Cardigan

CARDIGAN a sea-port, borough, market-town, and parish, and the head of a union, in the Lower division of the hundred of Troedyraur, county of Cardigan, South Wales, 232 miles (W. by N.) from London; containing 2925 inhabitants. This place, called by the Welsh Aberteivy from its situation near the mouth of the river Teivy, was probably selected, at a very early period, as an eligible site for commerce, its maritime situation affording a facility of communication with distant parts of the kingdom. Little, however, is known either of its original foundation or of its primitive inhabitants: there are neither authentic nor traditionary records of its history, prior to the conquest of this part of the country by the Normans, who erected a fortress at the place, to defend the passage of the river, and to secure themselves in the possession of the territories which they successively wrested from the native proprietors. It appears about this time to have first assumed the character of a regular town, and it subsequently became the capital of the province of Caredigion, comprehending, in addition to the present county of Cardigan, a large extent of territory, which originally constituted the country of Dimetia, and was granted, about the middle of the fifth century, to Caredig, son of Cunedda, a chieftain of North Wales, from whom it derived its name, now modified into Cardigan.

SEAL OF THE BOROUGH OF CARDIGAN. OBVERSE. REVERSE.

In the Welsh annals this place is described as the scene of some of the most sanguinary conflicts that occurred in South Wales, during the first three centuries after the Norman Conquest of England. Roger de Montgomery, who did homage to William Rufus, in 1091, for the province of Cardigan, finding himself unequal to defend the castle against the native chieftains, relinquished it to Cadwgan ab Bleddyn, Prince of Powys, a man of bold and enterprising ambition, who assumed the sovereignty of South Wales, and maintained a protracted warfare, not only with the Norman lords who encroached upon his territories, but with the English monarch himself. Cadwgan continued to maintain possession of the castle, and, after the death of William Rufus, entered into an alliance with Henry I. The castle appears now to have been a place of considerable importance, and one of the residences of Cadwgan, who, in the Christmas of 1107, gave a splendid festival here, including an Eisteddvod, a grand assembly of the bards. At this festival, according to some accounts, Owain his son, inflamed by the lively descriptions given by his companions of the beauty of Nêst, wife of Gerald de Windsor, determined on carrying her off from her husband's castle in the county of Pembroke: others trace this outrage to a banquet given at the castle of Eare Weare, in the parish of Amroath, on the western coast of Pembrokeshire. The act drew down upon the family the wrath of Henry, who, having in vain demanded from Owain the liberation of his captive, incited the nobles of Powys to avenge the insult; and Cadwgan and Owain were compelled to abandon their country, and take refuge in Ireland. The former returned in the following year, and, having satisfied the king of his innocence, was restored to his possessions; but his son, unable to regain the king's favour, carried on a desultory warfare against the English, which involving Cadwgan with the king, he was a second time deprived of his dominions.

Upon the death of this chieftain, who was assassinated by his nephew, Madoc ab Rhyrid, in 1110, Henry possessed himself of the sovereignty of South Wales. In the following reign, however, Grufydd, eldest surviving son of Rhŷs ab Tewdwr, in concert with Owain and Cadwaladr, sons of Grufydd ab Cynan, sovereign of North Wales, and the chieftains of South Wales, reconquered the whole province of Cardigan, and advanced to the gates of Aberteivy, in the vicinity of which place a sanguinary battle was fought, in 1136, between the allied Welsh and the Norman, English, and Flemish forces then in Wales, or in the Marches. In this engagement the latter suffered a total defeat, having, according to the testimony of Giraldus Cambrensis, 3000 men killed, and a great number drowned in the Teivy by the breaking down of a bridge in the line of their retreat. The castle fell into the hands of the Welsh, who, however, do not appear to have kept possession of it for any considerable time; for, in 1144, Howel and Cynan, sons of Owain Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, raising a considerable army, obtained a signal victory over the Normans and Flemings at Aberteivy; and, having retaken the town and castle, in the latter of which they placed a strong garrison, returned into their own country, laden with honour and with spoil.

The castle was afterwards fortified by Roger, Earl of Clare, from whom it was wrested, in 1165, by Rhŷs ab Grufydd, Prince of South Wales, who razed it to the ground. According to most writers it was rebuilt by Gilbert de Clare, in the following year, but was afterwards twice taken by Rhŷs, who, having subsequently entered into terms with Henry II., was allowed to retain his possessions in South Wales, and kept it in his own hands till his death. Rhŷs, in 1171, marched a long cavalcade of eightysix horses from this place to Pembroke, and presented them to that monarch, when on his route to embark for Ireland; and on his having completed the repairs of the castle, in 1176, he celebrated in it a grand festival, and held an Eisteddvod, or assembly of the bards, of which notice had been published, for a year previously, in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales: from all these countries numerous distinguished guests arrived, and all the bards of Wales were present. After a display of deeds of arms and other military exploits, the bards were assembled in the great hall, and prizes were adjudged to the most skilful. In this contest the bards of North Wales gained the prizes for poetry; and among the musicians, those of the household of Rhŷs were allowed to have excelled in minstrelsy. Prince Rhŷs, in 1188, sumptuously entertained Archbishop Baldwin, attended by Giraldus Cambrensis, then preaching the crusades throughout Wales; first at St. Dogmael's Priory, in the county of Pembroke, and on the day following in his castle of Cardigan. After the death of Rhŷs, in 1198, the castle, then in the possession of his son Grufydd, was attacked by another son, Maelgwyn, by whom it was taken; but, in the course of the same year Grufydd repossessed himself of all his patrimonial territories, with the exception of this castle and that of Ystrad-Meirig, which were still in the possession of his brother, who, at last, agreed to surrender the former of the fortresses to Grufydd, on hostages being given to him for the security of his person. These, however, he had no sooner received than he repaired the fortifications of the castle, reinforced the garrison, and, placing the hostages in the hands of his ally, Gwenwynwyn, Prince of Powys (from whom they effected their escape), refused to fulfil his engagement. He retained possession of the castle till the year 1200, when, finding that he could no longer defend it against the power of Grufydd, which was every day increasing, he sold it for a small sum to the Normans, that it might not fall into the hands of his brother.

In 1215, this fortress was surrendered by the Norman garrison to Llewelyn ab Iorwerth, Prince of North Wales, who returned to Cardigan, in the following year, to adjust the disputes which had arisen between the native chieftains of South Wales, and to divide among them the territories which they had jointly recovered from the Anglo-Norman invaders. In this partition the castle was assigned to Owain ab Grufydd; but Llewelyn, much to the dissatisfaction of that chieftain, kept it in his own possession, and in the treaty which he made with the English king, and which was ratified at Gloucester in 1218, he engaged to restore it, with all its dependencies, to the English. In the following year Llewelyn, refusing to perform his engagement, and apprehending an attack from the English, strengthened the fortifications, and augmented the garrison of the castle; but no attack was made upon it till the year 1220, when the colony of Flemings in Pembrokeshire, who had recently sworn fealty to him, revolting from their allegiance, marched against Cardigan, and speedily obtained possession of the castle, which however was soon retaken by Llewelyn, who put the garrison to the sword. Young Rhŷs ab Grufydd, being afterwards, as he conceived, wrongfully deprived of the castle by Llewelyn, went over to the English, placing himself under the protection of the Earl of Pembroke, who, after the quarrel between Rhŷs and Llewelyn had been amicably adjusted through the interference of the English monarch, seized the castle, which during his absence was again retaken by Llewelyn, and the garrison put to the sword. The earl, on his return from Ireland in 1223, marched with a powerful army to Cardigan; and laying siege to the castle, compelled a surrender, and retaliated upon the Welsh garrison the cruelty which his own soldiers had previously experienced from Llewelyn. Maelgwyn ab Maelgwyn, a Welsh chieftain, having, in 1231, forced his way into Cardigan, put all the inhabitants to the sword; and after laying waste and nearly demolishing the town, he was checked in his career of destruction only by the fortifications of the castle, which were considered impregnable. Being afterwards joined by his cousin Owain, son of Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, attended by some of the best officers of that prince, he returned to besiege the castle; and, having broken down the bridge, closely invested the fortress, and so battered and undermined it, that the garrison, after an obstinate resistance, was finally compelled to surrender. The castle lay in the ruinous state to which it had been thus reduced for nearly nine years, till the accession of Davydd ab Llewelyn ab Iorwerth to the sovereignty of Wales, in 1240, when Gilbert Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, encouraged by the weakness of the prince and the unsettled state of the principality in a new reign, seized upon the fortress, which he strengthened with works more extensive and better constructed.

From this time the castle appears to have remained in the undisturbed possession of the English, and no further notice occurs respecting it in the Welsh annals. Edward I., after his entire conquest of the country, resided for a month in the castle, whilst employed in settling the affairs of the principality. The lordship, castle, and town were settled by Henry VII. on Catharine of Arragon, on her being betrothed to his eldest son, Arthur, Prince of Wales, as part of her dower. Soon after the commencement of the civil war, Cardigan Castle was in the hands of the parliament, two of whose agents resided at the priory in the town. It was, however, taken by General Gerard, and garrisoned for the king; but was afterwards besieged by the parliamentarian forces under General Laugharne, by whom, after it had sustained an incessant cannonade for three days, by which a breach was made in the walls, it was taken by storm. On this latter occasion, Jeremy Taylor, the divine, who was with the royalists, was taken prisoner.

The town is pleasantly situated on the north bank and near the estuary of the river Teivy, over which it has an ancient stone bridge of five arches, connecting the counties of Cardigan and Pembroke. It comprises one principal thoroughfare, extending from the bridge along the turnpike-road to Aberystwith, from which another diverges to the east, in a line towards Newcastle; the former contains several respectable shops, and in both are a few good houses. For many years the want of a public supply of water was much felt by the inhabitants; but in the beginning of the year 1831, the sum of £400 was raised for that purpose by public subscription. A capacious reservoir was made near the gaol, and iron-pipes laid down, by which the water is conveyed into six public conduits in different parts of the town, for the supply of the inhabitants generally, and from these are branch pipes, conveying it to the houses of those who choose to pay a small annual rate for that additional accommodation. Other improvements have since been carried out. A literary and scientific institution has been lately established. Dramatic performances occasionally take place in the town, and during the assizes and at other times assemblies and concerts are given; but there are no buildings especially appropriated for these amusements. In 1847 the Angel inn was purchased by government, for the construction of new barracks. The environs are pleasant, abounding with interesting and varied scenery; and the view of the town from the higher grounds is highly prepossessing.

The port has jurisdiction over Newport and Fishguard, in the county of Pembroke, to the west, and over Aberporth, to the north; it carries on a very considerable coasting-trade, and a limited intercourse with foreign parts. The principal exports are, corn (chiefly oats) to Bristol and Liverpool, butter, oak, bark, and slate, which last may be deemed the staple article of the place, though it is not of a very good quality, selling only at half the price of the slate procured in North Wales. The chief imports are, timber from Norway and North America, coal, principally from Liverpool, and sometimes from South Wales and Staffordshire, culm from South Wales, limestone from Pembrokeshire, and manufactured goods and merchandise for the supply of the shops. The river Teivy is navigable up to the bridge for vessels of from 300 to 400 tons' burthen at spring tides, but the entrance to the harbour is obstructed by a dangerous bar, having at high water in spring tides only twenty-two feet of water, with a fall of sixteen feet, leaving at times only six feet depth of water, and at neap tides the rise and fall do not exceed eleven feet; so that the general trade of the port is confined to vessels of from 15 to 100 tons' burthen. It has been suggested that a great improvement might be made in the harbour, by constructing a pier from Pen-yr-Ergyd to the south-west, the expense of which probably would not exceed £1000. A lucrative salmon-fishery is carried on in the river Teivy, during the summer months; and a herringfishery, which in some years is exceedingly productive, affords employment to many during the winter. In summer the river assumes a remarkable appearance, from the vast number of coracles, or small portable fishing-boats, constructed of wicker covered with leather, and large enough only to hold one person. Ship-building was formerly carried on to a great extent, but it has almost wholly declined, and the town has now no manufactures of any description. The market is on Saturday; and fairs are held annually on February 13th, April 5th, September 8th, and December 19th. The market for corn is held by sufferance under the shire-hall. Butchers' meat was exposed for sale in the principal street until the year 1823, when a commodious market-house and slaughter-house were built, under the direction of the corporation, on the west side of the town, near the river.

The borough was first incorporated by Edward I., after his final conquest of Wales, and the charter of privileges granted by that monarch was confirmed and extended by several of his successors, including Henry III., who in the fourteenth year of his reign bestowed upon the burgesses exemption from tolls, passage, or frontage, throughout the kingdom. The charter of the nineteenth of Henry VIII. partially elevated it into a county of itself, by granting "that the burgesses and their successors for ever shall have the return of all our writs and of all the suits of our heirs, in whatsoever pleas, real or personal, and of all other cases within the said town of Cardigan; so that no escheator, sheriff, bailiff, nor minister, of us do enter or in anything meddle, within the town and borough aforesaid;" but this charter has in practice been disregarded, and the corporation claims to be such by prescription. Until the passing of the Municipal Corporations' Act, the style of the borough was "the Mayor, Common-Council, and Burgesses of the town and borough of Cardigan," and the control was vested in a mayor, thirteen common-councilmen, a coroner, a town-clerk, two bailiffs, and an indefinite number of burgesses; the principal functions, however, being exercised by the commoncouncil. The mayor and coroner were elected annually by the burgesses, who chose the former officer out of the common-council, and the latter from among themselves; the town-clerk was appointed by the council, and the bailiffs by the mayor, from among the burgesses; and the council, on any vacancy happening in their body, themselves filled it up. The mode of obtaining the freedom was by presentment of the jury at one of the mayor's courts. These were held, one on the Monday after Michaelmas-day, the other within a month after Easter; and were summoned by the bailiffs, agreeably with a warrant from the mayor, requiring them to summon twenty-four good and lawful men of the burgesses to be sworn of the grand inquest, to inquire into all matters relating to the corporation.

