near Lanmaes. This Tewdrig had an only daughter, whose name was Marchell, whom he thus addressed, ' I am very uneasy least your health should suffer from the pestilential disorder which at present ravages our 'country* (now Marchell had a girdle made of a certain skin, to which popular opinion attributed such a virtue, that whoever girded their loins with it, would be safe from any pestilential infection). Go therefore, my daughter (says he) to Ireland and God grant you may arrive there in safety. Her father then appointed her 300 men and twelve honourable maids, to wait upon her and conduct her thither. On the first night they reached Llansemin.9 where one hundred of her attendants died (whether from cold or pestilence is not asserted, though the English
1 Hugh Thomas was deputy herald to Sir Henrv St. George, Tydor ap Neubedd, lord of Brecknock, lived at Crwccas, near Garter, principal king at arms in the year 1703 : he" was son to a Brecon, and that he was a benefactor to the church of Llandaff ; Mr. William Thomas, a salesman and 'a citizen of London, of the but 1 am inclined to think that the Tydor or Tydyr, who gave family of Thomas of Llanvrynach, in Breconshire ; lie was by Merthyr Tewdrig. now called Mathern, to the see or rather the profession an arms painter ; fond of antiquities, he made roller- church of Llandaff. was this Tydyr ap Teithwalch. although dons for a history of Brecknockshire, of which a quarto MS. Llewellyn Offeiriad's MS. makes him live too early for the intitled " An essav t. .wards the history and antiquities of episcopacy of Oudoeeus. Williams in his history of Monmouth- Brecknoek," is preserved in the Bodleian library: he left his shire, calls him Tewderic ap Teithwalch, and says he was a prmce MSS. number 'Jl'ss and l'l'S'.i, t.. the Karl of Oxford, but las of Gwent, and the first who built a church at Llandaff, page 75. lordship very liberally paid for them to his brother, who was « MS. 2289, Harl. Col.
very poor; they are now in the Harleian collection, hound up in " Appendix, No. VI.
volumes, but. not arranged; he died without issue, in 1711. 8 There is a field near Llanfaes being part of Newton farm,
2 A. D. 543. which is called Bryn Gwin, on this field were formerly heaps of
3 Echard's Roman hist. vol. 3. p. 9. stone and vestiges of buildings.
* A. LI. 304. ° Perhaps Llansevin in Llangadock, Caermarthenshire.
5 A MS. in the British Musseum, No. 0870, informs us that
THE HISTORY OP BRECKNOCKSHIRE. .".1
legend asserts it was from extreme cold). On the morrow, anxious and alarmed at this melancholy event, she arose and proceeded on her journey, and arrived the same night at Madrum,1 where as at the former place, she lost one hundred men. On the following morning she rose very early, and the third night brought them to Porthmawr2 ; from whence, with tier surviving hundred men and maidens, she passed over to Ireland. Upon the news of her arrival, Aulach, the son of Gormac, the king of the country, met her with a most princely train, and tin cause of her coming being explained to him he was so smitten with her beauty and pleased with her high rank (for she was the daughter of a king), that he fell in love with and married her : making at the same time a solemn vow, that if she produced him a son, he would return with her to Britain. Aulach then made honourable provision for her twelve maidens, giving each of them away in marriage. In process of time, Marchell conceived and brought forth a son, whom his father named Brychan : and when Brychan had com- pleted his second year, his parents took him to Britain, and they resided at Benni. The English legend relates the same story, with some little difference and additions : for after informing us of the journey of Marchell into Ireland and her marriage there, it proceeds, ' and .Marchell brought forth a son and called him Brychan, and Aulach with his queen and son, and the captains following, viz., Karmol, Fernagh,3 Ensermach, Lithlimich, &c, came to Britain. Brychan was born at Benni and was placed under the care of Drychan, whom some call Briehan and others Brynach, and this Drychan brought up Brychan ; thence Brychan was brought to Brecheiniog, when he was four years old. And in the seventh year, Drychan said to Brychan. bring my cane to me ; and Drychan was dim in his latter years, and while he lay waking, a boar came out of the woods and stood on the banks of the river Yschir,4 and there was a stag behind him in the river, and there was a fish that bellied the stag (i.e. was under the belly of the stag), which portended that Brychan should be happy in plenty of wealth. Likewise, there was a beech which stood on the banks of the said river, wherein the bees made honey, and Drychan said to his foster son Brychan, ' Behold this tree of bees and honey I will give thee also full of gold and silver, and may the grace of God remain with thee here and hereafter.' And afterwards Aulac gave his son Brychan as an hostage to the king of Powis ; and in progress of time, Brychan lay with the daughter of Benadell, and she brought him a son named Cynog, who being carried to the tents was baptised; when Brychan taking the bracelet from his arm, gave it to his son Cynog. This Cynog is famous in his country, and the bracelet is still preserved as a curious relick.'
