Welsh Journals

98 THE CAMBRIAN REMEMBRANCER. MARCH, 1879. when he tires of his pleasure let him abandon the Conway road, and follow the old one leading across the mountains to Aber, and I can promise him sucti a. day's glory as he has never enjoyed before. Once at Aber, all the well-known features of the ordinary coast line of North Wales come back to us, the sea in front, the mountainous land be¬ hind; and towering high in the air, commanding the whole of the low laads, Penrhyn Castle stands forth,proudly reminding us of a long list of notable men who called the site of it their home. Just across the Lavan Sands, Beaumaris nestles under the protecting wing of Baron Hill, but we look in vain to Penrhyn or to Baron Hill forthe national sentiment which made the lords thereof in past times " the darlings of the Welsh people." It is impossible not to sorrow over this condition of things, for, however generous and even princely the heads of our great houses may be, the one thing needful is lacking—a devouring love for the customs, superstitions, and prejudices of "the common people", who, in fact, make up " our nation." I am very far from desiring to discountenance the cultivation of the English language in Wales; nay, indeed, I rejoice exceedingly at the progress that is being made in that direction, but the low lands of North Wales are but the fringe of the country; you must go into the interior vales and the mountain homes of the paople to comprehend their true character, their innocence.their morality, and their religious fervour; and this is why I desire bove all things to tempt Englishmen to give uprailways and stage coaches when they visitthe Principality, and to ramble as I have done into the interior of the land, and there commune as best they can with the genuine Taffy, who is as inocent as a child, and as tender-hearted as a woman. A Rambler. _________MARCH 1st, 1879.__________ A Chapter in Welsh History.—Anarawd, eldest son of Eoderic the Great, having defeated the impudent Mercians near Conway, followed them to their own territory, laid waste their bor¬ ders, and came back to his own country laden with spoils. It is supposed that he ruled a petty kingdom lying between the Dee ard the Conway, with Denbigh for its capital, and if this is correct then we can understand the meaning of the fol¬ lowing paragraph in Williams' history and some other English works I have seen :— "In a.d. 1063, Harold,the son of Earl Godwin,at the head of a formidable army, made himself master of the Vale of Clwyd, and all the level country; and falling suddenly upon Prince Griffith ap Llewelyn, who then held his court at Ehuddlan Castle, he took that fortress, and set the Welsh " ships of war," which were lying in the river, on fire, save that in which Griffith escaped " to some foreign land." In the mean time Toston, Tosti, or Tostig, Harold's brother, arrived with a strong body of horse, with which he was left to keep posses¬ sion of the Vale and Rhos, whilst Harold led the infantry into Snowdonia. The Welsh, unprepared for war, taken by surprise, and without their leader, were forced to submit to the conqueror on his own terms, and to pay tribute. Harold set up monuments of his victories in several places, with this inscription, " Hie fuit victor Itaroldus ; " but does not appear to have taken possession of any lands." Harold, as we know, was defeated by William the Conqueror, and some historians say that he not only came to Chester, but took parts of the North Wales lowlands. Are we to understand by that the territory occupied by the Strath Clwyd Welsh between the Dee and the Conway ? Mr Williams says that:— "In a.d. 1115 Denbigh is said to have been the scene of a sanguinary battle between Howel ap Ithel, Lord .of Rhos and Ehufoniog, and the sons of Howel ap Edwin, who were, it would seem, in possession of the Vale of Clwyd. The besiegers are supposed to have taken up their post near Goppy, at the top of Henllan-street, where the fight was sharp and cruel on both sides, until at length Ap Edwin's party, and the Norman con¬ federates, the De Lacy bands of Chester, were put to flight. Howel ap Ithel was stabbed in the affray, and, in the course of seven weeks, died of the wound. Llywarch ap Owen ap Edwin, Ior- werth ap Meredith, and several other brave chiefs, fell in the same conflict." If that is so, how are we to reconcile this with another statement made by the same writer " In a.d. 1115, Meredith ap Bleddyn, and the sona of Cadwgan, finding it dangerous to stay in the Vale of Clwyd (after their victory at Denbigh, for fear of some French who lay garrisoned at Chester, returned to Merioneth with all speed ?" I should also like to know who occupied the district between 1115 and 1157, when Henry the Second is said to have concluded a peace with Owen Gwyuedd, by which the latter consented by give up to the former certain castles, inclusive of Denbigh, which was then placed in charge of Adam de Saltzbury as captain. In 1164 it is said " David ap Owen Gwynedd carried away into Snowdonia all the cattle and inhabitants of the Vale of Clwyd, and such of the people of Engle- field as had escaped there," but this could only be a temporary affair, if, as Mr Williams says, " Madog ap Owen Gwynedd and his followers left the Vale of Clwyd for America in 1169." Be that as it may, we find by and bye that " Denbigh became the patrimony of the Welsh princes by the marriage of Llewelyn the Great with Tangwystl, daughter of Llywarch Goch, lord of Rhos and Rhufoniog. Llewelyn gave his son Griffith, When heir apparent, the cantrefs of Dyffryn Clwyd, Rhos, Rhufoniog, and Englefield," a thing I greatly doubt, for he did not come into power before 1210, who the following year took