M.C
GENEIALOG^^ C- LECTION
FN rOUNTV PUBLIC LIBRARY
liiptlfiill
3 1833 00727 0363
38
THE HTSTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
"Friday. Mr. Powell will be glad if you will come into Brecon to confer with him on the subject "this evening, as no time is to be lost, and it may be necessary to send off a purpose messenger." The balance in hand at the end of 1819 was £62 iOs. 4d., and Penry Williams signs the account.
The year 1820. has "Mr. Archibald of Abercyndrig," "Thomas Price, Esq., of Builth, for the years 1818, 1819, and 1S20, £3 3s. Od.," Mr. Ekins (one of the county coroners), AVilliam Morgan, Esq., of Bolgoed, Mr. Rees Williams, Tynewydd, and Mr. William Williams, Skethrog, among the new subscribers ; and there is the entry on tlie credit side, " Received of Mr. Wilhams, of Mannest, towards payment for his silver cup awarded to him at the autumn show, £2 2s. Od., the cup being ordered to the value of £6 6s. Od." And from another like entry we learn that John Ball paid £2 2s. Od., " being the premium he received for 1818 for ewes, his plate being of the value of £10 10s. Od." On the expenditure side we note that Williams, Silversmith, was paid £26 5s. Od. for the different premiums, and "Mr. Williams, of Aberyskir," secured £2 2s. Od. "for the best ram for 1819." The receipts were £158 Is. Od., and after meeting the expenditure there remained a balance of £69 Is. 9d.
In 1821, the Duke of Beaufort, Major Price of Brecon, Mr. Churchey, Mr. Williams, Newton, G. Overton, Esq., Edward Jones, Esq., Battel, Rev. Canon Wilhams, Henry Allen, Esq., J. P. Wilkins, Esq., W. A. Madocks. Esq., M.P., were among other new subscribers, and the receipts, including last year's balance, were £160 8s. 9d. We have this entry in the expenditure, "Paid Mr. David Jenldns for inspecting and reporting on the turnip crops, for 1820, £2 2s. Od.," so that turnip growing was still being fostered by the Society. It appears that Mr. Hall, who was an irm- keeper of Brecon, had something to do with the management of the Society, for we find he was paid £12 7s. 5d. " for advertising in Cambrian and other newspapers, as per bill " ; and it should be noted that £2 2s. Od. was paid to Mrs. Hughes, printer, of Brecon, for printing. A large amount of money was given to purchase plate for premiums, and "Mr. Evan Williams, of Aberyskir," took £5 5s. Od. in silver plate, and the Penkelly Castle and ■ ' Tenewidd ' ' farmers were also success- ful; Mr. Wilhams, Newton, for the best boar, gets £2 2s. Od., and "Jane West for long service" is paid £2 2s. Od. ' ' Henry AUen ' ' signs the account.
In 1822, Mr. Roger Watkins, of Llyswen, Thomas H. Powell, Esq., Peterstone, Mr. William Parry, Ceven y Cantreff, Rev. Geo. Jones Bevan, Crickhowell, Launcelot Morgan, Esq., W. H. Bevan, Esq., Beaufort Iron Works, Henry Goldsmid, Esq., Penymyarth, Mr. John Herbert, Gilvach, were among the new subscribers. The prize wirmers included Mr. Robert Downes for £3 3s. Od., Mr. PoweU of Chilston "for a cart stallion," £5 5s. Od. ; and there were premiums awarded for turnip hoeing, long service, and "for bringing up a family without parochial aid." The receipts drop to £81 Os. 5d., and a balance of only £3 2s. 7d. remains in hand when the account is audited.
In 1823, these receipts are still further reduced, being only £56 13s. 7d. In this year George Overton, Esq., gets a premium of £2 2s. Od. "for the best crop of turnips in 1821," and the waiter still gets his tip, but as the meetings are few, his income from the Society is much reduced.
The year 1824 is notable for a vigorous growth in the subscription list, and the receipts from all sources reach £147 7s. 6d. This seems to be due to the payment of many arrears due from members, and the Marquis Camden is credited with £22 Is. Od. "for subscriptions for 7 years to 1824." The premiums are paid for various kinds of stock, turnip growing, long service, largest family, and a new premium is that for small farmers, amounting to three guineas.
In 1825 and 1826 matters are much the same financially, but we have this new feature in the prizes. The Society had no doubt seen the wisdom of encouraging shepherds to look after their tiocks, and especially during the lambing seasons ; pi'emiums were therefore offered to those shepherds who were successful in rearing the largest number of lambs. The following certificate will give an idea of what the system was: "Lowland Shepherd. This certifies that John Jones, shepherd to "Thomas Trouncer of Sheephouse, hath, this last season, reared from 285 hill ewes the number of "304 sound, healthy lambs, until the 31st day of May last. Witness my hand the 30th day of •'September, 1843. Thomas Trouncer, Master." Prizes were also oftered to Mountain Shepherds. From the account of 1826, we also get information that Wilkins and Co. were treasurers to the Society.
The work of the Society was continued much in the same way until 1841, when the entries \i\ the account book cease. Here and there we get a glimpse of the changes which time made in the ranks of Breconshire magnates ; but when men disappeared by reason of death or other circumstances. others took their places in the management and encouragement of the Society. And the pages in this old account book contain the names of many gentlemen who for years loyally supported the
I
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 39
efforts to promote the interests of agriculture within the county. Some of those names are no longer even a memory in local annals, but the descendants of many of those patrons are still in the county, taking their part, as did their ancestors, in the work of this old institution.
With regard to the long service premiums already mentioned, as these are no longer awarded by the Society, it may not be devoid of interest to quote one of the certificates sent in by a com- petitor. Here it is: "Second day of September, 1843. This certifies that Morgan Pritchard has "lived in my family as an yearly servant, whoUy employed in husbandry, during twenty-seven years ^'ending the 1st day of August last; that be was not" a parish apprentice, and that his conduct '■ during the whole time has been honest, sober, orderly, and industrious ; as such I beg leave to "recommend him as worthy the reward of the Breconshire Agricultural Society. William Probert. "Court-Gilbert, Master." This certificate was countersigned by the Minister and Churchwardens of the parish, in this particular case, " Jno. Jones, Minister oi the parish of Llanspvthid, and John Jones and John Probert, Churchwardens."
At the end of the book of accounts is a list of subscribers, alphabetically arranged, together with the amount of their subscriptions and donations for the years 1817 to 1824. A special meeting of the Society held on the 26th day of November, 1817, made numerous rules for the government of the Society, 34 in all, and elections to membership were by ballot, quarterly meetings were to be held, ^vith monthly committee meetings. By these rules the Association still maintained much of the character of a club devoted to the improvement of agriculture, and for social intercourse, and one of its rules provided that a library should be formed out of the funds of the Society, but the records of its payments from 1817 to 1843 make no mention of any purchases of books.
The schedule of premiums offered by the Society for the year 1839 is before us. The patrons were the Duke of Beaufort and Marquis of Camden, tlae president Charles M. R. Morgan, Esq., M.P., and Colonel Wood, M.P., vice-president. The office of treasurer was held by John Parry AVilkins, Esq., and Mr. William Wilhams was secretary. The subscribers numbered 98, and a perusal of the list affords striking evidence of the changes which have taken place in the holding of landed property in the county in the comparatively brief period of seventy years. Many of the names there given are no longer known within 'Brecknockshire. The first of three premiums offered were — For the best ploughman, a suit of clothes ; for the second best ditto, a coat and waistcoat ; for the third ditto, a coat ; all with the Society's buttons : those buttons would be valuable to-day as curiosities. Fifty pounds were offered as premiums in the live stock competitions, besides 12 silver cups. For the cultivation of land, such as the best crops of wheat, best and cleanest crops of turnips, best crops of mangel worzel, etc., £10 were offered. To shepherds rearing the largest number of lambs, to the best shoeing smith, to the cottager showing the best selection of honey, to the best labourer, "male or female," who shall hoe turnips in the most complete and clean manner, to the labourer having the largest number of children which he has maintained without troubling the parish, to servants remaining the longest period in service, premiums amounting to £19 19s. Od. were offered as rewards, and a new feature was included, for we find £2 12s. 6d. offered as rewards to servants who shall have invested, "out of his or her earnings, and still possesses the largest sum in the County and Borough Savings Bank." These last premiums show that in the past the agricultural labourer was much more considered in the operations of tlie Society than he has been for some years past. The silver cups were offered by Joseph Bailey, Esq., M.P., Lloyd Vaughan Watkins, Esq., Major Gwynne Hohord, John Parry Wilkins, Esq., W. B. Stratton, Esq., Walter Wilkins, Esq., M.P., Colonel Wood, M.P., Walter Maybery, Esq., J.P., J. P. Snead, Esq., the Rev. R. W. P. Davies, of Courtygollen, Penry Williams, Esq., and the Messrs. Morgan of Glasbury (whose prize was "for the best pen of fat wethers, not less than 10 in number, quality and quantity of wool to be considered." This family were the ancestors of a president who in 1907 was serving the high position of Lord Mayor of the City of London (Walter Vaughan Morgan, Esq.), and who was afterwards created a baronet of the United Kingdom, and received from .several foreign Sovereigns other distinguished marks of favour. The tradesmen of Brecon also offered silver cups, etc., of the value of £25. The Committee appointed by the Society to carry out the Show of 1839 comprised -Mr. Canon Williams, Mr. Thomas Morris, Therrow ; Colonel AUen and Henry Allen, Esq., Oakfield ; C. C. Clifton, Esq., Tymawr ; Mr. W. Hughes, Llanfaes ; Mr. Thos. Watkins, Brecon ; Penry Williams, Esq. ; Mr. James Williams, Pontithel ; J. W. Morgan, Esq., Treble Hill ; Thomas Morgan, Esq., Pipton. From this document we learn the Society was revived on the 28th November, 1817.
The later histor}' of this Society is set out in the newspapers of the day, and there is hardly any necessity for dealing with the subject further. Its premiums were and are to this day awarded for purely agricultural pui-poses. The growth of other towns iu the agricultural districts has resulted
^ 2
HISTORY
OF
BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
A HISTORY
_OF THE
COUNTY OF BRECKNOCK, of./.
CONTAINING THE CHOROGRAPHY, GENERAL HISTORY, RELIGION, LAWS, CUSTOMS, MANNERS, LANGUAGE, SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURE, ANTIQUITIES, SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS AND INSCRIPTIONS, NATURAL CURIOSITIES, VARIA- TIONS OF THE SOIL, STRATIFICATION, MINERALOGY, LIST OF RARE AND OTHER PLANTS AND BIRDS, PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY, NAMES AND BIOGRAPHIES OF SHERIFFS AND MAYORS OF BRECKNOCK, ALSO THE GENEALOGIES AND ARMS OF THE PRINCIPAL FAMILIES PROPERLY COLOURED AND EMBLAZONtED, TOGETHER WITH THE HISTORY OF EVERY PARISH, AND THE NAMES OF THE PATRONS AND INCUMBENTS OF ALL LIVINGS.
By THEOPHILUS TONES,
Deputy Registrar of the Archdeaconry of Brecon. Enlarged by the notes collected
By SIR JOSEPH RUSSELL BAILEY, BART., FIRST BARON GLANUSK
(Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire).
ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS, PORTRAITS, AND MAPS.
'h^
^q^^ VOLUME TWO.
BRECKNOCK : Published and Sold by Blissett, Davtes & Co., 14 Bridge Street.
1909,
^
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
VOLUME II.-CHAPTER I. 129S174
Laws of Dyfnwal Moel-mud, — Hywel Dda, — the Lords Marchers, — the English Statutes,— Acts and Ordinances
relative to Wales.
^' /^UR first British legislator is placed so far back in the shade of antiquity, that his features are
'n Vw' scarcely discernible, and his laws are not much better known than his character or his person.
^,, He lived, it is said, about four hundred years before Christ, and was called Dyfnwal moel-mud, or
rather Dyfnwal mawl mad^ meaning Dyfnwal the famous or praiseworthy, whose name has been latinized
r^ into Dunwallus Molmutius ; he died about the year 430 before Christ, according to George Owen . Harry, and of his code only two mutilated extracts remain ; one of them relates to the admeasure- ment of land, and is quoted in the laws of Hywel Dda and another by Rowland, which asserts the
', sovereignty of the imperial crown of London over the Kings of Wales, Scotland, and Cornwall. The
laws of Dyfnwal continued to be obeyed, as far at least as the savage temper of the times respected
any laws, until the coming of the Romans, when the system of jurisprudence which prevailed among
the conquerors, became that of their subjects while they remained among them. Upon their departure,
• the Britons of Wales seem again to have recurred to their ancient code, on which Hywel Dda King
" of Wales, about the year 940 of the Christian era, built his superstructure, availing himself in the - progress of his work of the systems of his predecessors, and the advice and assistance of the learned of his time. Though not a Breconshire man, he had one or two palaces in this county. Llyswen upon the Wye, where his grandfather, Roderick the Great, appointed the princes of Powys and Cardigan " to meet to settle and adjust disputes, if such should arise between them, was one of Hjrwel's resi- dences; and Caerau in Llangammarch near the western confines of the hundred of Builth'was probably another.
The laws and ordinances of this prince, as Barrington observes in his preface to his Observations on the Antient Statutes, are the most regular of any extant, and have been wonderfully preserved considering their antiquity ; but though there are many provisions in them dictated by wisdom and sound policy, there are some which it is impossible to peruse without a smile, and others which should not be passed over without censure. It would be foreign to our purpose to recapitulate all those laws which relate to the King's palace; among them is mentioned the right of the King's falconer^ to his majesty's attendance, and the obligation of the master to hold his gamekeeper's stirrup when he had killed a crane, and the claim of the judge of the palace to the cushion for his night's repose, on which royalty sat by day, is admitted. Whether in the one case the merit of the falconer was equal to the high honour of the reward, or whether in the other, his majesty's body was supposed to act as a conductor from his head, and to communicate to the judge's by means of the pillow, the attributes of justice and mercy cannot now be ascertained, and therefore these and many other unaccountable and equally whimsical customs may as well be forgotten ; but it is impossible to avoid reprobating here many of the laws relative of ivomen. Making the proper allowances for the unenlightened times in which they were enacted, and the almost savage disposition of the inhabitants of those days, whoever is compelled or led by curiosity to peruse them, cannot avoid exclaiming against them as generally disgraceful, frequently immodest, and sometimes calculated instead of re- pressing, to encourage the injuries they seem to be desirous to punish or prevent.
REVIEW OF HYWEL DDa's CODE,
A short review of the leading features of this code, by which the inhabitants of Brecknockshire,
1 Tine Cambro British authors as well as Leland and Gildas " There are some instances in England, as late as 1625, of
assert, that Alfred borrowed many of his laws from those of extraordinary allowances and gratuities to royal gamekeepers : in
Dyfnwal, though some English historians have doubted even of that year Andrew Pitcairne, esq., was allowed £30 per month, and
his existence : VVotton seems to think that his laws are a forgery, 10s. a day for the provisions of pigeons, hens, and other diet for
but while they are quoted in the very code he is translating, at a the king's hawks, a salary equal to that of kee[5er of the seals,
time when it is clear from that circumstance his name and memory {Fcedera, tom. IS). In the same year the king's barber had £100 ;
ined, and when of course if any doubts of their authenticity a surgeon and his wife £150 during their lives ; the king's carver had prevailed, the legislator Hywel would neither have mentioned £150 per annum ; his physician £230, and the professor of Hebrew or adopted them, there is no room left for scepticism on the subject. •>>» Oxford only £40 per annum
2 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
in common with those of the principality of Wales, were governed for several centuries, will, it is hoped, not be deemed impertinent or irrelevant here. The distinguishing and general characteristic of this system was the making satisfaction in money, cattle, or other effects, for all offences and crimes, murder not excepted ; for injuries to the person or privation ot property to the party com- plaining of the grievance ; for murder, to the relations of the deceased, and in this latter case, much pains were taken and labour employed under various circumstances and in different degrees of affinity, to ascertain who were entitled to receive this compensation, which was more or less in proportion to the rank the deceased held in th') community ; but even on this serious subject there were now and then distinctions, to us apparently ludicrous and certainly not to be accounted for. Several offences, which in the reign of Henry the Eiehth would have been called high treason and punishable with death, by the laws of Hywel, were commuted for by fine : " the learned in the laws (says one of these ordinances) have determined that for committing adultery with the king's consort, killing his ambassadors or violating his protection, the offender shall forieit to his Majesty a golden cup, having a cover to it, as broad as his face, as thick as the thumb of a ploughman who has been nine years in that employ ; a silver rod of the same height as the King and as thick as his thumb, a hundred cows for every cantreff which the offender possessed, and a white bull^ with red ears for every hundred cows, but if the cows are of a dark colour, then a black bull with every hundred. For the murder of the King of North Wales this fine shall be tripled," and the lives of the Princes of Powys and South Wales were, in all probabiUty, protected in a similar manner, though it is not so stated in this chapter. Their laws, with respect to bail,^ from which much has been borrowed by the English, and their remedies for the recovery of lands are tedious, numerous, and unin- telligible.
LAWS AS TO WOMEN.
The statute of Rhuddlan (12th Ed. i.) recites that women were not then dowable by the laws ot Wales, but though thej- were not entitled to dower of the lands of the husband, they possessed a proportion of his effects, and that not only upon his death, but immediately upon the marriage, and they had a separate control, and the sole disposal of their property, even during the fife of the husband ; nay, so fuUy was this right established, that the Welsh married ladies could not be pre- vailed upon to part with it for near two centuries alter the English laws were introduced, as several of the wills of testators in Breconshire from 1500 to 1700 recapitulate and acknowledge debts due from and to married women, and in others the husband admits that a sum or sums is due to his vjife, by mortgage, bond, note, etc. Yet still the British wives were in many cases in ancient times \ery hardly used, and their countrywomen of this day, though they may smile, and perhaps some of them tacitly approve of the causes for which it was lawful to separate from a husband,^ will all of them exclaim against the inequality of the crimes for which they might be chastised by him.
PECULIARITIES OF THE LAWS.
Much pains are taken in these laws to describe what articles of household furniture and other effects shall go with the husband and what with the wife in case of separation, and a laborious and impracticable attempt is made to fix a specific value upon every species of property, in case it should be lost, stolen or injured : for instance, the King's blanket (the effeminate luxury of sheets was then unknown), was worth one hundred and twenty pence, the Queen's flesh-fork twenty-four pence, the King's chess-board one hundred and twenty pence, a bucket one penny, a pail to wash the feet in one penny, a house-dog, even though he was the King's, only fourpence, while a shep- herd's dog was equal in Value to an ox, if it could be proved by his owner and neighbours upon oath that he was accustomed to precede the cattle to the field in the morning, and bring them home at night ; the purloining, destroying or injuring of any of these effects or animals was punished in general by mulct, in the same manner, though in a fighter degree, with the death of the King. The legislators have proceeded to recapitulate with a tedious mmuteness and apparently with a
1 There wft= a breed of this kind and colour upon tho banks of the laws of this world are of no effect either in heaven or hell, but
the lowi me arraarthenshire which were particularly valuable, only reach the living. The reason is this, men in the transactions
' V 0"°")- Richard s Wehh dictionary sub. verb. Ysgafrllynnig. of this life may be bound bv human laws, but the angels and devils
i^mgley m his Ammal Biography says, that all wild cattle are of are subject to no law but" to the power and will of God." This
this colour and this fine being laid upon the n-Iiok of Wales seems denying upon the grave alludes to a law Ijy which a creditor,
to prove the truth of his assertion. charging a dead person with being svu-ety to him, was to go with
- ^P°" tfj'f i^^ "I iiail we have a remark rather whimsically six persons to swear to that fact on his grave if it could be found. intr<,duced, it a surety or one who has become bail die lea\ang a 3 Foul breath wa>i one of the causes for which a woman might
son, that son shall be bound by his father's act. There are those separate from her husband, at the same time he might lawfully
Who say that he may upon his fathers grave lawfully deny his chastise her either for reflecting upon his beard, endeavouring to
having been surety, but the law is otherwi.se, for the wise say that procure his death, or committing adultery.
THE HISTORY OP BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 3
peculiar whimsicality, the remedies in case some of these animals did any mischief to the property of those to whom they did not belong, and it should sometimes seem as if they meant to punish the fowl or beast himself, and endeavoured to make him sensible of his crime ; as when they enacted that if geese were found trespassing in corn, it was lawful to kill them with a stick as long as from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger ; if in a barn or rick-yard, to squeeze them to death with a forked stick placed on their necks ; if a cock trespassed, one of his spurs might be cut off ; if a calfi in corn, he might be kept a whole day from sucking, and then liberated, and if a hen was caught filching, she might be detained till she laid an egg. In all these remedies, as well as the recital of the damages to be paid when a cat is found mousing in a flax-plat, there is something extremely ludicrous and unaccountable at this distance of time.
Yet in one instance their law was superior to that of England ; according to the latter, if beasts were impounded, which hare been taken trespassing, they can only be liberated, if a surly neighbour refuses to accept of amends, by what is termed a replevin ; by Hywel's code it was provided that if a man impounded a beast and amends were tendered and refused and the beast died, the taker was obliged to pay the value of it to the owner, and if an animal was impounded and he was permitted to graze by the person who impounded him, the taker did not, says one of these ordinances, lose his right to receive satisfaction because he had behaved kinder than the law required.
PRACTICE IN THE COURTS.
With respect to the administration of justice as it is described and explained in this code, there are, among a heap of trash, many wholesoms rules, and much good sense. The judges received customary and. specific fees from both parties in all causes, but these were equal and well known, and in their history we never hear of any instances of corruption or accusations against their magis- trates for receiving bribes. These expoimders and ministers of the laws were required to be men of experience, and at least twenty-five years of age when appointed and to have a beard, for say the laws, "it is not meet to see a young man sitting in judgment upon the aged." The modes of administering oaths were different in different cases, as was the credit given to witnesses, which varied according to their numbers, their rank in life, their character in their neighbourhood, their relative situations, or the mode by which they obtained their knowledge of the facts to which they deposed. The general manner of administering an oath was by laying the right hand on the altar, and swearing by God and the relics placed thereon : in contracts and questions as to buying and selling, they gave to each other their right hand and plighted their faith, or swore by the faith of a Christian. This mode of asservation was called Briduw ; a word now become obsolete, and the etymology of which is not understood : to testify a falsehood in this latter manner was accounted nearly, if not equally, criminal with perjury upon the altar. In most cases two witnesses were required, as by the Roman or Canon law. In questions as to land, the witness's testimony was either reduced into writing and then read to him, as now practised in depositions in chancery, or else the substance was taken down and repeated by the advocates to the Court and the witr>esses then for the first time asked, if what was said was true, for this, says one of these ordinances, is the oath of a Ceidwad (or tenant) that " all which the advocate Ims put it into his head to swear is true in every particular : this is curiously worded, but the meaning, from the sentences following, is that the testimony read or repeated to the witness as having been given by him, or coming out of his mouth, is true, etc.