THE ARMS OF MARCHELL AND BRYCHAN.
"The plain English of these tales, as far as it can be made out, seems to be, that this princess and her countrymen to avoid a famine or some contagious disorder, were driven into Ireland, where she married and afterwards returned with her husband to her native land, when the scarcity was over or the disorder had ceased. The arms given by the British heralds to Marchell were, Or, three bats, or (as they call them, rere-micc) azure, beaked and clawed gules: perhaps these ill boding har- bingers of darkness were adopted in commemoration of the gloomy pestilence which then raged in the country, and their beaks and claws were represented red, to denote the bloody characters which marked its track. These arms, quarterly, second and third, with those of Brychan, viz., sable, a fess, Or, between two swords in pale, points up and down, argent, pommeled and hiked of the second, are now those of the county of Brecon : they are borne by the Gwynnes of Glanbran in Caermarthen- shire, and Garth and Buckland in Breconshire, as well as by several other descendants of this Aulach and .Marchell.
" In this succession of reguli. I have hitherto followed the MS. of Hugh Thomas, which is con- firmed by several others; but (ieorgc Owen Harry5 in his book of pedigrees, intitled, 'The well- spring of true nobilitie,' differs in toto from the line chalked out by them; he takes no notice what- ever of Gwraldeg and his race, nor docs he even mention the territory of Garthmadryn. But after a long catalogue of the princes of Glamorgan, he comes at length to Niniaw, who had issue Teith- walch. who had issue Tewdrig the father of Meurig prince of Glamorgan, and Marchell, the mother of Brychan. sirnamed Brecheiniog: this, if true, would lead us to conclude, that ( Jarthmadryn, instead of being an independent state, as elsewhere represented, was nothing more than a cantred of Mor- ganwg or Glamorgan, and now first separated as a marriage portion with Marchell, whose son exercised ;i regal power of changing the name to Brecheiniog; but this account is intitled to little credit or
1 Meidxira in Caermarthenshire. in the county of Pembroke, and lived m the r.-nin of James the
- Porthmawr, a Haven near St. David's. fir-t. The Truman \IS. hereafter often referred to, agrees with
3 Three Miles Westward of Brecknock i< a hill called Mynidd George Owen Harrs m deriving Tewdrig, then called Tewdrig Ffernaeh. Vendiged. or the blessed king of Glamorgan, Gwent and Garth-
4 Escir or Yscyr. madryn. from Teithall ap Teithrin ap Niniaw, etc.
5 George Owen Harry was rector of Whitchurch in Kemeys,
32 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
attention, opposed as it is by six or seven pedigrees of different ages and by different writers. Especially when the manners, as well as the language of the two provinces (as has before been observed) have always varied, and marked them as distinct tribes.
"This disagreement between the genealogists may perhaps be accounted for, when we recollect that Teidfallt, Teithphaltim or Teithwalch, is said to have been a troublesome restless chieftain, and to have encroached upon his neighbour's territories ; he may therefore have dispossessed the regulus of Glamorganshire, and George Owen Harry, or rather the herald whom he follows, finding him in the list of princes of that country, may have considered him as the son of Niniaw, his predecessor in the MS. But the majority of writers is so evidently and indisputably in favour of the descent from Gwraldeg, that I cannot consent to give him up, even though the Glamorganshire family would connect prince Brychan with the hero of Troy and the long race of British kings supposed to spring from him."