By the act 5th and 6th of William IV., c. 76, the corporation is styled the "Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses," and consists of a mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors, forming the council of the borough. The mayor is elected annually by the council, on November 9th, from among the aldermen or councillors; and the aldermen triennially, out of the councillors, or persons qualified as such, one-half going out of office every three years, but being reeligible: the councillors are chosen annually on November 1st, by and from among the enrolled burgesses, one-third going out of office every year. The aldermen and councillors must have a property qualification of £500, or be rated at £15 annual value. Occupiers of houses and shops, who have been rated for three years to the relief of the poor, are entitled to be burgesses. Two auditors and two assessors are elected annually, on March 1st, by and from among the burgesses; and the council appoint a town-clerk, treasurer, and other officers annually on November 9th: the number of magistrates is three. Adjoining the town is an uninclosed common, containing about 200 acres of good land, which belongs to the burgesses.

The borough and its contributories, Aberystwith, Lampeter, and Atpar, return one member to parliament. The right of election was formerly in the burgesses at large, but is now, by the act for "Amending the Representation of the People," vested in the old resident burgesses, if registered according to the provisions of the act, and in every male person of full age occupying, either as owner, or as tenant under the same landlord, a house or other premises of the annual value of not less than £10, provided he be capable of registering as the act demands. The number of voters in the borough of Cardigan, including 69 burgesses, is 198; and the total number in the four boroughs, including 239 burgesses, is 754. The mayor for the time being is returning officer.

The assizes for Cardiganshire are held here, as the county town: the powers of the county debt-court of Cardigan, established in 1847, extend over the registration-district of Cardigan. The knight of the shire, also, is elected here. The shire-hall was built in 1764, and enlarged in 1829 by the addition of a room for the grand jury, and a retiring-room for the petit jury: the court is commodiously arranged, and contains a bust of the late Thomas Johnes, Esq., lord-lieutenant and parliamentary representative of the county, sculptured by Chantrey, at the expense of the county magistrates. The common gaol and house of correction for the county was erected in the year 1793, after a design by Mr. Nash. It occupies a spacious area at the extremity of the town, towards Aberystwith, and comprises six day-rooms, six airingyards, five work-rooms, and every requisite for the proper classification of the prisoners, it being capable of accommodating twenty-two in separate cells, and forty-seven by placing more than one person in each cell. In one of the yards is a tread-wheel, for the employment of prisoners sentenced to hard labour.

The parish comprises about 2340 acres, consisting of meadow, pasture, and arable land, and a very small portion of woodland; the soil is chiefly a stiff clay, and the produce, oats, barley, and wheat. The living is a discharged vicarage, rated in the king's books at £9. 15. 10., and endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £400 royal bounty; present net income, £153, with a glebe-house; patron, the Lord Chancellor; impropriator, the Rev. Robert H. W. Miles, whose tithes have been commuted for a rentcharge of £300. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a spacious and venerable structure, consisting of a nave, chancel, and south porch, with a square embattled tower at the west end, and contains space for the accommodation of about 1200 persons. The various parts of this structure were erected at different periods, and display different styles of architecture. The chancel, which is by far the most ancient and most elegant portion, is in the decorated style; it is externally ornamented with a castellated battlement, and strengthened with buttresses surmounted by light handsome pinnacles. The porch was rebuilt, in the later style, in 1639, and the nave in the same style, but differing in the details, in 1703; the tower, which fell down in 1705, was partly rebuilt in 1711, by a brief under the great seal, and completed in 1748, by subscription. The appearance of the interior has been considerably injured by the erection of a carved screen above the altar, of the Ionic order, ill according with the prevailing style of architecture. The east window contains some portions of the ancient stained glass with which it was originally filled; the font, which is ancient, is octangular in form, and richly sculptured; and in the south-eastern angle of the church are two arches, under each of which is a handsome marble monument, erected about the middle of the last century. A gallery was erected in 1821, at the expense of Pryse Pryse, Esq., who made other additions. Mathaiarn, one of the sons of Brychan, Prince of Brecknock, who devoted himself to a religious life, about the middle of the fifth century, is said to have been buried here. The churchyard contains some very fine old elm-trees. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists.

The free grammar school was originally founded in 1653, and was at that period endowed, by the Hon. Commissioners for the Propagation of the Gospel in Wales, with a revenue of £60 per annum, out of the impropriate tithes of Llansantfraid. At the Restoration these reverted to their former owners, the vicarschoral in the cathedral church of St. David's; and the school was continued by support from the corporation of Cardigan, until Lady Lætitia Cornwallis, of Abermarlais, in 1731, devised £200, the interest of which was to be paid to the master. Her ladyship's will becoming in 1785 a matter of contention in the court of chancery, an order was then made that £717. 10. 6. Bank three per cents, should be transferred to the mayor and council in respect of the above bequest, and the dividends, amounting to £21. 10. 6., are now paid to the master of the school. The school-house comprises one room, erected some years since by subscription on the property of the corporation. There are six boys on the foundation, who are nominated by the mayor and commoncouncil, and are allowed to remain five years, during which time they are taught the Greek and Latin classics, history, and geography, gratuitously, but pay one guinea annually for learning writing and arithmetic: there are about twenty-two other scholars, who pay for their education. Prior to the establishment of St. David's College, Lampeter, young men were ordained from this school. It is said that four scholarships belong to it, but they are not at present available, neither can any particulars of their foundation be ascertained. Attached to the school is a parochial lending-library, founded by Dr. Bray's Associates. A National school, in which about 160 boys are instructed, is supported by subscription; and there is also a school for girls, attended by a like number of scholars, and similarly supported. Six or seven Sunday schools are kept, chiefly by the dissenters. The poor-law union of which this town is the head, was formed May 9th, 1837, and comprises the following twenty-six parishes; namely, St. Mary's in the borough of Cardigan, Aberporth, Blaenporth, Llandygwydd, Llangoedmore, Llêchrhŷd, Mount, Tremaen, and Verwic, in the county of Cardigan; and Bayvill, Bridel, Dinas, St. Dogmael's, Eglwyswrw, Kîlgerran, Llanerchllwydog, Llantyd, Llanvair-Nantgwyn, Llanvihangel-Penbedw, Manerdivy, Meliney, Monington, Moylgrove, Nevern, Newport, and Whitchurch or Eglwys-Wen, in the county of Pembroke. It is under the superintendence of thirty-three guardians, and contains a population of 19,901, of whom 12,442 are in Pembrokeshire.

At the eastern extremity of the town, towards the river, stood a small Benedictine priory, the foundation of which is of uncertain date; it was a cell to the abbey of Chertsey, and its revenue at the Dissolution was valued at £32. It was granted by Henry VIII., together with the other possessions of Chertsey, to Bisham Abbey, and subsequently, by the same monarch, to William Cavendish and Margaret his wife. The Priory was afterwards the residence of the celebrated Catherine Philipps, daughter of Mr. John Fowler of London, and wife of James Philipps, Esq., better known by her poetical name of Orinda, and as the author of some pleasing poems, and a small work entitled "Letters from Orinda to Polyarchus," by which name her early friend and patron, Sir Charles Cottrell, was designated. On the site of the old mansion is now a handsome villa, which, with the whole of the Priory estate, is the property of the Rev. Robert Miles, son of the late Philip John Miles, of Leigh Court, in the county of Somerset, Esq. Of the walls by which the town was encompassed there are no remains. The castle, from its situation, was well calculated for defence, and admirably adapted to command the entrance into the western part of the principality, of which it was considered the key; it occupied the summit of an eminence rising to a considerable elevation above the river, and overlooking the town and a large tract of the open country. The remains consist only of two bastions and a portion of the curtainwall. The site of the keep is occupied by a modern villa, having cellars formed out of the dungeons of that ancient tower, of which the walls in some parts are from nine to ten feet thick: the outer ward has been converted into a verdant lawn, tastefully disposed in parterres. Cardigan gives the title of earl to the family of Brudenell.

Cardigan (Isle Of)

CARDIGAN (ISLE OF), an extra-parochial district, in the hundred of Troedyraur, county of Cardigan, South Wales, 4½ miles (N.) from Cardigan. This is a small island, at the eastern side of the mouth of the river Teivy, and only separated from the main land by a narrow channel. It comprises about forty acres, and yields good pasturage for cattle and sheep, chiefly for the market at Cardigan.

Cardiganshire

CARDIGANSHIRE, a maritime county of South Wales, bounded on the north by the estuary of the river Dovey, or Dyvi, and the county of Merioneth; on the north-east by Montgomeryshire; on the east by the north-western extremity of Radnorshire, and the northern parts of Brecknockshire; on the south by the county of Carmarthen; on the south-west by that of Pembroke; and on the west and north-west, in its whole length, by Cardigan bay. It extends from 51° 55' to 52° 27' (N. Lat.) and from 3° 45' to 4° 51' (W. Lon.); and comprises an area, according to Mr. Cary's Communications to the Board of Agriculture, of 590 square miles, or 377,600 statute acres. It contains 15,123 houses inhabited, 792 uninhabited, and 121 in course of erection; and the population of the county amounts to 68,766, of whom 32,215 are males, and 36,551 females. The annual value of real property assessed to the property and income tax, for the year ending April 1843, was as follows: lands, £159,949; houses, £23,082; tithes, £13,086; mines, £9190; manors, £21: total, £205,328.

The ancient British inhabitants of this county were the Dimetæ, who also occupied the adjoining counties of Carmarthen and Pembroke, and were subjected to the Roman sway by Julius Frontinus, about the year 70. Under the Roman dominion it contained the station Loventium, thought by Sir Richard Colt Hoare and other antiquaries to have been situated at Llanio, about seven miles above Lampeter, in the vale of Teivy. It seems, likewise, to have been traversed throughout by the great Roman road called the Via Occidentalis, which connected the station Loventium with that of Segontium, near the modern Carnarvon; also with that at Penallt, in the present county of Merioneth; that of Menapium, in Pembrokeshire; and those of Maridunum, and at Llanvair-ar-y-Bryn, in Carmarthenshire.

The present name of Cardigan is derived from Caredig, son of Cynedda, a chieftain of North Britain, who distinguished himself in repelling an invasion of Wales by the Irish Scots, about the middle of the fifth century, and received as a reward for his services a tract of South Wales, called Tyno-Côch, or the "Red Valley," to which he gave the name of Caredigion, signifying "Caredig's country," and since corrupted into Cardigan. The precise extent of this tract cannot now be ascertained; but at a later period, the lordship, or principality, of Caredigion is known to have comprehended, besides the present county of Cardigan, the greater part of that of Carmarthen. Little more than their names is known of the successors of Caredig in the sovereign authority: Brothen, the third in succession, received the honour of canonization. The eleventh was Gwgan, who was accidentally drowned in 870; after which event, Rhodri Mawr, or Roderic the Great, sovereign of North Wales and Powys, became possessed of Caredigion (this principality then holding supreme authority over the other petty states of South Wales), in right of his wife Angharad, who was Gwgan's daughter. Having thus become sovereign of all Wales, he subsequently divided his dominions into three portions, including Caredigion in the kingdom of South Wales, the seat of the government of which he fixed at Dynevor, in the present county of Carmarthen, and to which his son Cadell succeeded on the death of his father. In the disputes that soon arose among Roderic's sons, Anarawd, King of North Wales, aided by some English allies, led a powerful force into South Wales, in 892, and made devastations in this and the other provinces, burning the houses and destroying the corn.

Ievav and Iago, Princes of North Wales, obtaining possession of their patrimony after the death of Hywel Dda, by whom they had been unjustly excluded from it, asserted their claim to the sovereignty of all Wales, and, in 949, invading Caredigion, defeated the sons of Hywel, who had shared among them the kingdoms of South Wales and Powys; and then carried their devastations into Dyved, the present Pembrokeshire. The year following, they again entered Dyved, but were opposed with spirit by Owain, son of Hywel, by whom they were compelled to retreat with such precipitation, that a great part of their army was drowned in the river Teivy. Owain and his brothers, in their turn, acted on the offensive, and invaded North Wales, where they fought a sanguinary battle with the forces of Ievav and Iago, but without advantage to either party; and the next year, the Princes of North Wales, again entering Caredigion, were repulsed with great loss by the sons of Hywel, who, however, in the end were overcome by their adversaries, whose dominion was established over all Wales.