These witnesses, though of the same rank, were of different descriptions, and to the testimony of some of them more credit was attached than to others, though their characters were equally respectable. The general name for a witness was Tyst, or Tysd, an old Armoric word which will probably be derived from the Latin testis. In these laws, witnesses were again divided mto Ceidwad or Gwarcheidwad, Gwybyddiad and Arwaesaf. The former is translated Custos by Wotton, and explained to be the tenant or possessor of the lands in dispute, whose evidence upon this subject could neither be rejected or discredited ; it was therefore regarded as of the highest import and considered as most sacred. The next in point of respect or attention was the Gwybyddiad, testis conscius, or witness who swore to a fact which he saw, and the third was called Arwae.saf, meaning not only a person who pro\-ed or warranted a beast or other personal chattel, but, as Wotton says, the warranty itself.
THE DATES OF COURTS.
In the Welsh Courts of Justice there were only two terms ; these lasted from November to February, and from May to August, to avoid interference with the ploughing and sowing season and the harvest. In actions concerning lands, commenced on the 9th of November, the claimant was
1 This punishment of the animal was probably taken from the code of Dyfnwal Moel-mftd, when tho druidical doctrine of the transmigration of souls was the faith of Britain.
4 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
entitled to judgment or sentence on the 9th of May following, and if then postponed he had a right to apply to the King, who compelled the Court to be open to him on any day he desired. Having cursorily mentioned disputes about land, it should be here observed that the tenure by which they were universaLly held in old times was called Gavelkmd ; by this was meant an equal partition of the lands of the parents among all their male children. It is specially provided by these laws that the inheritance shall be adjudged in equal proportions to every son, and it is also decreed that no crime or offence of the father shall prejudice his issue, or prevent their succession to the inheritance of his property : " Gyfraith Hywel a'i barn i'r mab ieuaf megis i'r hynaf, ac a farn na ddoter pechawd y tad nai ei anghyfraith yn evhjn y mab am dref ei dad," so that the cruel, though perhaps politic consequences of forfeiture and corruption of blood, were not known to the Welsh. The real origin and definition of the term Gavelkind; and whether it ought to be sought for in the British or Saxon annals, is a question that has been variously agitated and determined by etymolo- gists. Many learned authorities are ranged on both sides. Sir Henry Spellman, assuming it to be Saxon, affirms that it originally came from Germany ; he thus describes the tenure, " Qua omnes filii ex cequis portionibus patris adeunt hcereditatem," and from Tacitus proves it to be the vetus mos Germanorum. Lambard compounds it from three Saxon words " Zipeal cyn, i.e., give to all the kindred " ; this certainly is not agreeable to the natiire of that tenure which gives only to the males. Blount derives it from Zafel, census, tributum, and cyno, natura, genus ; and Verstegan, like Swift, seriously tells us that it is merely a corruption of "give all kind," meaning give to every child his part or share. Mr. Somner adheres to the Saxon etymology, and says, that in the Irish and Welsh vocabularies the word is sought for in vain ; from thence he concludes that it was peculiar to the men of Kent, though in after times it was imitated by others.
THE LAW OF GAFABL-KESTD.
On the other hand. Dr. Powel very properly observes that gafael is a British term signitying a holding, because every one of the sons did hold some part of his father's lands, as his lawful son and successor, but it is stranj,e that he passes by the last syllable kind, as ir it were a mere expletive or termination, which he writes in a common character, while capitals distmguish its fore-runner GAFAEL. Mr. Sylas Taylor in his very ingenious treatise on Gavelkind enters more fully into the merits of the case, and is we beheve esteemed one of the best expositors upon the nature of the tenure ; he observes that the word gafael (according to English pronunciation Gavel) is derived from the British verb gafaelu, which Dr. Davies renders, tenere, prjehendere, and is still a word in common use among the Welsh in their ordinary discourse, as cymmerwch gafael, take hold, gafael swyddog is an officer of arrest, gefail from the same verb is a pair of tongs, or smith's vice. There is a parish in Monmouthshire adjoining to Urchenfield, evidently deriving its name from this custom, Llangattwg Meibion (now pronounced Fibon or Vibon) Avel, St. Cadocus de tenura fiUorum ; Mr. Taylor supposes the latter syllable to be from Cenedl, which signifies a clan or family, and in this he is supported by Wotton and his assistant Moses WilHams. Lastly, Dr. Whitaker in his History of Maiichester supposes it to be of Irish origin, " as the Irish (says he) is much nearer than the Welsh to the old Celtic, so it furnishes the very word kinead or kind ; whence it was naturally denominated among the Britons, gafael kinead or the family estate." Mr. Edward Ilwyd in his Welsh dictionary certainly gives the word Cine a family, Cineadh, a nation, descent, etc., and Cinid, common or peculiar to a family, from whence we are to look tor the origin ot the English word kin and kindred. Llwyd also has an Irish verb GahJiam to take, receive, etc., and Gabhallas, a taking, which of course are of the same family as gafaelu and gafael.
It has already been observed that gavelkind implied an equal distribution ot property among the male children of a family ; but it is remarkable that in the British as well as the Irish usages, in such partition, no distinction appears to have been made between legitimate and illegitimate children, but the progeny of a wife, and concubine, took equal shares, and so strong was the connec- tion subsisting between the foster father and son that it was especially provided by law that " if a villain should take the son of a Baron to be fostered with the Baron's consent, such child should be participator of the estate of the villain equally with his own sons."
To prevent aU disputes between the brethren, by the laws of Hywel Dda, the mode of partition was thus particularly described : " Three times shall a general division be made, first between brethren, afterwards between cousins, and the third between second cousins, after which there shall be no division of lands. When brothers shall divide their father's property amongst them, the youngest shall have the choice tenement with the appurtenances and the kettle and falling axe and the coulter. In law a father cannot bequeath these or give them to any one but the youngest son, and though they should be pawned, they shall never become forfeited ; after that, let every brother
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 5
take by seinority, the youngest brother to divide." In all cases, however, the younger held his share in subordination to the elder who was therefore called Cyn-rhan.
LAWS AS TO LAND DISPUTES.
Berore leaving the laws of Hywel, we briefly state the practice of the ancient Britons in questions as to land. In causes of this nature, the whole of the proceedings were had, and held upon the lands in dispute. The King, or the person who represented him, presided and sat with his back to the sun and wind, lest he might be incommoded by them ; the judge of the palace or senior judge of the Cwmwd being placed on his left, and another judge on his right hand : next to them sat the priest or priests, then two elders and the great men of the country. In the middle or immediately before the King, or his representative, was left a lane or entrance into the Court or his presence, on the right of which stood the demandant, his council and attorney, and behind them the sumraoner, and on the left the defendant, his council, attorney and summoner in the same manner. Pledges being first taken from both parties to abide by the decision of the Court, and silence being proclaimed by the crier, upon pain of forfeiting three cows or one hundred and twenty pence, the judges proceeded to hear the cause. The demandant was first called to name his council and attorney ; this done, the judge asked him, " Do you place your entire confidence in them to gain or lose ? are you also determined to abide by the decisions of this Court ? " Being answered affirmatively, he put the same questions to the defendant, and upon his agreeing to abide by the directions and conduct of those he employed and to obey the sentence of the Court, the demandant orally declared, " I am the true proprietor of the lands in dispute, and if anyone will this gainsay, I have here those who are ready to main- tain my right and inheritance, from which I have been wrongfully put out ; I thereby pray the aid of the Court to be rightfully restored to my land, from which I have been thus unjustly expelled." His witnesses were now produced and the whole of his proof gone through before the defendant was heard, who, now being called upon for his defence, said, " Truly I am the proprietor of the land by right and inheritance, and because my title to it is perfect and secure, do I hold it, and if anyone wiU this gainsay, I have here sufficient witnesses to verify what I now assert, and if thou wert formerly possessed of this soil, thou wert afterwards rightfully ousted from it and if any one of this doubteth, I have here credible witnesses who this fact well know." His witnesses being then examined, the Judge asked both parties if they had done or if they chose to amend their plaint or plea, which it seems either side had a right to do in this stage of the business ; if they declined it, the Judge recapitulated the evidence, explaining or commenting upon it, when he thought that necessary, and afterwards departed or retired to some little distance from the place where the Court was held, accompanied by the rest of the Court (the parties and their advocates excepted) and bj' the summoner, whose business it was to take care that no one overheard their consultations, under pain of forfeiting six cows to the King, or in his absence, three to his representative.
When they had retired, the priest in a short prayer, craved the interposition and direction of Providence to guide them to the truth and to enable them to decide rightfully, and then chaunted the Pater noster, upon which the Judge again summed up the whole of the proceedings, in which, if there appeared any defect of evidence, or any circumstances requirmg further explanation, two of the judges appointed a conference with the parties and their advocates ; this was called " Gair Cyfarth," signifying "an address," after which proceeding no witnesses could be produced by the parties. This rule was adopted upon sound policy, and was the result of good sense and experience, as it would have been highly improper to have permitted either the demandant or defendant after a hint from the Court as to any error, insufficiency, or contradiction in the evidence, to amonrl the defect by additional proof, which would make the cause endless. Indeed their practice, as here related, seems in some measure to be liable to that objection ; especially when we learn, that when this conference was not appointed the parties might have another and another day to bring further witnesses, if they required it, even after the judge had retired, upon brmging pledges into the field for their punctuality, which pledges frequently, if not invariably, were confinod in prison until the day assigned for hearing further witnesses, or as the Welsh call it, " the day of gaining or lo-dng " ; when that day arrived, and the witnesses were examined, the pledges were liberated and the judge proceeded to decide in favour of that party with whom the weight of evidence preponderated. If that was doubtful from contrarietj* of testimony or any other cause, the land in dispute was divided into moieties, and assigned, one hah to the demandant, and the other share to the defendant. The fee to the Chief Justice in a cause of this nature was forty-eight pence, and to every other judge hah as much. This form of trial forms a striking resemblance to the practice of arramging a recovery in the English law ; a ceremony which frequently provokes a smile from the unlearned bystander, and sometimes discomposes the gravity even of a barrister, while he repeats his antiquated in unmeaning monoton}-. Much learning has been employed to discover the origin of the
6 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
English recovery. Lord Chief Justice Wiliest in a cause referred for the opinion of the twelve judges in 1744, said that Pigott (who was as able a conveyancer as any man of the profession) had confounded himself and everybody else in his publication upon recoveries.
THE LORDS MARCHERS TRIAL BY JURY.
By these laws was Wales governed until the Norman invasion ; soon after this event the lords marchers having acquired possessions in the Principality, endeavoured to compel the inhabitants to adopt their system or code, which soon became blended and intermixed, not only with the Saxon, but by the adoption (as has been partly seen) of the ancient British laws, from all of which a com- position has at last been formed, possessing, it must be confessed, some defects, and creating some tenures inimical, on their early introduction, to our idea of the liberty of the subject, yet compen- sating for all their imperfections by the institution of the trial by jury ; the advantages of which the Welsh for a long time obstinately continued to reject, and blindly refused to acknowledge.
As these lords marchers made so conspicuous a figure in our country, it will here be necessary to take a slight view of their laws and the nature of their government, before proceeding to notice the English acts and ordinances which sometimes interfered to curb the power of these little poten- tates or to regulate the mode of their judicial proceedings.
The term or appellation of lords marchers or baron marchers is a corruption of lords or barons of the marchers or borders : they were the most powerful and enterprising of the Norman nobility ; men bound by the strongest ties of interest to the crown of England, and consequently those in whom the sovereign placed the most implicit confidence. At first they built strong towns and forts upon the immediate borders, as Bristol, Gloucester, Worcester, Shrewsbury and Chester, which were aU garrisoned, as well for their own defence as to annoy the Welshmen. Having seated themselves securely in those strong posts, they next proceeded further into Wales, and possessed themselves of several lordships, as Clifford, Hay, Chepstow, Monmouth, Usk, Newport, Abergavenny, Scenfrith, Builth, Brecknock and Radnor : it must not, however, be understood that this was done all at once, it re- quired much time and was effected by different lords. The Earls of Chester and other noblemen did the same in Montgomery, Cedewin, Clunn, Oswestry, Whittington, Hawarden and EUesmere ; all these and other lands thus conquered by the English lords from the Welsh princes, and held, as they necessarily were, in chief from the crown of England, wherever they lay, were comprehended under the names of lordships marchers, as appears clearly from this circumstance among others, that offices holden of the Principality, and all other lordships in Wales, were returned into the exchequer, but, of lordsliips marchers, to Westminster. The term marches of Wales is to be understood, all Wales subdued by the English lords, and that it was not confined to that part called the marches, being that next adjoining to England, and thus were the proprietors first entitled lords of the marches ; all called lords marchers wherever their dominions lay in the Principality,
Thus established, they held their seigniories freely, per baroniam, and exercised upon all occasions an almost sovereign dispensation. They built castles for their own residence and towns adjoining for their military dependents , from hence alone we are enabled to account for the many castles and small towns dispersed throughout the whole of Wales. These castellated mansions, many of them of considerable strength, were often irregularly built and upon no certain plan, the form depending entirely upon the caprice of the architect, or the circumstances and situation of the ground intended to be occupied. They generally preferred an elevated spot on a knoll above a river, though some are found without any seeming attention to these advantages, and the whole building was surrounded with a moat or foss ; most of them were provided with an enclosed park, a warren, and tract of forest land for the maintenance of their cattle, sheep, and pigs, of which they kept a large stock.
NUMBER OF BRECONSHIRE CASTLES.
The number of castles in the Principality is said to have been about 143 ; of these there were thirteen within the small territory of Brecknock, and twenty-five at least within the adjoining county of Monmouth. These lordships were totally distinct from any shires, and being subject to the absolute sovereignty of their respective lords were in fact so many imperia in imperio. They had each a palatinate jurisdiction established within itself ; their own mint, their own court, like the king's at Westminster, and out of their chancery issued all writs original and judicial. The king's writs were not even current among them, excepting only in Pembrokeshii'e, which perhaps, having been subjugated at the expense of the crown, was accounted to be a part of England, and therefore called " little England beyond Wales;" nor were the sheriffs or other officers of the crown permitted to execute any such writs or precepts within these precincts unless when the whole barony was in
1 W^ilson's Reports, edition of 1799, p. 73.
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 7
question or in cases of high treason. Maddox, in his Baronia Anglica, instances Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, as enjoying all these privileges within his honour at Brecknock, quoting the decision of a cause, in which the exclusive judicial authority of the lords marchers was main- tained, between that nobleman and Roger Mortimer of Blanllyfni'; so that all manner of indictments and processes were made in the name, and every trespass was laid to be done against the peace of the special lord, who was also, as appears by a document in the Tower of London, entitled according to the law and custom of the marches, to all the goods and chattels of persons dying intestate within their jurisdiction.
GOVERNMENT UNDER THE LORDS MARCHERS.
The first grand object of the marchers after their settlement in the country was to reduce the inhabitants to a peaceable acquiescence with the English form of government. All Welsh customs as well as the language were to the utmost discouraged ; the Norman English laws were introduced and for the most part administered ; their tenures were principally English or Norman, being transmitted by fine, recovery, feoiiment and livery of seizin. Some lords however, from motives of prudence, permitted their Welsh tenants to enjoy many of their ancient laws, when they were not repugnant to the laws of England, or injurious to their own interest. Among other concessions in their favour was the permission of the usage of gavelkind and the transfer of land by the surrender in court, agreeably to the laws of Hjrwel Dda. This they called Cof-Llys ac Ysdyn Wialen ; the first term signifying the recollection or evidence of the court or judges concerning causes or questions deter- mined before them, as well as of transfers of land thus publicly made, and the second phrase means an investiture by extending or delivering a rod to a person when they took possession of an estate. In some of the Welsh lordships the Normans continuing this Welsh ceremony, ingrafted upon it one of the tenets of the feodal system, that the property of the soil was originally in the lord, and by him granted to his tenants for their lives only, under certain services ; that upon the death of any one of them, though they usually admitted liis heir, yet they were not bound to do so, and acting under this impression, some of them took very heavy fines for the investiture by the rod to the eatate of the father. This was considered so great a grievance in the hundred of Builth formerly, that several of the tenants there compounded with the lords for the exemption from this fine, by the payment of an annual sum, which was Imown and paid in 1800 under the term of Tal di-estyn, or the tax for being exempted from the payment of the fine on delivery of the rod. It is to be observed that where this custom was permitted, no deeds are to be found in any lands previous to the reign of Henry the Eighth, when Wales was made shire ground, and even so lato as the middle of the seventeenth century, it appears by a recital in a will in the register office at Brecon, that lands in Llanwrthwl were conveyed by one person to another without writing, for a valuable con- sideration, "according to the ancient manner, in the presence of three or four neighbours;" whereas for lands held under English tenures, deeds remain dated as far back as the reign of Edward^ the First.
In some lordships there were two courts, one for the Enghsh inhabitants called Englischeria, or the rights of an Englishman, and AVaUescheria, or the rights of a Welshman ; the former was aboHshed in the fourteenth of Edward the Third. Mr. Gough observes that, strictly speaking, both these terms were applied to the untimely death of any person, and if he was not known, or the manner of his death notorious, an inquisition was to be made whether he was an Englishman or a Welshman, upon which the coroner and his jury were to determine super visum corporis. Our lawyers derive the origin of Englischerie from an ancient law of Canute, who being about to leave the kingdom, and afraid the English might take advantage of his absence to oppress and destroy his native subjects, procured the following law, in order to prevent homicides ; that when any person was killed and the slayer escaped, the person killed should always be considered as a Dane, unless proved by his friends or relations to be English, and in default of ' such proof, that the ville should pay forty marks for the Dane's death, and if it could not be raised within the viUe, that then the hundred should pay it ; this singular but oppressive provision, it was thought, would engage every one in the prevention or prosecution of such secret offences. It is probable that the presentments of Welsherie were founded on a Uke policy.
The lords marchers increased in number until the final reduction of Wales by King Edward the First, when soon after the death and defeat of Llewelyn, the last Prince of Wales of the British race, the heir apparent of England was substituted in his room, though Sir John Doddridge says, Edward
1 Theo. Jones possessed a conveyance executed in the reign of Henrj Williams of CricUhowell liad also a deed of conveyance of
Edward I. from one Sellers to Brett, of the mansion and lordship lands in Llangattock of the fee of Gwernvale, bearing date 11th
of Porthaml in Breconshire. It was renia-'kable that the arms on Ed. 2d, subsequently possessed by the Rev. H. T. Payua of
the seal appendant to this deed were borne quarterly : the late Mr. Llanbedr.
8 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
the First claimed it by a grant from his father, and even expressed his displeasure at Llewelyn's being permitted to hold the title, which produced the following rebuke from Henry : " Quid ad me ? Terra tua est, ex dono ineo ; exere vires prirnitivas, famam excita juvenilem, ut te de coetero timeant Inimici, me autem alia negotia detinent occupatum." This sharp reproof (which, however, is too dignified for the mouth of the feeble Henry the Third) instantly determined Edward to commence and persevere in the conquest, to secure which, when obtained, his first care was to regulate the judicial proceedings of the country. For this purpose he directed inquiries upon oath to be made before certain commissioners with the Bishop of St. David's at their head, into all the ancient laws and usages of the Principality. The certificate and returns thereupon made, are printed in the appendix to Hywel Dda's laws ; they contain much curious and valuable information, but are too long for insertion in a work of this nature.
THE BISHOP or ST. DAVID'S AND LLANDDEW.
After the statute of Rhuddlan no lordship marcher was created, nor could any individual assume to himself any liberty, privilege, or prerogative which he did not possess previous to that Act, other- wise than by special grant from the crown of England. It follows, then, that no lordship marcher could exist but such as was holden in capite ante conquestum Wallice. It is true that many lords had jurisdiction royal of their lands, long subsequent to this, but we are not to consider them as lords marchers, but as deriving their privileges under grants or charters, and many of them wiU be found to have been tenants to the ancient marchers. The same liberties were also purchased by bishops, abbots and the cells of St. John of Jerusalem, who held their lordships in Wales as the ancient dowers of their sees and abbies, and never came to the same by conquest like the lords marchers ; they frequently held them under the free gift of the ancient princes and reguli of the country, subject to the legal jurisdiction of their patrons. Such, for instance, was the tenure by which the Bishops of St. David's held the castle and manor of Llanddew in Breconshire. Upon the expulsion of the Welsh chiefs by the Normans, these religious, equally with the lay marchers, assumed a royal power, though they were afterwards obliged to compromise for those liberties with the crown : this appears from the charter of Richard the Second to Adam Bishop of St. David's ; the words are these : " Ut cum ipse episcopatum suum et quamlibet percellam ejusdem de nobis, ut de corona nostra integre teneat, ipseq. et predecessores sui episcopi loci illius jurisdictione regali in omnibus dominiis suis episcopatus predict, et ut in cognicionibus omnimodorum placitorum personalium et realium ac de corona, ad prosecutionem suam propriam ac alioram cum omnibus proficuis inde provenientibus juxta consuetu- dines partium illarum totis retroactis temporibus usi fuerunt et gavisi absq. hoc quod nos seu genitores nostri seu aliquis alius domimis marchire aut eorum ministri racione aliquorum dominorum in Wallia infra dicta dominia ipsius episcopi aliqualiter intromittere consueverint debuimus aut debeant." From hence it is clear that the Bishops of St. David's before any charter obtained, had assumed to themselves the exercise of jura regalia and the same authority in all things, as the lords marchers, and prescribed to hold cognizance of pleas between their tenants and dependants, which by the laws of England they were not entitled to do ; so that if in the antient times of the Princes of Wales the bishops had not these jurisdictions (which Ave have no reason to suppose they had) yet it appears from the words of this charter, that after the power of those princes was destroyed in Pembrokeshire, saving the lands of spiritual men (which to invade was reckoned sacrilege), the bishops were under the necessity of assuming that high authority, in order to maintain peace and good government in their territories, and therefore we see that in the reign of Richard the Second, the Bishops of St. David's used all those privileges by prescription, after the example of their neighbours the lords marchers.