To tho foregoing observations of Theophilus Jones we make the following additions.
FURTHER NOTES ON THE DINAS.
Little is known of Britain before the days of the Roman invasion. Traders had sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar, through the Pillars of Hercules, and in the ocean that flows round the earth had discovered two Bretannic islands, Albion and lerne. The greater portion of Albion level and woody ; the produce corn and cattle, gold, silver, iron, and tin ; skins, too, and slaves ; also dogs sagacious in hunting ; the men taller than the Celtic, and their hair less yellow ; their manners simple ; though possessing plenty of milk they made no cheese, nor were they acquainted with husbandry. Forests were their cities : having enclosed a space with felled trees they made themselves huts and there lodged their cattle, but not for any long continuance.
Had the, author's informant penetrated so far as tho tribes of the Silures. inhabitants of what is now Brecknock and the surrounding counties, he would have found a different class of city. The Dinas, or primeval fortress of the Silures, is in every case within the county of Brecknock, a walled inclosure on the top of a hill, its size limited only by the extent of the summit, surrounded by a dry wall for the purpose of defence, a diagonal wall sometimes leading down the hill perhaps to provide a covered way to obtain water ; indications of a gate with exterior defences ; the exterior often pitted with shallow excavations some three feet deep, probably roofed once with branches of trees and forming the dwelling place of our rude ancestors — a place of protection for the aged, the women, and the children, a haven for cattle against the marauder, and a rallying point for the warrior,
The County of Brecon is studded with many such dinasoedd, no longer clearly distinguishable, one of the many mysteries of the prehistoric past — each Dinas, doubtless, crowded with wonder- stricken warriors and terrified women, when the civilised legions of Rome marched into the woodland valleys of Siluria.
THE ROMAN TERIOD : B.C. 55 — A.D. 441.
The Roman Empire had spread itself over the known world : its armies, under their victorious General Julius Caesar, had subdued the natives of Gaul, and had advanced to the southern shores of the British Channel. The Britains, having sent supplies to the Gauls, Cajsar resolved upon the conquest of the British Isles. Accordingly he landed in Britain on tho 26th August in the 55th year before Christ : a month later, having lost many ships in the storm, he returned to Gaul. In May of the following year he made a second expedition. The people of the country now called Essex, Middlesex, and Kent, yielded to the Roman invasion. Ca?sar, however, shortly returned to Gaul, and never again visited Britain.
Nearly a century passed before any further attempt was made at conquest. Christ was born, and had suffered, and a new era had arisen. The Emperors Augustus and Tiberius had reigned at Rome. The conquest of Britain, ever and anon, floated before the eyes of the Romans as a brilliant legacy bequeathed by their greatest citizen, but it was not till the 43rd year of the Christian era that the Emperor Claudius despatched Aulus Plautius in command of the third expedition. The occupation of the Island was unattended with difficulty. The natives, though possessed of bodily strength and bravery, were no match for the. disciplined troops of the invader, and when the General left, after a few years' sojourn, the level country of England had been subdued by the victorious Romans.
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 33
The Welsh still gave trouble. In Cornwall the old nationality maintained itself, while the Silures, inhabiting South Wales, and their northern neighbours, continued to doty the invaders. As, during the Gallic wars, the Island of Britain had, while unoccupied, been a thorn in the side of the Roman Generals, an unapproachable base, from which war could bo waged, and stores obtained, and in which the discontented and the deserter could find a refuge, so now a similar position was held by the mountains of Wales and the distant island of Anglesey,
To protect the country already conquered, Ostorius Scapula, who succeeded Plautius, marched immediately on his arrival against the people of South Wales, defeating them and their King Caractacus, whose wife and daughter were taken prisoners ; while he, having fled northward to the Brigantes, was by them surrendered to the enemy and sent as a captive to Rome.
