what depended on fkill in arms. 1. Archery; 11. Playing with the fword and buckler; 111. Playing with the Cleddyf Deuddwrn, or the two-handed word, the antient weapon of the Britons, as exemplified in a fiatue of a foldier, found in digging mong the ruins of London, after the great fire in 1656*; IV. Chwarau Ffon Ddwybig, or playing with the two-end staff; which feems to correfpond with the more modern quarter-it. ff. After these were the ten Mabilgampau, or juvenile games. Among them three fpecies of the chace: 1. Courfing with the grey- -hound ; 11. Fishing; 111. Fowling. The remaining feven were of the domeftic kind: 1. Bairddoniath, or poetical compe. titions, of which I have before spoken; 11. Playing upon the harp; 111. Reading Welth; iv. Singing a Cywydd with mufic; v. Singing a Cywydd between four with accents; VI. Drawing of coats of arms; VII. Heraldry. These two feem fo congenial, as to be unneceffarily feparated. After these were four Go gampiau, or Sub 1. Chwarau games. Gwydd-bwyll, a game like that of draughts, played with men, and probably the game of fox and goofe, Gwydd fignity ing a goofe, and Gwerin y Wydabwyll the men of that game. 11. Chwarau Tawl Bwrdd, is probably Back gammon words of British origin; bach little, and gammon a battle, the ftrife of gamefters: and Tawl bwrdd is literally the caft on the table. 111. Chwarau Ffrifical, or the * Monfaucon's Antiq. iv. 16. tab, ix, 7. When 7. When they were fpoiled of their liberty, and the fame was refumed into the king's hands? 8. Why they were deprived of their regal power? 9. How they are to be known at this day? 10. Why they were at firft, and are now, called lordships marchers; and how they firft took the name ? 11. What difference is at this day between them and other lordfhips? Wales was the refuge to the ancient Britons, when they were driven by the Saxons out of England; and there they preferved the ancient blood royal of their kings, their laws, and ancient language, from the fury of the Saxons. There continued an implacable hatred and wars between the two nations. And though the heptarchy was reduced to a monarchy by Egbert king of the Weft Saxons (who firft called that part England) yet he and his fucceffors received no obedience or fubjection from the kings or princes of Wales; but they held Wales as abfolute monarchs, and acknowledged no fuperior under God. Here Cadwallader (the laft king of Britain of the British line) and his defcendants, did govern the people, as their lawful kings and princes, all the time of the Saxon government. When William the Conqueror fubdued England, he difpoffeffed the Saxon iffue of the crown; he rooted out most of their nobility, and brought in his own people, the Normans: and when he was in quiet poffeffion of the kingdom, the Welsh took no notice of his conqueft over the Saxons; but accounted of it only as a war between two ftrange nations. Long before the Conqueft, all Wales fell to Roderick the Great ; who divided it between his three fons: to Cadell he gave South Wales, containing 25 cantreds ; to Anarawd, North Wales, of 15 cantreds; and to Mervyn, Powys, of 13 cantreds. The iffue of thefe three fons poffeffed Wales, according to the faid divifion, in the Conqueror's time; viz. Rice, fon of Theodore, ruled South Wales? Grif fith ap Conan, North Wales ; and Blethyn ap Confyn, Powys. Thefe three princes would never acknowledge that the Conqueror had any fuperiority over Wales: and for this reafon there arofe cruel wars between them, and they made daily incurfions on each other. The kings of England often invaded the borders of Wales, and forced the inhabitants to fly to the mountains; and the Welsh, at other times, made divers inroads over Severn, and carried great fpoils out of England. This fo provoked them, that they refolved to make a conqueft of Wales; but the roughness of the country, the hills, woods, and bogs, was fuch a protection, that a great army could hardly be brought to annoy them; but were otten forced to return home with lofs. As William Rufus, and Henry II. who entered Wales three times with royal armies; king John made war upon Llewelin ap Jorwertli, prince of North Wales, and Henry III. upon Llewellin ap Griffith; which brought great lofs to them. felves, felves, as well as damage to the Welth. The kings