THE STATUTE OF RHUDDLAN.
It is now, however, time to look cursorily over the statutes of the King and Parliament of England relative to the affairs of Wales. The first which appears on this subject, passed in the twelftli year of its conqueror Edward the First, is called by the Welsh " Gyfraith Rhuddlan," and by the English corruptly the Statute of Rothelan, and has before been referred to. This was in- tended principally for the government of that part of the Principality which was not under the jurisdiction of the marchers, but it may reasonably be presumed, that where this and other laws of the English Court did not affect the power or the revenues of these noblemen, they submitted to their provisions and assimilated the practice of their courts to those in the neighbourhood, as directed by the King and Parliament of England. This statute regulates the proceedings . in the county and tourn courts ; in the list of offences to be inquired of in the latter are some which are very extra- ordinary, viz., of those who whiten skins of beasts or horses, knowing them to be stolen, so that they cannot be proved by the lawful proprietors ; of those who alter stolen cloaths, as a cloak into a coat or a great-coat and the like, and of those who shear sheep in the night time and flay them as weU aa other animals.
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 9
This statute proceeds to abolish compurgation in criminal cases as well as in causes with respect to lands, but allows it in all others, if the inhabitants of the country wish it to be continued. To this mode of acquittal, which was in general use with the Welsh and to which they were extremely partial for many succeeding centuries, there may be great and material objections, but it has also some considerable advantages, particularly in cases where no other proof can be adduced. It is said that it was an inlet and temptation to perjury, but when it was attended with the precaution used among the Britons who required sometimes twelve, sometimes twenty-four, and sometimes forty-eight neighbours to swear they believed that what the accused person or defendant deposed was true, it must be admitted that every prudent measure was taken to guard against the mischiefs to be appre- hended, and that a notoriously bad man could not easily, perhaps not possibly, procure so many persons of character to support his credit. The remains of this practice lurked among us in our County Court in Breconshire for many years; it was called purgation by the common rule. A notice is sent (after the entry of the first summons and appearance of the defendant) that if the supposed debtor will not swear that he is not indebted to the plaintiff, he (the plaintifiE) will prove his demand against him upon his own oath.
Barrington, in a note to his Observations on the Ancient Statutes says, this Act recites the total conquest of Wales ; in this he is not perfectly correct. The preamble states that " Wales which was formerly subject by feodal right to the Crown of England was then by the mercy of Providence converted and united to the same, as a part or member of it;" but the lordship marchers at this time formed no part of the country here said to be thus united ; those who then ruled over these posses- sions considered them as their own private property, having been acquired by their own valour, and that of their followers totally independent of the Crown of England, not did they acknowledge them- selves to be English subjects, further than in respect to their estates in that country. Edward per- ceived this, and endeavoured to lessen their power and curb their insolence, but without effect. About the Jatter end of his reign he took occasion to question some of their tenures, claims and privileges by a quo warranto ; Earl Warren, one of the principal of these noblemen, very significantly clapped his hand upon his sword and said : " By this warranty did my ancestors win my lands, and by this do I hold them." The King, finding all the other barons determined to support him, felt the force of the argument, and did not think it prudent to dispute the vahdity of the warranty.
EDWAKD THE BLACK PKINCE.
Nothing further passed relative to the affairs of Wales, until the fifteenth of the reign of Edward the Third, when the King, in the Parliament held at Westminster in that year, created his eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, investing him " per sertum in capite et annulmn in digifo aureum ac virgam argenteam juxta morem,^^ and afterwards endowed him with all manors, lordships, castles and lands appertaining to the Principality as well as the forfeited lands of Rhys ap Meredith, which m the reign of Edward the First had escheated to the Crown by his rebellion. In the twenty- eighth of Edward the Third, an Act was passed determining that all the lords marchers of Wales should be perpetually attending and annexed to the Crown of England, as they and their ancestors were at all times passed, and not to the Principality of Wales, in whose hands soever they should be, or thereafter should come. In this the King seems to have had two objects, first to convince those haughty subjects, that he was entitled to, and determined to enforce their allegiance, and, secondly, to avoid throwing too much power into the hands of the heir apparent, or the person who might "bscome Prince of \Vales ; for he appears to have m contemplation the possibility of that dignity being dissevered from the Crown. Prehaps on the death of his eldest son, his grandson being very young, he may have mtended it for one of his other sons, though he afterwards relin- quished the idea.
SURVEY OF LANDS.
In the reign of this king, an exact survey was made of all the lands of the Principahty, by commissioners specially appointed by the Crown, for the purpose of assigning a proper dower for the Black Prince's widow, but as the profits were found to be of uncertain value, varying according to the circumstances of the times, it became necessary, in order to make a just estimate, to form an average on the aggregate of tliree years ; the commissioners took the years 47, 48 and 49 of this reign, when it appeared that the sum total of the revenues of Wales amounted to £4,684 18s 5d.
THE FOURTH HENRYS LAWS.
After this reign, no laws were enacted by the Engfish Parhament to affect Wales, until the time of Henry the Fourth, who, goaded and teized by the rebellion of Glyndw'r and by the support received by Richard the Second from the Welsh, was so exasperated with those " barefooted rascals," whom he affected at one time to despise, that he prohibited any one of that country from wearing
10 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
arms, buying lands in the neighbouring counties of England, assembling together without leave, having any house of defence (except a bishop), or holding any oilice in his own country. He enacted that no Englishman should be condemned at the suit of a Welshman but by an English jury, that no Englishman marrying a "^^'^elshwoman should hold any office there ; in short, he appears to wish he could prevent them from eating, by prohibiting the importation of any victuals into Wales. It is true that these statutes were very seldom acted upon, and all of them (one only excepted, hereafter to be mentioned) were wiped off the statute book in the time of James the First, but the king who could recommend, and the senators who could assist, in enacting such oppressive and iniquitous laws, mistook their abilities as well as situations, when they fancied themselves wise legislators or sound poUticians, and were better calculated to occupy stalls in Carnaby Market, or Billingsgate Street, than the palace at Westminster or the seats in St. Stephen's chapel.
There was a statute enacted in this reign remaining unrepealed in 1800 which is, perhaps, not perfectly, or at least not generally, understood. It is in the following words : " Item to eschew many diseases and mischiefs which may have happened before this time in the land of Wales by many toasters, rhymers, minstrels and other vagabonds ; it is ordained and stablished that no waster rhymer, minstrel nor vagabond be in any wise sustained in the land of Wales to make comorthies or gathering on the common people there." Waster in this statute, which is also written westour, is a corruption of the Welsh gwestwr, frequently (according to a well-known rule in orthography) spelt westwr ; it signifies a guest, an unbidden visitor, one who goes from house to house, demanding provisions or purveyance for the king or prince or under some such pretence. The laws of Hy^vel Dda frequently mention gwesdfa'r Brenhin, the king's right of purveyance, and regulate the mode of collecting it : the gwestwr, westwr or waster was the officer who was employed upon this occasion, and went about eating and drinking at the expense of the public and afterwards procuring food and supphes for his master.
THE FIFTH HENRY'S LAWS.
Henry the Fifth, following the narrow policy of his father, in the first year of his reign, passed or at least sanctioned a very severe law against the Welsh, though from the support he received from our countrymen. Sir David Gam, Sir Roger Vaughan, and their adherents at Agincourt, his sentiments were considerably altered in their favour before he died. This statute recites that " Welshmen pursued Englishmen for the death of their friends by indictments, accusements, or impeachments, and some by menaces and distresses, and some by taking their bodies and imprisoning them till they made them gree to them or excused themselves by one assache, after the custom of Wales, that is to say, by the oath of three hundred men ; it is therefore ordained that no such quarrel, action or demand be made by the rebels or their adherents, be he cousin, ally or friend, under pain of treble damages or imprisonment for two years, and to make fine and ransom for his deUvery ; so that the effect of this law as far as it is prohibitory in the first part of the enacting clause, was to shut the courts of justice against inquiries into any enormities committed by the English in Wales during the rebellion, as it is called, and the mischief complained of in the latter part of the sentence is difficult to be understood ; perhaps the Welsh still continued to require the galanas or compensation for murder, and the offender when taken, was imprisoned till he paid it, unless he could get three hundred persons to prove his inability to discharge it ; but if the grievance intended to be remedied is not stated with sufficient precision and clearness, the term of purgation here introduced baffles every conjecture as to etymology among Welshmen. Assache is not found in Hy^vel Dda or any other code of British laws now extant. Blount, in his law dictionary, calls Assach a strange kind of purgation in Wales by the oath of three hundred men.
Had the statute abolishing the assache stopped there, or had it been satisfied with preventing the Welshmen from taking the law into their own hands, by imprisoning the subjects of the King of England, until they extorted heavy fines from them, the \V''elsh would have had no cause of com- plaint against the Parliament for their interference to prevent the mischief ; but to permit an enemy merely because he happened to be born on the Eastern side of the Wye or the Severn, to indulge in the passions of revenge or maUce with impunity was legaUsing murder and adding oppression to cruelty and injustice.
OTHER OPPRESSIVE LAWS.
Whatever might have been the cause of offence given to "the meek usurper," three or four severe and impohtic Acts were directed against the AV^elsh in his reign, which do no great credit either to the heads or the hearts of the legislators of that time. By the first, the benefits of an useful and equitable law for rectifying errors in judicial proceedings were confined to England exclu- sively ; by the second, it was declared to be high treason to take the person or goods of an English- man, and to carry them into Wales until they were made to gree, and by another Act of the same
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. il
reign to take and carry away the goods of an Englishman under colour of distress was made felony, and lastly, all the laws theretofore made against the Welshmen were confirmed, and all grants of fairs and markets to persons of that country annulled. The House of Mortimer, had, it is true, great pos- sessions, and a considerable party of adherents in AVales and the Marches, but the name of Tudor (which family after the marriage of Owen with the king's mother became his warm friends and partizans) were equally respectable, and the followers and dependants of that house were also as numerous, if not more so than those of the other faction. Besides it must be observed that the contest between the houses of York and Lancaster, which afterwards produced such afflicting conse- quences to the nation, and wrote its history in such bloody characters, as centuries were not able entirely to efface, did not break out into open violence until after the last of these opprobrious Acts was passed : to the history of England we have recourse in vain to discover the motives which dictated them, nor are they more clearly or perfectly traced from any other source of information, unless we admit with Warrington (who with some degree of probability asserts it) that, "the manners of the Welsh nation during this and the two preceding reigns, actuated by few other springs than their passions, restrained by no regular police, no longer animated by the presence of their princes, nor their minds softened by the influence of native arts, had degenerated into the deepest ferocity"; yet even in this case it is to be lamented that the English did not rather attempt to convert the long subsisting enmity between the two countries into friendship, by adopting mUd and lenient measures, than by continuing to preserve and continue it by sanguinary and oppressive laws.
During the intestine broils which convulsed the English nation for twenty years and upwards, after the death or murder of Henry the Sixth, both Yorkists and Lancastrians were too busily engaged in the destruction of each other to bestow any part of their attention or their time upon the inhabi- tants of Wales ; during this period, therefore, they were permitted to drag after them those chains only which were forged for them in tlie preceding reigns. But it is very extraordinary that Henry the Seventh, their countryman (as he called himself when he thought it his interest to do so) , who upon some occasions boasted of his descent from the ancient Britons and ordered genealogists to trace his pedigree and to preserve the line and names of his ancestors in that country, should yet not have made one effort to hghten their fetters or to redress their grievances. The Principality is not even mentioned or the mhabitants noticed in any statute passed in his reign, excepting in one, allowing them to import wine of Gascony or Gtuenne in common with their fellow subjects of England or Ireland.
HENRY THE EIGHTH'S LAWS.
Our dread sovereign Henry the Eighth (the first who took that title and who well deserved it), the son and successor of the cold-blooded Richmond, whom nothing could move but interest, and nothing stimulate but avarice, made us ample amends for the inattention and apathy of his father, and maj' with much greater propriety (without insisting too stiffly upon the high value or worth of his in- tentions), be styled the Welsh, than Edward the First, the English Justinian, the title Lord Coke confers upon him. Edward certainly did much to soften the rigour and ameliorate the Enghsh laws, considering the days in which he hved, but Henry the Eighth, modelled, perfected, and indeed almost created a system of jurisprudence, out of a jumble of incoherent, jarring and confused customs, the progeny of different times and countries, and established a code which, as it was earnestly sought* for by the Welsh, has been cheerfully obeyed from that day, and which has reconciled us by a complete participation of all the privileges of Englishmen, to the entire theory, and nearly to the practice of the laws of England, hitherto imperfectly known to us and therefore only partially adopted or approved of.
During the cessation of legislative as weU as mihtary hostilities, enjoyed by the Welsh after the death of Henry the Sixth, until the middle or latter end of this reign, they were employed in intes- tine feuds and contentions among themselves. These unfortunate animosities and sanguinary domestic broils, so far from being checked were promoted by the imbecihty of the expiring authority of the lords marchers, which, though despotic, was in some measure necessary for the preservation of the peace and welfare of society ; we must not therefore be surprised that when the laws of these barons were disregarded with impunity, and no others substituted in their stead, that the inhabitants, subject to no control, became hcentious in their maimers, savage and ferocious in their passions, dishonest in their principles ; and that, of course, a wild and frantic spirit of insubordination pervaded the whole Principahty.
LEGAL CUSTOMS IN THE LORDSHIP OV BRECKNOCK.
Henry saw the necessity of reforming them ; but he very prudently proceeded with caution. In
1 Sep Lord Herbert of Cherbury's History oj Henry Eighth p. 371. displays, and the good sense and sound policy therein apparent, do and Warrington's History of Wales. The manly and nervous style, immortal honour to the inhabitants of that coiintry who were which the petition of the inhabitants of Wales to Henry the Eighth employed in proposing, framing and presenting that document.
12 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
the twenty-first year of his reign (or thereabouts), he appointed fourteen persons, amongst whom were his secretary Thomas Cromwell, Sir John Porte, knight, one of the justices of the common pleas. Sir John Hales, Sir John Inglefield, one of the barons of the Exchequer, William Walwyn, and Llewelyn ap Morgan ap Sir David Gam, empowering them or any two of them [quorum the said Sir John Porte,! etc., should be one), to act as justices itinerant within the to^vn and lordship of Breck- nock, to hear and determine all complaints and suits to be brought before them, according to the laius and customs there used and known. What was done upon this commission, or whether any proceedings were had in consequence of it, cannot be ascertained, but it was very soon afterwards followed by an ordinance, the purport of wliich it is sometimes difficult to comprehend ; it certainly was intended as a boon to the subject, yet the mischiefs to be remedied, or the benefits to be deriverj from it are not always clearly elucidated in this document.
It sets out with directing, that when any person within the town and lordship of Brecknock shall be attached for " suspecyon " of murder, felony or breach of the peace, he may be let to bail, and that upon his appearance to take his trial, or upon his entering into sureties for his " good aberying," such sureties (in the first case) shall be discharged and in the latter case the principal set at liberty ; that when any officer of the Crown surmised that a fine was due for a supposed breach of the peace, it should not be levied by distress or the person from whom it was claimed attached, if he brought sureties to abide by the verdict of twelve men impannelled to try him, or by a decree of the court if he confessed his offence. This instrument then proceeds to recite, that in delay of justice, it was customary in this country to challenge jurors as being of kin to one of the parties, and particularly that another challenge was frequently known called veterate, which is explained to mean " olde rancorrous 7nalice," supposed to be entertained by a juror, not because one of the parties or his ancestors had slain one of the relations of the challenged, but because the "juryman or one of his ancestors tvithin the fourth degree of marriage had murdered or slain one of the Kynne to the plaintiff or defendant within the fourth degree of marriage.'^ To remedy this mischief, the ordinance prohibits any challenges of this nature, unless the person challenged was really and actually by the true line within the fourth degree of consanguinity to one of the said parties, and the challenge called veterate was disallowed, unless the murder alleged was committed within ten years next preceding the trial, and it was further decreed that everj/ just reason which could be shown to induce the court to believe that a juror was corrupted, or entertained a partiality for either of the parties, should be heard and admitted as a good cause of cl
THE GREAT SESSIONS OF EYRE.
Thus far the subject is favoured, and even what follows seems to have been intended, if not to lighten the burdens, at least to facilitate the payment of a debt due from the inhabitants of Breck- nockshire to the Crown, though how this debt accrued we know not and must be left very much to conjecture ; the next clause, however, provides that the tenants of the town and lordship of Brecon shall pay the King by installments the sum of three thousand eight hundred and fifty four marks and half of a mark, three shillings and fourpence-halfpenny farthing, for the general pardon granted them under the great seal for the redemption and dissolving of the great sessions in Eyre in the sixth of King Henry the Fifth, the eighteenth of Hem-y the Sixth, the twenty-third of Henry the Seventh and the eleventh of Henry the Eighth, and likewise an arrear of one thousand five hundred and thirty-seven marks and haK a mark and threepence-farthing, for the arrears of rent, fee farms and other dues payable to the Crown on certain days annually in this document specified.
What is here meant by the redemption and dissolution of the great sessions in Eyre, or why the inhabitants should be anxious to purchase an exemption from such a jurisdiction cannot perhaps ever be fully or satisfactorily explained ; in all probability the Welsh had an aversion to the English laws introduced by the justices itinerant, particularly as the principal purport of their commission was to inquire into offences surmised to be committed against the Crown, and to cause the fines, alleged to be forfeited thereon, to be levied, which Avas effected in so arbitrary a manner and with so heavy a hand, that the inhabitants were glad to compound by the payment of a sum in gross to be relieved from so oppressive an inquisition, and to stand (as the legal phrase is) recti in curia ; but from whatever cause this debt arose, the amount appears so enormous in proportion to the number and resources of the tenants, and others on whom it was charged, that it is no wonder if not being all paid, though continually demanded by the officers of the Crown, this burden produced the insur- rection mentioned to have occurred on the death of Elizabeth.
After this follow some directions as to the mode of levying the money and the manner of ap- pointing officers for that purpose, who are generally required to be resident in the lordship. Henry,
1 Llewelyn ap Morgan was not of the quorum.
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHmE. 13
Marquis of Worcester, who is recited to have been steward there for life, by virtue of letters patents from the king, and to have full power and authority to appoint all the officers within that district, is requested, that for the purposes just mentioned, he will permit the king's receiver to name such persons as he may think fit. All the ordinances and ■' commaundraents made by the most excellent prince of noble memorie, King Henry the Seventh, and the late Duke of Buckyngham, and all other lordes marchis in South Wales, for the amendment and avauncement of justice and good rule " are ratified and confirmed ; this clause is again succeeded by a number of regulations for securing and bringing to trial felons who fled from one lordship marcher to another, specifying also the penalties upon officers not residing. This ordinance, it may be necessary to observe, contains several other regulations well worthy of the attention of the historian and antiquarian ; an inquiry is directed to be made how far it would be beneficial to the Crown to appoint an Englishman to be attorney-general for South Wales, and there is also one singular provision included in it which deserves notice : " No man shall be of counsayle with any ffelonye at the corte when such ffelon is in reignyng or arrayned there, oonles that he may dispende in lands and tenements in freeholde by the yere ten pounds, and if the felon be founde guiltie and cast of the felonie that then the same person counciller, to forfayt to the King's highness all his lands, goods and chattels, or else to make ffyne and ransom for his great offence at our said soveryn lord's pleasure."
THE CUSTODY OF JURORS.
In a very short time after the will of our dread sovereign had been signified to the inhabitants of Brecknockshire, in the manner we have related, an Act of Parliament passed, which recites " that for lack of diligence and sure custody of jurors sworn for trials of murder, etc., in Wales and the marches of the same, the friends and kinsmen of the accused frequently tampered with the jury, and suborned them to procure an acquittal"; for remedy whereof it was enacted that an officer should be deputed and sworn by the court before whom the offender was tried, truly and diligently to keep the same jury, and not to suffer meat, drink or fire to be ministered to them without leave of the court, and that he would not suffer any person to speak to them, or speak to them hiniself without the like permission, unless to ask whether they were agreed upon their verdict, and if any juror who acquitted a felon and gave an untrue verdict against the king, contrary to good and pregnant evidence, or eat, drank or spoke to any other person than the officer so sworn, the lord president and other the council of the marches had power to bind him over to appear before them to take his trial for such offence, and upon conviction to fine and imprison him.
The next Act in the same year recites the frequency of robberies in Gloucestershire and Somerset- shire by the inhabitants of South Wales, and that the stolen goods were conveyed across the Severn by the passages or ferries of Aust, Framiload, etc. ; to prevent which mischief, barge-masters are pro- hibited from carrying goods, or persons of this description, and all others who being unknown to them, refused to discover their names and places of abode, before sun-rise or after sun-set.
This statute is followed by another describing the Welsh of that day in language in which it is to be hoped their crimes are exaggerated, though they were at this time in a very uncivilised state, and the offences of robbery and murder too prevalent in the country. The preamble tells us, that " the people of Wales and the marches of the same, not dreading the good and wholesome laws of this realm, had of long time continued in the perpetration and commission of divers and manifold thefts, murders, rebellions, wilful burning of houses, and other scelerous deeds and abominable malefacts to the high displeasure of God and the inquietation and disturbance of the pubUc weal, which malefacts and scelerous deeds were so rooted and fixed in the same people, that they were not likely to cease unless some sharp correction and punishment for redress and amputation, was provided according to the demerit of the defenders."; for remedy whereof it is thereby enacted, that every person dwelling in Wales, shall, upon monition or warning given of the time of holding courts there, appear before the justice, steward, lieutenant, or other officer, at all and every sessions in any castle, fortress, or place, there to do and execute such things which to him affere or appertain, i The second section in part discloses the oppressions practised by the officers of the lords marchers upon the inhabitants of Wales, for it recites that they had often and sundry times theretofore exacted of the king's subjects within such lordships where they had rule and authority, and also committed them to strait duress and imprisonment for small, light, and feigned causes and extortions and com- pelled them thereby to pay unto them fines for their redemption ; it is therefore provided that if any officer of a lord marcher by untrue surmises commit any person to duress or imprisonment, the king's
1 This is the origin of the legal ficlion, that every individual is present at each great sessions held in and for the county in which he or she resides.
