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judgment of the convention, so as to obtain every possible illustration, improvement, and amplification of them. After they had past the judgment and national vote of the convention, the laws were put in force, and they were constitutionally established over all the territories of Wales. This being accomplished, Hywel went to Rome a second time, in 930, to procure the sentiment of wise men there, and to be certified that those laws were in concurrence with the law of God, and the laws of the various countries and states of Christendom. Then he returned to Wales, and he laid the laws before the judgment of the hundreds, and the communes, and upon the voice of the nation; and thereupon they became of effect in all the dominions of Wales, and in the court of every lord and tribe, so that there was not found an obstacle against them, and there were no other institutes in the court of the country, or of the sovereign, in Wales; and on account of the excellency of the laws, he is called Hywel the Good.

(24) Cadell began to reign in South Wales A.D. 876, and dispossessed his brother Mervyn, of Powys, in 877. In 892, his brother Anarod laid waste Cardiganshire, the property of Cadell, and burnt all the corn and houses in Dyved and Ystrad Tywi. Cadell died in 900.

(25) Rhodri Mawr, or Rhodri the Great, sovereign of the Isle of Man, of Gwynedd and Powys, and of South Wales in 843. But agreeably to the constitution of Wales, he was only the lord paramount, to whom as usual the three principalities did homage distinctly. He fixed the seat of government for Gwynedd, at Aber Fraw, in Anglesea, which formerly used to be at Dyganwy, but latterly had been at Caer Seiant, in Arvon. In 872, two desperate battles were fought, one at Bangolau, and the other at Manegid, in the Isle of Mona, in which Rhodri overcame the Pagan Saxons. He was much annoyed by them, and had many fierce engagements with them during his reign, the last of which was fought on a Sunday, in 875, when Rhodri was defeated and slain. At his death he divided the Principality between his three sons; to Cadell he gave South Wales, containing twenty-five cantreds; to Anarawd, North Wales, of fifteen cantreds; and to Mervyn, Powys, of fourteen cantreds. Rhodri's wife was Angharad, the daughter of Meyric ab Dunwal ab Arthur.

(26) Mervyn, at the death of his father, in 875, obtained the sovereignty of Powys; was dispossessed by his brother Cadell in 877; and was killed by his own men in 892.

(27) Llywarch the Aged, a celebrated poet, who, according to the Triads, rejected royalty, and devoted himself to bardism. Twelve poems under his name have descended to the present

day, and of these five have an historical character. His patrimony was in the north of England; tradition states that Carlaverock castle, near Dumfries, was founded, in the sixth century, by Llywach Og, son of Llywarch Hen, and that its name is corrupted from Caer Llywarch Og, which, in the Gaelic language, signifies the city or fortress of Ogg,* or son of Llywarch. About A.D. 520 to 630, Llywarch bore a distinguished part in defending his country against the Saxons; and he survived to lament the loss of twenty-four sons who fell in the same cause. According to ancient record, he died at the extreme age of about 150 years, in a solitary cell in the parish of Llanvor, near Bala. "Pabell Llywarch Hen yn Llanvor yn Mhenllyn, yn agos i'r eglwys y mae." The Triads record him as a free guest, and one of the counselling knights of the court of Arthur.

(28) Elidyr, a chieftain among the Cambrian Britons in the middle of the fifth century; he married Gwawr, daughter of Brychan.

(29) Meirchion, a chieftain of the Britons of Cumbria, who lived about the beginning of the fifth century; he was grandfather of Urien Rheged.

(30) Coel the seventy-fifth king of Britain, lived about the middle of the third century, and reigned twenty-seven years. His daughter, Helen, the wife of Constantius, and mother of Constantine the Great, was celebrated for finding the cross of Christ, which was hid in the earth by the Jews at Jerusalem.

(31) Lludd, the eldest brother of the celebrated Caswallon; in his time, the Corani obtained a settlement in Britain, about the river Humber, and were on that account called one of the three intruders.

(32) Beli, the sixty-fourth king of Britain; he is distinguished for having exterminated one of the three molestations of the island, which was a civil war that broke out in his time.

(33) Manogan, a sovereign of the Britons, who died about 100 years before the Christian era.

(34) Sawyl Benisel, the sixtieth king of Britain.

(35) Rhydderch, the fifty-ninth.

(36) Eidiol, the fifty-seventh.

(37) Athvael, the fifty-sixth.

(38) Sitsyllt, the fifty-fourth.
(39) Owain, the fifty-third.
(40) Caf, the fifty-second.

Hence comes ogyn, hogen.

(1) Bleiddyd, the fifty-first king of Britain.

(+2) Meirion, the fiftieth.

(43) Gwrwst, the forty-ninth.

(44) Clydno, the forty-eighth.

(45) Clydog, the forty-seventh.
(46) Urien, the forty-sixth.
(47) Andryw, the forty-fifth.
(48) Ceraint, the forty-second.
(49) Coel, the fortieth.

(50) Cadellan, the thirty-ninth.
(51) Geraint, the thirty-eighth.
(52) Elidyr, the thirty-second.
(53) Morvydd, the twenty-ninth.
(54) Dan, the twenty-eighth.
(55) Seisyllt, the twenty-sixth.
(56) Cuhelyn, the twenty-fourth.
(57) Gwrgant, the twenty-third.
(58) Beli, the twenty-second.

