Welsh Journals

Jtrchaeologia dwurtbrensi* VOL. LXXXVI. PART II. SOME very fascinating problems are presented by the history of Aberystwyth and its neighbourhood, which I shall take this oppor- tunity of discussing, though I am far from being able to offer a final solution of every difficulty that arises. There are a number of fixed points, as to which no reasonable doubt can be felt by the careful enquirer others must still be open to controversy, until the decisive bit of evidence makes its appearance. My aim to-day will be to distinguish between the solid ground and the quicksands, where one must walk with circumspection. I shall not deal with the prehistoric remains of the district, important though they are, as that would lead us into too large a field. Suffice it to say that the fine contour fort which dominates the town is probably the Rhiw Faelor or Allt Faelor of the Triads1, and is certainly the Dinas Maelor or Castell Maelor of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.2 A poet of this region, with a boatful of companions, attempted to reach the holy isle of Bardsey, but the pilgrimage was cut short by a storm which nearly sent them to the bottom after an anxious night on the tossing waves, the first ray of hope was the sight of land, as the day broke- The hill is now known as Pendinas, and the column on the top, which can scarcely be called ornamental, is a memorial of Waterloo. 1 Mabinogion, ed. Rhys and Evans, 301 Myv. Arch, ii, 20. 2 Cymmrodor, xxvii, 136 (J. D. Rhys). 3 Brython (1860) iii, 331. Cf. Rhys, The Arthurian Legend, 352, note DECEMBER, 1931. ABERYSTWYTH. By J. E. LLOYD, D.Litt., F.B.A., F.S.A. (Read at Aberystwyth, September 3, 1931.) Adnabod-nid anobaith Dinas Maelor o'r mor maith.3