14 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
commissioners and council of the marches upon suit made and good proof that there were no just grounds for confinement, may order satisfaction to the party injured.
CUSTOMS AS TO THE FORESTS.
It is remarkable that in the preamble to the next statute relative to the affairs of Wales, appointing justices of peace in that country, which recapitulates the enormities committed in many counties in the Principality, the counties of Brecknock. Radnor and Monmouth are omitted in the black catalogue of malejactors ; this part of Wales therefore was either more civilised, or as is more probable, the lordship marchers or the greatest part of them being in the possession of the Crown of England, they were secured in their obedience, and their ferocity efEectually restrained by the laws or troops of that monarch.
This Act is immediately succeeded by another, which recites a very extraordinary custom in the forests of Wales, and which is thereby prohibited in future ; it states the usage to be, that " if any of the king's subjects fortuned to pass, go or ride through the said forests, not having a token dehvered him by the chief foresters, rulers or walkers (such person not being a yearly tributor or chenser,^ he was obliged to pay the forester, etc., a grievous fine, and if taken, found or espied twenty-four feet out of the highway, he forfeited all the gold he had about him, and was liable to lose a joint of one of liis hands, or to pay a fine at the will of the forester ; and also, that if stolen cattle were brought or strayed into the forest, the officers had a right to seize and detain them as their perquisites ; so that the o\^Tiers (as the statute observes) had no remedy or mode to recover them, but by way of redemption or buying again of their own property. These were certainly un- reasonable and iniquitous customs, yet the reader who wiU have recourse to the forest laws in the reigns of our early Norman conquerors, will see many of a similar description, and their long con- tinuance in Wales can only be attributed to the less advanced state of civilisation of the inhabitants of that country.
ACT OF UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES.
Hitherto Henry seems to have had m contemplation only the redress of partial grievances, but the experience of the inadequacy of the laws hitherto provided, as well as the political and commercial benefits likely to result to both countries, loudly called for their incorporation as the most effectual expedient to prevent in future those disgraceful outrages which characterised the Principality, and to reconcile the inhabitants to a prompt obedience to the laws of the empire. In the twenty-seventh year, therefore, of this monarch's reign passed the Act of Union or annexation of Wales to England, which begins with asserting the right of the Crown of England to the dominion over the Principality with a laboured and pompous though almost ludicrous solemnity. The latter country, it is said, "justly ami. righteously is and ever hath been incorporated, annexed, united and subject to the imperial crown of this realm as a very member and joint of the same, whereof the king's most royal majesty, of mere droit and very right, is very head, king, lord and ruler," yet because "divers rights, usages, laws and customs be far discrepant from the laws and customs of this realm, and because that the people of the same dominion have and do daily use a speech nothing like ne consonant to the natural mother tongue used ivithin this realm,'' some rude and ignorant people have made distinctions between the king's subjects of England and Wales, which has occasioned many quarrels between them, to prevent which in future, the king "of a singular love which he beareth towards his subjects of his said dominion of Wales," and minding to extend the English laws to that country, and, "utterly to extirp " all sinister usages and customs, and to bring the subjects of his realm and the said dominion into amiable concord and unity, with the consent and by the authority of Parliament, enacts, that from henceforth all persons "born and to be born in ^V'ales shall have, enjoy and inherit all and singular freedoms, Mberties, rights, privileges and laws within this his realm, and other the kmg's dominions as other the king's subjects naturally born within the same, have, enjoy, and inherit," and that all persons inlieritable to any manors, lands, tenements, rents, reversions, services, or other hereditaments which shall descend after the feast of All Saints next commg (Michaelmas, 1635) within the said Principality, country or dominion of Wales, or within any particular lordship, part or parcel thereof, shall for ever from and after the said feast inherit and be inheritable to the same manor, lands, etc., after the Engrlish tenure, without division or partition, and after the form of the laws of England and not after the Welsh tenure, or after the form of any Welsh laws or customs, and yet the 35th section of this very statute provides, that when lands in Wales have been immemorially,
1 CAem<'re, suph as paid tribute or cense, quitrent or chiofrent, uncultivated laud, and an aeltnowledgoment of the direct
farmers or fee-farmers ; for so the French censier signifies, says seigniory of him who grants it. This imposition derived its
Blount. Cense, rent of assize, quit rent, old rent, chief rent, tlie origin fiom the first conquest of Gaul by the French. first pecuniary charge that is laid on conquered or uninclosed and
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 15
by the laudable custom of the country, departable among issues and heirs male, they shall so con- tinue : thus the destructive tenure of gavelkind, inimical alike to domestic happiness and pohtical independence, was permitted to remain until the 34th and 35th of the same reign, when it was totally abolished in Wales, though it lingered, in defiance of law, in some places in Glamorganshire as late as 1800.
The third section of the Act of Union extends the English laws to Wales, and by the fourth, the mischiefs produced by an imperium or rather imperia in imperio are recited. The lords marchers exercising an imhmited and oppressive authority over their vassals, frequently at variance with the Crown and each other, and jealous of their seignioral rights, were deaf to the claims of justice or true policy, and blind to the interests of society at large ; insomuch that they even encouraged out- laws and protected thieves and murderers, provided they were permitted to partake of the plunder ; yet still the Legislature seems to have proceeded with caution, and to have been apprehensive of giving offence to some nobleman who possessed seignioral rights in Wales, for the statute provides that every person, then being a lord marcher, shall have a moiety of the fines and forfeitures imposed on his tenants and the mises and profits due from them, and shall also hold courts and law days as in times past, though their lordships merged and were constituted into parts of the counties in which they were situated or to which they adjoined.
AlifCIENT PAKISHES IN THE COUNTY OF BRECKNOCK.
From the description here given of what was thence forward to be considered as the county of Brecon, we learn what were then denominated the Marches in that neighbourhood. The names of places are horribly misspelt in this Act, but as written at this day they appear to consist of the following districts or parishes : Brecknock (meaning the town of that name and its vicinity), Crick- howel, Tretower, Penkelley, English Talgarth, Welsh Talgarth, Dinas, Gljoibwch, Cantreff-selyff, Llan- ddew, Blanllyfni, Ystradyw, Builth and Llangorse ; these are all by this law made an integral and indivisible part and parcel of the county of Brecknock. It is further enacted, that Brecknock shall be considered as the shire-town, that the county court shall be held there, and in order to save the inhabitants the trouble and expense of making their payments to the Crown at Westminster, a court of chancery and exchequer was appointed to be held at the king's castle of Brecknock, where the sheriffs of Breconshire and Radnorshire were to account before his auditor or proper officer. This law was acted upon in the early part of the 19th century, and the auditor attended in October annually to receive the fines and rents due to the Crown, although since the demoHtion of the castle the audit was held in one of the principal inns in the town. Some further enactments follow, such as, that two members shall be chosen to sit in the English Parliament for Monmouthshire, and one for the borough, one for each county in Wales, and one for each borough there, being a shire town ; the king was empowered at any time during the term of three years next after the dissolution of the then Parliament, to suspend or repeal, revoke or abrogate this whole Act or any part thereof as should stand with his most gracious pleasure, and lastly, a reservation was made in favour of the rights of Sir Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrars of Chartley, Chief Justice of South Wales, and steward and receiver of the lordship of Builth in the marches of Wales.
APPOINTMENT OF SHERIFFS.
In this Act the office of sheriff in the counties of Wales is frequently mentioned, but at that time and for a few years afterwards, their duty was of a very different nature from what it is at present ; they were then only employed to collect the revenues of the Crown, to levy fines and to accompany the justices in Eyre in their circuits : they were appointed for life by patent, and the place being considered lucrative as well as respectable, was generally bestowed on some court favourite. Though the patents or grants made by Henry, as well as his father, were resumed and annulled in 1540, yet there were only nominal sheriffs in some counties and none in others, i until the union was finally adjusted and completed in 1543. The statute passed in this year directs that they shall be appointed by the Crown for the same time and no longer than m England, and their duties are declared to be similar to those of the EngUsh sheriffs in every respect.
PETITION TO HENRY VHI.
The Act of incorporation, which we have briefly examined, and from which some few extracts have been made, was certainly attended with considerable advantages to both nations ; yet still many
1 The first annual sheriff for Glamorganshire was Sir George In a deed in tlie tuwn coffer of tlie corporation of Brecon in 1800
Herbert of Swansea, in 1542 ; of Breconshire, Sir Wilham Vaughan (if it bo not preserved with too much care), dated the eighth of
of Porthaml, in 1539 ; Kadnorshire, John Baker of Presteigne, in Henry tlie Seventh, one of the witnesses subscnbes .JenUiu ap
1544. There are many reasons to indxice us to beheve that the Llewelyn aj) GwyUm, A'lce comes ; whether lie was tor the
lord marcher of Brecon appointed his sheriff long prior to this act. borough or lordship in not so clear,
16 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
difficulties and inconveniences remained while the laws of the two countries differed so widely, and the theory as well as the practice varied in different parts of the Principality. In some places the ordinances of the lords marchers continued, in others the AVelsh laws prevailed, and in others the EngHsh were introduced. These discordant systems produced so much confusion and disorder, that the inhabitants of Wales very wisely determined to draw up and present the petition to which we have before alluded. There is one compliment in the petition, so well and so elegantly expressed, that we cannot refrain from noticing it. After asserting that the Welsh like the Florentines and Spaniards affected to speak gutturaUy, "as believing words that sound so deep proceed from the heart," the petitioners add : " So that if we have retained this language longer than the more Northern inhabi- tants of this island, we hope it will be no imputation to us ; your Highness will but have the more tongues to serve you ; it shall not hinder us to study EngUsh, when it were but to learn how we might the better obey your Highness." To this address, promoted undoubtedly, if not dictated, by Sir John Pryce, of the Priory of Brecon, an eminent antiquary and a great favourite at court, Henry lent a wUHng ear ; and therefore ' ' at the humble suit and petition of his subjects of Wales (as the statute of the 34th and 35th of his reign recites) out of his abundant goodness," he caused several regulations to be enacted as to the mode and practice of administering the laws in Wales ; the prin- cipal of which was the establishing and confirming the jurisdiction of the president and council of the marches of Wales, and also of the court of great sessions, appointed to be held in every shire twice a year before one justice ; which court was to have a concurrent authority with that of the lord president and council, and to continue six days in every shire at each of such sessions. Some further regulations were also hereby ordained as to the sealing and issuing of writs, the salaries of the judges, the fees of the officers, and other matters which need not be specified.
SALARIES OF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.
Soon after the passing of this Act a difficulty arose about the payment of the wages of members of Parliament chosen for ^^"ales. In England the common law of the land had long established the right of knights of the shires and burgessss to fees and wages, while attending their duty in Parha- ment. In 1543 it appears that this remuneration was fixed at four shillings a day to the former and 2s a day to the latter ; but it should seem that it was doubted whether the newly established members for Wales, who of course could have no such prescription in their favour, had a claim to a similar compensation. The Act of the 35th of this reign, c. 2, therefore declared, that they were entitled to the same fees and wages as the representatives of the English counties and boroughs, and provided that the %vrit de solutione feodi Militis Parliamenti should issue to the sheriffs in Wales, to levy them whenever required.
SXTBSEQITENT ENACTMENTS.
Though the regal dignity of the lords marchers had ceased and their power had been considerably curtailed and restrained by the laws of Henry the Eighth, their name and jurisdiction continued for some years after his time, for in the first and second of Philip and Mary we find " an Act to con- firm the hberties of the lords marchers of Wales ! ' which recites the twenty-seventh of the late king, and proceeds to ratify the provisions there made in their behalf, and ascertains what forfeitures and benefits the lords marchers, spiritual and temporal, should have of their tenants ; together with the mises, profits, liberties, and franchises appendant to their resjiective lordships.
The statute of the twenty-first of James the First, c. 10, is peculiarly gratifying to the feelings of a Welshman. It begins with the following recital : " AVhereas the subjects of the country and dominion of Wales have been constantly loyal and obedient, and have lived in aU dutiful subjection to the Crown of England," it then proceeds to recite the unprecedented clause in the thirty-fourth of Henry the Eighth, by which he was empowered to change, alter, order, publish and reform the law then passed at his pleasure, and that all such alterations, as Avell as any new laws which the king should make and publish in writing under his hand should "be of as good strength, virtue and effect ' ' as if made by authority of Parliament ! ! ! The statute of James then goes on to declare that it is manifest by long experience that the laws already ordained for the said country are, for the most part, agreeable to the laws of England, and are obeyed with great alacrity; for which reasons this most detestable clause is with great propriety repealed.
The president and council of the Marches of Wales retained their power until the epoch of the glorious revolution, when being deemed oppressive^ to the subject and unnecessary to the due
1 Lewis (one of the Harpton family, who wrote the Antient The reader who wishes to know more of this court will receive Bintory of Britain) asserts that this court was useful in its design much information upon the subject, by perusing the instructions and impartial in its practice ; he says the fees were .small and the given by James the First to Lord Compton, president in 162.^^, and delays lesis tlian in most other courts, h\it in contradiction to this ten years afterwards by Charles the First to the Earl of Bridge- assertion, it must lie admitted, tliat tlie tradition of the country is water, which are preserved in Rymcr's Fcedera, vo. 17. p. 629, and witli the legislature of WilUam and Mary, for it has most assuredly vol. 19. p. 448. left behind it " a wounded name " throughout the principality.
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 17
administration of justice, this court was finally dissolved and the appointment of the sheriffs in Wales referred to the recommendation of the justices of the Great Sessions, and by a subsequent Act of the same reign, a certain clause in the statute of the 34th and 35th of Henry the Eighth, limiting the justices of the peace of Wales to eight in each county, is repealed, and the King empowered to augment their number as he might think convenient.
The statute of the seventh and eighth of this reign, chapter 38, enabled the inhabitants of Wales to dispose of their property and personal eiJects by will, thereby abohshing a certain ancient custom in the Principahty, whereby widows and younger children of persons dying there, were entitled to a certain portion of the goods and chattels of their late husbands or fathers, called her, or their, reasonable part notwithstanding any previous disposal thereof by will or deed, and notwithstanding a competent jointure had been made by settlement. By this Act, the widows, children ai^d other relations of a testator, are wholly barred from any claim on his personal estate, otherwise than is limited by wUl. Se-veral other statutes have also been passed relative to Wales from the time of Henry the Eighth to the present day, but they are of httle consequence in an historical view.
CHAPTER II.
Language, Manners, Popular Opinions and Prejudices, Customs, State of Commerce, useful Projects, as Turnpike Roads, the Brecon and Abergavenny Canal and Railways.
IN general, the inhabitants of Breconshire, as well as the whole people of Wales, retain an enthusiastic veneration for their ancient language; we have this strongly exemplified in a tale of former times, and as it pourtrays the characteristic features of the Britons of the present day, we introduce it. The story is told by Giraldus Cambrensis. Henry the Second, when engaged in plaiming an expedition against South Wales, at a place called Pencadair in that country, consulted an ancient Welshman as to the strength and number of forces in that part of the Principality and the probabihty of his success against them. The old man thus pithily replied : " This nation. Oh King ! may suffer much and be in a great measure ruined, or at least weakened, by your present and future attempts, as formerly it has often been, but we assure ourselves it will never wholly be destroyed by the anger or power of any mortal man, unless the wrath of heaven concur in that destruction ; nor (whatever changes happen as to any other part of the world) can I believe that any other language besides the Welsh shall answer at the last day for the greater part of this corner of the globe." To the same effect prophesied Taliesin :
I ner a folant. Still they shall chaunt their great creator's praise,
Eu iath a gadwant, And still preserve their language and their lays,
Eu tir a goUant, But nought preserve of all their wide domains,
On'd gwj'llt Wallia. Save Wallia's wild uncultivated plains.
Taliesin. Walters.
To this patriotic partiality for their language and natale solum, we may venture to attribute all that nationality of character which, surviving the ravages of time, still continues undiminished in the Cambro-British breast. It was the observation of a late respectable historian, "^ that nations which have been long seated in the same country and have had little intercourse with strangers commonly retain the same national character, manners and customs through a long succession of ages; they become proud of their antiquity, fond admirers of their ancestors, and fondly attached to their sentiments and prejudices, their follies, errors and vices not excepted." This is very remarkably the characteristic of the native yeomanry of Wales ; as to those of superior rank or the constant inhabitants of towns, they are now by habit or education become so wholly EngUsli that no distinc- tion is observable between them and their fellow subjects eastward of the Severn ; but the sequestered peasant who rarely quits the vicinity of his mountain, who speaks no other language than his mother tongue, still adheres with infinite attachment to aU the habitudes and customs of his ancestors. On all occasions he adopts their sentiments and dwells with fond delight upon the traditions of old times. Arthur, LleweljTi, and Glyndyfwrdwy's lord will ever be the themes of Cambro-British admiration, whilst Offa, Edward, and Henry will never cease to create disgust. Uneducated in the refinements of that new philosophy which ostentatiously affects an universal citizenship, the Welshman thinlcs no country equal to his own, and even in the midst of poverty is happy to acknowledged as his proudest boast that he was born an ancient Briton.
Whilst every good his native wilds impart Imprints the patriot passion on his heart, And e'en the hills which round his mansion rise Enchance the hhss his scanty fund supplies. Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms, And dear that hill which lifts him to the storms. And as a babe when scaring sounds molest CUngs close and closer to his mother's breast. So the loud torrent and the whirlwind's roar But bind him to liis native mountains more. Qoldsmiih.
CHARACTER OF THE WELSH.
It is but justice to observe that the character given of this people by certain learned and unlearned writers is very little to be depended upon ; biassed by interest, warped by prejudices, or judging without a sufficient knowledge of their subject, they have been more studious to paint them
THE HISTORY OP BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 19
in unfavourable colours, than diligent to inquire as to real facts. William the Monk of Newbury, for instance, asserts that Wales produces a race of men barbarous in manners and faithless in principle, greedy of other men's blood and prodigal of their own, vehemently intent on rapine and bearing an innate hatred to the English nation." These are doubtless heavy charges, but the bitterness of spirit which suggested them is easily accoimted for when we learn from Dr. Powel that this William (whom the Welsh call Gwilym bach or little Will) applied for the bishopric of St. Asaph upon the death of Geoffrey. Arthur (surnamed of Monmouth) about the year 1165, but being disappomted and having met with a little rough treatment from David the son of Owen Gwynedd, he became violently enraged and "vomited forth" (says Powel) his spleen against the whole British nation, as the unprejudiced reader may soon discover from the virulence and acrimony of his writings.
Another writer, Giraldus Cambrensis, from whose connections and descent we might have expected better treatment, and a more honourable report, to please a monarch whom at the same time he affected to despise, insults his countrymen with charges as gross and as illiberal as they are un- founded ; he talks of crimes "which God and men abhor," and ransacks the black catalogue of vices for the foul reproaches with which he brands them. But we have seen the man ; with all his learning, he too had great and prominent faults. Had he taken the trouble of examining the triads or perusing the laws of Hywel Dda, he would have found ample reasons for retracting some of his assertions ; he would have seen that, with all their pecuUarities, in no country were the laws of morality in general more strongly inculcated, more strictly guarded, or the breach of them more severely punished than in Wales.
Pinkerton — the respectable and learned, yet eccentric Pinkerton — ^has sacrificed candour to unmanly prejudice and a blind attachment to a system of his own creation. The following is his mode of contrasting characters: "The Goths, a wise, valiant and generous race, were the friends of every elegant art and useful science, and when not constrained to arms by the inevitable situation and spirit of their society, they carried every art and science to heights unknown before, as the ancient Greeks and modern Europeans might witness. In wisdom (that perfection of human nature) ancient authors call the rude Goths, the first of nations. The Celts from all ancient accounts, and from present knowledge, were, and are a savage race, incapable of labour or even of rude arts ; being indeed mere saVages, and ivorse than the savages of America, remarkable even to our own times, for a total neglect of agriculture themselves, and for plundering their neighbours. The Irish Celts, Scotch Celts and the VVelsh Celts have all alike a claim to the character, and when it begins to pa.ss away, it is a sign that by intermarriage the Gothic blood begins to exceed the Celtic, and that the Celts are no longer Celts, though so accounted. The Celts are savages, have been savages since the world, began and xcill be for ever savages ; mere radical savages, not yet advanced even to a state of barbarism, and if any foreigner doubts this, he has only to step into the Celtic parts of Wales, Ireland or Scotland and look at them ; for they are just as they were, incapable of industry or civilisation, even after half their blood is Gothic." He asumes that "even their language is derived from the EngUsh, and to say that a writer is a Celt is to say that he is a stranger to truth, modesty, and moraUty," and to complete the whole and crown this climax of abuse, he says, "what a lion is to an ass, a Goth is to a Celt."
But now the old fable inverted is seen, For the lion insults and the jackasses grin.
To abuse, indiscriminately thrown upon a whole nation, we will take the liberty of opposing an instance of individual virtue ; it is a weak defence, and can only be justified in resisting an attack equally impotent.
STORY OF EEIPPE AND XANTHUS.
In the Erotica of Parthenius^ we have the following proof of true greatness of mind in a Celtic savage : — " When the Gauls made an irruption into Ionia, and despoiled all the cities thereof, it happened that the sacred feast of Ceres was celebrated at Milefcum, and the women of the place were assembled together in a temple at a short distance from the city. At that time a part of the barbarian army, separated from the rest, entered the Miletian territory, and making an unexpected attack took the women prisoners, in expectation that the Miletians would ransom them at a high
1 Parthenius of Nice was a poet who lived in tho beginning of him, he must have been very young when he was made a prisoner ;
Augiistus's reign. He wrote a ilisoourse from whence the above for there were seventy years between this war and the time of
anecdote is taken ; he dedicated it to Cornelius Gallus governor Tiberius. Be this as it may, Virgil was his scholar and as it is said
of Egypt. He WTote also tlie jiraisc^: of Aretas his wife, and imitated him. In the proemium to tlie above story it is assorted
several other pieces. It is said he wa-s made a slave in the time of that Aristodemus of Nysa in the first of his liistories has pieserved
the Mithiidatio war, the Cimia emancipated him, and that he it ; except that the names differ, he calls Erippe Oythimia, and
died in the time of Tiberius. If we believe what Suidas says of the barbarian Oavacan.