A series of fortified stations were now established between England and Wales. A camp for the Fourth Legion at Wroxeter in the neighbourhood of Shrewsbury ; one further north at Chester for the Twentieth Legion, and a third for the Second Legion at Venta Silurum, afterwards called Caer-lleon (the camp of the legion). On the camp at Caerlleon the wild Silures poured ; and but for speedy reinforcements would have cut the garrison to pieces ; as it was the Prefect and eight Centurions were slain, though ultimately victory declared itself for the Romans. Henceforward there were frequent encounters and skirmishes, with plundering parties, in the woods and marshes. Of all the native tribes the Silures were the most determined ; they cut off auxiliary cohorts as they were ravaging the country without due circumspection, and by distributing the spoil amongst the neighbouring nations drew them also into revolt.
At this period died the Roman General Ostorius, wearied by the obstinacy of the contest. The Roman Emperor, apprised of the death of his lieutenant, replaced him with Aulus Didius. In the meantime the legion commanded by Manlius Valens had sustained a defeat at the hands of the Silures, who were making incursions on the occupied country. Didius at once set upon them and repulsed them. A stone at Tretower, built into the north gateway of Tretower House, and inscribed with the name Valens, seems to indicate that Brecknock was within the limits of the theatre of war, and possibly that the Roman camp at Gaer, Cwmdu, was then in existence. Didius was a man advanced in years ; he contented himself with allowing his lieutenants to keep the Britons in check, and did no more than retain former conquests.
His successor Veranius ravaged the country of the Silures, but shortly died. The time of the next Governor, Suetonius Paulinus, was occupied in an attack on Anglesey, and afterwards repelling a revolt of the Iceni, whose vigorous onslaught, under the Queen Boadicea, imperilled the very existence of the Romans. There is no record that Suetonius, or his successor, Petonius Turphilianus. ever entered Wales, though it has been suggested that the monumental stone at Crickhowell, to "the two sons of Turpil," might refer to the General In the opinion of Professor Westwood it is of later date.
In the year A.D. 70, or a little later, Julius Frontinus became Propraetor in Britain. To him are ascribed the military roads of South Wales. The effect of a better organisation was at once apparent. The Silures yielded to Roman arms, the tide of warfare receded from South Wales, and from that time forward Scotland and the North seem to have exclusively occupied the forces of the invaders.
SOME FURTHER NOTES ON ROMAN ROADS.
For the military occupation of a country, roads have been in all ages a first necessity. The English in the 19th century have advanced the railway to the north-west frontier of India, are pushing an iron road northward from South Africa through the land of the Zulu, while from the north the railhead on the bank of the Nile is carried forward immediately in the rear of victorious forces in the Soudan. So the Romans, more than IS centuries ago, joined their posts of Dover and Richborough in Kent, with London, then, as now, the most important city of Britain. Out of the 15 roads mentioned by Antonine, London is the starting place of seven : of these only three are of importance to our present purpose.
The route (numbered two) started from the Great Wall reaching from Tynemouth to Solway Firth across the island, separated the limit of the Roman Empire from the northern barbarian, whence the road led southward and eastward to London and Richborough on the coast of Kent. The road was the direct route from Londinium (London) to Uriconium (Wroxeter) and thence northward to Deva (Chester), marked in the Itinerary as the headquarters of the 20th Legion. It was thus the highway to
34 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
North Wales, and as the invading army passed freely from North to South Wales, this road became an important item in the fortunes of our county — Uriconium (Wroxeter) being the point at which the various roads joined.
Another road (numbered seven) led from Regnum (Chichester) past the haven of Portsmouth and Southampton to Calleva (Reading) and London. The last two stages on the route, from Llandinium (London) to Pontibus (supposed to be Windsor, 22 miles, and thence the same distance on to Calleva of the Attrebates, a tribe then inhabiting Berkshire. Calleva is believed to be Reading. The miles given in Antonine's Itinerary have been useful in enabling critics to fix the places to which ancient names refer. They are generally correct, but at times vary, sometimes giving too great a length, apparently by the clerical omission of a figure, CIX written for CXIX, and perhaps sometimes on account of wood and river making a necessity for detour.
