Welsh Journals

Few towns in Wales are more redolent of antiquity than Laugharne. This may partly be due to its geographical isolation, on a promontory formed by the River Taf, and by its position on the very frontier of "Little England beyond Wales." More particularly is it due to the preservation of the framework of its old borough constitution, and to the retention by the corporation of common land which is held by the seventy-six senior burgesses. Laugharne's charter dates from about 1300, and was granted by Guy de Brian. He gave the burgesses all the liberties enjoyed by the freemen of Carmarthen, including immunity from every species of servitude. They were authorised to elect two portreeves every year, each to serve for a period of six months. The reeves were to hold the borough court and receive the dues, customs, and tolls which were to be paid to the lord's bailiff. In addition, he gave the burgesses a wide tract of common land, amounting to some four hundred acres, together with a road to drive their cattle to the common pasture, and an acre of moorland for digging peat. In Elizabeth's reign the lordship passed to Sir John Perrot of Haroldston, a fact for which the inhabitants of Laugharne have had cause to regret. As at Carew Perrot modernised the castle, but he was the most unscrupulous "land-grabber" of his age, and in 1574 he induced the burgesses to part with three hundred acres of land in return for an annuity of £ 9 6s. 8d. The records say that "diverse burgesses of the said towne did not assent to same," and that it was "to the great decaying of many." It would be interesting to know by what methods of bribery or intimidation Sir John was able to accomplish his nefarious purposes. To-day, the common lands are held by the seventy-six senior burgesses for life sixteen shares being on the Moor, twenty at Hugdon and forty at the Lees. Residence at Laugharne is necessary to qualify as a senior burgess, and as the shares vary a great deal in value and quality a watchful eye is kept on the qualifications of the next on the list of burgesses when a particularly valuable share is about to fall vacant. Once every three years the boundaries of the town lands are perambulated. The officers of the Corporation at present are the Portreeve, who is elected for six months, but who invariably holds office for a year the recorder, who is clerk to the court which meets every fortnight the two Common Attorneys, who collect the rents of the corporation and see to the arrangements for the "common walk" (the triennial perambulation) four constables, who enforce the decisions of the portreeve two bailiffs, who are caretakers of the court, and the crier who opens and closes the court by ancient formula. Georgian Houses at Laugharne. Sir Cyril Fox said At a meeting of the General Committee, when the Carmarthen programme was discussed, I suggested that the Cambrians ought to take notice of the street architecture, particularly the Georgian, of the towns visited. The members agreed, but if I had known that Mr. Alwyn Lloyd would be present on this occasion I should certainly not have undertaken to speak. We are in this pleasant place, the grounds of the Castle House, by the kindness of Mrs. Gweneth Whitteridge, M.A., the tenant.