20 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHTRE.
price. Some of the barbarians took away with them such women as were skilled in domestic economy ; of which number was Erippe the wife of Xanthus, a man of high authority, and of the first family of Miletum, who had left at home a son only two years old. Xanthus, doatingly fond of his wife, and dying to recover her, converted a considerable part of his property into money, and taking a thousand pieces of gold with him, he passed into Italy, from thence by the assistance of guides to MassHia, and from thence he reached the country of the Celts. At length he approached the house where his wife resided with a man, evidently of the first consequence among the Celts, and requested he might be admitted to lodge with them there. Upon the master of the house's acquiescing (for such is the hospitality of the people) he entered the house and beheld his wife, when she immediately threw her arms round his neck, embraced him and received him kindly. Soon after, Erippe told the Celt that the stranger was her husband, and that he came upon her account, and brought with him the price of her ransom. The Celt applauding the disposition of Xanthus, called his friends together, and treated him hospitably, and having prepared a banquet, placed his wife next to him : he then demanded by an interpreter at how much he valued the whole of his property. Xanthus replied, he valued it at a thousand pieces of gold. The barbarian on this ordered him to divide that sum into four parts, so that he might take three parts for himself, his wife and son, and leave the fourth for the ransom of his wife, who after they had retired to their chamber severely chid Xanthus, supposing he had not as much gold as he had promised to the barbarian, fearing he would get himself into danger from his inability to perform his undertaking. Xanthus assured her, that besides this he had yet another thousand pieces of gold concealed in the shoes of his servant, for he had not the least conception he should have found a barbarian so just, or that he would not have demanded an infinitely higher ransom. Upon the morrow, the wife most perfidiously betrayed this secret to the Celt, and insisted that he ought to suffer death for such a deceit ; at the same time assuring him she loved him more than she did her country or her child, but that she utterly abhorred Xanthus. The Celt was so shocked at her relation that he was almost prepared instantly to put her to death. Afterwards, when Xanthus was ready to depart, he took an affectionate leave of him and sent him forward, following himseM with Erippe ; they were now arrived at the mountains of the Celtic country, where the barbarian said he would offer up a sacrifice before they parted. The victim then being set out, he ordered Erippe to lay hold of it, but no sooner had she seized it, as she had been accustomed to do, than with a drawn sword he stabbed her to the heart, and severed her head from her body, and in order to assuage the grief of Xanthus upon this melancholy event, he revealed to him the treachery his wife had meditated against him, and suffered him to depart with aU his gold."
We leave the reader to make his comments on the story; fuUy satisfied the result (as far as it goes) will prove honourable to the Celtic character, for though it should be false, which we see no reason to assume, it will be recollected that even fables were always intended as illustrations of real life, and that this was written in an age when both Goths and Celts were stigmatised with the appellation of barbarians by their more pohte neighbours, the Romans.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WELSH IN 1790 — 1810.
Such then were the sentiments and mode of thinking of some of our early ancestors. With respect to the manners, habits, and dispositions of the inhabitants of this county and the vicinity at the present day, it is much easier to say xvhat they are not, than to describe them with accuracy and precision as they really are. We have no hesitation in asserting that the character of the Welsh, drawn by most of the* travellers of the latter end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, had so little, if any, resemblance to the original, that it might as well be said to be
1 In the Oentlenwin' s Magazine for March, one of these gentry, pretence of fortune telling, and in the evening of the same day
a man of eminence and knowledge m his profession, but who will the gentlemen and ladies of the vicinity had appointed an assembly,
not be per.suaded that he does not excel in the sublime, though where for ought we know some of these very justices may have
he has no taste for that style, further than dealing in the marvellous, joined in the dance after business was over.
tells us he was disturbed at Crickhowel by a number of people Candom' as well as justice to these writers, many of whom
who were amusing themselves, as his hostess informed liim, with are respectable for their talents, as well as conduct in private Ufe,
hearing the trial of a woman accused of SORCERY. " The must induce us to attribute the defects alluded to, to inattention,
gentry and clergy (says he) of tlie county are all met together, want of authentic information, or erroneous judgment, rather than
determined to have a complete bout of it in the assembly room below to a wilful intention to deceive the public. The vagaries as well
(which by the bye is above stairs), a trial in the morning, a feast as the appearance of tliis order may be thus described :— in the afternoon, and a ball in the evening ! ! " To say that " The insect youth are on the wing
there could be no such trial hero, is almost superfluous, but the Eager to taste the honied spring
fact is, that there was no such accusation. There happened to be And gUde along the plains at noon,
a monthly meeting of the magistrates of the hundred in tlie house Some hghtly o'er the mountains skim,
when this traveller and his nephew came there, when a woman Some shew their gaily gilded trim
was brought before them, not for witclicraft, but for imposing Quick glancing to the sun."
upon the peasantry of the country and obtaining money under
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 21
a description of a Breton, as a Briton, of Walachia, as of Wales. To pourtray the peculiarities of disposition and manners of a country, to discover thoroughly those sentiments which for different reasons they wish to conceal, and to develop and display with correctness their turn of thinking, their passions and their prejudices, requires a greater degree of knowledge, and a longer residence among them than those flying philosophers chose to bestow upon these subjects, and above all, and as a preliminary to a more intimate acquaintance with the poor Celtic savages, it was absolutely necessary that the polite Goth or Saxon should understand the British language, and yet this was a talent few of them possessed, though almost all of them endeavoured to explain Welsh words as they picked them up on the highways, and some of them even to criticise upon them with great flippancy ; in consequence of this defect, and the hurry of the tour, they were too apt to describe any incidents or occurrences which may appear extraordinary to them as characteristic of the country.!
The Welsh are proud, irascible, abrupt in address, hasty in their delivery, and sometimes in their conclusions ; they are shrewd in argument, persevering, and indefatigable in pursuit of a favourite point, cautious and artful in their endeavours to conceal their object from the party from whom it is sought, and too fond of obtaining it by fraud or artifice : indeed, the difference betwixt wisdom and cuiming does not seem to be thoroughly understood by all the inhabitants of this country. A victory in a Court of Law (and they have rather a Utigious spirit) is thought more valuable, and the lawyer bett«r esteemed bj- a certain description of people, when it is obtained by manoeuvre or chicanery, than when it follows the weight of evidence or the fair merits of the case. For the English, they have long entertained an habitual, and almost inveterate aversion, and though it is now wearing off very fast, it is but too evident in their dealings and in their manner of speaking of them, " Sais yw ef syn " — ("He is a Saxon, beware,") — is still frequently heard, when one of the natives of Wales perceives his countryman in treaty with an Englishman, and it is said that formerly the articles of consumption esteemed as the greatest luxuries in the PrincipaUty were, " caws wedi bobij a Sais wedi grogi," or, " toasted cheese and hung Saxon."
The Romans have long been forgotten, and to the Normans they seem to have retained no enmity ; indeed, they may almost be said to love them, for the same reasons that grandfathers are supposed to prefer their grandchOdren to their immediate issue, because in them they see the enemies of their enemy. The treachery of the Saxons, whom the aboriginal Britons introduced into the island as friends and allies, and their cruelty in exterminating in cold blood the nobility of the ancient inhabitants (as is said to have been done on Salisbury Plain) still rankles in the bosoms of the indigenous sons of freedom ; the connections and intercourse, however, of the two countries are now so numerous and so intimate, and the interests of both are so much blended, that the distinc- tion of country will be thought of no more, and even at this moment it is confined to the secluded native of our wildest mountains, or to some unsociable beings who, unacquainted with the improved state of society, are prejudiced by tradition and are misanthropes from habit or constitution.
They are said to possess much curiosity, and an irresistable desire of prying into the designs, and learning the destination of travellers. There is nothing smgular in this ; all countries have this apparent curiosity, when they see or hear a being of a different garb or language from their own, and if a Welshman just caught and brought from the mountains were introduced into a levee at St. James, or into a rout among the fashionables of the metropohs, his country and his manners would be as much the objects of inquiry and curiosity as those of the English philosophers in the bogs of Wales.
One of the worst of their habits remains to be described and to be deplored ; this is their savage mode of fighting. In England when a battle ensues the lowest of the mob has something like notions of honour, and roars out ^vith smcerity, ' ' Fair play, ' ' but with us all advantages are fair in war, and a fallen adversary is at the mercy of his more fortunate competitor, while the bystanders seldom, if ever, interfere to prevent this unmanly application of the feet, and this ferocious mode of injuring, and sometimes of murdering a fellow creature. Death has frequently ensued in consequence of this cruel habit : it is rather extraordmary that it has not oftener followed these affrays ; but the Welsh are not to be argued out of the practice, and their countrymen in general do not reprobate it.
MODES OF LIFE IN BRECONSHIKE.
It is difficult to say how far that want of cleanUness, with which the Welsh were frequently charged a century ago, was really imputable to them. After a more laborious investigation of the
1 Thus one of these gentlemen, liaving seen a shoemaker who fact is that tliis union of avocations is looked upon with equal also sells books, after remarking upon the oddity of tliis combin- surprise in Wales as it is in England, aad is as seldom to be met ation of trades, hints that it is conunon in the principality; the with in the former ootintry.
22 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHTRE.
subject than has been employed by most of those who have thrown out the aspersion, we can form no decided opinion of their comparative merit or demerit in this respect. Glamorganshire, most certainly must be instantly acquitted of this offence, for such it is ; the cots in the vales of that county were externally and internally neater than any other part of the kingdom, or at least we may venture to assert they were not excelled in that particular in any tract of equal extent in England. The hut mdeed upon the wilds of Breconshiro, where the door serves for the threefold purposes of an entrance, a window, and a chimney, was a miserable habitation, and we have seen most disgusting scenes of filth in narrow allies in our towns.
Whatever may have been the facts in Theophilus Jones' time, it can no longer be a matter of doubt that the habits of the people of the county are as clean as those of any other county. A generous application by public bodies of improved sanitary laws has led to considerable improvements in farmhouses and country cottages; and the "huts" mentioned by Jones are now rarely to be met with except as ruinated memorials of the past ; and there is hardly a village in the county which has not a plentiful supply of pure water brought through pipes to its centre. In the towns, efficient drainage systems have been carried out at great cost, and water laid on to every house. It is true there is still some cottage property which reflect discredit, but these tenements cannot long survive the demand for more commodious dwellings made by a people whose ideas of comfort have been advanced by a system of higher education.
One of the proofs of want of cleanhness in the Welsh (which has been strongly reUed upon) is their being observed frequently without shoes or stockings. The objection is not new, it is as old at least as Henry the Fourth; "I am not afraid," says he, "of those barefooted rascals" — meaning, we presume, that all those who were barefooted must have been rascals or vagabonds. Under favour, "my very noble and approved good masters," the dirt thus thrown wiU not stick: this custom, however odious it may appear to those who live in courts and are strangers to the "short and simple annals of the poor," is productive of the reverse of what they too hastily presume. It originates in hard necessity and commendable parsimony ; the rustic Welsh damsel who trudges to a fair or market barefooted, has no more pleasure in this kind of exercise than the courtier, though from habit the inconvenience diminishes. As soon as she approaches her journey's end the first stream near the town to which she directs her course is employed to wash off the dirt acquired in her walk ; the shoes and stockings are then put on and worn till her return, are again taken off and the feet again washed before she proceeds to her house or her bed. Is there any want of cleanliness discoverable here.
The "rustic Welsh damsel" of 1900 is not to be found who would imitate her sister of 1800 by going to market in the manner described by Theophilus Jones. A few years ago it was the general custom for farmers' wives to find their way to the market towns on horseback, with their baskets affixed to the saddle, or perhaps to ride there on a gambo, but even this practice is fast disappearing. And it is far more general in 1905 to see the farmer and his family drive into the market towns seated in a well-appointed trap, cushioned, and in some cases with the wheels rubber- tyred ; aU of which shows the farmer to be a much more prosperous man than his ancestors and with a taste for luxury quite foreign to his grandfather's nature.
FOOD OF THE GENERAL PEOPLE.
The English travellers have described the Welsh farmers and peasants as hospitable, a virtue they certainly possess, but we owe this acknowledgment more to the politeness than the experience of our neighbours. For the reasons we have aheady explained, as well as from a want of frequent intercourse with foreigners, the inliabitants of the Principality have a shyness towards travellers, and a suspicion of the motives for then- peregrinations generally prevails ; but if the stranger is fortunate enough to meet with, or to be introduced to an intelligent and conversible person upon his entry into the country, who will recommend him in his route, his business is done, and this shyness instantly vanishes, when they are assured by one of their neighbours on whom they can depend that the history of their country, a desire to explore the beauties of nature, and an abstract knowledge of their manners are alone sought for. Under these circumstances the door is thrown widely open to the welcome guest and such fare as their houses afford is placed without grudging before him. Most of the middling farmers in Jones's time killed one beast in November or December, and a pig about Christmas which were salted and roofed ; this was the principal stock and capital for the ensuing year ; a piece of this, out of the pot, formed one day's dimier ; the broth in which it was boiled, with a desert of bread and cheese, washed down by water or whey, followed for the two or
THE HISTORY OF BEECKNOCKSHIKE. 23
three succeeding days, and flummery and milk and Vegetables,^ as potatoes, turnips, etc., with the usual assistance of the brown loaf and skim cheese, filled up the week. Butcher's meat fresh was rarely seen in small houses, and consequently when introduced was considered a luxury. In some parts of the county this description is, in some respects, still triie ; but a more liberal fare is in this year of 1900 partaken of by the farmer and his household. Cider and a light beer take the place of whey, which is not often met with.
THEIR WEARING APPAREL.
To the immortal honour of the commonalty of this county, let it be recorded that " they have a tear for pity and hearts as open as day for melting charity." To the tale of woe they never turn a deaf ear, nor is the humble door of the little farmer on the mountain ever shut against an object in distress. The wearing apparel of the men — in striking contrast to that worn in the early part of the 19th century, when it was described as such as "would not tempt even the avarice of the collectors for rag fair," is now neat and serviceable, and their Sunday dress is little inferior in style and quality to that worn by the tradesmen of towns. In some districts the grey or drab- coloured cloth is still worn, manufactured out of the wool of their own country sheep ; these garments being made more for warmth than show. Whereas the dress of the women formerly consisted of a brown or blue jacket, check handkerchief or apron, man's hat, and flannel petticoat, they are now in 1900 as well versed in the latest fashions as are their sisters in the towns, and do not fail to avail themselves of opportunities for improving their appearance by those aids to nature so exten- sively advertised in the ladies' magazines, which they eagerly read. The coffee house of the males is no longer the blacksmith's shop alone, for the village inn shares their patronage, and as to the grist mills being the place of meeting of the females, we have now to deplore the fact that the county no longer grows corn in any quantity, and has therefore no further need for its old mills, many of which have fallen into decay. "At night," says Theophilus Jones, "while the women card wool, spin, or knit, those who have memory to preserve the tales of tradition and can relate the exploits of their ancestors, entertain the household with a recital of them or frighten their audiences with the eccentricities of a ghost who is generally sent in search of old iron to be thrown into a pond or river, and the phantom is thereupon appeased and departs to rest." This was true as late as thirty years ago, but a material change has come over the people of the country. It is true they are still, in many places, able to ply the knitting pins to good effect, and are not less industrious than their predecessors, Ibut they can no longer fascinate or terrify their younger neighbours by a recital of the exploits of their forefathers, either in the quick or dead state, for they provide them- selves, by perusing popular cheap novels, with an abundance of those sensations.
SOME SUPERSTITIONS.
We have been frequently told that the W^elsh are remarkably superstitious, and that most, if not all of them, believe in the reality of apparitions. This is idle assertion and mere conjecture ; they have no more superstition or credulity than falls to the lot of the humble inhabitants of an equal tract of land in any other part of the kingdom. They have, it is certain, their stock stories, their provincial demons and goblins and their characteristic phenomena, with whom many are acquainted, most wish to hear of, and some few beheve ; among the visionary beings, of whom tradition tells, and whom imagination creates, we frequently hear of the fairies, whom they call, " bendith eu mammau," and "y tylwyth teg," i.e., the blessings of their mothers, the fairies or fair household, 'meaning that they were fair of form, though most foul in mind. The stories related of these fairies as well as of witches who were supposed to play tricks with the milkmaid and spoil the butter, are similar to those heard in England.
Besides these diminutive representatives of man, the Welsh have also fiends peculiar to them- selves, or at least generally forgotten by the majority of the inliabitants of the island ; these they call cwn Amvn or Anwn's dogs. Anwn is translated by Owen, vnknown, but it is rather anwfn, bottom- less, and the prince of this country who is personified in the Mabynogion may be called the king of immensurable darkness, of that boundless void or space in which the universe floats or is sus- pended. This Being, say the gossips, is the enemy of mankind, and his dogs are frequently heard hunting in the air, some time previous to the dissolution of a wicked person : they are described in the beautiful romance to which we have referred, to be of a clear shining wliite colour with red ears. No one, with us, pretends to have seen them, but the general idea is that they are jet-black. To these dogs we conceive Shakespeare alludes in his "Tempest," when he talks of noise of hunters heard
1 They had an universal and unconquerable aversion to mushrooms and looked upon the gentry (as they call them) who are fond of this excellent vegetable, as somewhat worse than swine in this particular, but these are now (1900) gathered in large quantities and brought to the markets for sale.
24 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
in the air, and spirits in the shapes of hounds, and not to Peter de Loier, ' ' who (says Malone in a note) Hecate^ did use to send dogges unto men to fear and terrify them, as the Greeks affirmed."
The corpse candle, which precedes the death of some person in the neighbourhood, and marks the route of the funeral from tlie house of the deceased to the church is a common topic among our peasantry, who beheve it confined to the diocese of St. David's : a tradition is hkewise very commonly received among them, which preserves the memory of certain extraordinary and wonderful feats of strength, performed by two oxen of prodigious size, called "ychain banog," or the oxen of the summits of the mountains. Davies in his Celtic Researches calls them "elevated oxen," and supposes them to allude to a sacrifice made by Hu gadarn or Hu the mighty ; but whatever may have been the origin of the legends told of these oxen, the tradition seems to have been derived from the Mythology of the Druids, and in some measure confirms the antiquity of the Triads, from whence it is evidently derived.
CT7ST0MS AT WEDDINGS AND FTJNEEALS.
The funerals in Wales, and the ceremonies preceding and following them, were in 1800 very similar to those of the Irish. Weddings were formerly attended with some very extraordinary customs, all of which are now disused in the towns and their vicinities, but in the hills some few still remain, particularly what is called the bidding, and we still occasionally see the herald of this event announcing it to the friends, relations and acquaintances of the bride and bridegroom. He bears in his hand a long hunting pole or staff, to the top of which is nailed or tied a bunch of ribbons of various colours ; after greeting the family as he approaches the house, leaning upon his support hke the datceiniad pen pastwn of old, he with great gravity and solemnity, addresses them nearly in the words mentioned in the Gentleman's Magazine, of December 1791, page 1103, with this 'difference, that in Breconshire, fish is not enumerated among the dainties of which the guests are invited to partake. The form of this invitation was printed as late as perhaps 1876, and the substance was a promise of cakes and ale, pipes and tobacco, chairs to sit down, etc., and an undertaking on behalf of the intending bride and bridegroom, that they will return the favour to such of their visitors as may thereafter claim it.
On the evening preceding the marriage, the bride's female friends bring her several articles of household furniture ; this is called stafeW. On the morning of the ceremony, the lady affects coy- ness and sometimes conceals herself, but is fortunately always discovered and rescued from the party who are resolved to carry her off. Upon approaching the church, another scene of confusion and bustle ensues ; it should seem now, that some of the company are determined to prevent the celebra- tion of the marriage. One of her male friends, behind whom she is mounted on horseback, though generally without a pillion, makes many attempts to escape and to run away with her, but the companions of her future husband succeed in dragging her ("nothing loath") to the altar. Upon this occasion, the racings and gallopings on both sides are really alarming to bystanders unaccus- tomed to these exhibitions, and it is astonishing that more accidents have not happened in these sham fights and pursuits. Previously to the young couple's setting out for church, as well as at the pubhc house in the village where they generally retire for a short time after the ceremony is over, the friends of both parties subscribe, according to their abihties, each a few shiUings, and the sum is particularly noticed by one of the company ; as it is expected to be returned to every person then present who may thereafter be entitled to it on a similar occasion, for this contribution has been long settled to be of the nature of a loan and has been sued for, and recovered at law. Lewis Morris* asserts, that instances have been known where two persons have made biddings imder pretence of marriage when it was not intended, in order to get money, which they have divided amongst themselves. Such a strategem has never come within our knowledge, nor indeed can it possibly be effected according to our custom ; but that of Cardiganshire, which Mr Morris in part describes, may be different, and the money may be there collected on the day, or in the week preceding the marriage.
But it must be confessed that in the year 1900 the lads and lasses of our county are ever ready to go to the altar, or the registry office, without enacting a comedy of [.this kind for theamuse-
1 The prince of Anwn and Hecate are man and wife, and to Sir John Price the antiquary, a native of Breconshire, who both are the parents of this fable. For this and many other lived much in the EngUsh court in the reigna of Henry the Eighth peculiarities relative to Wales Shakspeare was probably indebted and his daughter Elizabeth.
- Literally the chamber, but it means here furnishing or furniture for the chamber. 3 GenUenien'a Magazine, Dec. 1791, p. 1103.
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 25
ment of their friends and neighbours. The custom of making wedding presents is substituted for the old-fashioned custom in vogue at the "bidding."
AMUSEMENTS IN THE COTJNTY.
