to have been a subordinate manor attached to the Castle. Treoda, now destroyed, was the seat of Yorath Mawr, a descendant of Iestyn. His descendant sold it to David ap Richard Gwyn, whose son Edward was of Llanishen, and ancestor, in the female line, of the Lewis of that place and of Greenmeadow. Richard Williams, Cromwell's direct ancestor, was of Whitchurch, and a cadet of the Lewises of Llanishen, whose arms and quarterings were used by the Protector. The old name of Whitchurch ("Album Monasterium") seems to point to an early monastic establishment.

8 Edward II, Llewelyn ap Griffith petitioned the King in council and Parliament, that he would consider a certain "Forcellettum" in the land of Glamorgan, called "Blankminster", "in nullo (?) edificatum", with a mill and other profits thereto appended. The decision was that Llewelyn was to have the "Forcellettum", and Bart. de Badlesmere to do with the mill as seems best. (Close Roll, 8 Edward II, m. 13, 14 March.) Badlesmere was Custos. The "Forcellettum" is, of course, the tower of Whitchurch.

In that part of Llanvabon situate in Senghenydd Subtus is Llanbradach, or Blaenbradach, the ancient and now neglected seat of the Thomas family, represented in the female line by Miss Thomas of Llwyn Madoc, the owner of Llanbradach; and in the male line by her cousin, George G. Thomas of Ystrad y Mynach. This is one of the oldest Welsh families in the county, having an unbroken legitimate pedigree and lands from times when all was obscure.

(To be continued.)

G. T. C.

MAELOR SAESNEG.

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Ar the south-east of Hanmer township there is a lake commonly called Lambedoth, and so written, with the addition of "alias Llyn Bedydd",1 in a deed of 1613. The words mean "lake of baptism"; and according to tradition, the Bangor monks, and afterwards St. Chad, brought their converts here to receive the holy rite by which they were admitted into the Church. The lake is now only a quarter of a mile long, but its ancient bed extends a full mile further to the south and southwest. We read of great earthquakes that were felt over a large part of the Roman empire in A.D. 365, and again in 526; and in the second year of William Rufus there was a severe one, that William of Malmesbury notices. In 1241 there was a seven months' drought that dried up many lakes and marshes. Llyn Bedydd, however, has plainly been drained, for a large trench at the north end shows how the water has been drawn off. The reason of this being done seems to have been in order to bring a road across the upper part of the lake at a farm called the Hole," where a pavement has been found upon the peat, about a foot below the present

3

4

1 P. Henry MSS. Llys Bedydd is also given as the name for Bettisfield in Henry VIII's time by Griff. Hiraethog, and there is a Coed Llys Bedydd there still. For "Ebediv in Maelor", see also Arch. Camb., 1876, p. 288.

2 Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chaps. 26 and 43.

3 William of Malmesbury's Chronicle, lib. iv, cap. 1.

4 Mathew Paris writes: "From the Feast of the Annunciation of B. V. M. till that of the Apostles Simon and Jude, a continued drought and intolerable heat dried up deep lakes and extensive marshes, drained many rivers, parched up the warrens, and suspended the working of mills."

5 This would seem a case in point as throwing light upon Galgacus' complaint, "Corpora ipsa ac manus (Britannorum) silvis ac paludibus emuniendis verbera inter ac contumelias, conterunt". (Taciti Agricola, xxxi.)

6 I.e., "Heol", Welsh for a paved way or street.

level of the ground. At first the lake would seem to have been drained sufficiently for the road to pass, and no more; for we find just below the Hole farm the word Cae-banithin [Pen y Llyn]=field at the head of the lake; and in the bed itself, and on one side, the names Holly' (holy) Croft. Remembering the pronunciation of Holy(holly)well by Flint, and that holly, the shrub, was called "hollen", we have no hesitation in fixing upon these crofts as the places where the first converts, British and then Saxon, were bidden to "arise and wash away their sins, calling upon the name of the Lord."

About a mile to the north of Llynbedydd is a place called Eglwys y Groes (Church of the Cross), where two British roads crossed one another (Archæologia Cambrensis, 4th S. No. 19, p. 213), and to which Edward Lhuyd (1699) thus refers, "there's an artif. mount in the township of Ty Broughton, call'd......" In the Gentleman's Magazine for November 1762 we read: "In the township of Tilbroughton there is what I take to be an old camp, but whether of the Romans or any other people I cannot determine, or whether some eminent person may not be interr'd under it". The measurement of this mound, which is circular, and at an elevation of 320 feet above the sea, is about 28 feet from north to south, and the same from east to west. The entrance would seem to be from the east. On the south side there are three hollows, apparently artificial, and designed to increase the difficulty of access. Soon after

1 At Hally Stone (Holy Stone) in Northumberland an old mossgrown statue of an ecclesiastic stands on the brink of a well; and rising from the water is a tall cross with the inscription, "In this place Paulinus the Bishop baptized 3,000 Northumbrians. Easter, DCXXVII." See also William of Malmesbury, lib. i, cap. 3, and Florence of Worcester, A.D. 627.