of England, feeing it difficult to make a conquest of Wales by a great army, gave to the lords, and other great inen of England, fuch countries in Wales as they could win from the Welth. men. These are the words of divers of their grants. By these means many were drawn to bring great armies of Englishmen and Normans into Wales; who conquered many great lordships; which they held to them and their heirs for ever, of the kings of England, as lands purchaf ed by conqueft. The kings of England having built divers ftrong towns of gar rifon on the frontiers of Wales, after the Conqueft; fuch as Briflow, Gloucefter, Worcester, Sa.. lop, and Chester; as places ready to chatife the Welthmen upon all attempts, the great men began to invade the countries next to those towns; as namely, Peter Corbet for Caufe; Mortimer for Wig more; Fitz-alan for Clun and Ofweftry; Walter Lacy for EwyasLacy; Dru de Baladan for Abergaveny; Monthault for Hawarden; Gilbert lord of Monmouth for Monmouth; Fulk Fitz-warren for Whittington; Roger le Strange for Elefmere: and thortly after came Robert Fitz-hamon, with his twelve knights, into Glamorgan; Bernard Newmarch into Brecknock; Strongbow to Dyfed or Pembrokeshire; Martin to Kemes; Morris de Londres to Cydwely and Cornwallon; Lacy Earl of Lincoln to Rhos and Rhyvoniog, now the lordship of Denbigh; Brewis to Gower, Buelt, Radnor, Melenith, and Elvel; and to Roger Mortimer the country now called Chirk, then called Mochnant, and to Cynlleth and Nantheudwy; and others to other lordships. That the lords might the better govern the people when fubdued, they were foffered to take upon them fuch prerogative and autho. rity, as were fit for the quiet go. vernment of the country. The ancient historiographer, Lampridius, faith, that the kings of England did then use the fame policy with lands on the borders of Scotland. No record to be found in the Tower of London, or elsewhere, of any grant to be a lordship marcher in Wales. The king's writs, out of the courts at Weftminfter, did not run into Wales, except Pembrokeshire; which was counted part of England, and called Little England, beyond Wales. Nor were there any theriffs to execute fuch writs; but the lords did execute laws themselves over the people which they fub. dued; which the kings permitted for a time. No charters of thefe liberties could conveniently be granted, for three reafons. 1. The kings of England did not know beforehand what lands a lord fhould conquer, or whether he should conquer any; and there. fore could not grant any liberties within a certain precinct or territory. 2. The lords, after their con queft of any country, were not over-hafty to purchase any char ter; because, they were not fure but that thofe lands might be reftored, by compofition between the kings of England and the princes princes of Wales, as they fometimes were: or they might be recovered by force, and the lords expelled. But, 3. The learned fay, that the Jords marchers had no charters of fuch liberties, because the liberties were of fo high a. nature, fo royal, and fo united to the crown, that, by the law, it was not in the king's power to grant them from the crown. The government by lords marchers continued in Wales till the the time of Henry VIII. who, perceiving the Welsh to live in quietnefs and fubjection, thought they might be governed by civil laws, as the English were. And there fore, anno. 27, c. 24, he refumed moft of thofe jurifdictions into his own hands, and appointed juftices of peace, fheriffs, and other officers; and divided the country into thires. He governed them by the laws of England; and left little or no authority to the lords marchers. The lords, at their conqueft of the country, built cattles for them felves, and towns for their followers, in the most fertile part: and by this means the towns and caftles in Wales were built, as may be feen in the antient charters of thofe towns. whom they came to the Mortimers and Beauchamps, by a female iffue of Brewis: Brecknock, by Bernard Newmarch. Blaen Llyfney, by Herbert : Caerdiff and Cowbridge, by Fitzhamon, and the Earls of Glou cefter: Neath, by Greenfield: Abergaveny, by Dru de Baladan, Miles Earl of Hereford, and others, his pofterity: Ruthin, by Lord Grey Denbigh, by Lacy Earl of Lincoln. Some of thefe were towns before