From Reading (Calleva) South Wales was approached by two routes, one through Durocornovium (Cirencester) and Glevum (Gloucester), Ariconium (Ross), Blestium (Monmouth), to Burrio (Usk). This being the nearest point to Brecknock, let us leave the route — though it proceeds to Isca Caerlleon where it joins the next route. We now trace the second road from London by Reading to South Wales.
Following the last mentioned road for 17 miles from Reading to Speen, the road now passes to Aquae Solis (Bath). The name " Waters of the Sun " indicating that the medicinal property of the waters was known to the Romans. From Aqua? Solis to Trajectus (Bristol), thence to Abone, a place conjectured to have been on the Severn, somewhere, perhaps, where the New Passage or the Severn Tunnel are now. Thence crossing the river Severn the road approached Venta Silurum (Caer-went), Gwent being the ancient name of Monmouthshire ; Caer-gwent, the camp of Gwent, may have been in days long past, a place of import. The road ends at Isca (Caerleon) Caerleon, or in Latin Caslra legionis, being the headquarters of the Second Legion.
The road from London to the nearest points to Brecknock end here ; the route along the south coast of Wales was continued to Muridunum (Car-marthen). For our purpose it will be convenient to proceed at once to Carmarthen, tracing the road towards the county of Brecknock. Leaving Mauri- dunum. in which word we vaguely see the name Marthen. helping historians, mayhap, to the antiquity of the name, the road ran eastward through Lhicarnum (Lwghor) to Nidum (Neath), thence through Bovium to Isca (Caerleon) at which point the road joins those from London by Gloucester and Bristol, already traced. Over these roads the traveller now passes to Barrium (Usk), where he turns, passing northward to Gobannium (Aber-gavenny) and thence to Magni (Kenchester), Bravinium (per- haps Brandon, Brampton, or Leintwardine), and so to Uriconium (Wroxeter in Salop). Wroxeter is said to have been Wrekencester (the camp of the Wrekin). This road must have been of great im- portance in Roman-British history, connecting the road from London to South Wales with that which united the Metropolis (Iter. II.) with Chester and the North to the Principality. Note particularly on it the following places: Muridunum (Carmarthen), Nidum (Neath), a point not mentioned now, Cardiff (Caer Taff, the camp of the Taff), and Gobannium (Abergavenny). From these points start the local roads connecting with the great thoroughfares the military stations in the county of Brecknock.
The Roman roads are supposed to have followed ancient British trackways. To the moderns it may be interesting to note how nearly they have in turn been followed by the railways of the 10th century.
The 13th road of the Romans is represented by the route of the Great Western Railway from London to Gloucester and South Wales; the 12th road is its continuation along the coast of South Wales to Carnarvon. The 14th route, which in the original is called alium iter, an alternative road, passes through Bath and Bristol to the south shore of the Bristol Channel, whence the Roman sought the coast of Wales by labour of the oar, and we of modern times rush under the waves of the Severn through the tunnel framed by engineering skill.
In tracing the mam roads there has been followed Antonine's Itinerary. The work of an un- known Roman and written at a date also unknown, it was either originally written in the fourth century, or brought clown to that date in a subsequent edition. The local roads, now to be shortly described, can still be here and there recognised, have been marked where visible on the Ordnance maps, and have been mentioned more or less correctly in the works of several recent historians.