The athletic exercises of throwing the bar, running, and wresthng, were in 1800 superseded by the amusement of hunting, ball playing, and drinking ; in the two first, much activity is certainly required, but the last, frequently, if not always, succeeds to both, until the head and stomach become brimful, and the pockets completely empty. In the course of the carousal, what they call singing is introduced ; generally two or three begin at different times and in different metres and cadences (for they cannot be caUed tunes), and proceed with great satisfaction to themselves, and apparently to the great dehght of their parties ; if a third or fourth strikes up the harmony continues. No one com- plains of interruption, and even if a trifling dispute arises, provided it do not proceed to blows, the minstrels persevere with admirable calmness and composure to the conclusion of their ballads in a tone of voice which is appHed without variation to a psalm or a sonnet, a hymn or a march, and than which nothing can be more dissonant and disagreeable ; the last note to every song, whatever may be the subject, is protracted, drawn, or rather drawled out to a considerable length, and is in what a musical friend calls a monotonous minor lower key. The beverage drunk at these meetings is principally ale, not above a fortnight old, and the malt highly dried; for they suppose pale beer must be weak, and consequently, as they think, not so strengthening and exhilarating as more potent Uquor.
To the games played in 1800 have to be added in 1900 those of cricket, tennis, goK, and football, and in every part of the county various clubs have been formed for the promotion of these several games. Fortunately, "drinking" is no longer considered as an essential to happiness, and, whilst the custom still remains, including the "musical" part of it, the pastime is indulged in on rarer occasions than was formerly the case : especially is this so at our county fairs and markets.
WELSH GENEALOGY.
Welshmen in the early part of the 19th century entertained a great dislike to surnames. When a complaint was made to a magistrate against a neighbour, his worship was entreated to grant a warrant against " Twpa o'r Cwm," i.e., Tom of the vale. "Thomas of the vale (repeats the justice), what's his surname?" "I have never heard he had any other name," was the common reply. If the honest native be compelled reluctantly to adopt the English custom, and to introduce these expletives (as he conceives them) into his family, he and his children^ were absolutely bewildered for the two or three next generations. Suppose his name to be Cadwaladr Griffith, his son in endeavour- ing to imitate the English fashion would call himseK John Cadwaladr Griffith, and his son again would be known by the names of WilUam John Cadwaladr Griffith; until fatigued and tired with draggmg after him the long chain of cognomina and agnomina, his descendants submit to be called, a I'Angloise, Thomas Williams, by which surname his family was ever afterwards distinguished. ^
Our Saxon and Norman conquerors do not seem to be aware of this difficulty, for they conceive that a fondness for a multitude of names is one of the characteristic foibles of Welshmen ; when they describe them by Thomas ap Dafydd ap Sienkin ap Shon ap Thomas ap William ap Evan,^ etc.^ It is true genealogists, whose business it is to register descents, will inform us that John was " ap," or the son of Thomas, the son of William, the son of David, etc. ; but in the common intercourse and concerns of life, they were only known to each other by their Christian names and residences. Tliey have also sometimes been described by the beauties and imperfections of their persons, and sometimes by their professions or avocations. Another anomaly prevailed with respect to names and continued down to 1805 in the Western parts of Breconshire, particularly in Ystradgynlais and Ystradfellte. The wife retained her maiden name, and should the husband be called Thomas David and her father WiUiam John, she subscribes Margaret WilUam formerly written Margaret, vz. William, Margaret verch or the daughter of WiUiam, and as late as the beginning of the eighteenth century, this custom pre- vaUed even in the town of Brecon, for in the chapel of the men of Battle in the Priory Church we have " Here Ueth the body of Elizabeth Morgan the wife of Lewis Price of this town who died 1704, aged 70."
COMMERCE IN THE COTJNTY.
As to commerce, although we have great advantages for manufactures, we can boast of few. From the latter end of the 16th to the beginning of the 19th centuries, great fortunes were acquired
1 When this oustom was first introduced, two brothers fre- who was the son of William ap Phillip ap Richard ap .John ap quently adopted different surnames ; for instance, John Thomas Lawrence BuUen These are the present Abercamlais and I enpont had two sons, Griffith and William, Griffith subscribed himself families. So also the name of Boys, after nngmg the changes of Griffith John, and the other brother wTOte, William Thomas. Jenkin William Buys and WiUiam Se.ikm Boys is now sleadieti into
2 Thus the Norman name of Bullen after being discontinued WilUams of Velinnewydd, though the namo of Jenkin still contmue3 from Lawrence Bnllen downwards, was resigned by the family, and to be known among them as a christian name.
the muoe of Williams substituted by Thomas VVUUams in 1613,
26 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
in Brecon and the vicinity by the manufacture of woollen cloths ; the superior industry or capital of Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, and elsewhere, rivalled and at last put a stop to our trade. Few mills, therefore, are left to the county, and those are but small ones. The principal exports of the county are wool, butter, cheese ; of the former a quantity is still spun and knit into stockings in the hundred of Builth and in different parts of the highlands. It was formerly the custom to drive some sheep, horned cattle, and s^vine to the markets of Worcester, London, Bristol, and other cities ; but the dealers from these and other populous centres now come in great numbers to the county markets and fairs and buy considerable quantities, especially of sheep, very many thousands of which are reared at this time (1900) in the different parts of the county. There is also a large trade done in the county markets in poultry, eggs, etc., which are eagerly bought up by hucksters and carried off to the iron and coal works for sale there. This county for many years supplied the nearest seaports with considerable quantities of oak and other timber, for the purposes of ship-building, etc, and also for the use of the ironmasters ; but the trade is now of little importance. Brecon, Builth, Hay, and CrickhoweU depend very largely upon the trade done with the surrounding agriculturists and such county gentlemen as remain upon their estates and extend their support to the local tradesmen ; but Brynmawr and Ystradgunlais may be said to be the headquarters of population dependent either upon coal mines or similar works. Almost every village in the county has now its "Emporium," where draperies, groceries, ironmongery, etc., may be obtained with as great facihty as in the towns.
THE OLD CARTWAYS OP THE COUNTY.
Before we proceed to notice the construction of turnpike roads in the county, it may not be irrelevant to take a retrospective view of the different routes taken by the conquerors of the Pinci- pahty, and by travellers through the county at different periods.
Wliile this district was with propriety called Garthmadrin, and its inhabitants consisted principally of foxes, wolves, and beasts of prey, the low lands were almost covered or (as a modern historian said) suffocated with wood and brakes, and consequently almost impervious to travellers. When the Romans had cleared their way into the frontiers upon the defeat of Caractacus, Ostorious seems to have advanced some few miles further westward ; though perhaps the utmost extent of his march in this direction was limited to the Gaer, three miles above Brecon, but the brave and indefatigable Juhus completed, during the career of liis victories and in the course of one hfe, what to common minds and more ordinary capacities, would have appeared to be the work of ages. The stratum or way known by the name of this commander pursued nearly the same track as the present turnpike road from Abergavenny to Brecon ; from thence, instead of immediately crossing the Usk, it continued on the same side of the river to Gaer, and to the site of the present Aberbran bridge or thereabouts ; afterwards it again recovered the line of the present liighway, and proceeded to Rhyd-y-briw, eight miles above Brecon, where instead of recrossing the Usk it passed the Senni near its fall into the former river, on the south side of which it pursued its course, as we conjecture, (for here it is merely conjecture) to Tal-y-sarn, Llys Brychan, in Duffrin Cvdrich in Llanddoisant, and so on the same side of the river near Golden Grove, until it joined the Glamorganshire line of the Julia Strata near Car- marthen. Upon the departure of the Romans this road was destroyed, either by neglect or from political motives, so that the recollection of the work was barely kept alive by some of the Roman authors, until the persevering assiduity of British antiquaries of the two last centuries once more explored the vestiges, retraced the footsteps, and restored the long lost fortresses and stations of the earliest of our conquerors, throughout the whole extent of Britannia secunda.
THE ROADS OF THE SAXONS.
The roads made by the Saxons in their incursions were hastily formed, badly executed, and as deficient in plan and system as their modes of warfare ; sometimes we see them entering the confines of Breconshire, on the south-east from Monmouthshire, at other times their inroads were made through Herefordshire, and at others through Shropshire on the north-east. But wherever there barbarians penetrated, they left a gloomy sohtude behind them, while deserted villages and the ashes or ruins of prostrated habitations, marked their progress and wrote the history of their expeditions, in char- acters too legible to be mistaken ; for as plunder and not permanent subjugation was their principal object, it formed no part of their system, if such they could be said to possess, to facilitate the intercourse of travellers, or even the march of armies through the Principality. They were governed only by momentary rapacity or sanguinary revenge, and looked not for future advantages to their posterity, consequently whenever we hear "of Rhyd-y-Saison, Bwlch-y-Saison, etc., the Saxon's ford, the Saxon's pass, etc., we must not conclude that there were roads near them, but that those situa- tions only preserve the memory of the irruptions, perhaps of a victory gained near the spot by these depredators. But though the points of attack were thus numerous and uncertain, their principal and
THE HISTORY OP BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 27
common line of march was through Hereford, from thence called Henffordd and Henffordd y Saison, the old road of the Saxons ; from this county they entered Radnorshire, continuing on the north side of the Wye till they came to Builtli, where there was a bridge, we know, as early as the thirteenth century, and probably there was one of much earher construction. Here they usually crossed the river and proceeded on the south side of the Irvon to Llwydlo-fach and into Carmarthenshire.
During the reigns of the two first Edwards, this seems to have been the principal road through Breconsliire, and in the course of this period, several commissions issued, directed to the servants and ministers of the EngUsh Cro^vn, " «rf prosternendas quercus,'" in the hundred of Builth, for the accom- modation of travellers ; for this labour as well as for the protection of their persons a tax was levied at Builth Castle (which from this circumstance may be said to be the first turnpike house erected in Breconshire), called Porthant Herwyr, or a tax on ahen merchants or drovers. Of this contribution, at first levied ad libitum by the lord marcher, the King of England did not scruple to accept a pro- portion. It was paid in Theo. Jones' time, and for many years afterwards, under the name of drift toll, but the amount was ascertained and hmited in the time of Charles the Second. In the reign of Edward the Third, the other nearly parallel road, through the great forest of Brecknock, appears to have been newly planned or in a great measure to have been directed by some tracts or remains of the Juha Strata then visible, and perhaps about this time the httle fortress of Rhyd-y-briw was built for the protection of passengers, and garrisoned by some troops of the lord of Brecknock. Before this time a great part of this tract was inhabited by outlaws and by those native inliabitants of the country, who being driven into the \vilds and fastnesses of Breconshire, on the conquest by Bernard Newmarch, occasionally poured down hke a torrent into the low lands, and ravaged the possessions of the tenants and dependants of the Normans ; these irruptions made travelling through this tract dangerous. We therefore find that the usual route of those whom war or business led through Breconshire previous to this time, was through Monmouthshire into the . vale^ of Grwyne-fawr, to Talgarth, Llanddew, to Tair derwen, crossing the Builth road to Brecon, and leaving that town one mile and a half to the south, thence to Aberyscir, Trallong and Llywel. On this road, and soon after it enters Breconshire, Richard Earl of Clare was murdered by the instigation of lorwerth of Caerleon, as the Enghsh nobleman was foohshly piping along, after having imprudently dismissed his soldiers and attendants, and by this road Giraldus Cambrensis travelled from his house at Llanddew, to St. David's.
Though those three roads continued accessible to travellers for several centuries, they were httle more than bridle ways, or as Mr Valentine Morris, of Piercefield, very humorously called them, ''ditches.'" They were barely wide enough to permit even one carriage to be dragged along, and such was the difficulty and delay in travelling over the best of them until the middle of the 18th century, that Sir John PhiUips, in his journeys from Picton to attend his duty in ParUament, was with difficulty able with a coach drawn by six horses, to travel from Llandovery to Hay, a distance of only thirty-five miles, in the course of two long summer's days. No waggons or chaises let for hire were seen on the road, and those articles of trade for which we were indebted to the London and Bristol markets, were either brought in small carts or low sledges or else in panniers or barrels on horses' backs.
ROAD IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 18tH CENTURY.
About the middle of the eighteenth century some gentlemen feeling the inconvenience arising from the want of good roads, proposed to repair and widen the old lanes, by individual subscription, and in September, 1755, the Breconshire Agricultural Society agreed that if any parish would raise a sum over and above the statute duty (not exceeding twenty pounds) toward the repairs of any part of the post-roads through the county leading from the county of Caermarthen to the county of Hereford, the inhabitants of such parish should receive from this society one half of such sum, to be laid out for the repairs of such road, such work to be performed before November, 1756.
These exertions were attended with considerable effect. Four of the parishes ^ on the post- road appear to have availed themselves of the hberality of this society. A stage coach having been estabhshed to run from Brecon to London, once a week, through Abergaveimy, Monmouth, and Gloucester, in 1757 they extended the same premiums to the parishes repairing the coach road over the Bwlch hill, and to the road in Llangynidr leading to coal and lime, as they allowed towards the improvement of the post-roads. A general surveyor of the highways throughout the county was appointed, at a salary of twenty pounds per annum ; rewards were given to parish officers employed thereon to encourage them in their activity, allowances made towards hedging and fencing to those who gave their ground for widening them, and various other improvements were suggested and acted
1 These parishes were Llanddew, Llanspyddid, Hay, and St. David's in LUufaes.
28 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
upon by this truly public spirited association. But patriotic and laudable as these efforts most certainly were, the subscription of individuals was found totally inadequate to answer the desired ends. In 1767, therefore, resort was had to Parhament, and an Act passed to repair and widen the principal roads in the county of Brecon. Under the authority of this law the Commissioners erected toll gates and turnpike houses, and proceeded to put the spirit of the Act into execution ; to enable them to carry their design into effect, they were empowered to borrow £10,000 on the credit of the tolls, and to take such other steps as might be expedient and conduce to the furtherance of the work.
Under these and other laws which followed at different times considerable improvements were made in the direction and formation of the roads, the convenience and comfort of travellers promoted, and the profits of the produce of the earth were increased rapidly. For many years after the estabhsh- ment of the stage coach by Sir. Harper of the Golden Lion, it continued to run only to Brecon ; soon after the tm-npike road was finished it was extended to Carmartlien, and upon the adoption of Mr Palmer's plan an attempt was made to bring the mail by coach through Hereford and Hay, but some real or imaginary difficulties occurring in this route, it took the road through Gloucester Monmouth, Abergavenny, Brecon and Carmarthen, to Milford, every night in the week, excepting on Tuesday, and Friday on the return. Several waggons were also established for the carriage of heavy articles to and from Brecon and the other towns in that country, which set out and returned every week, so that a comparative bustle and activity prevailed there.
And here let the reader who desires to pursue this subject refer to the Records of Quarter Sessions dealing with roads, in the first Volume at page 149.
THE BRECON AND ABERGAVENNY CANAL.
In 1792, the Monmouthsliire Canal Navigation Company was authorised by Act of Parhament (32 Geo. 3, c. 102) to make a navigable canal from Pontnewynydd to Newport and other subsidiary works. They were authorised to supply the Canals from any river within 2,000 yards of their works, and to construct reservoirs, doing as little damage as possible. The water for the main canal was to ,be taken from the Afon Llwyd stream, that for the supply of a subsidiary canal from the River Ebbw.
In the following year (1793) the Brecon and Abergavenny Canal Navigation Company were empowered (33 Geo. 3, c. 96) to make a navigable canal from the town of Brecon to a junction with the Monmouthshire Canal near the town of Pontypool, at a place called Pontymoile, which canal would open an easy communication between the town of Brecknock (always so spelt in the Act), the town of Abergaveimy, the county of Monmouth, and the seaports of the Kingdom. The Company was further authorised to make railways and roads for the passage of wagons from the canal, and so open communication with various iron works and coUieries, and with extensive tracts of land abounding with iron, coal, lime-stone, and other minerals.
The names of the proprietors included those of the Duke of Beaufort, of Theophilus Jones, and apparently of all men of hght and leading in the county, many of whose descendants are still with us, while others have passed into the realms of the forgotten. These were united into a company with powers to make and maintain the canal, and specified roads and railways ; also to make roads and railways to any place within the distance of eight miles from the intended canal, a very wide power which has proved of use in the opening up of mineral wealth. They had the widest powers of taking any water within 2,000 yards of their undertaking, making satisfaction to the owners for aU damages sustained by reason of the powers given.
The Canal should not exceed 26 yards in breadth in ordinary places, nor five feet in depth below the present surface of the ground, but for tm-ning places, wharves, etc., a breadth of 80 yards was given.
All persons residing within the Counties of Brecknock and Monmouth, having an estate of £100 a year in land within the counties, or an equivalent in money, were appointed Commissioners to determine all questions arising between the Company and landowners, with very wide powers of arbitration. They might at any time settle what money should be paid by the Company as recom- pense for any damages which shall at any time be sustained by bodies corporate, or other person, being owners of or interested in any lands, waters, etc., by reason of the making or maintaining the canal and other works. The Company must also make convenient watering places for cattle where the cattle are by the canal deprived of those they had been accustomed to use, and to supply the same with water, and where the works interfered with any river or water course hitherto used for
THE HISTORY OF BUECKlsrOCKSHTRE. 28
supplying any mills or dwelling houses, or watering any farms near to tiie Canal, then the Company should convey to those places water for those purposes at their own charge. There were also many other powers to protect neighbouring landowners from flood, accident, and other dangers.
The Company were empowered to raise a capital of £100,000 in shares, the value of which should not exceed £100, and of which no one person should hold more than 50. The Company also had power to raise a further sum of £50,000 amongst themselves. Then follow at great length regulations as to ways and means, meetings, and rates and tolls, both on canal, road, and rail, with many rules for the proper user of the Canal, with penalties on persons who shall leave drawbridges open, or obstruct the navigation, or leave open wantonly or carelessly any lock, paddle, valve, or clough belonging to the Canal, so as to mis-spend or waste the water, in that case the offender shall pay a sum not exceeding five pounds.
It was further lawful for the Company to make navigable cuts to any place within four miles of the canal. Proprietors of mines, too, may make similar cuts, so that the same be done without diverting any water which shall be necessary for supplying the canal, and so that the said persons shall (if thereto required by the Company) erect a stop gate on every such cut to prevent the water being drained from the Canal.
Owners of land may erect wharves on their lands and, apparently, charge rates for the use thereof. The exclusive right of fishery is reserved to the owners of land through which the Canal passes, and, where the Canal passes through a Common, to the lord of the manor. These privileged persons have, moreover, the right to use pleasure boats not exceeding five feet in breadth and twelve in length, free of toll, so as they do not pass through locks, and the owners make a con- venient tie by, and do not suffer their boats to be moored in the Canal itself.
And whereas, in consideration of the advantages to be derived by the Company of the Mon- mouthshire Canal Navigation from the junction of the two Canals, they have agreed to make the payment hereinafter mentioned to the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal Company : the said Monmouth- shire Company shall pay to the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal Company the sum of £3,000, and shall not take for any merchandise, &c., which shall pass in boats to or from the said Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal any greater rate of tonnage than shall be taken by the Brecknock and Aber- gavenny Canal Co. for any merchandise passing on the Brecon and Abergavenny Canal. What the advantages gained by the Monmouthshire Company were is not stated ; possibly increased traffic was looked forward to, or perhaps the water feeder may have been in the minds of the contracting parties.
In view of many vexed questions outstanding in 1899 the section following is of interest : ' ' Limitations of Actions. — If any action shall be brought against any person for anything done in pursuance of this Act, every such action shall be commenced within six calendar months after the fact committed."
The Act has been quoted, it is hoped, at sufficient length to give an accurate idea of the powers, rights, and obligations of the Brecon and Abergavenny Canal Co. It is difficult now (1900) to obtain a copy of the Act, and in future years that difficulty may increase.
The first object to which the Company directed its attention was the construction of a tramway to bring coal and iron into the Valley of the Usk at Llangrwyne, through a rugged dell called Cwm- clydach to the mountain at a place called Rhyd y blew or Hairford. The road was finished in the spring of the year 1796. It was nine miles and six furlongs in length. The cutting of the Canal was commenced in April, 1796, and was navigable to Llangynidr Bridge, a length of eight miles and a half, in November, 1797. The remaining ten miles thence to Brecon was completed in December, 1800, and on the 24th of that month the first boat-load of coal was brought to that town from GeUifelen CoUiery in Llanelly, being part of the Brecknock possessions of the Duke of Beaufort. Repeated shps impeded the navigation for the next two or three years and added enormously to the cost of construction.
The £150,000 was now entirely expended, and the money authorized as capital having been used up, it became necessary to again apply to Parliament to enable the Company to borrow a sum not exceeding £80,000 by optional loans (Act 1804, 44 Greo. 3). At this time, the workmen were employed at Llanfoist, near Abergavenny.
As to pecuniary success much difference of opinion existed, but the promoters congratulated themselves on one advantage hardly to be too highly estimated, namely, the unfaihng supply of water in the driest seasons ; in the autumn of 1803, when other canals suffered from want of water, the Brecon and Abergavenny Canal was copiously supphed and its banks full. The tonnage on the
30 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
finished part of the Canal from Lady-day, 1803, to Lady-day, 1804, amounted to £3,007, almost exclusively coal and iron. Merchandize could not reach the Canal, the junction with the Monmouth- shire Canal not being then effected. The Canal contains four feet six inches of water, and is ten yards wide, being calculated for the navigation of boats carrying a load of 25 tons. The voyage from Clydach to Brecon took one day in summer and two in winter. From Brecon to Llangynidr, a distance of ten miles, there were six locks and a fall of 59 feet 8 inches ; thence to the junction with the Monmouthshire Canal, being about 14 miles, there is no lock, but on the Monmouthshire Canal between the junction, the distance being only 8^ miles, there are 34 locks and a fall of 340 feet. Thence to the Bristol Channel there is a further fall of 12 feet ; so, calculates Theophilus Jones, with remarkable accuracy, Brecon is 411 feet above the level of the sea.
Such was the Canal, described at the period of its construction, as a great county work, with many hopes for the future. It has passed from Company to Company, \vith objects of their own far different from the loyal patriotism of its original promoters, whose first general assembly was held at the Golden Lion in Brecknock on the 16th May, 1793. Commercially it proved a failure and a source of heart-burning and bitterness to the very town it was intended specially to benefit.
In 1835 (5 and 6 William 4th, c. 75) The Ne^vport Dock Company were incorporated, and authorised to construct the Newport Docks ; they took powers to draw their chief water supply from the river Ebbw, from which an acqueduct was contemplated, but not constructed till 1854. They were also authorized to make a communication with the Monmouthshire Canal, and take the super- fluous water therefrom for their own purposes, and for the use of certain wharves in connection with their docks.