the Conqueft; but, being deftroyed in the winning of them, they were rebuilt by the lords. The lords held their lordships of the kings of England in chief, as of the crown immediate, by ferving the king in his wars with certain numbers of men; and they were bound to keep their caftles with fufficient men and ammunition, for the keeping of the king's enemies in fubjection. They executed the English laws, for the most part, within their lordships; and brought them to be of English tenure; and to pafs the fame according to the laws of England, by fine, recovery, feoffinent, and livery of feifin. But fuch parts as they left to the antient inhabitants to poffefs, were by fome lords fuffered to be held after the old Welfh cuftom, the laws of Howel Dda; which was, to pafs the fame by furrender in court (which they called Cof Lys, and Yftyn Wia len, whereof the word Yftynnol was derived); and where that custom was permitted, there is no deed to be found of any lands Swanley, Oyftermouth, Loghor, before the 27th Henry VIII, Radnor, Buelt, Raiadr, and 0- when Wales was made fhirethers, by the Brewifes; from ground; but, for fuch lands as VOL. XXVI, } Pembroke, Tenby, and Haverfordwest, by Strongbow; William de Valence, and the Haftings, being his pofterity: Newport, by Martin Lord of Kemes: Cydwely, by Londres; and augmented afterwards by the Duke of Lancafter, to whom it came by marriage. were turned to English tenures, you may find deeds of two, three, or four hundred years paft, written in Latin, or French, as was ufed in England in those days. The laws of England were brought in by the lords marchers, because the laws of the land were unknown to the English: but they fuffered the antient tenants to retain fome part of the old Welsh laws; fuch as the ufe of gavelkind, for parting lands between the brothers, and the paffing of lands by furrender in court. And for this, in many lordships, there is a Weifh court for the Welshmen, called Welchrie; and another for the English, called Englishrie. In fome lord hips the lands were divided by gavelkind, but paffed by fecffments; from whence comes Englifh tenure, and Welsh dole; in Welth, Cyfraith Saefnig, a RhanCymraig. And the lords had the wardship of all the brethren, as if they had been fifters. The lords marchers increased in number, till Llewellin ap Griffith, the laft prince of Wales, was flain, anno. 11 Ed. I. who then took the principality of Wales into his hands, and gave it to Edward II. his fon, and made him prince of Wales. Since which time no more lordships marchers could be erected; for the Welsh in general fubmitted themfelves to the kings of Eng land. Since the principality came to the kings of England, no lord marcher could claim any liberty or prerogative, more than they had before, without a grant. Edward I. immediately held a parliament at Ruthlan caftle; and there ordained laws and officers, to Wales after the English govern manner. The lordship of Powys had not its original from conqueft, as the lordships marchers had; but in this manner: Griffith, fon of Meredith_ap Blethyn, lord of Powys, feeing the king of England, and Eng lih lords, preparing themfelves to conquer Wales, did, in difcretion and policy, fubmit himself to Henry I. and yielded to hold his lordship of the king of England in chief, as the lords marchers did, and to do the king the like fervice; and thereupon was fuf fered to hold the fame to him and his heirs; and was created lord Powys by the faid Henry I. and made baron of the parliament of England. His defcendant, Hawys Ga. darn, fell to be the king of Eng. land's ward, by reafon of the al teration of the tenure in capite; who gave her in marriage to a va liant gentleman of his, named John Charlton. And fo the lordfhip of Powys came to the pof. feffion of the English lords. (Mowthwy, and others, did the fame). Thefe (with the lords marchers) held their lordships of the kings in chief, and not of the princes of Wales. The lord of Powys thus fubmitting himself to the king of England, the comots in that lordfhip continue whole and entire to this day; and there is a court baron in every one of them. But the lords marchers, to reward thofe that affifted them in their conquefts, gave them divers manors; and fo divided the comots into feveral parts, and erected a court |