Amongst the most important of vicinal roads is one starting presumably from Carmarthen (Muri- dunum) following the Teivy river to Llandilo, whence it is shown in the Ordnance maps following the
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 35
present road from Swansea to Llandovery to the Roman town of Loventium, now Pontllaino, north of Llandovery, from which place it runs still northward through North Wales. At or near Llandovery it was joined by a second road, the most important from our point of view of all the Roman roads, via Julia Montana, running East and West through the whole length of the Vale of Usk from its source past Brecon to Abergavenny. Passing a camp at a height of over 1,400 feet above the sea the road can be traced across the Trecastle mountain. Passing the castle it keeps north of the Usk, crossing the river at Senny Bridge; the south, bank is then followed, though the river must have been crossed once more to reach the Gaer camp at Venny fach. the most important station in Brecknock, commanding the road east and west, and another to be hereafter described from Caraiff to the north. From Gaer the road can be traced to Brecon, where, a street still called Struet (Stratum), preserves the memory of the ancient Roman stratum. 1 J£l)iy 1 *?*'£
From Brecon the road continues Eastward South of the Slwch camp, passing the hill known as the Allt at a higher level than the present road. It follows the top of the ridge to Bwlch and down the hill to the Roman camp at Gaer in Cwmdu ; beyond this point no traces have been identified, but there can be but little doubt that it passed by the village of Tretower, and so by Crickhowell to Abergavenny. At Abergavenny (Gobannium) it joined the road (Iter. XII) already described, con- necting that place with Uriconium (Wroxeter) on the north and southward with the coast of the Bristol Channel and the roads leading thence to London. Road XII bears the name Waiting Street.
A road appears amongst the mountains of the Beacon range. This ran from Cardiff over the Gelligaer Common and past the modern town of Merthyr, following the course of the river Taff until the road bifurcates on the Taff Fechan at a point immediately south of Point Twyn reservior called Dol-y-gaer (the meadow of the camp). The western road can still be traced following the Taff Fechan in a north-westerly direction : it may possibly have passed to the west of the Beacon down the Tarrell brook to Caer Bannau, though I know not whether its course has there been traced. Crossing Glyn Collwyn above and to the east of the Brecon ana Merthyr Railway it keeps the top of the hill, finally descending to Talybont. It probably joined the road through the centre of the Vale of Usk, though at what point remains a matter of uncertainty.
The last road to be described is the Sam Helen, corrupted from Sarn Lleon, the road of the Legion, possibly so named because Chester, Caer Lleon — Castra legionis, the camp of the Legion — was one of its termini. Irom Neath the road leads along the ridge of Hir Fynydd, "the long mountain," a mile or more to the east of the Brecon and Neath Railway. Passing a camp marked on the Ordnance Map it enters Brecknock at Ton y ffildre, crosses the valley of the Nedd, and crosses into that of the Llia ; by its side is a stone, Maen Madoc, 1,373 feet above the sea. The road still ascends, more than fourteen hundred feet above the sea ; and then descends the northern slope of the moun- tain It is lost after passing Blaen Senny, to reappear for a short distance at Blaengurthyd, some- what over a mile south of Penpont. After passing the Gaer the route leads to Brecon, and can thence be traced northward up the Vale of Honddu. A mile above Lower Chapel it leaves the modern road to Builth, and ascends the mountain to the east of Merthyr Cynog. taking the ridge between that parish and Gwenddwr. It rejoins the present road to Builth at the top of the hill before the wayside public house at Cwm awen is reached ; it then follows the west bank of the Dihonw to Maesmynis. from which point it probably proceeded to Builth, where the Wye would be crossed. A Roman road and station have been found a few miles North at Llanyre in Radnorshire, whence the route passes in all probability still to the north.
The Roman roads which concern Brecknock have now been traced with such accuracy as is in our power. Two routes from London via Gloucester and Bristol to South Wales ; one from Car- marthen through the Vale of Usk to Abergavenny ; one from Neath via Brecon to Chester ; a road connecting Chester and Wroxeter with London (the highway to North Wales) ; and a shorter route from Cardiff to the Carmarthen and Abergavenny route between Brecon and Bwlch. From some remains of an old road discovered in the 18th century on the mountain at Llandulas, Theophilus Jones considers that there may have been another Roman road down the Vale of Irfon : more careful mapping since that day has led to no further discovery in this direction, though it has enabled us in the above sketch to trace the Sarn Lleon much further than he e.id.
ROMAN CAMPS.
