ranguing the people, who might affemble round the outside, and readily hear what was delivered to them.

ON returning along Llwybr-bir, I rejoin the Newmarket road, at the place I had left it, near a great inclosure belonging to Sir Roger Moftyn, called Ty-maen. Within, near to the road, is a great mount, now planted with fir-trees, the fite of a caftelet, probably a feat of Owen Bendew, which my friend and fellowtraveller, the late Rev. John Lloyd, fuppofed to have been one of the habitations of that chieftain. Owen was lord of Tegengl in 1079, and one of the fifteen tribes of North Wales. He was diftinguished by the name of Pendew, or Bendew. I have confulted Davies's, and all. our dictionaries, and can find no other tranflation of the word than Thick-fcull. Of him are defcended, as the MS. of the Rev. Lewis Owen (my authority) fay, many worthy families, among them Ithel ap Rotpert, archdeacon of Tegengl, who was living in the years 1375 and 1393, and the Bitbels, and a great many families befides. I might venture to mention the living defcendants of the great Bendew; for the unfortunate idea of character impreffed by the cognomen is entirely worn out. They are only to be known by their arms, argent, three boars heads couped, a chevron fable.

THE extinct families were the Wynnes, of Galedlom, and Caerwis; Piers of Llanafaph and of Merton Yglan, and the Williams's of Merton, both of the parish of Whiteford; the Parrys, of Coleshill and Bafingwerk; the Ffachnalts, of Ffachnalts, in the parish of Mold; and the Griffiths, of Pant y Llo wndŷ, in Llanbafa parish, and Griffiths of Caerwis hall; all of whom are now extinct, unless it may be in the female line.

LLWYBR-HIR.

TY-MAEN.

EDNOWEN BEN

DEW.

GORSEDDAU.

TEN-FFORDD Y
WAEN.

A LITTLE farther on the left, on the common, are two raised mounts of a conoid fhape, called Gorfeddau, a name common to all of the fame kind. According to our learned Rowlands (fee p. 69) it is derived from the custom which the Druids had of fitting aloft on them, when they pronounced their fentences, and made their folemn orations to the people. Multa,' fays Cæfar, de Deorum immortalium vi et poteftate difputant, et juventute tradunt.' The custom of promulging the laws in the Isle of Man from their Tinwald, a larger but similar mount, has its origin in Druidifm. A certain officer takes the place of the Druid, and makes known to the people, who ftand beneath, the institution of the new law.

On the mountain oppofite to the place called Penffordd y Waen, are other remains of the antient Britons, one or two tumuli, and near one of them an upright ftone; and a little farther is another, its tumulus poffibly deftroyed. These are the Meini Gwýr, Meini Hirion, and Lleche, differently denominated in different places. These were fometimes memorials of great events, fometimes monumental, as in the prefent cafe. There are illuftrations of both in the book of Genefis, ch. xxxv. v.v. On the pillar which Jacob erected, after he had the gracious favor of converfing with the Deity face to face, he made a libation of oil: on that raifed on the grave of his wife Rachel, he omitted that refpect.

14, 20.

I Now advance towards my conclufion, and shall attempt the more interefting topics of the rural œconomy of my native parish, and its mineral and commercial advantages. In refpect

to

to fize and population, it may rank among the most important in this divifion of our principality.

Ir is bounded on the eaft by the Chester Channel, the Seteia Aftuarium of Ptolemy. Its inhabitants at that time were the Ordovices; but whether in fo long a period any of the antient blood at prefent runs in our veins, is extremely uncertain. The fouthern boundary of this parish is that of Holywell; the northern, thofe of Llan Afaph, Newmarket, and Cwm; and the western, those of Tremerchion and Caerwis.

THE whole length of the parish, from its eaftern extremity, not far from Holloway turnpike-gate, to the extremity of the township Tre'r-Abbot, is about four miles two furlongs. Its greatest breadth, from the fea-fide near Llanerch-y-mór, to Foel-da, adjoining to kiviog parish, is near three miles four furlongs. The northern part, which is its length, is in general a rapid descent of two miles three quarters and 136 yards, reckoning from Pen-y-ffordd Waen, to Llanerch-y-mûr. All beyond to the fouth and to the west is Tegen mountain, or the old Tegenia, a large extent of plain fwelling into gentle rifings, covered chiefly with heath, and mixed with grafs, unless where the lime-ftone ftratum appears above the furface.

BEING on the spot, I fhall give firft fome account of our minerals, the fource of wealth to the land-owner, and of wealth, but oftener poverty, to the adventurous miners, who, like adventurers in a lottery, to which miners may truly be compared, are tempted by the good fortune of others to rifque and frequently lofe their all. If they are fuccefsful, they never think of a future day, but enjoy their fortune in good living, forgetful

BOUNDARIES OF

THE PARISH.

LENGTH.

MINERALS.

WORKED BY THE
ROMANS.

THEIR TOOLS.

of the pains it coft them, till all is gone, and they are again compelled to take to hard labor. After a life of diffipation they fink under the fatigue, lofe their health, and early become a burthen to the community, by adding to the load of paupers under which it groans.

THE want of gun-powder, in early times, with the Romans, was a great impediment. Inftead, we find that great fires were ufed; the rock intenfely heated, and cracks formed in it by the fudden infufion of water; Pliny fays of vinegar. The wedge or pick-ax was then infinuated into the apertures, and the stone or ore forced out. Miners often difcover the marks of fire in antient mines. I am in poffeffion of a little wedge, five inches and a quarter long, prefented to me by the late Mr. Smedley, of Bagillt Hall, difcovered in working the deep fiffures of Dalar Goch rock, in the parish of Diferth, in this county. This little inftrument affords a proof of its antiquity, by being almost intirely incrufted with lead ore. It had probably lain in the course of fome fubterraneous ftream, which had brought along with it the leaden particles, and depofited them on the iron.

PICK-AXES of an uncommon bulk, and very clumfy, have been discovered in the bottom of the mineral trenches; these feem to have been the fame with the fractaria of the Romans, pick-axes of enormous fize, used by the miners in the gold mines of Spain. Buckets of fingular conftruction, and other things of uses unknown at prefent, have been found among the antient mines.

My good friend, that thorough honeft mine-agent Mr. Thomas Edwards, of Saith Aelwyd, lately brought to me a frac