In 987, the Danes committed great devastation on the coast of the county, burning the churches of Llanbadarn and Llanrhŷstid, and causing such destruction of corn and cattle as to produce a general famine, which destroyed a large part of the population. On this occasion Meredydd, then sovereign of all Wales, was compelled to purchase the retreat of the invaders by the payment of a tribute, called "the tribute of the black army:" but scarcely had he freed himself from these foreign enemies, when Edwin, the eldest son of his brother Einion, who considered himself wrongfully dispossessed of the principality of South Wales, aided by some parties of Saxons and Danes, invaded this county, and hence proceeded into Pembrokeshire. About the year 1068, the Normans having proved successful in their invasion of England, a strong body of them made a descent upon the western coast of South Wales, and ravaged this county and that of Pembroke; but, being quickly attacked by Caradoc, Prince of South Wales, they were compelled to abandon their plunder, and retreat to their ships. These marauders returned three years after, in 1071, but with the like ill-success, being defeated with great loss by Rhydderch, son and successor of Caradoc.

In 1087, the sons of Bleddyn ab Cynvyn, a deceased Prince of North Wales, raised a formidable insurrection in South Wales, against the authority of Rhŷs ab Tewdwr, the reigning prince of this country, whom they compelled to retire to Ireland. Being aided with a large body of Irish troops by his brotherin-law, the King of Dublin, Rhŷs soon returned, and was joined by numerous friends; while the sons of Bleddyn, thinking that delay would increase the strength of their antagonist, hastened to give him battle. The adverse armies met at a place called Llêchrhŷd, and a sanguinary conflict ensued, in which the sons of Bleddyn were totally defeated, and two of them slain. The scene of this action has been generally placed in Radnorshire, but it is now thought to have been fought at Llêchrhŷd, near the Teivy, in this county, a few miles above the town of Cardigan, rather than in a part of the principality the most distant from the Irish Channel, and which Rhŷs could reach only by leading his forces a distance of nearly sixty miles over a desert and almost impassable country.

Caredigion was one of the Welsh provinces first subdued by the Norman lords, soon after they had been so much encouraged in the conquest of the country, by the successful issue of Fitz-Hamon's enterprise in Glamorgan; and Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, did homage for it to William Rufus, towards the close of the eleventh century: this baron, to secure his conquests, first erected the castle of Aberteivy, or Cardigan, afterwards so distinguished in Welsh history. But the Norman settlers had constantly to maintain an arduous contest with the native princes, in which they were frequently worsted and driven from the territory they had usurped. In 1093, Cadwgan ab Bleddyn, Prince of Powys and South Wales, expelled these invaders, and took possession of the castle of Aberteivy, or Cardigan. Gilbert Strongbow, obtaining leave of Henry I. of England to deprive Cadwgan of all the lands which he could wrest from him, invaded the province of Caredigion with a considerable force, and subdued it without much difficulty: having thus obtained possession of the country, his chief care was to erect fortresses for the defence of his conquests, one of these being the castle of Aberystwith. Grufydd ab Rhŷs, the eldest surviving son of Rhŷs ab Tewdwr, commencing a system of predatory warfare against the lords marcher in the territory of Carmarthen, his success gained him many partisans among the native chieftains, and thus enabled him to conduct his operations on a more extended scale, and to recover a large portion of his father's territories, in spite of the opposition raised against him by the English monarch, Henry I. The native chieftains of Caredigion espoused his cause and submitted to his government, esteeming him the guardian of his country, and calling on him to free them from the odious and ignominious tyranny of foreigners. Grufydd hereupon entered the territories of these chieftains, by whom he was received with great cordiality and respect. Suddenly arriving at Cardigan Iscoed, he laid siege to a fortress erected by the English at Blaen Porth Gwithan, in the vicinity of that place, which, after many terrible assaults, he at length took and burned to the ground. As far as Penwedic, the like destruction fell upon the deserted houses of the English inhabitants, who, struck with dismay, had fled from the fury of the native forces. Grufydd next laid siege to a castle called Strath Peithyll, in this county, belonging to Strongbow's steward, which he took by assault, putting the garrison to the sword. Hence he advanced to Glâs Crûg, where he encamped his forces for a day's rest. But his hitherto triumphant progress soon received a severe check, in a disastrous failure before Strongbow's castle of Aberystwith, in which the slaughter of his troops was so great as to compel him to evacuate the province.

At the commencement of the reign of the English monarch Stephen, in 1135, Owain Gwynedd and Cadwaladr, chieftains of North Wales, laid waste with ruthless fury the province of Caredigion, taking the castles of Aberystwith, Dinerth, and Caerwedrôs, and two other fortresses, belonging to Walter Espec and Richard de la Mare, all of which were of great strength and well garrisoned. At the close of the following year the confederate princes again invaded this territory, with 4000 infantry and 2000 horse, besides the auxiliaries led by their allies, Grufydd ab Rhŷs and other eminent chieftains, who also furnished their main army with considerable supplies. These invaders, with irresistible violence, subdued the whole province to the town of Aberteivy, or Cardigan, taking and demolishing all the castles held by the English lords. To repel so formidable an incursion, the whole force of the Normans, the Flemings, and the English, in Wales and the Marches, was united under the conduct of several powerful barons, who, however, were signally defeated, in a severe and bloody conflict, with the loss of 3000 men. On this occasion, the routed forces, fleeing to their castles for safety, were so closely pursued, that many were made prisoners, and great numbers were drowned in the Teivy by the breaking down of a bridge across that river, which afforded almost the only means of escape. Having thus successfully completed their campaign, the young princes of North Wales returned to their own country, carrying with them, to grace their triumph, the horses and armour, and other rich spoils, which they had taken. In the course of these events, Richard, Earl of Clare, to whose father, Strongbow, the territory of Caredigion, or Cardigan, had been granted by Henry I., was murdered by a Welshman, named Iorwerth, as he was riding through a wood. After this his wife, who was sister to the Earl of Chester, retired into one of his castles, in this county, where she was besieged by the Welsh, and in the most imminent danger of falling into their hands. She was at length rescued from her perilous situation by Milo Fitz-Walter, lord of Brecknock, who, with a chosen body of troops, undertook a romantic expedition from his own territories for the purpose, pursuing his march along the most unfrequented ways, and, at imminent hazard to himself and his followers, carrying away the countess and her retinue, unperceived by the besiegers.

During the reign of Grufydd's son and successor Rhŷs, an expedition was undertaken by Owain Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, against the Normans and Flemings in Cardigan and the adjoining territories on the south, in which inroad he is stated to have demolished the castles of Aberystwith, YstradMeirig, and Pont Stephan, or Lampeter, in this county: retaining in his possession the whole province of Cardigan, and compelling the inhabitants of Pembrokeshire to pay him tribute, he returned into his own dominions. A few years afterwards, Hywel and Cynan, the illegitimate sons of Owain Gwynedd, made another inroad into South Wales, encountered and defeated a Norman force, and took possession of the town of Aberteivy, or Cardigan. In 1150, Cadell, Meredydd, and Rhŷs, sons of Grufydd ab Rhŷs, invaded Cardigan, and took and demolished the castle of Aber-Rheidiol and other fortresses in the northern part of the province; then, marching southward, they possessed themselves of the castle of Cardigan, at that time held by Hywel, son of the Prince of North Wales, thus subduing the whole province, except only a single fortress in its northern part. These young princes were so much enraged at the loss of the bravest of their soldiers, which they experienced at the siege of the castle of Llanrhŷstid, that, on at last gaining possession of it, they put the garrison to the sword: the castle of Ystrad-Meirig, which they next took, they fortified with additional works; and, placing garrisons in both these fortresses, returned to Carmarthenshire laden with rich spoil.

Early in the reign of Henry II., Roger, Earl of Clare, entered Cardigan with the sanction of that monarch, to attempt the recovery of the estates which had been taken from his family during the late reign. He regained possession of the castle of Ystrad-Meirig and some other places, and proceeded to attack the territories of Rhŷs ab Grufydd; but the latter chieftain soon after, in 1165, overran the whole county of Cardigan, levelling with the ground all the castles belonging to the English. A few years afterwards, roused by the savage murder of his two nephews, whom he had delivered as hostages to Henry II., by their keeper, the Earl of Gloucester, Rhŷs again took up arms, and, attacking Gloucester's possessions in Cardigan, took and demolished the castle of Aber-Rheidiol and other fortresses; then, marching southward, he possessed himself of the castle of Cardigan, and afterwards extended his inroads into Pembrokeshire. On the retreat of Henry II., after his invasion of North Wales, which Rhŷs had aided in resisting, this chieftain, returning into South Wales, suddenly invested the castle of Cardigan, which had again fallen into the hands of the English, and retook it; he devastated the surrounding country, and also made himself master of the castle of Kîlgerran, an important post situated on the banks of the Teivy near Cardigan, the fortifications of which he levelled with the ground. Rhŷs then proceeded to his own territories in Carmarthenshire. Henry II. afterwards granted to this chieftain, along with other extensive territories, the whole of that of Cardigan, in the castle of which Rhŷs in 1176 held a grand festival, celebrated by the Welsh bards of after times. He died in 1196, and, with several of his successors in the lordship of Dynevor, was buried at the abbey of Strata Florida, in the eastern and mountainous part of the county.

Grufydd ab Rhŷs succeeded to the lordship of South Wales, together with all the territories held by his father at the time of his death; but his brother Maelgwyn, aided by Gwenwynwyn, son of Owain Cyveilioc, lord of Powys, soon after he had entered upon his inheritance, attacked him by surprise in his castle of Aberystwith, and made him prisoner: Maelgwyn then proceeded against some of Grufydd's other fortresses, and soon made himself master of the whole province of Cardigan. In the following year (1198), the wronged chieftain was liberated from confinement by the English lords into whose custody he had been delivered by Gwenwynwyn, and, being strongly supported by his friends, entered this territory, and recovered all his possessions in it, except the castles of Cardigan and Ystrad-Meirig. Through the mediation of the friends of the adverse parties, Maelgwyn entered into a solemn engagement to deliver up the castle of Cardigan to Grufydd, on condition of receiving from the latter hostages for the security of his own person. But on the delivery of these, Maelgwyn sent them prisoners to Gwenwynwyn, and fortified the castle for himself: in the following year, also, he took from his brother the castle of Dinerth, and put the garrison to the sword; but the latter about the same time obtained possession of the important fortress of Kîlgerran, situated on the banks of the Teivy, in the neighbourhood of that of Cardigan, but on the opposite side of the river. Maelgwyn, fearing, from Grufydd's increase of strength in the vicinity, that he should not be able to maintain the contest much longer, sold the castle of Cardigan to the Normans, lest it should fall into the hands of his brother: the latter died in 1202, and was succeeded in his honours and possessions by his son Rhŷs, whose lands in Cardigan were soon invaded by Maelgwyn, aided by his ally Gwenwynwyn.

Llewelyn ab Iorwerth, Prince of North Wales, having in 1208 seized upon the territories of Gwenwynwyn, then a prisoner in England, marched an army into South Wales against Maelgwyn, who, being unable to resist so overwhelming a force, destroyed his castles and withdrew: Llewelyn rebuilt the castle of Aberystwith, which he garrisoned with his own troops; but the cantrêv of Penwedic, forming the northernmost part of the present county of Cardigan, and the other lands lying between the rivers Dyvi and Aëron, he gave to Rhŷs ab Grufydd and his brother Owain. Maelgwyn, rendering submission to the English monarch John, was furnished by the latter with a large body of English troops, to assist in the recovery of his possessions in this quarter; and entering Cardiganshire with these forces, he encamped at Kîlcennin, in the cantrêv of Penwedic. His nephews Rhŷs and Owain, who were not strong enough to oppose him openly in the field, came privately into the vicinity of his camp, with a chosen band of three hundred men, and, suddenly entering it in the dead of night, fell upon their enemies with great fury, put many of them to the sword, and obliged the rest, among whom was Maelgwyn himself, to seek safety in flight. When King John, in 1212, compelled Llewelyn ab lorwerth and the other principal Welsh chieftains to do him homage, Rhŷs and his brother Owain at first refused; but being soon threatened by the overwhelming forces of Foulke, Viscount Cardiff, at that time warden of the Marches, who was aided by their uncles Maelgwyn and Rhŷs Vychan, they sued for peace, and applied for safe conduct to London, where they were graciously received by the king, and, on doing homage to him and relinquishing their territories between the Dyvi and Aëron, were allowed to retain all their other possessions. The English commander, on this occasion, strengthened the works of Aberystwith Castle, and garrisoned it with the king's troops. After the departure of Foulke, Maelgwyn and Rhŷs Vychan, probably incensed at the favourable terms granted to their nephews, with whom they had been so long in hostility, threw off their allegiance to the English monarch, and took and dismantled the castle of Aberystwith, thus affording to Rhŷs and Owain an opportunity of retaliating on their uncles, on pretence of supporting the authority of the King of England. Accordingly they entered Maelgwyn's territories, which they plundered; but it appears that both these young chieftains were shortly after stripped by their uncles of nearly all their estates, which they recovered only by the assistance of some forces furnished them by King John, and commanded by the same Lord Foulke, who defeated Rhŷs Vychan with considerable loss in a battle fought in Carmarthenshire. The latter chieftain, expelled from all his fortresses in that county, removed his family to Aberystwith, and retired to the most inaccessible parts of the neighbouring country. Some time after these events, Llewelyn ab Iorwerth led a large army into South Wales, to attack the territories of the English vassals, and, in the course of the expedition (in which he was assisted by the forces of Rhŷs ab Grufydd, his brother Owain, and their two uncles, who had all come to a reconciliation), took the castle of Cardigan, thus once more totally expelling the English from the county. After a short interval, Llewelyn came again into Cardiganshire, in his character of lord paramount of Wales, to settle a dispute between Rhŷs ab Grufydd and his brother Owain, on one part, and their uncles on the other, concerning the division of the reconquered territory, which he adjusted to the satisfaction of the respective claimants: he soon after placed a strong garrison in Cardigan Castle; and in Powell's History of Wales he is also stated to have given permission, about this time, to Rhŷs ab Grufydd to do homage to the King of England, for some of his lands. In 1220, the Flemings of Pembrokeshire, who had shortly before submitted to Llewelyn as their sovereign lord, renouncing their allegiance to him, attacked and took the castle of Cardigan; the Welsh prince, however, soon recovered it, and razed it to the ground, after which he overran the greater part of Pembrokeshire. Rhŷs, finding that Llewelyn intended to withhold from him the castle of Aberteivy, or Cardigan, which in the late division had been allotted to him, made common cause with Llewelyn's enemy, William le Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke: this chieftain's desertion Llewelyn punished by seizing his castle of Aberystwith, and the territories appertaining to it; but, King Henry III. interfering on the complaint of Rhŷs, the affair was settled amicably. Rhŷs died in the course of the same year, and his possessions were divided between his brother Owain and his uncle Maelgwyn.