Roman military camps were arranged according to a definite plan, modified only by the number-; for whom accommodation had to be provided. A camp intended to accommodate a consular army
36
THP^ HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
of two legions, each consisting of 4,200 infantry and 300 cavalry, with its contingent of camp followers, amounting in all to 18,600 men, formed a square each side of which extended in length 2,017 Roman feet. It may be roughly outlined thus : —
Porta Pk-etokia I I
Inteuvallum
] L
Porta decumania
P. — Przetorium (General's tent). p. — Forum (Market place). Principia. — (Principal street). Intervallum (Between rampart and camp). Gates. — Porta Pretoria (General's gate).
Porta Principales dextra (the right principal street). ,, ,, sinistra (the left).
Q. — Qua-storium (or paymaster's tent).
This square was divided into two unequal portions by a straight road called the Principia, or principal street, one hundred feet in breadth, having at its two extremities camp gates called the right and left gates of the principia. On one side of the principia, half way between the gates, stood the pretorium or general's tent, so situated as to have a commanding view in every direction. To the right and left were the forum (F) or market place, and the Quastorium (Q) or paymaster's tent. Further to the right and the left were the guards of the general and paymaster. Along the upper side of the principia street stood the tents of the twelve tribunes of the legions opposite the troops under their command. On the other side of the principal street was encamped the main body of the army. This part of the camp was intersected by a street fifty feet in breadth. Ten thousand square feet contained a squadron of thirty men and horses ; the same area accommodated a company of infantry, sixty men.
Between the tent and the outer wall was an intervallum, let us say an "interval," or space two hundred feet broad, by which ample room was given for the passage of the legions in and out. The camp was provided with four gates. The fortifications consisted of a ditch nine feet deep and twelve feet wide, the earth from which, thrown to the inside, formed a rampart, on the summit of which were fixed stout wooden stakes.
In countries, such as Wales, wild and barbarous, where the native tribes were hostile, armies of occupation were forced to remain constantly in camps. They usually occupied different grounds in summer and winter. The camp at Caerbannau, near Brecon, forms a rectangular space, the sides measuring respectively 624 and 426 feet, is about one -twelfth the size of the camp above described, and indicates a garrison of perhaps 1,500 men. Bricks have been discovered here, stamped with the names of the Second Legion.
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 37
The " Justum Iter," or fair day's match of a Roman soldier, was twenty Roman, equivalent to nearly 18J English miles. Roman armies never halted for a single night without forming a regular entrenchment, capable of receiving within its limits the whole body of righting men, their beasts of burden, and baggage. So completely was this recognised as part of the ordinary duties of each
march, that prevenire ad locum tertus guartis castris " (Livy XXVII, 3.) — to come to the
place for the third or fourth camp is the established phrase for tht number of days occupying in passing from ont point to another. The camping ground was carefully chosen, a spot giving sufficient space to lay the camp out in the prescribed form, convenient for procuring water, wood, and forage, and a place to which the natives, if friendly, could readily bring this produce for barter.
We should expect, then, to tina on each approach to the camp at Caerbannau, an entrenchment at a distance regulated by the necessity of mountain travel, but approximately IS miles English, a subsidiary entrenchment, good enough perhaps for summer residence, but at least sufficient for a night's rest when the army was on its march. From Brecon to Abergavenny is twenty miles, a long day's march. It is accordingly divided into two, and the camp at Gaer Cumdu is pleasantly situated in the valley, just below the " Half-way House " of modern times. The carved stones found in the neighbourhood of this camp indicate that it was permanently occupied ; it may have been used as a place of summer residence. In the opposite direction towards Carmarthen a camp is found on the edge of the county on the Trecastle Hill, about fifteen miles from the camp at Brecon.
On the Sam Helen the journey from Neath to Brecon was broken at a camp also on the boun- dary of the modern county. The stage from Neath being perhaps twelve miles and that to Brecon about sixteen, an arduous mountain march over the Beacon range. From Brecon, the Sarn Helen took the route to Builth over the Eppynt range, roughly speaking the line of what is now the sixteen mile road. No station has been found between Brecon and Builth which would seem an appropriate resting place ; the castle field with its various ditches may have been the site of a camp, though it has never been recognised. At Llanyre in Radnorshire, a few miles further, a Roman station is marked on the Ordnance map. This