{92}Sweynsei,Swansea,or Abertawe,situated at the confluence of the river Tawe with the Severn sea,is a town of considerable commerce,and much frequented during the summer months as a bathing-place.The old castle,now made use of as a prison,is so surrounded by houses in the middle of the town,that a stranger might visit Swansea without knowing that such a building existed.
The Welsh Chronicle informs us,that it was built by Henry de Beaumont,earl of Warwick,and that in the year 1113it was attacked by Gruffydd ap Rhys,but without success.This castle became afterwards a part of the possessions of the see of St.David's,and was rebuilt by bishop Gower.[The old castle is no longer used as a prison,but as the office of the "Cambria Daily Leader."It is significant that Swansea is still known to Welshmen,as in the days of Giraldus,as "Abertawe."]
{93}Lochor,or Llwchwr,was the Leucarum mentioned in the Itineraries,and the fifth Roman station on the Via Julia.This small village is situated on a tide-river bearing the same name,which divides the counties of Glamorgan and Caermarthen,and over which there is a ferry."Lochor river partith Kidwelli from West Gowerlande."-Leland,Itin.tom.v.p.23.[The ferry is no more.The river is crossed by a fine railway bridge.]
{94}Wendraeth,or Gwen-draeth,from gwen,white,and traeth,the sandy beach of the sea.There are two rivers of this name,Gwendraeth fawr,and Gwendraeth fychan,the great and the little Gwendraeth,of which Leland thus speaks:"Vendraeth Vawr and Vendraith Vehan risith both in Eskenning commote:the lesse an eight milys of from Kydwelli,the other about a ten,and hath but a little nesche of sand betwixt the places wher thei go into the se,about a mile beneth the towne of Kidwely."{95}Cydweli was probably so called from cyd,a junction,and wyl,a flow,or gushing out,being situated near the junction of the rivers Gwendraeth fawr and fychan;but Leland gives its name a very singular derivation,and worthy of our credulous and superstitious author Giraldus."Kidwely,otherwise Cathweli,i.e.Catti lectus,quia Cattus olim solebat ibi lectum in quercu facere:-There is a little towne now but newly made betwene Vendraith Vawr and Vendraith Vehan.Vendraith Vawr is half a mile of."-Leland,Itin.tom.v.p.22.
{96}The scene of the battle fought between Gwenllian and Maurice de Londres is to this day called Maes Gwenllian,the plain or field of Gwenllian;and there is a tower in the castle of Cydweli still called Tyr Gwenllian.[Maes Gwenllian is now a small farm,one of whose fields is said to have been the scene of the battle.]
{97}The castle of Talachar is now better known by the name of Llaugharne.
{98}Much has been said and written by ancient authors respecting the derivation of the name of this city,which is generally allowed to be the Muridunum,or Maridunum,mentioned in the Roman itineraries.Some derive it from Caer and Merddyn,that is,the city of the prophet Merddyn;and others from Mur and Murddyn,which in the British language signify a wall.There can,however,be little doubt that it is derived simply from the Roman name Muridunum.The county gaol occupies the site of the old castle,a few fragments of which are seen intermixed with the houses of the town.
{99}Dinevor,the great castle,from dinas,a castle,and vawr,great,was in ancient times a royal residence of the princes of South Wales.In the year 876,Roderic the Great,having divided the principalities of North and South Wales,and Powys land,amongst his three sons,built for each of them a palace.The sovereignty of South Wales,with the castle of Dinevor,fell to the lot of Cadell.
[The ruins of Dinevor Castle still crown the summit of the hill which overshadows the town of Llandilo,12miles from Carmarthen.]
{100}There is a spring very near the north side of Dinevor park wall,which bears the name of Nant-y-rhibo,or the bewitched brook,which may,perhaps,be the one here alluded to by Giraldus.
{101}Pencadair is a small village situated to the north of Carmarthen.
{102}Alba Domus was called in Welsh Ty Gwyn ar Daf,or the White House on the river Taf.In the history of the primitive British church,Ty Gwyn,or white house,is used in a sense equivalent to a charter-house.The White House College,or Bangor y Ty Gwyn,is pretended to have been founded about 480,by Paul Hen,or Paulius,a saint of the congregation of Illtyd.From this origin,the celebrated Cistercian monastery is said to have derived its establishment.Powel,in his chronicle,says,"For the first abbey or frier house that we read of in Wales,sith the destruction of the noble house of Bangor,which savoured not of Romish dregges,was the Tuy Gwyn,built the yeare 1146,and after they swarmed like bees through all the countrie."(Powel,p.254.)-Authors differ with respect to the founder of this abbey;some have attributed it to Rhys ap Tewdwr,prince of South Wales;and others to Bernard,bishop of Saint David's,who died about the year 1148.The latter account is corroborated by the following passage in Wharton's Anglia Sacra:
"Anno 1143ducti sunt monachi ordinis Cisterciensis qui modo sunt apud Albam Landam,in West Walliam,per Bernardum episcopum."Leland,in his Collectanea,says,"Whitland,abbat.Cistert.Rhesus filius Theodori princeps Suth Walliae primus fundator;"and in his Itinerary,mentions it as a convent of Bernardynes,"which yet stondeth."{103}Saint Clears is a long,straggling village,at the junction of the river Cathgenny with the Taf.Immediately on the banks of the former,and not far from its junction with the latter,stood the castle,of which not one stone is left;but the artificial tumulus on which the citadel was placed,and other broken ground,mark its ancient site.
{104}Lanwadein,now called Lawhaden,is a small village about four miles from Narberth,on the banks of the river Cleddeu.