Llewelyn having, during the absence of the Earl of Pembroke in Ireland, taken two of that nobleman's castles, the latter, on his return, retaliated on the subjects and possessions of Llewelyn, seizing, among other places, the castle of Cardigan. Maelgwyn ab Rhŷs died in 1230, and his possessions descended to his son Maelgwyn, who, as soon as he had entered upon his inheritance, hastened against Cardigan, and burned the town; but finding his own forces insufficient for the reduction of the castle, which was strongly fortified, he demanded the assistance of his cousin Owain and some of Llewelyn's officers; and, thus reinforced, destroyed the bridge over the Teivy, and, after a short siege, took possession of the castle. About the year 1233 died Rhŷs Vychan, son of Rhŷs, the last Prince of South Wales, whose decease was soon followed by that of his nephew Owain ab Grufydd, whose possessions were inherited by his son Meredydd, while those of Rhŷs were divided between his sons Meredydd and Rhŷs. Cardigan Castle was retaken by Gilbert le Mareschal, or Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, in the year 1240, after the death of Llewelyn ab Iorwerth.

Prince Edward, afterwards Edward I., of England, having, about the middle of the thirteenth century, taken forcible possession of some of the estates of the Welsh chieftains in Cardiganshire, the sufferers complained to Llewelyn ab Grufydd, the new Prince of North Wales, who thereupon entered this province with an army, recovered the lands, and gave the greater part of them to Meredydd ab Owain, who died in 1268. Edward I., soon after his accession, and at the same time that he invaded North Wales in person, sent a powerful army into South Wales under Payen de Chaworth, whose successes greatly contributed to moderate the terms of Llewelyn's treaty of peace with Edward, which was made soon after. Before his return from Wales, the king rebuilt the castle of Aberystwith, in order to secure the advantages which he had gained by this treaty; but the oppressions of the king's officers becoming intolerable to the inhabitants of the surrounding country, they revolted, and, headed by Rhŷs, son of Maelgwyn, and Grufydd, son of Meredydd, possessed themselves of the newly-erected fortress. Llewelyn, the last native Prince of North Wales, entered this province a little time before his death, and laid waste the possessions of the King of England's vassals in it, particularly those of Meredydd ab Rhŷs, who had some time before deserted his standard: hence he proceeded with his forces towards Builth, in Brecknockshire, in the vicinity of which place he met his lamentable death. According to the laws and regulations made by Edward I. for the government of Wales, the entire subjugation of which he completed immediately after this event, the territories which had latterly appertained more immediately to the princes of the house of Dyvenor, and were now in the possession of the crown, were formed into the two counties of Cardigan and Carmarthen, to which sheriffs were immediately appointed like those of England. Some few years afterwards, Edward proceeded also to tax his new subjects; but the Welsh, still ardently desirous of regaining their lost independence, revolted, and Maelgwyn Vychan headed a strong body of the malcontents in Cardiganshire, which overran and plundered both that county and Pembrokeshire.

During the revolt of the Welsh under Owain Glyndwr against Henry IV., the castle of Aberystwith was several times taken and retaken by the contending parties. The Earl of Richmond, after landing at Milford with the design of wresting the crown of England from the usurper, Richard III., marched through this county, his forces increasing with his progress, on his way towards Shrewsbury, where he was rejoined by the celebrated Rhŷs ab Thomas, who had taken a different route from the place of debarkation to that of rendezvous. The inhabitants of the county took rather an active part in the civil war of the seventeenth century. Cardigan Castle, which had been garrisoned for the king, was attacked by the parliamentarian forces under General Laugharne, and at last taken by storm: the castle of Aberystwith, also held by the royalists, surrendered without much opposition. Cardiganshire appears also to have been the scene of some skirmishes between the parliamentarian leader, Colonel Horton, and the royalist commander, Colonel Poyer, after the great battle of St. Fagan's in Glamorganshire, so disastrous to the forces of the latter.

This county is in the diocese of St. David's and province of Canterbury, and, together with some adjoining portions of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, forms the archdeaconry of Cardigan, which comprises, within the limits of the county of Cardigan, the deaneries of Sub Aëron, or Is Aëron, and Ultra Aëron, or Uwch Aëron. The number of parishes is sixty-five, of which twelve are rectories, twelve vicarages, and thirty-two perpetual curacies. For purposes of civil government, it is divided into the five hundreds of Geneu'r-Glyn, Ilar, Moythen, Penarth, and Troedyraur, all of which have Upper and Lower divisions. It contains the borough, market, and sea-port towns of Aberystwith and Cardigan, the latter of which is the county town, while the former is much frequented for the purpose of sea-bathing; the borough and market-town of Lampeter; part of the borough of Atpar; the watering-place and seaport of Aberaëron; the market-town of Trêgaron, and the ports of New-Quay and Aberporth. One knight is returned to parliament for the shire, and one representative for Cardigan and the rest of the boroughs collectively: the county member, and the member for the district of united boroughs, are elected at Cardigan; the polling-places for the county are Cardigan, Aberystwith, Lampeter, and Trêgaron. Cardiganshire is included in the South Wales circuit; the assizes are held at Cardigan, and the quarter-sessions at Aberaëron: the county gaol is at Cardigan, and there are houses of correction for the county both at Cardigan and Aberystwith. There are about fifty acting magistrates. It contains the poor-law unions of Aberaëron, Aberystwith, and Trêgaron, parts of the unions of Cardigan, Lampeter, and Newcastle-Emlyn, and two parishes in the union of Machynlleth.

The surface of Cardiganshire consists almost wholly of mountains and lofty hills, with their corresponding valleys, having no level tract of any considerable extent. Its northern parts are more particularly mountainous, being entirely composed of a portion of the lofty hills that surround the distinguished summit of Plinlimmon, in the south-western extremity of Montgomeryshire. In Cardiganshire these hills branch into several extensive chains, the most remarkable of which, stretching southward along its eastern border, bounds the vale of the Teivy on the east, and afterwards sweeps through Carmarthenshire into Pembrokeshire. One branch stretches westward between the rivers Dovey and Rheidiol; another, between the Rheidiol and the Ystwith: a third is bounded by the Ystwith on the north-west, and the Teivy on the east, and, extending southwestward, terminates at the river Aëron; while a fourth runs nearly parallel with the last, on the western and north-western side of the Teivy, towards Cardigan. Various detached hills of considerable elevation are scattered in different directions. All of them are destitute of wood, and their aspect is bleak, dreary, and desolate in the extreme, seldom presenting any object to relieve the eye from the uniformity of their bare and gently undulating surface, except the projection of numerous naked crags. The late Thomas Johnes, Esq., of Havod, however, and his predecessors the Herberts, clothed some of the most elevated and exposed summits on this side of Plinlimmon, approaching the source of the Ystwith, with plantations of oak and larch.

Of the great number of natural pools and small lakes, the principal are in the most elevated part of the county, near the summit of the chain of hills approaching the border of Radnorshire, in the vicinity of Strata Florida. They form a cluster, of which Llyn Teivy, the source of the river Teivy, is the chief, being about a mile and a half in circumference, and its waters not yet fathomed; it is surrounded by a high and perpendicular ridge, and the rocks and stones which lie scattered in every direction, unrelieved by any kind of wood or lively vegetation, impart to the whole adjacent scenery a savage and repulsive aspect. From an elevation at a short distance are seen four other lakes, within a few yards of each other, the largest of which is nearly as extensive as Llyn Teivy, but less formal in shape; while the smallest, which is circular, and about three quarters of a mile in circumference, occupies the highest ground in the county: these lakes, from their elevated sites, are much agitated by the winds. Within a short distance of them is a sixth; and another called Llyn Vathey Cringlas, occurs between Pentre Rhŷdvendigaid and Castell Einion; besides which are others in the same quarter, called respectively Llyn Helygen, Llyn Hîr, Llyn Gorlan, Llyn Crwn, Llyn Gweryddon Vawr, Llyn Dû, Llyn Cynvelin, Llyn-y-rhŷdau, Llyn-y-cregnant, a second Llyn Dû, Llyn-y-Gors, Llyngynon and Llyncerig-llwydion: within half a mile of Lampeter is Llyn Llanbedr. Other small lakes are to be seen on the high lands in the county, and several of them are the sources of rivers. The lakes of Cardiganshire afford excellent trout-fishing.

The extent of the Sea-coast, from the mouth of the Dovey, on the north, to that of the Teivy on the south, is about forty-six miles: the lands on the shore, along the whole line, are of considerable elevation, excepting only near the mouths of the rivers, where the vales descend to the coast. The Vale of the Aëron is most distinguished for extent and fertility; in the vicinity of Ystrad it is of considerable width, and contains various rich and well-cultivated farms. The scenery along the courses of the other rivers is of great variety, from the extreme of rugged and romantic grandeur, to the richness and beauty of fruitful vales. The latter, although they increase in breadth and fertility in approaching the sea, are in few instances, even in their lower levels, entirely devoid of that picturesque character which so frequently distinguishes the higher parts of their course, and is so much heightened by the grandeur of their cascades. The scenery on the banks of the Teivy becomes most beautiful and interesting below Lampeter; and the views about Llandyssil, NewcastleEmlyn, Llêchrhŷd, and Kîlgerran, are worthy of particular notice, as equalling any river scenery of the same kind in the principality. The Ystwith is characterized by a romantic interest, in its course through the delightful scenes, so highly decorated, or rather formed, by the hand of art, which surround Havod, the mansion of the late Mr. Johnes, afterwards the property of the Duke of Newcastle, and now of Henry Hoghton, Esq. The Devil's Bridge, in the vicinity of the Rheidiol and Mynach falls, is a great resort of tourists. The elevation of some of the more remarkable Heights is as follows: Trêgaron Down, 1747 feet above the level of the sea; Talsarn, 1142 feet; Capel Cynon, 1046 feet; and Aberystwith, 496 feet. The two most extensive Bogs in South Wales are in this county. One of them, called Cors Gôch ar Deivy, extends from Trêgaron to Strata Florida, a distance of about five miles, its mean breadth being about a mile and a half: the river Teivy, not far from its source, meanders through it. The other is situated at the northern extremity of the county, adjoining the mouth of the Dovey and the sea-coast, and is between 9000 and 10,000 acres in extent.

A vast level tract of land, called Cantrêv Gwaelod, or "the lowland hundred," is said to have occupied, in former times, part of the present bay of Cardigan, and to have been defended from the sea by artificial banks; which giving way, it was overwhelmed by an inundation about the end of the sixth century, the then lord of the territory being one Gwyddno Garanhîr. In the sea, about seven miles west of Aberystwith, is still to be seen a collection of rude stones, called Caer-Wyddno, "the fort or palace of Gwyddno;" and adjoining to it, and stretching northeastward towards the mouth of the Dovey, are vestiges of an embankment called Sarn Cynvelyn: these remarkable objects are left dry at low water of spring tides. Much light has been thrown on this interesting subject by the Rev. James Yates, F.G.S., in a paper read at a meeting of the Geological Society in London, in November 1832, entitled "An Account of a Submarine Forest in Cardigan Bay." The forest appears to extend along the coast of Cardiganshire and Merionethshire, being divided into two equal parts by the estuary of the Dovey, which separates these counties; it is bounded on the land side by a sandy beach, and by a wall or bank of shingle. Beyond this wall is a tract of bog and marsh, formed by streams of water, which are partially discharged by oozing through sand and shingle into the sea. Mr. Yates argues, that as the position of the wall is liable to change, it may have inclosed the part which is now submarine, and that it is not necessary to suppose a subsidence effected by marine agency. The remains of the forest are covered by a bed of peat, and are distinguished by an abundance of pholas candida and teredo nivalis: among the trees of which the forest consisted, is the pinus sylvestris, or Scotch fir; and it is known that this tree anciently abounded in several of the northern counties of England. The labourers who dig for turf beneath the sand, constantly meet with the stumps and trunks of trees imbedded in the submerged turbary; and at low water of spring tides, vast beds of peat or turf become partially visible, extending along the coast from Borth, near Aberystwith, to Towyn, in Merionethshire, and stretching to an unknown distance into the sea. Thus, a great deal of ground becomes dry at low water, and this ground presents satisfactory evidence that part of the bay, at least, was at one time forest land.