The effect that this arrangement was to have upon Brecon and its Canal was probably not at the time apparent. The Monmouthshire Canal was, it is true, connected with that from Brecon to Abergavenny and received some water from it, but it had independent sources of supply, and the connection of the Monmouth Canal with the Docks seems to have created no alarm. Newport was a small place, the dock now knowTi as the old dock, completed in 1842, was but four and a half acres. In 1858 it received an addition of 7| acres, thus being increased to thrice its original size, while the increasing trade has since necessitated the building of the Alexandra Docks (opened in 1875) with a water area of 25 acres, and with 400 acres of land reserved, suitable for the con- struction of wharves and warehouses, and for the extension of the Dock area.
At the commencement of the last century, Newport was a village of 1,135 inhabitants, not so large as Hay or Builth ; in 1831, the census before the Dock Company was formed, the population had increased to 7,062, a towTi about the size of Brecon. Twenty years after, the population exceeded 20,000, and in 1891 the population was 54,707, considerably more than that of the administrative county of Brecknock. In 1882, 2,143 vessels in the foreign trade cleared outwards, with an aggregate of over a milHon tons burden, while of the coasting trade there entered 8,020 vessels of 1,048,000 tons, and the trade is continually increasing, there being a larger iron trade than at any port in the Kingdom.
It was about the time of the opening of the first Ne\vport Dock in 1842, at the instigation of several traders whose boats passed along the canals, and who complained that the lowness of the water impeded their traffic, that the Brecon Canal Company are said to have increased the size of the feeder from the Usk above Brecon. No remonstrance or objection seems to have been made. The cause of the low state of the water in the Canal then complained of, may very well have been due to the great quantity of water now for the first time let out of the Monmouth Canal for the use of the newly constructed dock.
In 1845 (8 and 9 Vic, c. 159), the Monmouthshire Company were authorised to construct a railway from Newport to Pontj'pool, and when the fine was finished, to abandon so much of their Canal as was above the junction with the Brecon Canal ; in Heu thereof to make culverts to convey the water from the Afon Llwyd stream and the reservoirs to their Canal below the junction. To the Brecon Company were preserved all their rights. In the year 1849 the Monmouthshire Company did abandon so much of their Canal as lies between Pontnewynydd and Pontypool, and in 1853 the section between Pontypool and the junction with the Brecon Canal was also given up. They did not, however, maintain the connection between their Canal and their former independent sources of water supply, but after this date depended entirely on the water fiowing through the Brecon Canal to their junction, to supply the Monmouth Canal below the junction.
In 1854 (17 and 18 Vic, c 185) the Newport Dock Company obtained powers to increase their works (s. 26) and to construct an acqueduct from the river Ebbw, and also to divert the water of the Monmouth Canal. Their former Act had been hmited to the superfluous water ; now all the
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 31
water of the Monmouthshire Canal was available for dock purposes, the Monmouthshire Company having abandoned their independent sources of supply, the whole of the water was of Breclmock origin. The Brecon Company thus found that a larger quantity of water was drawn down from their Canal through the Monmouth Canal to the prejudice of their own navigation. They threatened to prevent water passing from their Canal to that of the Monmouth Company. At the junction of the two canals were lock gates, and a lock-keeper's house, at which a clerk of the Brecon Company resided ; the gates were dilapidated, but the Brecon Company now repaired them. They then remon- strated with the Dock Company, who replied that they took no more than necessary waste, but obtained their supply from the river Ebbw. This river frequently runs dry, and in fine weather during the autumn of 1856 the Brecon Company let out their water for a fortnight for repair ; whereupon the Secretary of the Dock Company is said to have written to the Clerk of the Brecon Canal begging him to have the water let in again at once, as the Dock Company were in '" a deuce of a mess for want of it."
To this point the history is chiefly taken from a case prepared for the Brecon Canal Company who desired to know (1) whether the Monmouthshire Company were entitled to part with any water beyond waste from the locks of their Canal ; (2) whether the Brecon Company might put a level lock between the two canals and prevent water passing from Brecon to Monmouth Canal ; (3) whether in such case if any delay took place the Brecon Company or the freighter would have any remedy ; (4) whether the Brecon Company are entitled to take as much water as they can from the Usk at Brecon, and, by connivance with the Monmouthshire Company, to sell such as is not required for their traffic, to the Dock Company for the supply of their docks at Newport.
The rephes to these questions, made by Mr. J. W. Phipson, were (1) that the Monmouthshire Company were not entitled to part with water other than the waste from working their locks ; (2) that the level lock was not allowable, the Act contemplating the junction of two canals, and the use of water may have been an inducement to the Monmouthshire Company to consent to the junction (and, it may be added, to make a free gift of £3,000) ; (3) that no one could sue the Monmouthshire Company for delay due to the action of Brecon ; (4) that the Brecon Company might not take from the Usk an unhmited supply for the purpose of sale to the Newport Dock Company. Whilst the operation produced no evil consequences to any proprietor on the Usk probably no difficulty would arise. It was by no mean uncommon for Canal Companies to sell their surplus water ; but in strictness it was thought that the ParUamentary right of the Company was limited to waste water required for navigation. The traffic on the Brecon Canal had now become much diminished, and the Company were unwilling to embark in expensive htigation to protect their rights. Moreover, the interchange of traffic was of vital importance to the Brecon Company. So nothing was done.
In 1865 a solution was found for the difficulties between the two Companies. Parhamentary powers were obtained enabling the Monmouthshire Company to buy the Brecon Canal ; all the rights, authorities, and agreements (s. 27) vested in the Brecon Company were on the completion of the sale to be exercised by the Monmouthshire Company. A clause was inserted (28) for the protection of salmon by means of a grating at the entrance of the Newton Mill feeder (a well-meaning enact- ment, but it seems to have authorized the existing aperture, which, being about three feet square, is capable in dry weather of swallowing all the water in the river). The purchase was concluded, and the Brecon Company obtained release from an unprofitable speculation, which was now scarcely of use to Brecon, the town being about this time placed in railway communication with Swansea, Merthyr, Newport, Hereford, and the North. The purchase price, £24,750, brought them £25 per share, which share had been previously almost unsaleable, though some few had been parted with at £8 each.
Much of the foregoing has been abstracted from a second case stated for counsel on behalf of the Board of Conservators of the river Usk, riparian owners, and the Corporation of Brecon. The sale had been chiefly effected by the late Mr. Crawshay Bailey, senr., and Mr. John Lloyd, senr., of Dinas ; Sir Joseph Bailey, Bart., (1st Baron Glanusk) being also a director of the Company. Shortly after the sale of the property by Mr Lloyd, senr., and others, an opinion was asked of Mr. Manesty, the case being put somewhat shortly. It was apparently on behalf of the Usk and Ebbw Board of Conservators, and is endorsed "John Lloyd, junr., 1867, Nov. 19." Mr. Manesty, "on the facts stated," was of opinion that the Company could not be prevented taking water from the Usk at Newton Mill, the quantity of water which they at present take, notwithstanding it is more than is required for their navigation. If the culvert of supply had not been enlarged for twenty years then, having regard to the twenty years' user, it seemed to him that the Companies had acquired the right as against the Conservators of the Usk and Ebbw and against the riparian proprietors, to take into the Canal fi'om the Usk as much water as will flow the existing culvert
32 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
at Newton Mill, and that it was not competent for riparian owners to complain of the use which tiie Company afterwards made of that water, provided they fulfilled the obligations imposed upon them by the Legislature as regarded navigation, &c.
This opinion not proving satisfactory to the proposed litigants, in the following year an amended case was prepared for counsel, and they added to it a schedule of Canal Companies and individuals alleged to be illegally receiving a supply of water from the Usk at Brecon by means of the Brecon Canal, viz., J. Prothero, Brecon, pipe to saw mills ; Sir J. Bailey, Crickhowell, 6-inch pipe to turbine (the above are from the Brecon Canal) ; Great Western Railway, 8-inch and 4-inch pipes to engine sheds at Pontypool ; Monmouthshire Canal, total supply ; Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company, pipes for engine sheds at Pontypool ; Oakfield Iron Works, Cwmbran, 6-inch pipe ; Ne\vport Docks, water ad libitum. Two cases, practically identical, were prepared in the year 1868 and laid before Mr J. H. Lloyd and Mr. Paterson, in which counsel were asked to advise the Board of Conservators, the riparian owners, and the Brecon Board of Health, (1) whether the Monmouthshire Company (as successors to the Brecon Company) are justified in withdrawing from the River Usk any larger supply of water than is required for the purposes of the navigation of the Canal from Brecon to the PontymoUe junction ; (2) whether the Monmouthshire Company, having volimtarily abandoned their own supplies of water, have derived the right either by previous user, or by the purchase of the canal of the Brecon Canal Company, of withdrawing water from the Usk for the supply of their [original] canal between Pontymoile and Newport ; (3) if so, whether they are justified in withdrawing from the Usk any larger supply of water than is required for the purposes of the navigation of the canal from Brecon to the Pontymoile junction, and of the canal from that junction to Newport ; (4) whether the right to withdraw water from the Usk at Brecon by the means of the Brecon Canal in excess of that required for the navigation of the Brecon Canal, and also of the Newport Canal, is at all affected by the length of time during which they may have supplied the Newport Docks or other companies or individuals with water from this canal ; (5) whether there is any difference between that portion of the water which they convey to the Newport Docks and that which they sell to other companies or to individuals; (6) if the Monmouthshire Company are not justified [in the above acts] what is the proper proceeding to prevent the excessive abstraction of water from the Usk and the continuation of its unfair apphcation ; (7) by whom such proceedings should be taken, whether by the Board of Conservators, the Corporation of Brecon, or the riparian owners ; (8) against whom should such pro- ceedings be taken, the Monmouthshire Company, the Newport Dock Company, or the companies or persons who take the water from the canal.
The opinion of Mr. J. Paterson bears date October 3rd, 1868 ; that of Mr. J. H. Lloyd, November 7th. The learned counsel agree in points 1, 2, and 3. Mr. Paterson writes : "1, 2, 3, 4 — I am of opinion that the Monmouthshire Canal Company are not entitled to divert any of the water of the Usk except for the purpose of maintaining the navigabihty of the Brecon Canal between Brecon and Pontymoile. The facts of their having purchased the Brecon Canal does not enlarge their rights quoad the Brecon Canal, which must still depend on the Brecon Acts so far as they are unrepealed. Whether the Monmouthshire Company have in point of fact used the water of the Usk to feed the Monmouthshire Canal and Newport Docks, and whether they have done so for a longer or a shorter time, or with or without the consent or acquiescence of interested parties, is mmaterial. Their rights and duties are prescribed by their several Acts of Parliament, and no consent of parties can be set up to justify any violation of a statute of this kind," With regard to 4, Mr. J. H. Lloyd adds "as against individual riparian proprietors, a sort of prescriptive right might be acquired by long user, though I think it very doubtful whether in this particular case it could be successfully set up ; but if the effect of the abstraction of the water in quantity sufficient to supply the Newport Docks is to diminish the volume of water so as to affect the pubhc by creating what would be regarded as a nuisance, it is clear that no length of time would legitimate such a user, and no acquiescence pre- clude the application of a remedy." As to 5, Mr. J. H. Lloyd writes: "The case against the Monmouthshire Company is of course stronger and more free from question in the case of water supplied by them to millowners and others for purposes unconnected with the navigation, and the fact that they do so supply it to millowners and others should be a prominent item in the com- plaint against them." Dealing with question 6, Mr. Patterson wrote : "I think that the proper remedy is to apply to the Court of Queen's Bench for a writ of mandamus to compel the Monmouthshire Canal Company to erect good and sufficient locks at Pontymoile for the purpose of regulating the discharge of water from the Brecon Canal occasioned by the passage of boats thereupon into the Monmouthshire Canal and vice versa.'' Mr. J. H. Lloyd wrote : "' On the matter of procedure I am less competent to advi.se; it will be desirable to consult an equity barrister." As to 7. Mr. Paterson 8^id : "Any riparian owner of the Usk between Brecon and the tidal flow has a right to apply for
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. S3
a mandamus for each and all have a good cause of action against the Monmouthshire Company for wasting water over and above the requirements of the Brecon Canal proper. The prosecution of the remedy is a proper subject for combination between the various riparian owners and others interested, but it will be sufficient to select any one riparian owner as the prosecutor of the mandamus." Question 8, as to this he replied : ' ' The remedy must be taken against the Monmouthshire Company. With regard to the selling of Brecon Canal water to individuals, each riparian owner has a cause of action against the Monmouthshire Company for granting away the water to third parties, and the remedy to prevent this is either an injunction in the Court of Chancery to restrain the company so selling, or an action on the case at common law coupled with a claim of injunction. Probably the mandamus to compel the stop gate would be the best remedy, at least to begin with, for the Mon- mouthshire Company would no doubt soon discover their error and voluntarily discontinue supplying the parties with water."
Mr. J. H. Lloyd in his answer to query 6, having disclaimed the competency to advise on proce- dure, a further case was submitted to Mr. Paterson, in November, 1869, on difficulties which arose. A combination to a hmited extent was at that date entered into. The Corporation of Brecon, acting as the Local Board of Health, did not feel inclined to take any active part inasmuch as their drains were carried into the river (since 1869 this has been altered and a sewage farm formed at Brynich, — and it might very well be contended that the offensive state of the Usk during the summer of 1869 was due as much to their drains as to the abstraction of water, but (say they for whom the case was drawn — no names given) the drainage would have done no harm if the water had not been abstracted. Lord Tredegar, the principal riparian owner near Brecon, was the chairman of the Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company. Sir J. R. Bailey (the writer of these notes), the next largest riparian proprietor, was a nephew of the vice-chairman (the late Mr. Crawshay Bailey, senr.) and prizes his six-inch pipe from the canal. Mr. John Lloyd, senr., of Dinas, hesitated because, as one of the Committee of the Brecon Canal Company, he winked at the undue abstraction of water in his time, and because he was instrumental in selling the concern to the Monmouthshire Company. The Duke of Beaufort objected to be plaintiff as being a duke. Mrs. Gwynne Holford objected as being a lady, and the trustees of Mr. C. H. Leigh as being trustee only for a minor. Mr. William de Winton appeared objectionable as he had let the fishing. And these were all the owners to speak of for twelve miles below the town of Brecon. There is but one mill in that length, and that owned by Sir J. R. Bailey. The occupier said he was much injured by the abstraction of the water, having been able to work half-time only during the droughts of 1869, but his landlord did not wish him to move. This miU is so smaU that it seems never to have been let separate, but jointly with the adjoining farm of Millbrook.
A correspondence took place between solicitors, but the matter was carried no further. And so the contemplated action of 1869 went to sleep again. It was revived in 1899, when the evil was again increased, the Swansea authorities having, under their Water Act, taken part of the head waters of the Usk to supply their town. But it has not yet come to a trial. There have, however, been some alterations made to the weir immediately above the intake to the canal, and it is claimed for this arrangement that there is now a better flow of water into the Usk from Newton Pool during the summer months than was before possible. From time to time attempts have been made to revive the boat traffic upon the canal, but for many years there has been no regular service into Brecon, although occasionally a boat-load of merchandize is brought up the canal to the wharf in the Watton.
RAILWAYS EST THE COUNTY.
The enthusiasm for laying down pubUc rail-roads, which had resulted in considerable progress being made in Enghsh counties, did not reach Breconshire until about the year 1859, although an earUer project had been outlined fourteen years earlier for making a railway affecting some parts of the county. The Brecon and Merthyr Railway was the first undertaking, and after the expenditure of a considerable sum of money, traffic was commenced on the 1st of May, 1863. A year and a haK later the Mid-Wales Railway, extending from Brecknock to Llanidloes, was opened. The Hereford, Hay and Brecon was another route opened later, and it may be of interest to note that in 1863, Lady Morgan, of Tredegar, cut the first sod for this railway in Penlan Park, but the then intended route was abandoned in favour of the present one. The Neath and Brecon was completed by the year 1872. Attempts have been made to link up the Crickhowell Valley by railway, -with a junction at Talyllyn, but although some expense was incurred in securing powers, the scheme was allowed to drop. These railway services put an end to the stage coach and carrier businesses.
CHAPTER III.
Brecknockshire Agricultural Society, its Establishment, Rules, &c. Observations on the Soil of the Hundred of Builth, Talgarth and Vale of Usk, Size of Farms and Nature of Tenures, Course of Husbandry, Breed of Cattle, Horses and Sheep, Common Manures, Prices of Labour in this County, &c.
THE Breconshire Agricultural Society was first instituted in the month of March, 1755, being as early, if not the earliest association of this kind in the island ; it originated in a club or meeting of some respectable gentlemen of the county, assembled at stated periods for amusement and social intercourse, but which the pubhc spirit of the party directed to more beneficial purposes. A magistrate of considerable literary talents moved with an almost mysterious conciseness, "that something should be done to benefit the county"; this being seconded and the motion carried, that something was instantly defined to be the estaJbUshment of a society to be called the Brecknockshire society, formed for the encouragement of agriculture and manufactures, and promoting the general good of the county. At their second meeting on April 16th, 1755, the following rules were submitted and adopted.
I. It 13 agreed by all the members that no other person shall be admitted but by the approbation of a majority of the present subscribers, to be determined by ballot, and pay five shillings each for admission. — Gentlemen who refused to subscribe before to thii first meeting to pay one guinea each.
n. Every subscriber to pay for his ordinary each meeting one shilling, and to pay for his extraordinary the like sum.
III. Every member absenting himself from dinner to forfeit one shilling towards the ordinary, and the like sum towards the general fund of the society.
IV. Dinner to be on table at two o'clock, and the society to break up at ten.
V. Any member to be at liberty, with the consent of the president of the day, to bring a friend to dine ; he paying for such friend's ordinary and extraordinary.
VT. All fines and forfeitures to be applied to the common fund, and to be disposed of by the majority of the members ; no less than twenty one to be present.
VII. All questions or differences of opinion to be referred to the president, but if a ballot is demanded, the majority shall decide. VIII. WTien any member speaks on matters relating to the society he is to stand up and direct his discourse to the president, if two or more should be up at the same time, the president to name the person first to be heard.
IX. If an equal number should appear upon any ballot, the president to have the casting vote.
CHARLES POWEL, President. SUBSORIBINO MEMBERS.
Sir EDWARD WILLIAMS, Baronet JOHN HUGHES, Esq. HUGH PENRY. Esq. CHARLES DAVIDS, Esq. JOHN PHILLIPS, Esq. WILLIAM MORGAN, Clerk THOMAS WILLIAMS, Clerk MARMADUKE GWYNNE, Esq.
EDWARD JEFFREYS, Esq. JAMES PARRY, Esq. CH.A.RLES LLOYD, Clerk BARTHOLOMEW COKE, Surgeon JOHN LLOYD, Esq. JOHN WILLIAMS. Clerk PENRY WILLIAMS, Esq. THOMAS PRICE, Esq.
ENROLMENT OF MEMBERS.
Fifty members were at once enrolled, and meetings were held at the Golden Lion, Brecon (now in 1900 the offices of the Brecon Gas Company). Some idea of the accommodation of this house will be gleaned from the following advertisement which appeared on a handbill of that period : — " To be let and entered upon at Michaelmas next, 1778, all that well-known Inn called the Golden Lyon, now very considerably enlarged, situate near the Shire Hall, in the town of Brecon, with very good stalls for upwards of 50 horses and other conveniences proper for a large inn, with or without 42 acres of land near the said town ; and also with or \vithout a new-built dweUing house adjoining the said inn, in which the Judges have lately lodged during the Great Sessions."
From the old minute book of orders which Colonel Thomas Wood, of Gwernyfed, in 1895, pre- sented to the Breconshire Agricultural Society, it appears that the members dined together once a month, and that not less than 30 attended. Dinner was laid on the table at two, and the Society was supposed to break up at ten. It is not surprising that two years after formation it was found necessary to pass the following resolution : " Whereas it has been found inconvenient to do any
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 35
business while the liquor is going roitnd, it is therefore proposed that after drinking the healths of the King, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Royal Family, the absent '"members, and Prosperity to the Society, and the healths of other members and I subscribers, the Society proceed to business, and that no liquor be called for or drunk till all debates are over ! " To the honour of Mr. Howel Harris be it recorded that in those hard drinking days he steadily set his face against the drinking at the Society's meetings. t 0<^l<:> f '^^■l
THE FIRST PRIZES OFFERED. J_/C^^ J i J:
Their attention was first turned towards the sowing and cultivation of turnips for feeding sheep and cattle, for which they offered a premium of five pounds to the person who raised the best crop on a farm of fifty pounds per annum and upwards, and inferior premiums to the second best, and for raising crops on smaller farms, which they afterwards increased, and it must be admitted that after experiencing difficulties and encountering prejudices suggested by that dishke and hatred of innovation which characterises the country, they ultimately succeeded in introducing this valuable vegetable into general use in this part of the Principality. In their next attempt they were not so fortunate. At their meeting in September, 1755, it was proposed and agreed to, that a premium of four pounds should be given to the person who would produce before the 29th of September, 1756, the best piece of drab coloured cloth, manufactured in this county, from raw wool, the produce thereof measuring twenty-one yards long and one yard wide ; two pounds for the second best, and one pound for the third. This subject was again followed up at their subsequent meetings, and one of the members (the late Mr. Powel, of Castlemadoc) was empowered to lay out a sum not exceeding five pounds in purchasing wheels and other necessaries for spinning flax and wool, and in order to promote the trade it was proposed to establish a market within this county for woollen yarn.
MANUFACTTTRE OF CLOTH.
If this market were ever held it was not of long continuance. Claims were at different times made and allowed for the manufacture of woollen cloth, pursuant to the regulations of the Society, but either the poverty or incapacity of the tradesmen employed in these works, or else a hint of the opposition from Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, or perhaps all of these causes combined, con- tributed to deaden the exertions of commercial men, and cramp that spirit of enterprise so absolutely necessary to the success of speculations of this nature. A similar fate marked the attempt of this Society to establish a Unen manufacture in the vicinity of Brecon, but this, notwithstanding the advantage pointed out in the memorial or proposals copied above, though more expensive, was a less useless project as far as it affected the interests of the county and PrincipaUty. The failure of this speculation injured only the individuals that subscribed towards it, but the loss or rather the obstruc- tions thrown in the way of the establishment of the manufacture of woollen cloths on an extensive plan, was a provincial if not a national misfortune.