(59) Dyvnwal, the celebrated legislator of the Ancient Britons, who is supposed to have lived about 400 years before Christ. It was he who first combined the laws, maxims, and customs into a regular code, founded upon a national constitution traced out by Prydain, the son of Aedd; and which code was revised and altered in the tenth century by Hywel Dda.

(60) Prydain, one of the most distinguished characters in our records: the Triads represent that, in honour of the services he rendered to his country, in the suppression of anarchy and depredation, and because he first brought the Cymry under a common government and law, the island was called after his name, Ynys Prydain, the island abounding with beauty, or Fair Isle, which is the import of that name.

(61) Aedd the Great, a prince among the first colony of Britons, but of whom there is no memorial to shew why an epithet so honourable was bestowed upon him.

(62) Rhuddlan, now an insignificant village, was formerly a place of considerable magnitude and importance. Edward I. held a parliament here in 1283, and appears to have himself resided for awhile in the castle. In 1399, Richard II. dined here in company with the Earl of Northumberland, in his Flint.

NO. XV.

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(63) Einion ab Cadwgan, a prince of a part of Powys; in 1113 he, in conjunction with others, demolished Cymer castle, in Merionyddshire, the property of his brother-in-law Uchtryd ab Edwin, of Llys, in this parish. He died in 1121, and left his possessions to Maredydd, his brother.

(64) "Meredydd ab Bleddyn, (see fol. 137, Powell,) prince of Powys, who was imprisoned by his brother Iorwerth, in the year 1101. After a confinement of four years he escaped, and regained possession of Powys. In 1108 he was dispossessed by Madog ab Rhiryd, but, at the expiration of two years, he took Madog prisoner, and obtained his dominions again. He died in A.D. 1129.” (65) Probably the error of calling Clawdd Offa, Watt's Dyke, arose from the circumstance of "one Colonel Wat, in Cromwell's time, being governor of Chirk Castle, when he forced the country about to pay their contributions beforehand, and delivered the castle, well furnished with bread and beer, &c. into the hands of Sir Thomas Myddleton's daughter, for her father's use." Offa's dyke passes through the neighbourhood of Chirk Castle.

(66) Elystan, was the son of Cuhelyn ab Iarddur ab Severws ab Cadwaladyr Wenwynwyn ab Idnerth ab Iorwerth Hirvlawd, of the line of Teganwy. His mother was Rhieingar, the daughter of Goronw ab Tudyr Trevor. Elystan had the earldom of Hereford, in right of his mother; he married Gwenlliant, the daughter of Einion ab Hywel Da, by whom he had issue only one son, called Cadwgan. He is distinguished in the Triads, as one of the three band-wearing princes; which insignia was assumed instead of He was the godson of king Athelstan.

crowns.

(67) The source of the Dee is among the hills of Merionyddshire, runs through Penllyn and Bala Lake, down to Corwen and Llangollen, between Chirkland and Bromfield, where it boweth northward towards Bangor, flows to Holt, to Chester, and from thence to the sea. It would appear by the poets that the Dee was held in peculiar veneration in times of yore, and probably on that account it is called Dwyv, which signifies I am, or Self-existent. We have it recorded that when the confederated princes of Wales had joined their forces to oppose Edelfred, or Ethelred, king of Northumberland, from penetrating into Wales at Bangor Iscoed, they called religion to their aid. Before the battle begun, Dynawd, or Dunawd, the abbot, made an oration to the army, and ordered the soldiers to kiss the ground in commemoration of the communion of the body of Christ, and to take up water into their hands out of the river Dee, and drink it in remembrance of his sacred blood, which was shed for them.

Since the former part of the History was printed, Sir S. R. Meyrick has most obligingly furnished the compiler of this article with the following information, in reference to the effigy of Edwin ab Grono.

"I do not say that the effigy might not have been intended for Edwin ab Grono, yet it most certainly was not sculptured till two hundred years later, being of the close of the reign of Edward I. The conical helmet is not indeed decisive of this point, but accompanied by the elbow piece, enables me to fix the period. The figure is in a haubergeon and chausses, but without surcoat, and holds a lance and sword, the weapons of a knight, though the former has the upper part broken off. (Signed,)

S. R. MEYRICK."

APOSTROPHE TO DEATH.

"O amiable, lovely death!

Thou odoriferous stench! sound rottenness!
Arise forth from the couch of lasting night,
Thou hate and terror to prosperity,

And I will kiss thy detestable bones;

And put my eye-balls in thy vaulty brows;

And ring these fingers with thy household worms;
And stop this gap of breath with fulsome dust,

And be a carrion monster like thyself!

Come, grin on me, and I will think thou smilest,
And buss thee as my wife! misery's love,
O, come to me!"-

Translation.

O angeu argu! Ti

Aroglus ddrewdod! pydredd iach! o lwth
Parhaol nos ymddangos, tydi cas
A dychryn llwydd, a mi dy esgyrn hull
Cusanav; dodav yn dy aeliau crwm,
Vy llygaid; torchav ag dy gynron ty,
Y bysedd hyn: a llanwav agen chwyth
A fiaidd lwch: a byddav vel dyhun
Yn vurgun erch! dysgyrnia arnav, gwna.
A thybiav hyny wen, ac val vy ngwraig
Monwesav di! car Govid-atav-oh,
Prysura!

CAERVALLWCH.

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