The CLIMATE of the mountains is for the most part cold, wet, and tempestuous; that of the vales is not so humid as in the adjoining county of Carmarthen, as they open to a smaller extent of sea, and the range of mountains separating the vales of Towy and Teivy frequently intercept rains from the south, which would otherwise be precipitated in this county. In the vicinity of the coast the temperature of the atmosphere is of course much more equable than further inland. The wheat harvest seldom begins before the third week in August, except in one or two more genial spots, which form exceptions to the general climate; the place that yields the very earliest crops is Lleiniau Llan Non, a tract noted for the production of barley, where, in forward seasons, this grain is harvested between the 10th and 20th of July.

The SOILS vary rather from difference of situation than of substrata. Most of the higher grounds have a grey light mould, occasionally intermixed with sand, and varying in depth from a few inches to a foot. Peat, however, generally occupies the hollows, and sometimes the slopes of the mountains; and clay abounds near the surface in some places, requiring great expense to render it in any degree productive, a difficulty which is increased by the distance from all calcareous rocks. The whole county is included in the slate and shale tract of South Wales; and the bluer the slate or shale, the more meagre the soil above it: the most grateful of the mountain soils are found upon the anomalous grey mountain rock and the pale grey shale, except where the elevation is too great or the aspect too bleak. The soils of the vales, being deposits from the uplands, increase in fertility as they approach the sea, when the current of the rivers which traverse them becomes less rapid: thus the lower levels of the valleys of the Teivy, Aëron, Ystwith, Rheidiol, &c., possess a variety of rich loams, frequently of considerable depth. The coast has generally excellent light and early soils, which have for ages been famous for the production of barley, with little, and in some places without any, alternation with other crops. In most places these soils are more or less mixed with grey porous stones, which are known to be very favourable to the growth of corn, by retaining moisture beneath them during time of drought, and affording regular warmth to the blades of the rising grain; the pastures also abound with these stones, which the farmers will on no account suffer to be removed. The substratum of these soils in the south-western part of the county is in some places a hungry light mould, tinged with oxyde of iron, resting on thick beds of marl, beneath which is found the soft kind of argillaceous schistus, called shale.

The quantity of ARABLE land is of difficult estimation: every farm has a certain proportion, varying according to its soil and aspect. The courses of crops are various; but grain is frequently taken in succession until the land is totally exhausted, and the last crop is scarcely equal to the seed which was sown to produce it: the most common crops are wheat, barley, and black oats. On the best soils the produce of wheat averages about twenty-five bushels; that grown in the Vale of Ystwith is remarkably heavy, seldom weighing less than sixty-four lb. per Winchester bushel, and sometimes as much as sixtyseven. The produce of barley, owing to its being sown repeatedly without the intervention of any other crop, is not generally large. Oats are cultivated very extensively. One kind, which greatly resembles the avena fatua (bearded oat-grass, or haver), is cultivated on the uplands, to which it is peculiar; it is called blewgeirch, or "hairy oats," and its only excellence consists in its producing a moderate crop in elevated situations, where no other grain can be expected to flourish. The black oat, however, is the most common of all crops on the uplands; its produce is usually small. Wheat is cut with the reaping-hook, and oats and barley with cradled scythes. In the more northern parts of the county a considerable quantity of rye is grown, in the uplands by itself, but in the neighbourhood of Aberystwith frequently with a mixture of wheat: this mixture makes good bread, sweeter and moister than that of wheat alone, and preferred to any other by those accustomed to eat it. The green crops commonly cultivated are peas, beans, and turnips. The kind of pea usually grown is a small, inferior, claycoloured pea, called pŷs llwydion bâch, not at all remarkable for productiveness, and which, though sown early in February, seldom ripens until late in September. On a poor soil, however, the success of its cultivation is more certain than that of the large grey peas, which are sometimes grown in the vales, as are also white boiling peas in a few of the most favourable situations. The clay-coloured peas are used by the peasantry for soup, and are sometimes threshed for hogs; but their general use is, to be given unthreshed to horses: they are occasionally sown with the hairy oat, and both cut in July for dry fodder. Beans and potatoes are not unfrequently grown together; and buck-wheat is sometimes cultivated. Turnips are not generally grown by the ordinary class of farmers. Hemp is occasionally cultivated in small patches: a singular method is sometimes practised of fermenting the heads, to facilitate the separation of the seed, by burying the tops in the ground, in circular holes several feet in diameter, the stems being inverted and bound together by straw bands, &c.: straw is also laid about the heads of the bundles, to keep them free from the mould. A few small hop-yards were planted in the valley of the Aëron about forty years ago.

The artificial grasses are of the ordinary kinds. Although the arable lands of Cardiganshire are subject, like all others in South Wales, to be overrun with natural grasses, yet they are much more easily kept clean than those of the adjoining counties of Carmarthen and Pembroke. The meadows of the vales naturally abound with the sweeter species of grasses; and even those of an inferior quality, when manured with the shelly sea-sand found upon the coast, produce the most nutritious herbage that grows in the county. In some parts the meadows are occasionally fogged, that is, the aftermath is left unconsumed on the ground from the Midsummer of one year to the early spring of the next, which the mildness of the winter admits of being done, without detriment to the grass, which in the spring is of great value: this practice also increases the fertility of the land.

Irrigation is practised along the course of most streams, except those which, descending from among the lead-mines, bring with them mineral particles detrimental to vegetation of every kind. Besides the manures from the farm-yard, lime is the principal used in the county, to the shores of which it is brought by sea from Pembrokeshire: at different places along the coast the farmers buy the stone in its natural state, together with culm from Milford, and burn it themselves. The distance, however, from which these materials are brought renders lime a dear article of manure to the farmers of Cardiganshire, so that they use it very sparingly. It is usual to leave it scattered in small heaps on the land during the whole summer, after which it is spread and ploughed in. A few farmers in the south-western parts of the county apply the marl found there to their lands. Sea-weed, or wrack, in Welsh called gwymmon, is found in great quantities on the coast after gales: as many as 2000 cart-loads have been in one night deposited near New-Quay, all of which was carried away by the farmers of the neighbourhood in the course of a fortnight. It is applied in different states, sometimes intermixed with other manures, to both arable and grass lands. Sea-sand, deposited by the tide in the creeks and at the mouths of the rivers, and which utterly destroys all weeds, is also abundantly used: on the barley tract it forms the chief manure, in perpetual alternation with the sea-weed. Peat-ashes are sometimes employed.

The plough in common use is of the most awkward and clumsy construction, being of the oldest kind known in Wales. The cradle, with the share, the latter of which is ill-made and blunt, is at least five feet long, while the mould-board is only a round stake, about seven inches in circumference, fastened from the right heel of the share to the hind part of the plough. In working, not half the cradle rests upon the ground, the hinder parts of it being constantly held up by short awkward handles. The fields ploughed with this implement have generally a very rough appearance. The harrows are also for the most part very ill-constructed; but both ploughs and harrows of improved kinds have been introduced by some of the more opulent farmers. The carts, which are the most common agricultural vehicles, are in general very small, and are drawn either by two oxen yoked to a pole or beam, led by two horses abreast; or by three horses.

The cattle of the county are black, and for the most part small, but hardy and well made: those of Cardigan Lower, that is, of such parts of the county as lie southward of the Vale of Aëron, are of the black Pembrokeshire breed, which are hardy, work well, and fatten readily. All the farmers keep cows for the purposes of breeding, and making butter and skimmed-milk cheese: the butter is salted, packed in casks containing each about eighty lb., and exported to Bristol, or taken by higglers to the ironworks of Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire. Cardiganshire, more particularly the northern and eastern parts of it, has long been noted for its profitable stock of small mountain sheep, numbers of which are purchased to be fed in other counties of the principality. They are very small, the hind-quarters seldom weighing more than seven or eight lb., and their wool is coarse and short: the average weight of each fleece is two lb. These sheep are so wild that it is impossible to confine them by any ordinary fences, on which account the rearing of them is discouraged by many landlords. The South Down, Leicester, and Dorset breeds have been introduced, and in some instances intermingled with the native sheep. In the higher districts the sheep are shorn once, generally towards the end of June. In the vales, and southward of the Aëron, they undergo two shearings, the first about the end of May, the second about the 10th of October; but at neither of these periods is the body completely stripped of wool, a circumstance which gives the animal an unsightly appearance: the fleece of the first shearing weighs from half a pound to two pounds, and that of the second from three-fourths of a pound to a pound. The horses are small, but strong and hardy, and much attention has of late years been paid to their improvement, both for draught and for the saddle. The rearing of hogs is an important part of the business of the farmer: they are, for the most part, fed on the refuse of the great quantities of potatoes that are grown on the fallows; their weight is various, and vast numbers are sold to be exported, chiefly to Bristol.

The gardens produce an abundance of the ordinary kitchen vegetables, but are not distinguished, like those of the eastern parts of South Wales, for their pleasing neatness. Although orchards are not numerous in Western Wales, the richer valleys of this county, being well sheltered, are highly favourable to the production of fruit; and orchards are more particularly flourishing in the valley of the Teivy, from Lampeter down to the sea. The woods are of comparatively very small extent. The common trees of native growth are oak, ash, and alder; but various others are frequently seen. The most extensive plantations in South Wales were made on the estate of Havod, by the late Thomas Johnes, Esq., to whom the county is much indebted for improvements, dictated by a refined taste, both in its arboriculture and agriculture: they are of various kinds of trees, but chiefly of larch and oak. There are several nurseries, which afford a supply of almost all kinds of young forest-trees. The districts at present most distinguished for the luxuriant appearance of their woods are, the Vale of Teivy, from Llangoedmore upwards, by Llêchrhŷd, NewcastleEmlyn, Dôl Haidd, Llŷs Newydd, and Llandyssil; the Vale of Aëron, which has its slopes finely decorated with groves, chiefly of oak; the banks of the Ystwith, in the vicinity of Havod, the plantations around which seat occupy no less than fourteen hundred acres, and adjoin the extensive coppices of Crosswood; and, in the northern part of the county, the estate of Gogerddan. Almost every rivulet is, besides, engulphed in a deep ravine, whose sides are clothed with oak, either protected and thriving, or neglected and consisting only of brushwood.

The waste lands are of vast extent, and, including the tracts only partially cultivated or inclosed, have been computed to occupy nearly half the surface of the county: the greater part of them are, however, claimed as private property. In the lower parts of the county most of the commons, and the lands which were formerly cultivated in their open state, are now inclosed; but in the more elevated regions are extensive tracts, which will probably be left for ever in their native wildness, to be depastured by the small hardy mountain sheep and cattle. All the wastes are included in Cardigan Upper, north of the river Aëron, except an elevated range of table land, extending from that river southward to within five miles of Newcastle-Emlyn, on the river Teivy. The fen of Cors Vochno, at the northern extremity of the county, before its inclosure under an act obtained in 1813, contained 3000 acres of sound salt marshes, bordering on the Dovey, 3000 acres of peat or moss, and 3500 acres of sands. The fuel in most extensive use is peat, of which the best in the principality is said to be obtained from the great bog of Cors Gôch, where it is in many places of unknown depth, and has been dug as deep as twenty feet. The peat in Cors Vochno is also of excellent quality and great depth: when well got in, it kindles readily, and gives a greater external heat than most kinds of coal; and its ashes, like those of all the best kinds of peat, are small in quantity and very light. Some coal is obtained by sea from the mines in other parts of Wales. The "Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture and Industry in the County of Cardigan" was established in the year 1784: in its transactions the county is regarded to be under the two distinct divisions of Upper and Lower, the boundary between which is formed by the river Aëron.

The whole of Cardiganshire is GEOLOGICALLY included in the great slate and shale tract of South Wales, and produces in different places roofing-slates of various qualities, flooring-stones, &c., besides an excellent hard kind of building-stone, of which the houses of Aberystwith exhibit good specimens, and a kind of sandstone of a fine grain, found in Penbryn parish, which is little inferior to freestone, but of a darker colour. The stratification is in most places very irregular. The grey mountain trap rocks, which produce the excellent building-stones above-mentioned, extend in prominent lines from north-east to south-west, the broadest constituting ranges of hills abounding with mineral veins: their stratification is in some places very irregular, while in others it presents regular quadrilateral columns of excessively close texture. The stone is the most extensively quarried on Llanwenog Hill, to the west of Lampeter; near Llêchrhŷd; and near Penbryn; forming good ashlars, tombstones, troughs, and rollers. Connected with the rocks are beds of indurated schist, porphyroids, &c. One range of these hills extends the whole length of the county, from the banks of the Dovey to the west of Machynlleth, through the mining districts, to Plumstone mountain in Pembrokeshire. The roofing-slates, which vary in colour from grey to blue, are sometimes inter-stratified with argillaceous schistus of a softer texture, commonly called shale, which soon decomposes when exposed to the action of the atmosphere: this shale is also found singly in various places. The best blue argillaceous slates for roofing are quarried and dressed at Ynys Hîr, near Cors Vochno: and various other quarries of the same material occur along the seacoast; but none of any extent have been opened in the interior, and the slates are far inferior in size and quality to those of Carnarvonshire. The strata of blue schist also, in numerous places, afford excellent building-stones, of which the county gaol and church tower at Cardigan are good specimens: the blue colour of this stone, when neatly worked, gives it a very pleasing appearance. Large veins of a hard and glossy white spar, called hungry spar rider, frequently occur among the other strata. The strata nearest the surface, in the south-western part of the county, consist of the clay marl which is sometimes used as a manure: the higher layers of it are brown and of an inferior quality; the lower are blue and richer, resting immediately on the schistose strata above described. The eastern and northern boundary of this tract of clay marl, crossing the Teivy into county Cardigan from the vicinity of Penboyr in Carmarthenshire, curves north-westward towards the mouth of the Aëron, forming on the land side part of the periphery of a circle, within which is included the whole south-western part of the county. Between Llanina and New-Quay the cliff overhanging the sea is composed, for the most part, of this marl, which there varies in depth from six to twenty feet and upwards.