2 At Loppington and elsewhere there are the Hollens. See Hartshorne's Salopia Antiqua, p. 466. "Hollen or hollyn (A.S. holen) = common holly".

3 The figures given in the Archeologia Cambrensis, 4th Series, 1875, p. 168, though from an official source, were, through some misapprehension, incorrect.

the year 1754 a quantity of fresh earth was laid upon this mound, and some Scotch firs were planted, of which four still remain; but nothing has yet been done, by way of excavation, to solve the question what it was intended to be. It has been called by some "a milliary mound", such as described in Hartshorne's Salopia Antiqua (p. 144), "of Roman occupation, but the fortifications bespeaking British origin"; by others, a temporary camp for soldiers on a march, as described in General Roy's Military Antiquities (cap. ii, p. 41) under the name of "castra æstiva"; or that it may be a place of burial, Dr. Horsley (Brit. Antiqua, lib. iii, cap. ii, p. 387) says "it is very certain that it was the custom of the Romans to bury generally near the highways"; or" to have been a work destined originally for religious purposes", as Sir R. Hoare pronounced to have been the case at a large tumulus on Cotley Hill, Wilts," from the circumstance of the ditch being within the bank”. In Whitaker's History of Richmondshire (vol. ii, p. 238), as quoted by Hartshorne, there is a description of such a mound as this one at Eglwys y Groes, and it is said that it is neither "castra" nor "bury", but borough. Another suggestion has been made, that it was a beaconstation guarded by a few soldiers; Whitchurch (Weston), Malpas, and the Broxton Hills, and the first and second Welsh Ranges, being all clearly to be seen.

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When it is said that the name of this place is lost, it is to be noticed that it lies in a township called Tybrough-ton by the Saxons, which seems to mean "the township of the house by or in the burgh". The names Kupiakov domus Dei (from which comes the Saxon kyrik or kyrch) and domus Columbæ (Tertull. contr. Valentin., c. iii) were given by Christians to their churches. And in Scripture we read of the house of Dagon and the house of Baal; the last especially calling our attention, because Baal-worship and Druidism are thought to have had much in common. Near to the town of Forfar are the remains of Rhos Tynith Abbey, of which the charter is said to be contemporary with that of Jarrow.

Some of the masonry is thought to be Roman work. The name means "the promontory by the house of Nith", a deity whose name is also found in Nithsdale and elsewhere.

If the word house in Ty Broughton refers to a heathen temple, we find within 150 yards of it, to the southeast, a curious place called Tunnah's Loon,2 supposed to be Ffynnon Llwyn the well in the wood. Till the twenty-fifth year of Constantine, A.D. 333, heathenism was in a great measure tolerated; but in that year he published his laws commanding temples, altars, and images, to be destroyed, and pursuant to these laws a great many temples were defaced in all parts of the world, and their revenues confiscated. After this it often happened that they were turned into churches, or that, being pulled down, the materials were used for that purpose.

If, on the other hand, the word house refers to the Eglwys y Groes, its dedication calls for some notice. Constantine's munificence in building churches is well known, and Eusebius (lib. ix, cap. 10) says that, "having built several churches, he gave them all the name of Kupiakà, as being dedicated, not to the honour of any man, but Him who is Lord of the universe". After visiting Jerusalem, the church built there was called Anastasis and Crux, because by him built at the place of our Lord's crucifixion and resurrection. From his connection with Britain we should suppose that what was done in other countries by the Emperor's command would be done here too. Lewis Glyn Cothi and

"Nithe" (equivalent, as Sir R. C. Hoare says, to the Latin Nidum) occurs in Wiltshire. The river Kennet (Cunetio) is from cyn=head, and Nedd (plur. neth), a river." (Canon Jones' Wiltshire Names, p. 10.) Neath, in Glamorganshire, is also Nidum in the Itinerary; and with Kennet may be compared "Cyn-wy", the Carnarvonshire river.

2 The present ffynnon is within sixty yards of the field that now bears the name, and has the appearance of having been once a large bath.