The Society continued to encourage and promote this trade, though their efforts gradually relaxed until about the year 1780, after which, with the exception of a few premiums for spinning, their attention was principally directed to agriculture. The rewards offered by this institution in 1800 were confined to the following objects : The cultivation and improvement of rough land overrun with fern, broom, furze or heath, draining boggy soils, sowing, hoeing and driUing turnips, sowing turnip seed, rye, winter vetches or cole seed, as spring fodder for sheep, top dressing turnips, young clover or grassland with peat ashes, sowing clover, acorns, ashkeys, chestnut, beech-mast and other timber trees, raising hawthorn plants and prickly holly plants fit for transplanting, improving the plough and lessening the number of horses or oxen used in tillage, encouraging women to reap wheat, rewarding men and women servants in agriculture, for their good behaviour and continuance for a length of time in the same service, discovering a recipe for the destruction of vermin and for the improvement of the breed of horses, cattle, and swine.
Besides the introduction of turnips into general cultivation, the Association also succeeded in their recommendation of clover and potatoes ; in vetches they were not so fortunate, though the soil of the greatest part of the county was peculiarly favourable to the growth of this vegetable, many different kinds of which, and among them that most beautiful of the whole species, the orobus sylvaticus, being frequently found growing wild in our woods and fields.
THREATENED FRENCH INVASION.
Beneficial as these exertions were to the interest and prosperity of the county of Brecon, the subscribers did not forget they owed a paramount duty to their Sovereign and to their country at
36 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
large. When, therefore, this kingdom was threatened with an invasion by the French in 1756, the following loyal address was presented to the Throne : —
"To the King's most excellent Majesty."
The humble and dutiful address of the Breconshire Society, formed for the encourageineiit of agriculture and manufactures, and for promoting the general good of the county, assembled at their general monthly meeting held at Brecon, on Wednesday, March 10, 1766.
May it please your Majesty,
We your majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, with hearts filled with grateful sentiments of your majesty's paternal care for the welfare of these kingdoms, do humbly beg leave to express the deep sense wo have of your majesty's wisdom in the vigorous measures you have so steadily pursued, in asserting your undoubted right to your American dominions, in the prudent and interesting treaties you have so successfully concluded, and in the happy effects of your great humanity and royal bounty to the unfortunate sufferers at Lisbon.
These, with many other instances of your majesty's wisdom and benevolence, all concur to add fresh glories to your reign, to render your person and government dear to the heart of every Briton, and to defeat the insolent and unjust unsurpation of an ambitious and perfidious power, envious of your goodness and our happiness — and if an invasion or any other emergency during the present critical conjuncture, should require your majesty's loyal subjects to appear in the defence of your sacred person or the security of the protestant succession in your illustrious house, we hope our actions will then declare how sensible we are of the benefits derived to us, from the wisdom and equity of your majesty's government : in support of which, we with true zeal offer to form ourselves into a troop ojf light horse complete, and will be ready to march, at your majesty's command and at our own ex] ence, to any part of Great Britain, under the discipline and command of such experienced officers as yoiu- majesty may be pleased to send for that purpose, and most gracious sovereign, if this method of shewing our sincere attachment to your majesty and illustrious family should not meet with your majesty's royal approbation, we are ready to dispose of our persons and fortunes in such a manner as your majesty in your great wisdom may tliink expedient.
And as the prosperity and safety of the nation entirely depend, under God, on the continuance of our present happiness, from the mfluence of your majesty's wisdom and justice, we therefore offer up our most ardent prayers to the great and supreme disposer of all things, for the health and preservation of your royal person, and that your endeavours for the public welfare may be attended with success and crowned with honour, so that the present crisis may hereafter appear among the shining periods of the British history.
WILLIAJVI POWEL, Gent., President. Upon this occasion, Mr. Howel Harris, of Trevecca, a popular and distinguished preacher among the Methodists of Mr. Whitfield's tenets, proposed to the Society that if bis Majesty should accept of their offer, he would at his own expense furnish ten light horsemen completely armed and accoutred to attend tbem as an addition to their troup ; that on the 20th of April, 1756, he would bring ten men to enhst on the then emergency, and that the bounty-money allowed such recruits should be paid to the Treasurer of the Society, to be laid out by the members as they should think proper. The services of these agriculturists were deemed more hkely to be beneficial to their country in a civil than in a military capacity, but Mr. Harris procured the recruits at his own expense, and the bounties aUowed by Government were paid into the hands of the Treasurer, and apphed in rewarding industry and promoting the improvement of the county of Brecknock.
For this patriotic offer, as well as contribution to the fund, Mr. Harris was elected an honorary member, as was his brother, the celebrated astronomer, Mr. Joseph Harris.
The records of the Society deaUng with the subject state that " upon the motion of Rev. Mr. Canon Wilhams, of Brecon, tlie Treasurer pay into his hands £14 12s. 6d., tlie county money for five recruits brought by Mr. Howel Harris to Three Cocks and there enlisted, which sum of £14 12s. 6(1. was paid into the hands of the Treasurer, which Mr. Williams is to remit to the said recruits, and if they refuse the money, he engaging to return same to the Treasurer of the Society." The five recruits here referred to went to Hereford, where they joined the 5Sth Regiment, and thence to Plymouth, thl orders came for them to embark to Ireland, and as the seat of war between England and France was chiefly then in America, further orders came for that regiment to sail, so they embarked at Cork and landed at Nova Scotia. They fought in the seige and taking of Louis- bourg, and their next enterprise was at the taking of Quebec, where the brave General Wolfe lost his life. The last place they were present at was the taking of Havanna from the Spaniards. Four of these young men died a natural death in that part of the world, and the fifth was taken prisoner by the French. This man when peace was concluded reached England, where he was offered prefer- ment, but came home to Trefecca, and here he was gladly received by aU the family after an absence of seven years.
HOWEL HARMS AND THE POOR.
Mr. Howel Harris corroborates this account in his diary, in the following words: " I was admitted last night to the Brecon Society and my name written in their book. Sir Edward Williams proposed me as a honorary member to come and go whenever I could, to be always treated by ye president. They seated me on their right hand. i proposed about taking the poor of the county under my care and do whatever service I could to them gratis, and let them come to hear me once a day, and 1 to visit them myself, and Evan Roberts to look after them gratis, and the Society to order and oversee them, which they agreed to do, and I proposed giving Penywrlodd House (near Trevecka)
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 37
gratis. I discussed with Mr. Cliarle^ PovvoH for aboat an hour oa ye plain truth ; my own conversion and my going about, and my present work at Trevecka. I went to Mr. John Meredith to dinner." It does not appear from the minutes that any order was made with regard to Mr. Harris's views to estabhsh a home for the poor. It is evident Mr. Harris was a man in advance of liis times, for in this proposal he embodied those regulations in the Poor Laws which came into operation 80 years later.
The following day Mr. Harris went to Penpont on a visit to Mr. Penrj' Williams. Mr WiUiams was anxious for the erection of a working school for the employment of young people, anticipating, by 150 years, legislation relating to technical instruction ; and Mr. Harris "discussed the matter with him. Mr Williams was favourable to a scheme whereby Mr Harris should take over the children of the poor in this matter, but Mr. Harris remarks : "I saw strong opposition in the Society for me to have the children under my care."
In the year 1895, the then Secretary of the Society (Rhys Davies, Esq., J.P., borough surveyor) was placed in the possession of an old Minute Book of the Society, which carried its records to the year 1762, when a new minute was ordered to be procured. From this Minute Book and other sources, Mr. Davies compiled a history of the Society, with list of presidents, so far as he was able to do so, but he could find no trace of the records kept during the time Thomas Longfellow and his son (who succeeded each other as secretary, and the latter of whom died in London in 1816). From the earliest records of the Association we learn that presidents were numerous, and practicaUy elected at each monthly meeting, to preside, we presume, over the deliberations of the day's meeting and the subsequent dinner. Later, this practice changed, and the election became an annual one ; and the long list contains the names of many notable men resident in the county or having property or interest therein.
DISCOVERY OF OTHER RECORDS.
And it may here be mentioned that since the death of Lord Glanusk, and after a good deal of this work had been sent to the printers, there was discovered an old account book of the Society, which helps to throw some light upon the work of the Society between the years 1817 and 1841. This account book fortunately got into the hands of James Morgan, Esq., J. P., Manager of Lloyds Bank at Brecon, who made the present secretary of the Society (Mr. W. T. Isaac, of Castle Farm, Brecon) aware of its existence. From this book we learn the following facts. First, the inscription on the book reads "An account of money received and disbursed by the Brecknockshire Agricultural Society since its revival, November 4th, 1817 (first established in the year 1755)." It is thus clear that this old Society, like its contemporary institution, the Brecknock Lodge of Freemasons, lapsed for a period of years, probably from 1802 or earUer to 1816. The first balance sheet of 1817, shows that the Agricultural Society received in subscriptions the sum of £69 6s. Od. It seems that the practice of meeting monthly was continued at this period, and from the frequent entries of "Cash paid to waiter," we presume the monthly dinners were also continued. The subscribers to the Society in 1817 are not all entered up in detail, but there are many names, such as Penry Williams, Esq., of Penpont (who was probably president this year), Hugh Bold, Esq., Osborne Yeats, Esq., Mr. Williams, Mannest, Col. Wood, M.P., Harcourt Powell, Esq., "Mr. Parry, Tretower, F. Fredericks, Esq., Thomas Maybery, Esq., Samuel Church, Esq., David Thomas, Esq., Augustus Gott, Esq., Mr. Charles Price, and others whose memory is perpetuated in memorials in the churches of the county. The expenditure this year included "Premiums as per Minute Book, £52 10s. Od." ; and "for two books to keep the accounts of the Society and to enter its transactions, £1 3s. 6d." ; "for printing in Hereford paper as per biU, £2 lOs. 9d.," and in the Cambrian £4 3s. 8d. ; "by money paid Thomas Powell, cabinet maker, £2"; and "Messrs. W. H. and J. Parker for printing 300 circular letters, 16s. 6d." ; the total expenditure being £67 9s. 4d., and the account was audited by "Hugh Bold, officiating chairman," on December 30, 1818.
In the following year's balance sheet appear the names of the Rev. Canon Payne, J. Bailey, Esq., Nantyglo, Mr. Howell Maund, Brecon, Mr, George Forrest, Cyfarthfa, John Lloyd, Esq., Mr. David Jeffreys, and the receipts rose to £94 7s. Id. The Show appears to have been held on the 29th September, for we find that a guinea was paid to Mr. Gunter and his assistants "for the use and erection of hurdles for the Show on that day," and a guinea was also paid " for the use of the field for the show of stock in September last " ; but there is nothing to indicate the nature of the Society's operations beyond the words "show of stock." There seems to have been some difficulty in finding judges, for we find a copy of a letter addressed to " William Williams, Esq., Scethrog," and signed by " W. H. West," in the following . terms : "Dear Sir, — Mr. John Powell " and myseh have been in vain trying to find or hear of a gentleman to act as judge for us on
3g THE HISTORY OF BRECKNTOCKSHIRE.
"Friday. Mr. Powell will be glad if you will come into Brecon to confer with him on the subject "this evening, as no time is to be lost, and it may be necessary to send off a purpose messenger." The balance in hand at the end of 1819 was £62 iOs. 4d., and 'Penry Williams signs the account.
The year 1820, has "Mr. Archibald of Abercyndrig," "Thomas Price, Esq., of Builth, for the years 1818, 1819, and 1820, £3 3s. Od.," Mr. Ekiris (one of the county coroners), William Morgan, Esq., of Bolgoed, Mr. Rees Williams, Tynewydd, and Mr. William Williams, Skethrog, among the new subscribers ; and there is the entry on the credit side, " Received of Mr. Wilhams, of Mannest, towards payment for his silver cup awarded to him at the autumn show, £2 2s. Od., the cup being ordered to the value of £6 6s. Od." And from another hke entry we learn that John Ball paid £2 2s. Od., " being the premium he received for 1818 for ewes, his plate being of the value of £10 10s. Od." On the expenditure side we note that Williams, Silversmith, was paid £26 5s. Od. for the different premiums, and "Mr. Williams, of Aberyskir," secured £2 2s. Od. "for the best ram for 1819." The receipts were £158 Is. Od., and after meeting the expenditure there remained a balance of £69 Is. 9d.
In 1821, the Duke of Beaufort, Major Price of Brecon, Mr. Churchey, Mr. WiUiams, Newton, G. Overton, Esq., Edward Jones, Esq., Battel, Rev. Canon Williams, Henry Allen, Esq., J. P. Wilkins, Esq., W. A. Madocks. Esq., M.P., were among other new subscribers, and the receipts, including last year's balance, were £160 8s. 9d. We have this entry in the expenditure, "Paid Mr. David Jenkins for inspecting and reporting on the turnip crops, for 1820, £2 2s. Od.," so that turnip growing was still being fostered by the Society. It appears that Mr. Hall, who was an inn- keeper of Brecon, had something to do ^vith the management of the Society, for we find he was paid £12 7s. 5d. "for advertising in Cambrian and other newspapers, as per bill"; and it should be noted that £2 2s. Od. was paid to Mrs. Hughes, printer, of Brecon, for printing. A large amount of money was given to purchase plate for premiums, and "Mr. Evan WiUiams, of Aberyskir," took £5 5s. Od. in silver plate, and the Penkelly Castle and ' ' Tenewidd ' ' farmers were also success- ful; Mr. Williams, Newton, for the best boar, gets £2 2s. Od., and "Jane West for long service" is paid £2 2s. Od. ' ' Henry Allen ' ' signs the account.
In 1822, Mr. Roger Watkins, of Llyswen, Thomas H. Powell, Esq., Peterstone, Mr. William Parry, Ceven y Cantreff, Rev. Geo. Jones Bevan, Crickhowell, Launcelot Morgan, Esq., W. H. Bevan, Esq., Beaufort Iron Works, Henry Goldsmid, Esq., Penymyarth, Mr. John Herbert, Gilvach, were among the new subscribers. The prize wiimers included Mr. Robert Downes for £3 3s. Od., Mr. Powell of Chilston "for a cart stallion," £5 5s. Od. ; and there were premiums awarded for turnip hoeing, long service, and "for bringing up a family without parochial aid." The receipts drop to £81 Os. 5d., and a balance of only £3 2s. 7d. remains in hand when the account is audited.
In 1823, these receipts are still further reduced, being only £56 13s. 7d. In this year George Overton, Esq., gets a premium of £2 2s. Od. "for the best crop of turnips in 1821," and the waiter stdl gets his tip, but as the meetings are few, his income from the Society is much reduced.
The year 1824 is notable for a vigorous growth in the subscription list, and the receipts from all sources reach £147 7s. 6d. This seems to be due to the payment of many arrears due from members, and the Marquis Camden is credited with £22 Is. Od. "for subscriptions for 7 years to 1824." The premiums are paid for various kinds of stock, turnip growing, long service, largest family, and a new premium is that for small farmers, amounting to three guineas.
In 1825 and 1826 matters are much the same financially, but we have this new feature in the prizes. The Society had no doubt seen the wisdom of encouraging shepherds to look after their flocks, and especially during the lambing seasons ; premiums were therefore offered to those shepherds who were successful in rearing the largest number of lambs. The following certificate will give an idea of what the system was: "Lowland Shepherd. This certifies that John Jones, shepherd to "Thomas Trouncer of Sheephouse, hath, this last season, reared from 285 hill ewes the number of "304 sound, healthy lambs, until the 31st day of May last. Witness my hand the 30th day of "September, 1843. 'Thomas Trouncer, Master." Prizes were also offered to Mountain Shepherds. From the account of 1826, we also get information that Wilkins and Co. were treasurers to the Society.
The work of the Society was continued much in the same way until 1841, when the entries m the account book cease. Here and there we get a ghmpse of the changes which time made in the ranks of Breconshire magnates ; but when men disappeared by reason of death or other circumstances, others took their places in the management and encouragement of the Society. And the pages in this old account book contain the names of many gentlemen who for years loyally supported the
THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE. 39
efforts to promote the interests of agriculture within the county. Some of those names are no longer even a memory in local annals, but the descendants of many of those patrons are stiU in the county, taking their part, as did their ancestors, in the work of this old institution.
With regard to the long service premiums already mentioned, as these are no longer awarded by the Society, it may not be devoid of interest to quote one of the certificates sent in by a com- petitor. Here it is: "Second day of September, 1843. This certifies that Morgan Pritchard has ' ' lived in my family as an yearly servant, wholly employed in husbandry, during twenty-seven years " ending the 1st day of August last ; that he was not a parish apprentice, and that his conduct '■ during the whole time has been honest, sober, orderly, and industrious : as such I beg leave to "recommend him as worthy the reward of the Breconshire Agricultural Society. Wilham Probert, " Court-Gilbert, Master." This certificate was countersigned by the Minister and Churchwardens of the parish, in this particular case, '"Jno. Jones, Minister of the parish of Llanspythid, and John Jones and John Probert, Churchwardens."
At the end of the book of accounts is a hst of subscribers, alphabetically arranged, together with the amount of their subscriptions and donations for the years 1817 to 1824. A special meeting of the Society held on the 26th day of November, 1817, made numerous rules for the government of the Society, 34 in all, and elections to membership were by ballot, quarterly meetings were to be held, with monthly committee meetings. By these rules the Association still maintained much of the character of a club devoted to the improvement of agriculture, and for social intercourse, and one of its rules provided that a library should be formed out of the funds of the Society, but the records of its payments from 1817 to 1843 make no mention of any purchases of books.
The schedule of premiums offered by the Society for the year 1839 is before us. The patrons were the Duke of Beaufort and Marquis of Camden, the president Charles M. R. Morgan, Esq., M.P., and Colonel Wood, M.P., vice-president. The office of treasurer was held by John Parry Wilkins, Esq., and Mr. William Williams was secretary. The subscribers numbered 98, and a perusal of the hst affords striking evidence of the changes which have taken place in the holding of landed property in the county in the comparatively brief period of seventy years. Many of the names there given are no longer known within Brecknockshire. The first of three premiums offered were — For the best ploughman, a suit of clothes ; for the second best ditto, a coat and waistcoat ; for the third ditto, a coat ; all ivith the Society's buttons : those buttons would be valuable to-day as curiosities. Fifty pounds were offered as premiums in the live stock competitions, besides 12 silver cups. For the cultivation of land, such as the best crops of wheat, best and cleanest crops of turnips, best crops of mangel worzel, etc., £10 were offered. To shepherds rearing the largest number of lambs, to the best shoeing smith, to the cottager showing the best selection of honey, to the best labourer, " male or female," who shall hoe turnips in the most complete and clean manner, to the labourer having the largest number of children which he has maintained without troubling the parish, to servants remaining the longest period in service, premiums amounting to £19 19s. Od. were offered as rewards, and a new feature was included, for we find £2 12s. 6d. offered as rewards to servants who shall have invested, "out of his or her earnings, and still possesses the largest sum in the County and Borough Savings Bank." These last premiums show that in the past the agricultural labourer was much more considered in the operations of the Society than he has been for some years past. The silver cups were offered by Joseph Bailey, Esq., M.P., Lloyd Vaughan Watkins, Esq., Major Gwynne Holford, John Parrv Wilkins, Esq., "W. B. Stratton, Esq., Walter Wilkins, Esq., M.P., Colonel Wood, M.P., Walter Maybery, Esq., J.P., J. P. Snead, Esq., the Rev. R. W. P. Davies, of Courtygollen, Penry Wilhams, Esq., and the Messrs. Morgan of Glasbury (whose prize was "for the best pen of fat wethers, not less than 10 in number, quality and quantity of wool to be considered." This family were the ancestors of a president who in 1907 was serving the high position of Lord Mayor of 'the City of London (Walter Vaughan Morgan, Esq.), and who was afterwards created a baronet of the United Kingdom, and received from "several foreign Sovereigns other distinguished marks of favour. The tradesmen of Brecon also offered silver cups, etc., of tlie value of £25. The Committee appointed by the Society to carry out the Show of 1839 comprised --Mr. Canon WiUiams, Mr. Thomas Morris, Therrow ; Colonel Allen and Henry Allen, Esq., Oakfield ; C. C. Clifton, Esq., Tymawr ; Mr. W. Hughes, Llanfaes ; Mr. Thos. Watkins, Brecon; Penry WiUiams, Esq.; Mr. James Williams, Pontithel ; J. W. Morgan, Esq., Treble Hill ; Thomas Morgan, Esq., Pipton. From this document we learn the Society was revived on the 2Sth November, 1817.
The later history of this Society is set out in the newspapers of the day, and there is hardly any necessity for dealing with the subject further. Its premiums were and are to this day awarded for purely agricultural pui-poses. The growth of other towns in the agricultural districts has resulted
40 THE HISTORY OF BRECKNOCKSHIRE.
in the formation of similar societies at Devynock, Crickhowell, Builth, and Hay. Ploughing Associations, also formed in the county, stimulated good work amongst the ploughmen, but alas ! with the diminishing acreage under cultivation, there is less need for those Societies or for ploughmen.
THE son, OF THE COTJNTY.
In his observations upon the nature of the soil of the county, Mr. Theophilus Jones writes thus : — ' ' There is a considerable variation not only in the surface of the country, but in the nature of the strata of the hundred of Builth, from that of the vale of Usk : there is also a great difference in the course and practice of husbandry of the former district, from that which prevails in the Southern and Eastern parts of the county. As the soil of the latter is too porous to retain the necessary moisture, tliat of the hundred of Builth is remarkably argillaceous ; the water therefore is prevented from sinking sufficiently deep, and is held upon the surface until it sours. Notwith- standing, the mode of improving such land is obvious, draining creeps too slowly into practice there, and one-fourth part of the hundred is permitted to remain in the state of wet boggy commons, called in the British rhosydd, upon which somethinrf like hay is mown at the latter end of the summer, though the English farmer will hardly recognise it by that name, when he is told that it is so short as to be carried home in a sheet, or thrown into a basket placed upon a sledge.
The farms in this part of the country are generally small, and let on leases for years, the term usually commencing on the 2.5th of March, although the going off tenant has the outhouses till May to fodder his cattle, and a road to water ; lands let from six to seven shillings per acre, and the poorest grounds from three shillings to four.
The inhabitants do not raise a sufficiency of corn for their own consumption ; according to their present system of