Cardiganshire forms one of the richest and most extensive MINING fields in Britain. The veins generally bear east and west, with a very few exceptions, which run in a transverse direction from north to south. The matrix is chiefly quartz, not unfrequently mixed with blende and spar, and imbedded mostly in grey mountain rock, though sometimes in argillaceous schistus: some veins containing lead-ore have been discovered even in the peat bogs. As the county has been so long celebrated for its produce of silver, as well as of lead, a concise historical description of the working of its mines may not be uninteresting. Among these, the open and oblong trenches of the Roman miners, and the vertical pits or shafts of the Danes, have been recognized by different antiquaries. During a long period subsequent to the Norman conquest of South Britain, the property of all mines was claimed by the reigning monarch, and no private individual could dig for ore, even on his own estate, without especial leave from the crown. A patent, granted by Queen Elizabeth, in 1563, to Thomas Thurland and Daniel Houghsetter, two German adventurers and metallurgists, assigning to them, upon certain terms, "all the mines royal of gold, silver, copper, and quicksilver" within several specified counties of England, and the principality of Wales, became, in 1567, the foundation of a corporate body consisting of twenty-four persons, among whom were several noblemen, called the "Society for the Mines Royal," within the several districts specified in the above-mentioned patent. The most eligible of the Cardiganshire mines were worked for some time at the expense and for the profit of this company; but it may be presumed, that the latter was hardly a sufficient remuneration for the former, since the society was at length induced to let the whole of them to Hugh (afterwards Sir Hugh) Myddelton, for the low annual rental of £400. This enterprising man acquired by the speculation an immense fortune, which he wholly expended on that arduous undertaking, the construction of the New River, for the supply of London with water. The mine of Cwm-Symlog was the most valuable of those worked by him, its ore producing forty ounces of silver to every ton of lead. After his death, in 1631, the royal mines of Cardiganshire were leased to Sir Francis Godolphin, Bart., of Cornwall, and Thomas Bushel, Esq.; and on the death of the former, the whole management of them devolved to the latter, who worked about six mines. Charles I., in 1637, granted this gentleman a license to coin the produce of his mines of silver, at Aberystwith, into pennies, twopences, sixpences, shillings, and half-crowns, instead of conveying it at great expense and risk, as formerly, to the mint in the Tower of London: this coinage was distinguished by being stamped with the ostrich plume which forms the crest of the Prince of Wales. Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel, was also granted to Mr. Bushel, as a depôt for the produce of his mines. Favoured by these singular advantages, he rapidly acquired an immense fortune, with which, on the breaking out of the great civil war, he was enabled to render his royal benefactor signal service, by clothing the whole of his army, and advancing him a loan of forty thousand pounds: he afterwards raised a regiment from among his miners, which he maintained to the end of the contest at his own charge. Aberystwith probably not being considered a place of sufficient security, the bullion, after 1642, was conveyed to be minted at Shrewsbury. On the return of peace, Mr. Bushel changed the scene of his mining operations from county Cardigan to the limestone hills of Mendip, in Somersetshire; and from this period the extent of the works in Cardiganshire seems to have gradually declined. Bushel published several small tracts, from 1642 to 1649, in which he enumerates the mines of Darren-Vawr, Bryn-llwyd, Tàl-y-bont, Goginan, and Cwm-Ervin, in this county. It seems probable that he did not live later than the period of the Restoration, for at that time the Cardiganshire mines royal became the property of a company, of which Sir John Pettus, author of Fodinæ Regales, was a member. CwmSymlog, though deserted by the last proprietor for others in the neighbourhood more profitable, now again became a considerable silver-mine, as also did those of Darren-Vawr, Cwm-Ervin, Goginan, Tàl-ybont, Cwm-Ystwith, Tre 'r Ddôl, Trawscoed, and Rhôs-Vawr. The smelting-houses and refining-mills of this company were situated, conveniently for exportation, on the river Dovey, in the township of Scybor-y-Coed, and parish of Llanvihangel-Geneu'rGlyn; and, from the use to which they were applied, were commonly called silver-mills.

The exercise of the prerogative of the crown, in claiming as mines royal all those of which the ores yielded silver sufficient to pay the expense of extracting it, and the loss of lead experienced in this process, occasioned several expensive and vexatious lawsuits between the proprietors of the mines and the patentees of the crown, the last of which was concerning a very rich vein, discovered in 1690, at Bwlch yr Esgair Hîr, the property of Sir Carbery Pryse, and since commonly called the Welsh Potosi. Sir Carbery engaged the Duke of Leeds and other powerful noblemen as partners in his newly-opened mine; and by their interest was procured the celebrated act of the 6th of William and Mary, entitled, "An Act to prevent Disputes and Controversies concerning Royal Mines," which vested the mineral treasures in the proprietors of the soil, reserving to the crown the right of pre-emption at fixed prices, according to the value of the ores. Waller, agent to the company of mine-adventurers of England, about the close of the seventeenth century, published a pamphlet for the information of his employers, containing a very favourable estimate of the mineral treasures of this county; a subject which he further illustrated, in the year 1700, by publishing an account of the Cardiganshire mines, with a map of the mining tract, and plans of nine different works; followed in the same year, by an "Abstract of the present state of the mines in Bwlch yr Esgair Hîr, &c." After the death of Sir Carbery Pryse, his mining estates, through a female heir, became the property of Sir Humphrey Mackworth, who, in the year 1700, in conjunction with the other members of the company formed by Sir Carbery, took a lease for ninety-nine years, of certain places, called Bwlch Cwm-Ervin, Pwll-yr-Ynad, and Goginan, and afterwards carried on, at these and other places, numerous and extensive mining-works. About the year 1709, however, discords arose among the partners, which eventually ruined the mining interest in this district. In 1744, Esgair Hîr, Tàl-y-bont, Cwm-Symlog, and most other leases in the county, were abandoned; Goginan, Cwm-Ervin, and Bryn-pica were retained, but not worked; while the four mines of Pencraig ddû, Grogwynion, Cwm-Ystwith, and Eurglawdd only were worked. From that time merely partial, temporary, and frequently ineffectual, trials were made in search of ores by different adventurers, except for a short period under the direction of Mr. Lewis Morris, the Welsh antiquary, who in 1750 was appointed agent and superintendent of the king's mines in Wales.

About twenty years ago, however, a revival took place; and at present, from the great returns which are being made from such lead-mines as are wrought with spirit, public attention is very justly awakened to the value of the mines. Those now worked are numerous, and some of them produce silver as well as lead: several of them are conducted on an extensive scale. Together with others that are abandoned, they amount to about seventy: the greater number are situated in a district extending nearly from the shores of the Dovey, south-eastward across the Rheidiol and Ystwith, to the source of the Teivy; and most of the remainder in a line along the eastern bank of the latter river. In the year 1847, the following quantities of lead-ore were produced from the chief mines in Cardiganshire: the Lisburne mines, 2028 tons; the Goginan mine, 1446 tons; CwmYstwith, 439; Llanvair-Clydogau, 291; Cwm-Sebon, 205; Gogerddan, Bog, and Darren mines, 194; &c. The whole produce of Wales was 18,000 tons. The mine of Llanvair-Clydogau yields a greater proportion of silver per ton than any other mine in the county, every ton of lead from it containing 80 ounces of silver. This mine, too, produces a small quantity of copper-ore, as also does that of Eurglawdd, near Tàly-bont. On a waste in the manor of Creuddyn, near Cwm-Ystwith lead-mine, much copper-ore was formerly raised, but very little has been procured of late years. Sulphate of zinc, blende, or black-jack, is obtained in vast quantities in the mining districts, and is generally worked with the lead: in some mines the latter is in the greater proportion, as at Penbank, &c.; but in others the ores of zinc predominate, as at Gwaith Côch, Nant-y-Meirch, Nant-y-Crair, and Llwyn Unhwch: some mines, indeed, are worked exclusively for the zinc. The quality, as well as the quantity, of lead-ore obtained from the different mines is very various; and it is likely that there are valuable mineral veins yet unexplored. Some historical and other notices of the mines are given in the second volume of the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, published in 1848.

The chief manufacture is that of coarse stockings and flannels, almost wholly for home consumption; and, though of a domestic nature, it is expedited by carding machines scattered over the country at convenient distances, and by spinning-jennies in the farmers' and cottagers' houses. The Cardiganshire wool has long been noted for its felting quality, owing to which, and to the cheapness and abundance of peat fuel, the hat-manufactories are very numerous: in these are made most of the common hats worn in South Wales, which are strong and durable: the wool of the Michaelmas shearing is the best for the purpose. The above manufactures consume the greater part of the wool produced in the county. The fisheries are tolerably extensive, Cardigan bay affording a variety of fish, chiefly whiting, cod, brill, soles, mackerel, and herring. Herrings generally make their appearance in the bay from the middle to the end of September. The salmon-fishery in the Teivy is very considerable, a hundred of the coracles described below being sometimes seen busily employed within the space of two miles in the navigable part of its course. The right of fishery, as far as the tide flows, is claimed by the crown; and a lease of the river was granted on that ground, but to no purpose, the peasant fishermen claiming it by immemorial prescriptive right.

This county not only produces sufficient grain for the supply of its own inhabitants, but also exports considerable quantities of barley and oats to the western and southern coasts of England. Its commerce is increasing: among the exports are, its mineral produce of lead, sulphate of zinc, and argillaceous roofing-slates; cattle, sheep, and hogs, to England; butter, as above mentioned; wool, chiefly for the manufactures of the North of England; hats, to other Welsh counties; and leather, to Bristol. The chief extraordinary imports are coal and limestone. The trade of Cardiganshire is greatly facilitated by the number of its ports, which are chiefly frequented by small coasting-vessels. The most southern of these, namely that of Cardigan, is formed by the lower reaches of the Teivy, the entrance of which river is, however, much obstructed by a bar, covered at high water of neap tides by from ten and a half to eleven feet of water, and at ordinary spring tides by from fifteen to sixteen feet. Aberporth, two leagues eastward, has a secure road; and NewQuay, north-east of Aberporth, an excellent sheltered road, with a pier. Aberaëron, at the mouth of the Aëron, possesses a small harbour, which has two piers, and the bar of which is dry at low water. The little port of Aberarth, almost contiguous to the latter, has likewise a bar, dry at low water. The port of Aberystwith, being exposed to the south-west winds, was until lately so much choked with sand as to prevent the entrance of ships of any considerable burthen, except at spring tides, when the bar had about fourteen feet of water: it is now accessible to much larger vessels than formerly, an excellent pier having been constructed. This improving place, besides the articles above mentioned, exports oak timber and poles, and other produce noticed under the head of Aberystwith. The mouth of the Dovey forms a harbour for small vessels.

The rivers, taking each an independent course to the sea, are numerous in proportion to the size of the county: the principal are the Teivy, the Ystwith, and the Rheidiol, or Rheidol. The Teivy issues in a very insignificant stream from the lake called Llyn Teivy, situated near the highest summit of the mountains in the eastern part of the county, and flows immediately southward, over a rocky bed, to the vicinity of the ruined abbey of Strata Florida. Hence it winds first westward and then southward to Trêgaron, receiving in this part of its course the Meirig, the Marchnant, Camddwr, and other small streams. Flowing south-south-westward from Trêgaron to Lampeter, a little above the latter town, and at the distance of eleven miles from its source, it becomes the southern boundary of Cardiganshire, which it continues to form throughout the rest of its course, separating it first for twenty-seven miles from Carmarthenshire, and afterwards from Pembrokeshire. A little below Trêgaron the Teivy is joined from the east by the romantic mountain stream called the Berwyn, descending from a lake of the same name, five miles distant; and afterwards, before reaching Lampeter, it receives from the same side the Brevi and the Clywedog. Below Lampeter it runs for the most part westward, until, after being joined successively from the north by the streams of the Croyddyn, Crannell, Clettwr, Cerdyn, and Cerri, and by another small stream at Cardigan, it turns nearly northward, a little below the latter town, and flows in a majestic stream into that expanse of St. George's Channel called Cardigan bay, after a course of fifty-three miles. The Teivy is navigable up to Cardigan, for vessels of rather more than 200 tons' burthen, and up to Llêchrhŷd bridge, to which place the tide flows, for barges: its tributaries are more numerous than copious, and the greater part of its course is through narrow mountainous defiles. The salmon of the Teivy are esteemed particularly fine and delicious, and have a peculiar marbled appearance: great quantities are annually caught, dried, and sent to the London and other English markets. The Teivy is also remarkable for its trout, and is the most northern of the Welsh rivers in which the fish called the sewin is found. Giraldus states, that in his time the river was inhabited by the beaver; and on this, more than most other rivers of Wales, is used a small fishing-boat of singular construction, called by the Welsh corgw, and by the English corruptly coracle, which is not adapted to carry conveniently more than one person. In form the coracle is nearly oval, but flattened at one end like the stern of a common ship's-boat, its length being usually from five to six feet, and its breadth about four. The frame is formed of split rods, which are platted like basket-work, and covered on the outside, sometimes with a raw hide, but more commonly with strong coarse flannel, which is made water-proof by a thick coating of pitch and tar. A narrow board is fastened across the middle, on which the fisherman sits and guides his little bark with a paddle. When proceeding to their employment, or returning from it, the fishermen fasten these boats, the weight of which is generally from forty to fifty lb., on their backs, by means of a leathern strap attached to the seat, which they pass round their bodies.

The Ystwith has its source among the hills on the borders of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, and, rushing westward in an impetuous torrent past the mines of Cwm-Ystwith, and through a deep precipitous gulf, afterwards flows over a more level bed amidst the rich scenes of Havod, and, still further, pursues a picturesque but less romantic course to Aberystwith, to which place it gives name. The Rheidiol, or Rheidol, rises in a small lake, called Llygad Rheidiol, or "the Eye of Rheidiol," on the western side of the Plinlimmon group of mountains, near the sources of the Severn and the Wye. The early part of its course, which is south-westward, is distinguished by no remarkable feature; but its bed as it approaches Yspytty-Cynvyn lies along the rocky bottom of a deep, precipitous, and woody gulf, where it is repeatedly thrown, with prodigious violence, and in foaming torrents, from a great height, into natural basins, which foam like vast boiling cauldrons. Immediately below the inn called the Havod Arms, it receives from the east the smaller river Mynach, which, darting along the deep cleft in the rocks that is crossed by the Devil's Bridge, throws itself into the Rheidiol, over a succession of precipices, and in an almost unbroken cataract. Thus augmented the Rheidiol flows westward by Llanbadarn-Vawr, a little below which it turns southward by Aberystwith, and falls into the sea. The town of Aberystwith is situated at the junction of the Ystwith with the Rheidiol: these two rivers, which entered the bay of Cardigan in separate places, were, some years ago, artificially united, by a cut made in order that the land-floods of both might more effectually keep open the mouth of the harbour.

The Dyvi, or Dovey, a Merionethshire and Montgomeryshire river, forms the northern boundary of the county for about seven miles, from Llyvnant to the mouth of its small estuary, and is navigable the whole distance. Between the Dovey and the Rheidiol the principal streams which discharge their waters separately into the sea are the Clarach and the Leri. Southward of the Ystwith occur successively, the Gwyre, or Gwyrai, which rises near LlanvihangelLledrod, and, flowing south-westward through the Cardiganshire barley tract, falls into the sea at Llanrhŷstid; the Arth, which issues from a small lake in the upper part of the hundred of Penarth, and running due west, falls into the sea at Aberarth; and the Aëron, a considerable river that waters the rich valley to which it gives name. This last stream has its source in a small lake called Llŷn Aedwen, in the parish of Llanrhŷstid, whence it flows southward to Llangeitho, and thence in a very devious course by Tàlsarn and Tŷglyn, to the sea at Aberaëron. Various smaller streams also take each a distinct course to Cardigan bay. The celebrated river Tywi, or Towy, most of the course of which is in the county of Carmarthen, has its source in an extensive morass in the alpine valley of Berwyn, in this county, near Lly/?n Teivy: thence it takes its course southward, at first through a rugged, dreary, and inhospitable region, and afterwards through a more romantic and sometimes wooded scene, until it enters Carmarthenshire near Ystrad-Fin, about eleven miles from its source. The principal streams that join the Towy from county Cardigan are the Camddwr, the Dethia, and the Pyscottwr. The small river Claerwen, which issues from a lake called Llyn Rhuddon Vâch, among the mountains on the eastern border of the county, after separating it from Brecknockshire for a few miles, enters the latter county in its course to the Irvon. The Elain, rising near the summit of the mountains a little south of Cwm-Ystwith, flows eastward to the Wye, which it joins a few miles below Rhaiadr in Radnorshire.

The roads are now in general pretty good, although the communication between the different towns was formerly attended with considerable difficulty: the materials used in making and repairing them are the grey mountain rock and the more indurated of the slate strata. The passage over the Teivy has been more facilitated by the erection of bridges than that over most Welsh rivers, for it is crossed by thirteen above Cardigan: in those parts of the county where the grey mountain rock is not found, many of the old bridges are of timber. Cardiganshire is traversed from east to west by two principal lines of road from England. The road from London to Cardigan, continued to St. David's, enters across the Teivy from Llandovery, in Carmarthenshire, and passes through Lampeter, and down the valley of the river to Cardigan, whence it re-crosses the Teivy into Pembrokeshire. That from London to Aberystwith enters from Rhaiadr, in Radnorshire, and runs immediately westward: the road from London to Trêgaron, in this county, branches from the Aberystwith line at Presteign, in Radnorshire, passing through Radnor and Builth. A line of road extends from Aberystwith to Shrewsbury, by way of the Devil's Bridge, or Pont-arVynach; but it has not been so much used since the formation of a more level line up the Rheidiol valley to Eisteddva Gurig, where it joins the old road to the Devil's Bridge. Another improved line of road, from Aberystwith to Machynlleth, is much wanted.

The remains of antiquity are numerous and of various periods. In the churchyard of YspyttyCynvyn are four large stones standing upright in the ground, and forming part of a Druidical circle. Near the seat called Carrog, a few miles from Llanllwchairn, are two upright stones, about ten feet high and five thick, which, from the appearance of the ground in the vicinity, have evidently formed part of a circle of the same kind; and there are remains of another on a hill called Alltgôch, near the town of Lampeter. Another relic, of a no less remote period and of some celebrity, is that popularly called Gwely Taliesin, "the Bed, or Grave, of Taliesin," situated on a mountain called Pen Sarnddû, in the parish of Llanvihangel-Geneu'r-Glyn. It consists of a rude stone chest, formed by five upright stones, with another of larger dimensions for a cover, or lid, measuring about six feet by three; this chest was placed in the centre of an artificial mound, surrounded by two concentric circles of stones, the larger about thirty feet, and the smaller twentyseven feet, in diameter. The bard Taliesin died about the year 570, but these remains are evidently of much earlier origin, and would seem to be Druidical. At the distance of two or three miles, towards Plinlimmon, are two Druidical circles, one of which consists of 76 upright stones, and is 228 feet in circumference.

At Llanio-issa, about seven miles above Lampeter, in the Vale of Teivy, very extensive remains of ROMAN buildings have been discovered, which Sir R. C. Hoare and others consider as indicating the site of the station or city of Loventium, and where there has evidently been an important Roman settlement. The ground for a considerable extent is strewed with fragment of bricks and earthen utensils, and on one spot have been traced the foundations of a building, 150 feet long, and 72 feet broad: various coins and inscribed stones have also been found here. There is a small Roman camp in the vicinity of Lampeter, near the banks of the little river Dulais; and a square intrenchment, probably formed by the same conquerors, is visible on a farm called Tŷcam, in the parish of Llanwenog. The remains of the Via Occidentalis, and its branches in this county, are every where called Sarn Helen, or "Helen's Causeway," probably a corruption of Sarn Lleon, or "the Legionary Way." Entering it on the north from the station at Penallt, near Machynlleth, the main road proceeded in a direct line to Loventium, at Llanio; and traces of it are yet visible, first on a farm called Llwyn-rhingyll in the parish of Llanbadarn-Vawr, and afterwards on another, called Brenau, in the parish of Llanvihangel-y-Creiddyn: adjacent to its course, in the vale of the Teivy, below Trêgaron, is an artificial mount called Tommen Llanio, perhaps the site of a Roman watch-tower. From the last-mentioned station the main line of the Via Occidentalis proceeded direct to Menapia, at the western extremity of Pembrokeshire, and has been traced below Lampeter, running parallel with the course of the river Teivy. It crossed that stream in the vicinity of Pencarreg, and is again visible on the Carmarthenshire side of the valley, along which it proceeded through the parishes of Llanllwny and Penboyr, in the latter of which some parts of it still remain entire. A branch of this road may yet be traced in many places, crossing the Teivy at the village of Llanvair, above Lampeter, and ascending, immediately beyond it, the mountains in the parish of Kellan, which bound this county on the south, in its course to the station at Llanvair-ary-bryn, in Carmarthenshire. Another branch extended from the vicinity of Lampeter to the station at Carmarthen.

The number of BRITISH fortifications in Cardiganshire is very great. One of the most ancient, and certainly the most remarkable, is situated on a farm called Ciliau, or "the Retreats," in the neighbourhood of Llandysilio-Gogo, being a large circular inclosure, about sixty-eight yards in diameter, divided into three compartments, and surrounded by rude ramparts of stones, from which it has acquired the name of Y Garn Wen, or "the White Heap." Near the church of the same parish is an ancient circular fortification, called Castell Llwyn Davydd, and sometimes Castell Caerwedros, about 200 feet in diameter, defended by two deep ditches, with ramparts of corresponding height. In the parish of Llanvihangel-Penbryn is a very extensive British camp, called Castell Nadolig, formed by three ditches and embankments, with a large tumulus near it; and at the distance of about half a mile is another, of equal size and strength, styled Castell Pwntan. Near the village of Blaenporth are, an encampment called the Gaer, and two others called respectively Caer Lonydd and Castell Tydur, the latter of which is on the seacoast. There are divers other ancient intrenchments within the limits of the county, namely, Cribyn Clottas, in the parish of Llanvihangel-Ystrad; another of considerable extent called Castell Moeddyn, at the southern extremity of the parish of Llanarth; a third, called Pen-y-Gaer, in the same vicinity; a fourth in the neighbourhood of the mansion of Llwyn Dyrys, on the banks of the Teivy, near which is a large artificial mound, or barrow; several in the parish of Lampeter, one of them situated on the same eminence with the supposed Druidical stones abovementioned; and a variety of small ones on the hills in the parish of Kellan. On the summit of Moel-yGaer, in the northern part of the county, are the remains of a British fortress, about 150 feet in circumference, formed of loose stones piled together, with several hollows in the centre about eight feet in diameter. A short distance north-west of Trêgaron is an intrenchment of considerable extent, forming a segment of a circle, strongly situated in the midst of a deep morass: it is commonly called Castell Fleming, from its having been considered as a work of the Flemish invaders of the country; but it is thought by antiquaries to be of British construction. The parish of Trêgaron, besides several of the sepulchral heaps of stones called carneddau, contains a singular embankment of earth, extending from east to west a distance of several miles, called Cwys Ychain Banawg, or "the Furrow of the Bannog Oxen," from a fabulous tradition current in the neighbourhood: the late Sir S. R. Meyrick, the historian of the county, considers it as the remains of an old British road. An ancient intrenched fortification, called Glâs Crûg, occupies the summit of a hill in a wide marsh, adjacent to the village of Llanbadarn. Near Wervilbrook, in the vicinity of Llandysilio-Gogo, are several carneddau, or sepulchral heaps of stones: divers monuments of the same kind are situated in the parish of Llanvihangel-Penbryn, and many others on the mountains in the parish of Kellan. Near the little river Frwd, in this parish, is a large stone called Llêch Cynon, or "Cynon's Stone;" and on a mountain to the north are several cist-vaen, one of which is called Bedd-y-Vorwyn, or "the Maiden's Grave." Besides the carneddau on these mountains, are several single stones of great magnitude, only one or two of which, however, now retain their original erect position. Various upright monumental stones of large size, bearing inscriptions much defaced, are visible near the church of Llandewy-Brevi; and a single one in a field called Maes Mynach, in the parish of Llanvihangel-Ystrad, together with a remarkable monument of the same kind, ornamented with Runic knots, but without any inscription. In the vicinity of Llanwenog is a very large barrow, called Crûg-yr-Udon; near the passage over the river Clettwr, called Rhŷd Owain, or "Owen's Ford," is another, designated Tommen Rhŷd Owain; and on the summit of a hill in the vicinity of Llangranog is a third, which gives to the spot where it stands the name of Pen Moel Badell. About six miles from Llanrhŷstid is a lofty mountain, called Mynydd Trichrûg, from three tumuli near its summit. There are two artificial mounts, supposed to be the sites of ancient fortresses, situated respectively at Castle Hill, near the point where the road from Aberystwith to Rhaiadr and that from Machynlleth to Trêgaron and Lampeter intersect each other; and a little to the north of the church of Lampeter, near the banks of the Teivy, in the parish of Llanwenog. Besides these, in LlanbadarnVâch, near the seat called Mynachtŷ, are several, called Hên Gastell.

At the time of the general dissolution of religious houses, there were, at Cardigan, a small Benedictine priory; at Llandewy-Brevi, a college of priests; at Llanleir, a Cistercian nunnery; and at Ystrad-Flur, a Cistercian abbey, commonly called Strata Florida Abbey. Inconsiderable fragments of the walls yet point out the site of the abbey of Strata Florida: the chief relic is a beautiful roundarched gateway. On the premises of a house in the town of Lampeter, called the Priory, are some small remains of an ancient monastic edifice. The most interesting specimens of ecclesiastical architecture are seen in the churches of Cardigan; EglwysNewydd, or New Church, within the grounds of Havod; Llanarth, Llanbadarn-Vawr, LlandewyBrevi, Llandyssil, Llansantfraid, and Trêgaron.

Striking remains exist of the castle of Aberystwith, and of those of Cardigan, Castell Gwalter (on the summit of a lofty hill near the church of Llanvihangel-Geneu'r-Glyn), and Ystrad-Meirig. There are inconsiderable remains of an ancient fortress at Aberaëron, called Castell Cadwgan; of Castell Stephan, or "Stephen's Castle," at Lampeter; of a fortress on a hill near Llandyssil church, formerly called Castell Gwynionydd, but now Castell Coed-Von; and of an ancient fortress not far from Aberystwith, called Llanychaiarn Castle. On a mound near the village of Blaenporth formerly stood a fortress of great strength. A moated hill near the river Clettwr, in the vicinity of the farm Castle Howel, indicates the site of an ancient mural fortification of the same name: at Kîl-y-Graig, in the parish of Llandyssil, is an artificial mound, the site of a castle called in the Welsh annals Castell Abereinon; near the church of Bangor is a moated mount, called Castell Pistog, and near the village of Trêvilan is a lofty mound, on which anciently stood Trêvilan Castle, though the late Sir S. R. Meyrick has placed the site of this fortress at the small mounds called Hên Gastell, in Llanbadarn-Vâch, above mentioned. There are yet some fragments of the ancient town walls of Cardigan.

This county contains several remarkable old mansions; and on the eastern part of the Teivy, below Llandewy-Brevi, are the ruins of an ancient and magnificent mansion, called, from the parish in which it is situated, Plâs Llanvair-Clywedogau, once the residence of the ancestors of the late T. Johnes, Esq., of Havod. The seats most worthy of notice are, Alderbrook Hall, in the parish of Troedyraur; Allt-yr-Odin, in the parish of Llandyssil; Blaenpant, in the parish of Llandygwidd; Brinog; Bronwydd, in the parish of Llangunllo; Coedmore, near Llêchrhŷd; Crosswood; Derry Ormond, in the parish of BettwsBledrws; Falcon Dale; Gelli dywyll; Gernos, in the parish of Llangunllo; Gogerddan, near Aberystwith; Havod, or Havod-Uchtryd; High Mead, in the parish of Llanwenog; Llanerchaëron House, in the Vale of Aëron; Llanleir, in the parish of YspyttyYstwith; Llwyn Dyrys; Llŷsnewydd; Mabus, in the parish of Llanrhystid; Nant Eôs, near Aberystwith; Neuadd Llanarth; Neuadd Trêvawr, in the parish of Llandygwidd; Pantgwyn; Pigeonsford, in the parish of Llangranog; Troedyraur House, in the parish of Troedyraur; Tŷglyn, in the parish of LlandewyAberarth; and Ystrad. Great improvements have of late years taken place in the farmhouses and offices, which were formerly of a very inferior class, more particularly as wanting granaries. The appearance of the cottages is for the most part very wretched, to which the frequent want of good building materials much contributes: their walls are of mud, about five feet high, with a low thatched roof, surmounted at one end by a wattle and dab chimney frequently held together by hay-rope bandages, and greatly declining from the perpendicular. Fences of sods, or of stones and sods in alternate layers, are common in the tracts near the coast. The fences that are entirely of sod and mould are raised five or six feet high, on a base as many feet wide, from which they slope upwards to a breadth of three, two and a half, or two feet, with a double facing of green sods. These are effectual barriers, but the tracts where they are seen have a dreary and naked appearance, although of late years it has become a common practice to plant or sow furze and hawthorns on the tops of the mounds. The stones, sometimes placed in alternate layers in them, extend in length towards the centre of the bank; and those by which many of them are entirely faced are commonly laid according to the Roman method of building walls, as described by Vitruvius, and as seen in many old Roman edifices.

The favourite and ordinary bread of the peasantry is that made from barley-meal, unleavened, and baked in thin cakes on cast-iron plates over the ordinary fires. On some of the hills separating the Vales of the Towy and the Teivy, oats and barley are sown together, threshed, kiln-dried, and ground into meal, from which is made a kind of bread called sipris. Oaten bread is sometimes used in the uplands, and rye bread is not uncommon in some parts of the county. Servants are hired at the autumn or spring fairs, but for the most part at the former: at Aberystwith, the first Monday after the 13th of November, and the first Monday after the 13th of May, are called "hiring Mondays," and great numbers from the surrounding country then meet for the purpose.

The county contains several mineral springs, sulphureous, or powerfully chalybeate: two of the most remarkable are Fynnon-y-Graig, near Llyn Teivy, and Aberystwith spa. The other chief natural curiosities of Cardiganshire are its waterfalls, of which the most striking, besides those of distinguished romantic beauty in the grounds of Havod, are, those of the small river Mynach, a little below the Devil's Bridge, four in number, and in immediate succession, the first being twenty, the second sixty, the third twenty, and the fourth about one hundred, feet in perpendicular height; those on the river Rheidiol, into which the Mynach immediately falls, which are particularly sublime and romantic; and those on a tributary of the Teivy, near the church of Hênllan, called Frydiau Hênllan, or "the Hênllan Falls." There are also waterfalls and a salmon-leap at Cenarth, in the parish of Llandygwidd.

Caregrina, or Cregrina (Crûgy-Nau)

CAREGRINA, or CREGRINA (CRÛGY-NAU), a parish, in the union of Builth, hundred of Colwyn, county of Radnor, South Wales, 6 miles (E.) from Builth; containing 112 inhabitants. This parish is situated upon the banks of the river Edw, or Edwy, which falls into the Wye at Aberedw; and contains 1595½ acres, measured, besides a great quantity of hilly ground, of which the extent is not accurately known. The living is a discharged rectory, rated in the king's books at £9. 6. 8., with the perpetual curacy of Llanbadarn-y-Garreg annexed; patron, the Bishop of St. David's: the tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £126. The church, dedicated to St. David, is a structure of mean appearance, consisting of a nave and a chancel; it has no tower, but there is a bell hanging under a small shed. Caregrina participates in the bequest of the Rev. Rice Powell, of Boughrood, who left certain property for the apprenticing of children. The Rev. Thomas Williams gave ten shillings per annum for the relief of decayed housekeepers; but as the payment arose from a bequest of £10, that sum was paid to the churchwardens and overseers in 1801, by the party in whose hands it remained, and it was by the former either added to the rates, or otherwise diverted from the intention of the testator.

A little above the church is an artificial elevation surrounded by a moat, called Pennard's Mount, probably a corruption of the Welsh word Penarth, which is descriptive of its situation at the head, or in front, of a hill. Though nothing authentic has been recorded, it was, most likely, at some remote period, occupied by a fortress, as it appears well situated for defending the pass of the Edw and the descent from the hills, being just above the bend of the river, communicating with a castle in the parish of Glâscomb, from which it was easy to apprise Colwyn Castle, the head of the lordship, of any approach.

Carew

CAREW, a parish, in the hundred of Narberth, union and county of Pembroke, South Wales, 4 miles (E. by N.) from Pembroke, on the road leading to Narberth; containing 1056 inhabitants. This parish may have derived its name, perhaps originally written Caerau, from several ancient British fortifications, upon the site of some of which a magnificent castle in the Norman style was erected, by Gerald de Windsor, lieutenant to Ralph de Montgomery, and who, on the subsequent disgrace of that baron, was appointed by Henry I. castellan of Pembroke. Gerald married Nêst, daughter of Rhŷs ab Tewdwr, Prince of South Wales, with whom, among other manors, he obtained that of Carew, where, as just mentioned, he built a castle, equally adapted to the purposes of a military fortress and a baronial residence. Before Gerald was well fixed in his new palace, it was attacked by Owain, son of Cadwgan ab Bleddyn, who, being informed of the surpassing beauty of Nêst, at a banquet given by Cadwgan, at the castle of Aberteivy, or, as some think, at that of Eare Weare, in the parish of Amroath, became enamoured of her, and assaulting Carew Castle at night, with a party of his adherents, carried her off by force. This celebrated structure, of which the ruins plainly indicate its pristine grandeur, descended to William, the son of Gerald, who first assumed the name of Carew; and continued for several generations in his family, till the reign of Henry VII., when Sir Edmond Carew mortgaged the estate to Sir Rhŷs ab Thomas, who, it is generally believed, added the noble suite of state apartments on the north-east, and made the place his residence during the latter period of his life. Sir Rhŷs;s being a knight of the order of the Garter, and unable from age and infirmity to attend his sovereign in London, on the celebration of St. George's day, kept that festival with princely magnificence at his castle at Carew, upon which occasion he entertained with sumptuous hospitality six hundred of the nobility and gentry of the surrounding country, whom he feasted for a whole week, and diverted with jousts, tournaments, and other exercises of chivalry. On the attainder of Grufydd ab Rhyvs, son of the above nobleman, in the reign of Henry VIII., the estate was leased for a term of years to Sir Andrew Perrot and others, from whom the remainder of the term was subsequently purchased by Sir John Carew, lineal descendant of Sir Edward Carew, to whom the whole was granted in fee by Charles I. Thomas Carew, Esq., great grandson of Sir John, dying in 1760, without male issue, the estate was divided between his two daughters and coheiresses, and is now the property of John Warrington Carew, Esq., of Crocombe court, in the county of Somerset.

The castle was erected on a peninsular promontory of no great elevation, in the southern branch of Upton creek in Milford Haven, and occupies a quadrangular area of considerable extent, defended at the angles with massive circular towers. The more ancient part, built in the reign of William Rufus, is in the Norman style of architecture, while the splendid range of state apartments, on the northeast, is in the most elaborate and finished style of the later English. The ruins are extensive, and may be regarded as among the most interesting and beautiful in the principality. The walls of several of the grand apartments, and of the chapel, are still remaining, and are replete with elegant detail: the former consisted of a noble range, two stories in height, lighted by lofty square-headed windows, enriched with tracery; and the exterior of the front was decorated with two spacious oriel windows. From the towers, to the summits of which an ascent is afforded by staircases in a dilapidated condition, a pleasing prospect is obtained of the Haven on one side, and of the adjacent country on the other.

This parish, through which passes the great road to Hobb's Point, is bounded on the north-east by the parish of Jeffreston, on the east by that of Redbarth, on the south-east by St. Florence, on the south by the parish of Hodgeston, on the west by that of Nash, and on the north-west by Upton. It comprises by admeasurement 5256 acres, of which about 1568 are arable, and the remainder pasture, with the exception of a few acres of wood and uninclosed land. The surface is undulated, and the scenery in general but little varied, the uniformity, however, being relieved occasionally by very fine views obtained from certain eminences, especially from the elevated ground called the Ridgeway, the scenery within the range of which, as well as that along the shores of the inlets communicating with Pembroke ferry, is interesting and picturesque. The soil is chiefly of average quality, sinking in some places below, and in others rising far above, its ordinary character; the principal produce is corn, cattle, butter, and cheese. About eighty persons are employed in some limestone-quarries, the produce of which is of excellent quality, and is conveyed in craft of twelve or fifteen tons' burthen to the upper parts of this county and of Cardiganshire. Coal of inferior quality is procured on the north side of the parish, for the supply of the immediate neighbourhood. There are three corn-mills. The principal gentlemen's seats are, Milton House, attached to the extensive estates belonging to Upton Castle, and now the property and residence of William Bowen, Esq., an elegant modern mansion, pleasantly situated within grounds tastefully laid out, and comprehending some diversified scenery; Freestone Hall, commanding from the grounds some of the finest views in the county, embracing Lawrenny and its fine estuary, Clareston, and the hundred of Rhôs to the west; and Wellson, a substantial modern house, erected on the site of an ancient family mansion, in which Oliver Cromwell took up his quarters while besieging Pembroke Castle.

The living is a discharged vicarage, not rated in the king's books, endowed with £200 private benefaction, £400 royal bounty, and £800 parliamentary grant; net income, £182, with a glebe-house; patron and impropriator, the Bishop of St. David's. The impropriate tithes have been commuted for a rentcharge of £481, with a glebe of thirty-three acres, valued at £30 per annum; and the vicarial for one of £89. 15., with a glebe of two acres, valued at £5. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is a spacious and venerable structure, containing about 1000 sittings. It is built partly in the early and partly in the later style of English architecture, comprising a nave and aisles, a chancel, and a north transept, with a lofty square embattled tower: the floor is paved with bricks, several of them with curious inscriptions. In the north transept, which was the sepulchral chapel of the owners of the castle, is an altar-tomb, bearing the recumbent effigies of Sir John Carew and his lady, with the date 1637; and in the south aisle are the effigies of a crusader and a priest, but without either date or inscription. There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyan Methodists. In the churchyard is an ancient building, apparently coeval with the church, which is used as a parochial school. Of two Sunday schools in the parish, one is in connexion with the Established Church, and the other with the Baptists. Near the turnpike-gate is a perfect cross of that kind usually called St. Catherine's: the circular head is fixed into a tall shaft, ornamented with scrolls and tracery, rising from a substantial pedestal; and in one of the compartments into which the shaft is divided, is an illegible inscription.